The Family Bible

I was hired as a grip for the short film "The Family Bible," but soon after the same camera crew from the chair movie arrived on set I was conscripted to perform my duty as 2nd A.C. once again.

Connie Wilkerson, the Final Cut Pro certification instructor for the U of U, wrote and grant and purchased a Red One camera package for the school. Since its initial arrival it's been sitting around waiting for batteries, lenses and LCD screens to arrive. Then, once those items finally came it was sent back to California to have the sensor upgraded to the new Mysterium-X model. Now it's finally available for use and Connie wrote a short film to be made by students and shot with the new camera.

The story follows a family wrought with tragedy as they clash over who has the rights to the family bible. We shot 2 days at the Post Chapel on the U of U campus and we'll be shooting another day there next week.

The location is quite excellent, the historical military chapel has been fully restored and the interior is beautiful. It has a functional bell tower and a stage that can be raised and lowered electronically depending on the type of service the chapel needs to perform. The purpose of the building is to preserve the history of the Fort Douglas area and to give students space for interfaith service and worship.

As per usual, here are some behind the scenes photos:

From May 29, 2011

From May 29, 2011

From May 29, 2011

From May 29, 2011

From May 29, 2011

For more information and a ton more photos, click here or click the post title for the Facebook fan page.

A Chair is a Chair

In May I worked as the 2nd Assistant Camera for a short film commissioned for The Leonardo in Salt Lake City. For those of you who don't know, The Leonardo is housed in the former building of the Salt Lake Public Library and features an unprecedented amount of interactive art and media.

The film follows a chair who gains sentience and goes on a journey to find itself and discover its origin. Check out the trailer below.

Notice that handsome dock worker? That's me! Almost all of the crew got to be extras at some point. The fact that you see my face is quite unique because most of the humans in the film are shot from the waist down, so we're at chair level. However, shooting at chair level meant that myself and the rest of the camera crew were hugging the ground almost always. There were some sore knees at the end of the day.

Many thanks to Margaret King the camera operator, my close friend (and my first stage kiss!) who taught me how to be a 2nd A.C., Jason Boninger who taught me to be 1st A.C. during his absence (first time pulling focus, screwed it up a ton :S), Jeremy Neilsen the DP who affectionately named me 'Corn Dog,' and Erin Cole who became my 2nd when I became the 1st and probably did a better job than me.

Here are some behind the scenes photos.

From May 29, 2011

From May 29, 2011

From May 29, 2011

As far as I know the film should be visible in the Leonardo gallery. They just opened last week so go check it out quick!