Spy Master

I tell you, John... I put that rig to the TEST before my camera EVER sat on that. And I was SO CAREFUL while driving.... I didn't go over 20 mph and I didn't hit any potholes. Yeah... I was nervous.

I have a nice, wide, straight road scouted out for the actual shoot.
 
:laugh:is that a CHICKEN burger ur eating there ted??? cuz i hear CHICKENS r guuuud. whadaya say we go get some CHICKEN right now???:laugh:
 
Speaking of burger...we were just eating burgers and my girlfriend asked if i wanted the rest of hers and I said sure babe, I'll eat your burger. My daughter bust out laughing and walked away. I guess I can't get away with that stuff anymore. :P
 
Aram, that is pretty damn funny.

Carli, that is pretty damn scary!

(Is that you, Michael??? Are you having an identity crisis? Your alter ego getting out of control????)
 
I like the thigh ... .. we are talking about chicken?

Aram, you know you would have hypertension if you tried to hold in those jokes. I never met someone who loved the tellling more. That is why they are affective.
 
Aram Bauman said:
if i could only get on stage...
Click to expand...

"Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!"

1178209776.jpg
 
That was an amazing table. (and a bit of a funny story there, too... right Aram!)

Anyway....

BREAKING NEWS..........................

Production of SPY MASTER gets under way!!!

Production of SPY MASTER halted by cops!!!

but first this message....

I have to give the biggest shout out to Dave Stevens at Glidecam Industries!!!

There are a lot of great people that I have had the pleasure of doing business with since I started this venture in filmmaking... and I am not just talking about my fellow filmmakers here. I am talking about vendors. Seriously.

As many of you know, I wanted to add some new gear to my arsenal (and give my ladders a break!)... Camera jib/crane has been top of my list as well as perhaps a dolly.

In my tireless search of shopping online, I have "meet" some incredible vendors and I have to name a few.

Eric Kessler at Kessler Crane has been both helpful and generous. I must say that I really wanted my crane to come from Eric, not only because I have used and like the Kessler Crane but because of Eric's customer service both on the phone and through email.

Michael Long at Glideshot Industries has been of great assistance with my questions while considering the purchase of a dolly. I haven't purchased a dolly yet, but when I do... I will be considering Glideshot because of the customer service that I have received from him.

And finally....

Dave Stevens at Glidecam Industries just takes the cake!!! (I mean this in a good way)

I started writing Dave when I found a Glidecam 100 camera jib on ebay. I wanted to know the difference between the current model and this older model. Dave wrote back immediately and answered my questions. I was very pleased with the correspondence I was having with a guy who was not making any profit from my inquiries. And it only gets better!

I won the ebay listing and received the Glidecam 100. It was in 90% perfect order, however there was a missing threaded insert that I would never be able to replicate at the local home improvement store and there was a problem with the pivoting system. I again wrote Dave.

Dave has been so incredible. He seems genuinely concerned about the item and asked me to send him the parts. I did. He replaced the missing insert and fixed the pivoting system. No charge, no fee. None what-so-ever.

Now, maybe he has a lifetime guarantee in place or something but even so, I just never expected someone to be so attentive and kind towards an owner of a secondhand product.

Sure, it only makes good business sense... but I find a lot of businesses who do not practice "good business sense." And obviously, with me, customer service goes a long way!

So, thank you to Dave Stevens at Glidecam! Thank you to Eric Kessler at Kessler Crane and to Michael Long at Glideshot.

You gentleman know how to treat your customers!

-Ted

Oh! And by the way... this Glidecam 100 appears to be well built and versatile. The parts that the previous owner didn't screw-up are incredible. The crane is so smooth and quiet. I cannot wait until Monday when my parts return from Dave.

Back to our top story.......

Production of SPY MASTER halted by local cops!

(full story with video coverage at 11)
 
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LOL - oh Theo, Theo, Theo, did you learn nothing from reading the "Black Angel" thread? Without permits your production is toast. Instead of getting kicked out by cops, the local gardner from the cemetery kicked the production out the sidewalk. Oh well, let us know the story, I'm sure I'll give a sympathetic laugh (cough, cough) out of it.
 
Hey guys, sorry that I had to leave that tease but I have to work the Philharmonic today and planned to "finish my story" while at work.... BUT the theatre that I am at today put a PASSWORD on the INTERNET!!! What is up with that??? And only the administration people know the password and they don't work on SATURDAYS!!!

So, I am forced to borrow someone's computer here, log in and write this. I was planning on having a bit more freedom where I could upload some grabs and pix from yesterday's shoot.

As for the police... it was pretty funny. The cop was actually nice to us and more annoyed that someone called us in. He told me that it is a public street and I can do whatever I want! (Wow, I thought to myself... I have NEVER had a cop say that before!)

So, he waved off the back-up unit that arrived and let us conitnue shooting.

The best part was when I knew everything was cool... I thought, "gee... I should get a picture of him pulling us over" but I didn't want to push my good fortune.

HOWEVER, I looked into my van at the remote monitor and saw that the cop was in the frame!!! I leaned into my van and hit the record button on the remote and started taping away!!! It is pretty funny. Not that anything happened but that I have this cop calling in to dispatch and me smiling at the camera enjoying the moment.

In the end, everything was cool and we continued to roll. The funny thing was we were actually shooting a safety take and really didn't even need the shot.

I viewed the footage last night and love that during the scene, my actor gets pulled over on tape. I will try and share this with you guys as long as I don't DQ myself by doing so.

I write more and post pix when I can. Off to take care of the musicians!

-Ted
 
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heh. thats awsome.. increedibly, the same thing happend to me during our spyfest shoot.. first scene of the day at 6:30 AM. although we were not pulled over, and do not need permits to shoot here. we had officers come at us from in front and behind with thier hands ready on their guns as we were just starting to shoot a little segment near a park in a remote area. as one of them got closer, i lowered the camera (DOH!.. i shouldve kept rolling..) and asked him what was up. apparently someone called and reported some "suspiscious activity" and it was us. i stood there blank faced with the camera and looked at him and then looked at the boom op standing there with his boompole, and the director with the script, and the actors waiting in front of the camera, and responded with a little laugh "well, ..we are mighty suspiscious" . the officer just shook his head with this look on his face where you could tell he was asking himself how someone would be dumb enough to call us in, and then asked if he was in the way of the shot. i said "no .. go ahead. or you can stay and watch if youd like" . they said they had to get going, but i went ahead and said.. oh yeah.. he's got a knife he'll be pulling out .. just to let you know. :)" the officer smiled and said to the other one ".. so i guess well get some more calls.. lol " .. anyway. they were really cool about it, but just like you i kept kicking myself about not letting the camera roll. .. i hope that youll be able to post your footage though, cause i love watching stuff like that. im glad they were cool about it with you :)
 
It seems that many of us run the risk of police involvement on Spy Fest. I mean, how can you shoot a spy film without guns, knives and other assorted weapons?!?!

Neil, I am glad that you, too, had a "pleasant" experience with the cops. Sounds like your incident closely resembles mine (in way of the reaction from the officer). Too bad you did lower yor camera, that would have been fun. I tell you.... when I was standing there with my cop (and my actor who was driving who had to present his ID), my face must have beamed when I got the idea to go press the record button.

I will post some of that tomorrow.
 
while we were shotting a scene from The Corsairs a cop pulled up right as our lead actor was holding a gun and beating the **** out of the other character. It looked like a real gang beating because we had cars with their headlights on and other actors leaning against the cars. The cop pulled his gun on our lead and told him to drop the weapon. I can't tell you how embarassing that was.

However, everything was fine. I was holding the camera and lowered it to the ground upon his command. I even stopped it from recording and I can't tell you how aggrivated I was! It wouldve been great to have some of that on tape!

I'm glad everything went fine for you, Ted! I'm really looking forward to this one!!!!
-Kyle
 
A good, no great idea, would be to tell the police that you are shooting a scene with a gun in a public place. Some states require a cop on the set when using fire arms. (not sure if fake guns apply)

I think outside of Hollywood (Hollywood is the exception because people complain do to constant filming) cops are generally cool about leaving people alone. I was production coordinator on a shoot in Roswell New Mexico and the local police shut down a stretch of highway for us so we could shoot and volunteered their time as well.

Glad the shoot is going well Ted. Looking forward to some grabs.
 
Since we've been reshooting ours we informed the police station of what we were doing. We had zero problems, and I was even on the ground screaming coughing out chocolate syrup as loud as hell (with a coffee shop down the alley where there was a small folk group performing... needless to say, we ADR'd everything and even got a few glances from people standing by asking if everything was okay).
 
Hilarious! He seemed like a nice guy. I am surprised there wasn't some sort of traffic law about having that boom hanging from your van. Glad it wen't well.

Are you wrapped yet?
 
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