My introduction to Brendan Boyd film-making.
I met Brendan last winter on a Tito Guillen short called “The Woman Upstairs” where he was both acting and doing blood effects. I knew he made movies but, sadly I hadn’t really checked out any of them (I will now of course!), I’ve been out of the indie film circle for a while. I was causally invited to come on set this last weekend and I neglected to even ask what the movie was about. I was simply interested in the idea of mixing with more film nerds, see what people are doing, and so on. I showed up about 15 minutes late as I do for pretty much everything I attend and I wasn’t quite sure if I had the right address. I arrived at what looked to be a 70 year old house with a couch on the porch and no visible street number. For some reason I didn’t bother with ringing a doorbell or even knocking, I just walked in… something was up me that day, and I was more out-of-it than usual. Upon my first few steps, I see a huge mess of old puppets and costumes, and could hear familiar film type racket coming from one of the rooms. I should be in the right place. I quickly bumped into some actors and introduced myself so they wouldn’t think I’m just some random creep who wandered in from the street… I just made myself a little less random. I was pointed toward the proper doorway, I slid it open and walked right into a scene which can be awkward… especially so, if when you do, the scene is of a friend of yours, naked, miming masturbation in a chair in front of you. At that point it didn’t take too long to get up to speed, and start snapping out shots whenever it seemed appropriate to do so (well to be honest, I was far too uncomfortable for the first hour or so, it was a new element for me). Ok, at this rate I’ll never finish this post. It wasn’t a porno. It was awesome. Yes, I’m still absorbing it. Yes, I wish I had more photos, (for some reason I only had a 1GB card with me) Enjoy.
On the set of ‘Lost Hero’
Back to the basics, I literary had no responsibility on this set, haha so it was more fun. I was just there to hang out and commentate between cuts. It was nice to get back to just taking pictures some times, I felt like I have been losing a bit of my drive as I hardly have time for projects these days. Anyway, these movies seem to be getting better, and with these guys there are always costumes, niicce. So, this show will be called ‘Lost Hero” and it being made by my friend Ryan Byrne. (the guy in the cupid wings from the previous post) It’s still in editing, although I imagine there should be a cut of it online soon. Enjoy
Stills from ‘The Women Upstairs’
During some extraordinarily busy weeks at my day job, I had the chance to do some low ball indie film work, I put on my lazy director of photography hat, and shot another Tito short film with some friends. In between setups I had a few chances to get stills with my hobo kit.
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A few stills from ‘The Great Recession’
Without the possession of a camera for about 6 months I had been getting a bit antsy and finally scratched together about 300 and a change to buy a d70 and a cheap portrait lens. A friend of mine invited me out as an extra pair of hands making a short film. So, when I wasn’t carrying anything I was trying to get my photo barrings back, I think it was a good start.
Off topic, Jesse and low ball cinematography
Ok, so we shot this way back in August and to be perfectly honest I’m not the most proud person…. I hate pretty much everything “creative” I do… at least the first time around. We shot it last summer, I was editing in the begining in the fall and it’s been on “the interwebs” for about 4 months or so. This was my first attempt at cinematography and editing, it’s not really finished, but this is probably how it will remain for the next while. Keep it real, stay classy, keep your stick on the ice? It’s called ‘Edgars Epilogue’
The secret is out, I use photoshop
I was sorting through some old work last night and came across this image. I was doing still photography for an independent film here in Edmonton and Tito Guillen (Director) wanted to use this shot as the poster. Unfortunately this was just one of those shots that didn’t work out, basically it’s terribly out of focus and our actor is yawning in the shot. There was also a lot of negative space on the left side which bugged me so I decided I was going to work on it a little before I gave it away. Here’s what I came up with. Be sure to click the thumbnails to see the full before and after images.
haha, I should mention that 98% of what I usually do in photoshop is color modification and shading. I never transform any of my portraits like I did this one. This was just one of those instances where I had to salvage a shot I would normally have deleted. In this case as I was editing a story and a characters appearance, not solely a person in a portrait where I wouldn’t ethically be able to modify this way.
J
Rowley
Went to this small ghost town in southern Alberta for a movie shoot. Was just another production assistent with more free time than I could understand so I spent some time running around this old place and snapped a few shots. Unfortunately I also mananged to roll a car and cheat death on the way back. Somehow nearly all of my camera gear and laptop survide the crash, the car did not. I had a few minor scratches and some stiffness so I had the pleasure of learning how expensive it is to tow a car to the wreckers…. augh.
Nighthawks
Worked as the still photographer and 2nd AC on an independant short called Nighthawks. Had a borrowed Canon Rebel with some cheap lenses. Managed to get a few good shots.
Movie Brats
These Pictures were taken over the summer of 2008 for an independent feature called ‘Movie Brats’. I was volunteering as a production assistent and had access to a cheap Casio point-and-shoot as well as a Nikon D200 with a few lenses that I just happened to tote around with me. Got a lot of practice here.
