The set of American Genius 2015
When I was a young grip/electric, there was a gaffer who always brought a 35mm camera to set. Film photography was the only option back then. He was always taking pictures of our setups. I wish I had to foresight to do the same years ago. There are so many jobs where we did something interesting and there are no pictures of it. Cameras are ubiquitous on set now. Everyone has a camera in their pocket with their smart phone.
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I miss working as a key grip sometimes. It was always fun coming up with rigs and ideas for shoots. This rig is from a Speedway music video commercial. I called it The Lunar Rover. It's a Fisher 10 strapped to a western dolly for moving around quickly on rough ground. We used the Lunar Rover for some dolly shots, too. It's not in the picture but for added crazy, there was a bungee cam rig on the arm most of the time:
When there is down-time on-set, like waiting for a wardrobe change, I'll often take a picture of something interesting, common-place, on-set. This is a picture of an Aputure 10X fresnel lens:
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An Octabox 5 on a Creamsource SpaceX on the beach at night:
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This surreal photo caught me setting up DMX. There's a hazer near me, running at full. The green glow is from Titan tubes rigged over my head. Thanks to Adam Snyder for taking the great picture!
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Working in the rain on a movie near Mountain View, AR in 2021. Thanks to Solomon Willis for taking this great picture!
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An Arrimax lamp one use away from a catastrophic failure. My best, Chance, brought this to my attention.
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No budget for a condor, no problem! Here's a compact 12K hung over a railing on a Matthew's Max stand. It is an amazing tool.
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Me on set of Ethan Hawke's "Wildcat". I don't remember the story about the sunglasses. They are not mine. Really.
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This was a fun Halloween shoot for Ron Foth Advertising. The board op, Brian Whitlock, did a great job programing the skypanels overhead to add an over-all green glow, but at the same time, they would randomly do lightning flashes. The shot was a 'one-er' with a technocrane moving through a desolate foreground up to the cone which was full of zombies. There's a 4k par in the middle of the cone. The edge of the cone is lines with Titan tubes doing a green glow with some effects.
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It's real blood. I was doing exactly what I tell people not to do. I was rushing. I was carrying too much gear. I slipped on a truck ramp.
The legendary Chuck Turner behind me in the picture did the same thing moments later!
We are at Holiday World. I loved working on commercials there. Some of my favorite all time jobs and clients. I gaffed commercials there for years.
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One of my all-time favorite jobs was Stephen David Production's
American Genius. This picture is of HMIs ready to light a scene inside
the old shoe factory in Martinsburg, WV.
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The electric department on the set of American Genius with the electric department's greatest hero; Nikola Tesla:
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I was on a job with several Mole Richardson 20Ks. One head was dimmer than the other. We turn the head off and pulled the lamp (once it had cooled). This is what we found. This lamp was on the verge of catastrophic failure. The fun part; it looks like Bender from Futurama.
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This is the set of Hard Kill. I love this picture. There is so much going on from the director at his monitors to the actors on the set in the background. That's Bruce Willis on the monitor. The location is the old closed US Shoe factory in Norwood, Ohio. It was an amazing location. It has since been demolished. (I joked it was so they couldn't make Hard Kill II.) In the picture, you can see one of my "tall" 4-bank, 6 foot quasar fixtures. There's a row of HMIs on the roof coming through the skylights in the main room.
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The next 2 pictures above are from a John McCain for President rally in Columbus, OH from 2000. I was the gaffer. The stage is lit with HMIs. I thought it looked great.
That year, I follow the McCain campaign around Michigan with a truck of lights and a 500 amp genny. I would go from city-to-city lighting rallies. It was a great adventure.
I have the greatest of respect for John McCain. He would have been a great president.
One of my disappointment is to have never gone up and personally met him. I had opportunities in Michigan. I'm a shy person. I never was brave enough to walk up to him and talk to him.
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