The Big Think

About a week ago someone on the film list of which I’m a member posted that they needed a soundamn for a two day shoot. I made the call, met some people, and got the gig. I’m really excited about it and have been prepping the past few days by going to the location, reading the script, studying storyboards, and generally doing the conscientious soundman things. One of the cool things about the gig is that the 16 page script (about 15 minutes) takes place entirely at night. As a result, our shoot starts on Friday night at sunset and goes until sunrise, then repeats the following night. I’m gradually adjusting my sleep time by one hour later each night (not hard to do for me anyway). By Friday I figure I’ll be staying up until 4 or 5 AM and sleeping until noon or 1. When the shoot arrives I’ll be fairly fresh in the middle of the night. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m unreasonably excited about this and haven’t the foggiest idea why, except that maybe once we’re all bleary eyed and sleep deprived it’ll feel like a feature film set around day 85. Think of me this weekend.

The other thing that happened this morning is I finally decided that the time was right to invest some more in my audio kit. I’ve been renting a mic and boom pole for several years and decided that I had a good idea what I wanted to own long term, so this morning I took the plunge and purchased a 20 foot breakaway cable, a professional 13 foot carbon fiber boom pole, a shotgun mic, a mount, and the harness system for my audio gear bag. The harness system means I can hang the bag in front of me comfortably instead of draping it off-center over one shoulder. It’ll be MUCH more comfortable long term than the old way.

The gear took some courage to hit the BUY button on, but I’m glad I did it. I’m now the proud owner of a truly professional mic, brand new, who’s history, condition, and provenance I don’t have to question. When you’re the only member of the audio dept, and some director has put the entirety of the audio for their baby on your shoulders, it’s nice to know that you can trust the gear. As good a job as the rental house did of maintaining their gear, I never had that 100% faith. A reputation means never being caught short with a bad mic, or having to apologize and stop production while you go search out another mic, so it’s nice to have this covered. I’m still renting the two wireless systems, though. Those range from $500 to $4000 EACH so it’ll be awhile until I’m ready to commit to buying them.

So now I’ve got a killer little mixer, a stellar mic, a very useful breakaway cable, a light and sturdy boom pole, and a harness system/bag to hold it all, not to mention all the fun little accessories that make life easy on the set. Bring on the work!

Erik Sofge expounds upon the lameness that is current Hollywood “Science Fiction”

What would Homer Simpson look like as a real person? This. Yikes.

Erin and I watched Die Hard 4 tonight (Live Free and Die Hard is the actual name). Pretty fun, if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief by a razor thin thread, then have that thread repeatedly thrashed by very sharp blades. At one point during the film we paused the movie and both burst out laughing because Hollywood had stepped over the line of believability so far. Not only were we calling the major plot points out thirty minutes before they happened, but seeing one Bruce Willis endure punishment that would have put Bruce Banner in the ICU, then walk away and crack wise, was a bit much. I mean, how much punishment can a human body take?

I found out a small amount of the how much in my shop yesterday, actually. I have been working on the entertainment center and was gluing together some boards. I reached for a clamp hanging on the wall and one of the clamps next to it fell off, pirouetted through the air, and landed sharp side down on my forearm. Didn’t break the skin, but I thought I had maybe fractured the bone or cracked something. Turns out I didn’t, but there’s a nasty deep bruise in the spot.

If I were John McClain I’m sure I’d just laugh it off and make some clamp-related pun. Fortunately, I’m only Jason and so am far too unclever to think of any.

How to make a stop motion puppet.

Stop motion cardboard Tron lightcycle chase. Awesome.

This is what it’s like to be a nerd with X-10. Check out the first 2:40. Gets dumb after that.

Indiana Jones 4 trailer up. Looks awesome.

Wow

Just a silly little stop motion movie I posted to YouTube. It was good practice. Looks kinda jankey at the beginning but it clears up after a few seconds.

10 incredibly geeky home theaters.

Compositing genius. Three guys attack Omaha Beach with nothing more than a digital video camera and period costumes. After four days of filming themselves running back and forth across the beach, and another few days of photography, plus a massive amount of compositing, these brilliant filmmakers manage to put together scenes rivaling Saving Private Ryan’s famous battle footage that cost millions of dollars. Here’s the before and after footage on YouTube.

The History Channel is showing a 2 hour special this Monday on what would happen to the planet’s cities and infrastructure if all the people suddenly disappeared. Looks interesting, and I hope they put it online soon.

Excellent commercial.

The Gaslight Justice League.

Instructables shows how to do your own Matrix-style bullet time at home.

Star Wars toys that didn’t make the cut.

The Friday Night Lights episode aired last night. If you want to see my 7 1/2 seconds of fame, go here, select episode 208 and then scroll forward to 18:20 (the diner scene). In the one shot through the window you can see me in the background eating my third hamburger.

Amazing that they had 15-20 extras in the diner for both diner scenes that episode, but you only see me and one other guy the whole time. Seems like they could plan ahead and save a lot of money (we each got about $60 for the day) if they just chose their shots more carefully.

Erin and I picked up a bunch of movies to watch over our Thanksgiving weekend. We watched Hairspray tonight and, while I was a little skeptical of John Travolta as a cross-dressing giantess married to Christopher Walken, I have to give the movie makers props and say that they pulled it off. The movie had Erin and I laughing and tapping our feet all the way through. Yes, it’s a remake of a musical, but in contrast to many remakes I’ve seen, this one manages to keep the feel of the stage while still injecting the performance with subtle little storytelling touches that can only be managed on the big screen. The film’s 18-year-old unknown lead manages to steal the show from her mega-wattage costars (not for their lack of trying to wrest it back). It’s exuberant, unselfconscious, and wildly fun. The final scene surely qualifies as the most exhausting quarter hour in motion picture history.