Pre-viewing pleasures

This is going to be just a quick update as my schedule just got a lot busier with unexpected commercial shoots.

First off.... Holy crap Avengers movie is pretty amazing if I do say so myself!  Got called "the other Captain America" haha!

Last Tuesday I was in San Jose with Harry shooting a commercial for a clothing company.  I'm working on a behind-the-scenes video for our YouTube channel as I'm building the 4 spots.  So expect a separate blog just for that.

Yes those are ninjas dressing.

No you can't touch them.

Can you find all 3?

I spent most of the week editing the 4 commercial spots and wrapping up the Martial Arts event I did work for on April 28th.  As well as prepping a design documents for a meeting I just held yesterday (Saturday) to start a video game project with a private group.  Things are going to get very interesting.

And finally, today I've been trying to just catch up on some editing projects.  Whetting my hands on some Red 4k footage from the ACE rail commercial shoot to practice 4k R3d workflow in Premiere Pro.  I may get around to posting on that one specifically as I'd like to go in depth and really explore everything with working with 4k.

 However, just a little while ago I got another call from Harry to shoot back out to San Jose with him all day tomorrow to pick up a reshoot for some spots I'm already editing, and then shoot a whole new commercial with a new client of which I have absolutely no details of yet.  These are fun times indeed!

Oh........ and a little secret I'll let you all in on... there's a zombie apocalypse coming... Stay tuned for more information ;)

RPM Challenge Day 12

The big day arrives to track at the studio, we have the whole day to ourselves, and the whole day is reserved just for tracking the Indie song Troy finished writing earlier in the week.  We arrived at the studio early enough to get a good start on the day's progress.

Going in we could tell something was looming overhead, we'd made a lot of progress without any real issues, as if we were having too much good luck on our progress thus far.  We quickly tracked the electric guitars to the demo track we had done earlier. 

Troy took a few runs through tracking and we experimented with the ideas for the sound we wanted to achieve.  Double tracking with two different guitars and pushing different sounds through and playing with panning ideas for editing and mixing later were critical notes we established early on in the day to stay consistent with the "vision". 

After guitars we moved to drums.  While we discussed what setup we wanted, I mentioned I've been wanting to experiment with a unique mic selection for overheads in mid/side for this track that might sound really cool. 

We went out to set up our mics and get the drums together.  I started setting up overheads and Troy brought out the rest.

In addition to the overhead selection we tried out a wide setup for room mics, and 3 mics on the kick to go for a really fat and thumpy sound.

 

We got all the mics set up and were underway until the point where we had to get levels and settings dialed into the preamps.  The first sign of trouble was that our overheads weren't getting any signal at first.

Our very first problem started manifesting with our patching as we'd been moving a lot of stuff around in the patch bays trying to get the order of things we wanted.  The next issue that came up was running clean enough power to the tube condenser mic I wanted to use on the overheads.

Due to our unique location's design we had to run a large extension cable into the drum booth to get power to the power amp for the microphone.  Even with the extension plugged into power conditioners it still caused too much noise in the line to use. 

 

We dropped the mid/side idea and ended up with just a single overhead mic, and it sounded beautiful all on it's own!  The room mics ended up playing more of a role in the mix.

Then something more serious came up.  Our whole morning seemed shot as we had to deal with the issue of one of our mic pre's misbehaving.  While Troy's had this particular preamp for almost a year we have never really had to use it until now, and that's where the trouble began.

Troy called one of our friends at our local Guitar Center where he bought the preamp from, and tried to see what we could do on it, while we tested it out. We even took it out of the patch bay and tried running direct. 

After a 25 minute call we ended up closing up shop for a side trip to Guitar Center, with the broken down pre

After a bit of waiting around and discussing options on what could be done, we got rid of the defunct mic preamp and walked out with a lovely new one from Universal Audio.  Troy says he's been wanting this one for years, and now he has it. 

We got back to the studio quick and plugged and patched in the new preamp to get back to tracking.

With the new preamp up and running and everything set up and ready to track we resumed the drum track.  Troy went on a few takes for the drums being as they were a simple enough beat to keep in time with and not a whole lot of fill work for the style. 

We tracked through the drums with a few hiccups in recording.  We still ended up with a great take and amazing sounding drums even unmixed.  Up next to finish off the track: Bass.

Troy decided to go back and clean up some of the guitars so we dialed in a sound on the amp and the preamp to sound warm and toasty! 

With so much stress from losing time and taking care of random issues throughout the day, we stopped production and decided to resume tomorrow.

RPM Challenge day 11

Today marks the last weekday to get stuff demoed.  This week was marked with lots and lots of phone calls about potential jobs with friends and colleagues lining up for future dates, which is great and distracting at the same time!  Business is business however, and today we wrapped up Curing the Cure's final vocal takes.  This song is finally tracked.

Steven (left) and I (right) getting a good look

We had a lot of fun fooling around between and even during tracking the vocals!  Troy danced, Steven cracked jokes a lot of laughter kept the night moving quickly.

Troy getting his groove on

First things first, Setting up the mics and pulling up the track and reviewing what was needed on the final takes.  Steven was ready to go right away.

After just a couple takes of the main track we had a take we liked and reviewed the sound for the "corrupted" vocal overdubs.  I used plugins on the vocal track to test out a deeper voice manipulation effect that erred on creepy phone call status.

Troy getting a kick out of the voice manipulation effect

We goofed around for a bit while I dialed in a good setting on the effect, and got back to work on tracking the overdubs.

Just a few takes later we played more with the voice manipulation effect and reviewed the progress on the track so I could make mental notes on where to take it in editing and arrangement.  Since most of the song is done virtually aside from the industrial noises I sampled from found objects which were then processed, I'll go back over the track and start adding in various other elements to make the song sound fuller.

Discussing the final takes

After that, we took a break to go eat and Troy went to pick out some music from a retail store as research for another song we still have to write: the electronica song.

Steven's last look

We are still unsure of what we want to do for this one so afterward we wanted to go to the studio to get inspired.  However, with time constraints we ended up coming back to my place and just listening to bands like Celldweller to get inspired by the fusion of metal / techno / and industrial.

Troy at it again, dancing to Celldweller!

We really couldn't come up with ideas quickly enough, and he had to go for the night.  We discussed the songs we had left to do, and I decided to tackle the Fight song later in the evening.

The metal gods are not pleased...

I quickly got set up to record guitars and start demoing the Fight song.  Finding a good sound was hard because I didn't quite have any ideas solid in my head,  I played around for a bit to find the sound I liked and Troy commented it sounded very Metallica-inspired.  Thanks!

Schecter Hellraiser C-7 goodness

After a few ideas trolling through my fingers and out my amp, a few setting changes, and a good while, Troy finally decided to leave for the night, and I got on with tracking what I had.

I tracked the guitars and laid down a quick beat and then even laid down bass.  Most of the song was demoed, it still needs some more arrangement work but the core of the idea is there finally!

Tomorrow we are going to be super busy in the studio tracking all that we can!  Stay tuned for more!

RPM Challenge Day 10

Thursday, Day 10 was a good day to get stuff done.  Troy and I tackled my idea to have a blues-inspired song on the soundtrack to get back in touch with the concept we came up with.  During his lunch break we talked about ideas.

It seems like the longer we're around each other the more we screw around.  It was hard enough to stay focused with us both feeling so much pressure.

Troy feeling the pressure of the ever-creeping due date

We eventually got down to business and recapped over some crucial points on our progress we've made so far and what we have left to do.  After he left, I got back on task and started setting up to track guitars and demo the Blues-inspired song.

Setting up mic to record

I spent a good couple hours looking for a good setting on my amp and microphone placement that sounded new and different but at the same time called out that flare i was hearing in my head.

me preparing to lay down guitar tracks 

My primary goal was to completely demo the blues-inspired song and get it out of the way as the arrangement i imagined would be fairly simple.  There isn't a lot of changes going on, but it keeps it interesting enough that when layered with vocals the song still moves.  I played around with a bunch of guitar takes and different amp settings along with mic positions to get the right feel.

Afterward, Troy came back over and we chatted for a bit about the project.  Yet again, we found time to goof off as Troy heard my progress on the blues song and decided to do an impression of "me singing"...

Troy impersonating me rocking out to the Blues song

But seriously, we did get back to business.  Troy showed me his progress on writing his folk-pop song for another track on the album.

Writing lyrics and coming up with the main guitar riffs for the arrangement was easy, yet hard to land stuff he really liked and wanted to keep.

All in all, not a bad day.  Just not as far along as we'd like to be.  Troy continued to write and I continued to work back and forth on ideas for the alternative song as well as the blues song.

Thursday drew to a close too fast.  Tomorrow's day has to progress a little smoother as we both feel like we've lost steam on our pace we set out.  While technically we are still on schedule, next week we should be focusing on final tracking sessions, which mostly include vocals.  A lot of the demos only have rough lyrical ideas at best, so this is going to mean long hours trying to lay down vocals as we write!

Me demonstrating the balancing act we are doing on the project management

RPM Challenge Day 4

Troy and I worked pretty hard today serparately, mostly getting our two songs down.  I spent a majority of the time working with Steven on demoing vocals for Curing The Cure.  We experimented with some effects for octavting and other effects on the vocal overdubs to get a unique sound.  I then spent time mixing it a bit to get ideas for the mixing process later on.  The song needs a bit of work in the arrangement department, but that can come later.  I wanted to focus more on getting the essence of the track down and exploring some of the nuances in the harmonies I liked.

Troy worked on getting ideas down for the Pop Punk song and got quite a good idea down!  We sat around and chatted about different musical ideas and techniques for the song, and then tried out a simpler recording technique to demo with and despite me not having a standard tuned guitar, used a cheap backup Flying V and ended up sounding pretty good to us both!  We then laid down bass to the track and I tested out a mix and already have editing and mixing ideas in mind for the track.

Plenty of funny stuff and good times here at the project studio, the Video blog project is getting stressful as we often are just shooting ourselves until we can get some help, though the help we get is much appreciated!  As for the project progress, we're making good time, and I can't wait to get to the progressive metal song!  Tomorrow is tracking day.

RPM Challenge Day 3

With 2 days down, and the weekend coming up quick, we have to get at least one or two songs ready to track.
With most of my free time spent sampling sounds from found objects to use in the Curing The Cure track with Steven's Lyrics, I had to start composing the synths and guitars and drums.  Most of the work on Troy's song Troy spent during his lunch and at home on his nights before coming up with ideas for the Indie song project of his. 

Most of the instrumentation was worked out and the basic idea for Curing the Cure has been conceived. I have the track ready to receive Steven's vocals so that I can start arranging the music, and getting it to it's final stages.

Troy and I were discussing influences for Curing the Cure and while we want the essence of what might sound industrial, listening to artists like Nine Inch Nails and clashing ideas together with the inspirational song from Linkin Park's newest album A Thousand Suns: When They Come For Me; we pretty much got the groundwork paved for the concept of what this song should be and sound like.  Many different ideas on mixing techniques and recording techniques to be employed, down to the timbre and EQ for various instruments and stem mixing as well...

Our biggest goal heading into the weekend is to get at least 1 song tracked in the studio and if we have time, start working on the next.  Troy's songs are coming together faster than mine, but mine tend to have a lot of production value put into them as the genres I cover tend to call for it.  Synth work, various guitar elements, complex drums, the arrangements themselves have more changes as well which need to be thought out.  So far, so good.  We're still on schedule and it's time to get back to work...  Check back tomorrow for Day 4's update...

RPM Challenge Day 2

Day 2 officially came to it's end and it couldn't have come soon enough.  Demoing 2 songs and getting more ideas solidified for the album design. 

While most of today was getting stuff on paper, and "demo" status in Sonar here at my project facility (or as I like to call it, Home) we did have a few other side projects that came up and things that we won't show until the video blog!  The video blog should start getting pretty interesting, hopefully should make for some decent entertainment!

So, as far as the project goes; just a bit of info now as far as the soundtrack goes: with Steven interested in doing lyrics, and his heavy augmentation of the story for the "film" the soundtrack is based on going through some serious drafting and plot work.  Way to go Steven.  While he goes off on a tangent with the story and works on developing things as detailed as the characters involved, and miniature plots within, we've gotten the basis for the inspiration we need to create the songs.  We've started picking out the order and sequence for roughly where the songs should lay in the soundtrack, and just what inspirational soundtracks should help us hone in on the various interlude sounds. 

There's also been various discussions on recording techniques we want to hit on.  Without giving away too much (don't worry we'll do that in the video blog), we discussed doing a song in mono, using recording techniques that pay homage to the Beatles era, all the way to experimenting with some Mid-side drum recording, experimental layering techniques with electric guitar, mixing philosophies... the list goes on.

Fun times, busy times, all times.  It's only going to get busier as we head into production, 2 songs in demo and thought out, 8 more to go, lyrics after, and a very compact schedule.  Be sure to check our facebook updates for some quick recaps and photos of our work throughout the month.  Also, if you want to jump into discussion on the RPM project, be sure to head over to our discussion page on facebook and leave your feedback!

RPM Challenge Day 1

RPM kicked off yesterday (yes I'm a night owl).  The first day may be pretty boring when the Video blog gets published, we'll see...  but we did get a lot accomplished.  We got a direction and a set of ideas we all liked and have committed to as far as the album goes.  We even went so far as to come up with a story concept for a fake film to base our "soundtrack" album to.

So why the soundtrack album?  I'll tell you why,  it works for us on many levels.  The first thing being that we're a studio primarily, and we want to showcase as many genres as we can.  Secondly, because we all wanted a challenge out of this challenge, and to span various genres would make a concept album very hard to pin in a commercial market.  Thus, the concept birthed many solutions, and a nice creative outlet to start honing ideas.

The back story is fairly simple, I mentioned that if we did a survivalist theme seeing as how these types of movies are very popular we can go for a wide ranging feel of emotions from the more upbeat to the darker and more sinister sounds we might like to explore.  We all liked the idea so we ran with it and Steven and Troy and I all came up with various ideas which amalgamated into this sort of stylized western zombie action survival story.  Without going into too much detail right now, suffice to say it gave plenty of inspiration for the various tracks we wanted to do that could "fit the bill" of a typical blockbuster movie of this genre. 

The next layer on the cake, was the production value, we wanted to experiment as a studio with recording techniques and challenge ourselves to just how far we could go to recreate the "iconic" sound of a particular genre, not necessarily going for cookie cutter imitation, but capturing what we feel is the essence of that genre's sound, and putting our spin on it.

The final layer to the cake, and is purely for the gimmick of making the soundtrack album sound more authentic is the matter of coming up with original custom voice-overs, foley, and sound effects to add into the various interludes as "sound bytes" from the fake movie concept we came up with.  One good example of an inspirational source is the Kill Bill soundtracks.  The songs that were cleverly used in the movie are sprinkled with interludes that were sampled from the movie itself, which was an idea i liked and wanted to go for on this album as well.  This added layer to our concept is going to also allow us to showcase our skills in these areas of audio production as well, not just that we know music, but know and appreciate all audio engineering; Sound design, ADR, Foley, and the like.

Obviously we've got big ideas for this project.  I came up with a rough day by day schedule to give us a good idea of the pace we need to be keeping to stay on track.  Basically here's what it breaks down to:

1. Week 1 - Pre-production
2. Week 2 - Demoing and Tracking
3. Week 3 - Tracking and editing
4. Week 4 - Mix, Master, and publish

As we have to move at such a quick pace, the schedule is just a guide, and can remain flexible.  But overall we need to be able to move swiftly through each phase of the project.  This will also mean that we may be working in a segmented fashion between Troy and myself.  While we may just barely get to tracking certain songs, others may already be in editing and mixing phase.

With a deadline of February 28th having to have the entire album published and online, we've got a lot of work ahead of us, and the clock is ticking! I'll try to post pictures when I can, and Check Neologic Studios on Facebook to see our latest status updates!

Crunch Time

So, want to know what I've been cooking up lately?  Check out my youtube channel and stay tuned because during the month of February we're going to be posting up daily video blogs tracking the progress of the latest studio project I've been working on!

Check out the announcement below


Check back here daily as well as I will be posting our notes and progress updates on here with the videos included!

A Dashboard Confession

It's been a long October moving swiftly and not so diligently through a TV series concept and getting it off the ground.  Let's start at the beginning shall we?

A couple months ago my friend who happens to own a nice Sony Z1u approached me about a possible job opportunity he had been brought into the fold on.  This job consisted of developing and operating a production company around a tv series concept.  Lots of promises and lots of changes and rescinding on said promises later, and one bunk storyline and proof of concept after another we arrive at Friday October 15th.

The producer has me cabbing him around first to pick him up and we go to meet our private investor company whom, after an hour and a half or so of bantering and not even talking business really - decided to hand our producer a final check for the "production".  I can't go into detail on how much exactly but it's a generous amount to actually do something business-like with.

The plans change about 3 times in the span of an hour after getting said funding and our producer decides on a whim and without anything packed, that he wants me to drive him out even further to oakland with a stop in pleasanton so that he can fly out to vegas that same day.  God knows what for...

I advised that we get a business license set up, start planning out a rough schedule, and book hotel(s) and come up with a budget, as well as a contract that weekend so that we could have everything on solid ground before we depart for Vegas on Sunday by car.  Now,

• Lesson #1: never do anything without at least 10% pay up front.

• Lesson #2: Have binding documentation as to what the nature of everything is and how everyone is to be compensated (a contract, basically).  

I've known these for a while and our producer rushing out to Vegas despite my advising not to go made me very uneasy about the project.  However, he did pay for the travel (somewhat) around that day; he also paid 10% up front for both me and my partner to "get us out there".
So, Sunday October 17th, we depart late afternoon after a brief conference with our producer over the phone.  We have no idea what he's been doing out there the whole weekend.  I asked him to book us the hotel in the morning so we can have everything arranged for us to just come in and unpack when we get there at night.  The producer didn't book the room until we got into Vegas...  To make things worse, the next morning we were up early and on time to get prepped and ready to leave so we could make it to the shooting location we needed to be at by 9.  Our producer - being completely unprepared and came out with nothing but the clothes on his back, demanded I cab him to a bank and then to a Wal Mart to buy clothing and some miscellaneous items.  We also needed to purchase some groceries to minimize food expenses but we didn't have time.  Our producer bought himself new clothes just for the day (not the week), and we picked up some missing items we simply forgot to pack like shampoo and conditioner.

• Lesson # 3: make sure everyone is clear on expenses.

That being said, our first major shady act of the day, our producer says "so how should we split this? you guys pay for your stuff, I'll pay for my share of what we're all using?"  Now because he's carrying a minimal amount of cash I decide to go ahead and just pay for what we needed to get.  Except, in-case of any legal affairs later on that might happen down the road; i opted not to pay in cash, and instead use a credit card that hadn't been used in a while - no balance to pay.  For legal purposes I can show I was the one paying these expenses and track exactly how much I should be getting reimbursed for.

So just what is our jobs on this project, you might be asking...  Well, since I am in all ways not bound to any NDA agreement, and I myself actually wrote the contract (notice this is not notarized nor am I any type of legal representative, this is just purely for clear and concise documentation as to what the project is and who is responsible for what).

Crush The Record Production Contract

On behalf of Crush The Record Production, I ___________________________(Executive Producer)  hereby appoint ___________________________(Production manager, Production Sound Mixer) and ___________________________(Director of Photography, Digital Imaging technician) as project employees, and enter into the following terms of agreement:

1.       Terms:    ----- ----- on behalf of Crush The Record Production shall be known as Executive Producer.  Cameron Bashaw for the duration of the project shall be known as Production Manager, and Production Sound Mixer.  ------- ---, for the duration of the project shall be known as Director of Photography, and Digital Imaging Technician.  The three negotiating entities shall collectively be called the “parties”.  The pilot episode production for Crush The Record Production shall be called “the project.”

2.       Definition:     The parties wish to enter into the project on behalf of Crush The Record Production for the purpose of creating the pilot episode of a TV Series concept which technical descriptions shall be entered into agreement orally. The agreement discussed in this contract on behalf of all parties is for mutual assurance of satisfaction with exchange of services for compensation.

3.       Crush The Record Production Contract:  

a.       The Executive producer shall be responsible for handling the financing of the project which includes

                                                               i.      Handling of all fund(s) generated by project from initial private 3^rd parties and/or commercial entities entering into business with Crush The Record Production, and accept ON BEHALF OF Crush The Record.

                                                             ii.      Payment of employees and those associated directly with project.  Anyone involved in project doing work for hire directly for Crush The Record Production (i) only as considered part of video production (ii) involved in front of, or behind camera as a “personality” for Crush The Record Production (iii) not as a third party already being compensated by alternate source whether in front of, or behind camera.

                                                            iii.      Proper compensation shall be provided by the end of the project duration, and paid in full.

b.      Production Manager shall be responsible for organizing documents, and schedules, and coordinating the project once on-location and operating

                                                               i.      Handling of any task relating to disclosure of documents within project team and to third parties if necessary with approval of executive producer.

                                                             ii.      Coordinate with Executive producer on organizational tasks and oversee the project operation

                                                            iii.      Manage progress of day to day shooting and scheduling according to viable content that can be obtained throughout.

                                                           iv.      Create and organize documents and any bookkeeping throughout duration of project.

c.       Director of Photography shall be responsible for delivery of video content and production value throughout the duration of the project

                                                               i.      Creative control and consistency of videography throughout production

                                                             ii.      Communicate effectively with Production manager and Producer to obtain the shots needed for project, and stay on task.

                                                            iii.      Directs Digital Imaging Technician on all creative aspects of videography

d.      Production Sound Mixer shall be responsible for delivery of audio content and production value throughout the duration of the project

                                                              i.      Handling of audio equipment and content quality, including jobs of boom operator and Utility Sound Technician

                                                            ii.      Maintain audio equipment

                                                          iii.      Deliver audio content to executive producer for review and editing

e.      Digital Imaging Technician shall be responsible for

                                                               i.      Handling of video equipment and content quality

                                                             ii.      Operate and maintain video equipment

                                                            iii.      Deliver video content to executive producer for review and editing

4.       Mutual Agreement of the following terms outlining the proper compensation of the following parties by the Executive Producer: Production Manager and Production Sound Mixer, Director of Photography.

a.       Prerequisites:  The employed parties agree to (i) arrive at Las Vegas no later than Sunday, October 17^th for check-in, unpacked and prepared for production. (ii) Begin production schedule on Monday, October 18^th, conclude no later than Friday, October 24^th. (iii) Production team is allowed short-leave, but must return no later than Sunday, October 24^th, checked-in, unpacked and prepared for production.  (iv) Begin production schedule on Monday, October 25^th, and conclude no later than Saturday, October 30^th.  (v) Production team will leave Las Vegas on Sunday, October 31^st, ending production duration. (vi) Work per-Diem: set compensation for day, hours can be more or less than state labor laws as long as lunch break and breaks are provided.

b.      Per-Diem  compensation:    The employed parties shall be paid for the duration of the project per day for services rendered and equipment operated and maintained.  Each party member shall receive the value of $------- per day.  The duration of the production shall be no less and not to exceed 11 days.  The total compensation to employed parties across the duration of the project will reach $----- to be paid to ------- --- for the jobs of Director of Photography and digital imaging technician, and $----- to be paid to Cameron Bashaw for the jobs of Production Manager and Production Sound Mixer.

c.       Coverage of expenses:    The employed parties shall have reimbursement for travel expenses incurred throughout the duration of the project as stipulated during development.  Executive Producer holds the option to either:

                                                               i.      Pay directly for any expenses incurred throughout the duration of production (i) based on its relevance to project, (ii) necessity to travel for project including but not limited to gas, lodging, food, and utilities for production.

                                                             ii.      To reimburse expenses incurred throughout the duration of production (i) based on its relevance to project, (ii) necessity to travel for project including but not limited to gas, lodging, food, and utilities for production.

d.      Exclusions to coverage of expenses include items that are purchased for personal use or have no necessity to travel or stay throughout the duration of the project.

                                                               i.      Miscellaneous items and personal habit materials purchased are considered personal purchases and not to be covered by fund(s) generated by and for Crush The Record Production.

                                                             ii.      Excessive purchases of any items that cannot be properly documented for production or have no receipt with which to claim.

e.      Proper documentation and clear and concise reporting by Production Manager to accurately document all expenses incurred; Production manager is not responsible for acquisition of receipts from all parties.

5.       Disclosure  of this agreement herein provided solely for the purpose of identifying parties, services, and compensation shall be considered for good and valuable measure sufficient to all parties for the purpose of conducting the project.

a.       All parties arrive to mutual agreement and act according to common code of conduct including but not limited to: professional behavior, representation of the company values, adhere to any dress code, and punctual attendance according to any derived schedule.

b.      Any and all compensation is considered final and non-refundable.

c.       Any exemption from transactions must be weighed with good and valuable measure within reason upon breach of any of the terms stated in this agreement.

Upon reading and agreeing to the terms stated in the agreement, Each party hereby validates and enters into business of the project.  Proof of this shall be supplied by signing below.  Each party must sign each copy of this document as required for authenticity.

Now, without going into a detailed day-by-day description, I'd like to describe more of the useful experiences that were derived from this whole project.  From someone who's come from a studio background and this being the first travel / on-location production, there was a lot of learning going on for me.

First off, business to business side of things were developing relations with the raceway association, the company building the car for their client to compete in the upcoming race event, and then getting a hold of the parts companies being used on the car that is being captured for the tv episode to see if they want any involvement.   The producer is actually decent at pulling in interest from companies but that's fairly easy considering they have a budget to spend on things like advertising and marketing.

Working with what's really only a 2-man crew: 1 camera operator, and 1 production sound mixer tripling as Boom Operator, and utility sound technician; was not actually that bad, but limited the scope of what we could achieve as far as capturing "cinematic shots" for the TV series' look and feel the producer wants. 
Working with only mono for external mic to capture sound and our location primarily being a large machine shop for fabrication, everything was extremely hard to capture.  To add to that, while our producer wants the end result to feel very "weekly movie" the true aspect of production is fully reality / documentary as we spent most of our time in the "hurry up and wait" mode.  We captured 90% of the footage as we were able to shoot them, if things happened (and often they did) we just got rolling and shot what we could without interfering too much in the business. Aside from a few key dialogue moments, a lot of the footage would probably end up on B-roll or secondary footage used without any real audio or character focus.

The entire first week was primarily spent at the shop with the fabrication company building the car for their client to race.  the Second week we started getting other footage needed while still basing our operations at the shop.  By Tuesday, October 26th, we had private access to the Bull Ring track at the Vegas Speedway to shoot some B-Roll footage of the track itself, as well as from the stands, some trucking / dolly shots, and transition shots. Thursday we started shooting interviews and prepping for Friday's practice, and Saturday's event.

Friday was perhaps one of the longest days we spent out there as we tried to get there as early as possible to get footage of the last bits being worked on the car, while our producer spent time with his dad who came through for the day, as well as at the track setting up onboard camera shots with a very lucky turnout.

Our producer was lucky enough to have a couple reps from Go Pro buy into the concept of the show and loan us 6 Go Pro Hero HD cameras with mounting kits and memory cards.  Our producer set them up on the cars, while we stayed at the shop to wait around to capture the last moments of the car being built and hopefully catch them doing the first engine firing and tuning.

Friday's schedule for the Bull Ring consisted of practices for all the different leagues and classes of cars on teh track that day.  The first SMRA practice session was at 4:15 pm, then again at 6:15 pm, 8:15 pm, and finally at 10 pm.  the two of us stayed at the shop the entire day waiting around for our shots which didn't actually happen until 10 pm finally when they got the top wing fully assembled and on the car.  By now, 3 practice sessions had already happened and 2 competitor cars were at the garage already being worked on by their teams due to complications on the track.  After a good 20 minutes of clearing out the cars and getting our car prepped for it's first run, we set up and were ready to shoot the first firing.

Because of the type of design and the way the cars work, they have to be push-started, and our location made it feasible for the company to do this with their own trucks get the car in place, we were able to get static shots of the whole process, which at first, consisted of us running around the whole block keeping up with the push-truck and the car as they did laps around the building to make several passes at starting the car.  The whole firing attempt was successful but with some tuning needed on the engine which they promptly just pulled into the garage and started working on.  We rushed inside and stayed handheld through the rest of the shot and captured some amazing dialogue (compared to the rest of the production we'd done thus far).

Saturday we were up bright and early even though we had ended late the night before.  With some typical delays from our producer we still made it to the track early enough to beat traffic of the race event.  After checking in and getting our pit passes we started rolling out immediately and prepping gear for initial shots in the pits with the vaious racers.  The first practice session started at 1:15 pm, the 2nd at 3:15 pm, qualifying at 5:15 pm, and the main feature at 8:30 pm.

3:15 pm rolls around and we made it up to the track to start filming the practice session and plan out camera angles and get b-footage of the practice.  We weren't expecting to be involved in a crash on the track at 150+ mph!  The #85 car had a problem during his deceleration at the end of the straightaway on the track coming into the 1st turn and barreled toward us with a broken front axle.  The car slammed into the barrier at more than 150 mph and got airborne, slamming up against the upper fence where we were  filming a good 4-7 feet to our left.  Luckily no one other than the race driver was injured.

However the impact was extremely severe and he is hospitalized.  While we waited and watched what we could before the racing association cleared out the track area of all bystanders, we reviewed our tape and realized we had caught footage of the accident as it happened.  We showed the racing team that wanted to know what happened, and representatives of the track and racing association that asked to see what happened.  They also asked for a copy of the footage of just that portion for insurance purposes.  We cooperated with and respected their wishes and destroyed the footage after.

I just found out today however, that he is still alive, had just come out of surgery but is in stable condition though critical. Our prayers go out to the race team and family.  It was quite an unforgettable experience...

The show, however, rolled on.  Even with a 2 hour delay on the track from the crash, the qualifying round still happened about about 7:15 pm, and the main feature at 9 pm.  For the main feature we were able to get clearance to get down on the inner ring of the track behind the barriers.  After the race we finished up with some interviews of the various people racing, as well as final interviews of the builders and car owner we followed throughout the production.

Now, production may have ended Saturday, but we have still been very busy.  Sunday was an all-day drive back home, a very long and not very pleasant drive.  What was originally just me and the camera guy turned into his gf, and our producer riding home with us.  Everyone got home and unpacked pretty much killed the entire day, so on Monday we were supposed to capture footage.  Monday was pretty much everyone's rest day so I took it upon myself to work on some of the various other projects that need managing.

So, here we are at late last night.  My camera guy brings over the equipment and tapes so we can start capturing.  today we just brought the producer the footage we captured so far, as well as getting my primary payment.  Up next is discussing reimbursement of all the travel expenses.

All in all, I highly disliked the experience working with a shady producer, who's completely unprofessional.  That being said, the experience has allowed me to prove to myself I am capable of operating such a project at a professional capacity, whether or not I can put put this experience on a resume.