been a while...


...there are soft circles floating around, my eyes feel all swirly, my hair is teased (amongst other things), and i've got bruises and bandages up and down my arms, legs, appendages. i live off of cigarettes, vitamin water, energy drinks, and occasionally mcdonalds or late night chicken. Four out of the six movies i've been director of photography on have been completed. in these last pushes and last days i feel whatever the equivalent to writers block is for whatever it is i am. my lighting's getting flat and my camera work (the ambitious work (pan, tilt, follow-focus) is bordering sloppy. i should just have my AC pull focus but i'm too proud for that i guess. i want to care mostly about the work but lately i've been...distracted.


from PLATFORM PHILOSOPHY directed by Heather Black

me: oh! hey, so i have the idear for my movie.
heather: let me guess: it's about a guy and a girl.


what i like about heather is that she's not sentimental, well, not sentimental the way most of the people that surround us are. she cares about communication and EVERYONE communicates. she thinks there are things more interesting than "love" to talk about.



(the train station was in operation while we were shooting. plenty of people go there to sleep apparently)


from CASTING CALL directed by Daria Davydova

daria wants to do dolly work without a dolly and top-down lighting without letting my lighting guys do overheads. these things aren't impossible. they're just difficult. we problem solve quickly and we're on our way. she's very stern on set and looks very serious when she directs. when the cameras stop rolling we make our way to my place and our crew has vodka redbulls and sing songs they find on youtube at the top of their lungs. my neighbors complain.

she says she'd rather be a producer.


from PASADENA directed by Benjamin Villeda

ben is determined to have our minds meld. he talks to me about symmetry and colors and relationships. i nod but am nervous about not being able to deliver. we shoot an ambitious three days for his movie. i tell him the lighting for the "red" scenes are very 80s but that's because this scene looks very 80s. from across the room he tells me that he wants to the see the frame with the 85mm...i tell my AC to put on the 50mm. we discover that because we are both alcoholics and both babies we communicate just fine without words.



from HOW TO MAKE A PAPER BOAT FLOAT directed by Steven A. Soria

-"it's not about what you say, it's about what you can't. we've gotta see a look in your eyes, you struggling to hold it in but at the same time desperate to say "don't hate me. it's silly that we're so civil and that we're deleting each other. it's silly that we hate each other now." and we can see all that when you look at her"
-"...but why don't i say that to her?"
-"because there's no point. you'll never see her again anyway."

i'm more at home behind a camera. most people see me more as a DP more than anything. but every once and a while i'd like to tell a story that's all mine. ben (who was my first AD on "...paper boat...") tells me the good thing about my latest attempt is that it "100%" me but "me" still needs some developing....some fine tuning.


the complete sets from these movies can be seen here