Anton Delfino

@journeymanRogerDeakins sounds like a great fake Twitter account! I'd follow it!

Yes, Mark, you're right. I forgot to mention that there is another circuit in the room as well - at least 15A. I'm doing my best to spread the load, but I feel like I'm walking on a tightrope each time. Maybe going the fluorescent route to light the green cyc is the best way after all. Thoughts?

We have mostly tungsten units - (2) 1K soft boxes, (1) 1K fresnel, (2) 650w fresnels, (1) 750w Rifalite (2) 300w fresnels - and a couple of Divalite 400s. We do have a small chroma green cyc one one side of our studio, so our usual set up is the soft boxes lighting up the green screen, the Divas for key/fill, and a combination of 300s or 650 as a rim/kicker. There are no issues with power for these set ups. We start running into trouble when we want to go for a different look and start throwing up the smaller units to do different things. We do have some budget to build out our studio, so I was thinking that some low cost fluorescents for the green screen would save us from using both 1K soft boxes.

Thanks for the reply, Don. The last time it flipped, I was in the breaker room with the maintenance guy and saw that it was labeled with a "20". It looked like there was a bar that connected both switches, so you couldn't flip one without the other.

Apologies for the super n00b juicing question. Our office has a small studio space with with 2 20A circuits with Edison outlets spread throughout. I've flipped the breaker a couple of times and it's an ordeal to get the building maintenance guys to come out, locate the breaker and flip it. Can anyone confirm that setting up a 20A power strip (like this) between the wall outlets and the lights would avoid flipping the building's breaker if overloaded? Thanks!

As with many no-low budget music videos, it fell through. Oh well, next time.

Hey JD - Thanks for the reply. Hmm, I wonder why I never thought of that since I used to run a mobile DJ service for years! We were small time so we never had the extra cash to get real fancy with our lighting. I do remember having some cool lights that you could patch into a board (and were programmable) but never got the actual unit itself. I'll definitely take a look. Hope you're well. - anton

Hey Guys - I've been watching some of Mark Romanek's videos thought about the video he did for Weezer's El Scorcho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzxwGazkLWU I'm thinking of putting something together that falls along the same lines, except a lo-fi (ie. low-budget) version with less practicals. Could you get away w/ just a flicker box, strobe light, and some manual on-offing of lamps plugged into lunchboxes? Would this erratic action stress the breakers at all? Any info/insight you could provide would be very much appreciated. Thanks! -anton

Thanks, JD. Hope you're doing well.

Hey guys - I've used a 1x1 Litepanel with those camera battery belts (forgive me, I'm not sure what the official name for that piece of equipment is) but am not sure how long that battery would last if the Litepanels were running at full power. I'll be without power for daytime exteriors (for interview footage) and wanted to know how many I should have on hand. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Aha! Thank you, Dan Wallenstein. By the way, thanks for coming to my party last night. Good times.

Wanted to see if anyone knew the manufacturer of these pieces of equipment. Thanks!

Hmm, why not make the subject move closer to the lens with the camera locked off? If the rules prohibit putting the camera on a dolly, why not put the subject on one? Not sure if the effect is what you're going for, but would be interesting shot nonetheless.

Thanks for the suggestion. I thought about that also. One crafty guy actually served salmon ceviche for breakfast on a commercial I once worked on. Now that crafty guy is the Julie Delpy to my Ethan Hawke. But maybe I'll bump into him five years later in Paris, or something. I'm sure the site will expand to include good crafty as well. But running in the low budget indie circle, I'm sure I'll be hard-pressed to find crafty that will blow my mind. - Anton

Hey all - I was chatting with Nate Slevin, the 1st AC on this feature I'm working on, and he told me about someone who would take photos of bad craft service tables he encounters. I thought it was a great idea for a blog - a site where we can all share photos of less than desirable crafty. Please check it out and contribute if you have the time: http://craftdisservice.wordpress.com/ Thanks for reading! - Anton

Is there a specific type of Sawzall blade recommended for cutting speed rail? Thanks!

who needs a grip/elec? I'm gonna be home for a buddy's wedding and looking to keep myself busy - at least something other than playing MarioKart Wii online all day long. I'm not looking to make any money (though I won't throw a fit if it's a paying gig) but willing to work for crafty and conversation with some good folks. Hope your summers are going well, guys.

Luckily for us, we already know what happens! You saved me $11.75!

I wasn't huge fan of the first Hellboy, but I liked the visuals enough to see what the second one would be like. It was OK. I didn?t find myself sympathizing with characters all that much. The story was typical of a superhero flick. BUT, it is what I expected from a summer flick, so it?s not like I was disappointed. The romance angle in the film was a bit too much, but I could tell the filmmakers were having fun with it (at least some parts). I didn?t love it like I loved Iron Man, but I think I dug it more than Indiana Jones. I didn't mind the CGI, actually. With the nature of the story, it did not feel out of place to me (ahem - Indiana Jones). Guillermo del Toro ranks up there with visual directors like Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Baz Luhrmann and Chan-wook Park. You definitely expect to see awesome production design. Selma Blair isn't classically pretty or anything, but she's damn sexy. I think it's the eyes.

But what happens when MySpace suddenly goes out of style? Then you'll have to make new business cards to include the URL of the next in social networking site. Maybe I'm a snob, but whenever I see a MySpace URL on a business card, I tend to take it less seriously than if I saw a regular domain name. And YouTube...forget about it. :P

Agree with comments about clist being a mixed bag. I got my fist grip gig from craigslist last May. I was brought on as an intern on an indie feature called "I Sell the Dead". Met and learned from some really awesome guys. It was this job where I realized that G&E guys are by far the wittiest group of guys on the planet - possibly the universe. I must have made an impression because I still get the occasional phone call from the Key Grip when he's looking to bring on an additional. Sadly, none of the subsequent clist jobs have been as positive as this experience.

are you kidding? 'electrical cord' sounds WAAAY nerdier than 'stinger' - hehe. Also, these special terms are usually department-specific. So when you hear a term that is specific to your department, you know it's for you and not for one of the dozens of people roaming around on set. Besides, it's just fun to randomly yell out words like: butt plug, ubangi, pork chop, meat axe, tweenie, et al. :)

a milk crate-oloris or chair back-oloris works nicely

What's up Satsuki - Thanks for the advice and the tip about reeldirectory.com. I'll definitely check it out. Actually, Paciano and I worked a really small job this past Saturday with a friend of ours. I've let him know I'm interested in jumping on any jobs he can recommend me for. Anyway, I'll keep grindin' Take it easy, brother. - anton

Hey everyone - I live in NYC but I'm on "vacation" in the Bay until late June. If anyone is looking for a grip/electric/swing, I'll be happy to come out and lend a hand. I'm looking to build a network of contacts here. I haven't worked too many shows here, but have worked with Paciano Triunfo - who many of you SF peeps probably know - on a few projects prior to moving to NY. Please send me a PM if you'd like to know a bit more about my past experience. Thanks for reading. - anton