Rogue Warrior premiere, some music videos, and more!

A lot's happened since my last update, as I've been busy with numerous projects. First off, I shot a music video for Karmin for her track Love Is Louder off of her upcoming album. We shot that at the YouTube Spaces on a RED Epic Dragon with Canon CN-E prime lenses. The camera lived on a Steadicam for the shoot. The final edit just got locked and I'm quite pleased with how this turned out. I'll share the video once it comes out.

Next up was a lyric video for Emii's track Wait. It was kind of a rush job, as they decided late into the schedule to change from a standard lyric video into a lyric/music video hybrid. Since the song had a hard release date, we rushed in to get this shot and it was an ambitious concept with lots of set changes and wardrobe/makeup changes. We shot RED Epic MX with Sony CineAlta lenses. The camera spent a good chunk of time on a Ronin. I'm not totally thrilled with the color grade, as the turnaround was so fast that I was unable to sit in on any of it.

Moving on, the science fiction feature film Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter had its premier this last weekend at the Action on Film Festival. It was pretty well attended and I enjoyed seeing some of the cast and crew for the first time in almost a year and a half. The movie went through some extensive rewrites and subsequent reshoots in the time since we wrapped principal photography, so it was interesting and surprising to see the final product, as I was not involved in the shooting of those additional scenes. Here are a couple pictures from the night.

Rogue Warrior premiered on the opening night of the Action on Film Festival.

A big chunk of the cast, and then me on the left repping the crew.

Screen 12. Same screen where the festival debuted the last two features I shot for Neil Johnson.

Lastly, Action on Film also screened the DC Comics fan film, Fair Fight, which I shot 2nd Unit DP. Due to other obligations, I was unable to attend that screening. Fair Fight has also been invited to screen at another film festival, so it sounds like it's being well received.

SDCC 2016

Another year, another San Diego Comic Con. As in recent years, both Nobility and Space Command had panels. What was different this year is that Nobility has a finished project, with color correction, sound mix, and FX complete (or nearly complete). The panel was well attended and the footage looked the best it has yet. This year, we even managed to get Doug Jones in on the panel.

Nobility panel and screening

For the Space Command panel, they had to use the entire length of the table! The panel was huge! Hey, wait...is that Doug Jones again? That guy is everywhere! Unfortunately, I had an appointment to keep and was unable to make it to this panel. They debuted the opening 6 minutes of the film. The VFX were not quite complete from what I've been told, but it's a start. This movie is extremely FX heavy so the post process has been excruciatingly slow, as they're working on a very small budget for what they're trying to pull off. But they're still at it.

Space Command panel. That's a full lineup there!

This year, Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter had a signing. Dave Seeley designed the movie poster and was kind enough to let us do a signing in his booth. I'm pretty sure nobody cares about getting my signature, but it was fun nonetheless. The film is in the final stages of the sound mix and color correction, so the director says he's aiming to premiere it at the Action on Film Festival in early September.

(left to right): Robot Fighter lead Tracey Birdsall, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Marc Hawes, not-appearing-in-this-film me, and (just offscreen) Neil Johnson.

Other than that, at one of my meetings I received some great news about Mystic Cosmic Patrol, the pilot I shot last year. It seems that there is some definite interest in it, with a deal very, very close to happening. As we all know, nothing's certain until the ink dries (and even then plans change), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that project. It was one of my favorite things to shoot and possibly my favorite end product, as it looks fantastic, sounds great, and is hilarious. I'm usually very reserved in my praise, but this is a show that I'd tell everyone I know to watch.

Well, that's it for Comic Con. It wore me out, but I had a lot of fun and my meetings went well. Here's to hoping I'll have some other new projects to showcase at next year's SDCC!

Mid-January update

I'm still working on pre-production for the short film I'm shooting at the end of the month. We're getting the equipment orders put in and finalizing details. Tomorrow we have a read-through of the script with all the keys and will be making sure we have everything ironed out for the shoot. Everything seems to be coming together nicely and I'm excited to get this made.

Last night we had a cast, crew, and friends/family screening for Mystic Cosmic Patrol, which is a television pilot that I shot last year. We screened two of the three episodes and got a great response. Not only did we have an awesome cast (Chris Masterson, Timothy Jo, Laura Monaco, Chris Candy, Chelsea Tavares, and Tim Russ), but a great crew and production team. It was nice to see a lot of them again and I was very pleased with how the final product turned out. I tend to be a pretty harsh critic of my work, but even I liked it. Hopefully, we can find a studio that enjoys it as much as the audience at the screening did. This was my favorite project to shoot and ended up being my favorite completed project as well, so I'd love for it to get a series order.

In other news, the recently released January issue of Talent Monthly Magazine is loaded with projects I worked on. It features interviews with Tracey Birdsall (Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter, At the Edge of Time), Aaron Jacques (Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter, Starship Rising), Barry Corbin (At the Edge of Time, No Country for Old Men), and Stephen Manley (Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). The issue also debuted the poster for the movie Rogue Warrior, pictured below.

Tracey Birdsall (center), Daz Crawford (left) and Aaron Jacques (right)

Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter pickup day

Today we went out to the desert to shoot a couple pickup scenes with actresses Tracy Birdsall and Marilyn Ghigliotti. It was a pretty light day, with only a couple pages of dialog to get through, but the location was pretty fantastic.

360° panorama

Setting up a 100mm two-shot.

Checking out the mine next to our shoot location.

Sci Fi Magazine Oct 2015

The current issue of Sci-Fi Magazine features an article that talks about two feature films I shot recently. The cover is here:

Sadly, I didn't shoot the movie that made the cover. But within this magazine are a couple movies I did shoot.

The article interviews actress/producer Tracy Birdsall, who starred in and produced both At the Edge of Time and Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter. She was a real pleasure to work with and we had a good time. The October 2015 issue of Sci Fi Magazine is available at most major magazine retailers (Barnes and Noble, Frys, Hastings, many comic book stores, etc).

Hey, we got a full page!

More Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter!

And here are a few more screengrabs from Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter.

Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter screengrabs

I've finally been told I can post some screengrabs from the feature I shot in March, called Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter. We shot some days on stage, some in the desert, and some in Malibu. The movie is currently being edited, with pickups to come in the future (pickups were pre-planned).

And that's another wrap!

Today we wrapped on principle photography of the latest feature film I'm shooting.  We got to shoot in some fantastic locations, from the abandoned towns of Salton Sea and fields of grass in Malibu, to a bit on a soundstage and the basement of an old hospital.  Mostly shot handheld on a RED Epic, with some small pieces on a Panasonic GH4 riding the DJI Ronin.  While I've flown my Dragon on a Ronin, I have to admit that something small like the GH4 is much easier to hold for longer takes.

While I've already begun some basic pre-production for my next shoot, now that I'm wrapped on this I can really dig in.  Although it's a smaller project (teaser trailer for a Kickstarter campaign), it is ambitious, should be a lot of fun, and we have some really cool shots lined up.  Once that's all done, it's likely straight into another feature, currently scheduled for early May.  Gotta keep shooting!

Nothing quite like natural sun right before sunset.  That soft, golden light is beautiful.  Too bad it doesn't last a couple hours longer.

On to the next one

This past week was spent out in the Salton Sea desert area shooting the first week of another feature film, Robot Fighter.  We shot in a bunch of fantastic locations, with dilapidated remains of abandoned buildings featuring heavily.  Fortunately, it wasn't too hot and we managed to get some great footage.

Most of my features to date have relied mostly on tripod and sliders, but this one the director decided to go for a handheld look.  My shoulder is a bit sore from the not-so-soft shoulder pad on the handheld rig, but I've got a Camera Comfort Cushion on the way and it should be here Monday.  I'm looking forward to shooting the next week on set, which will offer an interesting change of venue.

This guy was hanging out, watching us shoot, and wasn't afraid to pose for the camera.

One of our many broken down building locations.

Something about this location felt a bit fishy...