SeeingEyeBlog

My blog has been a dormant volcano of late, but that’s because I’ve been prepping my latest movie, Broken Windows, a slice of life about four women who have to come to terms with hopes and dreams that don’t coalesce with reality. We’re shooting Super16, half in LA and half in beautiful San Diego, and we have a wonderful cast in place. I think it’s a great opportunity for some subtle, understated performances, and my role as cinematographer is to support those performances. Not a lot of action, no crazy camera tricks. Just harvesting reality for arrangement, packaging, and shipping.

I live in Los Angeles, and my parents live in San Diego. There’s a 150 mile difference between the two cities, and it is common knowledge that LA has the worst traffic in the world.

But today I was driving home for Memorial Day weekend, and the traffic was perfect in LA and most of Orange county. When I got to southern OC and then San Diego, the traffic became a plaque infested coronary artery, just waiting for that blood clot. It took me an hour to get to the 405/5 merge, and then 2 and a half hours to get to my house in Rancho San Diego. I think SD county needs bypass surgery on the freeways.

A few days ago I was dreading a promotional shoot with Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers. Usually these shoots consist of three hours of setup and then five minutes of the player saying a few lines to the camera. Everyone was worried whether Kobe would be a jerk or not. Apparently there is some bad blood between he and the media.

When he walked onto the set, he was with his toddler daughter, and was in a great mood. He bantered back and forth with me (the cameraman) and even came back behind the camera to look through the lens. We joked back and forth about how we all thought he’d be taller. At the end he shook my hand and acted like an old buddy. The day ended up to be one of the smoothest I’ve had.

I just shot my first playoff game for the NBA, which was the Clippers hosting the Denver Nuggets. It was a great game that basically came down to the last shot. Shooting an NBA game is takes as much finesse as playing in an NBA game. I was using a small camera, which has less intertia, whereas most of the other guys were using full sized cameras, with more mass. It’s easier to get a steady shot with a heavier camera, but you have to be a bear to shoot handheld for two hours or more. So as I was shooting, I was constantly fighting the lack of intertia. But since I have some finesse, I was able to keep it steady. It just gives me a new respect for those guys who constantly shoot with those small cameras. I don’t envy them. This NBA thing is just a paycheck for me, along with some fun skill-sharpening. I really hope my career will consist of shooting shots from a dolly with a really heavy camera.

Oh, I also saw the following celebrities: Frankie Muniz (who lives at the Staples Center), Billy Crystal, Roger Cross (seated five feet away from me), and Randy Jackson. They seemed to have a good time. No big deal.

My biggest complaint is that I had to break a date with a really special girl who I had been dying to see today. I got the call yesterday and had to cancel the date, because NBA pays really well. She understood, but said it was frustrating that I couldn’t hang out. I guess it’s good that she’s frustrated, because at least it shows she really wants to see me too. Hopefully she gives me enough credit that I canceled for a Clippers playoff game, not because I had a sore throat or something.