new camera

i got a new video camera. the first thing i did with it was turn it on, point it out the window, and then went and had my signature breakfast: two eggs over easy, home fries, dry english muffin with peanut butter, coffee. when i got back this is what happened. if you imagine a whistling wind in the background you'll just about have the day.

new work

as things seem to happen in my life, a seachange is in process. my architecture work is coming to a close while my film work is starting to bustle. this feels very very good to me. i sometimes wonder if i haven't approached architecture in the same way the george bush seems to have approached the white house: as a response to a difficult past event...a poor reason to approach anything. architecture school was extremely challenging for me and i suppose, in retrospect, i've always wanted to prove to myself that i could "do it" because in school i got the definite impression that i couldn't do it. in general, school seemed to communicate that message to me. what i find curious is that whenever i've tried to "do" architecture, i find myself in film. it happened as a kid, in high school, in college and in grad school. i would endeavor to create architectural projects and find myself dreaming in pictures. a common criticism of my architectural work was that it dealt in pictures, not architecture. i came away from those crits often wondering if i understood what architecture was at all. i do tend to think of buildings sequentially... you enter here, you go there, you see that, you do this... and i tend to like architecture that presents sequences of spaces, processions and especially cities (i liked urban planning a lot). the aspect of architecture that i dislike, viscerally, is all the regulation around it, the bureaucracy that attends most building projects, which, though i may be applying my own neurosis to this, seem to say, "you are bad for even thinking of this." it feels very much like my experience of church, actually, which involved a lot of rules that made no sense to me.

i can't claim that filmmaking is any better, especially in a studio format, where there are terrible pressures to make money, be successful, be glamorous, and climb the ladder. but, my sense is that as an independent, there is much more freedom (in architecture too, but the places you can practice without oversight are dwindling). i've been watching a lot of john waters films and i am heartened by the outrageousness and compassion his films present, despite their surface vulgarity, which i find hilarious and shocking, still! and, now, a teenage fantasy of mine is coming true: i will get to visit the starship enterprise and participate in the making of a star trek episode. this trumps all architectural possibilities! it turns out that not far from where i live there is a full-scale copy of the original star trek sets that are being used to create new original series episodes. it's astonishing to see how well the sets are reproduced, and i can't wait to see what a completely community driven production is like.

oh, and if you need a cinematographer, i've got a swanky new camera that takes gorgeous movies. ask me for references!

excited

i'm so danged excited about making films and i'm learning so much. i found a great website, lynda.com that has extensive instructional videos about all of apple's movie production software. it's been a great way to learn for me. i like watching. i've never been much of a manual kind of guy. i like to jump and get going. i've also been researching movie making equipment. more and more, movie making is done inside a computer and the camera is becoming a capture device that provides files to the computer. the essentials are still the same, but rather than have to spend lots of money on big sets, it's now possible with your average mac or PC, to build fantastic worlds and place actors into them realistically (see prior post). i've always wanted to make some sci-fi films, and it looks like i will be able to, spectacularly!

holy....

here's what you can do with a pretty cheap camera and a lot of software.

Filmmaking

a while back i decided to put my attentions back into filmmaking. the last time i really looked at what was possible on a meager budget was around four years ago. since conceiving a short film that i want to make in my new studio, and realizing that i was going to need some special effects to pull it off, i've discovered that filmmaking as i knew it four years ago (low resolution video) has been replaced by much more film-like technology (better cameras, lenses, software). i'm frankly astonished by what is possible with a personal computer, a relatively cheap camera and a good dose of imagination.

for instance, the last scene in my film will involve a man tearing down a wall, revealing a beach behind the wooden framing, wind, fog, sand and paper blowing about gale-force. a week ago i was contemplating building a frame wall on a beach, thinking about big fans, and a bunch of stage hands to toss sand. today, i'm thinking it'll be a lot easier and less expensive to do it mostly in the computer.

my first tip that things had changed was a short clip i found of a normandy invasion re-enactment created by three guys--three guys total--who in four days created a 1000-extra-looking scene that's stunning. a month or so ago i watched some of the making-of features included with the "lord of the rings" films. throughout i thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool to be able to play with some of the technology they are using. well, now i can.