Musical Locations

A couple of days ago, Ryan and I had the honor of shooting a short piece for Crystal Woodman Miller, a Columbine survivor, who has turned the tragedy she went through into a message of hope.  

Since Columbine, Crystal has traveled around the world to share her experience with people who have encountered similar acts of violence.  We had a great time with Crystal although the shoot almost didn't happen at all.

Two locations cancelled on us at the last minute, a couple crew didn't show, and one extra didn't show as well, that's why you'll see me walking in the background.

However, the guys at "The Old School Bagel Cafe" were fantastic, we called them at 1:30 and showed up to shoot at 3:00.  We shot after they closed and squeezed everything in by sundown. It was a miracle.

We shot on a Canon XH-A1 using a Redrock Micro w/ Zeiss lenses 35mm, 50mm, & 85mm.  For lighting, we had 2-1K's, 1-500w, and 2-250w's, and a massive set of windows on the west side to let the sun set in on our scene. 

Here's a couple of stills pulled from the footage.  Thanks again to "The Old School Bagel Cafe"!

A steaming cup of hot... water... they had already cleaned out the coffee.
This is Petra, the "extra" (more like a friend) that showed... she was brilliant, professional & patient, with us while we were shorthanded.
Here's Crystal, mid-sentence, it's hard pulling a still of somebody talking.
The flower in the ashtray is part of the story that Staples (Ryan) came up with... get it beauty from the ashes... huh... nice.
What did we learn from this... Always secure a controlled location.  When one owner says that they never have customers after 2pm, they're lying.  And when another owner says they think that you can shoot there, plan on them saying "no!"  

Over all, I think it turned out real nice, it was chaotic, but it all worked out in the end.