Another month another winner of the Cracked.com Comedy Sketch Competition. We’re shooting again on the Canon 5D. Should be online in the next couple of weeks. Great job the director, Daniel Gordh and the fantastic performances by the actors.
↑ Tricked out my 5D. Nice.
↑ First time using an iPad slate. LOVED IT.
I totally forgot I can embed these episodes. Might be the best one yet. Enjoy.
The web-series Minor Stars is online and ready to view. It’s a funny series I shot with some wonderful people. I hope you’ll enjoy and share with a friend over coffee or instead of the work you should be doing. We did it with not a huge budget but with a huge about of love. Great job to the cast and crew and special thanks and congratulations to the director Pearl Wible, the producer Becca Kinskey and the gents of Sorry, Dad - Dave Horwitz, Elisha Yaffe, Justin Becker, and Michael “Mookie” Blaiklock (who some of you might remember from the other web-series I shot, “Zombie Roadkill”).
I especially like the photo they used of me under section Cast and Crew, where I’m watching an onboard monitor but it looks like I’m praying. Oh great Tlalocan, please let this shot be funny!
I’ve mostly been silent about the project preferring to wait until it was done but here are a few of the specs. We shot on the Canon 5D and the Panasonic HVX200. It’s a series about a television show and the actor’s lives off stage. Visually, we differentiated the camera use and setting in the follows:
Nominclature > Camera/Settings
Hopefully this helps people understand where they are in the show.
UPDATE: This episode has already been seen by a quarter million viewers in just two days. Nice.
The web-series “After Hours” on Cracked.com just released another episode and this time it’s all about “Harry Potter”. I love this episode. It’s funny and the comments from the die-hard fans of HP are almost as funny! From a technical standpoint, I’m also very proud of how the show has come to its own. It can always be better and we’re still looking at way of improving it but it’s great that we’re not still looking for the show to find its “voice”. We shoot the show with the Canon 5D using a Sigma 24-70mm T2.8 lens, ISO640 at T4.0 (Nerdytography speak should you be interested.)
You can watch it here or visit Cracked.com and see it there. Let’s hope for another million view! Shake that yew and get your “anamagi” on.
Just finished shooting another very humorous pair of episodes of the highly successful web-series “After Hours” for Cracked.com. We’re back again at the “Reservoir Dogs” diner with director Justin Viar at the helm. What’s different this time around for camera and lighting, to be honest, mostly more of the same with one big exception. We’re still shooting with the Canon 5D but for these episodes, we used my new Sigma 24-70mm T2.8 lens. What a HUGE improvement over the last two shoots. Sharper, better skin tones and generally a much nicer feel to the images (please watch it on HD when they’re out). My lips are sealed as to what the silvered-tongued foursome have to rant about but you’ll find out soon enough because these episodes should be out very soon. I’m looking forward to it – I hope you are too my little muggles.
↓ Frame-grabs. No color grading added.
And since we’re on the topic of comedy… I offer this helpful tale of caution. Even if it’s late in the day, even if it’s all night, don’t park under a billboard… ever!
What a huge success.
Day 1
First night, hot dogs at Frank’s Hot Dogs (jackaloup and texalina) and local beer (Real Ale Fireman’s #4) at the Dreskill Hotel. Good food makes for a good start.
Day 2
Late rise – My wife and I both got about 10 hours of sleep. It’s the most she’s had since being pregnant. Soon realized that renting a car will make life easier to get around. Got the same taxi driver as last night – busy weekend in town because of the football game.
Lunch at Tacodeli. Known for their hot sauce and delicious tacos. It lived up to its reputation. Chicken, pork, fish, beef, it’s all represented. To wash it down, cantaloupe and watermelon juice drinks (jugo fresco). This was a recommendation from Zombie Roadkill writer, Henry Gayden. Good call.
To round out our lunch, we got some cupcakes at Sugar Mama’s Bake Shop. This was a Yelp find. Amazingly good. Especially loved the apple caramel cupcake that, apparently, is being discontinued. Very sad because it was absolutely delicious.
What would a world premiere be if not for having your own taco truck to hand out swag and free “roadkill” tacos. Big hit! The truck and food kept the tweeter-sphere a buzz for weeks. The night was a huge blast. Our webseries opened the festival – it’s good to be king. Everyone did a great job of fielding questions and telling stories of the shoot. I was especially pleased when during the Q&A, Thomas Haden Church thanked me by name for a job well done. Nice. I wonder if anyone has that on tape?
Day 3
Woke up, checked out of the hotel and picked up the director, David, and his lady for a meal at La Mexicana restaurant for some much touted “breakfast tacos”. They were basically unrolled burritos. Good eats but nothing mind blowing.
Then back to South Congress Avenue for some more window shopping and to meet up with Ryan (producer) and Henry (writer).
Oh and yes, more food. Mexican food for lunch at Guero’s Taco Bar. There we enjoyed Mexican/TexMex and most notably “queso”. “Cheese” you say? “No” I say. We found out that what the locals call “queso” (Español for “cheese”) is actually a melted cheese dip served in a cup, like a thick cheese soup, but not like a fondue. Into it you dip freshly made tortillas like you would chips. It’s – I’m a little embarrassed to say – good, really good. The corn tortillas are made by hand. The plates were good and portions not too big.
And the final attack on our arteries came from the aptly named “Gourdoughs”. Good doughnuts, great toppings, wacky combinations.
Maybe we should walk back home to work off the food we ate!
Later this week I’ll be heading Southeast to Austin, Texas for Fantastic Fest 2010. The world premiere of “Zombie Roadkill” will take place and if you believe the press release, it’s gonna be huge! Looking forward to seeing everyone involved with the production and sitting with an audience as they watch it for the first time. Needless to say, I can’t wait for the web-series to be available for everyone. Soon enough. Till then, I’ll post when I can from the road. Here’s a link to Dreadcentral.com about what’s planned for the screening.
Zombie Roadkill finally got its day in the da Vinci suite. The color grading session took place at Company 3 in Santa Monica by none other than the iconic colorist Stephen Nakamura. It looks fantastic and I think everyone will be very pleased with the resulting web series which is due out in October (just in time for Halloween).
A million thanks and congratulations to David Green (director) and to everyone who has put in time and love into this project.