Okay, I know I’m not the only one with this problem.
The cost to keep the raccons off the property and repairs after they’ve been here is just too much. We’ve taken matters into our own hands!!!!!
Bought a trap at Lee Valley. They’re getting relocated!
We caught 4 in the first week :) much to the dismay of some less than happy assistants tasked out with a relocation trip to the Humber River when we caught one before a shoot – guess no one likes these furry critters much.
A heads up if you’re planning on doing this yourself – these guys stink like hell – so if you don’t have a truck you might want to leave it to the professionals (and I don’t mean me).
We had a massive set in here a couple weeks ago. A whole room set – with three 16 ft wall sections built on studio flats. ALMOST too much “room” to fit into the building – but we made it work – we’ll call it cozy.
Another beautiful lighting job by DoP Jason George (you can see his reel on the Sterling Studio site under Team).
Two cameras with dolly track and jib…6 days…2 talent…and a crew of 45! They were all tired by day 4 – we caught them catching some zzz’s between takes – a surprisingly common occurrence during these long days on set.
Seems like a lot of time nowadays is being devoted to the planning of our massive green roof project. Picture this: almost 3000 sq feet of outdoor, green space on top of the studio building – work slated to begin near the end of this month.
How cool is this though? A roof system – that costs basically the same amount as a regular tar & gravel, blah-conventional roof, but in turn gives you back a ton of perks – better insulation for heating, cooling, and sound. This technology should really be more common. Granted, the landscaping and planting is where you start to incur more costs, but the possibilities are endless!
Here’s our basic plan for the layering of the new roof:
And here’s our intial landscape design:
My girlfriend Maja is pushing for an apiary for the roof!!!!! An apiary…? (A place to house honeybees) I’m not sure that’s legal in the city. Must inquire.
Its not every day Purolator brings by a giant jar of bubble wrapped mayo – with two silicone poachers to boot! The poachers are supposed to be good up to 700 degrees F – wild eh? Silicone is awesome! (Never thought I’d hear myself say that…)
We can’t remember exactly how we met Rogelio from Film and Event Solutions, but we’re sure glad we did!!!
Not only is he a cool dude, he also has a warehouse packed full of awesome shit – wind machines, tents, foggers, those wicked deluxe director’s chairs!
…and all those other basics you’re always needing more of (tables, chairs, bins).
Since we first had beers with Ro, we’ve used him a bunch of times for our productions at the studio – the helped us out with lunch rooms for a very large crew and with secured overnight parking for cubes. Best of all, their warehouse is located literally down the street from the studio – on Sterling Road.
More tech talk… This week we hosted a shoot which had a 24ft dolly track movement. It worked out very well. Shot on green screen, once composited, the subject walking will be made to look as if they are in an amphitheatre size space. Shot on the Red Camera using the new Cooks series lens, the footage looked stunningly crisp and beautifully lite. Jason George was the D.O.P., Man, this guy knows his stuff.
If its high resolution digital capture you are looking for, Andrew at Capture Management & Production is the guy to call.
CM&P offers a unique service: They will show up on-set and supply a 50 mega-pixel digital back with Hasselblad body and choice of lens. And a technician to operate the digital capture station.
This rental kit also comes with a high powered computer and dual flat-screen display, hard-drives and a technician to operate the digital capture station. And it all arrives in a custom retrofitted utility wagon.
Having worked with Andrew on many occasions over the past 6 years, I can attest to his professional work ethic and excellent knowledge of his equipment and related software.
Sterling Studio recently hosted a shoot for an independent feature film. It was a sci-fi of sorts. The Art department built a control cock-pit of a space ship. Reminiscent of the flicks we used to see in the 70′s and 80′s. This crew was a fun loving and friendly group of young production designers. In-spite of the power tools and construction dust, we really enjoyed working with them. For camera, they were using the Canon 5D MkII, an SLR which shoots video in HD. Rigged to a steady cam with remote data transfer. This is a good example of how the new technology is making film making ever-accessible.
Last night I managed to get out to the Flash Forward photo exhibit/book launch at the Lennox Gallery on Ossington. A solid show of emerging art talent from the UK, US and Canada.
Certainly a great arena for people to play and be inspired about photography & definitely cool to see so much quality work being done by young artists.
Big Congrats to Emily McInnes and MaryAnn Camilleri on the news that they are turning Flash Forward into a 5-day festival beginning in 2010!
It was great to see lots of familiar faces from the local photo scene out to support!
The exhibit will next travel to the States, and plans are to take it to the UK and Korea as part of the festival next year, but it’s in town for three weeks, so hit it up if you can!
