After the q&a i got to meet and chat with a number of folks and of course i forgot to load up on my business cards before hand.  It would have been good to have a few.  Note to self: Networking 101 have marketing materials and industry events.

Anyway look for “Crackin’ the Code” DVDs soon.  Director Steve Coker and Actor, marketing manager, producer, awesome fellow, Harold Philips are working very hard to get this to the public eye!

Here some links to “The Code”

http://crackinthecode.com/

Director Steve Coker’s Facebook

This is the first rig we set up.  It worked out very well but to make it more mobile and ad the ability of pan and tilt we changes some things around

I have however discovered after spending a day processing it into a red/blue viewable medium that it is very important to be very accurate with the position of the cameras.  In many ways we “ball parked” the positioning of the cameras we used levels and the likes but it was not perfect.  The footage certainly reads as 3d.  The human persistence of vision allows for some margin of error but i have discovered that that margin over time will lead to one hell of a headache.  For our next 3d rig build i am for sure going to take more care and time in accurate camera positioning.

Anyway if you have a set of red/cyan 3d glasses you can see the fruits of out labor.  It is about 45seconds long, not long enough to get a headache watching.

RUN OF THE PENGUIN from Galvin Collins on Vimeo.

I have been working with a group of still photographers who are interested in cinematography.  The possibilities that cameras like the 5Dmark2 the 7D and the new rebel t2i offer have excited many dedicated stills guys to merge into the video market.  For one such group i have been acting as a middle man between the two worlds.  Its been great fun working with these photographers and i think that some of there working practices could certainly benefit the video shooting world.  One thing right off the bat that stills guys are boggled about is the lack of true color accuracy in the video world.  Cameras that don’t shoot in a recognizable spectrum, post production monitoring and the likes.  In the stills world color accuracy from camera to final delivery is critical.  It has made me really evaluate how i manage color in my work.  I have also had to give the dedicated stills guys a bit of crap from time to time.  It is in the nature of the experienced still photographer to be very macro focused about everything in the frame at all times.  There has been more that one experience on set with a still photographer as the cinematographer where we spent hours finessing a single shot when we needed to move forward.  Still photographers think about telling a story in one frame and sometimes neglect thinking about how the performance of the actors and combination of many shots tell the story.  Its not that i think that they need to abandon there attention to detail but limit it to a point that will allow them to be productive in the independent film making arena.  You sometimes have to make sacrifices to keep on schedule, its just the nature of the low budget film world.  I have however worked as misc. crew on a production that was poorly manage and poorly executed and in my opinion a fiasco.  When ever i give the stills guys too much crap they always remind me of that project.  The creativity and enthusiasm that this group of photographers brings to the world of film making is exciting and i look forward to seeing how it influences and integrates with the motion world.

Earlier this year i worked on a films with Vancouver, WA. filmmaker Mark Steel, on a project called “Marvin’s Plan.”  “Marvin’s Plan” is a short film about Marvin (played by Director Mark Steel), a nerdy middle-aged man who is not doing well. He has taken on a roommate to help pay the mortgage. He sells sperm to pay for his dates – dates that don’t go very well. He is continually dumped. In the midst of his despair with his lot in life, Marvin decides he wants a child.  This is the story of how he goes about achieving this new goal.

It was a fun shoot that took place in locations around Vancouver, WA. and Portland, Or.

Vincent Caldoni runs Portland acting company with screen actor Robbert Blanche Have a look at their site and get a hold of them if you are at all interested in screen acting. Portland Acting Company

Last note.  I have a few new credits on my IMDB page.  Including “Reception” Mentioned above.

So what’s new?  Earlier this month i had to privilege to work on A. L. Steens web series “Animus Cross.” I was brought on to the project by kick ass pro photographer turning photographer/cinematographer, Andy Batt.  I acted as Andy’s assistant camera for the six day shoot that took place all over the greater Portland, Vancouver, St. Helens, and other interesting outdoor locations.

Galvin Collins slating a shot on Set of animus Cross

Andy shot the film primarily on the Canon 5Dmark2 but also used the new Canon 7D as well as a Panasonic HVX200 for specialty shots.  I had a great time working on this show!  It was long days in cold locations but honestly i can thing of a single time during the shoot that was anything less than enjoyable.  The crew is an incredibly dedicated and high spirited bunch that i am proud to say i worked with.  What we just shot will hit the web some time next year.  I’ll post more specific info when i have it but you can follow up information on the Animus Cross Blog HERE.  A few more Animus Cross links Making of photography gallery HERE.  Animus Cross write up in The Portlander.

So the day after we wrapped principal photography on this season of “Animus Cross” I came down with a wicked cold that lasted for about 5 long days.  Here it is a few weeks later and i am still working to shake a cough that is lingering.  Luckily i haven’t had any big shoots or jobs and have been able to properly rest.  I have been using the down time to work on putting together work for my resume, portfolio, demo reel package.  It is a few years out of date and in desperate need of re vamping.  This will more than likely migrate into a large web page redesign soon.

Its getting late and this is a good start to keeping the weblog up to date!

Steve Coker’s film “Cracking the Code” was submitted to BendFilm as well as Mark Steels short film “Marvin’s Plan.” Unfortunaltly both were also Not accepted.  I was hoping for three successful entries and instead we got three strike outs.

On a lighter more cheery note:  Everyone who has been patiently awaiting their copy of “L.E.A.D.”  The wait is soon to be over.  We are crafting a DVD to deliver to you all that will hopefully meet your expectations.  I have in mind to do a few screenings and i feel like there is a festival out there will fit this film!

June:  Many good things in June. I celebrated my 27th birthday with friends and had a great time!  The house is now the proud owner of a brand new banana suit!  When all my friends were singing the birthday song my roomate Chris jumped out in a banana suit, I laughed so hard!  Next thing i knew i was rocking around in a banana suit and a kilt.  Not somthing that you see everyday, i’m told!  Later that eveing Kyle put the banana suit on and let me shoot some photos.  He also put on a fake mustach.  That was funny!  Great night!

The day after my birthday my Dad and I embarked on a road trip to Jamestown, ND.  Not the destination that most think about on a road trip but let me tell you it’s a good town.  My cousin Dustin graduated high school in Jamestown and we went to celbrate that event with family.  Dad and i took an event filled journey enjoying the travel.  I’ll post more about that trip soon.

July:  When i got back from my trip with my dad i found out that my employment with Laika was coming to and end.  They are in between projects right now and don’t have much for me to do.  I look forward to rejoing them in the future!  Thank you Laika for a great two years!

I also started teaching at The Art Institute of Portland.  The first day was a little rough but after that it got better.  I hope that the students are learning, I have never taought before so this has been a unique chalange!

Thats a short recap!  I’ll post more later.

And now for the real reason for the post.  In a moment of brilliance I created a slice of awesome. Chris davis went to Ikea the other day and bought a new office chair.  This act made me take a second look at my trusty computer chair.  Holes in the fake leather everywhere, at least one couch pillow adding to the butt pad, and arm rest that look like they are going to fall right off.  Though trusty and long lived it seemed that a new chair might be in my future.  As i turned my pockets inside out without finding the nessesary funding to purchase a new chair i knew i had to get creative.  About a year ago i took one of the middle captain chairs out of my 91 toyota previa van to make room for the mass of film making gear that i was hauling around for shooting the feature film “Crackin the Code.”  Since then the lone bucket seat has sat in the garage.  Lightning struck and in a moment of brilliance I bolted van seat to the rolling legs off of my old chair.  Behold the most comfortable office chair i have ever owned.

91 Toyota privia office chair.

Even Fools Like Me from Portland Acting on Vimeo.

Laid Off from Portland Acting on Vimeo.

I shot the two videos above with the stock camera body, no modifications.  We used two lenses, Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8, and a Sigma 24-70 ƒ2.8 both are Nikon lenses mounted to the camera with an adapter.  Doing this gave us the ability to lock in an ƒ-Stop, a feature that as of this writing is not available using canon lenses.  To light these we used primarily available light augmented with some small portable compact florescent lights that matched the color temperature of the locations light.  It truly was amazing the image that we got in such low light situations.  The garage that we shot the car scene in was what i previously would have thought would be to dark to shoot.  On the con sides i would say the primary problem we faced was the camera clicks off into a power save mode, this may be adjustable but in video mode it was a pain to try to keep the preview up for framing and lighting.  Second along the same lines was that when you use the video out cable and run to a monitor you loose your on cameras LCD.  It would be nice to have the option for both, for the operator to see the image and have a monitor up for the director.  I didn’t manage the post workflow but Vincent Caldoni metioned a few workflow issues that he had to make is way around.  The native footage is 30p and he wanted a 24p look, so he had to convert it.  I belive he used a free plugin for FCP to achive this.  He was using and older mac G5 with out the intel processors so the native footage was unplayable (not unsportted but unplayable, computer was to slow to give smooth playback) and had to be converted to another HD format that had smoot playback on the G5.  Previously i have used DVCproHD in these circumstances but the editor went with the sony XDCAM HD codec and that seemed to work well for him.  Maybe I’ll have Vincent write up a work flow debrief and post it if anyone is interested.

Over all i thought the footage that we shot and the final product looked great.  With a propper cinema package (matt box, follow focuse, HD monitor or Eyepiece) and some firmware updates with increased manual control this camera will be an indi film powerhouse.

If you would like more information about Portland Acting or ar interested in takeing some of there classes have a look at there blog: http://www.portlandacting.blogspot.com/