Bonus day of filming - extra special win.

This was my view for the majority of the day. Standing next to David McKenzie, the Director and just being around the higher up crew, like DOP and grips and gaffers and fpuller and not making an ass of myself in front of the locatioins manager like I did last week... and occasionally checking out the shot from the cinedisplay:

It was awesome! The way the kids were directed was hilarious (we were filming a classroom) and watching the camera tracking and the focus puller remotely focusing was so cool I almost passed out with happiness. You know when you get that rush of blood to your head and start to black out? But in a good way.

It was just Ally and I that were running, because it was all indoor shoots so no crowd control was necessary. Only down side was that the 1st AD. Barrie (McCulloch ?) was ill and so wasn't there, which is bad because he's awesome. However, on the up side Zoe the 3rd got to act as 1st and call the shots for the day, which I'm sure she enjoyed. OO and I got to use a covert radio for the first time. It was really awkward and really hard to keep in your ear without it falling out once in a while. It felt like I was an agent :D.

At one point I was being called on radio at the same time my mobile was ringing at the same time I was determining whether to stay on the minibus or not. It was terribly confusing and difficult, but became fairly easy as I realised that they were all trying to tell me the same thing and that had I just ignored radio I would have been fine. I finally got phone signal and Chris sorted me out.

All was well as teas, coffees and cakes were made abundantly available by Chris' handiwork, and I got to steal some credit by holding the box until wrap.

After being swooped over to film city (sigmaville) on the south side, Ally and I got paid and decided to walk back home. Or in my case, run to Kung Fu Fitness arriving 2 hours late, soon realising that my kit bag (which I packed in the morning, and was lovingly delivered to the GUST office by my one and only Laurpy) was void of any actual kit bar my trainers and hoody. FAIL. However, I still managed to learn some awesome new single handed blocks which would kung-fwin against any particularly boisterous hoodlums on the way home that night.

This morning I woke up (thankfully) and I've just remembered my dream. I actually dreamt about touching a Sony F900, and it wasn't inappropriate because someone else wanted to do so and I just joined in. Strange dream.

Good good times. Now for some programming. Good bye :D

You have to be joking...

This is probably the coolest thing I have seen since discovering Red Digital Cinema. Click the title of this post to visit their web page. That's just insane. XD

Last Days on LW

That was an awesome day. Last Sunday we shot on Blythswood st. and in Kelvingrove Park and in "Stereo" on Renfield Lane.

I have finally become confident in what I'm doing there. Reasoning with pedestrians and asking them how I can help them get past, instead of bluntly telling them they can't go there. It was far less stressful and made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Another thing that made me warm inside was the coffee Chris got me. Gotta love that man. Apparently there was a coffee getting surplus and I ended up consuming David McKenzie's redundant coffee. Win.

I did get to see an SI2K, and I nearly touched it - but that would have been weird, so I didn't. I even managed to help carry stuff and talk to several members of the camera department without embarrassing myself.

Lets see if I can remember the names (list for future reference here):

Murray

Ally

Loraine

Rory

Michelle

another Michelle

Catrina

Christie

Andy

Matt (how could I forget)

Morven

Ross

Virginia

Zoe

(Suzi on first day)

Catherine

Barrie

David McKenzie

Giles

Danny/ Derreck

Wow... okay I have to go to uni now.

Dream Theater were FREAKING AWESOME. 

More on that later though...

Something SCHWEET This Way Comes...

 WOOOEEEW.

Tomorrow I might get my first ever look at a UHD (larger than 1080) camera. Win! Above is Silicon Imaging's SI 2K and it appears to be fairly cool. It's prog scan and even has an optical viewfinder. It also fits standard 35mm film lenses apparently, which is always a good thing.

Just to clarify:

It probably isn't better than a Red One.

However, It does shoot 2K (half Red) which is what most digital screens in cinemas project anyway as far as I'm aware. But the feature I've been doing running for has just hired one in for Sunday.. which suggests it's better than the F900 Cinealta they were using before (I think) ...at something. Perhaps better in low light conditions, although Sony have always been awesome at that. Maybe they just need it so they can crop it in post because there's gunna be like 60 extras who could potentially fail the shot for them.

So yeah - I'll try get a photo to blog up here of the actual camera.

Hmm... intriguing.

I love Chris Hall

I love Chris Hall.

It's been such a busy week I haven't had time to post till now. But last Sunday I got my first ever feature film job!

-- WIN --


I got to meet so many awesome people. Michelle, who I met at an ESP office opening party, just happened to be a runner too so there was someone I knew and could talk to. Having said that, I made friends with all the other runners fairly quickly, which was great. Highlight of the day - I got to see and be near (unfortunately not touch :C - I did ask ) ...A real Sony CineAlta HDCAM (probably an F900) and I got to carry a box for the camera operator. XD YEYAH! At one point the crew were struggling to balance the big bastard camera on the cart mobilator so I awkwardly approached and asked if I could help...

cam assistant lady
"...what?"

me
"er... Can I help at all?"

cam assistant lady
"...Oh. No."

That sucked. I felt like I had offended her :( I'm sure she didn't care at all - but it was really important to me at the time to try get in with the crew and make friends and stuff so I was gunna apologise. But then I remembered all those scenes from "Extras" and thought I'd be best just shuffling away quietly to avoid any further embarrassment. FAIL

Oh well, I met the (carpenter?) set designer guy... He was wearing a "Stone of Destiny" jacket and was really nice. Pointed the DOP and Cam op and focus puller out to me.

Also got to meet E.G.'s driver who was a nice older gent, who reckoned I had a chance of being asked back (I was super polite to him you see) which was probably what caused my extended confidence in asking to help the camera crew.

The other coolest thing about the day was I got to be an extra in one of the scenes! Just last minute stuff the 1st AD picked me and another runner out (Who was strangely about 10 years older than me... but she looked really young. Am I getting old? It feels weird with all the freshers walking about uni.) Anyway... so yeah - I'm gunna be in a montage in the movie. HOW COOL is that!?

The reason I love Chris is because he is a Production Runner (I hope that's the right title?) on the film, and he emailed round and essentially got me the job. Legend.

I can't believe they paid me. I had the day of my life and they paid me to be there. Rediculous! Anyway, I hope there's more where that came from. I suppose until that day, I didn't really know what the film industry in the real world is like. I think now I can say I do know, at least location shooting, and it is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life. I did a whole bunch of surprisingly difficult people traffic control, some odd jobs carrying boxes and traffic cones, radioed about... doesn't sound special at all: but I bloody loved it.

Real D 144fps 3D movie problem

I have come across something that I do not like about 3D movies.

The projectionists.

It has to be them, or at least one of them at Glasgow Renfrew St's Cineworld. It happens once every three films I see there. It's particularly clear during credits or when the scene involves white on black high contrast shots. There is a ghost of the image - displaced about a quarter of the screen down and right. Like this:

At first I figured it was a reflection from the glass separating the projector from the theatre. But it can't be that if the problem only occurs for some films, since they all use the same hardware as far as I'm aware. If you know, then I'd really appreciate it if you commented on this post to let me know, or at least let the guys at the Glasgow Cineworld know they fail and perhaps teach them how not to fail.

Obviously the credits aren't the main concern here. Any time I have noticed a problem with left/right ghosting (where the left image is ghosted with part of the right image) I have also noticed this aliased image offset. Perhaps they are linked by some common problem. I cannot find it under any google search. The left/right ghosting totally ruins the 3d effect for me.

It makes me sad.

- Darren