We have been members of Oregon Media Producers Association for three years.  We believe strongly in what professional associations can bring both to an industry generally and businesses specifically.  Part of the key to getting the most from your membership is to be willing to work with your assocation.  This includes working as a volunteer in a committee.

At Lyon Films we have decided to use our expertise in political communication and our backgrounds in law and politics to work with the government relations and business development commitee.   The point is that an association is only as strong as its members are active.  So, if you don’t belong to your professional association, consider ponying up the money to join.  Then, don’t just sit back and expect others to make the association work - be willing to help out.  It is not only a good business move, it is a good community move.  - Cheers.

Production is tough.  People who have never been involved with a film shoot, I’m sorry, have no idea.  The average day is 10 hours.  On longer shoots you work 6 days on and 1 day off.  You are almost always rushed.  You are often outdoors.  If you are the director, or assistant director (maybe more the latter…) you have a million decisions to make: creative, technical, logistical, budgetary.  You have to manage personalities, the unexpected, things breaking, getting ahead of schedule or getting behind schedule.  All the while trying to keep the end goal in mind and in focus.  You have a TV commercial, film, music video, or whatever, that must be produced and it must be good.  You had better have a good team around you, one that you trust and can rely on both creatively and technically.

On top of all of that, you must stay aware of your environment and surroundings.  Since it is rather cold and wet in the Pacific Northwest in the winter, a good solid winter kit is critical.  Here are a few fun pictures from a recent shoot.

Devon Lyon, Director, styaing warm while directing

Kevin Curry, Assistant Director is cold...

At 40 degrees F, it is cold, yet 1st AC Jerry Turner wears his signature shorts.

The stop motion animated feature film, Coraline, opened nationally last week. The film was created by Laika studios which is located here in Portland, Oregon.  The film is the first stop motion feature film to be shot in 3D.  We are proud of Laika studios in completing their first feature!  A great article this week in Willamette Week on the feature, the studio and what’s next - just click on this LINK.

This morning we went through the live on-line color cast session with Cinelicious of the Super8mm tests we shot two weeks ago. For those wondering how the process works, let me state simply that it works well. The staff provides a password, a viewer launches and you either speak to the colorist over an instant chat link, or over the phone. I found the process to be easy, robust and frankly a lot of fun. As soon as our digitized footage is mailed back to us, we will post a few of the shots.

Looking forward to the live on-line color cast session with Cinelicious in LA. We are going through the Super8mm we shot a few weeks ago (see earlier blog entry). They offer a cool service that allows you, in real time, to see the telecine as it happens. That way the producer/director/DP can work with the colorist and adjust exposure and basic image information as it is being scanned and digitized. I imagine this helps avoid the processor inadvertently “fixing” a scene that was possible shot a certain way for artistic effect. This might happen if a DP and director wanted a window to be blown out exposure wise, or something similar. Film has so much latitude that a colorist can often “pull” the data back and regain proper exposure, but it might not be what is sought. So, anyway, it will be a fun experiment. We will post after the session and also when we get the footage back we will post a few shots.