The Last Few Weeks

The last couple of months have had me bouncing around with work, summer stuff with the family, and other responsibilities, but I haven't put as much effort into this blog as I had been. Thankfully my health is somewhat back to normal after a couple months of a hot mess of dizziness and vertigo, so obviously that's preferred.

At the end of June, I was in Indiana with Vista Productions and DP Nathan Maulorico. It's the second year I've gotten to help shoot the International Thespian Festival at the University of Indiana Bloomington. We were filming on Sony Fx9s and Nathan's DZOFilm Catta Ace lens set. I'm still surprised and impressed with those lenses, especially given the price. I also got to spend a week on the SmallHD Ultra 5 monitor and that workhorse certainly won me over. Here's the recap video from that weeklong event:

I've also been wildly busy with responsibilities outside of working behind a camera. A few opportunities have opened up with consulting work given my MBA skillset. Hopefully, I'll be able to share more about those soon.

We'd been planning to buy an electric vehicle (EV) later this year, but an opportunity came up in late May that was hard to pass up. Given the current $7,500 federal EV tax credit and a 60-month 0.99% promotional APR, we were able to buy a 2024 Tesla Model Y. In doing all the math ahead of time given the trade-in value of Anne's 2018 Audi Q5, that wild 0.99% APR, the cost of gas vs. electricity, maintenance, insurance, an EV charger & installation, etc., I realized we'd be spending just slightly more per month with this new EV over the life of the 60 month financing period compared to what we were paying with her current car.

Monthly Costs
MONTHLY COSTS Audi Q5 (2018) Tesla Y (2024)
Maintenance $101.661 $25.002
Fuel $149.451 na
Electricity (kWh)3 na $30.00
Charger Cost4 na $38.13
Loan Payment $550.00 $700.00
Insurance $153.22 $163.22
Total $954.34 $956.35

1Based on actual 2020-24 monthly average
2Not sure I trust this estimate, but it's based on the July 2024 data at caredge.com/tesla/model-y
3Estimate based on $0.06/kWh

 

A few other things worth a quick mention:

We're in deep with FX's The Bear. It's such a great show and actually gets me excited about filmmaking. There's so much basic or boring or just bad TV out there, so anything that breaks out is just so exciting. Last night we finished season two and hope to start the newly released season three soon.

 

Just so you know, I'll get behind just about anything Donald Glover is involved in. Super excited about the Brando Stone & The New World trailer. The Childish Gambino world tour is opening in Oklahoma City this summer and I hope St. Anne the Wife and I get to go.

 

The trailer for the F1 movie with Brad Pitt came out yesterday. I've got such high hopes, but not quite holding my breath just yet.

 

There's good reason why Inside Out 2 has been killing it at the box office this summer. We saw it in the theater with the kiddos and it had me bawling multiple times. There's plenty to go into behind the business side of things and the value of theatrical vs. streaming releases, but the film itself is exceptional.

Creatives Building a Business and Community

It seems appropriate that I got ahold of both of these works of art around the same time. They both go into creativity and building a business along with a community.

First off, thank goodness for Gregory Kolsto's book The Art of Oddly Correct.

"...Oddly Correct is a coffee roasting company located in sunny Kansas City, MO. We've been roasting and serving coffee in our neighborhood for over ten years as of writing these words."

I'd come across Oddly Correct over the last couple of years in the course of my rubber stamp hunts. I'd had a job in Kansas City and made sure to stop by. They don't use rubber stamps, but Kolsto does run their coffee bags through a linocut process using an early 1900s block printing press and hand-carved blocks. There's a 2014 spruge.com article that goes into more detail about his block printing process if you're interested.

The book itself is full of some of the art that's come out of Kolsto's experience running the Kansas City coffee shop over the years. For more about Oddly Correct and a peek at his printing process, check out the video below.

My obsession with rubber stamps and coffee shop art had me instantly nerding out with his block printing process, but in addition to the prints, the book itself was chocked full of inspiration for other art kids interested in furthering their work while also building a business and a community.

"You don't need the best gear to get started. You just need to start."

"When we started, we never had the best brewing gear or the finest building materials. We endeavored to be as honest as we could with what we had... We wanted to be a small but mighty company."

 

Second, it's worth your time to go watch the new Jim Henson documentary over at Disney Plus.

There was quite a bit I didn't know about Jim Henson, specifically his advertising background and how he took advantage of those paychecks to make his experimental films. Good grief I'm glad to have benefited from his creativity via shows like Sesame Street, The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Dark Crystal, etc. Thanks to David Bizzaro for the heads up about the film.

Got my MBA. Now What?

Oh man, if only I had an actual answer to this one. The whole reason I went to business school was this idea that as creatives, we cut ourselves off at the knee because we don't understand the business end of the creative work we do. It's not like business school was a golden ticket or anything, but now that I've done the thing, I've got a diverse set of new business tools that'll carry me through the rest of my career. At least that's the plan – and what I told St. Anne the Wife.

Being the analytics nerd that I am, I kept track of my time as a graduate student in fifteen minute increments. I'm proud of those 1,700+ hours of class and studying these last 18 months though I'm still bitter about that one B I got in Managerial Accounting.

About two years ago I got serious about pursuing this MBA nonsense and it's been a dead sprint ever since. I finished my last classes this past week and it's now the first Monday I've had in 18 months without a load of classwork. It's wild trying to realistically get my footing again as a working professional now that I'm not also a full-time student.

In addition to wrapping up my graduate work at OU, I was in the DFW area this past weekend with the OU MBA program. We heard from a handful of Dallas-based businesses like Texas Health Resources, 7-Eleven, and PepsiCo. I headed down early and got some face time with a couple of my contacts in the DFW area. Sai Selvarajan is a documentary filmmaker and an editor with Camp Lucky. We had lunch Thursday and talked shop about a few of his recent and upcoming projects. In 2021 he released The Unlikely Fan, a short documentary about his mom and her wild love of basketball. The film got accepted to the 2021 SXSW Film Festival and landed Sai some additional opportunities. He's got another film in the works and I'm looking forward to seeing what that leads to. I also met with Micah Austin who's been my go-to at Filmsupply over the years. Seem's like he's just as much an analytics nerd as I am, so we got deep in the weeds with that nonsense.

There are several creative works I'll start spinning back up this week in addition to pre-production work on a couple of client projects. Surely I'll have more updates on those as they get going again. Since I don't have any of my own nonsense to share at this point, here are a few recent podcasts and news articles I've gone through that are worth your time:

Excuses, excuses

It's getting real that I'm only four weeks away from completing my MBA. My communications class currently has us working on a business proposal and pitch using ChatGPT. My strategy class has us in groups competing with each other's simulated businesses. It's all incredibly interesting and essentially the culmination of the work we've been doing throughout our graduate business program. Still, I'm constantly thinking about lighting, composition, and sharing interesting stories and ideas via short documentaries and photos.

With that in mind, this past week I came across a few short films that certainly kept my attention.

There are a few photographers I'm following on YouTube who I think are doing some interesting work. One of them is a Canadian named Kyle McDougall. He's a film photog and former cinematographer and director who's currently living in the UK. This week he flexed those filmmaker muscles with this short and gorgeous documentary about a buddy of his named Nicholas J.R. White.

Another short doc I ran across this week was a piece about zines and zine culture. What felt great about this one is how appropriately handmade it felt, which no doubt felt like a zine itself. Bonus points too for their smash-and-grab usage of some great punk music.

The last thing I'll leave you with this week comes from another YouTuber I recently stumbled on. This channel shares the work of other well-known photographers and attempts to imitate their approaches as a means of learning new techniques. There are plenty of interesting examples on the channel, but I was especially drawn to this one about photographer Olga Karlovac's work.

There's only four more weeks of being able to use the "I wish I could go out and make something interesting but I'm still in grad school" excuse and I'ma ride that thing into the ground. It's much easier to do that than go out and make something interesting myself.

At least for now...

Strikes, Skaters, and Street Photogs

This starts week six of the fall semester's first class module. It's early still on Monday morning as I'm writing this and I should already be starting on classwork for the week, but here I am trying to force some kind of graduate student, family- and work-life balance. Honestly, I should be pushing for more of a focus on my work considering how little attention it's been getting since starting my MBA. With that in mind, here are a few hot takes from recently.

Huge news came out last night about a tentative deal being reached concerning the WGA strike. The New York Times reports that the screenwriters guild reached a deal with studios and that they got most of what they wanted.

“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the Writers Guild’s negotiating committee said in an email to members.

Conspicuously not doing a victory lap was the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios. “The W.G.A. and A.M.P.T.P. have reached a tentative agreement” was its only comment. - nytimes.com

While this is great news, the industry is still being impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike and there's not much happening on that front.

On a personal level, I can't point specifically to how these strikes have hit me directly, but by simply being in the industry I know they have. Friends of mine are on those picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, and the impact on the crew that haven't been working during this time has been rough. I had a phone call a couple weeks ago with the CPA we still work with in New York and he mentioned how this has been a terrible, terrible year for his clients in the entertainment and production industry – me and my family included.

Tying this nonsense back to my MBA work, I'm six weeks deep into a Negotiations course. We've yet to discuss these entertainment industry strikes, but I'm hoping our professor at least mentions it in tonight's class. My other class this module has focused on Marketing Management. That class in particular has been busting my chops about how little attention I've been giving to the customer-facing aspects of my own small business efforts. So with that in mind...

A couple weeks ago I snuck off to the Skate the Plaza event here in Oklahoma City. I'll mention upfront how it's obviously low-hanging fruit to snag photos at events like this. There were tons of people there and probably as many photogs as skaters all hoping to do something interesting and impress the right people. Still, super stoked about the few images I did make in the process. Again, I've been insanely focused on grad school knowing it'll help me on the business end of my creative work, but in doing so I've unfortunately neglected the actual creative work itself. At this point, I'm just happy to get some time in behind a camera.

The last hot take for this post is a documentary series on street photographers released this week, Wrong Side of the Lens. I actually reached out to the series creator, Josh Ethan Johnson, almost immediately after just seeing the trailer. Later that night St. Anne the Wife and I watched nearly the entire series and realized just how much bigger of a deal it is than I first expected.

Super excited to see a project like this, especially in how it was released on YouTube instead of one of the major streaming platforms considering how good it is. It's got my mashup of creative passions, fierce independence, and business school superpowers going nuts and hopeful for the future.

 

Updated: Jan. 31, 2024
Bit of an update on Wrong Side of the Lens. I've had a chance to connect with Josh Ethan Johnson on his project several times over the last few months and he seems like a good dude doing some interesting work. He's launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise some production capital for future seasons of the project that I'd certainly love to see. Here's his fundraising video and that GoFundMe link so you can help support the art kids making the work you enjoy.

I swear I'm still a Cinematographer

Already starting week three of this first MBA summer module. That's shorthand for "good lord I'm antsy to get back to focusing on being a professional creative again."

I've been flirting with the monthly issues of American Cinematographer magazine that just keep coming with my subscription. I've also started back to reading the American Cinematographer Manual I'd bought back in early 2022. The physical book itself does remind me of my younger days and the well worn and highlighted Bible I'd spent so much time with.

This ASC manual is basically the cinematographer's bible. I'd been wanting to buy a copy and dig into it for years. It's not a textbook per se, but it's easily an authoritative work.

"Producers hire a cinematographer to create art, to be the guardian of the image, and to press for quality and beauty at every turn, but remember, they hire a cinematographer to do that on a budget... Never convince yourself that money is no object – money is the main object. Remember, it's call the movie business. Cinematographers must be concerned about saving money, or at least concerned about spending it wisely." - David Stump, ASC. “Criteria for Evaluating Digital-Cinematography Cameras.” American Cinematographer Manual, 2021

...bit of a hat tip to me still being eyeballs deep in the world of business school...

Another solid find this past week was David Kruta's guest appearance on the Cinematography Salon podcast. He's a good dude and one that I'd consider as a friend. I've been part of the Cinematography Salon for a few years now and met Dave at one of the group's NYC holiday parties. I've also been in a private Instagram DP/Foodie group with him and a handful of others that's helped us all get through these last few years of Covid.

In this episode they cover a handful of topics, but they dug into how artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into our creative industry like everything else. I know I'm already behind the ball in terms of Midjourney (sad day for the end of free accounts) and other AI image generators, but I've been using ChatGPT more and more since early April. After listing to this podcast, I started thinking about how I could use AI in terms of the interview transcripts I have from my rubber stamp documentary project (yes, it's still in the works but somewhat gathering dust). I fed ChatGPT one of those transcripts and asked it to provide some of the themes we'd covered in the interview. Hot dang, seconds later it spit out what would've taken me days to do on my own. I'll for sure be using it more down the road.

I've been hoarding money lately due to this wild economic season we're all in right now instead of following my typical "I should buy more gear" impulses. Some of that fiscal responsibility can be blamed on a group I've followed for awhile, A Photo Editor. Lately they've been on a tear with their Instagram account in posting some real-life examples of photographers and what their business revenue looks like. One post in particular hit hard with the dude saying "stop buying gear; just stop."

No question as professionals we need to stay on top of our nonsense, but – in another hat tip to business school – buying more gear just because you can is a terribly short-sided business move. There's some legit purchases I could be making right now with some potential projects coming up. I've done the math and worked out the details using my newly minted business school super powers, but I'm not convinced it's time to melt my credit card just yet.

That said, I'm pretty sure it's way past time I sprung for some new C41 developing chemicals. I'm way past tempting fate with the crusty chemistry and the 20-30+ year expired film I've been using in my RB67 lately.

Latenights @ Lightbulb: Metro Camera Cars

So straight up one of my big attractions to New York City is the concentration of filmmakers and opportunities to make stuff. Good grief the number of emails, direct messages, and coffee meetings I've been able to make over the last few weeks has been fantastic. One of those coffee meetings was with a guy I met during the Film+Music Conference in Ft. Worth this past September. Dustin Ward is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and cool enough to point me to Lighbulb Grip & Electric. Along with being a rental house, they do these free events called Late Nights @ Lightbulb: Free Education for Filmmakers, by Filmmakers. Up this past week was Metro Camera Cars.

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Just a heads up, this isn't a paid post. I've not worked with these guys, but I did get a chance to meet them. They've got a cool thing going and I'm down with what they're trying to do.

By no means am I swimming in budgets with cash to burn. I've had projects where we needed a driving shot and I've done my fair share of "let's-hang-the-camera-guy-out-the-car" setups to – hopefully – get what we needed. More often than not it wasn't safe, the shot looks like garbage, and again, hanging someone out of a car isn't safe. The guys at Metro Camera Cars are out to make "high-end, dynamic, fluid camera movement accessible for all budgets... With skilled drivers and technicians, [their] goal is to increase your production value while decreasing risk."

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Cutting to the chase on all this, they've got a fully motorized jib arm with a DJI Ronin 2 attached to the business end of it – you provide the camera and lens package. That whole setup is attached to a blacked-out Honda Fit piloted by a stunt driver and filled with all kinds of gadgets and crew to make all the fluid and dynamic camera movement nonsense happen. Through their presentation, they ran us through their gear, the basics of working with a camera car, and a solid Q&A session. Afterward, we all bundled up and went outside to actually see the setup. I've included my notes from the talk below.

Am I planning to hire out a camera car for an upcoming shoot? No. Do I now have a better idea as to what goes into a shoot with a camera car and a group to reach out to that would do a great job, especially with a tighter budget? Yes. Oh, and did I meet a solid handful of likeminded people who I may get a chance to work with at some point? Again, yes.

Film+Music 2018: Everything Else

Jumped the gun a couple weeks ago in thinking I'd have a good deal of content to share from the 2018 Film+Music Conference. Absolutely worth the price of admission and then some in hearing from solid speakers and connecting with such a hotbed of creatives from around the world, but looking through the rest of my notes from the event I figured I'd give a single shotgun blast of what I'm holding near and dear.

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GENERAL NOTES

I kept a running list of general notes throughout the conference; Rough ideas, discarded gum wrappers, and random tidbits all got thrown into the pile. Here's the condensed version:

Write another story

Following the experience with my 2015 short film Nora I'd kinda given up on the idea of seriously leading another narrative short film. Considering the amount of money and resources I'd dumped into that short, the return on investment just wasn't there. "Boo-hoo" and "woe-is-me," but I learned quite a bit in the process and had a great time making something with good friends. But again, I spent too much of my own money. 2016 brought an opportunity to direct a 48 Hour Film Project in Oklahoma City. That short, Illustrator's Anonymous, – again alongside Producer Amanda Hyden – was a much better experience, WAY the hell cheaper, and garnered a much better reception.

All that being said, being around such incredible creatives who're out making stuff and pushing forward was the prodding I needed to not give up on story. It's about time I get my nonsense together and move towards another narrative project with my name somewhere on it.

Connect with production companies

Surely to those in the know, this is a given. Oklahoma is a small market and production companies hiring out freelancers isn't a thriving thing here – at least in my experience. The majority of my DP, Director, and/or Production work comes directly through ad agencies, PR firms, and directly from businesses and non-profits. I get the random contact from out of state production companies for work now and then, but those are the outliers. More often than not those groups are phoning in their direction and I'm a "one-man-band" or simply running a 2-3 person crew.

Moving forward, I plan to keep the work and take the phone calls I'm already getting, but I absolutely see the value and built in infrastructure associated with production companies that are more than one or two people who got a bank loan for some gear and became a "Production Company" – i.e. Tanner Herriott Productions, LLC.

Fake it till you make it

This goes without saying. I was on a shoot not long ago where the client asked me directly if I'd "worked with (insert specific thing)." I'd literally worked with (insert specific thing) for the first time the day before so I wasn't "technically" lying, but I was for sure sewing the parachute together after jumping out of the plane on that project. Looking back at it now, that was exactly what needed to have been said and the project turned out well.

SPEAKER NOTES

Robert Legato was the opening speaker and is a VFX Supervisory wizard. He's been on major films like Jungle Book, Hugo, and Titanic. He pulled back the curtain on some of the technology used in those major motion pictures. He also talked about how "making something that's meaningful to you [being] at the heart of what we do" and "doing your thing and hoping someone likes it." In the end, "If they don't, well...that sucks." There was also the well-earned wisdom of "figuring out your 'work around' to get to the level you're wanting to reach. If something's on a high shelf, you build a ladder."

DP Laura Merians Goncalves's first of two breakout sessions focused on the creative- and career-oriented side of cinematography. Everything seemed to focus on being patient and kind to yourself throughout the process. Please keep in mind that anything that'll last is not built overnight. Looking again through my notes I highlighted "Just keep shooting" and "Rest well and keep going." There's also the point of "You've got to get out there and make connections and maintain those relationships," an important fact with which I'm constantly struggling. There's more in my notes below if you're up to check them out.

The breakout session from the Evolve Studios leadership further pushed the importance of a production company. They spoke about growing slowly and having the "infrastructure in place to further your career and get bigger opportunities." They also stressed how as a professional creative, you're in the service industry. "Protect your clients' interests and they'll keep hiring you."

Franklin Leonard of The Black List fame basically did his own thing and blew up any idea of what we expected to hear from a speaker at an event like this. You don't need me to tell you, but America is in an unusual time in its history with all that's going on politically, racially, socially, etc, and in no way was Franklin Leonard there to make us feel comfortable with what's going on. You could hear a pin drop as he spoke the truth in love to a roomful of creatives who're able to contribute to the needed change in the industry and otherwise.

"If I keep talking about how dirty [the world] is out here, someone is going to clean it up." - Tupac Shakur

Q: "As a white male filmmaker, how can I contribute to change?"
A: "Step out of the circle of people who look like you and invest in other people... Talent isn't concentrated among the people who are just like you."

Q: "Should someone from a majority race approach telling stories of minorities?"
A: "It's important to 'write what you know,' but equally as important to 'write what you research.'"

Again, seriously a solid event that I hope continues to grow and help shape this generation of filmmakers and creatives. Already looking forward to next year's conference.

Becoming an Old Freelancer: Mental & Emotional Health

Originally, the idea of sustainability and becoming an Older Freelancer dealt mostly – I thought – with finances. I'm on the back side of my thirties at this point and spending more and more time thinking about what this line of work looks like into my 40s, 50s, and past that.

Not sure what this looks like to you, but if you're planning to stick around as a freelancer – especially if you're married and/or have kids – you’ve got to be intentional about keeping your mental and emotional well-being in check. Obviously, freelance creatives aren't the only ones susceptible to depression and anxiety issues, but as a freelancer myself I've gone through it, I know that it's a thing, and learned ways to cope with it.

I do want to add that I'm happily married to my best friend and we've got two young boys. My mental and emotional health very much impacts our home life as well as our friends and family and the people I get to work with.

By no means am I a qualified medical and/or mental health professional, but there are plenty of people who are. Just know that help is out there. I went through a season of deep depression after college and came out in a better place thanks to a licensed professional counselor. I've also gone through a short season of taking prescription medication to help with depression. I've had quite a few conversations with other freelancers over the years and I know I'm not alone in dealing with anxiety and depression. Thank God I lucked out and got a wife who can read me and knows when I'm close to my mental and emotional limits.

There are seasons where I’m a hot mess emotionally and the winter and early spring are typically the toughest. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a real thing. The aftermath of holiday bills is a thing too. Oh, and the typical client work and cashflow slowdown after the holidays isn't helpful either.

You've got to figure out your thing. For me, my mental and emotional panacea during the winter and early spring is running. Those first few years in full-time freelancing were especially tough and I started running as a mental break while preparing for the LSAT exam. I figured law school would help me to become an adult and get a "real job," but the best things to come out of that season of studying were knowing I didn't need to be in law school and the importance of healthy mental breaks now and then.

Since I started running in the fall of 2011, I've run two full marathons and six half-marathons. The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is in late April, so the training schedule starting January 1 each year with the OKC Running Club is quite the antithesis of my seasonal depression. Running allows me to veg out and just focus on breathing and not falling down vs. being mentally overwhelmed by family, personal, and professional responsibilities. I know all those things will still be there when I finish my run, but that break is a godsend.

Some less physically demanding coping mechanisms are spending time with friends outside my family and work circles, my Moleskine notebook, and foam earplugs. As a parent with young kids, I don't get as much time outside work and family, so those times are gold. Journalling has always been an outlet for me to mentally work through the good and the bad of whatever is going on. The earplugs are there when I need some quiet and help focusing.

Another means of keeping myself in check knowing when to shut off social media. Theodore Roosevelt's "comparison is the thief of joy" is a much more eloquent way of saying "comparison is a bitch." I typically distance myself from people who are self-promoters and opportunists, so I tend to not follow accounts that are the same. The other day I saw a couple Instagram Story posts dealing with anxiety from Oren Soffer that I thought were helpful.

"...[don't] let yourself get overwhelmed with how big the pond is[.] You just have to focus on your own work and making your own little corner of the pond as prosperous and enjoyable as possible, and avoid as much as you can getting bogged down with comparing yourself to any of the other fish."

"...someone once said that a cinematography career is a marathon, not a sprint. ...when you run a marathon, unlike a sprint or another foot race, you're not actually competing against the other runners; you're only competing against your own best time. ...remind yourself to stay in your lane and focus on your own career, and not keep looking at other people's marathons..."

Composition with Henri Cartier-Bresson

Seems more often than not I'm late to the game, but still happy to be here. I'm assuming that every proper photography student knows who Henri Cartier-Bresson is. If not – especially the cool kids shooting street stuff and portraits – they should be doing something else.

I've talked about it before, but I've been spending a dumb amount of time this past year or so digging through the photography and fine arts sections in public and university libraries. I figure studying the work of others I respect and admire will hopefully seep into the work I'm doing. Cartier-Bresson has easily become one of my favorites and this week I picked up "An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson."

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As a cinematographer, I'm always approaching composition in how it would fit a wider aspect ratio vs. being able to shoot still photos in a taller portrait. Obviously there are visual ideas better suited to a taller frame, but I'm still interested in how they can be used in a widescreen, 2:1, or 16:9 image. I'm not here to write a dissertation on composition, but no question Cartier-Bresson's work is something to study.