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20 Apr Burning Down the House

Ahh watch out!… for “Burning” a short film directed by Rebecca Maddalo. We had an outstanding cast and crew on this indie short. Shooting locations included State Park in Kendall Square, Improv Boston, and The Village Food Store in Danvers, MA, and Downtown Crossing Boston. We were able to shoot on the Red Scarlet Dragon thanks to the film’s successful kickstarter campaign. The camera was equipped with the DSMC® Low Light Optimized OLPF. With some careful scouting and fast lenses we were able to get great exposures on the city streets in downtown Boston. Gaffer, Alec Roy, supplemented the street light with a LitePanels 1×1, changed the color temp as needed, and carefully placed negative fill to make the image a bit more dramatic. Since we were a slightly large crew for shooting on the street we cleared our shoot with the City of Boston.

Director Rebecca Maddalo and I find our next location during our run ‘n gun shoot in DTX.

The crew watches playback on the sidewalk.

Alec sets up a LitePanels 1×1.

Photos above by Mike Sun Photography

In daylight the Dragon lived up to my expectations, preserving detail through the glass windows in the lobby of Improv Boston. As you can see below, the DSLR used for set photography couldn’t handle the overexposure through the windows.

Photo by Sophia Koivisto Photography

Here is a screen grab of the uncorrected Red footage.

For more on the film please follow Burning: A Short Film on Facebook.

20 Mar Shook Screens at Boston Underground Film Festival

As most people know I’ve been involved in filmmaking for the past 10 years. I’ve always been passionate about special effects and intrigued by all types of movie magic. I recently found out that a very special film called “Shook” will be screening at this years Boston Underground Film Festival. Shook is a retro grindhouse trailer for an 80s slasher flick written and directed by Ben Swicker and lensed by Adam Van Voorhis. I joined the crew as the Special Effects Makeup Artist and helped with some of the costuming. Of all the projects I have been involved in over the years this is really one of my favorites because we brought the 80s spirit in every way possible. We opted for low budget practical special effects, we got vintage costumes, retro locations, and even a sweet, sweet picture car. Adam used the Moviecam, a 35mm camera, as well as a lighting style that fit the time period and genre. The cast and crew were stellar and filming felt like summer camp but with a lot more blood! Check it out on the big screen at the Brattle on Friday March 27th in the Homegrown Horror program. For tickets visit BUFF.

12 Mar Most Likely to…





Spring is in the air and that means it’s almost time for movie camp! This April I will be shooting the micro budget feature film Most Likely. The story is a quirky romantic comedy about a group of childhood friend reuniting for a wedding in the White Mountains. I just found out from director Andrew Bemis that casting is complete and our location is locked! I’ll be posting a lot more about the film as we begin to prep. I can already tell this is going to be the type of filmmaking experience that thrives on creativity and collaboration.
For immediate updates on Most Likely follow Bang Films on twitter! Follow @bangfilms

01 Mar Zoom Zoom Zoom

A few posts ago I wrote about shooting for Yahoo Live Screen. I am super excited to share that I just did another show with them and had the opportunity to shoot with the sickest lens! The Fujinon 72X broadcast lens has the largest range and is physically the largest lens I’ve ever encountered. The focal length range is roughly 9.3-670 (manufacturer says 675). There is also a 2x extender and some solid accessories like the zoom and focus control. It’s designed for 2/3″ HDTV cameras like the Thompson Grass Valley LDK8000’s we used for the show.