John Q. Phats Entertainment

You know you’re done editing when you feel like if you watch your short film one more time, you might have a mental break down.  It’s mainly just frustrating because we are so close to being done with Do Nice Guys Finish Last.  I made my notes on the 5th cut last night and I was seriously considering telling Gabe to just start on color correction when he was done making the edits.  But, I can’t do that.  You know why?  Because when it’s done, there will be one tiny thing that irritates me that could have been fixed in 2 seconds if I had known it was there.  However if I do look at the draft before we get in to color correction, nothing will be wrong with it and it will be fine.  That’s just how it goes. 
So, about a week ago, a friend of mine is telling me about her good friend that shot a documentary on 5 of these cameras.  She didn’t know what they were called, but she told me they were the newest and best digital cameras out there.  So I said
“Ask you’re friend if I can borrow it for like a week or so.”
She laughed and I laughed but then I said
“I’m serious.”
So, she did and from what she told me he laughed, said no, but admired me for asking.  Works for me.  It was worth a shot, right?  Imagine if he had said yes?  I would have had access to a really awesome camera.  For free.  It never hurts to ask.  You would be surprised at what you could get for free by just asking.  Not that I’m a greedy beggar or anything, but when you’re making films anything you can get for free, you probably should. 
District 9 comes out tomorrow.  I’ve really wanted to see this movie ever since I saw the previews.  It looks a little bit like Cloverfield, which I thought was pretty good.  District 9 looks awesome.  I love these sort of creepy sci fi pictures.  I’m not sure what really draws me to them.  I’m not a sci fi or horror film buff, but for some reason this sort of combination is usually something I really enjoy.  I’m probably going to check it out this Sunday.  I’ll let you guys know how it is.
In a totally unrelated topic, Tropic Thunder was an awesome movie.  I have been quoting that movie all week and laughing just thinking about it.  Tom Cruise was hands down the most entertaining I have ever seen him in any movie he’s ever done.  Every single time his character was on screen I laughed my ass off.
“Now I want you to take a step back… and literally FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!”
Robert Downey Jr. kills it in that movie too.  The
“I’m a lead farmer mother fucker!”
line always cracks me up.  Maybe because it’s just so damn cliche action movie.

My trip to NYFA was nice.  The tour is a lot like the Universal Studios tour only without the shark popping out of the water and all of that.  But, they literally drive on the same road as the Universal Studios tram does.  It’s free and at the end you get a free New York Film Academy t-shirt.  NYFA is impressive to say the least.  They are hooked up with Universal, so they get pretty special treatment.  They get access to the Edith Head wardrobe and prop department which is basically Universals wardrobe and prop department.  They get to shoot on some of the Universal back lots for student projects and they have all the standard camera equipment that you would find at an actual studio free for students to check out.  I got my first look at the infamous Red camera.  It doesn’t really look all that impressive without the lenses and everything attached to it, but it’s probably the closest digital has come to film.  Their library has the entire Criteron Collection available for professors only.  They also have somewhere around 1,200 DVD’s and screen plays that students can check out for free whenever they want.  Seriously, New York Film Academy is on top of their shit.  It seems like a great school and tuition is very reasonable.  I actually took a 12 week course there and the instructors were all awesome as well.
Only thing is, I don’t know what it will get me.  The guy who runs the masters program told me that it would get my foot in the door.  Are there any other ways of getting my foot in the door?  Probably.  Don’t get me wrong, New York Film Academy sounds amazing, but I think I’m going to explore other options first.  I’m going to keep trying this rogue film making thing for another year.  Only I’m going to try and get my name out there more.  I’ll enter more film festivals.  If I’m nowhere after that, I’ll apply for the masters program at New York Film Academy.

So, yeah, I totally screwed one of my short films in the face.  We are experimenting a lot with split screen stuff trying to make 2 shots seem like one.  It works great, the only thing is, you can’t move the camera an inch between shots.  If you do, the two shots don’t line up.  Not sure how it happened, but somehow the camera got moved between shots.  I honestly hate being camera man and director all at the same time.  It’s way too much work.  What I need is a midget and a step ladder so the midget can reach the camera.  That will be my next purchase. 
I got my light kit!  It’s small, but really decent.  They don’t look like much, but when you turn them on it’s like a bookakalypse of sunlight.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this or not, but my camera is named Div.  My nick name for it because part of it’s model number is “DVX.”  Not sure how I got Div out of that, but whatever.  My boom mic is named Awd.  Short for “Audio.”  So, I needed a name for my light kit.  Caine came up with Rah.  Named after the sun God.  I name all of my equipment.  Yes, I even have a name for THAT equipment.  It’s named Carl’s Jr.  You’ll find that the slogan “If it doesn’t get all over the place, it doesn’t belong in your face” works quite nicely with it.
Getting back on track though, I need a room mate that has no social life that knows how to work a camera.  That would be perfect. 

P.S. Can you believe “bookakalypse” wasn’t in Words spelling dictionary?!  Bastards!  I should write them a letter!

So, I was able to raise some money and will be buying a light kit soon.  Probably sometime next week.  Lately, what’s been holding me up on some projects is that the shooting schedules are all over the place.  To rent lights for that many individual days would be insane.  I could probably buy a set of lights for the amount that it would cost to rent them for that many days.  The way it works is, you could pick up a rental on a Friday, then keep them for the entire weekend, and only get charged for a one day rental (roughly $200).  (more…)

So, I want to shoot some stuff for Nice Guys Finish Last, unfortunately The Plague might take one of our actors from us.  The main actor in the short got the flu.  Luckily there is some stuff we can shoot with Valerie that only requires her.  The greatest thing about owning all of my equipment is that I can pretty much shoot anything with a 3 person crew.  Usually, I actually only need a 2 man crew, but with this short film, I’m shooting with two cameras.  So, I need two camera operators and a boom mic operator.  Sean has become my unofficial boom mic operator.  He’s amazing at not moving and he has big burley boom mic operator arms.  It’s almost like having a wise cracking stand that can move if needed.  What can I say?  He’s good at what he does.  In a perfect world, I would have a five person crew.  Two camera operators, a boom mic operator, a lighting person, and someone that’s telling the camera operators where to go and what to do.  I like to focus on the actors.  Camera work can be fun, but I absolutely hate being a camera operator and director at the same time.  Which I can do, but it sucks.  Usually, I end up with sub par stuff when I do that.  I kind of suck as a camera operator.  I usually end up trying to split my attention between directing and shooting and it never really works.

So, there is a part of Nice Guys Finish Last that needs to be shot in a restaurant.  A friend of mine gave me the number of a restaurant that’s been known to be open to that sort of thing but I’ve been majorly lagging on calling them.  So, I took the paper with the phone number on it to work today, in hopes that I could either call them on break or during work hours, because work is bullshit.  Anyway, I was busy as hell today at work so I worked right through my break and had to leave early to make a delivery.  So, I can call them when I get home, right?  Think again Carl, you fail at life.  I left the paper at work.  Chris has been bugging me about setting a schedule.  It all kind of depends on when this restaurant will let us shoot or if they will let us shoot at all.  If not, then I have to find another place.
You would actually be surprised at how open most places are to letting you shoot there.  Especially if they are smaller privately owned places.  They are actually usually pretty excited just to have something going on there.  I shot in a coffee shop once that was a great location and all I had to do to shoot there was ask.  So, I’m confident that I’ll find a place.

P.S. Since when the hell is “majorly” not a word?  Stupid English.