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San Francisco DP's


Jamie Metzger

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Sooo, uh, anybody got anything goin' on? Right now it's that usual start of the school semester slump in DP gigs.

Yeah, it is very slow right now. On the other hand, I'm getting a lot of AC gigs. Freebies mostly, but still.

 

BTW Jonathan, when's your premiere for the comedy pilot you shot?

Edited by Satsuki Murashige
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I've got two shoots on the 15th and 16th, a short film and a commercial respectively. I'm ac'ing a feature starting the 23rd. Got some small stuff coming this week, we'll see about that.

 

What about anyone else? I need help on the 15th/16th shoots, let me know if you are free and where you'd like to help and we can work something out. No pay.

 

Jamie

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BTW Jonathan, when's your premiere for the comedy pilot you shot?

 

It's September 17th at the Punchline :)

 

It's not the most impressive piece of cinematography, very bland and "reality TV style", but it's funny. You should come out!

 

Buy your ticket at the box office if you can though, the online ticket vendor charges like another $10 for processing and "convenience".

 

I've been newly recruited to play around with the show's final audio mix since I'm the only person left on the production who has FCP and knows how to use it. Good thing is, I get to do my own color correction and I get my copy instantly!

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Hi Jamie, your inox is full.

 

This is Pete from the easy bay. What time/place are you going to be needing help on the 15th and 16? Depending on my schedule, I'll be glad to help out.

Let me know. Thanks!

 

-Pete

 

 

Hey pete from the eastbay, times are not set yet, but I have a feeling on the 15th it's a 7am call time at the chapel of chimes in berkely/oakland till 6pm.

 

The following day the loc and time are tbd.

 

If you are interested in working with me I could use a gaffer/elec/grip. I'm pretty sure I have camera covered.

 

Thanks,

Jamie

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Did anybody else in the bay area notice how awesome the quality of the sunlight today was?

 

Thanks to the brutal Morgan Hill wildfire that's going on right now, it's as if somebody has placed a 1/4 CTO and some diffusion in front of the sun. It was like a sunset all day. I had to take advantage, get out and shoot a roll of 35mm stills.

 

My heart goes out to anyone involved in fighting the blazes...but wow, it was gorgeous out here.

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Did anybody else in the bay area notice how awesome the quality of the sunlight today was?

 

Thanks to the brutal Morgan Hill wildfire that's going on right now, it's as if somebody has placed a 1/4 CTO and some diffusion in front of the sun. It was like a sunset all day. I had to take advantage, get out and shoot a roll of 35mm stills.

 

My heart goes out to anyone involved in fighting the blazes...but wow, it was gorgeous out here.

 

Living in a country as safe as England can be a blessing and a curse.

 

Can we see those stills please.

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Did anybody else in the bay area notice how awesome the quality of the sunlight today was?

 

Thanks to the brutal Morgan Hill wildfire that's going on right now, it's as if somebody has placed a 1/4 CTO and some diffusion in front of the sun. It was like a sunset all day. I had to take advantage, get out and shoot a roll of 35mm stills.

 

My heart goes out to anyone involved in fighting the blazes...but wow, it was gorgeous out here.

I missed it, inside all day at my regular job! But I was driving up from LA about a month ago along Highway 5 with a DP friend of mine (we had just rented a bunch of camera gear from Otto Nemenz) and came across the same phenomenon -- distant wildfire, red haze overhead, and golden hour light for hours and hours! We joked that this could be a great low-budget way of extending a golden hour scene ... that is until the authorities show up and the lawsuits start.

 

We actually had a Minolta III color temperature meter with us and found the light to be at about 4750K, plus a magenta shift of about 20cc. Interestingly, the ambient skylight away from the direct sun was quite a bit cooler, like around 6000K. We ended up trying to replicate that quality of light on the shoot in one scene -- we had a diffused 9-light gelled with 1/2 CTO and 1/4 Minus Green, plus a blue ambient skylight bounce from a couple of 1k fresnels gelled full CTB and bounced into foamcore overhead.

 

Here are a few set stills. The blue didn't show up very much, no surprise there: 9-light vs. 1k+Full CTB! Oh, well I was just the AC, what do I know.:)

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7950092@N03/1...57601864061148/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7950092@N03/1...57601864061148/

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We actually had a Minolta III color temperature meter with us and found the light to be at about 4750K, plus a magenta shift of about 20cc.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7950092@N03/1...57601864061148/

 

I'm not surprised by the magenta shift, the light did seem to have a coral hint to it. Too bad it's completely overcast today, hopefully it'll clear up again and I can take a few snapshots.

 

Oh hey, speaking of coral, you've worked with Brian Corral I see! He worked sound on a short I AC'd earlier this year, great guy. It's too bad he'll be going down to LA for good, he's quite good at what he does.

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Oh hey, speaking of coral, you've worked with Brian Corral I see!

Yeah, Brian's a fellow SF State grad so I've worked with him several times. It's funny, he can get kinda insecure before a shoot but his work is always stellar. Production rented a bunch of sound gear from Wilcox Sound in LA for this shoot and he was freaking out on our one prep day because he had a bunch of new equipment to learn by himself. Just then, I was REALLY glad to be in camera department! I had a bunch of new equipment to learn too but at least I had help. Brain did really great though. I got him to record our noisy 416 as a .wav file, which I was going to email to the rental house but I never got around to it.

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Hey Guys,

It's been a while since I've been able to check in. I've been working on a Huge infomercial for American Doll, and I can't tell you how much money they spent (wasted imo). We shot at a house in piedmont for $5,000 a day. Art Dept built so much stuff around the existing house that you could have shot the thing anywhere. Either way, I got 4 days of work, and after that shoot I went to a tv show in the city. I was getting about 4 hours of sleep for 4 days. I have another shoot tonight downtown for a DJ battle show. We've been working on it for the past 4 days and it's coming together. They need one more camera op if john or satsuki are up for it. Think it pays $50.

 

 

Other than that, I noticed the lovely light as well. We had magic hour on the opposite side of the sphere on Thursday. You could look at the sun and there was beautiful orange pink light coming through. It was nice.

 

Thanks as well to you satsuki for taking a color temp reading of the magic hour. I've always wondered why I hadn't hear the direct color information on that particular sought after look.

 

I have 2 shoots this weekend; finishing up the short film and a commercial up in pleasant hill.

 

I hope everyone else's shoots go well and they are enjoying themselves.

 

Jamie

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I just saw a cut of a Hyphy video I shot in august. Looks good. Nothing super special about it. It was a 6 hour shoot in a club and I think we shot quite a bit for that little time. We could have used more ofcourse.

 

How did everyone's weekend shoots go?

 

Jamie

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How did everyone's weekend shoots go?

I think ... insane ... is the word. I'm 2nd AC/loading on an SF State grad thesis right now. We're shooting on the Panaflex Elaine and I'm learning a lot, but the hours are crazy. 14-18 hr days with very short turnarounds. Our day off on Monday became a 6hr night shoot with a 4hr turnaround, then a 14hr day today. Two extra shooting days tacked on tonight, working around the DP's schedule; she's a film professor at our school. She actually brought her class to set on Monday so she could continue shooting! Yikes.

 

No pay for most of the crew, including me. If it wasn't for the awesome crew (mostly undergrads or recent grads from SF State), I'd be seriously reconsidering my career choice right about now as this is the worst-planned shoot I've ever been on. The camera crew is the best I've ever worked with though, totally professional and all-around awesome people to work with, and I'm having so much fun just hanging around them. I have to single out our 1st AC Jeremy Wong as the biggest reason this shoot continues not to suck.

 

So, anyone else?

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I think ... insane ... is the word. I'm 2nd AC/loading on an SF State grad thesis right now. We're shooting on the Panaflex Elaine and I'm learning a lot, but the hours are crazy. 14-18 hr days with very short turnarounds. Our day off on Monday became a 6hr night shoot with a 4hr turnaround, then a 14hr day today. Two extra shooting days tacked on tonight, working around the DP's schedule; she's a film professor at our school. She actually brought her class to set on Monday so she could continue shooting! Yikes.

 

No pay for most of the crew, including me. If it wasn't for the awesome crew (mostly undergrads or recent grads from SF State), I'd be seriously reconsidering my career choice right about now as this is the worst-planned shoot I've ever been on. The camera crew is the best I've ever worked with though, totally professional and all-around awesome people to work with, and I'm having so much fun just hanging around them. I have to single out our 1st AC Jeremy Wong as the biggest reason this shoot continues not to suck.

 

So, anyone else?

 

Haha, I was supposed to 2nd that shoot with jeremy. I got the dates mixed up and wasn't able to make the shoot because of my 2 shoots this past weekend. I'm glad I didn't go.

 

Jeremy is a good friend of mine.

 

Jamie

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Haha, I was supposed to 2nd that shoot with jeremy. I got the dates mixed up and wasn't able to make the shoot because of my 2 shoots this past weekend. I'm glad I didn't go.

 

Jeremy is a good friend of mine.

 

Jamie

Well, well! Small world. I'll mention to him tomorrow that I know you from this forum. ;)

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How did everyone's weekend shoots go?

 

 

Quite well, actually. DP'd a little abstract comedic short up in Sausalito near the Marine Mammal center. Seriously, if anyone needs a remote looking location for a horror movie, check it out.

 

Unfortunately, we weren't shooting any exteriors. It was fun though, it was a really small production with really simple setups. 9 hour days with 15 hour turnaround on Sunday, couldn't complain.

 

But wow Satsuki, I had no idea...4 hour turnaround for a State grad thesis?! I'd be steaming at the producer of that outfit. I suppose they had their "reasons" though, talent availability and what not.

Edited by Jonathan Bowerbank
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