The Media Manifesto of The Real Tim Allen » Film Making

Sony EX1, Letus, and a HazMAT Suite!

timdan — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:39:03 +0000

So a few weeks ago I was asked to DP a project that needed to feel like a music video, and they wanted some 35mm action! Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – I recently broke the coupler ring on my Redrock M2, and I needed to rent a cinema adapter package for this project. I’d been wanting to work with the Letus Extreme for a while so seemed like a great opportunity! I rented one for the day, hired my buddy Keegan Ead to come AC for me, and it was a fantastic experience!

The setup was a little tricky, but only because I’d never set this rig up before. Getting everything to align perfectly was a small chore, but if I owned the rig I’d have to do this once, and then I’m done.

The first thing I noticed right out of the gate is the construction of this bad boy is solid, and once the mount was on the EX1’s lens, and the adapter was attached there wasn’t anything precarious about this setup. Of course one of the best parts about the Letus rig is it flips the image, so I didn’t have to have an external monitor to flip upside down in order to see a properly orientated image. I did hook up a small 10” HD monitor just so I’d have a larger viewing screen, but it was a commodity more than a necessity. I could have serviced just fine using the EX1’s 3” display.

The footage I got was great! The only issue I ran into was a few shots had some streaking-grain. I’m assuming this was my error in shooting with a shutter that was too slow, and caught the movement of the ground glass. Perhaps? I have yet to completely figure that one out. I also lost my back focus often, but again I believe this to be a user error. Anytime I felt like I couldn’t get critical focus, it took maybe 20 seconds to stop the ground glass, double check my focus is sharp, start it back up, and on we went!

I did some POV shots that I didn’t/couldn’t do with the Letus. They were from the perspective of the person in the HazMAT suite, so I actually had to put the suite on, and shoot through the plastic face cover. It was a little awkward with the suite, but the shots turned out great so of course it was all worth it in the end!

The final piece turned out pretty good, and the over all experience working with the rig was fantastic! If I had to purchase a cinema lens adapter again, I would certainly go with a Letus!

I’ll post the finished project when it’s online!

- Tim

"Like You Said" in Bloomfest!

timdan — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:05:09 +0000

A short film I Directed called “Like You Said” has been entered into the Bloomfest Short Film challenge at ExposureRoom.com. Show some love and head over there to vote!

The catch is, you have to vote on at least half of the films (rate them 1 to 5 stars) for your vote to count! So if you’re in the mood to watch 28 three minute short films, help us out!

And if you’ve never seen the film before, at least go check it out, and let me know what you think!

Thanks for the support!

Details on this short film at IF Factor’s Website.

Almost done…

timdan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:13:43 +0000

Headed up to Pine this weekend to snag the last couple shots for Fate. This is all that’s left other than a few green screen elements. We’re so close. So very close. Gordan Clark’s been a faithful actor and friend as we’ve been trying to wrap all this up! Good man, amazing actor! If you guys haven’t seen the trailer for this short we’ve been workin’ on, check it out and le’me know what you think!

"Last Call" | 24 Hour Film

timdan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:53:54 +0000

Competed in the 24 hour film challenge this last weekend, and made a pretty sweet little 3 minute short film. Created from concept to completion inside of 24 hours. Read more about the weekend and watch the film over the ,IF Factor Blog or just watch it right here!

Snakes In A Boardroom

timdan — Fri, 25 May 2007 00:39:24 +0000

Paul DeNigris asked me to be DP (Director of Photography) for a short spoof he Directed for the MTV Movie awards. As with most of Paul’s projects I was thrilled to be invited and esthetically accepted is invite!

It’s a spoof and Snakes On A Plan, and regardless if you seen the movie if you don’t mined bleeped out language and campy humor, you’ll love it!

Check it out RIGHT HERE and give 5 stars! The creators of the top 5 films are flown to L.A. for the MTV Movie Awards! You have to vote before May 29th I believe so we could use your help!

Leave a comment here, and let me know what you thought about the film!

Thanks a million!

A Work Progressing…

timdan — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 02:01:56 +0000

Wow. That is my reaction to the music of Daniel Baranowsky. If you remember, I said I had somebody who was going to score “Consumed.” Well he called me last night and said he wanted to talk about it, so we met up.

There are some people who are talented with an instrument, and who can make music. Then there are people who actually understand the rules of music, and know when to break them – that’s Baranowsky. When somebody compared him to Hanz Zimmer, I was skeptical, but they weren’t too far off.

Here is just a sample that is somewhat in the same vain as what he will be doing for this movie.

A Work in Progress…

timdan — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:43:50 +0000

Probably over a year ago now, I started working on this short little 3 minute film I wrote, and I’m just now getting to the point where it might actually be presentable. There have been so many little things that need fixing, and I have not had the chance to complete it. Now I’m working from home doing websites, and I’ve just come to the point where I might actually get this thing finished. I sat down the other day, and wrote down all the changes that needed to be made – about 25 in all – and I’m slowing hacking away at them.

Ideally I’d like to have it ready by October 12th, as that is the late deadline for the ScreenWars competition. I’m not sure how realistic that is considering it still needs to be scored – which is a very excited prospect in and of itself!
I have come across someone who will score the film for me. Though I have not heard his work, he has been compared to Hans Zimmer, which is quite a bold comparison I might add. So, that’s cool.

Well, we’ll see how it all turns out. The name of the movie is called Consumed, and when finished you can look forward to seeing it up here on another post, or under “media“.

Bum Luck

timdan — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:50:05 +0000

Haha… this is funny. This was the very first project I did in school where I had to direct a short. It really has no point, and when we did the project we weren’t even allowed to edit it, so this – believe it or not – is completely uncut. We could only start, stop, and if we messed up… rewind!

Dweeb

timdan — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:13:45 +0000

The first real short I wrote and directed. It’s a silly little satire about the biggest dweeb in school trying to win the heart of the “hottest girl in school!”

It’s not the best thing I’ve done, but, see what you think…

Tijuana 2005

timdan — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:02:35 +0000

Yes… it does say 2005. Last year I went on a mission trip to Tijuana with V.I. (the college ministry and Grace Community Church here in Tempe, AZ) and, of course, I took my camera.

Here’s pretty much what went down…