In College I took an acting 101 class, not because I thought I was going to be an actor, I was actually horrible at it, but because I was going to be a great director and wanted to understand what actors did and how they did it. the text for the class was Acting is Believing and the instructor was all about Beats. I understood it intelectually but never really groked the concept. This post helped clarify the concept for me. Of course I never became a great director, I found while being a PA that the really cool stuff was coming out of the truck so I went on to the G&E emphasis on the E. After 30 years I still do it when I can. there is nothing like lighting a scene and sitting back and watching the actor come on and give the amazing performances. That is the only reason why all of us are there. To shoot the performance. At the end of the day, if that is not accomplished then every ones time has been wasted.

You walked back? Why not just wait a minute and whistle up another horse?

I totally did that with my horse. The cool Stallion you get when you round up the wild horses for Bonnie. But a cougar got him not my six shooter. I also had to reload, too devistating. I got the game on Friday and it was a rainy long weekend in the Jet Town and aside from necessary duties played all weekend.

Sure Second breakfast and then Elevensies

Last spring at Emerald City Comicon I happened upon a boot that was doing horror makup and HDR photographing the crowd holding various prop weapons. They were behind a Comic called Night Zero which is about a Zombie Apocolyps in Seattle. http://nightzero.com I was chatting with them when along come an actor that I worked with on a couple of short films as well as some of those show's production staff. The actor is also in the Night Zero Cast. We all start chatting and I notice on their booth were some of the Left 4 Dead live action shots that swept the intertubes late last winter. Talking to the director and DP I totally started geeking out how much I loved those shots. I got an autographed copy of the print version of their comic and we all promised to work together some day. Next weekend they have a big crowd exterior they want to do and I get to light it. I find this very exciting. My point? Your description of standing in the breakfast line and trying not to geek out too much mad me think of the location scout we did on Sunday. Trying to maintain my professional aplomb but still really excited to be part of something really cool.

Cool I hope to run into you there. Say was Neil Holcomb lighting 'Leverage'? We have worked together in the past and I heard he was up in Pland gaffing it. Cheers

Yes it certainly has changed. I started making films back in the 80s and we were all film snobs. Looking down our noses at the video guys. And I think the reason behind that is that those who had access to decent video gear were mostly engineers rather then artists. In college I remember in a small TV studio class trying to light a scene and the TD would only look at the vector scope and not the look I was trying to achieve. regardless, now with decent and affordable HD cameras and the little bits you can add to them like the Red Rocks 35mm adaptors and cine lenses you can do some really cool stuff. Check out my blog, I just bought a new camera last week and was running some tests on it. http://imtheonebehindthecamera.blogspot.com/ And in the top post is a link to some tests we did a couple of years ago with the Cannon XL 2 camera. the difference is remarkable. You can achieve a look now other then flat video. But the technology is really no guarantee of good content. For that you still need the artists to write act and direct these things. EDIT: I have done work with the Red One and that is a fantastic camera

Right on

Have fun while your there Wil, Portland is a great town and they have a thriving film production community. I only hope the shows producers hired crew locally rather then import from LA. It is important to those trying to make a living in a really tight market. Portland used to be the Goto town for a lot of Made for TV USA Channel type shows. I used to PA for a couple of LA based Car commercial production houses down there and was a juicer on 'The Marla Hansen Story'

I had a great time but I was really disapointed when at 5 to 3 my daughter and I went to get in line to say hi and buy a book. They had already cut off the line. which struck me as being a bit lame on their part.

I had a great time but I was really disapointed when at 5 to 3 my daughter and I went to get in line to say hi and buy a book. They had already cut off the line. which struck me as being a bit lame on their part.

Just Last night about 1 AM, I was sound asleep and fell out of bed landing to a sickening crunch. I am seeing a Dr in about an hour to look at my poor ribs. I feel your pain. The worst part was the daughter coming into the room wondering what all the commotion was about and when we told her I fell out of bed she just laughed and went back to sleep

Just Last night about 1 AM, I was sound asleep and fell out of bed landing to a sickening crunch. I am seeing a Dr in about an hour to look at my poor ribs. I feel your pain. The worst part was the daughter coming into the room wondering what all the commotion was about and when we told her I fell out of bed she just laughed and went back to sleep

Nice use of the black wrap on the light. Careful though you can cut the hell out of yourself on that stuff. Glad to hear you are having fun.

Nice use of the black wrap on the light. Careful though you can cut the hell out of yourself on that stuff. Glad to hear you are having fun.

I have often wondered if you ever had a screenplay in your head. And I think your response to the offer was reasonable and realistic. Do you ever read this comic, Don't Forget to Validate Your Parking He is a writer down there who got bored during the strike and did this simple strip about some of the abusurdities. Pretty funny stuff. Have fun on the show

I have often wondered if you ever had a screenplay in your head. And I think your response to the offer was reasonable and realistic. Do you ever read this comic, Don't Forget to Validate Your Parking He is a writer down there who got bored during the strike and did this simple strip about some of the abusurdities. Pretty funny stuff. Have fun on the show

Wow that is really a shame

Wow that is really a shame

I would say avoid the HD and 24p yadda yadda prosumer cameras. You just want to document your day to day for Vblogging right? I bought a Panasonic DV camera 8 years ago that still does exactly what I want it for. it takes a decent image but is limited with regard to control No manual Iris and the optics leave a lot to be desired. Hell my wife will Vblog into her still camera (coolpix) and post that stuff. And editing your HD footage becomes problematic unless you Have premier Pro or the big name Mac package. NTSC DV you can edit in MS Movie or whatever else comes with your preferred OS and you do not need huge amounts of storage and throughput to transfer. So I say go to your local Costco and find somethign in your price range that has a firewire output and you will be golden. Unless you have your Sundance speech all memorized the Go Red baby.

I would say avoid the HD and 24p yadda yadda prosumer cameras. You just want to document your day to day for Vblogging right? I bought a Panasonic DV camera 8 years ago that still does exactly what I want it for. it takes a decent image but is limited with regard to control No manual Iris and the optics leave a lot to be desired. Hell my wife will Vblog into her still camera (coolpix) and post that stuff. And editing your HD footage becomes problematic unless you Have premier Pro or the big name Mac package. NTSC DV you can edit in MS Movie or whatever else comes with your preferred OS and you do not need huge amounts of storage and throughput to transfer. So I say go to your local Costco and find somethign in your price range that has a firewire output and you will be golden. Unless you have your Sundance speech all memorized the Go Red baby.

Based on your Keynote at Pax and your multiple ruminations on playing guitar hero, I finally last christmas went out and bought a Wii for the family. I finally found Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii a couple of weeks ago and along with an extra guitar we spend plenty of quality family time rocking out. My 14 year old daughter is gaining an appreciation to old school rock and when she is away for the evening and my wife and I have the house to ourselves we do that special thing mommys and daddys do. Drink wine and play guitar hero. I 'Wasted' the entire weekend sitting on the couch with my daughter playing Lego Star Wars arguing like ten year olds over how to solve the puzzles. Great times and right when I stand the biggest chance of losing her interest with hanging with dad. Cheers

Based on your Keynote at Pax and your multiple ruminations on playing guitar hero, I finally last christmas went out and bought a Wii for the family. I finally found Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii a couple of weeks ago and along with an extra guitar we spend plenty of quality family time rocking out. My 14 year old daughter is gaining an appreciation to old school rock and when she is away for the evening and my wife and I have the house to ourselves we do that special thing mommys and daddys do. Drink wine and play guitar hero. I 'Wasted' the entire weekend sitting on the couch with my daughter playing Lego Star Wars arguing like ten year olds over how to solve the puzzles. Great times and right when I stand the biggest chance of losing her interest with hanging with dad. Cheers

And to Devlyn, Seattle is not evil. Now Gorst, That is an evil town :)

And to Devlyn, Seattle is not evil. Now Gorst, That is an evil town :)