roll 'em & then some

this week was a mix of some things, well, actually make that one thing, new, and others that are yearly repeats, or weekly repeats...such as it is

first day in, went out to shoot a prep sports feature on a girl who blew out her knee in hoops season and is still out for softball - but, she still suits up and goes to every game and practice to support her team

later that night, i was on something new to me - a michigan-based (but, i gather hollywood-esque) movie production company has been filming some scenes in monroe, which they chose because we have been one of the economically hard-hit communities in the state and this could bring some money (how, i don't know exactly) to us....not sure how they chose us, cos pretty much EVERY community in michigan has taken a pretty big economic hit, but whatever...tuesday night, after a month delay, they were going to be filming the car chase scene through downtown monroe...got the permits to close down the streets for filming between 6 pm and 6 am - finally got a hold of the asst. producer to see what time they'd be doing the filming - should i plan on being there at 8 or like 2 in the morning? he was actually really cool and helpful, considering i'm sure that the local paper getting pictures while he's making a movie is probably pretty far down on the list of priorities....

turns out they'd be setting up at 6, but probably wouldn't start shootingt til 9 ish or so...so, that gave me some idea of how to plan my time...

got downtown around 8, because i figured people would be out watching, and more than shooting them shooting, the community's response/interest is really the most important part to our coverage - which was oddly only me, kind of surprised they didn't have a writer covering this as well, because a lot of people did turn out to watch, and really, it was pretty interesting to see what all is involved in shooting something of this scale, and also, for people here, just cos it's pretty cool to have a major motion picture filming in your town...

whole families came out, beautiful night, got ice cream and lined the streets to watch as crews lit up our downtown on crane lifted massive lights

when it came time for the first take of the car screaming down the street, everyone was told to pack into the bars/restaurants lining the way to stay out of the shot - these kids thought it was very cool that a movie was being shot here and thought it would make people maybe want to come here...

milling around, i saw this monitor showing the camera view and was trying to work that, when these 2 guys came up...after a bit, i kind of got the idea that these were probably the director and lead actor - of course, i'm not gonna ask them and look like a total dork, so i just keep shooting as they talk and joke about the scenes, and i asked a crew guy later if that's who they were.....and it was, so that was kind of a lucky picture...

especially since i thought the director was the movie photographer, because when i saw him before, he was running around with a pro looking camera shooting stills, which he also did later when they wet down the street to get some more dramatic car fish-tailing down the street shots...guess he was just documenting the process, too

just including this shot because, as bryan and i try to learn more about lighting in our own work, i thought it was especially interesting to see how you light not just a portrait but an entire city block! this particular set-up, according to the crew, is called "moonlighting"

next morning, back to usual stuff - had a local school participating in a state-wide exercise campaign - kids exercising simultaneously - i.e., walking around a half-mile walking path - not as easy as it sounds, cos the kids all want to mug for the camera (which teachers don't necessarily help by saying, "Smile everyone, she's with the paper!" - i know they mean well, but we're just not about those kind of pictures...it takes a big leap for people to get behind the idea that we're not into scrapbook fotos, but "in the moment pictures" that aren't about addressing the camera, but simply going about your business and having it documented)

but, i did what i could

next day, pretty slow - went out to shoot a tutoring program at the community center - the kid we had as the one to focus on was there, but his tutor wasn't, and the program director said he was the only one for whom they had a photo release...still, made some pix that could work with the story, and shot other kids and they were gonna call to get permits for them later...

as i was shooting, i saw kids out in the garden plots where they yearly grow veggies and flowers which they well in a weekly market stand throughout the summer....and we needed InSight (weekly community foto page) fotos, so i went out there to make a pic for that afterward

next morning, it was off to follow a local school's field trip to detroit, visiting an african-american historic museum - this almost didn't happen, cos the museum had told the reporter that they were very happy to have coverage, but no pictures of their exhibits...well, that's a little tough - i mean how do you show kids looking at things that you can't show? but, after further correspondence, it turned out we could shoot in one part of the exhibit - when kids make their way from africa to the slave ships and then on to america, and it was "interactive," so they could experience how it felt to be aboard the slave ships...so, we decided to go and shoot this in lieu of "Ag Day," which i've shot umpteenth million times and would have been particularly difficult since friday was to be pouring rain...

so, off we went, in the pouring rain, up to detroit, and after getting way-laid by an accident and getting lost (should have know that when the reporter said she got her directions off mapquest, i should have completely ignored them and gone the route i'd found), we finally arrived...

this museum was really cool, but it was a lighting nightmare! we went from pitch black, to normal room lighting, to faux candle lighting, and as for the interactive experience, that just really wasn't what i was envisioning at all, which i kind of half-expected, but still, it was a little disappointing...

so, all in all, cool museum, not so cool/expected photo results...but still, way better than shooting kids walking around the fairgrounds in the rain on Ag Day.....

glass half full, glass half empty....in the end, it was just......a glass

saturday was a long one! started out with a track and field invitational...no rain, thankfully, but it was a high in the low 40's with horrid winds, which gusted to regular intervals of about 50 mph! so, yeah, that's no fun, and it really didn't have good effects on the kids' performances either - hurdles events delayed as they had go keep uprighting the hurdles being blown over, and pole vaulting? - forget it, they'd get up to the pole only to be blown backwards by a sudden wind gust - not real fair, or more importantly safe, in my opinion, but sports must go on i guess...

after getting that in, i headed out to the courthouse - the starting point for a torch relay which was part of a fund/awareness raising effort for out county's CASA (court appointed special advocate) program, which has volunteers lobbying for children in abusive homes within the court system....hmmm, no one was there, so i headed toward the park - my plan was to shoot the start then get them coming into the park and whatever else was going on there...but, since the courthouse was devoid of life, i just headed toward the park, passing the torch runners along the way- yeah, so, turns out, the times they gave us were a "typo," so i just stayed put to shoot them coming into the park, whereupon other group volunteers would be taking the torch and making a final mile-long loop through the park...

so, i got that stuff, and what we ran was this image of the final torch-bearers, including 2 CASA volunteers and the adopted son of one of them, who had been a child recipient of the program, at the torch's end arrival...

but, i kind of liked this side image of 2 kids who were there - their older sibs were in one of the high school bands providing entertainment - i thought it was funny that this little girl kept trying to blow on her pinwheerl, cos the winds was so strong, she really didn't need to blow - in fact, more likely she just had to hold onto it with all her might!

took a bit of a break, and then it was in to the paper to get the torch fotos in, then out to the college theater for the 4th annual "Monroe Biggest Idol" event - just what you'd think it is - local people playing simon and paula, et al, as judges, and local talent competing....so, here's all that....

then, back in to tone sunday's pix, get all the foto galleries made, and then, finally, home!