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I was hired to work as the Gaffer on a feature film trailer called "Kiss Before the Slaughter". We shot the project on 35mm film at Central City Studios in Los Angeles, CA.

I was working on the Tony Foale project and had just been working for 2 weeks straight with no days off. It was my last day of shooting before getting a day off and I was looking forward to a full nights sleep when out of the blue a friend put out a call for help. He was the Director of Photography for the project and needed a last minute Gaffer. Exhausted, I thought about it for a minute and called him up to offer my services. I figured, I came out to Hollywood to work, so that's what I was going to do. I'd rather be on set shooting than at home anyday.

We shot the project at Central City Studios in Los Angeles which is probably my least favorite place to shoot in this town. It has an accurate reputation for terrible management and unwelcoming hospitality. The stage managers literally treat you like they do not want you there the moment your crew shows up to shoot. To my horror, when I arrived there to do the lighting, I found that they rented a light kit from the stage which upon inspection turned out to be a mass of non-working random gear with missing parts, burnt out bulbs, fried cables, etc. Literally 80% of the lights & gear I picked up did not work. Luckily, our Boom Operator had brought a ton of his own lighting gear with just incase we needed it. I pretty much lit the entire day using the lights that our sound crew had brought to the shoot.

The Director of Photography on this shoot was Mario Contini. I have shot with him on a number of occasions and it is always a welcoming experience. He is amazing at what he does. I highly suggest checking out his work. www.MarioContini.com.

The grip crew on the project was small, but dedicated. They followed direction well and were eager to help out.

We had the most amazing catering there. 24/7 catering showed up and served us our meal. The food tasted amazing, which was a welcome change from some of the set food I had had lately. I got the contact info for the caterer to use on my future productions.

The cast was really friendly and cool. During one shot, the actress was sliding out of a locker in a Mortuary towards the camera. She slid out a little too fast and the tray flew off it's track, causing her to hit her forhead on the lens barrel of the camera. It caused a pretty deep cut on her forhead, and we doctored it while resetting the shot. She insisted on finishing out the scene and we completed the rest of our setups.

The 10 hour shoot day turned out to be a 15 hour shoot day. So I definately didn't get the sleep I had been hoping for to be on set again the next morning, but I was really glad I went to the shoot. It turned out to be a fantastic and fun project with tons of great people involved. I look forward to seeing the feature and being a member of the crew when it is made.

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