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Bill,
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but in New Orleans, and Louisiana, all state, and city sales taxes were waived,
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This brings back a not so fond memory of one of my first " editing " experiments with cs3 on mouse computer. My local made a "video" about productions in nyc using a red camera ( we own ...the one I used at home to experiment with later on ).... and was basically 'interviews' of working people on crews ( my local, camera local, teamsters, craft service, production designers, scenics, etc ) and how much the tax credit helped bring work to nyc.
Well, I wanted to stress that the credit actually helped OTHERS in the state and also new jersey, CT etc... to have these credits...so that the message that the video conveyed was broader in scope. Part of my desire to make it more broad in it's appeal to viewers, was to have real 'numbers' ( comptroller of state numbers ) re: cost in tax credit vs generation of jobs, industry expenditures and generation of ' more ' revenue. In other words, don't just say " this generates more taxes for the state and jobs etc " ...but prove it with the numbers.
So I edited the video and put some titles and text and other stuff in there to show how it could be improved ( with my great idea to make a broader appeal ).
Well, when I got to show it to the president of the editors local in nyc via youtube I got slapped on the wrist...
His response, " this has been worked on, approved and edited by professionals and has recieved great response from ny state legislature already, and will be voted on soon and is a done deal "
Well, I was crestfallen and plussed ( not nonplussed ).
NJ lost its tax credit but ny did pass it.
It was sorta fun to " edit " something to make it better ( IMO ) to make a point ( like photo journalism sorta ).. and I found out it isnt good to overestimate the intelligence of " those in control " of things on the working man's plane of existence.
( video started with a countdown like the one in cs3 for leader -- looked like some kinda " kids' project from the start with that ....)
PAN AM TV SHOW
I keep thinking about this show and have to admit its the first one in 40 years or so of working on stuff that I feel really enthusiastic about... that I want to succeed for as long as the talent and writers and producers and everyone feels good about doing it...and audience loves.
Oddly, there's no advertising for it that I've seen in nyc area.
Oddly, what ads there are ( on abc website etc ) stresses " lives of stewardesses " ...which kinda limits the overall potential of the show IMO. After all, pan am was an air carrier.. with great stewardesses and great service etc...but it wasnt about the stewardesses. It was about travel.
Compared to travel today ( where everyone goes everywhere at the drop of a hat ), travel then was sorta a planned big deal for passengers. Like maybe once a year you would go somewhere as a vacationer...maybe once every 5 years.
Girls back then faced the taboo of sex before marriage.. as did men, though us men tend to forget that little fact of life nowadays. So I didnt pursue sex before marriage, and most girls I knew then ( back in 1967-69-70 ) didn't either. And we were already 17-18-19 years old etc.... not kids really, but not quite full time adults either.
Kids supposedly grow up faster today I guess, and with women's rights movement and " sex and the city" tv shows, it's hard to imagine that time period of " pan am " show... but it's true. You expected pan am to have beautiful stewardesses, but like most men of my age you thought of women as " better then men " in general, protected them instead of lusting after them, and tried to be on equal ground regarding a love for life and a good future for the world.
I hope the writers bring some history and unexplained incidents to the screen with this show. Like when my wife ( who worked for pan am at main office ) went to a bunch of middle east countries on a vacation ...and the plane got boarded in Kabul by a bunch of soldiers with machine guns... and walked through plane looking at everyone with fierce expressions on faces....and nobody ( including pilots ) had a CLUE what was going on...
Very scary.
No " answer " or explanation ever came...
That's what flying was like .. an adventure sometimes with no answers as to why things were crazy in other parts of the world.
And the stewardesses ( and pilots etc ) handled all this with class and I hope the show is brave enough to show us these things... back when flying was really comfortable and the planes weren't packed like cargo carriers.
I suppose I'm suffering from nostalgia re: air travel back in the late 60's and early 70's... and that from a perspective of a "airline employee ( wife- pan am )" discount. When stewardesses saw ( from boarding pass or ticket stub ? ) that we were married traveling on pan am employee discount it was inevitable that at some point they would sit with us ( it was never crowded back then ) and yap about what we did for living and what our plans were and so on ...sharing info and comraderie like as if we were somehow connected.
I recall one stewardess trying to help me get my ears equalized as I had stuffy nose and ears were killing me... from pressure... and she made all these faces and mime expressions etc ( like hold nose, gently blow out.. or open mouth wide and try to yawn ) that she had everyone around us laughing hysterically ...
If first class had room we got put up there when flying standby regular class ( forget what it was called... there were only 2 ...first and normal ).
The travel itself ( experience there at destinations ) inevitably became part of the " whole " experience, including the flying part. So the trip to tahiti is just as important re: flying experience ( was a long flight from nyc ) and the hotel and activities and people met etc.
At an outdoor cafe / restaurant in papeyete (sp? ) some french waiters were speaking french and making fun of me and wife as we struggled with menus. Some guy near us heard and invited us to his table ( he was alone at big table ). He was captain of a ship from UCLA or some southern CA. school affilliated with the ship which was doing maps of the ocean floor around there ( seismograph stuff ). He became our friend and invited us for tour of ship and lunch with crew etc in the mess later that day.. was an American. It was truly fascinating... how the ship worked ( had propellors that pointed DOWN in both bow and stern areas so it could crab sideways or turn on a dime ).. and it took the sting out of the waiters making fun of us at the restaurant, which he had heard and put to an end by inviting us to his table, etc. He was much older than us " kids " and I still think of that whole trip with fond memories in part cause of that one guy.
One day we went to Morea (sp? ) where there was a brand new club med ( first one ? ). We took ferry to island and saw there was only one to go back to papeyete in afternoon... so we got there and had lunch someplace on "beach" and met some girls from club med thing and drank a few tropical drinks with rum and fruit. We never had these drinks before and when it came time to actually STAND UP and move ...me and wife were dizzy !
There goes the ferry back to mainland and our hotel !!! Bye ! We watch it go and laugh hysterically due to rum etc. So those girls had some kind of " hut " or whatever you call it each... and they gave us one and stayed together in the other one... for the night. How cool is THAT ?
The next morning we felt a bit hung over and sheepish but everything was OK..and after breakfast with girls and saying bye and stuff we walked a couple miles to some little dirt airport and managed to talk some guy into flying us in his little cessna to the mainland. On way we passed a place that sold fresh bread and cheese etc...which we ate on beach ...
These sorts of memories are intertwined with PAN AM ... The whole thing is like impossible to separate into parts... like " oh, this is how we got there and back, but THIS is what we did when we were there..."
It's all one thing... hard to describe I guess.
( whine ) ohhhh, please dont say that ! nooooooooo.... It HAS TO BE GOOD !
The writers and creative husband / wife that got this going are normal people who REMEMBER ...and they wont let it become that dumb etc. Maybe at first there's some faltering steps and some confusion etc... but I really need to believe in this show for some reason.. that it wont be so darn stupid ! The talent is really really good ! They will help too !
I feel strongly about this to the point that if someone asks tomorrow on set, " Who wrote this NONSENSE ? ! " , I will gladly stand up and yell, " I'M SPARTACUS ! " ...and someone else hopefully stands up and yells, " NO, I'M SPARTACUS ! " ...and we can move on quickly to get some good stuff in the can ! ( with the on the spot revisions necessary to make it a good show ! )
yeah, life goes on.. but I'm not thinking long term about anything at the moment.
It's day by day for me.
Here's an interesting email I just sent to my union buddy about a seminar on balloon lighting TOMORROW at 12 noon...
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This is what is on the website now...
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We are currently in the process of organizing a seminar that covers both lighting and ground fault technology. As lighting balloon technology progresses, the need to train qualified electricians in our Local is becoming more important. We feel it's time to address the needs of productions by training technicians in all safety procedures and new technical advances. This will ensure that every position is covered by our Local.
Wet and humid locations are becoming a safety hazard for the electric department. It's because of this that we're packaging a GFCI "Wet Rigging" safety course along with the balloon seminar. We will have a special guest, Steve Brock from Bender ET, to take part in teaching the latest in safety standards. Bender is the worldwide leader in ground-fault technology.
The seminar will be held on Saturday, September 24th at 12:00pm, and will be roughly 6 hours long. It will be at Sourcemaker's warehouse (612 Corporate Way, Suite 1, Valley Cottage, NY 10989). The class will only hold a maximum of 25 people, so be sure to contact the union hall to express your interest in this course. It's meant for department heads, best boys, as well as interested electricians in both on-set and rigging. It will include both hands-on and PowerPoint segments. Anyone who attends this class will be considered qualified for balloon operating an wet rigging using GFCIs and those specialized skills will be added to your place on the roster.
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Any Grip interested in learning about the cloud balloon please call the office ASAP.
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It seems to me that over the last few years whenever there's a balloon ( int or ext ) the key grip and gaffer and dp know where they want it to live... but nobody else knows what to do about it until they are " asked " to do this or that.... I've been on so many jobs ( ext night, rain SFX etc ) where wind is a factor and the balloon guys actually try to fly the stupid thing without breast lines on it to wrangle it to where they want ONCE ITS IN THE AIR ". I've carried sandbags to them ( to tie their lines down ) without being asked for it, as it seems kinda like common sense to deal with the problems inherent with a balloon ( whether its a light or not ). On " have you heard about the morgans" I took off all the bullshit lines the balloon had on it ( like a harness around balloon attached to pick points ( reinforced points with beckets ) ) to make room for my own lines to tie it to a crane.. which was nothing more than some speedrail pipe off the bucket to "trap" the balloon there ....
Meanwhile, everyone looks around like , " what should I do ? "
This is grip stuff and has nothing to do with grounding the thing .. I guess that has to do with if the neutral leg gets kicked out by accident or something ?? like people get electrocuted near the ballast etc ?? I have no idea how the thing is powered and made safe re: electric.
But I do know that it is NOT anything that the grip dept is inherently involved with beyond the initial " rig" ( like putting on crane ).. and the communication between the balloon guys ( sorta like SFX ? ) and electricians ( run power to the thing ) and the grips ( look out ...there's a crazy balloon flying around ! ) .. is not the greatest in the world.
So I'm glad there's some seminar and interest in handling these things going on between depts in 52.
I happen to be working on pan am ( I think ) tomorrow. I have no call time or location yet and dont know if its been cancelled due to weather ... and its already 530pm.
This is what is going on in the world of " being a dolly grip on 2nd unit for pan am " . And a lot of jobs in general. Last minute " bodies " needed to do jobs , but not much in the way of communication. Production doesnt feel the need to do it. We all have cell phones and the hall now treats members like " per diem " employees of a " temporary employment agency " . No respect for workers and no respect for talent and skill.
So why would I express an interest in a seminar that helps an equip " vendor " if I dont even know if I'll be done with tomorrow's workday by 12 pm tomorrow ? How can I plan my life and appointments etc with less and less control over my own schedule ?
Good luck and hopefully the balloon vendor has the class to invite individuals up to their warehouse etc to show those individuals how to work with their equipment and make it safe and fast to use on set. Time is important and people standing around with thumb up butts doesnt help anyone on set.
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heres the place with balloons
ITS BEER THIRTY ! YIPEE !
EDIT... hehe.. Bill... go to that website and look at link " balloon of the month " and you will notice it has a definite resemblance to " sausage " of the month... that promised YOU a lobster dinner at Adobe headquarters ! Nothing like gold stars and sausages and lots of free yoodles to make our lounge a more friendly and fun place to be !
( hic )
is beer thirty !
yeah, car stuff is pretty demanding space wise and is sorta like shooting jewelry but on a large scale... due to reflections and using large sources etc. .. basically tent out the thing like jewelry and then add negative fill and "reflections" with blacks etc... not unusual to pre-light for 5 days with all the rigging and so on.
on men in black there was a scene ( the pawn shop owned by alien with hidden weapons ) where we rigged a similar " overhead " sometimes used for car type shots ...a giant silk outside that covered about 1/2 the block in length and the whole distance between buildings on opposite sides of street...so it was all silk ( for sun ) on block outside, at the height of rooftops ( actually one floor below roof ). had to get locations to "buy" a lot of access to the places to rig wire rope with come-alongs to stretch real tight, anchor properly etc etc ... and then use beckets on edge of custom silk to clip onto wire rope... and then use rope and pulley system to pull the silk up and down the block as needed ( sun moves ) and to keep it tight.
lots of cranes to rig the stuff.
Had to spread the load a lot too, at pick points..due to fact you dont exactly wanna tighten wire rope and pull the wall off a building by accident...
pan am airplane "set" .... info from some article online...
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the cockpit is in "parts" so that you can have the entire nose intact or you can pull "panels" of cockpit off as needed for camera angles to shoot into it... this shot has the whole nose and side panels off.
this is now a bit more "busy" ... as there are now lighting wires ( header cables, feeder cables etc ) all over this thing..plus some air conditioner "tubes" feeding the fuselage.. but you get the general idea. One thing I noticed right off is that the "plane" fuselage" looks WAY longer when there are no wings on it....weird but true... its very long.
=========pasted info re: set etc =========
Boeing 707
There’s a full bar, leather banquettes and legroom that makes today’s planes look like cattle cars. You can almost hear the sexy stewardesses whispering, “Coffee, tea or me?”
“The level of detail that went into the build is staggering,” said the show’s technical adviser, Toby Conroy.
“Our altimeter is set at 35,000 feet when cruising. Our landing-gear lights illuminate upon landing.”
The set plane, which cost producers at least $100,000, is 115 feet long and 18 feet wide and sits in a long tin shed across from the Navy Yard’s Steiner Studios.
It’s a replica of the kind of Boeing 707 that made Pan American World Airways, which went bankrupt 20 years ago, the king of the so-called Jet Age.
It was an era when high-speed, long-range flights were only for wealthy, fashionable travelers who expected a level of comfort beyond even today’s private jets.
The new show, “Pan Am” -- which debuts Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. -- looks to capture the vibe of that bygone era, and its Brooklyn jet set is a key part of the illusion.
As you walk through the fuselage to the cockpit, you can easily forget about today’s airport security lines and imagine a day when airline passengers were treated like royalty.
The seats on this flight have leg and arm room. There are no overhead bins, just shelves for piles of fabulous signature blue Pan Am blankets.
And if you’re still a smoker, you can light up at your seat and use the ashtray in the armrest.
The first-class lounge is even more deluxe.
It has a full bar and blue leather banquettes where passengers can sip their vodka gimlets out of real glasses.
“The Boeing 707 was the flagship that changed the world, and Pan Am was the first to use them,” said Conroy.
Tasked with building a set, production designer Bob Shaw contacted several airline archives and realized his team would have to start from scratch.
At airline scrap yards in California and Nevada, the crew found everything from wall panels to toilets to windows.
For the cockpit, Shaw and his team cut the nose off of a 727, which Conroy says is structurally identical to the 707. They refurbished the interior with original 707 parts.
ps
you maybe cant see this clearly but re: the fuselage...its wood. each "section" ( where you see a window ) is built as units and then it is all bolted together ( at flanges you see )... you can score ( route , datablade ) plywood so it bends to the curve you want on inside, and there are products ( rubber wood ) that bend easily to shape..
set builders work from blueprints ( exact detailed blown up drawings for custom mouldings etc ) by set designer and art director helps the scenics finish the set you " see ".. lots of talent on show to do these things.
I was given tour of intrumentation of cockpit ( all is working ) and mini - " simulator " type custom made electronics to control the cockpit "instrumentation".. and if there had been time woulda sat in pilots seat just to see where everything was compared to my own little flying experience ( supercub in Denver 1973 ). I bet its a lot different than a supercub !!!!
Is sorta fun sometimes to work on stuff like this !
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/pan-am-retro-green-screen-world/
comments etc at bottom got resonse from company guy seen below
Sam Nicholson says:
September 17, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Hey Brendan. Great comments. To give you guys (Matt) an idea of why the GS stage was not perfect – we convinced Sony about two weeks before the shoot that we had to do all the comps live on set and capture the tracking data or we would not be able to deliver the show on schedule. We flew four 30′x100′ green screens to NYC with two Previson compositing systems, 75 ceiling targets and two complete camera packages. Our two TD’s flew in from California before the shoot and we had four days to completely turn an empty warehouse into a real time virtual shooting stage with a minimal crew. That involves hanging 400′ of green, securing 75 4x4 targets into the ceiling, laser surveying and calibrating 450 individually ID’d images on the targets, calibrating all the production lenses (both zooms and primes), registering the virtual sets to the physical sets and setting up the workflow to record both composited and non-composite images during the shoot. We did all this for a two day shoot – then struck the set back to an empty warehouse – that is why there are some wrinkles in the green screen. But you will notice there are no tracking marks. 98% of our final shots bypassed post motion tracking. X,Y,Z, Yaw, Pitch, Roll, Focus and Zoom translated seamlessly into our 3D group allowing for final uprezed renders to start right after picture lock – for a 10 day compositing turnaround. In pre-production the virtual World Port terminal, interior and exterior took a team of eight 3D artists 6 weeks to build.
We have now given all our CG assets to Zoic for the series. I wish them luck in that the studio as cut the episodic. budget to 1/10th what we did the pilot for.
If you want to see the before and afters in better resolution, check out our website at http://www.stargatestudios.net.
Thanks for watching.
note: pilot shot on Long Island near Grumman "stage" ( luna module building turned into stage ).. the warehouse used was close to the 'new' Grumman stage.
After pilot was shot ( that part shot in warehouse ), it was struck, transported to Steiner studios ( brooklyn navy yard ) and re-contructed for series shooting. Yesterday was the last day for that green screen stuff for a while and is now being struck to make room for other sets.
The primes and 2 zooms ( optimo 12x and 24x ) are typically with the A unit. 2nd unit had to 'borrow' the lenses yesterday to shoot stuff.
Alexa has a little camera pointing up at the ceiling targets mounted on top of alexa. That gets recorded at DIT station at same time alexa is recording shot to SxS card ( log c ). That ceiling target information is then available to composite later ( match moves etc ).
I tried to find out what lens characteristics make those primes and zooms particularly "calibrated" with the laser measurements of targets.. how that is sorta 'done' and why other lenses would throw of the measurement ( what element of lens, distance to gate etc , makes that critical..but couldnt find out... too busy to ask the right persons... will find out when I can.
Any ideas about that ???
2nd video down -link on page - is like a " reel " for the vfx co...isnt long, shows a lot.
http://skattertech.com/2011/02/stargate-studios-evolution-of-the-green-screen/
to see ceiling targets see...
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=83202 99
when watching video ( after commercial ) look at 49 secs into it...the ceiling ...for VFX...
note:
we had techno crane on yesterday 2nd unit..that green screen stage stuff being shot ( with ceiling targets ). I was yappin with the crane tech ( Stu , who is very good and also very funny ) re: ceiling target and little rig on alexa for the camera to record target info ( mounted off side of alexa to fit and get clear shots with remote head properly etc during the crane use ). As you know, the green screen stuff is a big airport stage composite etc.
I said something like, " I hope that little target camera doesnt get accidentally bumped ".
Stu said, " If it does we will get transported to a whorehouse in Bankok ! "
hehe... funny stuff
before and after pics from samples seen in first link above...the one with the whole airport terminal thing is cool. As is the one of girls walking through glass doors. Yeserday a couple extras ( cause there's no glass on set piece ) did some funny things. One guy was leaning against outside of that set piece and was partly INSIDE the glass ( morph man ! ). Someone else was standing halfway inside a wall.
stargate guys, pan am pilot guys....
go to link below and check THIS OUT ! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE ?
scroll down to virtual ny city menu on right... and play ... you'll see this !
http://www.stargatestudios.net/gallery_demos.html
ps... ITS BEER THIRTY ! YIPEE !
( belly up and have a yoodle ! )
ps. " pilot " means first show of new series. stargate is vfx house. "guys" means...everyone working on these products ( shows ).
how did colin get into nyc like that ?? who does he know ? the mayor ?
Time for more yoodles ! and ITS BEER THIRTY ! YIPEE !
since threads in lounge tend to meander all over the place ( thank God ) I have an interesting tidbit of info for shooters using cameras with long lens shooting "animals" or "sports "... that might help get shots... just for heck of it thought I'd share this with everyone. Even though its not normal to tell "secrets" I figure, what the heck..its the lounge and thats what we do here... draw on napkins at bar and eat yoodles etc....
here's the tricky part ( a secret I share with you from a real good sports cameraman shooting film etc at NFL etc )
put a very low weight and small LOW POWER rifle scope (SPOT SCOPE) on camera ( magic arm, whatever ) that has X of middle of scope = to the center of your frame in camera.
use THAT scope to frame your shots... NOT the camera eyepiece or monitor
get bird in center of spotting scope and THATS your frame !.... even though you see it in spot scope as tiny bird your CAMERA will see it full frame huge bird....
keep bird in flight etc in X area of spot scope as it moves.... flies etc ( or NFL players is same thing ).
your shot will be framed OK in camera. ... and you can obviously SEE with your eye what action is happening in spot scope fast and furious...and keep centered in X area.... whereas if you looked through zoom lens / monitor of camera you would be f---- trying to keep up with action.
was a secret but you heard it first here !
can use shooting snakes too, but they dont usually move THAT fast where you need this assist
sample spot scope and tight frame of camera comparison..
remember..in this sample its jet planes ( air show ) but can be any sports, car races, etc...anything with fast action and the need to "see" what is going on outside your camera frame so you can whip to that action fast..and get it in frame fast.
in above sample the 2 planes lower right just got into spot scope and you might wanna whip to them before they peel off into some formation etc... if they were racing cars, they might be jockeying for position ( passing ? ) and you want THAT action...whip over to it...putting them in the X of the spot scope...and you will have them in frame right away...no hunting around and missing shots...
this tip was given to me by Brad Smith, cinematographer ( youve seen his work on lots of NFL and other shows )
boo hoo....this in ny times today online..
luckily the port authority raised tolls on their stuff between jersey and nyc ( like $8 to $12 ) a few weeks ago to help pay for the continued building of investment properties ( world trade center area and JFK convention stuff etc ).
Go figure.
you're on the PAN-AM crew?
i've just been to the paris, went to the bibliothéque du cimèma francois truffaut and they're showing it there in a special TV-Series Special. Didn't get a chance to see it though, i wasn't there long enough 
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