end of Vamperifica.

shooting in a tunnel at Snug Harbor, Staten Island

Vamperifica takes over Wall Street!

me with the star of the Radio City Christmas Show :: Little Girl

well, everything has to come to an end.

Vamperifica came to a glorious one. The last week we spent a lot of time at Poly Prep, a fancy private school, out in Brooklyn. There we shot some of the flashback footage as well as the play sequence, which included a singing and dancing sequence. The choreography was done by none other than the director's wife and it was pretty good. 

Me and my boss, James Madrid, had been watching a lot of So You Think You Can Dance, because he is really into it.. and I will tell you that its a show with Emmy winning dancing and amazing work done by the league of choreographers. Therefore during this scene I had a little expertise watching and critiquing dance. ha! as if. But it was fun to see the choreography with trained dancers and the way we covered it for the film. We basically did four masters from every corner of the stage with the SuperScottieScoptic crane, being careful not to hit any of the extras in the audience or the dancers on the stage. Apparently in a context like this there is no line to worry about crossing, or at least that is what DP Dan told me, so the coverage would cut from every angle. The crane had a geared head. One gear was tilt and one was pan.. It was interesting to see Dan wrangle them and communicate with Scottie through the head set how he wanted the crane to telescope or what direction he wanted it to fly. So much to think about and know about camera movement.. The years he has worked in the industry and that experience really became evident.

It was truly an amazing experience and opportunity to be on this film and I really really can't wait to see it. We also did some more steadicam work at a park on Staten Island. The park was originally a retiree township for people of the navy called Snug Harbor. The whole place was dripping with ancient greek and victorian motifs. Very beautiful and haunting. Personally the most impressive shot to me was in the forest. I was tired and beat to a pulp because of working 6pm to 6am days. The forest in the dead of night take forever to light and it takes an incredible amount of light to accomplish. I ended up lounging and dozing on one of the crash mats that was used for stunts. When the forest was done though, the light raked the trees in a haunting and tangled mess. The branches loomed over us intimidating.. and fitting for the scene. One of the main characters come across our Vamperifica lead character Carmen, chomping down on a victim. The amount and variation of foggers that the art department had for different scenes blew my mind. For this scene he used a lamp type fogger that used butane to heat and disperse the fog and it smelled like the oaky burning embers. I loved it. The light bursted through the trees revealing the pattern in the smoky air. All Dan had to do was light her face softly with a portable china lantern and the image was mysteriously gorgeous. 

This week also will bring me home to Chattanooga for a while until I start my new blog topic!! 

My brother and I are driving cross continental to Seattle! It is going to be epic and amazing! I can't wait to share it with you and all the amazing-ness that will happen in between. I miss home, I miss family.. and most of all, I miss adventuring. I miss it with all my heart. 

One more thing I will miss is Ben. We are good friends, and I will miss every good friend from Southern, but we have been a rambling pair for the last weeks and it has been really fun. I have learned so much from him. Good-bye NYC good-bye at least for now. Who knows what the future will bring..

workin the Broadway crane moves!!

bruce ornstein, our director, entertaining the extras as our 2nd 2nd AD watches on..