Joe Chapman's advice on SCUBA

Don't forget rule numero uno: breathe! Or your head will explode.  Also, when scuba diving, the surface is your enemy - get as far below it as possible.  Let yourself sink, and love the deep. Above all, remain relaxed at all times. Don't fight with bouyancy, especially in a pool - just settle to the bottom, relax for a bit, and then start tapping a little air into your bc to figure it out. And when sinking, GENTLY valsalva - GENTLY! 
Too many people turn learning to dive into a stressful fight - don't!

Be the fish god intended for you to be. As long as that regulator is feeding you air, you're a fish. Flash a thumbs up to the instructor(s) a lot - it makes them feel like you're not dying and they'll leave you alone.  (Yeah, you're gonna want to use the "okay" sign, even though, technically, it should be the sign for "deadly 3 tentacled octopus!") But if you have to pee, use the thumbs up then surface and make your way to the nearest restroom because if you pee in the pool while breathing compressed air then you could explode and as I've stated earlier - big mess that nobody likes.

Also, BREATHE! Or you'll explode, and nobody wants to clean up that mess.

Also, keep your cell phone in your BC pocket, and if you have any questions while you're below, call me.

Ben Thomas

Ben Thomas, who was in Millennium Crisis, Angry Planet, and Clonehunter, in his web series Stay At Home.


Oh! And Beth White is in it too. She was a Theatresource regular back in the day. Go to the link above or click through to Vimeo for a bigger version.
It's very funny, well-acted, and great post-production sound! ;-)

Ermines of Love

Diatomaceous Earth had a rehearsal last night. Ethan Rosenblatt was there so we had two, count 'em TWO, bass players.
 
One thing this caused was us playing one jam for over an hour. Seriously folks, we have zero preconceived notions about where these things are going when we start out. You're asking yourself: "What's the difference between The Effortless Ermine and The Enumerated Ermine?"
The difference is that I put a bit heavier compression on Lily's bass in The Enumerated Ermine just to try to bring it out a bit more because I was afraid the two basses were running into one another. They may still be. I can't always tell the difference between the two basses.
I did actually pan Ethan a bit to the right and Lily to the left. Note that my guitar is on the right and Greg's is on the left. Actually, all the panning is as though you're right where I'm standing in rehearsal. It's like I'm emulating me or something. Odd.

So we had an input from Ethan's bass to a Countryman DI and right into the Tascam US 2000 preamp number 4.
Inputs 5 and 6 were kick and snare. Yeah. Using the cheapo Tascam preamps. The mics are Equation Audio.  Now the kick may or may not have been replaced. But the snare actually sounds pretty good.
Greg's guitar (from a Shure SM58) and Lily's bass are also both straight into the Tascam -- Lily actually goes through Ethan's FatMan limiter and into one of the high impedance inputs on the Tascam.
The two toms are now going into the Lindell preamps with a couple Equation tom mics. I think the toms sound pretty dynamite although honestly that's mostly because Lou can make drums sound really good.
The overheads are Ear Trumpet labs Edwina microphones going into Neve 1272's. So yeah, that's signal path is pretty much book.
There's a "center" mic which is a Rode NT1 going into a Neve 1272. This mic just gives a bit more beef to the drum kit overall. It's in front of the kit aimed center and is about as far away as the overheads.
My guitar is the last track -- Shure SM 58 hitting a Neve 1272.

They Will Outlive Us All

Here's a trailer for a new pic Nat Cassidy is in:

They Will Outlive Us All trailer from Jessi Gotta on Vimeo.

you know what's exciting? The "y" ke on m keboard doesn't work. So I have to cop and paste it when I want it. ikes.

Marco Pillow

This is a delightfully bizarre video by Sketkh Williams, who was a zombie in Earthkiller:

Parents

Picture taken by my sister this morning.

(Left to right) Dad, Iona, Sir Winston, Meydl.

My Notes for Today

Ooh! Check it out! An interview with writer/director Nat Cassidy!
Last time I asked Nat to write a movie for us he told me to talk to his literary agent. To which I say: ha!

+++++

I have done an absolutely terrible job of seeing friend's plays lately. I'll admit that I did a terrible job of seeing people's plays when they took place 12 feet above my head in my old theater. I don't feel good about this. You know, now that I think about it there are some people's freaking movies I haven't seen. Oh great.

+++++

Ato Essandoh taught me a couple really important acting things. He comes from an unusual background -- chemical engineering. Read up on him here.
One thing that he likes to do (this is my perception from a directing standpoint) is to map out the direction of a scene in his mind. I don't think I've worked with any other actors who work that way. He's like "Okay, so when the scene starts I'm talking to these people over here -- but when she walks in I'm all about her -- and that makes this happen and I realize that this other thing, which leads me to pick up a gun and shoot the alien."
That's not an actual transcription of a conversation I've had with Ato, but it's somewhat in the right idea. And it's a really awesome acting technique for figuring out your own flow of intents and emotions and thoughts. Film is interesting because you can really see people think and decide things. That's exceptionally compelling to watch.
The second big Ato thing which my buddy Mitch pointed out is that Ato is the king of changing his direction in the middle of a shot. What I mean by that is he does these masterful changes in emotion where you can see him thinking or realizing things. There's a great scene in a Law & Order where he was the masterful bad-dude criminal on the witness stand who just knew he had control of the room; he was so charismatic as the baddest of the bad that he just swaggered sitting there on the witness stand.
But Sam Waterson got up, said one thing which tripped up Ato's character's rouse. And the sudden confusion, resistance, anger that swept across Ato's face was beautiful. It's an amazing thing.
I saw a similar thing the other night where Ato's character on Copper had to go into a room full of sociopathic killers and treat a police officer who was being held hostage. And while his friends were telling him this he has this "oh no, no way I'm going in there to get shot" which went to a resolve to do it. To risk his life. Not a joy, a resolve to do. As a doctor, as a human being.
Anyway, the dude is a pretty awesome acting class.

Two Things for Today

Mitch Gross on Cooke lenses. I will gladly accept a set of Cookes if you want to buy them for me. Really I only feel I need a 35mm (equivalent) 85 (or thereabouts or equivalent) and something really long. Oh, and a diopter for extreme closeup. Kthanksbie.

The Russian version of Android Insurrection.

Shane Hurlbut on lighting exteriors in daylight.

Russian Uprising

The art for the Russian version of Alien Uprising is kind of cool. I mean our Alien Uprising -- not the new one with Claude Van Damme in it.

Mac OS for Audio

It turns out that Samplitude is going to have a Mac version. That's interesting because I've been insistent upon having a PC specifically because I use Samplitude. Now that wouldn't be as important a reason to be a PC-shop.
PC's are, however, cheaper than their Mac equivalents. So unless that new Mac Pro turns out to be reasonably priced, I'm not totally seeing going to Mac for audio.
Besides which, I'm trying to wean us off of the Mac OS altogether by moving to Premiere Pro from Final Cut Pro.

But that's not all.
Logic Pro X has been updated and is now only two hundred bucks. Which, you know, is a pretty good price for such a full-featured program. That is... interesting.

End Titles

I'm stealing from here. Obviously the first three things don't apply to us because we don't have those positions.

Unit Production Manager
First Assistant Director
Second Assistant Director
Full Cast / Character List
Stunt Dept
Production Departments (Grip, Electric, Camera, Sound, Wardrobe, etc)
Post-Production Departments (Assistant Editors, Visual Effects, Colorist, etc)
Song Credits
Caterer
Title Designer
Special Thanks
Camera, Lenses and Equipment Makers
Location of Final Sound Mix ("Recorded at...")
Copyright ©
Disclaimer

Welcome to Diatomaceous Earf

Slowly I'm uploading more songs from the last Diatomaceous Earth rehearsal. See post below for the expanding song selection.

50 Mixing tips. Not that I really do many of these things. The only mixing tip I have is to solo any track you're wanting to put an effect or EQ on just to make sure you're actually working on the track you think you are.
That whole thing where we're close - miking the kick and snare has really reduced the amount of hair-pulling-out that goes on in mixing. I'm a lot more delicate with the overheads. Less compression is more betterment.

Do To

Today's list of things to do includes:

• Going through and scheduling Dead Residents. Right this second I don't even know the project number for that movie. I need to work on it. We want to shoot the movie in August. 
• Rendering out more dragons in Dragon Reign. We've been working with Nathan Vegdahl and now the animations have been turned over to Nathan Taylor. 
• Coordinating the creation of some AfterEffects visual effects in Android Masquerade. We still have some plates we need to shoot for that movie. 

This is a plate of an un-textured giant dragon which gives the dragon's scale.

Oh, and some breakfast. I need breakfast too.

It's Mah Birfday!

Birfday Birfday Birfday!