It’s the end of the world as we know it…well in 2012

As Field Producer and Set PA respectively, Travis and I and a crew from Ron Hill Imagery traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming back in October to interview some of the cast and crew of the new hit movie “2012” for SYFY. Just a couple actors you may have heard of in movies like “Better Off Dead“, “Say Anything” or maybe “The Whole Ten Yards“,or “Serenity“,”Children of Men“, what about “The Patriot” and “Independence Day“.

Thursday night was the press Pre-screening of the movie, and what a movie. You get about 10 minutes into it then you better hold on for the special effects ride of your life.

After setting up on the Friday for the interviews in the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in Teton Village we were ready to deliver questions to, can I name drop here?… John Cusak, Amanda Peet, Chiwetol Eijofor and Director Roland Emmerich.

A short trip to Jackson Hole but a fun one. A chance to get to work for the SYFY channel, a two camera crew using Panasonic Varicam HDX900’s and shot on a green screen for their 2012 special that aired just before the movie came out.

oh and I will just add… John Cusak can hold a boombox over his head on my front lawn anyday.

Workplace Hazards

Who doesn’t want to destroy some things at work every now and then.

Working with McCann Worldgroup we had a chance to produce a Microsoft spot where we completely crushed an office desk with a 3000 lbs. pallet of manuals and squashed a 6’ 5” man into a kiddy car ride at Lagoon.   Nothing short of interesting, let alone fun.

In order to make this happen we set out to build a mock office in a warehouse where we could drive a forklift in, raise a pallet of manuals up to an unsafe height and smash a desk to pieces 3 or 4 times. To get that done we first had to buy four identical sets of everything; desks, lamps, plants, pen holders…etc. just in case the first pallet drop didn’t quite crush right.  Thank goodness for IKEA. To make a long story short, the first take made it to the final cut.  So even though we pretty much had it on the first try, we still decided to hoist the pallet up one more time and have another go at it… Why?  Why not?

The next day Devin Graham, our DP, and Redman movies helped us rig the RED One camera to the Speedway Jr. ride Lagoon cars with a miniature car mount.  The Master Prime lenses were a nice look.

Nectar of the Mayan Gods

What a busy month June was. A big shoot in Mexico, editing the launch video for LifeVantage and starting one of two Microsoft projects was just the beginning.

Travis traveled to Cancun Mexico with Devin Graham and James Dayton to shoot an Apocalypto-style Mayan reenactment for the chocolate company Xocai in the beautiful backdrop of the Xcaret Eco Park. Travis directed a cast of 10 locals in costume, fire, torches, drums, conch shells and an ancient canoe in a ceremonial tribal scene where Cacao was harvested, prepared and offered to the Mayan gods. Scouting ancient temple sites, finding the Cacao pods, dodging Iguanas and keeping the chocolate from melting in the heat of the Mexican sun were just some of the many challenges. The boys used our Panasonic HVX-200 with a Cinemek G35 lens adapter, Zacuto rails/lens support, and 6 Nikon lenses lenses with a Micro Dolly to capture the action.

Overall it was a memorable shoot. Coming back to the office was the hardest thing after being in such and picturesque location.