A Series of Unfortunate Events

So I'm gonna tell a story about 5 park kids trying to shoot a movie and all of the unfortunate events they run into when trying to complete their movie. Last week, we were suppose to finish our movie shoot on Sunday, leaving that night and and the rest of the week to edit our final product. Sunday morning came rolling around but we couldn't get in touch with our man actor. Steve kinslow (myself) went to his apartment to find that he was not their and without his phone. His roommates had no clue where he was. We also found out that another actor of ours forgot a sweatshirt at home over fall break that he was wearing in our shoot, which would have killed our continuity. With all of that said and done, we cancelled the shoot and decided to shoot for the week and the weekend to comeThe next problem we came in counter with was scheduling conflicts. It was literally impossible to get all the actors together for more than an hour on any weekday from the hours of 12 to 4 (where we would have proper sunlight). This then meant that we had to shoot on the weekend once again.

At about 9pm on Thursday night, I got a phone call from our main actor Nate that the uniform we were using for our shoot wouldn't be available for the weekend because his roommate was going away on an ROTC trip from Thursday to Sunday night. Not a problem, we will just get another uniform from someone else. But then he mentioned that every school in our region will be attending this trip, so a similar uniform won't be available for the next couple of miles. JUST GREAT.
So Alex and I decided to try and find a surplus store where we could buy a similar uniform to use. We found one place within 50 miles, Joe's Surplus in Cortland. Not to bad. I call on Friday to make sure they have what we need in our size, just to get a voicemail in return telling me their store is closed for the weekend due to a gun show their employees will be attending. WTF. Like really.
So this Sunday (today), we had to shoot without a uniform, only showing the waist up on our main character. Not exactly what we wanted, but int he real world, you have to deal with what is given to you. I don't believe there is anything else we could have done. It is most likely our final product will not be done Tuesday. I hope all of the other groups had a smoother time than us.

God Bless

A friend in need

Steve kinslow

The Big Bang Theory

Here's a show that I've been nonstop addicted to. I always saw the previews before and never thought about watching it until two weeks ago.

It's about a group of friends who work together in the science department as physicists, astronomers, or engineers at a university. Anyways, Leonard and Sheldon live together and this girl, Penny, moves across the hall from them. While playing the clichés that the nerdy kid wants the hot cheerleader throughout this series, the whole series focuses on the development of these characters. All of them extremely hilarious and I don't think I've watched an episode without laughing out loud.

The writers of this show are complete genius' by staying completely true to each character . . . especially Sheldon. He is so proper like a robot that it is extremely humorous when he disagrees with someone or proves them wrong. Each time he brings in his psych out phrase . . . "Bazinga," it is so true to his character of him being intelligent but being funny towards the audience without knowing it.

If you haven't checked out The Big Bang Theory, I'm telling you . . . WATCH IT.

Guns In Movies

Over the summer I worked at Sturm and Ruger Gun Company in New Hampshire. I was part of the video and marketing team for this large company and spent a great deal of time around their products. While working there film and television came up many times, naturally due to the sheer number of movies and television that had firearms in them. These conversations ranged from a Gunsite Academy Range Master criticizing the realism of an actor's form or ability with a handgun, to their meeting of Charlton Heston, star of the original Planet of the Apes, and past president of the NRA.

I also realized what an undertaking, legally and professionally, it would be to provide all the props for a large war movie. Every day we would film a promotional or instructional video with real weapons the crew would go through extensive safety precautions to ensure that a gun was completely safe and that no one was in harms way. But still now and then we would return to the editing room and send out a video to the legal team via Dropbox only to get an email back informing us that it was no good. That for 2 frames the muzzle of a gun was pointing at the camera while the instructor moved it from one side of his body to the other.

Like any other large company, gun companies rely on the media for advertising. One way of advertising is movies and television. The director of media relations within the company informed me that he knew people out in LA prop houses and that Ruger tries to place their guns within many productions. Like this Ruger Alaskan Revolver in the Rock's hand.

A gun designed solely for Alaskan fly fishermen that may have to fend off a grizzly bear that sneaks up behind them from several yards away but I'm sure the rock will be picking off bad guys left and right from whatever range he feels is necessary.