polaris set report: dec 6 - dec 14, 2009
Dec. 15th, 2009 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amezri** also backdating this entry as it's January 19, 2010 right now and I'll never find it again later if I don't. **
I was invited to be on the camera crew for Polaris, an indie sci-fi project being shot near Washington, DC. It was a great opportunity and a good learning experience. I'd already worked with most of the people there at Star Trek: Phase II. Overall, it was a comfortable and creative environment and I would gladly work with these people again either on another Polaris episode or something else entirely.
This report was written on my NIT810 and I'm only editing typos. Sorry for the fragmented structure.
We used the Canon 7D on this shoot. Pretty cool to work with this still camera as a video camera. There are a few weird quirks, but overall, it was quite good and everyone was impressed with the quality.
Sunday, December 6
Mom dropped me off at the train station at 8pm. The train was on time (was afraid of delay due to weather). Was a little annoyed with the person sitting next to me who decided she couldn't stop fidgeting and would flop her crap all over me. I was already only using 3/4 of my space so she'd stop hitting me. Didn't matter. She was also reading LKH's Skin Trade (Why do people still read that crap?) and knitting a crooked scarf in a puke green color. Awesome.
Arrived in NY Penn Station on time. Of all the days I wouldn't mind the train being late.... I bought a snack at one of the few open stores and sat in the Amtrak Waiting Area for about 2 hours before getting up to stare at the board. Was getting a little antsy as the track wasn't listed 10min before departure, so I asked the guy at the counter and he was very nice and told me what track and it would be boarding shortly. Awesome.
I get on the train and pick the car with the loud drunks who obviously live in ashtrays as the whole car stinks, but I've already hefted my luggage in the rack and I couldn't be bothered to move it. I guess I get to suffer for 4 hours.
Monday December 7
Finally reached Washington DC at 7am Monday morning.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rpc180 picked me up and we had breakfast at Panera before exchanging some gels at a local lighting store.
At the set, things went pretty well for the first day. We had food provided for us, which was possibly the coolest ever since that didn't happen on Phase II.
We finished at 11:30pm. I was going to stay withtirgaya, but at the last minute decided to stay with rpc180 as he offered me a place at his apartment where it was just him. Alex's place was a floor in his house with his family which is awesome, but I felt like that was a lot of people... Also, Romel lives closer so I wouldn't have to get up as early. Ha!
In any case, I had good sleeps. Andrpc180's place is totally clean for a guy living by himself.
** read the twitter from this day and learn about the BOMB SCARE and the homeless guy who pitied me.
Tuesday, December 8
Early day? Got up at nearly 8am. I'd wanted to get up earlier, but couldn't. So tired from the traveling.
Today I got to do pull focus (always fun) and Alex even had me operating a couple shots. Scary! I love the way Polaris is being lit and shot - everything looks great. All the actors are doing a great job, too.
It's a bit strange being on a set with so few crew members. Today I helpedrpc180 hang a china ball as he was basically the whole G&E team. Dennis said to me that for the last few weeks (months?) people were saying that I was going to be the set photographer, but no one had communicated that to me. I'm taking some shots with my Sony since I didn't bring the new Canon.
We finished today at 10:30pm so I actually had time to check the internets. If we finish with some time left, I will be baking some pies, so I needed to look up recipes.
Wednesday, December 9
Same start time as previous days. We were ready early, sorpc180 made pancakes.
Shoot went well for the day. Picked up the pace a lot and I even got to operate the camera a little (though I think I did kind of crap).
Finished at about 10:30pm. Headed to the grocery store where I got stuff to make apple pies. Went back torpc180's.
The plan was to go to bed, so of course we watched silly youtube videos instead. Get two geeks together with a high-speed internet connection and a large TV and that's what happens.
Thursday, December 10
Got up a little later today, but was ready on time. Picked up Maurice a bit earlier so he could get to set before the actors, but when we showed up, no one was there yet so we headed to the Starbucks. I got a muffin and a chocolate bar. (Which I thought I accidentally threw out, but found it in my bag later).
Day went well. We got a lot done again, but today we worked until midnight. I got to do some more focus pulling. There were some confusing directions coming in from, well, everywhere, so I started to get frustrated.
Paula was doing slate and pulling dolly.
I thought at one pointtirgaya was mad that we were running out of space on our second memory card, but it turned out it was frustration somewhere else.
One weird thing that happened was thattirgaya was getting shocks off the tripod or camera on a dolly move and Chris was getting a shock off the dolly track. Still not sure what was going on with that, but you could hear the sparking and see the monitor flicker. We said something out loud, but I guess Dennis & Maurice thought we were joking? Had to explain that when monitor blanks out for a second, that was Alex getting zapped.
Friday, December 11
Well, honestly, I forget what happened this day as I forgot to write it down. I think we had some visitors who were pretty much crowding the space. Dawn, who was a producer on Trenches was there.
We shot a really awesome closeup of Paul and Gina that looks great on camera but if you were there, it looked like we were trying to bake them under lights.
I'm both amused and annoyed that Gina's makeup pretty much looks like Illyria from Angel. I have no idea if it was on purpose, subconscious, or coincidental, but once this comes out, I'm sure others will mention it.
Nick Cook did a bit of silliness during his close-ups and I think I managed to follow focus without marks. I was pretty impressed with myself. :D
I got to do a bit of camera operation. I don't really know how to frame shots like Alex wants, though I do get close.
We had a pretty late night on set, considering we were told Friday was going to be a day off. 2am I think.
Saturday, December 12
Was supposed to be a half day, but all the distracting chatter and goofing off delayed a lot of work. John Broughton came in to play an extra.
I got to help G&E (rpc180) plan a lighting effect (hanging a grid) and also helped John Broughton fix up rpc180's costume, which was a little weird in the front and too wide in the back. So, add costume assistant to my list of jobs this time, I guess!
Also did some camera operation. Focus pulling.
Had a really late night. Didn't leave the studio until nearly 3am. On the plus side, we got all the ship coverage we need for the show.
Sunday, December 13
Got up and taughtrpc180 how to make an apple pie. Made one for tirgaya & Paula.
Watched a Chris Kattan series on IFC called Bollywood Hero. Ridiculous and entertaining. I kind of love Bollywood things.
Headed to the studio at 4pm to help pack up rented grip gear. I don't really know what anything is, but I helped coil cable.
After things got cleaned up, we drove really far out to some Chinese place that was supposed to be awesome. It was weird eating with people who don't really get the family style concept when ordering. The food wasn't really that great, to be honest. Every dish had the same sauce except the seafood in bird's nest, which is only because it's a white sauce. Dennis treated us, though, and that was really nice.
After dinner, Alex & Paula sat with Romel and I in his car and chatted for a while before they headed home.
Headed back to Romel's and had the apple pie he made while watching silly youtube videos. The pie was pretty tasty.
Monday, December 14
Dressed and finished packing up my luggage.rpc180 dropped me off at Union Station. My train wasn't for another four hours. Thankfully (or not) there was a mall inside so I just wandered around and... bought things. I spent more money in a couple hours than I did all week.
L'Occitane is a dangerous store... I wanted a ton of stuff, but I just got small gifts for people. Also stopped in FYE and got Jem's CD and some clearance Twilight junk. Body Shop had an atomizer I want to try with BPAL oils. Chatted with the cashier about Polaris and he seemed pretty interested.
Had lunch at Corner Bakery. Ate at one in Atlanta at DCon, but I couldn't remember what I had. Anyway, Alex met up with me after I ate.
Slept most of the way to Penn Station. I do think it's weird that Penn is filled with cops and military personnel, but at Washington DC's Union Station, I don't recall seeing any.
Twitter: dec 6 | dec 7 | dec 8 | dec 9 | dec 10 | dec 11 | dec 12 | dec 13 | dec 14
Photos on Flickr!
I was invited to be on the camera crew for Polaris, an indie sci-fi project being shot near Washington, DC. It was a great opportunity and a good learning experience. I'd already worked with most of the people there at Star Trek: Phase II. Overall, it was a comfortable and creative environment and I would gladly work with these people again either on another Polaris episode or something else entirely.
This report was written on my NIT810 and I'm only editing typos. Sorry for the fragmented structure.
We used the Canon 7D on this shoot. Pretty cool to work with this still camera as a video camera. There are a few weird quirks, but overall, it was quite good and everyone was impressed with the quality.
Sunday, December 6
Mom dropped me off at the train station at 8pm. The train was on time (was afraid of delay due to weather). Was a little annoyed with the person sitting next to me who decided she couldn't stop fidgeting and would flop her crap all over me. I was already only using 3/4 of my space so she'd stop hitting me. Didn't matter. She was also reading LKH's Skin Trade (Why do people still read that crap?) and knitting a crooked scarf in a puke green color. Awesome.
Arrived in NY Penn Station on time. Of all the days I wouldn't mind the train being late.... I bought a snack at one of the few open stores and sat in the Amtrak Waiting Area for about 2 hours before getting up to stare at the board. Was getting a little antsy as the track wasn't listed 10min before departure, so I asked the guy at the counter and he was very nice and told me what track and it would be boarding shortly. Awesome.
I get on the train and pick the car with the loud drunks who obviously live in ashtrays as the whole car stinks, but I've already hefted my luggage in the rack and I couldn't be bothered to move it. I guess I get to suffer for 4 hours.
Monday December 7
Finally reached Washington DC at 7am Monday morning.
rpc180 picked me up and we had breakfast at Panera before exchanging some gels at a local lighting store.At the set, things went pretty well for the first day. We had food provided for us, which was possibly the coolest ever since that didn't happen on Phase II.
We finished at 11:30pm. I was going to stay with
tirgaya, but at the last minute decided to stay with rpc180 as he offered me a place at his apartment where it was just him. Alex's place was a floor in his house with his family which is awesome, but I felt like that was a lot of people... Also, Romel lives closer so I wouldn't have to get up as early. Ha!In any case, I had good sleeps. And
rpc180's place is totally clean for a guy living by himself.** read the twitter from this day and learn about the BOMB SCARE and the homeless guy who pitied me.
Tuesday, December 8
Early day? Got up at nearly 8am. I'd wanted to get up earlier, but couldn't. So tired from the traveling.
Today I got to do pull focus (always fun) and Alex even had me operating a couple shots. Scary! I love the way Polaris is being lit and shot - everything looks great. All the actors are doing a great job, too.
It's a bit strange being on a set with so few crew members. Today I helped
rpc180 hang a china ball as he was basically the whole G&E team. Dennis said to me that for the last few weeks (months?) people were saying that I was going to be the set photographer, but no one had communicated that to me. I'm taking some shots with my Sony since I didn't bring the new Canon.We finished today at 10:30pm so I actually had time to check the internets. If we finish with some time left, I will be baking some pies, so I needed to look up recipes.
Wednesday, December 9
Same start time as previous days. We were ready early, so
rpc180 made pancakes.Shoot went well for the day. Picked up the pace a lot and I even got to operate the camera a little (though I think I did kind of crap).
Finished at about 10:30pm. Headed to the grocery store where I got stuff to make apple pies. Went back to
rpc180's.The plan was to go to bed, so of course we watched silly youtube videos instead. Get two geeks together with a high-speed internet connection and a large TV and that's what happens.
Thursday, December 10
Got up a little later today, but was ready on time. Picked up Maurice a bit earlier so he could get to set before the actors, but when we showed up, no one was there yet so we headed to the Starbucks. I got a muffin and a chocolate bar. (Which I thought I accidentally threw out, but found it in my bag later).
Day went well. We got a lot done again, but today we worked until midnight. I got to do some more focus pulling. There were some confusing directions coming in from, well, everywhere, so I started to get frustrated.
Paula was doing slate and pulling dolly.
I thought at one point
tirgaya was mad that we were running out of space on our second memory card, but it turned out it was frustration somewhere else.One weird thing that happened was that
tirgaya was getting shocks off the tripod or camera on a dolly move and Chris was getting a shock off the dolly track. Still not sure what was going on with that, but you could hear the sparking and see the monitor flicker. We said something out loud, but I guess Dennis & Maurice thought we were joking? Had to explain that when monitor blanks out for a second, that was Alex getting zapped.Friday, December 11
Well, honestly, I forget what happened this day as I forgot to write it down. I think we had some visitors who were pretty much crowding the space. Dawn, who was a producer on Trenches was there.
We shot a really awesome closeup of Paul and Gina that looks great on camera but if you were there, it looked like we were trying to bake them under lights.
I'm both amused and annoyed that Gina's makeup pretty much looks like Illyria from Angel. I have no idea if it was on purpose, subconscious, or coincidental, but once this comes out, I'm sure others will mention it.
Nick Cook did a bit of silliness during his close-ups and I think I managed to follow focus without marks. I was pretty impressed with myself. :D
I got to do a bit of camera operation. I don't really know how to frame shots like Alex wants, though I do get close.
We had a pretty late night on set, considering we were told Friday was going to be a day off. 2am I think.
Saturday, December 12
Was supposed to be a half day, but all the distracting chatter and goofing off delayed a lot of work. John Broughton came in to play an extra.
I got to help G&E (
rpc180) plan a lighting effect (hanging a grid) and also helped John Broughton fix up rpc180's costume, which was a little weird in the front and too wide in the back. So, add costume assistant to my list of jobs this time, I guess!Also did some camera operation. Focus pulling.
Had a really late night. Didn't leave the studio until nearly 3am. On the plus side, we got all the ship coverage we need for the show.
Sunday, December 13
Got up and taught
rpc180 how to make an apple pie. Made one for tirgaya & Paula.Watched a Chris Kattan series on IFC called Bollywood Hero. Ridiculous and entertaining. I kind of love Bollywood things.
Headed to the studio at 4pm to help pack up rented grip gear. I don't really know what anything is, but I helped coil cable.
After things got cleaned up, we drove really far out to some Chinese place that was supposed to be awesome. It was weird eating with people who don't really get the family style concept when ordering. The food wasn't really that great, to be honest. Every dish had the same sauce except the seafood in bird's nest, which is only because it's a white sauce. Dennis treated us, though, and that was really nice.
After dinner, Alex & Paula sat with Romel and I in his car and chatted for a while before they headed home.
Headed back to Romel's and had the apple pie he made while watching silly youtube videos. The pie was pretty tasty.
Monday, December 14
Dressed and finished packing up my luggage.
rpc180 dropped me off at Union Station. My train wasn't for another four hours. Thankfully (or not) there was a mall inside so I just wandered around and... bought things. I spent more money in a couple hours than I did all week.L'Occitane is a dangerous store... I wanted a ton of stuff, but I just got small gifts for people. Also stopped in FYE and got Jem's CD and some clearance Twilight junk. Body Shop had an atomizer I want to try with BPAL oils. Chatted with the cashier about Polaris and he seemed pretty interested.
Had lunch at Corner Bakery. Ate at one in Atlanta at DCon, but I couldn't remember what I had. Anyway, Alex met up with me after I ate.
Slept most of the way to Penn Station. I do think it's weird that Penn is filled with cops and military personnel, but at Washington DC's Union Station, I don't recall seeing any.
Twitter: dec 6 | dec 7 | dec 8 | dec 9 | dec 10 | dec 11 | dec 12 | dec 13 | dec 14
Photos on Flickr!
