We actually skipped last Sunday on this topic, so there should be TWO WEEKS of goodness to ruminate about... and I would hope everyone would have at least one tidbit to add. 8)

So... learn a new trick? Have a bad experience? Read a book? Hire an actor? Fire an actor? Lesson learned? Let's hear about it!

Let me see....

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Had a miserable time today... but I think I learned a bit about the trickiness of lighting.

Today's mission was to tape a 20-minute "message" from a pastor at the Crystal Cathedral, do some simple edits, throw on some titles and convert to PAL. (Destination: Pakistan) No biggy... in theory.

Video equipment to be provided (so I foolishly leave all my gear at my house). Arrive at noon, equipment provided is a mini-DV and wired mike. Not so bad... although the battery on the mike died halfway through, and we did it again.

The thing was... the lighting. :evil:

We were on the third floor of a building smack-bang next to the actual mirror-coated exterior of the Crystal Cathedral. It had some sets of mirror panels opened for air, in the pattern of a huge, wide "V"... and at just past noon, the sun was being reflected directly into the glass-walled level we were on!

It wasn't a short "few minutes" of extra bright light... but the entire duration. As the sun moved, it ran along the edges of the "V" pattern, keeping a constant beam of light swerving through the room... almost like a lighthouse. It took about 3 minutes per sweep, of very focused light.

The glass walls of our building... half of them were covered in a very light-tinted gel, the rest were plain glass. All flouro lights on the interior, as well... and no fillers.

The pastor was standing in front of a huge reflective whiteboard, in a black suit... with shadows rapidly shifting position. (Actually, looks pretty spooky in fast-foward)

The video-tape looks like crap. #-o It's even worse when the sun's reflection stops hitting the tinted gels and goes to no diffusion at all.

I left out a tonne of other just plain whacky things... but it was a ](*,) day in any event. Next time, I'll pick the room, thank you very much!

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Anyways... who else has something to share? Needn't be big; even the smallest of stories or pointers learned (or done) in the recent past can help spread the knowledge.

:shock:

Nice unpleasant anecdote, Steve.

I spent the weekend learning the differences between Premiere 6.1 and Premiere Pro by cutting the next episode of my series on it. Lots of differences, both large (hello, improved Effects Manager and Undo History) and small (goodbye, keyboard shortcut audio crossfade)...

As for lessons worth sharing? Most of them are common sense, but they bear repeating:

1. When filming during sunset hours, be sure to film chronologically, because it's hard to explain vast differences in color temperature between shots that are supposed to be happening seconds apart...

2. If your actors are expressive with their heads, hands and props, encourage them to follow the same pattern of expression in both the two-shot AND the close-up. Otherwise your edit points will be few and far between.

3. If there are any infants on the set, they should be kept far away from the audio equipment while a take is being filmed.

Oh, and:

4. Don't expect your actors to be able to pay attention during any scenes that take place AFTER you've filmed the love scene -- unless it involves another love scene.

That, I believe, is all. Have a good week!

After about four or five weekends in a row of going, I finally got a weekend to stay home. Of course I got nothing done at all, but wasn't it Shakespeare that said "The laziest among us will be rich someday." I think Willie S. said that.

I did see a couple of worthwhile movies and one not so worthwhile movie. The worthwhile ones: The Journey (http://www.aspyr.com/dvd.php/jrny/) - a doc about four young people traveling across America interviewing well-to-do's, not-so-well-to-do's, young'uns, and geezers about the meaning of life. Saved (http://www.savedmovie.com/) - a teen comedy set against the back drop of a Christian High School.
The not so worthwhile one: Anchorman (http://www.anchorman-themovie.com/) - sure it was funny, but it wasn't memorably funny.

Poke

i learned that wakeing up in ur own puke isnt a good thing,and 3 40's and some whisky dosnt go well togather,i still havent got my camera in the mail,i learned to pay people as soon as i have money.

Tonight (Sunday), my film had its NY premiere at the LIIFE festival. Saw a couple of really good features too. The two the caught my eye were "Dorian Blues", and "The Definition of Insanity".