Another sailing video

Because I feel like it.

This was from last weekend, going over to Port Jefferson and back. It was the first chance we got to cruise this season, and two of our friend's boats joined us. Fun time!

Another film being shot locally

My friend Maura posted this on My Left Nutmeg, a local political blog. This is another Hollywood movie being filmed here in Connecticut. We're becoming the Vancouver of New England! I thought it would be good to repost here. Forgive the sloppy formatting; I'm too lazy to fix it. Enjoy!

(PS: To see lots more of Kate Winslet, rent "Little Children". Yowsa!)
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I mentioned in a comment thread a while ago that the new Kate Winslet/Leonardo DiCaprio film, Revolutionary Road, was going to be filming on my street last week.

Well, the shoot got cancelled last Thursday, but the crew is back today -- and they decided to prominently feature my house and my next door-neighbor's house!

The production crew arrived at 6 this morning and rang our doorbell at 6:40, asking us to move our cars out of the driveway.  They replaced them with these:

It's really exciting -- the production crew are focusing on our house and our next door neighbor's, so we've gotten our tree pruned, fake blooms put on our rhododendrons, and hanging laundry in our side yard. 

I'll put up more photos later this morning as filming commences, and I've posted a few below the jump.  (Click all to enlarge.)

Maura :: Starring my street: Hollywood meets Stamford's East Side

Production crew hanging out in my driveway

Vintage trucks in my driveway.  (That's my sister-in-law on our front steps.

They repainted our fire hydrant from yellow to black and silver, and they sprinkled the street with vintage metal garbage cans.

The street is lined with vintage cars.

My nephew Sean explores the truck in our driveway.

The landscaping crew discusses how best to prune our tree.

Vintage cars across my street.

A great sail

At least, that's how I think it went.

Tonight was our club's first of three "Woman at the Helm" races, where a female needs to steer the boat from start to finish.

We had a good time tonight, and Joyce did great helming the boat.

Here's my salute to Womanly sailing:

Indiana Jones IV casting call

Here's a photo from the casting call on Monday in New Haven. This guy is a bit silly, if you ask me. They already casted the part of "Indiana Jones", so why would he dress like Harrison Ford in the movie? Something tells me he ain't gonna get picked for anything.

From The New Haven Register:

-NEW HAVEN — They came from all over, young and old, big and little, in seersucker suits and tank tops, with tattoos, fedoras and hope.

People were so excited to be extras in the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie that when casting director Billy Dowd drove into the city Sunday evening and saw people already camping out on Crown Street, he knew he couldn't wait till 1 p.m. Monday to open his casting call. (more available from link above)

So, it turns out that Sean Connery won't be in the movie after all. But there's still Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett, and the prospect of being cast as an extra in the movie which will shoot a motorcycle chase on the old Yale University campus.

My ending for "The Sopranos"

With all the controversy about the final episode of The Sopranos, I thought I'd chime in on how it should have ended:

Phil Leotardo goes to the gas station and instead of getting whacked and having his head flattened by his rolling SUV, he simply makes the phone call he wanted and orders a pizza to be delivered to his home. The dramatic point to this is that when he gets home, he finds the delivery guy had been waiting for ten minutes and his pizza got cold.

So Phil doesn't tip the pizza guy.

Paulie Walnuts is creeped out by the cat, so he brings it to the animal shelter. It's a humane shelter, and the cat is later adopted.

The ironic twist is that it gets adopted by Satanists, who crucify it during a black mass.

Tony visits Uncle Junior in the hospital, and later that day Junior forgets to eat his jello with dinner. Then he drools on himself while watching TV.

Meadow gets a ticket because she parallel parked with her tire on the curb.

Anthony Jr. hits his head and forgets to be such a whiny asshole. He later becomes a successful advertising executive.

Dr. Melfi decides psychiatry is a load of crap, and then she replaces Rosie O'Donnell on "The View".

Carmela gets heartburn from the onion rings, and has to buy a roll of "Tums" at the counter. The cashier gives her an extra dime with her change, but Carm doesn't notice.

Tony Soprano gets angry because he put a stupid "Journey" song on by mistake when he meant to hit the buttons for "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones. In a fit of anger he punches the jukebox and hurts his hand.

The owner of the diner walks over to see what the hubbub is about, and Tony apologizes for making such a ruckus. The entire family leaves to go to the Walk-in Medical Clinic, where Tony has to wait 45 minutes to get X-rays taken of his hand. Fade to black.

Viola! That's about five times as exciting as what the showed on HBO the other night!

In any case, hopefully we won't ever have to watch James Gandolfini eat again, or hear him noisily breathing through his deviated septum anymore.

Maybe Tony didn't get whacked, but it feels like WE all did!

"The Fountain" (2006)

This is the third major film directed by Darren Aronofsky (previously, "Pi" (1998), and "Requiem for a Dream" (2000); both very good films).

The Fountain stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in a richly textured story of love transceding time. The plot is somewhat confusing at times, varying from the year 1500 to present day to 500 years in the future; and the ending is purposefully ambiguous, but it's a great flick to watch just for the joy of a true cinematic experience.

Anyone familiar with Aronofsky's work will recognize his use of redundant images and sounds. Whereas "Pi" was a film about the mind, and "Requiem..." was about the body, "The Fountain" explores the human heart.

Hollywood veteran Ellen Burstyn scores with a good supporting role, too. Overall, a visually stunning movie with great performances and a story that begs contemplation afterwards. Don't expect to be spoon-fed a Hollywood plot with THIS flick!

I should probably review some movies or something...

I've been watching a lot of movies lately via Netflix. Some really obscure stuff, too.

For instance, lately I've been on a little Parker Posey kick. I have NO idea why, but I've been seeing a lot of her stupid movies. Recently I rented Henry Fool, the quirky 1997 Hal Hartley flick starring Posey, Thomas Jay Ryan and James Urbaniak ("Robert Crumb" in American Splendor).

After seeing that, I found out that Hartley made a sequel focusing on Posey's character, Fay Grim. So I watched that.

Then, to absolutely convince myself that she can just barely act her way out of a paper bag (but only if the paper bag is soaking wet, and has a small rip in the side...and if she has the director hollering instructions to her from just out of camera range on how to properly act her way out of the bag), I rented The OH in Ohio, the odd 2006 sex comedy.

OK, I'm convinced. Parker Posey is cute as a button, but she doesn't have a lot of range in her skill set. Which is fine, if you want to watch her basically emote her way through a movie but never really connect with her character.

And for these movies, that's pretty much alright.

But did they HAVE to do the exact same "vibrating beeper in the panties" gag in TWO movies she was in that were released in the same year? (see "Fay Grim" and "OH in Ohio")

Next up: Who would win in a bar fight? Rachel Weisz or Kate Winslet?

Another sailing video

This is Joyce and me sailing during a race. We screwed up the start and finished last, but it was warm and sunny and a nice day, so we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Here's a quick sailing video

This is a video that I cooked up in about 10 minutes tonight after our sailing race; I shot it using my little digital camera and imported the video into my editing program. I added some cheesy '80's music for a soundtrack. It was fun.

"Fat March" rolls through town

My dad called me yesterday and said there was a big film crew down on the pier near where he lives, and suggested I go down there and see what's up.

So I drove to the beach in my 1987 Dodge Aries K sedan and saw a bunch of production vehicles parked in the lot. I got out and walked over to the pier. There were a couple of guys standing near the entrance to the pier, so I walked up and asked what was being filmed there.

One of them (Steve) said, "It's a reality TV show."

"Really?", I asked, "Which one is it?"

"I can't say."

"Fair enough," I said, and noticed a group of large, like, REALLY large people digging in the sand flats next to the pier while being filmed. I remembered my wife telling me about a newspaper story describing a reality show where fat people were in a walking race from Boston to Washington, DC, and along the way they had a bunch of challenges/contests.

"Hey," I said, "Is this that fat person race?"

"Yeah," said Steve, "And they're digging for clams."

I looked over at them. They were some BIG people. I joked, "Hey, maybe I should see if they need another contestant!"

Steve looked at me and said, "You're not that fat!"

Hmmm, I thought, that was quite a left-handed compliment. By saying I wouldn't be accepted, he basically agreed that I was fat; but not SO fat that I would qualify for a reality TV show about fat people.

I'm still not sure how I feel about that...but I AM thinking about going on a diet!

They had a massive 16' crane on the pier, which is a nice piece of equipment. I tried walking down the beach to check out the filming, but several production assistants quickly materialized and asked me not to take pictures. I snapped a few quick ones anyway, but I didn't want to upset anyone so I didn't make a point of arguing.

The contestants slogged their way back from the sand flats, looking exhausted after digging on their hands and knees for clams. Some had mesh bags of clams in tow.

I asked Steve about the challenges. He was good and didn't reveal much, but he did say that they had to compete to see who got the most clams. And that they DID bury some live clams ahead of time on the flats. There was a scale hanging off the pier to weigh them for the cameras.

Which made sense, because those people were collecting huge amounts of clams in a short time. Probably anyone who wants to make a clam-killing can rake the sand today and get a decent haul.

Look for "Fat March" on ABC this Fall!

An Easter Story

(reposted from ConnecticutBob.Com)

Easter Season, 1978.

I was a stockboy at the Woolco in Orange. Woolco was the low-rent version of Woolworth's, I think. Back then we were considered number 3 in the Big Three of discount stores: Caldor's, Bradlee's and Woolco.

We had a real a-hole as an assistant manager, but he was the guy in charge of us kids, and we basically got away with murder when he wasn't watching.

Working in a discount store wasn't very interesting, but we had fun. My buddy Rich was a real troublemaker, who for some reason never got fired for anything he did.

Which was a lot.

For instance, whenever he got yelled at by the boss, he got even by sneaking into the Pet Department and opening all the bird and hamster cages. You can always tell when Rich was pissed, because there'd be birds chirping up in the flourescent light fixtures, and you'd hear the occasional scream from an innocent female shopper who came face to face with a terrified gerbil.

The big shipment of Easter candy would usually arrive right after Christmas, and we'd have to store the confections until it was time to put them on display. That's where I first learned about Peeps. Those awful little marshmellow chicks. Occasionally we'd grab a case of them and bite all their heads off. I still don't know why we did it, except it would make us guffaw like lunatics.

Woolco had a locked storage room, basically a chicken wire cage, where they stored the regular stock of candy; to prevent us from eating ourselves into a diabetic coma, I think. But there was so much Easter candy that we had to store them out in the back hallway. The assistant manager, Mr. Maligudi, told us to put them there.

I noticed the hall was heated by these huge industrial gas heaters that would click on and blow superheated air down the entire length. I mentioned that to Mr. Maligudi, but of course he refused to listen to a lowly stockboy, so we stacked up case after case of chocolate bunnys in the hallway. As ordered.

Then we went and bit the heads off more Peeps.

A month or so later it was time to open the cases and put the bunnies on display. We started at the far end of the hall. They were fine. As we progessed towards the middle of the hall, I noticed some of the bunnies looking distinctly unwell in their little cardboard and cellophane boxes. The bunny ears drooped a little bit and the yellow and blue candy mint eyes hung a bit low in their faces. Rich and I looked at each other and grinned.

Continuing along the hall, we found more bunnies that were seriously hurting. Ears and heads melted down into their hollow torsos; mint eyes and carrots fallen off; a puddle of melted chocolate was forming at the bottom of the bunny's tomb. We began laughing hysterically. So much so that Mr. Maligudi heard us and stormed into the hallway, wanting to know what was so damned funny.

We showed him the deformed bunnies. His face fell. We grinned. He tore open a new case, this one only about ten feet from the heater. When he pulled out a box it contained nothing but a congealed puddle of milk chocolate about 1/2" deep, with two candy eyes looking up at him.

We died laughing. I know it's bad form to laugh hysterically at the boss, but it was too funny to contain. Everybody in the store came back there to see the dead bunnies. Mr. Maligudi was extremely pissed but couldn't fire us, because I reminded him that I mentioned the heaters back in January. He stormed out to a chorus of laughter.

Then me and Rich killed us some more Peeps.

So, to this day, I can't walk down the candy aisle of a department store in March without a grin.

That's my Easter story.

I miss Woolco.

Sopranos: 7 Seasons in 7 Minutes

The final season of the long-running HBO hit "The Sopranos" begins this Sunday.

If you haven't seen every episode, you can catch up by watching this video. It explains everything:

Rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America

Some people think Kevin Smith's films are nothing but a slew of vulgarities.

Apparently, they're right!

Here's a Youtube version of Smith's epic movie "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back!" that delivers all the R-rated goodness with none of that wholesome excess dialogue that can be so boring (and, this ain't for kids, so f**k off go away if you're under 18):

St. Pat's parade video

Here's a little 70-second video I shot and edited from my digital camera of the parade. I edited it after drinking three or so Guiness Stouts, which will be obvious when you see the results.

I guess St. Patrick's Day is sort of a religious holiday over in Ireland. Here in America, we have parades and puke green beer (not me, I was fine).

Actually, I haven't seen anyone selling green beer in years...I think the custom has finally gone the way of the mullet.

Parade
Uploaded by CTBob

Another incomprehensible film from David Lynch

I haven't actually SEEN "Inland Empire" yet, but I know enough about Lynch to realize that there's not going to be any audience "spoon-feeding" in this latest flick.

As expected, this movie will be filled with plenty of Lynch's trademark "weirdness"; the kind of faintly uncomfortable atmosphere that pervades many of his films.

Ah yes, who doesn't love Lynch's rabbits? Between "Donnie Darko" and David Lynch, I'll never see rabbits as those cute little furrballs again. And speaking of "Donnie Darko", Darko-director Richard Kelly is also about to release his long-awaited "Southland Tales". It's going to be a wonderful year for weirdness.

Laura Dern in a predictable moment of angst. Lynch shot this movie on video (not quite typical "consumer video" as is being reported, but also not the Speilberg super high-end stuff either; he used a $3,000 Sony PD-150, and I have no idea if he used any expensive lens) and I'm sure it'll show in places. But video also can add to the weirdness, by making the image "come alive" in ways that film doesn't.

It should be interesting. For info and trailers, visit the Inland Empire website.

And after you see the movie, go online and search for an explaination.

My "Rails to Trails" Documentary

I finally got around to uploading the full-length version of "The Airline Rail Trail" documentary onto Youtube. It runs 13:45, and previously I needed to split it into two pieces to keep to the 10-minute limit Youtube had; since then, I've attained "Director" status and the limit has been lifted.

So here it is!

The $13 Shoulder Brace

Early this week a friend of mine (Spazeboy) emailed me a link to this device, called a "Spider Brace" (www.spiderbrace.com) that allows you to support a mid-sized DV camera without getting tired. The heavier Canon GL-2 gets very shaky after I hold it for more than 10 minutes, compared with my ultra-lightweigh Panasonic GS-150.

The only problem is, it costs about $60.

I love home-built video gadgets, and I figured I could do better, so I went to Home Depot to look at some PVC piping and fittings.

Here's what I came up with...the fantastic $13 "Bob-o-Brace 2000"!

Here's how I built it - I purchased the following items from Home Depot:

(all PVC is 3/4")

1 3/4" x 10' pipe $ 1.82
2 PVC RUN TRAPS (@ 1.37) 2.74
2 90 deg. PVC elbow (@ .25) .50
4 PVC Caps (@ .22) .88
2 PVC Couplers (@ .23) .46
1 1/4" x 1" Steel Wingnut .88

I used eight 1.5" drywall screws, a scrap piece of pine board (4.5" x 8.5" x .75"), and a can of PVC glue that I had in the basement; those items probably cost about $6 or $7, so the cost of this entire project should be about $12 or $13.

I started with the pine board, then I cut two pieces of PVC pipe with a hacksaw to about 11" each; I made the one on the left a little shorter since the device would be on my right shoulder, I figured my left arm would have to come across my body to hold the brace.

I used masking tape to hold the two pieces of pipe along the edges of the board, then I drilled a 1/8" hole through the pipe and into the wood. I screwed in a drywall screw, then drilled and screwed in three more screws on both pipes. I ended up with about 1" of the pipe overhanging each end of the board.

Then I fitted the two couplers to the back end of the board, and the PVC run traps to that. Then I capped them. DON'T GLUE THEM YET! The PVC pieces should fit snugly enough to hold together without the glue while you build this. You might want to change some lengths of the PVC pipe to perfect it, and with ten feet of pipe you can cut a lot of different sized pieces.

The "PVC run traps" are what really makes this thing work! They fit nicely on my shoulder and give the entire brace its stability. As soon as I found them in the PVC pipe accessories section of Home Depot, I instantly knew there were perfect for the job.

I mounted the right side 90 degree elbow in a verticle downward position, and put a roughly 5" piece of pipe in it. Then I mounted the left side elbow in a roughly 45" angle and cut a longer piece for my left hand.

I capped both pieces and adjusted the two front legs so when I placed the brace on a table, the camera is level (left-to-right level; it angles up about 20 degrees, which is what I want anyway, for use as a low angle camera platform).

I drilled a 1/4" hole in the board for the wingnut bolt to hold the camera in place, and made sure I liked the alignment of the camera and brace. Then I glued the pieces together.

One thing I wish I didn't do was glue the left hand leg into the 90 degree elbow. That way I could remove the leg and store it in a smaller area. But I can always saw the pipe just below the elbow and fit another coupler in there and leave it un-glued, so if it becomes a hassle I can fix it.

The last thing I'll do is paint the whole thing with black paint to make it look cool, but that's completely optional. The main thing is that it's really lightweight (about 1.5 lbs) and super strong.

And it works great!

I shot the NH Coliseum implosion today

After a week of major work and hectic political events, some people might enjoy having a nice Saturday morning in which to sleep late and maybe read the paper and have coffee in bed.

I'm obviously not "some people".

Because I happen to think it's a swell idea to wake up at 4:15AM and get dressed, then hop in my chilly car for a nighttime journey to New Haven. To shoot video of the New Haven Coliseum implosion.

In January.

Before dawn.

Yes, it's obvious that I was dropped on my head as a toddler.

Technical Stuff: I used two cameras for the shoot; my Panasonic GS-150 handheld and zoomed in on the lower level, and the Canon GL2 on a tripod set to capture the entire field of view. When I edited the video below, I used the audio from the Panasonic, because the Canon's built-in mic is actually a pretty good directional mic, and it didn't capture everyone's comments and yells as well as the Panny. The Canon mic is great for taping someone speaking, but if you want to capture the ambience and sounds off-screen, the Panasonic does that better.

Anyway, back to the Coliseum and my pathetic teenaged memories. I've loved the New Haven Veteran's Memorial Coliseum since I was a teenager in the '70's...when I've spent many an evening watching a Steve Miller concert, or Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Queen, Foghat, or Jethro Tull. I even saw Abba.

Hey, it was the '70's...we didn't have the musical choices that the kids have today.

So it was a bit sad and nostalgic to see the ol' coliseum come to its end early this morning.

And yet, when I consider the awesome rock shows I've seen there; Ozzy both with and without Black Sabbath; Aerosmith; Stone Temple Pilots; and many, many more...I think, maybe this WAS a fitting end.

It's always better to go out with a BANG than a whimper.

BBC showing of "Blog Wars"

For all my friends across the pond:

Blog Wars on BBC 4
17 January 2007 - BBC4 - 10.30pm
blank

2006 was the year that blogs bookmarked their place on the political scene. Brook Lapping Productions’ ‘Blog War’ team was there to see it happen.

Blogs are dismissed and heralded in equal measure. Some call them a platform for unpublishable nerds and obsessives. Others say they have renewed American democracy.

Conservative blogs came from nowhere in 2004 to help tilt the Presidential election in favour of George Bush. In 2006 liberal bloggers hit back, landing punches across the country as Bush ‘took a thumping’.

The ‘Blog Wars’ team interviewed the biggest players in the blogosphere and gained intimate access to the hottest primary of the year, where a blog-driven campaign in Connecticut tried to force 18-year incumbent and Washington heavyweight Joe Lieberman off the Democratic ticket.

Executive Producer: Phil Craig
Producer/ Director: James Rogan
Editor: Brett Irwin
Assistant Producer: Will Dixon

17 January 2007
10.30pm
BBC FOUR

The new camera is in!

I just received the brand spankin' new Canon GL-2, and used it on the evening of the "Blog Wars" screening we had. Click the link to see the details of the event.

Blog Wars airs on American television on the Sundance Channel on Dec. 28th at 10PM and on Dec. 30th at 7PM. The BBC will broadcast the show sometime in January, probably. Our friends in the UK can watch the Brook Lapping website for details.

(Photo by Caffeinated Geek Girl)
I haven't downloaded the video yet, and judging from how many warning lights were flashing on the LCD display while I was shooting, I probably had all the settings wrong and the output will look like crap.

Anyway, now that I've got the new camera, I can't wait to use it to annoy Joe Lieberman and other politicians who routinely betray the public trust.

And if I have time, I'll also make cool videos like this:


(Disclaimer: No bulls were harmed in the making of this video; but one of 'em got really pissed off about it!)

"Blog Wars" Screening in Milford

Today I received my screener's copy of "Blog Wars".

It's a lot of fun!

But boy, we bloggers need to do something about our potty mouths! (Tim and Keith!)

We're going to schedule a public screening next Tuesday so anyone who was involved in or simply followed the campaign can see it before it airs on "The Sundance Channel", on December 28th and rerun on the 30th. Details below.

CT Keith is the undeniable star of the show, and deservedly so.

There's no shortage of Connecticut Bob, either; I can't tell you how fucking relieved I am that they didn't use the majority of footage that shows me looking silly.

And there was a LOT of it!

You get to see Spazeboy's hair change colors repeatedly in the course of sixty minutes!

Here's how YOU can attend the special, RSVP-only screening of "Blog Wars":

RSVP Required for admittance. You may bring friends, but you have to list them. Email me at:

blogwars@yahoo.com

to get on the list; the room is limited to 100 people, and there are a lot of people who want to see this, so sign up and get there early to guarantee admittance.

Date: Tuesday, December 19th

Time: 7:00PM Pre-screening cocktail party (bring some cocktails)
8:00 Screening

Place: Howard Johnson Lodge, 1052 Boston Post Road, Milford

Directions: I-95 North or South to Milford Exit 39A - stay right, hotel driveway on right. The "Harbor Room" is in the 2nd Building, ground floor.

The year's best movies

This has been a real busy year for me, so I didn't have a lot of time to see all the movies I wanted to, but I did manage to catch a few. Here's my list of the five movies that I liked the most this year, in no particular order:

Baghdad ER - A harrowing documentary about the efforts of military surgeons in the Green Zone trying to keep people from dying. Brutal, but necessary.

An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore examines the inevitability of global consequences to an out of control species (humans). It's time to clean our own house.

Candy - Agonizing portrayal of a couple's decent into drug addiction, from the Luke Davies novel. With Heath Ledger, the always great Geoffrey Rush, and Abbie Cornish. Disturbing.

Scoop - Woody Allen's movie (and I'm not much of a fan of his work these days) starring Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman, and Woodrow. What can I say? I'm a regular guy. I lust for Scarlett. So sue me.

The Illusionist - Edward Norton and Jessica Biel, with Paul Giamatti in a mysterious and convoluted period piece set in 19th century Austria. Beautiful cinematography.

Less stellar movies:

Little Miss Sunshine - A quirky "road movie", with a great cast. Not a home run, but ultimately a fine story well-told.

The Departed - Scorcese missed on this attempt. Better than "Gangs of New York", but not in "Goodfellas" neighborhood.

Jackass 2 - I dunno, but I think I'm getting too old to cringe for 90 minutes non-stop. I think they're getting too old, too.

Clerks II - Yes, I'm a Kevin Smith fan. Reasonable follow-up 10 years later, even though the "donkey scene" was too long. Rosario Dawson dancing more than made up for it. Dante and Randal still have great slacker dialogue. A slew of cameos from Kevin's friends.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend - Fun comic-book concept, but a weak script and awful cast ruined it. Uma Thurman is getting too old for this stuff. Maybe it's time she starts looking for some Meryl Streep-type roles.

And the most anticipated movie of the year:

BLOG WARS - Yes, that's me in that image. This is the BBC/Sundance Channel production about the bloggers involved in Ned Lamont's campaign this year. Premieres on December 28th at 10PM on the Sundance Channel, with a repeat on December 30th at 7PM. It will be broadcast in the UK sometime early next year. Click here to see the Sundance Channel's description.

Time lapse Roofers

This was a fun little experiment.

Last week we had the roof replaced on our house. The boys did a fantastic job, and it came out great. Here's the house with the brand new roof:

While they were tearing off the old shingles, I set my camera up on a tripod across the street and taped them for an hour. Then I took the video, speeded it up about 100 times, set it to some rippin' rock & roll music, and now you can see how it looks here. Enjoy!

Getting closer to my next camera

I've owned a Panasonic GS-150 for nearly two years now, and while it's been a great camera in a lot of ways, I feel like it's time to move up a step and get something a little more professional. Now that the election is over, I've got some time to look at my financial situation and figure out which video camera I can afford.

My dream cameras are the Canon XL-2 or the Panasonic DVX-100B, but they both run around three thousand dollars, so it's unlikely I can justify spending that much for a while.

So, based on my financial constraints, I'm almost sure it's going to be the Canon GL2. It's around 2 grand, which is a bit out of my price range, but a little scrimping might put me over the top. Plus, Canon has a $250 rebate on the GL2 good until January 31st, so that's roughly 1/8 off the price.

It's a solid prosumer video camera, with some advanced features that will hopefully allow me to produce better videos.

We'll see how it goes...

Happy Halloween

How CAN'T this be a great movie?

Bob Saget wrote and directed this movie. A slew of great actors and comedians do the voices. And it has PENGUINS!

Sounds like a sure winner to me.


"Farce of the Penguins", rated R (how do you make an R-rated PENGUIN movie?!?) "What happens in Antarctica, stays in Antarctica".

My two camera interview

Yesterday I taped an interview of CT Senate Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger with Online Journalist Pat Carroll doing the interviewing honors.

This was my first properly set up two camera shoot. I chose the use the traditional dual "over-the-shoulder point of views".

I used my camera and mic on a mic stand, and I set up my two China lamps to provide additional light, then set up Spazeboy's camera and mic stand, wired both mics into a dual jack then plugged them into my camera, and started both cameras and let Online Journalist Pat Carroll take it away. (And she did a fantastic job!)

I edited the two tapes for a good seven hours last night before uploading it to Youtube. It was a learning experience on how to edit a two camera shoot. The important thing was to run both mics into the same camera, and use the "B-camera" only for video.

It helped that once I started both cameras, I let them both run non-stop for 55 minutes. Once it was synced on the editor, it stayed synced for the entire length.

I used Pinnacle Studio v9.43 for PC to edit it.

The technique for doing the two camera shoot is to put the main video with audio on the Overlay track, and the B-roll stuff on the Primary track (don't know their official names, that's what I call 'em) then lock the audio on the Overlay track, so when you snip the video out of that track for a cutaway to the B-roll, the audio is maintained.

Once I got the process down, it got easier. The main thing is to have the two cameras running non-stop, and use a clapper board (or clap your hands) to sync up the two tracks. I had to shave frames to get them perfectly aligned.

Here's the interview...it's 24-minutes long, but you will pretty much see in the first 2 minutes how it looks and sounds.

Video of the Senator about the Speaker

This one made some news. My question to Senator Lieberman about House Speaker Dennis Hastert. See this article, for instance.

I learned how to import wmv files into Pinnacle, and created a coherent narrative using freeze-frame images with text asides. The repeating use of video clips helps enhance the message also.

The media that was there, including Fox-TV and Swedish TV-4, finished their interviews and turned away when I started asking the senator my question, and they were immediately back to catch his reply. You can see the Senator turning to his right to better frame himself for the cameras.

I'm back to discussing movie making

I'm going to start posting my campaign videos here, since this blog is primarily a filmmaking site, and all of the elements of creating videos are addressed in the clips I produce. I'll keep the political banter to a minimum; check out Connecticut Bob for all the campaign talk. Here we'll discuss the actual creation of the videos.

Here's a fun little video I made yesterday to encourage people to volunteer for the campaign. Since I started working with video blogging about 6 months ago, I think my skills have gotten a lot better.

I now realize that I really enjoy working with music and time compression/expansion. The hallway scene looks especially theatrical (with an obvious nod to Quentin Tarantino) and I'm going to remember that location if I ever need a really cool looking hall.

Watch it and comment on it if you want.

I'm really happy with this video

Yeah, this is a campaign thing, but I really had a great time making it.

One result of my being so involved in Ned Lamont's campaign is that I'm really learning about video production and editing. Check it out.