What's everyone working on?

[Daniel Madsen]

I am disillusioned, disenchanted, disenfranchised and STILL looking!!!!!

 

 

Dan

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I've got a lot of student things which pay modestly (very modestly but can cover the rent) a few low-budget music videos. . very low budget. . . but hey they're pretty simple all in all, and a few shoots put on hold till Q1FY09. And some hope. . . You can do the same, hold onto the hope, scrape and make ends meet however one can!

Best of luck, Dan.

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Things seem to be at a standstill in general, at least until after the New Year. I'm even getting emails back from rental facilities telling me they're just barely keeping their heads above water :/

 

I can feel something brewing though, so things should pick up soon :)

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Amen to that. I think we're all just in an economy of fear right now. Give it a few months and I honestly think it'll bounce back. Till then starbucks is hiring and I have no shame going in there for some part time work! We do what we gotta to in the bad times to survive till the good ones.

 

On the plus side, if any rental houses do go under, lots of gear will go up for sale. . . Not that I'd ever want to see anyone loose out at all :/

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Toiling away in music videos. It's not very exciting times at the moment.

[David Mullen ASC]

I feel a bit guilty because it was such a busy year for me... three features and a TV series... and it feels good to be unemployed for the moment. And next year, everything I shot this year will get seen in some manner or another -- "United States of Tara" starts airing in January on Showtime, "Manure" premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, I hear rumors that "Stay Cool" may show up at another film festival, "Assassination of a High School President" is slated for some small springtime release, and "Jennifer's Body" will also show up sometime in theaters in 2009.

 

This week, Entertainment Weekly had a section on upcoming releases and they published this photo from the set of "United States of Tara":

 

 

But work-wise, after I do two D.I.'s this month for "Manure" and "Stay Cool", all I've got coming up is a week of pick-up shooting for "Jennifer's Body" in January. Hopefully work will show up by spring.

 

I'm a bit worried that the new IA contract now requires that you work 400 hours every six months, instead of 300 hours, to stay on the healthcare plan. Seems a bad thing, just at a time when the economy is slowing down and work is getting scarce, to make it easier to lose your healthcare coverage. But I guess that was a compromise to avoid something worse that the producers wanted.

[Michael Belanger]

My day job is in post and we've seen a dramatic slow-down as well. I'm taking the opportunity to train in color correction and brush up my compositing skills. Now if I could find some time to shoot new demo footage...

 

As for health care, that's the major advantage Europe has over us. Their coverage isn't tied to their jobs. The worst is being unemployed and loosing your health coverage all at the same time.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

What's health care? I havn't had that since I was a minor :/

My IT day job is still busy as always-- the joys of working @ a college in their big lab with editorial suites. . .of course just means I get asked about scratch disks. . .a lot.

[Phil Rhodes]

Just had the worst six months ever here in London.

 

However, things appear to be looking up on the corporates front, and although it's always shaky to be reliant on a couple of clients for most of your work, it's better than a kick in the teeth. It also occurred to me to be grumpy about the fact that it was corporates, but let's examine some facts here. Corporates, compared to broadcast, are:

 

- Better money

- More artistic freedom (because the clients are clueless)

- Generally better results and more job satisfaction due to the above two

- Lower stress

- Shorter hours

 

The only downside I'm seeing is that sometimes the clueless-client factor can be a problem as well as a benefit but frankly I feel like I'm on to a winner. It's nice to go to work for people who don't treat you like it's a priviledge to be there.

 

P

[Stuart Brereton]

I've just finished an Indie feature in LA. Since I got back to the UK, I've just been doing dailies. It's pretty quiet, but the work is steady.

[Guest Stephen Murphy]

I've had my quietest year in 11 years. Somewhat expected because it was my first full year in a new country/market, but even with that as an excuse its been quiet. I've had a record number of commercials fall through this year (all late enough to be annoying but not late enough to pay a cancellation fee!), got asked to put my reel forward for several low budget features but none of them liked it enough to even interview me never mind offer me a job, and have been inundated with job offers for non paying shorts with no budgets and bloody awful scripts most of which want me to provide a 35mm/S16mm/RED camera/lighting/grip package for free of course:)

Ah well. Roll on 2009:-)

S

[Tom Hepburn]

Well, I'll chine in for the rookies.

 

I've finally got a fully functional camera. I've learned a lot in the last year (a lot of thanks goes to the help I got here) and still have a long way to go, but I'm excited about learning more.

 

So I wrote a short narrative script, that I just finished shooting and I'm waiting on the film and scan to edit. It's really a simple story and I used my kids in it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to win the "Worst Daddy Award" for that weekend :angry:

 

Tom

[Paul Bruening]

What's everyone working on?

 

I'm practicing combining my pissing with my moaning with my complaining. I dream of being a triple threat.

[Hal Smith]

My short is coming along nicely in preplanning. My partner Miquel is starting to look around for a young (18-21 or so) Hispanic actor to play the main acting role. We need someone who looks Mexican, speaks English with a pronounced Spanish accent but still understandable by Anglos, and is comfortable in front of a camera. I've got the main prop, an English sports car, and I'm well along on getting everything together for my Arri 2 blimp. We'll film in the spring when the flowering trees are at their peak. I don't have the budget to dress a residential back yard as spring regardless of time of year...like the big boys do all the time.

[Serge Teulon]

I'm going to shoot some idents this weekend for a kids channel.

Apart from that...just crimbo!

[Guest]

As for health care, that's the major advantage Europe has over us. Their coverage isn't tied to their jobs. The worst is being unemployed and loosing your health coverage all at the same time.

 

Not just Europe the entire industrialized world! I'm pretty sure Canada gave birth to the whole concept in Saskatchewan.

 

As for 2008, it never happened I am just scratching it from the books, awful.

 

The only good news for me is that the Canadian dollar has finally come back down and I'm well into pre-production on feature #2.

 

Go Obama, please Obama please, make the US economic nightmare of the last eight years just go away! Hey maybe this will be like that time Dallas killed off Bobby, the ratings dropped so they brought him back next year. The explanation....the previous year sans Bobby was all just a dream.

 

Maybe we'll all wake-up tomorrow and discover that W was never in office and it was all just a nightmare?

 

R,

[Tim Tyler]

Just started a series of oral histories / character profiles for Paul Allen's Experience Music Project museum. We're interviewing lots of musicians, technicians and producers who started the Grunge music era in the Pacific Northwest back in the '80's.

 

2008 Was relatively busy for me. Shot quite a bit for PBS/WNET (NYC) and a slew of corporate (which I enjoy for all the reasons Phil mentioned). Plenty of fun shoots but nothing that was very creatively rewarding.

 

Didn't shoot anything in Boston though. Maybe I should move this thread to the General Cine category?

[Simon Wyss]

I am trying to not hum around all the time with that woman on my mind whom I met a few days ago although I have already thrown myself in. Such a sweet blonde with grey eyes . . .

 

Else an overhaul of our company's home page, metal work with a friend down at the local port, gallons of coffee, and they wait and wait and wait and wait. Know the title?

[Ira Ratner]

Another newbie submission here:

 

I decided to do a short (music track) with a working title of "Garbage." It's basically about all of the waste and garbage the average American is responsible for, and I was inspired to do this by looking at all of the garbage that MY family brings out to the curb twice a week. It's totally ridiculous.

 

Since I have to put my gear through its paces anyway, I didn't want to just do throwaway footage, but instead, something where each shot would eventually mean something when put together. There's a huge landfill near me, and I can get some interesting shots of the mounds and the trucks going up and down and in and out of the landfill. I'll plant myself across from a trash receptacle somewhere, and get quick clips of people making their contributions. And I'll look for interesting garbage piles in front of people's homes and shoot those. If it's garbage, I'll grab a few seconds of it.

 

Using titles and music, I may be able to make something interesting out of it. My only question mark is the soundtrack--serious, or lighthearted and goofy?

[Chad Stockfleth]

Videos to bring conventions to Louisville, a Papa John's commercial and tilt-shift tests for a music video.

 

Really pretty boring.

[Matthew Buick]

Well, I'm just a rubbishy student photographer at the moment. I just building up my work in order to get film jobs when the economic situation is better.

[Annie Wengenroth]

I just got done working as 2nd AC on the second unit/skeleton crew of this indie feature "Five Star Day" shot in LA...directed by Danny Buday, DP Jason Oldak, starring Cam Gigandet and Jena Malone. It was fun- we shot for 4 days, Moviecam SL....some stuff around NYC and then we went to Atlantic City where I managed to actually hold on to my per diem instead of blowing it at the casinos like I was originally planning. :P Next up, I dunno.

[Tom Banks]

It's been slow to no work for a few a few months for me, but I've just started shooting 2nd Unit for a feature in New Orleans. 28 day shoot on 2 Moviecam compact MK IIs

[Satsuki Murashige]

I've been weirdly busy lately - AC'd a two day corporate for Genetech this past Sun/Mon for decent money. 1st'ing a USC student short this weekend for not so decent money (naturally) - did a macro lens test with the Red on Tuesday, prepped the camera today and Friday at the rental house, then we shoot Sat, Sun, Mon. I may be doing a freebie for a buddy on Tuesday. Then I start prepping a short that I'll be shooting in mid-January, my first on 35mm (yay!).

[John Hoffler]

I'm prepping to shoot 2 16mm shorts in Jan-Feb and March, then i have another short in June. All student projects though...