"Time and Time Again" Production Blog

Another cool find. Ten dollars at Orchard (Supply Hardware)! Comes with it's own 250 watt 110 volt halogen bulb (a 4 dollar value). Compare that to the bulbs that you use in a Mini-Mole which are 200 watt, 120 volt (FEV). (Mini-Moles are small professional lights, the kind most used in pro stop-mo shoots. Oh, and the ones I used at De Anza.) Pretty cool! I the main differences between the Mini-Mole and this work light is the reflector behind the lamp and the lack of a lens in front. That, and I'm not sure if it puts out the same amount of foot-candles (light measurement). It looks pretty bright though. Now I'm going to see if I can make little round reflector to set in there. (Right now it just reflects off of the retanglular box that it's in, which gives four little mini-shadows on each side of any given object's shadows.) Also, I'm going to hopefully try to find a nice lens to direct that halogen power where I want it.

Oh, so here's a footnote: I'm shooting black and white, which means I'm too not concerned about color. So I'm fine with the fact that the halagen bulbs in these worklights are probabaly not the right color temperature for film. But if you folks watching at home are shooting with a digital camera, that camera will probabaly let you tweak the white balance, even after you take the picture. So these worklights still may be a good, cheap way to light your projects!

It is thought by some that Joe Ranft was the secret weapon for the quality of Bay Area animated films: Nightmare, and all the Pixar films. Some might even go so far as to say that Joe was a catalyst for the "Story is King" revival that has breathed new life into modern animated film.

As many of you have probably heard by now, Joe Ranft died in a car accident on Tuesday.

In the last few years I have tried to take to heart that advice that story is so important. And the best place I learned about it was, of course, from Pixar DVDs. So I know that many, many of the things that I've learned while making this film, I've learned from Joe.

He will be greatly missed.

It's been a while!! My home computer crashed a few weeks ago, and I've just (big news!) been moving my stuff out of De Anza. So I haven't had a chance to post, or had any production type stuff to relate to y'all!

So where am I going? Home! Yes, home. De Anza is great, but it's good to have everything in one place, and complete access at all the time. I will still stop by De Anza here and there, but for the most part I'm more of an independent filmmaker now, I guess.

Here's a cool tip: construction sites.

Down the street a neighbor was having new siding and insulation put on their house. And apparently when they do this, they just throw out the extra insulation doesn't fit on the walls! I got a ton of it! I was amazed.



What is it good for, you ask? Well, this pink insulating foam is awesome for sculpting. Especially for sculpting things that need to be light weight. It doesn't flake off or distort like other foams. It's pretty sturdy and keeps a good shape. And super-glue works great to get it to stick to itself. It's quite an amazing product. So next time you see a construction site, see if they're throwing any insulating foam away. It's win-win!

Among other things on the to do list: removing wallpaper, and painting a wall green.


That's some hideous wallpaper.