Short Film: "Open Road"

___In the Middle of June I worked as a 1st A.C on a short film entitled "Open Road." We were shooting on the RED with a small crew. Mostly all the coverage was on sticks so there weren't any insanely hard pulls. We used .9 ND Hot-mirror all day in order to open up the lenses to around the 4.0-5.6 range. We used the 50mm mostly but we did pop on the 200mm for a specialty long shot of an actor riding his bike toward camera from a distance. That was probably the hardest pull all day.

We had a great location on a long dirt road in the desert and were able to capture some really great visuals. We had a 12x12 frame that we used 1/4 Grid in to knock down the harsh sunlight. We also switched out the 1/4 grid rag for an ultra bounce when we needed a strong key. I really liked working with this D.P as he used a light meter for every set up and was open to sharing his insight with me. I haven't worked with many D.P's who meter light and it is something that I have been trying to do more on sets in which I am D.Ping. It was a solid day with the only issue being the insane amount of planes that were flying over our location the entire day. Overall it was a relaxed shoot and I definitely learned a lot from the D.P.

Director of Photography: Music Video- "Bummer Summer"

___At the beginning of June I shot a music video entitled, "Bummer Summer" for The Hub Network. It was a simple shoot consisting of all day exteriors. We had a 6x6 frame with full silk along with a few reflectors. We used the 6x6 frame to knock down the harsh sunlight and we used the silver side of the reflectors to give strong back and edge lights to the actors. I had an ND fader that I used a lot on the 35mm lens in order to open it all the way up to a 1.4 when I could. There were a few shots which involved the 70-200mm but for the most part we stayed on the 35mm.

The director, Jason Perlman, is a good friend of mine who I have been collaborating with a lot recently. He is meticulous when it comes to pre-production and I wouldn't have it any other way. I like working with Jason because I always know exactly what the day consists of and how much time we have to get it done. I'm a huge fan of planning ahead and I'm glad Jason is too. He is also great at keeping the energy level up on set which is really important when working on pieces for The Hub. Everything is always high energy and the actors need to have exaggerated movements and animated facial expressions because the target audience is young kids. It was a good shoot and I think we got some really pretty stuff despite the small amount of grip equipment we had to work with.