That’s right. Leave him be. I’m sick of it.

Everyone has decided to come down on the guy because of his style of filmmaking. Granted, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. He spends a lot of time on the action, the special effects, and maybe not so much on the characters. He’s not Martin Scorcsese… but on the other hand, he’s not trying to be.

Here’s a little lesson we could all learn from Michael Bay: You Are a Brand. Stop trying to fight it, stop trying to justify against it. To the world at large, or even in your community, you are a brand. People have a reason that they want to get to know you, a reason to avoid you, and a reasonable amount of expectations about you based upon past experience and public opinion.

You’re a can of Soda.

But unlike a lot of people, Michael Bay knows exactly who he is and exactly what he has to offer. Even as you say it, certain expectations arise within your mind when you say the two words: Michael Bay. Personally, I’ve replaced the word ‘Awesome’ with ‘Michael Bay’ (you know why).

So, some people came down on his new Transformers film recently. A lot of them haven’t even seen it. I say, leave it be. Yes, there were some bits of the original I wasn’t too fond of. You know what else? If it’s on TV, I’m watching it. It’s FUN. Really, when it comes right down to it, you’re watching a movie about giant, transforming robots from space fighting a millennia-old battle here on Earth. What were you expecting?

Michael Bay has a new movie coming out. If you feel like watching it, go for it. If not, don’t. Stop talking about it like he’s responsible for making your life more miserable because he has a different take on a nostalgic franchise that you don’t happen to share. Me? I’m going to see it in the theatre. Because I also happen to enjoy the films of George Lucas and Timur Bekmambetov. What do these three have in common? They show us something we’ve never seen before. And despite your little grievances… that’s something to be spoken before. Film IS a visual medium, is it not?

So, to summarize. Leave Michael Bay alone. It’s not like he’s Uwe Bohl.

Yessir, The Van will finally be hitting the distribution circuit. Ouat! Media represents short films of all sizes and shapes, pushing them into the broadcast, internet, and mobile markets. As soon as I hear about some of the available outlets, I’ll be sure to post them. Rock and Roll!

I’ve walked into some terrible shooting environments. Really. Terrible.

Ever been in a metal scrap yard in the middle of the night? Done that. Ever been in a boat being circled by water moccasins? Been there. Marched in the *shudder* Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?  You betcha.

However, all of this is comparatively easy compared to what we did last month in Greenville.

It is time once again for the annual United Way shoot in Greenville for Tallboy. It’s always kind of a highlight for us. Three or four days of straight-up documentary shooting, and hearing some truly amazing stories of people’s struggles. This year, we were tasked with a recreation. Admittedly, not my favorite thing in the world. We had to find a low-income house (or one looking similar to it) for our little set-up, and stock it with children’s toys and other bric-a-brac.

Now, our man on the ground, Gareth Owings, went to work finding us an ‘authentic’ location, as well as stopping by one of the Goodwills for our props. The only thing that got complicated was when one of our subject’s schedule changed at the last moment, putting the prep of this into overdrive. Gareth had to book a day earlier, so our options became limited. With only one landlord responding to our requests, we went with the previous home of an evicted crystal-meth dealer.

And so, Gareth went to work. The trailer (yes… it was a trailer) was cleaned up rather well. With the exception of a few hideously disfigured dolls, the place was clean…

…except for the smell.

Picture this. You are standing over your sink, when that mildewy ’sink smell’ catches you by the nostrils. Probably time for a quick clean-up, eh? Now imagine the smell taking physical form, reaching out of the sink, and grasping you by the face. You know… like this:

Needless to say, I walked out. I’ve done DOS work, I’ve been through hot swamps and frigid fields, but I, literally, could not take the smell. I had to leave director Douglas Olney, AP Rhonda Vanover, and Gareth by themselves. Not exactley my proudest moment, but we all have limitations. One of mine happens to be the whole ‘Spores Growing Inside Your Lungs’ scenario. Go figure.

Despite my absence (or maybe because of it… depends who you ask), the footage turned out great. Rhonda actually subbed as a ‘mother’ in it, and Doug utilized a lot of silhouette work, never quite capturing any faces. All of this while I sat near the cars, and talked with some of the folks from Erwin Penland about the evil empire of the Jonas Brothers. Damn you, Jonas…

So, there you have it. My first and only foray into trailer-made crystal meth manufacture. In two weeks, I’ll have some exciting news on a past project. ‘Till then, enjoy your non-mildew reek lives.

Oh, and the recreation got cut from the final piece. yaaaaaaaaay…

Hey, everyone. I know that, as of my last post, I had promised to be in touch about some of the things that we have been up to. And that didn’t happen. Why? Well, I’ve been running around like a madman, that’s why. What’s happened? What’s going on? Well, let’s start at the beginning…

We’d been hired to do a 60 second, Direct Response Ad for Advance America. Our mission? To show the trials and tribulations of a single-parent household. Well, we figured that we had the budget, and a host of spots for the same client that had 35mm quality to match against… so why not up our game a tad? Thus, we chose the infamous RED One Camera to shoot our little beauty on.

Now, for those of you who don’t know (at which point, you might just want to wait for the next post. We’re focusing on the RED today), The RED is a new, proprietary image acquisition and workflow. Instead of Charge-coupled Devices (CCD’s) that standard and high definition cameras use, the RED records images onto a CMOS imager. It’s big, it’s bad, and it’s a frickin’ beast.

So, here are some thoughts. Take this is stride, I’m just the producer. but having come from camera and editorial into the world of producing, here are a few quick notes for you to go by.

1.) YOU HAVE NEVER USED A CAMERA LIKE THIS. EVER…

Seriously. Most video cameras, be they standard or high definition, come from the same basic mold that was laid out years ago by the Betacam. Accordingly, once you know the layout of this model, you can pretty much approach any video camera and have it up and working within a few minutes.

Not the RED.

The RED is a box. A huge, metal, box. Do you have a cinderblock handy? Put it on your shoulder. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Heavy, right? Welcome to the world of RED handheld.

Now, in the past, all new standard-defying devices  and productions have had their own little technician on site. It’s a profession that you get maybe a year out of before the DP’s and Cam Ops figure out what you’re doing with the menus. The RED, however, will need DIT’s (Data Technicians) for years upon years. The DIT’s dump the footage you have been shooting. They set it up for edit. They do magical things, which is just left best out of your hands, anyway. So, now onto our first myth to conquer.

2.) THIS IS NOT A SINGLE-USER SYSTEM.

I am sure that, as soon as I say this, someone will try and prove me wrong. And they might. What I CAN guarantee, however, is that they are going to experience intense pain and a visit to the chiropractor. If they are willing to do this, I am willing to concede my point.

When plotting a production using this mammoth, count yourself in for at LEAST one AC. This person will help you put it on your shoulder, the tripod, and all the little bels and whistles. For example, the viewfinder attaches to the camera body via a French Flag. And I’m sick of defining things, so look that one up for yourselves.

3.) WHAT YOU GAIN IN PRODUCTION WILL BE LOST IN POST.

Here’s the thing.  The RED records to its maximum resolution using a proprietary codec, and you cannot edit using it (unless you have the mother of all editing systems, at which point, go ahead and hire yourself a technician to handle all of this. You can afford it, obviously). Halfway through production, I discovered that in order to color correct at 4k (said maximum resolution), I had to take my files SOMEWHERE ELSE and have them transcoded to a separate file format. One more process, one more mouth to feed, absolutely no time for either. So what did we do? Transcoded the material of the final edit into ProRes HQ (thank you, Apple), and color corrected that. Go team.

Now, I know it sounds like I’m poo-poo’ing the Golden Fleece of Camera Inovations, but I’m not. The Rumors are true, and the RED produces the closest thing to 35mm that I’ve seen since…well, 35mm. And you know what? I don’t know if I would have been able to tell the difference, if I hadn’t been on set. That being said, the ultimate moral here, the warning, is that the RED is not the HD equivalent to 35 mm. The RED is its own device, its own workflow, and you have to respect it in the same way that you would for a 35mm rig. It needs the all the time and attention of film.

Alright. I’m good. *whew*! Glad I got that out. In two weeks? CRYSTAL METH…

Seriously…