Of course this was going to happen.

February 27, 2006 in Non-Work

It never fails. Whenever I have something to do that can’t (or shouldn’t) be rescheduled, someone will call me for work.
This happens so consistently that I’m hesitant to schedule anything in advance anymore – doctor’s visits, vacations, car maintenance, tax appointments, dates.
Naturally, since I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow that I don’t want to reschedule, [...]

Friday Photo

February 24, 2006 in Photos, Work

I’m always going on about color temperature and swearing I’ll explain it later, so here’s a photo which illustrates everything:

Note how blue the outside looks. This is because tungsten sources (the interior lights) are much warmer (more orange) than daylight.
You don’t usually see this color difference in movies because we match the lights inside and [...]

Call me a hypochondriac, will you?

February 23, 2006 in Non-Work

Ever since I’ve had medical insurance (starting when I got in the union), I’ve been complaining about my feet. Insoles, acupuncture, ice packs, horribly expensive shoes – nothing seems to help.
Whenever I’ve mentioned it to my doctor, he’s given me a referral to a podiatrist to get new insoles, or told me to sit down [...]

When is a joke not really a joke?

February 21, 2006 in Work

While watching a Simpsons DVD today (I should have been re-doing the grout in the tub, but I just had to see the episode where the movie shoots in Springfield), I saw something that was intended as a joke, but in fact really exists:
There is actually such a thing as a movie screw.
No, it’s not [...]

Scenes of a Vanishing Southern California

February 20, 2006 in Photos, Work, life in LA

Not so many years ago, Camarillo was a mostly agricultural seaside town northwest of Los Angeles. I never really went up there as I had no reason – it was mostly strawberry fields and hillside orchards (all private property, so unfortunately no picnics allowed).
Sunday, our location was one of those hillside orchards, and as I [...]

Leave this to me, I’m a professional truck monkey

February 17, 2006 in Work

Loading a truck is a bit like playing Tetris ™. Everything has to go in a certain way, even if we’ve got a ‘real’ truck with shelves down the sides.
The reason for this is obvious – we have to be able to work off of said truck, and if stuff’s just thrown in a pile [...]

Venice Beach

February 16, 2006 in Photos, Work

Taken at the graffiti Pit, where I was working today on a still shoot (I don’t do very many of those) for a clothing line that I’ve never heard of.
Today was a good day to be at the beach – it was a gorgeous day, and winter at the beach is always way less crowded [...]

Yeah, that was worth it.

February 14, 2006 in Non-Work

When I’m not working, I’m always hesitant to spend money – I never know when I’ll work again, and I’ve spent too much when work was tight before and had to make the humiliating call to my parents for emergency funds.
So, yesterday, when I was in Best Buy looking at wireless internet cards for the [...]

Random Link

February 13, 2006 in Non-Work

The Steadicam Operator’s Manual of Style.
It reads like a textbook at first, but give it a chance – it’s really funny.
On a related note, I heart me some Firefox. The Adblocker plug in rocks.
Got ads on your site? I can’t see ‘em now!
Were I audio blogging, you could actually hear the maniacal laughter as I [...]

Friday Photo

February 10, 2006 in Photos, Work

Taken on Paramount’s Stage 30.
Soul Train was a fun job today.
Turns out, Soul Train doesn’t shoot once a week – they shoot two shows a day one weekend a month, so the Friday before a shoot weekend, riggers have to come in and put up the moving lights (which are an expensive rental, so they [...]