Entry #003

Today went ok. I struck a fair deal with the rental house and picked up a few small items. Then I met with my friend Dave and we rigged a makeshift car mount. It would have been nice to have a hostess tray but we made it work with what we had after adding a few new scratches to my Subaru. There is something to be said for grips who know what they're doing. Thanks Paul for lending me your suction mount!

By the time we had it rigged and lit we pretty much missed our magic hour light. But we made some adjustments and shot night time city driving stuff. I'll put a shot up in the morning, right now it's all being encoded by Mpeg stream-clip and is about 9% done.

Overall it would have been helpful to have a third person and a remote on/off for the camera. Lesson learned for next time. I must go and put the batteries on charge for tomorrow. The plan is to do some more driving stuff for Zac Barkhouse's new documentary about the Halifax Bridge Commission.

Entry #002

Back from holidays away, I'm ready to buckle down and start shooting away for the next month. I've borrowed some extra pieces of gear from friends and will hopefully grab a couple more lights and stands tomorrow. All my batteries are on charge and the memory cards are ready to go. The shoot for tomorrow is short and reasonably straight forward involving only one actor a car mount and the hope of some Christmas lights around town still being up. I have two back-up plans so unless something goes horribly wrong I should not miss the first day of my self-driven assignment. Most of the days are shaping up as far as content to shoot but for some of the days I still have no plans, if you are reading this and need a cinematographer for an idea you have, get in touch with me. Thanks for checking out my blog, be sure to follow me and add pressure for me to do a good job. Happy New Year

Entry #001

Here it is, my very first entry in my very first blog. I always figured I would undoubtedly grow lazy and neglect updating my blog for extended periods of time once the novelty wore off. Surely this blog will fall victim to that fate at some point, but for now I may have discovered a way to postpone the inevitable. The main purpose of this blog is to help me stick to plan and stay disciplined for one month. From Jan 4th 2010 to Feb 4th 2010, I plan to shoot moving images every single day.

I work as a freelance cinematographer based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, which basically means from Christmas until the end of February, I wear pajama pants, read technical forums on the internet and watch box set television. This year I'm going to try to shed my lazy habits for one month and go out and shoot every single day. I've been talking with a lot of people about various projects we want to shoot, but between waiting for funding and schedules not fitting together I have zero days of work booked for January.

As such, I've decided to take on January myself. I'm going to shoot at minimum one short scene or interview every single day for 30 days. With bad weather and my ability to hole up in my house for days at a time, it would be all too easy for me to fall off the wagon and skip some days or give up halfway through. Hence this blog. The thought of people like you checking up on my progress will hopefully add enough outside pressure and fear of going back on my word for me to actually execute this plan.

After February 4th, if the blog fades away, it will have served its purpose. In the meantime, if you’re a director, actor or writer and wish to have me shoot a short scene for you for free, send me an email. (image@kevinAfraser.com) Offer of shooting for free stands only for short projects where nobody benefits financially. Sorry producers of commercial, corporate and series work, you guys still have to pay me.