Darryl's 3D request

Darryl holding up my 3D print submissions

Before going home I decided to swing over to Darryl's office to see how things were going. With the HLAP event tomorrow night I wanted to see if Darryl had gotten my 3D files for his 3D gallery. This was a bit of a mistake. He wanted to know if I had anything new.

All my submissions were photos I had taken over the years using my old, but trusty, stereo Realist camera. A camera made in the 50s. The photos were of past HLAP film making. The number of photos seemed enough to me yet there was a bug in my brain that wouldn't stop.

When I got home I pulled out the old MachoBaby set. A few days ago I had found it while packing stuff away for my big apartment move. Most of the set was still intact and was only missing a few bricks. All the figures I used for the small short fim where still in a fishing tackle box I had. I decided to shoot the set using the cha cha method (single camera, moving slightly from left to right between frames).


The MachoBaby! set... Found, rebuilt then shot in 3D

I must have found a second wind because after positioning the village people and Laer, Darryl, and I, I added some movie people, some shrubs, trees and other lego objects to fill out the scene. I then did a close up of my Lego character and made a separate 3D "movie poster" (I use that term loosely). It was about 4am when I finally uploaded the finished artwork to Darryl.


Icing on the cake... me as a Lego person (note: the camera).

The Summit

Driving north to Deerhurst (resort)

As a last minute decision I was told that I would be travelling off to Deerhurst. A resort somewhere north of Barrie to do some 24 frame playback on a CBC mini series called the Summit starring Christopher Plummer. Greg, the guy in charge of the 24 frame operator deployment kept telling me "Bring your camera. It's nice this time of year.".

I think the thought of staying in a motel room and just getting out of the city seemed exciting enough. True to Greg's words though the autumn colors were all over the place. I wanted to stop the car a few times to take a few photos on the way. Unfortunately I was in a rush. I had to get there for 11am to be ready on set. It was already 9:30. The drive up there was calculated to be about 2.5 hours.

As it turned out things went pretty nicely. I had arrived on set just as they were moving into the space where I was supposed to be set up. The first shot, the cameras were looking in the direction opposite to where my monitors were to be so that gave me time to set up the equipment.

As I was rifling through my tubs of gear Christopher Plummer came on set looking to see if anyone had a chocolate bar. I still had a Mars bar in my bag from the Monster Records shoot. Brigitte had picked it up for me to eat but I never got around to it. I looked at the bar then looked to the AD. She shrugged and said "Offer it.". So I did.

"Uh, Mr. Plummer would you care for a Mars bar?" I came across pretty geeky, I must say, maybe even intimidated. As a note, Christopher Plummer has quite the presence. I'm not sure if it's the way he holds himself or if it's his voice. When he said "No" I must have looked deflated. He walked over to me and squeezed my arm slightly, "Thank you very much but it's a bit bland...". He then turned around and shouted, "Can we get some dark chocolate from craft services?".

It was an odd way to start the day. "Wow, cool, I just talked to General Chang.", I thought to myself. (the main Klingon antagonist in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - for all you non Trek geeks) . The day progressed without a hitch and eventually it was time to check out the motel.

The motel was located a few minutes away by car. Because of it being dark, it was night after all, I had missed the road with the motel and had to circle around before finding the road entrance. The motel in my head was one of those one storey motels with a little swimming pool and maybe a small water slide that had been neglected for a few years. The motels you might see in a movie. To my surprise the motel was a large building with brand new rooms.


The Motel 6 sign.


The motel 6 building.

The blankets on the beds were a bit freaky. The colorful design looked like it belonged in some fast food restaurant. Otherwise the room was quite comfortable.


My room.


Autumn colors

The Deerhurst Resort sign


The looming clouds outside the motel.

The next day I woke up early to take a few photos. Worked on set and was wrapped and back at the motel by 6pm. I was feeling a bit exhuasted. I thought I'd drive to Barrie, see how I was doing and if I was getting sleepy I'd stay at a motel/hotel. As it turns out all the hotels I drove to were full up.

I asked one receptionist if there was some event going on in Barrie. She told me that it was just another normal friday night. Weird. Not really knowing Barrie other than the stops from the time I drove through with Ted (on the way to Sudbury), I decided to go to Hooters for the honey garlic chicken. I knew where it was and I needed to get off the road for a bit.


Clam chowder


Honey garlic wings


Rachel

I felt better after eating. Once done I continued the drive back to Toronto.

Clouds over Toronto

Looking outside at the city line.

I got some work today working on set of the Hulk. While the camera guys were adjusting the camera and moving things around on set I had a chance to go outside for some fresh air. I saw these ominous clouds hovering over the city and went back in to get my camera out of my kit to take a photo.

The Potato Slug

A view from Linda's front door.

While visiting Linda today I noticed this potato on her desk. It reminded me of a slug. Or more precisely a slug that took characteristics from the worm from Dune and a creature from a Miyazaki cartoon.


Linda's potato slug


Linda's potato slug (alternate angle).

Once home I had to clean the apartment as my landlord wanted to start showing the place to potential new renters.


My cleaned kitchen.

Hilary's congee delivery

Marc at the Congee Queen sitting behind the tofu pork dish with rice.

Marc and I went to the Congee Queen today. It's a restaurant located near Lawrence just west of Don Mills, a bit far from where I live but well worth it, especially if you have that congee craving. I had called Hilary, the only other person I know that has audibly said she appreciated congee, to see if she wanted to go. As it turned out she was pretty sick and couldn't. I told her I could get her some take away and drop it off on my way downtown.

Marc and I ordered quite a bit of food. It was only after we put in our order Marc figured that he'd have to leave in twenty minutes to go to his sister's for a thanksgiving dinner. It was unfortunate but I was just happy to be fullfilling my congee craving. We pushed the food down. At least I did. Marc tends to eat fast anyway.

Marc dropped me off at a subway station and continued on to his sister's. I eventually arrived at Hilary's and knocked on the door. As soon as I knocked, the clouds above let go of a whole lot of rain. There was no answer at the door. I managed to wedge myself next to the door in order to stay dry under the tiny, tiny (poor excuse for an) awning.


It's raining like crazy... and I'm trapped under a tiny awning.

I took out my cell phone to call her and realized I didn't have her number programmed in. "D'oh!". I knocked again and as if the clouds were echoing my comparatively pitiful knocking a huge loud thunder clap sounded. The rain seemed like it was part of a typhoon. Buckets were coming down. The water was starting to creep into my dry space under the awning.

After about ten minutes of trying to figure out if I should bolt away down the street to avoid getting soaked and realizing that I'd get soaked in the first two steps away from the front door, the front door opened. It was Hilary. The funny thing was she didn't hear my knocking but came downstairs to check on Professor Coconut to see if the downstairs neighbour's cat was stuck out in the rain. There was even a baby audio monitor set outside to monitor the cat meowing. Yet she didn't hear my knocking at the door or me yelling "hello".

As things seemed to work out and I was happy just to be inside where it was dry I handed Hilary the bag of congee and joined her and her room mate for tea while the rain subsided before making my way downtown.


Hilary with Congee Queen congee

The Wrecking Crew

Sam Argo, Ted Healey, Sandy Chen being directed by Gord Oxley

A fun event which is almost secret to everyone except those that go to Timothy's on the Danforth (Timothy's WorldNews Café, 320 Danforth Ave), is the Wrecking Crew, An improv troupe that performs once a fortnight (every two weeks ye heathens) on fridays.


Sandy and Gord playing one person are interviewed Sam.
I took Linda to the show. We laughed quite a bit.

Savouring at the Stem

A nice photo for a desktop background?

It had been a while since I last saw Emmanuel or for that matter ate food at the Stem. The two seem to go hand in hand. Visit Emmanuel, eat comfort food at the Stem. Since we both have freelance schedules it's great to meet during the day, sit near the front window, eat, and watch people hurrying around doing work related stuff outside. It's almost like we're in a nice comfy bubble separated from all the crazy goings on in the rest of the world.

"I love work. I can watch people work all day." - unknown (some guy)

There have been times that I've gotten up at 5am and wandered around the streets downtown or sat on a park bench somewhere waiting to watch people rush off to work. People scurrying around holding cups of coffee, pulling cases on wheels, carrying briefcases, holding a stack of papers, trying to eat and run, all trying to get from point A to B before nine o'clock. I appreciate that I don't have that life style on a regular basis. Plus it makes for some great photos.


A smashed TTC shelter near where I live


Emmanuel with big hair


Emmanuel and I at the Stem on Queen street


A backlog of streetcars

The Chicken Burger

The JP restaurant's chicken corn soup and chicken burger.

I spent most of the day lounging around. I woke up pretty late as I spent a long time last night at Andrew's going through the photos we shot. My energy has been pretty low these last few days and I've been telling myself that I should really get around to packing stuff up for the move at the end of the month.

I went to the local rent-a-car to buy some moving boxes. I dropped the boxes off at home then found myself across the street ordering a chicken corn soup and a chicken burger. Someone once asked me "Why a chicken burger?". It's not just any chicken burger. I has to be a burger made up of particle chicken compressed together and then battered so when it's fried it's crunchy. Some places put a chicken breast on a bun. I don't like them even though they're probably better for you and are made with better quality meat. Nope it's got to be a particle chicken burger.

You'd be surprised at how difficult it is to find a greasy spoon that sells these things. With the trend to be healthy by eating food that's good for you the particle chicken burger seems to be a rare find these days.

While working on Earth Final Conflict during the first three seasons (from 1997 to 1999). I used to get my fix from a place called King's Flame. Even after I moved and stopped working on EFC I'd visit the neighbourhood just to get a chicken burger or two. They are no longer there as Nick the owner sold the place.

Luckily there are three places near me that sell chicken burgers. Pizzatime, a place who's name doesn't cry out chicken burger has the less expensive burger. At $2.50 you can get a burger with a pop. I'm not sure what they fry the burger in but it almost tastes like fish. Another is the New Family Restaurant. While the chicken burger there tastes good and they have fat french fries they cut their burgers in half like a sandwich. This seems wrong to me. Finally there's the JP restaurant. The fries aren't that great but the burger is made correctly and tastes great and it served as one piece. On the plus side they also have chicken corn soup.

Sustainable Fashion

Andrew Majtenyi's sporty designs for the Design Exchange contest

The new catch word that seems to be going around these days is the word "sustainable". It's kind of like the word "multimedia" being used for the making of computer "stuff" in the 90s. The "information super highway" instead of the internet/web, tacking the word "pro" onto the end of software packages to make them sound better than they really might be or the use of "High Definition" to describe televisions that are broadcast over the air based on lossy compression algorithms.

Catch words like "sustainable" for some reason really anger me. It's just a way to sell things to the consumer while creating a cloud of confusion over individuals not in the know. Words can also make things sound more fun then they actual are. "You can SURF the web!". Wired magazine is known for adding this crazy jargon into our everyday lives. I really hate that magazine. I was convinced I wasn't alone when the issue with the large words"Believe the hype" was typed in big letters across the cover (referring to Star Wars episode 1).

Call me a geek but I really miss computer magazines that actually had substance to them (like the early BYTE magazines with the little electronic projects), or COMPUTE! (with the programming listings for your favourite computer). Heck, even Nibble (an Apple ][+ mag) was a cool read. Yep, those were the days... back when computers were fun.

At any rate today's photo shoot was based on 'Sustainable' Fashion. While I really don't understand what the word sustainable has anything to do with clothing specifically the actual photographing of the clothing and the models was quite fun.

Andrew had gotten two models from WM models (an agency he often gets models from) and the make up artist Daniela Suppa. Daniela had worked on other shoots of Andrews. I hadn't seen her since I dropped off the last batch of photos last may. I forgot how much I missed her cheery disposition.

For this years shoot, we did one last year where Andrew won gold, Andrew wanted a different look. Where last year's shoot was an impromptu session that took place in a car dealership parking lot, this year the impromptu photo shoot took place in a nearby park. The outfits this year were sports clothing (track suits) so doing physical activities became the theme this year.

We did a few photos of the models running around and a few photos of them just posing in front of a soccer ball near a goal post. I even tried to incorporate the CN tower in the background to show that the designer was Canadian.

After the photos were taken Andrew invited us all out for chinese food as part of a thank you for doing all that work. Note to future employers... Food goes a long way.


Fashion designer Andrew Majtenyi and makeup artist Daniela Suppa

Hole

The accidental crack in the wall.

About four years ago I moved into my apartment and shortly thereafter punched a hole in my bathroom wall by accident with my knee (see above photo). At the time I was bewildered that the wall would crumble in so easily, kind of like the shell on a hard boiled egg. It is a known fact that I do not possess super strength, super eating abilities... maybe, when compared to the average Canadian but not super strength. The wall was therefore quite brittle, thin and cheaply constructed.

Today, the first day of October and the last month of my residence in the apartment was the fire I needed to start fixing up the hole and restoring the apartment to it's former glory (if there was such a thing). That and my landlord wanting to take photos to be used for ads in the apartment for rental classifieds.

As I'm not a house construction kind of guy and was feeling too lazy to look up how to fix a plaster wall on the internet or in a book I decided to be creative. The first step was to cut around the crack to leave a hole. I got the idea from fixing holes in bike tires over the years. You clean the hole of stuff before putting on the patch. Same kind of thing.

Once the hole was made I looked to see if there was a way to glue, screw, or nail a flat piece of wood or something to hold the plaster filler in place. The only thing I could see was the plastic from the show stall. I could puncture that or I'd spring a leak. I needed some other solution. The reason the wall crumbled so easily was that the only thing holding up the plaster (because there was a hole made there before) was the dried paint. The job of filling the previous hole was done pretty poorly.

A few years ago I watched a video on making vinyl models kits. Since a lot of vinyl kits are of humanoid characters there's a lot of hollow parts (arms, legs, torsos). The video showed the model builder pour foam into the vinyl before gluing the pieces together. The foam would ensure that the model didn't fall in on itself later on. I walked by a display of spray on foam once at a home depot. A can was sprayed with another can onto cardboard. This resulted in the first can being securely held in place. A lightbulb went off in my head and this is where I got the idea to spray foam into the hole to A) hold the plaster, but B) to make sure there was support after the plaster had been placed in the hole.

So that's what I did. The foam is a sticky substance that pretty much sticks to anything. I tested a squirt of foam into an empty peanut butter jar first. It seemed to work so I filled the hole with foam.


the foam added... Yikes! It's coming out of the hole.

The Foam expanded a lot more than I had planned but once dry with a X-acto knife I cut off the excess piece coming out of the wall and made a foam pit. The whole process made me think of "Devil in the Dark" the Star Trek episode where Spock has to heal the Horta with cement. It's the same episode where McCoy says "I'm a doctor not a brick layer". For a brief moment I thought of putting the words "NO KILL I" into the plaster. The idea went away when I thought of the landlord's reaction.


The foam carved out

The foam pit was eventually covered with plaster. I used a tub of premixed polyfil which ended up taking four days to dry completely. Probably because the bathroom is a humid environment. I took the picture below before it dried completely. Once dry I sanded down the wall to make a smooth surface. There were a few divots from where the plaster had air pockets so I applied a second coat. In the end the wall looked pretty good.


The first pass on filling the hole.