On The Set of
The “Tech Files” by Joseph Hitchcock
On the set; A film that took six years to make.
As you know, I love filmmaking. The one thing that always brings a smile to my face is when a project is finished, and the world gets to see.
Read MoreOn the hunt for a great Landscape
The end of a day; the sun making its nightly exit known to all. Its colors are the last grasp with the exclamation that it will return. It's rays folding through the trees, over the fields and bringing the depth of what is real to a warm and loving close.
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My Audition and the real threat from the River Valley flooding.
So, I just spent almost four hours and fifty bucks in a car to attend a meeting that made me want to give up acting forever, and now I have to drive back home.
Now, we have had a lot of rain recently, as we all know. The River Valley (Fort Smith Arkansas) has flooded, levees have broken, and roads are closed. The water from the Arkansas River hit record levels, and here I was driving through it. Another reason for a rental car.
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Is the world ending? No, I'm just sick.
Over the past three weeks, I haven’t posted much or taken that many photographs. It may seem like I am neglecting my duties, but in reality, I have been very sick. Over my life, I have had pneumonia dozens of times. This time I thought I was OK until I wasn’t. It put me down hard. In fact, I didn’t know how sick I was until after I started to get better.
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Why do photographers cost so much? (a consumers guide)
For those that don’t know or haven’t had the privilege to book a photo session in the past three or five years, the current going rate for a truly professional photographer may shock you. A traditional wedding shoot with just one photographer starts at about five thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money for photographs! Honestly, if you want really good photographs of the wedding and the reception, you need two shooters since one photographer can’t be everywhere. To add that second shooter though, you're looking at another twenty-five hundred dollars. OUCH!
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Wow, What a long weekend!
When we got the the park we looked at the hills, studies the trails and some topographical maps and this thing looked brutal. Maybe not for the guy or gal that walks or runs ten miles a day, but for two guys that spend ninety percent of their time sitting in front of a computer screen, yeah…
Read MoreSunsets/Sunrises are not all the same
Yesterday seemed like a great day for taking a photograph of the sunset. If only I had looked closer at the weather. While it was a great day yesterday, today is looking to possibly be a brute with a storm barreling in from the west.
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From “The Weather Channel” website.
Bomb Cyclone brings end to photo shoot
I went to the University of Arkansas to find a great spot to get the stadium and all that traffic. The video I got was all made in camera and isn’t the quality that I will get when I do it for real. This is just a scout to see what it might look like. Honestly, I am not going to use that spot again, it’s just not that interesting. But that’s why you scout!
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Three things a new actor can do to win the audition.
We have all heard it and just shrugged it off at least once in our lives. When we went for our first job interview or trying to get up the nerve to ask someone out on a first date, that was probably the advice. It’s no different in an audition.
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The sure-fire way to improve your photography
The very first thing about taking photographs is the “Rule of thirds”. This rule is something that every photographer uses and will always use. This doesn’t mean that every photograph you take should follow it. It is not a rigid thing that cannot be broken. More of a great technique to build your shot around. Once you get it in your head and find yourself applying it without thinking about it, that’s when you know it’s time to start finding great ways to break it.
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Screen tests and the a7III vs. the a77 in studio
It was going to be the first time I got to use my Sony a7III in a real studio environment. And It didn’t let me down. My a77, the camera that I have been using for the past eight years did though. I honestly didn’t have any idea just how behind the times it was.
Read MoreMy Journey into the past, instead of writing.
While he was staring down the old weapons I was wandering, looking for crazy things. There are stacks and stacks of shelves all holding important mainstays of archaeology like pottery and household implements to some really crazy and exotic things. It is kind of an x-file looking stack of shelves too. Just like in the movies and TV. So that made me somewhat interested to browse the place.
They didn’t have just pottery and bones though. I was kinda excited to see that they haven’t forgotten about the other things from history especially the more recent history. They had military helmets, Crazy formaldehyde jars of snakes, frogs and other not so normal things.
Read MoreRain killed my image.
Once we got there, it began to pour. Maybe I could have found a way around the weather and shoot from the truck or other cover but the sky was also littered with lightning. Now, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to stand outside holding onto a large metal tripod in a lightning storm. Call me overly cautious but I wasn’t actually made with a bolt of lightning, stitched together by a madman in a dungeon laboratory even though that may be what many former high school girlfriends might claim.
Read MoreThe perfect location for a photograph
Some of the best portraits you will ever see more than likely could be a great photo without the subject sitting, running, walking or doing some damn thing. Its about the dream, your photograph. When taking portraits for clients it becomes even more important to have that backdrop be something spectacular. So today I was looking around for something that might make some great lines for some wholesome portraits.
Read MoreWhat makes a photograph worth buying.
While most people might not immediately understand that these images have actually drawn an emotion out of them, when you contemplate long enough and really relax and feel, you will find that you are actually feeling something. No, really. You are, I promise. That emotion may be good, bad or something in between but its there.
Read MoreSony A7III and Lots and Lots of birds.
One other thing that really makes me happy about the a7III is the amount of detail the stills retain when under exposed. Sony always does a good job at keeping detail in the blacks. Just like a RED camera, the Sony holds up when underexposed but really can’t deal effectively with over-exposure when compared to their counterparts. But really, I shoot dark all the time, it’s my style, so this camera makes my life so much easier in post.
Read MoreFreelancers should to charge more — Why businesses are happy to pay it
For the Creatives and the Business folk alike I can say with 100% surety that the consumers of “content” can tell when something is good and when something is bad. Or worse, contrived from salesy stereotypical double talk that hasn’t changed in sixty years. They can tell (and so can you) when something has no “heart” and zero creativity, so let the Creative do their thing. Speaking now as a Creative, we abhor salsey and, if let off the chain, we will kill everything that even remotely smells like it was in the same room as it.
Read MoreI accidentally wrote a movie.
I actually sat down to write a ten page short that I could fund and shoot myself (by fun I meant it actually doesn’t cost anything other than time), I knew what I wanted, I knew what I needed to get there. Yet, I still held fast to the burnt in rules of screenwriting. I didn’t mean to, but I did it anyway. Like I say in my podcast all the time, I plotted it out, found the turns and went in for the kill, but ten pages just isn’t enough time.
Read MoreNew Podcast now available
This episode of the podcast is to help anyone understand just one of the many devices that are necessary to create a good screenplay, book or any story.
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