Week 2 Photo Challenge: Professional Photo of You Working

Behind The Scenes: "Bubblegum & Brokenfingers" (2011)

           This photo was included in one of the behind the scenes stills of the current project I am working on, “Bubblegum & Brokenfingers” (written by Sean Jackson, Somnium Productions). For production, I am credited as production sound mixer but have had to boom operate on different occassions, when there were unavailable boom operators, or the fact that I could get into small spaces, or in this case; part of a micro team to help a semi-exposed actress feel more comfortable. I’ve learned in the industry that you gotta do what you gotta do to get the scene shot and done. 

In this still, as well as for production, I am using my trusty Sound Devices 702 recorder with a AT4053 hypercardioid microphone for this indoor scene. The location of the shoot was at the Palms’ Brenden Theatre Celebrity Suite. And the 2,000 gallon shark tank marked it as one of the nicest suites I’ve ever been in.

  But besides that, the room gave us a lot of space for the gear and crew. The room also gave the gaffers a lot of creative opportunities on how each scene could be lit up. I did not realize this until seeing the finished product and now have a newfound respect for the art of lighting. What also is going on in this scene is probably three back-to-back days of 12 to 14 hours of shooting. Because this film was mostly written for night hours, majority of the movie was shot between the hours of 6pm to 6am. But because we were inside of a room where the only window we had was completely blacked out, we had no sun to tell us that we had to stop. 

I have definitely learned more than expected in this production just because I was thrown into it with no real prior experience so I was on my toes the entire time just trying to soak up and learn as much as I could knowing that this experience would take me a long way with the start of my career. I definitely have my thanks and gratitude to Somnium Productions for giving me this opportunity and letting me be part of the team.