I had been in talks with a director friend of mine. He had come upon this composer who did an acoustic version of the old civil war song "Shenandoah". He said it in the breezy way one states something without much expectation you will know the reference.
I said, "Wait, Shenandoah, Shenandoah?"
"Well, yeah, I mean that's what it's called. Haha"
"It's an old river song? It's had many versions? Like one of my favorite songs I grew up listening to my dad sing? Like one of the songs that reminds me of my entire childhood?"
The original plan was to combine this old river song with his immense love of tug boats. We are both NY based so Hudson River was the target. One will find that renting out a tug boat is more difficult that you might think. When Alex found himself out in San Francisco producing a job, he also found himself among many tug boats and more importantly people who had contacts with the tug boaters. I got a call on a Tuesday and flew out on Thursday to the land of warmth and salty air. Here are a couple of footage stills:
Amidst the work we had a chance to have some dungeness crab (as it was THE season apparently!) and some delicious coffee and pastries at Caffe Trieste. I had time Saturday to venture around to a few recommended places: Andalu, The 500 Club, and a good thrift store I stumbled upon. It was 67 degrees and lovely. A beautiful sunrise on the water, good food, good director, good project. I was a happy camper.
Soon I will be able to post more details and the video! I'll keep you posted.
Prodigy Interview
I got to operate with my good friend Zachary Galler (we shot with my F3, rented a 2nd one and a set of Super Speeds) on these interviews/promo footage of Mindless Behavior: a cute,
well-mannered boy band ala 21st century. They really did seem genuinely
enthusiastic about all of it and enjoyed hanging out with one another.
They still seem grateful, talented and excited. It was fun watching
them interact. And they really did talk about girls all the time.
Some sample lyrics from one of their hit songs:
“Hey, my girl, my girl,
she loves me. She hit me all the time, she be texting me. Hey, my girl,
my girl, she loves me. She hit me all the time -
[Spoken:] Yo Prod, let ‘em know.
When I say hey, then
you say what’s up? And I’ll be like baby, do you miss me? When you say
yes, then I’ll say ditto. Then you hit me back, with the less than
symbol number three.
I
got a clue how you feel for me. 1-4-3 a smiley with a wink. That’s how
you feel baby that’s what’s up. A hundred forty characters, is more
than enough.”
The lyrics are what they are. By no means groundbreaking, but I guess I'm not their target audience either.. I suppose I feel like our parents felt when they heard “Shoop” for the first time? And anyone in my generation knows that song is the best. Just ask any of my friends that have been to karaoke with me.
Well, my apologies for my absence. I have been dooooing things I swear.
1) My Sony F3 came in to Abel Cine early so I was buying that (and dealing with convincing the bank to let me have access to MY money. Ugh.) With many thanks to Mark Schwartzbard for tips and DBA/ EIN details. It is a fantastic camera and I am really really happy with it so far! I'm eager to keep playing with it so if you have any projects you wanna do LET ME KNOW!
2) The first part of July was spent navigating the 7 day short film I shot "TIED UP" with Jose Venutolo Directing, a project of Brady Kirchberg origins. We had a lot of, ahem, things thrown at us...an eastern European building super who started carting our equipment off premises and eventually cut the power to the apartment we were shooting in - a nice, reasonable man ha...lost actors and lost locations. Some of the wrenches thrown were par for the course, some seemed to require superhuman patience and ingenuity. Nonetheless there are always lessons learned, we persevered, and we wrapped at about 430am on a Friday morn with some really great stuff!
Brady and Jose are working on the editing already and the plan is to head to NICE DISSOLVE for post. The producer set up a demo session with them last week and their facilities are pretty great! They're tucked away in a rather booming side street of Bushwick. While the studio itself is small, the package is extensive. We'll be using their DaVinci Resolve suite with real-time playback. I'm looking forward to it. Here are some quick stills from the TIED UP footage:
3) Other updates include Beach going! My fantastic friends and I headed to Jacob Riis for a much needed cool off! Beach, snacks, beers and vodka slushies are good for the soul.
4) This is probably obvious, but I love Netflix. More specifically Netflix Instant Play. I watched "Carnal Knowledge" (1971) a few nights back and it is a gem I knew nothing about. The cast alone is reason enough for you to watch it. If you love relationship analysis and gender studies then you've got yourself a golden ticket here. Jack Nicholson, Arthur Garfunkel, Candice Bergen (Yes, she was a full blown sex symbol in her day. For those of us that only grew up watching her in Murphy Brown this is fun to see), Ann-Margaret (wowza), and Rita Moreno power pack this film. The style of Mike Nichols' direction (The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - so he has some experience with this genre :) adds an element of flash without taking away from a strong cast that can carry a heavy film and still come out as a bit of a comedy. Here's the original NY Times review from '71 (I also love the internet):
There are many great scenes, but this is definitely one of the best:
Another film I saw during my absence on the ol' blog was "Bad Timing" (1980) on a recommendation of a friend. Another astute, but slightly more abstract, relationship study starring Art (he lost the -hur by this point) Garfunkel (Some say this film might have helped end his acting career as his character is pretty dark here. I mean it's not like HE'S ACTING or anything here people. Guffaw.) and Theresa Russell. Harvey Keitel also plays a key role as a suspicious detective. This Nicolas Roeg flick needs 2 watches at least.
It's definitely not my favorite of Roeg's, but it's engrossing and fun to decipher. If you like Roeg's structure in general, it seems one would like this films as well. Theresa Russell gives a really great performance, but I grow tired of female characters (which is of course not her doing) that long to be free while having a connection with someone sans being controlled by them. Yet, they keep succumbing to the "need" to please said person and so do what they know they cannot sustain. They stay. I suppose this is one aspect that makes the film engaging, though many times it just seems a byproduct of the desires of the writer.
I am debating buying a Sony F3 and subsequently thinking of whether I would get the 35mm, 50mm, 85mm set of lenses that Sony has put together for the camera. I'm always hesitant to steer away from dependable, reputable companies for glass, ie: Zeiss, Cooke, Angenieux. Also, where's the 18mm or at least the 25mm?? There have luckily been some tests comparing such lenses to Sony's.
I have trusted friends who have used Sony's lenses and are not impressed with their build or their image so that usually is the affirmation of my hesitancy.
And as always Philip Bloom, for what he's worth, is there to compare these 3 cameras:
Why, Why does the F3 only offer 60fps at 720p? Man, that really is a bummer. You can see the quality difference in the video PB does of course. The F3 is by far the better quality long term camera...it's just such a large difference in money when it comes down to it. And once you get into buying a KiPro or a Nanoflash to utilize the camera's full range. It's always so exciting and nerve wracking!
Prodigy Interview
