Archive for April, 2008

1st Unit plane shoot

Monday, April 28th, 2008

So we worked Friday and Saturday on the DC3 shoot.
Incredible sky perfect weather.
It was my first day on first unit as an VFX assistant, well it was tough for me.
All the old geezers know all the slang and have enough on a single gesture.
I have to ask 5 times what the hell do you mean? But I’m getting there, 25-5.6 is a 25mm lens with an F-stop of 5.6.
Difficult to hear if they talk fast, because I’m so green in this busyness I got lots of help from Jeremy my boss, but others think I’m slowing them down, while they are doing nothing but checking there email.
Well enough complaining, it is a hell of a job but I enjoy myself a lot.
Saturday was the half way trough party which was fun, they run out of beer fast so I had to switch to whisky no problem for me off-course.
Sunday the day off I have seen Dario Argento’s new film again “3 mothers” the first time I have seen it I could not believe it was so bad, so I needed to see it a second time and yes it is very bad indeed.
A shame for such talented director. Not even close to Inferno and Suspiria. At night I made a pumpkin soup and we eat some crayfish and veggies, and went to bed early. On my way to my little crib Jethro (death row) the dog was attacking Pablo very heavy, it looked as if he would kill Pablo so Thea was in total panic and trough bucket of water over them. Hope they all survive it.

Today more plane action with rebels etc. and special effects will be fun.
Sundown on the airstrip with the DC3

DC3 action

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Some nice action this morning.
A DC3 landed on the very small airstrip in PSJ, 2nd Unit was ready for this.
Suddenly we where hearing a noise, the plain was 40 minutes early.
It did a, fly over. It came to us the second time and landed, we saw that he shifted suddenly it looked as if it nearly did not make it.
When we drove up to them we could see what happened.
An exploded tyre.
Not a pretty sight.
DC3 landing
Dutch angle
Ohh ohh (banden plakken)
whoops!

Hardware is good

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Did some shopping for post production.
A 8 core 2.8 4Tb HD sweet monster system with 2×23″ screens, in the mean while I use it to practice Shake and FCP.
Weather is still bad here so I hugg the 2 screens and see a nice movie.
🙂
ps sorry for the bad pic
office no microsoft

Rain Rain Rain lots of Rain

Sunday, April 20th, 2008

It is Sunday now, yesterday we had a great evening.
Thea cooked Oxtail for us and asked me to invite some people because she had enough food.
I invited Esna van Zyl from accounts and she asked if she could invite the 2 Kates, Kate Higgs & Kate Tee. Esna was in the kitchen before but the Kates not. I think they had a good time. Later that evening Marco came to the party and Thea made her special fillet of beef on the hot coals for him. We all tried it and it was amazing as usual.It started to rain big time and it did not stop, it is still raining.
So now I’m sitting at the outspan on my free day it is cold and wet and miserable.
Next week is Raapie’s last week we have to do all the stuff for second unit in a studio, smoke, fire, rain, etc. the elements.
Lots of stuff to do and lots of fun.Mantis next to my computer

Voodoo is dead

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Sorry to see this morning, VooDoo died last night that he may rest in peace.R.I.P.
when I was here he want to drive the car.
voodoo drives car
Always farting at Richards feet.
at voodoo wants atention
Then you wake up in the middle of the night “I was not snoring it was voodoo”
voodoo snoring under bed

Night shoot

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

The next two days there will be a night shoot.
For us (2nd unit) we have to be at a 1st unit shoot, there is a stunt involved, so they need all the hands they can get. Multiple cameras etc.
It is going to be a long night and it it pretty cold here at night. 10 degrees Celsius and 25 on the day, so boots on fleece on and hard work keep you warm.

Saturday is a short day, finally a long weekend ahead.
.night shiit

Hattingh syndrome

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Every morning before sunrise (6:20 at the moment) My boss Jeremy Hattingh is hunting for the perfect sunrise which he is shooting with his Canon D20.

He makes a time-laps with raw images so he can put it together for the movie.
Not every morning is a good one so he is there every day just incase.

waiting for the sun

Body double time!

Saturday, April 12th, 2008

Second Unit

The last 3 days I am running and driving around as a double.
Our team second unit has to make the shots where first unit do does have time for.
For example: main character drives trough the forrest, main character approach in distance cloud of red dust, etc. Well as it always happens with Richard Raaphorst as director I end up in a costume.

The car is something special it is a Toyota land-cruiser a 3 ton truck without steering power. I drive that car on small dirt roads as wide as the cruiser an then our DOP (director of photography) Peter Belcher says okay turn around and go back to position one. Muscle pain, etc.

The waiting part is my main problem, I freaking hate waiting.
But Richard C. said that I have to get used to that if I want to do something in filmmaking, maybe not my cup of tea after all, we will see.
Toyota landcruiser

Jeremy Hattingh (my boss) found a very small cat the other day, I think it was a few days old, eyes where closed by dirt and we try to clean it, gave it anti-biotics and water and milk.
the poor bastard died in a couple of days.
R.I.P. little catty

Tomorrow a day off and have to get energized for the next week, I’m going to see some movies I think and drink some wine.

To kill 40 Crayfish

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Picture this, waking up sunday morning, had some breakfast, what to do?
Claus monster, Peter Adam the editor and myself went to 2nd beach to hunt for crayfish (langustines).
Lucky for us you can buy big ones for 10 rand (illegal to transport). But a bit much for 10 people to eat, we made a bisque and it was very nice and a lot of work.
And for every body who is thinking, hey… this guy is only talking about food and not about…. yeah about what.
I confess it is a bit boring, but I can not talk to much about production details. For the rest we shoot a lot of stuff with 2nd Unit plane on the airstrip, birds, spider-webs, the usual stuff. Off for now, tomorrow we are going on a boat before sunrise!.40 killed crayfish

First day of principal photography

Friday, April 4th, 2008

Early call, lost of things to do VFX on the set, a restaurant scene.
We had a nice and fruitful day, everything we planned worked, time flies when your working.
So much to say so little time, today day two no VFX needed on set but I took a peek, big crew, big camera’s lots of extra’s.
first day of shoot