My flu/cold thing became laryngitis. My goal is to heal but keep the deep and raspy voice.
I wish I could have slept all day...maybe tomorrow. Today was the wrap-up to yesterday's shoot. I had to capture all my footage from the camera's P2 cards. I had done the Final Cut auto version but realized it dropped my slate frames and other frames in its attempt to find and maintain the time code. So I had to go back in and manually capture each clip. Once that was done I need to reformat the cards before returning the camera. The thought of doing that seriously freaked me out. What if my computer crashes and I lose all my footage?
I only had a couple of hours before I had to get the camera back so I quickly hit the PDF manual to see if it was possible and what it involved to copy the footage from the cards to Mini DV in the camera. Not a big deal. Just needed a tape. I had been looking for tapes on Saturday but didn't want the crappy Maxell ones they had at Staples and Rite Aid...completely forgetting that there is a Best Buy in walking distance from my place. Duh!
Even though I'm sick, I hoof it over there ( a good 1/2 mile one way) and find some lovely Sony tapes. They had a 3-pack and a 6-pack right next to each other. The 3-packs were marked $20.99 and the 6-packs were marked $19.99. Really? I grabbed both 'cause I don't believe but on my way to the cash register I succumbed to a full scale coughing fit. I had forgotten to bring a couch drop. I had water but that wasn't helping. I crouched by some display, tears streaming down my face (not sad tears...more like side effect tears) and continued to cough for what seemed like 10+ minutes. Really attractive.
No one seemed to care. Except when I walked up to their geek bar and asked for a tissue. Both girls turned away from me as if I had the plague. The one handed me a two-foot piece off one of those cheap brown paper - I hesitate to call them towel - rolls you find in smelly gas station bathrooms, extending her hand toward me while managing to stay 10 feet away from me.
I finally made it home with the $19.99 6-pack (I would like to meet the persons who would choose to take the 3-pack for a dollar more) and seamlessly dubbed the footage to a now write-protected back-up master tape. I felt relieved. Next stop - the Toluca Lake Starbucks - via bus since Tyler is still in possession of my car in order to fill his employment requirements on The Expendables (if you don't know what that is you can Google it). It was a long 2-block trek to the bus stop that would take me to the door of Starbucks. Long because I was laden with all this...
I seriously thought if I was ever going to be mugged, today would be the day. I mean some gun-toting crack-deprived addict had to know there was something good in that big orange case since I had the tripod hanging out in broad daylight. And if there was something nice in the big orange case there was probably a nice computer in the the orange bag. I was not looking forward to having to explain the loss of a mega-expensive camera (probably uninsured whilst in my grubby paws). Thankfully my premonition did not come to pass. I just saw the usual odd clientele that frequent LA's public transit system. This one guy took the cake for me. Sadly my attempt at a stealth photo is obviously sub-par...
...but this character had the worst rug I have ever seen. Bar none. What was left of his own grayed hair was hanging out the sides while the dead muskrat he found on the side of the road was somehow loosely anchored to the top portion of his skull. I was wondering if he'd been by my place this morning to pick up the gobs of Tyler's hair that was left on the bathroom floor after he so kindly chopped of his gorgeous locks for the sake of our last shots that will bookend my short film.
He insisted I take a photo of his self-created mohawk before he finished his shave...
The craziest thing about my bus trip was what happened as the driver stopped to let me off. A guy who had quietly boarded the bus at some previous stop suddenly said, "Good luck, Deborah." I glanced back at him as I was existing the bus, looking for some recognition of who he might be - there was none - and thinking,'what an odd thing to say and how the hell did he know my name?' As I walked across the street I wondered if I should by a lottery ticket or life insurance. Maybe it's time to get both.
Going on three weeks tomorrow. Saturday it returned to my sinuses and last night I had a bad sore throat...again. And the cough...well, it's become an every day thing. My new best friend.
One of my favorite infectious George Harrison songs...
I could also be friendly...
But I think I really should have gone into modeling...
...just kidding. I was actually pretty dorky. The t-shirt I was wearing had a cheesy plastic heat transfer picture of Linda Ronstadt emblazoned on the front. Like I said...dorky. And my dorkiness remains intact today.
Retail - $60
Regular Price - $400
Regular Price - $200
Regular Price - $400 (L.E.) and $200 (O.E.)
Regular Price - $30
Looks like I also like to shoot on trains. This may have been a train trip I took from Toronto to Sarnia to visit my Grandmother. Although I don't remember being in a dining car. I do remember the trip back. I was in a seat facing a guy and a girl. Before the girl introduced herself I told her I could guess her name. She didn't believe me. I said her name was Susan. I was right. And then said her last name was McDonald. Right again. It really freaked them out. But not as much as it freaked me out. I had no idea how I did it. There was no trickery involved. I just spit it out. Turns out I'm psychic...but only when I'm on that particular train.
This is one of my favorite pictures. A double exposure in the camera. I don't remember the guy's name but I remember I really liked his looks. Especially his nose...in profile. Yeah, I'm weird. He's from England. One of the guys that was working with Deep Purple that took me to the beach and sailing on my birthday. It was my first time in L.A. on my own and I was staying at the Continental Riot House. I think there's a story about it in the "My Story" section of my book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Click on this one to see it bigger. There's a lot to see. I impressed myself with my precision in lining up his head in each of the shots. I have no idea why there are two completely different scenes happening in the sand for each of the shots. Crazy...
To my US readers...I hope you all had (are having) a wonderful Thanksgiving. And are as stuffed as your turkey.
Her encounter with the neighborhood Tyrannosaurus Rex made me smile more.
While Justin was behind his camera capturing the moving pictures, I was behind mine capturing the stills. But previous to the shoot, I also was given the opportunity to cast these two badasses for the leads in his film...
We wrapped just after 3 in the morning on Saturday. I was then up at 8:30am madly finishing my animation project (which I didn't actually finish-finish) before going to Photoshop class from 2-6. My sore throat was back by the time I got home so I ate what was left of my chicken soup, watched an episode of Dexter, edited the pictures, thought I wrote this post and ceremoniously crashed.
Creativity at its best.
Technology is like a man (or a woman, depending on who's talking)...you can't live with it and you can't live without it.
My brain is now officially turned off. I will be watching Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. From the first ten minutes I concluded that brain is not necessary in the viewing of this film.
I seriously thought if I was ever going to be mugged, today would be the day. I mean some gun-toting crack-deprived addict had to know there was something good in that big orange case since I had the tripod hanging out in broad daylight. And if there was something nice in the big orange case there was probably a nice computer in the the orange bag. I was not looking forward to having to explain the loss of a mega-expensive camera (probably uninsured whilst in my grubby paws). Thankfully my premonition did not come to pass. I just saw the usual odd clientele that frequent LA's public transit system. This one guy took the cake for me. Sadly my attempt at a stealth photo is obviously sub-par...
...but this character had the worst rug I have ever seen. Bar none. What was left of his own grayed hair was hanging out the sides while the dead muskrat he found on the side of the road was somehow loosely anchored to the top portion of his skull. I was wondering if he'd been by my place this morning to pick up the gobs of Tyler's hair that was left on the bathroom floor after he so kindly chopped of his gorgeous locks for the sake of our last shots that will bookend my short film. 
The craziest thing about my bus trip was what happened as the driver stopped to let me off. A guy who had quietly boarded the bus at some previous stop suddenly said, "Good luck, Deborah." I glanced back at him as I was existing the bus, looking for some recognition of who he might be - there was none - and thinking,'what an odd thing to say and how the hell did he know my name?' As I walked across the street I wondered if I should by a lottery ticket or life insurance. Maybe it's time to get both.
Tyler is a rock star.
The last thing I had to do was cut a cookie...
I'm going to put it in front one of the lights to cast shadows on one of my scenes.
I dream a lot. And generally pretty vividly. Sometimes I wonder if my dream life is my real life and my real life is a dream.
Hard to see, but at the top of the tree are the leaves of a palm tree that's across the street.
In L.A. the brightly colored leaves fall on a lush green lawn.
...fall asleep and dream for a more productive day tomorrow.
You can't say clouds. And don't forget...your sanity is on the line.
I started my time at the AFM with an amazing made-to-order sandwich on the pool patio, then headed up to Cinetel's suite to check out how my art looked. This is a poster of a piece I did a couple or three markets ago...
And this is a duratrans (aka backlit) of a piece I did a couple of weeks ago. The shafts of light looked very cool backlit...I'm happy with this one...
This was another client. It's a movie still which I added the title to and had it blown up to poster size. This poster was hanging in the hall outside the client's suite. That's Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams...
I ran into a lot of people I know. Some I hadn't seen in a long, long time. And a friend (one of my favorite people) from far away that saw me across the patio and texted me. I didn't even know he was in town.
I have to sleep now. Gotta hit the AFM tomorrow and then an evening meeting. Sigh.
But there was still lots of free drink...
That was not my drink, but I did have one of the olives.
I really wanted to play some blackjack. I had $1000 in my purse ready to rock'n'roll but no-go-ms.-slow. I had to steal an extra grand from he who brung me so I could have enough to exchange it for a $5 Starbucks gift card.
I like this picture because I captured the racing cars on the screen at a standstill while the guy coming into the frame is movement blurred. And that screen was pretty nice even though they weren't likely pitching the screen as much as some technology that you can use to make what's on the screen do something off-the-wall.
Lots and lots of cameras, including bunches of REDs. I can't afford any of the cameras they had at the show. The least expensive I came across was a $5300 camera on sale at the Samy's booth for $4900. Hey, my birthday is next week. Why don't you all get together and buy me a new camera? My very old little Sony video camera went completely pfffft a couple of weeks ago.
And the pièce de résistance of the show was nowhere near HD...
...an pre-1950s Moviola. Yes, folks, this is what they used to edit films on way back in the day.
