Ladies & Gentleman…“Douglass”

While Mr. Ma held it down in the electrical department, my 1st AC “Douglass” had the camera department in tip-top shape. Now, I have a confession to make. His name is not really “Douglass.” I wish I could tell you his real name, but I can’t pronounce it let alone spell it. That’s why I pulled an Ellis Island and re-named him “Douglass.” I chose “Douglass” in honor of the famous camera assistant Douglass Hart. I think he liked the name. I hope it sticks. Here are a few interesting facts about my boy Douglass:

-- I met Douglass because my original AC dropped the camera in the middle of a busy intersection and broke it in half (he felt bad about that)

-- Douglass worked on a National Geographic documentary in Northern China about grave diggers and had to sleep with corpses

-- His favorite video cameras are the Panasonic HDX900 and Panasonic Vari-Cam

-- He is 1 of only 6 people in the world to stand on the roof of “National Stadium” in Beijing

-- He can open a bottle of beer with chopsticks:


-- He eats grasshoppers:


-- of course he is an awesome AC who busted his ass for me. I can’t wait to work with him again. Thanks Douglass!!!!!!

The Legend of Mr. Ma

Every now and then I have a brush with greatness. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does incredible things happen. On my latest project “Disciples” I had the opportunity to work with a gaffer named Mr. Ma who is one of the best, if not the best in China. It means something special when you are #1 in a nation of 1.5 billion people!

My first experience with Mr. Ma was over the phone. I was talking to my producer who was talking to a translator who was talking to Mr. Ma. We were discussing ways to light a basketball court in a gym we were about to shoot a scene in. Originally I wanted to blast large lights through the windows and create shafts of sunlight on the court. Unfortunately Mr. Ma said this was impossible because he didn’t have enough crew budgeted to pull it off. So, I went to my plan B which was to hang an array of space lights to the ceiling and simulate typical gym lighting. Mr. Ma seemed to like this idea, but he had a problem – a big problem. You see, space lights are tungsten balanced (orange like a light bulb in a house lamp) and there were large windows in the gym with daylight coming in which is blue. Normally you try to keep the colors in a scene the same and Mr. Ma told me, “It is illegal to break the laws of color temperature.” Personally I break the laws of cinematography often, but I guess it is rare to do this in China. I am an American rebel!!!!! I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation so I responded by saying something like, “OK…can we PLEASE hang the space lights from the ceiling?” I could hear a lot of discussion happening in Chinese. They came back to me and said, “Mr. Ma has agreed to break the laws of color temperature as long as you grant him permission.” I immediately said, “PERMISSION GRANTED!” The scene ended up looking sweet even though some laws were broken.

That experience was just a warm up for the ultimate challenge Mr. Ma and I had to face. We had to light an entire stadium for the final event of this show. I ordered so many lights the Chinese crew laughed at me. Yeah, they actually laughed and had to ship lights in from other parts of the country. There was a lot of drama, but I am not going to bore you with the details. The bottom line is that at one point we were down in a hole and Mr. Ma was able to work some magic to pull us out of the hole and make it look super sweet. The 2 photos posted here were taken under our lights. Special thanks to photographer extraordinaire Davi Russo for the photos. You can see more of his stuff at www.davirusso.com

Final Transmission from Asia

It is 4:13am on Friday March 7, 2008 in Beijing. It is my last night in Asia and I can’t sleep. There are all sorts of emotions flowing threw my body. It has been an absolutely amazing experience – one that I will never forget until the day I die. It began with my vacation to Thailand on December 27, 2007 and is ending today at 5:40pm when I take off for New York. I have made many new friends and strengthened my relationships with old ones. I have had good times and fortunately not many bad ones. I am excited to go home, but sad to leave. I had never been to Asia before 12/27/07 but I hope this is the beginning of a new era in my life that includes frequent visits here. I have many more photos to share and stories to tell, so please keep checking back to the Captain’s Blog. My next transmission will be from NY!!!!!

Special thanks to Chow Chow for the above photo. Way to go my man!

MMMMMMMM grasshopper!!!

Lunch is served!!!

Confucius says...

Or at least that's what they say at the urinals in this 4 star rated toilet in Beijing.