After finally making it back home for a couple of weeks, back in Melbourne, I have been able to catchup with family and friends but also process many of the images I have captured around the world.

When ever I get the time, I try to do some time lapse photography. I’m not entirely sure why, I just felt that it would be a good idea to do a little here and there to form a collection of sequences that could be used on commercial projects etc. Lately I have been thinking that it’s a shame these images aren’t out in the open for people to see. So I started to collate them onto a timeline in Final Cut Pro. With no real theme or purpose, I started to formulate an edit based on a music video style approach and realised that a theme did exist – The World in Motion. For what it’s worth, here is my short film, made entirely out of time lapse I shot on my 5DMKII, using a 24mm Shift & Tilt Lens, 50mm f1.4 Canon Lens, 24-105mm Canon zoom & a 15mm Canon wide angle lens. I used a Canon TC-80N3 Intervalometer to control the camera. The camera was nearly always mounted to my Manfrotto Tripod. I say nearly always because rarely I did do some time lapse with the camera sitting on a box or chair etc.

I use MPEG Streamclip by Squared 5 to assemble the images into a Quicktime movie. Generally I use Apple Prores 422(HQ) as the codec. I then edit the footage inside Apples Final Cut Pro. I will make a note though, when ever possible, I try to shoot with a ND8 filter on so that I can set my exposure time to something close to half a second. It depends what the subject is but generally I try to shoot some where between 1/8th – 3/4′s of a second. This is because I generally don’t like the crisp, sharp time lapse that creates a very rigid staccato movement. This video unfortunately has quite a lot of this which works OK but generally I prefer the softer look of the blurred movement. Knowing what level of blur is acceptable is really the key to doing great Time Lapse work.

This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the footage I’ve shot, however in the future I might consider editing the rest into another short. Incidentally, the music is composed in Garageband by yours truly. Mostly loops with a smattering of Midi instruments. Finally, all the images you see in this edit were shot in 2010 from January through to March. Hope you enjoy it.

To watch the movie see it on Vimeo.com here or click any of the above images.

Lately I have really fallen behind on the blog as we move quickly across the USA with the documentary project “Machete Maidens”. Arriving in New York, we were told of an impending snow storm that would arrive later that night. So on one of the only days we had to ourselves, Angelo Satore and myself headed out into the streets of New York with our cameras. We walked all over the Island of Manhattan, blasting away with our DSLR’s for fun. We even organised a rapid permit at Grand Central Station to take photos in the main hall legally! There I shot a few time lapse sequences using the 5DMKII & an intervelometer controller. Finally we ended up at B&H which has to be one of the best camera stores on the planet! I ended up buying a GoPro HD “Hero” video Camera with a mounting kit. It can be mounted to virtually anything like bikes, helmets, ski’s etc. Very cool!

That evening the entire crew went out to dinner with some of the members from Magnolia Films in New York. At dinner, the snow began to fall, gently and slowly blanketing Manhattan with 18″ of snow! By the morning, New York looked amazing. Apparently this was the first really descent fall for 6 years. Here are just a few shots of what became of New York. I will update these as I get time and Internet access! Enjoy!

Now that we are on to Shoot day 6, we seem to be in a rhythm. The Production team back in Australia have been lining up the contestants very efficiently and today, we are actually interviewing 9 people!!? Normally I have to say this is too much but given that we have little time left in LA, we really don’t have any choice. As a result, the Crew have been working pretty hard and when we had any downtime, it was spent in the back of a car traveling for miles. Yesterday, we drove all the way out to Palm Springs to Interview a former James Bond Girl, Trina Parks. Racing across the desert in pouring rain, we  glimpsed snow capped peaks as we headed for another interview at the Joshua Tree. There we interviewed a real “Machete Maiden”, Leigh Christian, who shared some pretty interesting stories. As a result there aren’t too many photos of anything! We simply haven’t had any time!

The previous day, we had driven to an interview with R. Lee Ermey, an hour out of LA. That interview was legendary in our minds, especially when Jock, our sound recordist, looked out the window of the van and noticed the Drill Sergeant from Full Metal Jacket storming towards us! He was extremely gracious and awarded us all a personal commemorative medal with his name on it and autographed photographs for us.

We landed back at the hotel quite late that night! All in all, LA has been tight for time. Mark has had to work on his research after hours also so I think everyone is showing signs of sleep deprivation. Tomorrow is our last day in LA. It’s reasonably full with more interviews before we fly out late evening to New York. Until then, Adios

The location for today was inside the the Writers Building on the old Warners Lot in LA. The place is so steeped in history it was really cool to think that possibly Mel Blanc roamed the corridors here once?!

The days have been pretty full on, interviewing as many contributors to the Machete Maidens Project as we can get. Today (day 3) we filmed another five Interviews including Joe Dante, Dick Miller, Allan Arkush & John Davison. One of them was actually a double interview which made up the 5th set. Mark Hartley is pretty happy with what he got I think. The frank and open nature of the interviews was not only fascinating but incredibly funny at times. I wish I could explain the content of their discussions but you will just have to see the film when it’s done! Needless to say, I learned a great deal on their careers, Roger Corman and shooting in the Philippines!

Another bonus of today was to take a quick tour of Howard Hugh’s Building in LA. This occurred because our local LA Production Coordinator, Dan Hooker took us to a Producer friend of his who happened to have his office in the original Howard Hughs building. Amazingly, many of the sealed vaults haven’t been opened since the days of Hugh’s departure. It’s filled with oddities like escape routes, underground train lines, 18 or so Vaults, 26″ thick concrete walls, Steel doors and even bunker style apartments. It’s all very odd but wonderful at the same time. The art deco style is everywhere and is completely original. A true honour to be able to visit this place!

Currently the Howard Hugh’s building is serving as a Film Archival facility which was in itself amazing to see.

Tomorrow is a bit of a big one with 8 interviews now scheduled!! I might not be able to update on that until my eyelids recover but we’ll see!

Arriving in Los Angeles, the Machete Maiden’s team went through the usual immigration procedure and processed our Carney before catching yet another flight to Las Vegas. I’m not sure what I was expecting for our accommodation, after all Las Vegas is famous for it’s huge Luxor Casino Pyramid, New York New York Casino complete with a section of downtown New York city etc etc. However when I caught sight of our accommodation the Excalibur Casino Hotel, I had to laugh! It was Disneyland for Adults! Mark was heard saying in the car “Someone booking this place was wired into my brain”! Completely tacky but fun I guess?

Angelo & myself took some time around sunset to play with our cameras by walking around the main drag in Vegas. The photo’s you see here are as a result of this. Later we gathered ourselves together, despite being absolutely exhausted and had a steak inside the New York New York Casino.

Next day we setup for the first interview. The process had begun. For about two hours we enjoyed some pretty amazing stories of Genre Filmmaking in the Philippines! Definitely a good start! Completing the interview, we rushed the packup so that we could checkout, make our way to the airport and catch our flight to LA.

I’m writing this from our new abode, the Magic Castle Hotel Suits in LA. Hungry now, so I’m off to eat dinner. More soon

As we make our way across the Pacific Ocean towards LA, I thought that a quick march back in time, to 2008 was in order. So much of “Machette Maidens Unleashed” will be compared to a previous documentary job called “Not Quite Hollywood”. Directed by Mark Hartley also, we set off in 2008 on a very similar journey. On that occasion we also had a 5th member, make up artist Heather Ross, who unfortunately isn’t joining us on this trip. Otherwise, the band is back together again and traveling with a very different kit! With me is Angelo Satore (Camera Assistant), Jock Healey (Sound Recordist) and Mark Hartley (Director). Not a huge crew but a very effective group!

We shot “Not Quite Hollywood” on a Sony F900R using the latest of Cook Digital zooms. The kit included HD Monitors, heavy tripods etc etc. This time around, we have gone very light weight! Working with a different budget and using different technologies, we have chosen to shoot “Machette Maidens” on a Sony HDV Camcorder. The model is called the Sony HVR-Z7P which we have hired from Melbourne Based Rental house, Videocraft. Additionally we have a light weight carbon fibre tripod, LED Lightpanel & a Dedo. That’s it! Everything else will be hired at each location. In terms of weight and excess baggage, we are far better off then before. I have already written up a blog entry dealing with the gear here.

“Not Quite Hollywood” was an enormous job in terms of travelling, working and having fun! There are so many funny stories of almost missing planes, rushing to get to locations, meeting incredibly interesting people etc etc. I’m sure Machette Maidens will be similar. Lets hope it’s another great experience.

For now enjoy a few snaps from “Not Quite Hollywood”.