DEUCE OF SPADES hotrod movie - photos and updates

UPDATES:

I found out that if I flip my faulty adapter upside down, it will work for a while. So I screwed it on upside down today and loaded up my camera case and tripod in my truck.

Destination? The eye of the storm. As I drove towards the dark, heavy clouds I could not wait to get to Balboa park, where a good amount of THE BENCH takes place.

As I pulled into the park, the storm was upon me. Very heavy, low clouds were flying across the sky at high speed. I got out, set up my gear and started doing time lapses. I also filmed the rain coming down, rain on the lake's water, dead, bare looking black trees in the wind, all sorts of very dark, cool and powerful images for my short. The sky was breathtaking. I got rained on as expected, and needed it to film.

Jimmy met me at the park and helped me shield my gear from the water falling from the sky, while I set-up shots, framing , choice of lenses etc...

It was SO MUCH FUN. I have so much missed the spontaneity of "run and gun" filming, which is my background. I felt free as I just walked around with my camera, filming anything I saw as being beautiful. No need for a crew, actors and LIGHTING. I was merely a witness to God's beautiful work and tried to capture it best I could under the rain.

Jimmy and I got pretty wet. As I leaned forward, looking at my LCD< I never realized my fannies were not under the umbrellas and boy oh boy were them fannies drenched... And it was windy. Can one get arthritis in their butt cheeks? ... MMM. I think I'm pretty safe .

Needless to say the adapter only worked for a while and then DIED again, and no flipping helped this time. Well at least I got a bit of footage and hopefully it is useable. I just couldn't miss a storm like this one, and we don't get them often in LA, so you got to film 'em while you can! I will share screengrabs very soon.

 

Agh... i LOVED these pants... I played so many live shows with my band in these pants... And guess what? Friday when i cam home at 3AM from my last shoot, I found my cattle dog broke into my bedroom and went throught my closet and guess what she decided, of ALL things to eat?



I am still morning those pants.

I must really LOVE my dog because I did not strangle her that night (although I did want to!! )

 

Hey, my dogs thought my couch was delicious... Bummer, too - it used to be the Japanese Ambassador's. Got it when they closed the local consoulate down and sold the stuff off.

Hey, those pants might not be too far gone. You'd be surprised what a good leather guy can do repair-wise. Just ask a local "motorcycle enthusiast" to direct you to the best leather guy in town. Leather work is WAY cheaper than you think, and totally worth checking out!

~Jason

 

PHOTOS

Here are screen grabs of the storm I filmed today. Footage more than useable : It was WELL WORTH getting wet for.

 

I doubt if you've ever looked like hell a day in your life.

 

Hhhhhmm haha, little do you know ...

OK, getting my adapter prtoblem taken care of today. No more filming until I get a new unit, so I am going to edit instead... Why waste down time?

TAKE A PEEK at a scene from my short THE BENCH... This is the scene the adapter cut short, so I am missing footage at the very beginning (currently starts with a long black frame - I will insert the fridge shot when I get the adapter back and can film it), but I do have the sound and also I am missing the reverse two shot on the two band members, so right now I am cutting back to the master shot which works too, but was not my intention.

PS: I still like the scene, so far so good...

WARNINGS: This is not a finished scene. Also, due to internet compression, the image is degraded, the sound is very degraded and everything looks way more dark than it really is. But oh well, it's still fun to take a peek so go for it! We had fun shooting it!

CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO WATCH THE SCENE:

http://www.dailymotion.com/faithgranger/video/x46p1u_the-bench-tentative-edit-scene-9_shortfilms




.

 

UPDATES AND PHOTOS

As you know, we are down. I just heard word that the manufacturer is fedexing me overnight another adapter so I can get this show back on the road .More on this tomorrow.

PHOTOS:

Remember you can take a sneek preview of the unfinished scene here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/faithgranger/video/x46p1u_the-bench-tentative-edit-scene-9_shortfilms

Meanwhile, a few behind the scenes photos.

This is the kitchen the dolly shot starts in: It was very narrow and not long enough for the tracks so I had to climb onto the carpter area... tricky...



Notice how the dolly criss crosses. the actress had to walk between the dolly and make it look "natural"... That was really hard and she truly did a great job at it, when you watch the footage you can never tell she has to tip toe through all this junk while walking.

Another shot from the other side, you can see the dolly platform, minus the tripod and camera of course:




Cole has a BIG mirror in his dining area which I had to cover with fabric. I chose reds/oranges as the color theme for this scene:



accent lights with orange gels were used to turn a boring white wall into a golden/orangy one



here filming the close ups on "Hyland" with a 100mm lens



Odin volunteers as a crew member/grip that night:



Marina V, hwo is a known recording artist in L.A, played the lead singer of "Hyland"'s band in my short. She underwent a transformation from clean, pretty and pop looking gal into hard rocker Vixxen, thanks to my make up, jewelry and clothes (lots of rocker stuff in my closet, that what I looked like when I performed with my band). I also did her hair "dreadlocky" and it came out awesome! She was in a bit of shock at first when she saw herself like that, but pretty soon she got totally into it...

Marina V BEFORE:




And AFTER:




And the woman hidding (litterally) behind the camera: Yop, I'm the trouble maker behind all this!!

 

Let's just call it the Hokey Ass Moviemaking Board.

 

I second that !