This has been the busiest year we’ve ever had at Psychicflyingmonkey Productions. Read on and find out what I was up to month by month.
by Jason Ryan
February
Pretty much all my shoots are fun, but this was exceptionally so. This life-long collector was selling 30 of his cars at the Mecum Auto Auction in Scottsdale and we were profiling his cars for a piece that aired in chunks on NBCSN. You can see the complete piece below. I was hired to shoot 2nd camera for the interview as well as b-roll.
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March
We had been planning the 1st Annual Arcosanti International Film Carnivale since 2017, and we shot footage for the promo in April of 2018. We finished shooting for the promo plus stills for a Java article on Toni Ross, then I edited the promo and released it in time to promote the Carnivale. I enjoyed contrasting Carlos Nakai’s peaceful and ponderous “Song for the Morning Star” with Traveler’s energetic “No Tomorrow”. Delfino Ramirez Jr’s drone work helped me create the peaceful feeling at the beginning and provided visually stunning shots when Traveler’s song kicks in.
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May
I got a gig shooting for Ellen Degeneres’s digital network show “GO RVing with tWitch & Allison and Family”. They had a big surprise planned for the family at Lake Pleasant and wanted a third camera for extra coverage. I had an earlier call time to coordinate with the RV to shoot some b-roll of it rolling into the Lake Pleasant area. I got there earlier than the RV and started sussing out the best spots from which to shoot the vehicle as it tooled down the road. The area also happened to be a popular area for target shooting. When the California-based RV driver and producer arrived and heard all the gunshots, they were completely freaked out. I took a hunter’s safety course while in junior high school so I’m fairly proficient with firearm safety. The only real concern was ricochets (of which there were a few), so I made sure to pick areas to set up the camera where a ricochet couldn’t possibly hit us. I had to assure them that everything was alright, this is just Arizona.
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June
I was brought on to edit a trailer for “Ocean of Obstacles”, which is a documentary film that reveals the story of a dozen blind teenagers as they attempt a life changing voyage at sea. Film trailers are one of the most difficult things to edit, because you must give the audience enough to get them interested in the film, but you don’t want to tell so much of the story that they feel they’ve already seen the thing. In Hollywood trailer editing is so specialized that there are editors that exclusively edit trailers, and yet so many times they still get it wrong! I think I was able to get people interested in this doc without giving them too much.
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July
I was hired to shoot a promo piece for photographer Emanuel Smith’s sponsor Visico Lighting as well as a commercial for Miraki Beauty Care at a 50’s diner. This was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to shoot in a genuine 50’s diner, and it was a blast! I determined before the shoot that I wanted to overcrank (shoot slow motion) practically the whole shoot. I love how the overcranked footage works with the movements of the models. The girls were so full of energy, naturally dancing to the 50’s music that was already playing in the diner, that it made the shoot very entertaining. As we were waiting for the restaurant to clear out enough for us to have space to do our thing, Emanuel and I were talking about how, in general, something goes wrong on pretty much every shoot. But beside the initial slight delay we had a perfect shoot.
Later in the month I was invited to hold a workshop at the Show Low International Film Festival. I was asked to make a quick video explaining what I was going to be teaching and give a couple tips on lighting. I determined that since the workshop was about lighting and I had just bought 7 used tungsten lights for a killer price (thanks Joe Becker!), I would take the lights for a trial run by setting up multiple lighting schemes in just one room in my house and incorporating that into my video.
September
In early August we began pre-production on our promo for the 7th Annual Jerome Indie Film & Music Festival. Toni Ross and I co-directed and co-produced, and I directed photography, edited and performed color grading. We also were fortunate to have two former Hollywood post guys work on it as well. Greg Pilon (Deadpool 2, The Walking Dead) did VFX for us, and Noah Blough (Independence Day, So I Married an Axe Murderer) did sound design, as well as play the character of Dr. Helmut Braunschweiger.
We were overjoyed with the help we received from the people, businesses and organizations in the town of Jerome and the Verde Valley. We had over 40 extras come out to appear in the promo, and Clarkdale Kayak Co, The Jerome Fire Department, and the Jerome Historical Society were all incredibly helpful with providing locations and props to make this promo possible.
December
In late November I was hired by Blare Media to direct a music video for Ava Terry’s “You”. Before this I had directed many music videos, but they were always direct for the client. We had an excellent shoot, and I’ll be posting the music video as soon as it’s released. Meanwhile, you can check out more behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot on Blare Media’s blog.
A few days later, I directed photography on a short sci-fi film, “The Right Vintage”, produced and directed by Trace Winter. Trace was looking for a warehouse or large indoor space where he could build the set- a perfectly round room. I had met Bruce Haseley in a photography class at SCC many years ago, and he had shot BTS on many of my shoots and also at the Jerome Indie Film & Music Festival. Within the last couple years he had become a filmmaking and photography instructor for EVIT in Fountain Hills. I first toured the facility a couple years ago, and remembered the large multi-purpose room. I put Trace in touch with Bruce, Trace asked Bruce if he could build his set there and Bruce made it happen. There aren’t many short films shot in Arizona for which whole sets are built, especially not round sets with a round countersunk space in the middle.
Another aspect that helped set this film apart is that we shot with anamorphic lenses. Anamorphic lenses are actually oval shaped instead of the standard spherical shape. Originally, films shown in theatres were generally the same aspect ratio (4:3) as the new technology of television. Anamorphic lenses were initially developed to make films shown in theatres appear more epic to compete with television. These lenses squeezed a wider image onto a regular frame of 35mm film, and when the image was desqueezed, it created an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. A great example of an anamorphic film is Die Hard. Some of the cool characteristics of anamorphic lenses are the bokeh (out of focus highlights), which are oval instead of round as rendered by spherical lenses. Anamorphic lenses are also known for their stunning horizontal flares. The main reason, however, that I advocated for shooting anamorphic on “The Right Vintage” was to get a wider field of view. Trace determined that the set would be fully built except for the ceiling. I knew shooting anamorphic would help me keep the lack of ceiling out of the shot, while giving me a very wide field of view. Many filmmakers think of anamorphic as being best for landscapes and epic films, but I saw a film a few years back set in a cabin that was shot anamorphically, and I really liked how different the two-shots and closeups looked. “The Right Vintage” is in post production now but I’ll post more about it when it starts its festival run.
Thanks a million to everyone who helped and supported Psychicflyingmonkey Productions this year, and we look forward to continued success in the new decade!