The empty appointment book complex

I do this thing, which I have yet to decide is a good or a bad thing, where I see an open section in my calendar and promptly try to fill it. Sometimes I pack in some family and friends time, but usually I'll just start packing in smaller projects and commissions to fill in the space before my next big booking. This year I've been incredibly fortunate to be connected with a bunch of fellow film makers with their eyes set on festival season for next year. And they are all turning out to be such great projects. I'm getting to work with some new people, stretching my design mind into a little drama and a little comedy, and fingers crossed might be working on my first NYC based short. 

It's a good habit I think. :-)

But enough day-dreaming about the future. I've got some props to finish for this weekend's shoot. Wish me luck!

This year's film industry mini mixer

The FIM has returned! And in full force. To those of you who are new to the "FIM", welcome! Also, to bring you further into the light of knowledge, FIM stands for "Film Industry Mixer." It's an annual film-makers get together that's been going on for... almost 7 years now. It started off as a little BBQ in a backyard and has grown into quite the networking event. I remember my first experience at the FIM landed me a job as the production designer for a Feature shot on  35mm film. Not too shabby :) It's been a great way for new talent to get into the film scene here in CT. I've met musicians, actors, DP's, producers, accountants, stilt walkers- you name it. It's amazing how all of our random skills blend together to make movies, isn't it?

This weekend's event is the mini version of the full-monty-mixer (which will be in August)- not that it will be all that small this year. The event's being hosted at Middlesex Community College. Which means bigger spaces, proper lecture halls for the workshops and a nice big space to booze and schmooze.

Aaand, if you come in person you will get to be one of the select few to see the world premiere of the video where I am dressed as an alien gorilla having dollar bills thrown at me. No, I'm not kidding... If you can't make it because you happen to be one of my awesome readers in Russia, don't worry, I will post that video and some nice behind the scene photos from the ridiculous evening next week.

Any hoo-

Here's the quickie info for this Saturday:

The Facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/299322253533154/

Admission: $20.00 at the door
                        Which includes access to all Workshops and the Meet and Greet portion

There is a Cash Bar by Ramon Morant. 

And rumor has it that food will be prepared on site in a traditional memorial day BBQ fashion.

And here's the schedule for the evening's events:

Workshops

3:00-4:00pm    Acting Workshop - Actors Gym

Professional acting coach and casting director Reno Venturi will be teaching this workshop for directors looking to improve the communication of what they want from their actors and those looking to get into acting as a profession.
(I have taken classes at the actors gym, it's such a blast!)

4:00-5:00pm    Developing a Web Series

Connecticut Film Producer & F.I.M. Executive Producer Alexander Andriulli delivers a nuts and bolts discussion on creating a marketable web series from concept to distribution. 
(Where a bunch of my renderings and secret collaborations for the project will be shown for the first time)

5:00-6:00pm     Directing A Scene

Professional Film Director and S.E.C.T. Film President Alec Asten breaks down how to effectively direct a scene and get dynamic performances from your actors. 

Film Industry Mixer - Meet & Greet

5:00pm - 6:00pm Trailers & Demos            
Entertaining videos from independent filmmakers

6:00pm - 6:15pm Introductions               
Film Industry Mixer Co-Directors Neal Thomassen & Alexander Andriulli

6:15pm - 6:20pm Middletown Art & Beauty        
A brief introduction to the many things Middletown CT has to offer to filmmakers by Middletown CT Mayor Daniel Drew

6:20pm - 6:30pm - Special Project Announcement

6:30pm - 7:00pm Student Film Block         
A showcase of the best work from MXCC students

7:00pm - 7:45pm Film Education Panel         
S.E.C.T. Film Director Alec Asten, Casting Director Reno Venturi, Writer/Director/Producer Marty Lang, and MXCC Professor John Schafer discuss the many ways you can learn to be a better filmmaker through educational outlets in CT.

8:00pm - 8:30pm Artistic Projection     
Projection Mapping tech demo with technology explanation. The owners of local business Artistic Projection discuss the technology behind projection mapping which involves projecting animation on real world objects for a new creative way to promote businesses and products.

8:30pm -10:00pm Demos, Trailers, & Project Pitches 
Get a glimpse of the local talent in the fast paced world of Demo's, Trailers, and Project pitches.

Hope to see you there!

Back from the twilight of filming

Hello world! I'm back from the land of feature filming again! And as usual it's a total culture shock. It's wonderful to get reconnected to what's going on in the world, see your family and friends, and start eating way less comfort food, but I sure do miss the crew from this film. It was such a blast, everyone had such a great attitude and work ethic. It was also so much fun to see all the special effects make-up work and to take part in my first green screen sequence, and some of our stunts totally made my month. I'm already jonesing for our next project together.

 The good news for the readjustment-to-real-life phase, is that i'm not going to be off set for too long. weekend after next I have my next project popping up. It's a short called the Firefly Jar. And i'm stoked about this one because it's a whole new group of people to work with and a genera i haven't dabbled in for almost a year. This one's a drama, with visual effects and wish jars and magicians. So, rather than let the post-shoot-blues get me down, I'll just keep looking ahead to my next couple projects. Bring it on summer! I'm ready for you.

Oh G-sketch how you make my heart go pitter-pat

This month's Google Sketch-up.

A room I designed for a film last year. The police lobby shown here didn't actually end up in the film. We changed our location because after looking at the rendering it was suddenly apparent how many extras would be needed to make the space feel alive. That what renderings are for. I help us visual folks discover problems before they occur and resolve them before we have to scramble.

Behold the theoretical police station lobby.

Ground Plan and Model overview

view from seating area outwards

seating area

view from lobby into office

view from office into lobby

Getting hired to the art department- portfolio and website

The portfolio.

A visual representation of your work ready to hand off to a potential employer.

Traditionally speaking a portfolio is a sleek little black binder with an eye catching cover and your resume as the first page. Followed by your strongest examples of how amazing you are at the things you create.

In the past I have gone this route. I pick some amazing stills/pictures from past projects- photoshop them together in a collage form so that each set of facing pages is one project.

But when it comes to filmmakers- we like technology, and if we're looking at your work we don't usually have time to physically look through a binder of work. Your first step to getting an employer's attention need to be online.

Here are some examples of some stunning production design and art department crew websites:

Alan Hook; Production Designer for One tree hill and Artistic director for Iron Man 3 (and tons of other projects)
http://www.alanhook.com

Tom Sanders: Production designer for films such as Saving Private Ryan, and Braveheart
http://www.tomsprojects.net

James Merifield: Production designer for Deep Blue Sea, and Brighton Rock.
His website is super sexy, with an amazing reel on the splash page, and a very sleek example of a resume (CV)
http://www.jamesmerifield.com


My website, compare to those, is a sad little bleating lamb with a stomache upset by gorging on rocks. But at least it exists and it's a quick fix to my website problem for the time being. The nice thing about my website it that it was free to create- which on my budget, is a very important trait. I've been using webs.com I get my work out there. It's no hand crafted website, but again I note the free aspect and it is very user friendly. I have my resume, contact info, photographic portfolio divided by project, and a hand dandy video section that will play youtube videos, which is all I really need to show trailers and clips of past projects. Another fun feature webs.com offers? mobile phone formats. So people can easily view your work on whatever device they're using.

I know it's just a start, and I have been planning out how I want my sexy custom website to look and function. But it's a much slower process, since I'm not ready to hire someone to make it happen for me. Until then, I begin my process of collecting clip to use in my reel.

Google Sketch-up renderings

As promised, here are a few screen shots from a Google sketch-up model I did for a project last year. One of the nice features Sketch-up has is you can position the camera anywhere inside the model and then look around the room to set up the shot easily.

I think I'm going to use this in the future to make storyboards for things. Draft it once and then all you have to do is add figures and crop it down to the right aspect ratio.

office ground plan

view towards the door

Over the shoulder view

seating area

Google sketch-up drafting

As a designer, I do a lot of drafting. AutoCAD and Google sketch up are the ones I use most often. When I draft things to build I prefer to use AutoCAD, but recently I was in between computers and had to do my construction drafting on Google sketch-up. Because Sketch-up happens to be one of my favorite things--- yep you guessed it. Free. 

Sketch-up is challenging to work with when adding dimensions and labeling tends to float around in a weird way if it's in 3D. Google sketch-up is, however, amazing for doing 3D rendering of locations. It helps me wrap my head around where the camera will probably be placed in a room, and figure out what will realistically be needed as far as set dressing is concerned. 

The following plates are from a flat I designed for a nursing home's community enrichment project. It shows how to construct the facing, the stands, and how it should look all together and I added nailing patterns and everything since real-life carpenters were going to be putting it together.

They did a beautiful job, BTW.

Doing the drafting for the carpenters with out being able to use the "offset" function the way I'm used to slowed me down a lot more than I like to admit. On the other hand, here's an example of a 3D location rendering I did of the MAC650 Art gallery for a proposal to renovate the front window:

To make this took hardly any time and in about half an hour I had something to submit.

I'll put up some more examples of google sketch up renderings for you next Thursday. Keep and eye out :)