it happened

last week the radio hardly gave away any they might be giants tickets. this began to cause some alarm with me until one of the djs announced what i suspected: they were holding them for this week, and would be giving them out like they were going out of style. [...because, after friday, they would be out of style...]
every hour between 10 and 6 on the hour, 101.9 will be giving away a pair of tickets to the first five callers. and so i planned to keep my radio on all day long, despite the poor reception my little clock radio gets [yes, i listen on the internet, but there's some sort of delay that i can't quite figure out, and time is of the essence here, people]. yesterday i made roughly 20 attempts at 10:00, all to no avail. eleven rolled around and found me with my phone in hand. mr. west [the dj] told me to call and i did. and he answered.
'hi who is this?'
'uh, this is jeff.'
'jeff, what's your last name?'
i spelled it for him, and followed with my city and phone number, when asked.
'and have you won they might be giants tickets from us before?' he asked.
'DID I WIN??' certainly it was obvious that i did. he wasn't going to get all this information from me only to say that they had already found their five callers and to wish me better luck next time. nevertheless, it was too wonderful to comprehend for those first few moments.
'yes, you won,' he replied with the non-chalantity of a man who makes dreams come true everyday.
i let my 'wa-hoo' ring though the house.

and i sat with a giant grin as he later read the names of the winners on the air. he even pronounced 'gustafson' correctly. i felt like i had accomplished something amazing, even though i had done nothing more than make a phone call. to be fair, i had made over 100 phone calls, yet this seemed far too easy. i picked up the phone, dialed, won tmbg tickets. it felt like i could do this all afternoon, give out a new name each time, and bring all of my friends.

so today i went out to the station office to pick up my tickets. i wondered if my guster tickets were still available. i won them a month ago; maybe they gave them up. i was hoping for a large bay window, through which i could see the dj, surrounded by all the panels and dials required to a solid alternative rock station. instead, the office was extremely bland; rather small, with closed doors at either end and a dull reception desk in the middle. the kind of thing you'd expect at the front of a secret government x-files building, a ninja training camp, or a video game test laboratory. ahead of me was a young mom, picking of a pair of tmbg tickets for her husband. i said i was there to pick up some tickets, a pair for guster and a pair for they might be giants. the lady asked my name, and i was prepared to show some id. but she just opened a drawer with no locks or thumbprint identification and pulled out my tickets. she didn't even cross my name off of the list she had. she wrote it on the list. i was astounded at the lax security here. getting back in the car, i contemplated calling jack and suggesting he come down and tell them he won some tickets, too.

actually, speaking of jack, i was faced with a bit of a dilema. i knew a lot of people who would have loved to come to this concert with me. jack would love to go. so would my roommate, mark. and there was a really cool girl at church with whom i had been talking about this and she agreed we would both try to win tickets. how do you choose over a really awesome girl? well, the tickets helped a little: they said it was a 21+ show, and she's 19. but, like many decisions in life, i made up my mind before i had to make the choice. my friend nathan is not only a fellow movie maker but also a fellow tmbg freak. he knows more about them than even i do. he gave me copies of their cds that i didn't have during 'minutemen'. my very first conversation with him, before i even knew him, was about they might be giants [in the production office on 'the outlaw trail' two years ago]. it was only right to invite him.

on the way home, i called to tell him the very good news.
then i called kristin and invited her to guster on wednesday.
wow.

let me explain

i didn't mean to take a two and a half month haitus. as you may deduce from reading all of these new postings, a couple of things happened all at once. first, our modem burned out [turns out that keeping it in the un-air conditioned attic during the 100+ degree july heat will do that. go figure], and after several futile phone calls with comcast, i started work on two features, literally back to back. still, in this time, i tried to keep notes on my computer, so that when i was wired into the world again, i would have evidence of what i've been up to. hence the 17 [or however many] new posts all of the sudden.

my internet works again, i've got a few weeks off until my next movie, and it's good to be writing again.
thank you to all of you who expressed your sadness in missing 'sheep go to heaven'.

i hope you find some posts that you like.

[insert future title here]

wow.


tonight i saw a movie that blasted into my top 10, and, as i've had even a little time to think about it, probably my top 5.
ingmar bergman's 'fanny and alexander'.
i went to see it because it's a landmark of world cinema, the last major work by one of the pantheon's greatest directors. going in, i was expecting a good movie, but didn't think it would be better than the iconic 'seventh seal'.
this far surpassed it.

the movie was made for swedish television as a five-hour miniseries, and later released as a three-hour version for international theatrical release. about two hours into it, i realized that there had not been a false step anywhere. i began to get an excitement that took me a few moments to place: it's the same feeling i get when i watch '2001', when a movie is so near-perfect that every line, every look, every movement is amazing. in the third act it got a little weird to the point that i wasn't sure what to think, but in retrospect, i still hold that there is not a frame out of place.

during the movie i began to wonder how to write about it. i still don't know what to say. i need some time to let it settle. to think about all that i saw. the audience seemed to generally enjoy it [before the show, i was wondering about that: who goes to see ingmar bergman? returned missionaries from sweden? world cinema buffs? have they seen other bergman movies, or did they just happen to wander in here?], but i was very pleased when, as the credits rolled, my friend and i sat there in a moment of silence [after the applause] until he softly said, 'wow.'

i'd like to write about it, but i don't know if i can. there were so many themes, ideas, stories, thoughts, characters, and moments, all layered and interwoven using every element of cinema so skillfully that i feel i could barely scratch the surface. bear in mind that i'm still on the 'high' from the movie, but this may be the most perfect movie i've ever seen.

afterward there was a faculty-led discussion for those who were interested, and there were about ten of us who were interested. i didn't plan on saying anything; my thoughts were still too fluid and i just wanted to hear others' ideas, theories and interpretations.
the discussion did help me to better understand somethings and begin to further see what i saw. but it was also exciting to be back in an academic environment. my dear friend em has written before about the empty space that graduation can leave, and i didn't realize how much i had missed the dialogue of academia until i was walking out of the theater.

i was beginning to shake with... i don't even know what, but i had to share it with someone who would appreciate it and appreciate it with me. on the phone, i couldn't stop talking, even though half the time i wasn't even sure what to say except that it was fascinating and intriguing and thought-provoking and and and here i am again, not even sure what to say.

but wow.
top five.

my name in lights

tonight was the premiere of 'turnaround'. the theater was mostly full, which was encouraging; the director noted that when you invite all the extras and their friends, it's easy to do that. it's good advice: my high school choir director advising holding your first concert in an elevator, so that you can have a packed audience. [and it really was an 'extras showing' in essence; when they had all the crew stand up, i think there were three of us standing, though i know at least two who remained seated. not that that's saying much; we had about an 8-person crew total]

this was my first opportunity to shoot a feature, and even though it was a little low-budget shot-on-video strait-to-video for a niche market movie, i felt like notifying the american society of cinematographers when i was offered the job. and considering that when i saw the movie i directed at the byu student film festival, i spent whole 7 minutes in an upright fetal position, i was curious how i would take exhibition of my work.
it went well. and i took it well. it was actually quite fun seeing my work up there [i have to confess, it was also pretty cool to see my name at the start of the movie]. projected from a dvd on that large screen, the image was painfully pixely; we knew we would have focus problems with the confusing equipment we were using, yet there were some scenes that never seemed to have any plane in focus; and the colors were often inconsistent between shots within a scene. yet underneath all of that, i was often quite happy with the lighting. and doubly so when i remembered how grossly underpowered our lighting package was. it looks like as if we had lights four times bigger than what we really did. i'm working on updating my d.p. reel, and there are several shots that i'm planning on adding in.
how was the movie itself? i really can't say. i was too close to it, too involved to really think of it as a movie on the whole; i watched it from the same standpoint i shot it, bouncing back between remember what was happening when we shot a certain scene and critically studying the cinematography, analyzing what worked and what i would do differently were i to shoot that same scene again.
that's the surprise reason that i'm most eager to get my own copy of the movie; to see where i can improve and do better next time.

afterwards they were giving away posters and the cast was available for autographs, and i was glad that so many people lined up for it [enough that after waiting in line for too long i said heck with it and just had the producer hand me a couple from behind the table]. my date wanted one and had me sign it, and i think i'll give the other one to my mom; finally, her son's name is on a poster.
by small and simple means are great things brought to pass.

right?

disappointed

for me not watching the movie, it's been a good movie night, mark had retired to his room because he has to get up way too early for his job, and i was jotting down a few teapot notes on my computer when a shriek came from his room. he threw open the door and in desperation yelled for me to listen to the radio, which obviously couldn't hear from my room down the hall. by the time i'd walked in, the horrible announcement was over, but he was still shaken up. he said that the white stripes concert for september 29 had been canceled, due to meg having acute anxiety or something.
dang.
i'm really quite bummed about this. we bought our tickets so long ago that there's no financial scar of having paid for them, and we've been continually talking about how cool it will be to see them. plus, that was going to be a nice complement should i ever win they might be giants tickets and a nice consolation should i not win said precious tickets. [i still haven't decided if i'm going to see 'guster' or just give away the tickets] getting a refund isn't as fun as seeing the show.
now, my only choice is to win they might be giants tickets.

why i work

how can this happen? how is it that three hours ago at work i wanted to scream? that it seemed i would have to spent the whole drive home talking with a friend on the phone about how rough today was? and yet, as i sit on my bed, taking off my socks and listening to coldplay, i can feel so good?
because i have good friends.
i don't live to work. i work to live. i go to work to earn money and a living so that i can spend time with my friends. so that i can have time to enjoy life. mark took it upon himself to start the 'pre-season' of 'classic movie night' tonight, meaning that i came home to a group of people thoroughly engrossed in 'babel'. i watched the last half hour with them and we all talked about how amazing it was and what it could mean and what we each got from it.
after everyone had left, mark confessed to sneaking a looking during out apartment prayer and noticed the condition of our carpet. 'we've had a lot of good times here,' he said.
absolutely. and that's why i'm going to work again tomorrow; so that i can continue to beat the heck out of our carpet.

my 28th birtday

i was out the door in a good time this morning. i should have planned ahead just a little better, though. mark's birthday was on sunday, and someone 'attacked' his car. the same thing happened to mine this morning. it was very cool, with crete paper streamers, ballons, and window writing [though the 'i'm legal' kind of confused me]. it evidently rained last night, because the streamers were soggied to the car. it took me a few minutes to clean all of this enough that i could drive to salt lake, but the thought was certainly worth it.

i wore my superman shirt [my personal way of declaring how awesome i was on this day] and labeled all of the mags in blue marker instead of my usual black. does this sound lame? it was just my secret little way of celebtrating.

starting at midnight last night, i recieved celebratory text messages from 13 different people and two singing voice mails [which i have decided to keep on my phone indefinitely]. jess wins the earlybird award with her text coming in at 12:00:21 a.m. her sister's actually came first, but it was disqualified for coming at 11:58 p.m.

i didn't mention anything about my birthday, but as the accountant was handing out our paychecks, she shouted happy birthday to me [she'd seen my hiring form and noticed it was the same as her sister's or something], and pretty soon the news had spread thoughtout the crew. all of the p.a.s wished me a happy birthday, as did the gaffer and several other people, so that by the time we were having our second meal it was announced over the radio by the camera crew. at the end of the day, when i called the producer with the day's report, he said he'd just heard and wished me a happy birthday.

it's been fun.

who makes movies?

a few days ago i overheard someone talking about the 'high school musical 2' premiere in los angeles, where the executive producers congratulated themselves on the movie's success. it was noted that some of these people didn't seem to do anything.
who made high school musical 2?
andrew, the steadicam operator, who wore that heavy rig in the hot st. george sun and held the camera smooth and still.
barley, the cheerful dolly grip, moving and setting up the dolly and gliding the camera to make the shot.
garlan, the gaffer, who watches out for everyone and is like the grandpa on set.
fritz, the best boy electric, who lives by the philosophy that we're all making the same movie.
matt, the tattooed craft service guy, making sure that we've not only got water, but any treats we want.
delynn, the amazing transpo driver, who knows proves that there are no unimportant jobs on a set and who makes sure we can do our best.
and many more; these are the people who make 'high school musical 2'.

texts

recently, the great cinematographer haskel wexler made a documentary called 'who needs sleep?', looking at the strenuous hours put in by those in the film industry. i've heard it was inspired by the death of one of his 2nd a.c.s, who died in a car crash after falling asleep while driving home from a 19-hour day; i remember reading about that, actually.
i've learned three important rules to working happily in the film industry. 1. when you are on a production, accept that that will be your life; do not try to do anything outside of that, and if you do happen to have an hour or two of free time, consider yourself lucky. you will have plenty of time when the production wraps. 2. work until they call wrap. do not hope you are done by 8:00, do not get upset if they add another shot or if they go past 12 hours. work until you are done, and you will feel much better. 3. a good night's rest makes all the difference.

tonight i came home with plans to tidy up the house a bit then get to sleep [after a poorly managed night last night]. instead a friend came over and we talked until i kicked her out at midnight [she's still a cougar]. as important as sleep is, reminders of how wonderful it is to have friends can be an even bigger variable. i'll get five and a half hours of sleep tonight. and i don't regret it in the least. after days of profanity and cynical attitudes, i am more grateful for awesome people.


texting is a wonderful thing and a great way to get through the day.

who needs sleep?
cheers to you all.

learning to play sudoku

so today was a good day on set. plus, it's 'way-back wednesday' on 101.9, where they play nothing but classic 80's alternative from 10-6. i absolutely love it, and was dancing by myself in the truck to oingo boingo's greatly underrated 'not my slave'.

during the parker & wendy show, they had an interesting game for tmbg tickets: the sudoku challenge. at 3:00 they would give out the numbers for the first three rows. at 4:00 they would announce rows four through six, and at 5:00 they would give the final three rows. the first five people to get it right win tickets.

i don't know how to play sudoku, and until now, have never needed to know. but when an opportunity to see john and john is attached, game on. so i called beej and left a message, asking him to call me back as fast as possible. i called my brother who gave me the basic run-down as he understood it, and i called nathan in the production office, who didn't know but began polling people, trying to learn. no, it's not that complicated, and i mostly knew the rules anyway.
i couldn't go on to the website and print off my official sudoku square, but i found some scratch paper and drew my own. i made a mental note to make sure this didn't get in the way of my job, but managed to be in the truck at 3:00 and again at 4:00. during the waiting time, i went through and determined every possible number for each box, so that as the next set of numbers was announced, i could go and find the answers as quickly as possible. it was really quite fun.
five o'clock was coming around and i had every number assigned that i could, when a call came on the radio that both cameras needed to reload. plus, it was 'film break', meaning time to get all of the film ready to ship off for the lab. i was able to write down the last row of numbers, but never had a chance to find the answers.
i'm hoping that my dedication to putting my job first will win me some sort of karma points, redeemable before september 21.

75 phone calls at 75 mph

as a loader, i'm on the truck for a fair amount of time. and, being me, i like to keep the radio on. today i overheard something about a 'they might be giants' concert and perked up. the details were that it's a free concert with tickets to be given away only on by 101.9. i called my fellow tmbg fanatic who was working in the production office and told him the exciting news, and we agreed to do all that could to get tickets.
with a month on this movie, i should have enough chances to call in and win.

driving home today, the evening show had a contest to keep track of the five 'mash-ups' they played and if you could name them all, you had your choice of prizes, including a handful of tmbg tickets. keeping track of songs isn't too tricky, but when they're mash-ups [two songs that have been spliced into one another], you get some weirder titles. and trying to remember five of them while driving down I-15, well, i was earning this, that's for sure.

my phone said that it was my 75th attempt when i finally got through. by then parker the dj didn't even care if i knew the songs, he just offered me my choice of tickets to see 'bowling for soup', 'guster', or four free little ceasar's pizzas. i asked if there was anyway i could get a pair of they might be giants tickets. he said they had given away their quota for the day, but not to worry because they had 500 pair to give away from now until september 21. alright, i guess. i didn't really want to see 'bowling for soup', and winning some little ceasar's pizzas hardly seemed like a worthwhile radio prize, so i took the guster tickets for september 19, after making sure that i was still eligible to win the good tickets.

i don't even know who guster is...

a bigger pond

today was the first of two prep days for salty pictures' new disney movie, 'minutemen'. yesterday was my one day off between movies. today was a good day. it's interesting going from the big guy on a small movie to the smaller guy on a bigger movie. there are definite advantages to both, and it's fun to move back and forth, to lead the group then to be the follower to the more experienced, having learned what i don't know then watching those who know more. the hours are rough, the work is inconsistent and unstable, yet there are some times when i really do love this filmmaking thing. 'high school musical' was on tv last night, so i recorded it and watched it tonight while doing the dishes. it was odd seeing the opening credits of the show: most of those names weren't just names, they were people who said 'hi' to me today as i was running around the office. the kids in the show were the same kids i saw last march, and i recognized the high school because i shot there. kind of neat, really.

driving home today, i came through a good strong rainstorm at the point of the mountain, and, coming into utah county, i saw the grandest and most complete rainbow i have perhaps ever seen. it was a full half circle, stretching entirely from one point on the ground to the other. in fact, i was surprised at how intriguing it was; captivating and peaceful. i almost crashed my car.

the pastrami cannon at the end of the week

call time was at 8:00 this morning. i left the location at midnight. but i felt good. the camera crew worked our tails off tonight, and once again, i am reminded how true it is that a main key to success is to surround yourself with good people. it was great having nathan around today, too, for so many reasons. jeremy is getting better at doing the slate and camera reports, steph brought in six plates of dinner on two tray for us as we were working on into the 14th hour; i got to camera operate for a fair amount of today, which was a lot of fun and a new experience; i confirmed a replacement for me when i leave on tuesday to go to a bigger show starting thursday; we were shooting water out of luke's hands this morning and pastrami and swedish fish and noodles out of a canon this evening onto a crowd of a couple hundred extras in a gym, plus a really cool camera-on-a-crane shot; at times, i felt like a bit of a hero, aptly running from one camera to the other, taking control and doing whatever needed to be done; that cute girl on the crew talked to me a bit and said that the camera crew did a great job today, after earlier telling me that she liked my hawaiian shirt that i wore yesterday for 'hawaiian shirt friday' [although it's a pretty awesome shirt--i think it's impossible not to like it. hooray for sisters]; though we worked for 16 hours, it was one of those days where i felt like i could go forever, never really getting tired, but just going until we were done; we got some cool slo-mo shots and realized what caused a very unfortunate problem on a shot last week [never will any of us make that mistake again]; today was our last day for our loader but he found us a new guy who seems to have the right mentality for the job, which is reassuring [you really don't know if the loader messes up until two days later, an obvious risk]; as i was leaving tonight, i passed our production manager, a friend of mine with whom our friendship has been pulled and strained as we've worked on different ends on this show at times, and she thanked me very much for my work today, which was quietly reassuring. it was a good day. i'm very happy for a sabbath day of rest tomorrow, and intend to read harry potter for a while.

day 10

driving home down canyon road, i passed a pair of little girls with a lemonade stand by the side of the busy road, the more extroverted of the two still waving her poster board sign at cars at dusk. her advertising method left something to be desired, as she was waving her sign the other way while i was still approaching, yet her message was clear enough that i turned around and drove back, despite not knowing how much a glass was, or even what they were selling, come to think of it.
i bought two cups of lemonade for 25 cents each [one for my roommate] and, after asking if they accepted tips, gave them each another quarter.

today was a good day at work. monday and tuesday were quite rough, in part because our largely green crew was still learning how to work together, speaking both of my camera crew and of the general crew of the movie [features usually take a while to iron things out], and compounded by a couple of mistakes from our loader. last night he came to me and confessed that he had lost a roll of film. unexposed, thankfully, but nevertheless, that is not a good feeling. he and our 2nd a.c. and i looked everywhere in the room, checked every can, and went over every report and hypothesized every scenario, though he had already done that in earnest three times that day. finally we got on our knees and prayed together [though he had also already done that, too]. when we had done all we could, we left for the night; our loader was considering finding a replacement and resigning.
this morning i explained the news to the director of photography and later to the production manager, and they both took it as well as could be expected [which, for the record, certainly classifies as 'well']. walking down the hall to find the production manager, i was hoping that our prayer would be answered and that the roll would be found... somewhere, somehow. but it never was.
we worked hard today, and got a lot done. things went well, i think a lot of ryan's work looked very nice, the comradery amongst the crew was great, and everyone was in good spirits when wrap was called. as i was pushing our cart back to the camera room, ryan mentioned that he wanted to talk to the loader and ask him to stay on, which i thought was very good of him. after we had everything put away, i gave a short lesson on lenses and focus, and as i was leaving, ryan was coming in to talk with our guy.

the lemonade from those little girls really wasn't that good, but i'm a sucker for lemonade stands, which seemed nostalgicly out of date when i was doing them 17 years ago, yet still persist this day.

it is now 10:29 and i still have to read six and a half pages in exodus before i can even read harry potter for the evening [i should be in leviticus now, but i missed a few days last week].
just once i'd like to have jason call wrap, put away the camera, leave like a normal first a.c., and get home at 9:00 with 2+ hours to read harry potter 7.
maybe tomorrow.

but it was a good day, and i can't complain about that.

my first as a first

being the head of the camera crew has really taught me a lot and given me even more to think about. not that i have a whole lot of time to ponder management philosophies when i'm setting up the camera, changing lenses, getting focus marks, rehearsing, double-checking all of the above before we roll, triple-checking again, and trying to pin clothespins on the back of paul the dolly grip without him noticing, but i do have some time to think.
while it's something that i've known since before i downloaded my first roll of 16mm film, the fact that the camera crew is the most crucially delicate part of the crew has been reinforced upon my mind lately. i secretly believe that i have a certain amount of natural talent for judging distance and focus, and overall the focus pulls on this show haven't been too hard. nevertheless, if i get my job wrong, it can negate how well everyone else may have done their job. the same goes with remembering to always set the exposure, tightening every screw, and ensuring that the camera is running safely and cleanly at all times.
while i'm generally enjoying this growing experience, it does bring with it it's share of 'doing i really know what i'm doing?' moments.
one thing i never realized before, too, is how the first a.c. is actually the head of the camera department. technically the director of photography is, but in reality he's kind of his own entity. i work very closely with him, but the great bulk of the camera operations go through the first a.c. it's nice to have a crew to work with [and really nice not to have to load], but they're very new, so there's a lot of checking up on them, explaining how to better do things, and keeping an eye on them along the way.
i like it. there's just a lot to handle.

future ponderances

looking around the cafeteria, i'm watching the crew light the next setup; move the 12K over here, add some fill, then flag off the spill. i remember when our gaffer and d.p. were new students at school and i was teaching them how to set up lights, load the camera, and the like. i was their t.a. [i think] when they were in the intermediate production class, with tom russell keeping an eye on them as they shot their first movie.
how here we are, without any teachers looking out for us, working as professionals, using bigger cameras and bigger lights than anything we ever had at school.

watching my friends, i also wonder where we will be in 15 years. who will be working here in utah, who will be running their own companies, who will have gone to l.a., and who will get out and get a real job.

i like this crew.

such great heights

let me just say that today was a rough day at work.
once again, i came home at a moderate time and had every intention of going to bed nice and early, for sleep makes all the difference. as i was wading my way through the explosion that is my room [it was actually nice and clean for a few days, until i got out all of my equipment and began prepping for this movie], my phone rang.

i've never been on a shoot that is more fun that laughing with a friend, and i have never had a day so rough that talking with an awesome person can't make it all better.

you know who you are.
thanks.

the biohazard next door

dang.

so our neighbors are in germany for five or six weeks; we've been keeping an eye on their house and taking over their duties maintaining the clubhouse and pool. sometime last week i came home and noticed a tag on their door, saying that their utilities had not been paid and that their power had been shut off.
i tried to think if they had said anything about watching out for bills but didn't remember anything about that, nor did mark. further, i looked through their mail and didn't find the red 'final notice' bill from provo city. not sure what to do, i e-mailed them to let them know of the situation and then checked the fridge and freezer: it was still cold inside, and i'd hate to throw away their food if all i had to do was call the city and work the issue out.
days went by and i didn't hear from them.

last week was busied with prepping for 'the adventures of food boy', and as shooting started this week, the powerless refrigerator next door faded from my mind.
i came home last night to an empty house. remembering next door, i went over and checked on things. it had been five or six days and most of the fridge's coolness had left. i was tired and had left my flashlight at work, so it was difficult to see very well. i decided to wait until mark got home and then we'd come back and empty everything out.
mark got home around 11 and i was already in bedtime mode.

so i came home tonight, again tired but knowing that i should probably check next door. it was wednesday night and therefore 'movie night' and mark was having a few people over to carry on the tradition by watching 'singin' in the rain'. as they were waiting for the others to show up, he offered to come next door and help me out.

we unlocked the front door and the smell hit mark.
difficult to describe, it was reminiscent of a dumpster, and became more intense as we walked back toward the kitchen and the dreaded refrigerator.
we opened the fridge door, and, like an odorous banshee coming forth from a long-forgotten tomb, were hit hard. mark ran for the door and barely made it outside before losing it in the bushes.

there was nothing we could save. containers and baggies of food that was now completely deformed were scattered throughout the refrigerator, which was, most thankfully, not very full. juices and liquids that had long since gone rancid mingled, creating smells that were almost inhumane as they dripped from the shelves and door onto the floor. i held the garbage bag out and reared my head back as mark bravely threw everything in. when the first bag was full, i ran to the dumpster. mark threw up again.


by now this commotion had attracted cheryl, who had come over expecting a nice even of the cinema. cheryl is tough, yet we refused to let her anywhere near the house. the kids from down the street gathered on the porch, informing us that it didn't smell good in there. as we stood out front, psyching ourselves up again and contemplating whether arson may be the best solution, parents began to come by, inquiring of the situation. and, after they got a wiff from the door, were declaring us to be amazing neighbors and offering cans of industrial strength lysol [we used about a third of the large can by the time the evening was through]. yet, in light of all their kind comments about us being great neighbors, i couldn't help but think that had we been on top of this on monday, or even taken up the offer of 'eat whatever's in the fridge', we would not be gasping for air and wondering if we would ever smell again.

we ran back in again and opened the freezer.
this is around where mark threw up for the third time.

seafood.

i don't know how long it takes for seafood to go bad, but this was well past prime ripeness. this did not smell like a full dumpster on a hot day. this did not smell like roadkill. it smelled like a mixture of the two, confined into this little box that we had to empty.
everything frozen had thawed, and their was putrid juice dripping everywhere. we went back outside to formulate some sort of attack plan. cheryl had a 72-hour kit in her car and gave us some plastic surgical gloves as we stormed back in.
finding a middle ground between 'as fast as humanly possible' and 'trying not to make the mess any worse', mark threw handfuls into the garbage bag. packages of crab meat seemed to be the worst, yet as we moved near the back [the freezer was much more packed than the fridge], the stench only became worse.
as i came back with the third hefty bag, we found the demon lord of this thawing hell:

at one time, it had been a nice large piece of salmon, neatly shrink-wrapped in plastic. now it looked like it was in a balloon, the packaging almost ready to burst, dripping everywhere. i shudder to think what would have happened had that popped, because even from the back of the freezer and piled under so many other foods [who were contributing their fair share], it gave off an odor which i could not believe existed.
mark bravely grabbed in and threw it into the bag at lightning speed. i cinched the bag tight and ran for the dumpster down the street as if i were holding a biological bomb.
i really, really feel bad for the innocent, hard-working trash collector coming by in a day or two.

someone commented that it was like after the great battle in book of mormon, where the bodies of the soldiers caused the land to stink so profusely that the land was uninhabitable for many years.
that's a pretty good description, i think.

sadly, while the worst was over, there was still much to do. by now, cheryl had talked herself into the house, and we began finding any old rags and every cleaner we had [mark took a spray bottle and made a 50/50 bleach-water solution] and wiping up anything that could caused offence. mind you, this was all in near-dark conditions, as there was no power and all i had was a tiny mag-lite.
we pulled out the trays and soaked them the sink. the magnetic letter toys on the fridge we also tried to wash. we wiped down the fridge and freezer countless times, and scrubbed the floor again and again. we opened the windows and brought in fans. i smelled the couches, hoping they hadn't been infiltrated. they seemed alright. the smell, though still definately present, had deteriorated greatly over the gauntlet of the past hour or two.
there might be hope, still.

when we had done all that we could think of, we left the house for the evening and watched 'singin' in the rain'.
that helped soften the events of the evening, but i do fear my nose is scarred for life.

life on another feature

i woke up this morning trying to think how long we'd been shooting this movie. as consciousness came, dragging coherency behind, i remembered: today would be our second day. it felt like it's been a week already. but features always feel like that.
i'm really enjoying being a first a.c. i run the camera department, and, as i learned on the movie i shot in april, a major part of success is surrounding yourself with good people. my 2nd a.c. is phenomenal, always thinking ahead, working tirelessly, quickly picks up what she doesn't already know, and is a master at organization. our loader is doing a very good job, despite slightly messy handwriting and him actually wanting to be on the electric crew. and our intern used to live next to me many years ago at centennial.
the day doesn't fly by almost frighteningly fast as it does when i'm a d.p., but time does move quickly. we're always moving the camera, changing lenses, getting focus marks, loading the camera, changing out this or that, and generally being awesome. granted, this is a light show and a good crew who all know each other, and i guess that makes it a prime spot for me to venture as a first a.c. and frankly, i'm loving it and i think i'm doing a good job.
this evening, as we were wrapping, ryan [the d.p. and good friend] came and quietly told me that he had just talked with the lab and that there was a serious problem with the film. it sounded like something that would have been my fault, but as we examined the camera and what we thought could have gone wrong, nothing seemed to make sense. so we left today knowing we had an issue to take care of, and while we're getting a new camera tomorrow, i'll feel a lot better when i know what caused the problem.

one of these nights i hope to get a decent night's rest.

waiting

about a week ago, our internet stopped working. i have no idea what's wrong with the blasted thing, but we can't connect to the world wide web in our house [hence i'm writing this on my computer's notepad, to be later published on the blog]. i called comcast on tuesday to set up an appointment. the soonest they could have someone out here was saturday. in this day and age, having the internet is not different from having running water. afterall, i've got a blog to maintain....
so we went through a long and arduous week, counting down the days. they called me this morning to confirm that the appointment was still needed and said that they'd be here within an hour.

we patiently waited.

at one point i ran out to my car and saw a comcast truck parked a few houses down. they were probably at another appointment and would come to our rescue shortly.

we waited some more.

after a bit i had a missed call on my phone. the voice mail was a courteous comcast employee, calling to say that they had come by but unfortunately missed us and hoped we could set up another appointment.

what??

i called them back and, after pushing the correct series of buttons, waited on hold for five minutes to talk to a customer service rep. who knows what happened, but no one ever came to our door. nevertheless, we were out of luck, because their techs were booked up until wednesday, although they were happy to call me if another appointment cancelled.

the wednesday thing was pointless, because my movie started on monday, meaning that i would be working for the full time that they could potentially schedule me in.
i ended up calling comcast six more times today, getting a range of representatives, from genuinely helpful to genuinely apathetic, and even spoke with a manager who offered us a month's free service as an apology [editor's note: we still haven't seen this yet].

in short, i was in a salty mood by the end of the day.

but we did go see 'ratatouille', which was absolutely wonderful.

internet.... come back, internet....