tannerherriott.com (v3-ish?)

Updating my website has been on my short term to-do list for a bit now and over the weekend I finally got to it. The wild shakes from last few years haven't been friendly in feeding the demo reel, but those changes have fueled quite a few still photos and frame grabs I'm super happy with.

From a "Hey! Look at me and the cool motion jobs I've shot!" standpoint, nothing has changed. Most of the client work I get to shoot will never end up on my site for one reason or another, but I'm legit proud of some of the personal images I've shot. Just the process of digging through some of my work brought back some good memories and ideas of additional projects I'd like to go after.

I've always been nervous about posting the images I shoot that actually light me up because "they're not what's going to get me work." Again, the vast majority of my bill paying work comes from shooting corporate interviews and other projects you'll never see. It's tough to get past the idea that some of the moody and smeary looking stuff I love to shoot will distract the typical clients I get to work with. That weird nose-grease flare on a building at night or the warped watercolor looking tulip doesn't necessarily scream "This guy can light a basic high-key interview with a CEO."

As a cinematographer, putting together a demo reel absolutely sucks. Especially when you don't feel like you have anything new to add to it. There's also the self-defeating part of researching into other DP's reels and sites trying to look for ideas on themes, pacing, and looks you're hoping land you more work. Obviously studying other's reels can be helpful, but more often than not it just leads your edit to looking like someone else's work vs. what you're shooting and trying to do.

There's still a few things I'd like to add to my site, specifically polished examples of some my documentary and talking head work as well as some additional background copy with some of the still images. There's not really an example I can point to where one specific change brought in more work, but I've had clients reach out looking for more focused examples of my work after seeing some of the highlights.

Back to Work

Thankfully I'm staring down a busy week so this'll be a short one. I'm back in the director/producer/DP(-ish) chair and prepping a project shooting later this month, I'm making some headway on my rubber stamp doc, and I've got my FAA "Unmanned Aircraft General - Small" exam on Wednesday.

In prepping for my FAA Commercial Drone Certificate exam this week, I've been plowing through the remotepilot101.com online course. I did nerd out in learning how latitude and longitude worked, but I was ready to puke if I had to look at and decipher another freakin' VFR Chart or METAR/TAF.

Speaking of weather, the weather here in Oklahoma is starting to spin up again with equal parts nice and terrifying. One the one hand, our new trees and Anne's tulips are blooming. On the other, we've already had severe weather warnings and covered up our garden one night with some of the moving boxes we still have from New York. In years past, we've had two of our cars totaled and replaced all the windows in our house due to hail damage. Slapping together some cardboard forts above our tomato plants "just in case" was the least we could do to protect our salsa, red sauce and canned goods futures.

Anyone Have a Map?

“When people are under a long period of chronic, unpredictable stress, they develop behavioral anhedonia,” Dr. Wehrenberg said, meaning the loss of the ability to take pleasure in their activities. “And so they get lethargic, and they show a lack of interest — and obviously that plays a huge role in productivity.” We Have All Hit a Wall, nytimes.com

Personally I've felt like I'm eye-ball deep in this season of some kind of transition. "Eye-ball deep" sounds so much more positive than "drowning," so I'll lean into that optimism for now. It's hard to describe the transition and what's on the other side, but here we are.

A wild part of the time we're in has been a general boredom and lack of interest in the imagery I'm seeing. I'm not sure I've ever dealt with something like this considering what I do for a living and how overly saturated we are with visual imagery. Again, I'm not confident in describing it, but it feels like it's easy to make beautiful images, but they feel incredibly empty. So many things look the same right now that almost nothing stands out. Things just feel so uninteresting. No question that goes for anything I've been shooting, but I'm still trying.

It's been so long since normal that even getting back to some kind of familiar feels off. My first instinct is to mention how long it's been since I've worked, but the reality is that I've been working this whole time. I'm shooting a lot less than I'd like, I'm not behind a camera on as many projects as I'd want, but it seems like that energy has gone into other outlets. The last few months have certainly felt like I've been grasping at straws or simply throwing things at the wall and moving on with what sticks.

Thankfully public and university libraries in my area have started opening up again and I've gone out of my way to get lost in the stacks when I can. The last couple weeks in libraries have pulled double duty with the usual hopes of serendipity plus research into my rubber stamp documentary project. So far I've not found a ton of content around rubber stamps, but that's led me into other avenues of printmaking (linocuts, Japanese woodblock, etc.).

The University of Oklahoma Fine Arts Library is one of my favorite places at the moment considering all the out there nonsense I find and the ideas they lead to. I'd mentioned the Trapped in Oklahoma Instagram account of old Oklahoma underground music ephemera to one of the OU Fine Arts librarians and they directed me to Ephemeral Art. By all means check into Andy Goldsworthy and his natural sculptures.

I keep coming back to this idea of a documentary about rubber stamps. The wall behind my desk is slowly being covered in Post-it notes with ideas and directions all in hopes of getting somewhat organized. I've reached out and connected with multiple artists online and that's led to even more questions to ask and people to meet. What's great is that the more I'm looking, the more I'm finding. The hard part at this point is trying to sift through and figure out what I'll do with all I've come across.

One of the more interesting rubber stamp pockets I've found on the internet is StampZine, "an international rubber stamp assembling zine in the Sanizdat tradition compiled by Picasso Gaglione." Over the weekend I got incredibly uncomfortable and made 20 original rubber stamp prints to submit to an upcoming edition.

I'm just hoping the practice of process will help me during this transitional season. It's not like I have a map.

Arri Light Case Wheel Replacement

I appreciate the fact I can normally find whatever it is I'm looking for on the internet, or at least something close enough to accomplish what I'm looking to do. That being said, I got stuck the other day and couldn't find something.

I've got this small ARRI lighting kit that that's been a workhorse for years, but it's starting to show its age. Not so much the tungsten lighting units themselves because they're tanks and I don't care what my fancy-pants gaffer buddies say, but the freakin' wheels to the plastic case gave up the ghost a long time ago. They've both blown out and no one needs to hear that "ka-klunk, ka-klunk, ka-klunk" as I roll my light case down some corporate hallway before the shoot.

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Google sent me this YouTube tutorial and some different written posts about changing out the wheels, but not the exact thing I was looking for. So for the sake of trying to contribute more than I consume, please accept the following:

Another YouTube tip was a drummer replacing the blown-out wheels in his SKB Hard Case. He drilled out the rivets, so I did the thing and pretty much butchered the plastic around where those demon rivets were on my case. Some of those two-pronged turds had to be dug out with a flathead screwdriver and a pair of pliers even after using the drill. I used a utility knife to clean up some of the shredded plastic because no one needs that sharp nonsense.

Keep in mind these wheels probably weren't made to be replaced. The actual wheels themselves were held in place by a crimped pin that wasn't having it with me trying to drill them out. I ended up hack-sawing the end off each of those pins while also hoping for the best about not losing a finger and/or destroying much more plastic.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to find replacement rollerblade wheels here in Oklahoma City. After wasting the better part of a work day driving around and calling different sporting goods stores and bike/skate shops, I gave in and ordered the 64mm Inline Skate Wheels and Inline Skate Axle Screws off Amazon. I did find some machine screws, washers, and locking nuts at a local hardware store. They also carried those stupid rivets, but hard pass on that death trap waiting to happen.

Don't forget, I did pretty much butcher a decent amount of the surrounding plastic while drilling out those dark-horned rivets of death. One hole had to be abandoned entirely, but I just drilled another one right next to it because I do what I want and you're not the boss of me.

The inner diameter of the Amazon wheels was just a bit bigger than I'd hoped for – something like 1-2mm off – but it wasn't a problem once I got them installed. I'm sure I could've done a better job keeping it from looking all Erector Set, but that ARRI light case rolls like heaven again with its fancy new wheels.

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Rusty & Wobbly

This past week had me back on set again for the first time in what feels like forever. Obviously it's not been forever but it felt like an incredibly long time. It was a wild mix of excitement and anxiety. Excitement because I'm absolutely getting to do something I love; anxious because I felt incredibly rusty.

It was a simple talking head shot and I could've done it in my sleep considering the number I've done over the years. I was incredibly prepared and given myself plenty of breathing room for the setup, but this time the bicycle I'd ridden for years felt incredibly wobbly.

Considering how slow my work has been the last few months it's just going to take some getting used to things again before I work out all the wobbles. Obviously SUPER helpful if you're a potential client looking to hire me and happen to be reading this nonsense, but it's been super helpful knowing plenty of my DP buddies are also coming out of their own similar situations too.

If there's any kind of bright side to all this, it's been helpful (and mentally healthy) to step back and realize what I'm seeing as wobbles aren't even a blip on the client's radar. My lighting was a bit flat and there was a slight bit of green I should've toned down more. Normally too I'd be editing for this client, but they hired out someone else and I was panicking at the thought of someone butchering the color correction. I was also working with a new gaffer and lighting units I'm not used to just yet. I'm looking forward to working with both again down the road. Also, that fancy new fluid head and tripod handled the additional weight of my teleprompter and audio kit like a champ.

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Seriously, me being close to a total mental meltdown because of minuscule details they'll never notice doesn't help my client. It's not like losing the memory cards on a travel job or breaking a lens. Seriously, mistakes happen, but I'm still good at what I do even if I'm a bit rusty at the moment. I've got another shoot this week with another client on somewhat of a similar setup, so I'm crazy thankful for another opportunity to sharpen up.

Covid has complicated everything and we'll continue to come across problems this season has and will continue to cause. We've all had major life changes during this garbage fire and it'd be foolish to pretend we haven't. In my situation I've had a general lack of work behind a camera – through no fault of my own – and I hate it. I hate it for myself and I hate it for the clients I get to work with.

Things change whether we want them to or not, but it's not helpful to sit and boil over about the world no longer being the way it was. This time of upside down still sucks, but I know I've grown and I'm stoked about how it's changed me for the better.

"Not Working Right Now"

This whole "not working right now" thing is for the birds. With that said, it turns out me and a solid number of my fellow birds aren't working and haven't been these last few months. Thankfully I've got a couple scheduled shoots the next few weeks, but dang...glad I've got residual money coming in with stock footage licensing.

Even being able to say "haven't been working these last few months" is kinda wild. Uncertainty is no doubt part of freelancing and it's still science fiction for me to imagine working a 9-5 five days a week.

With all this downtime I'm still digging through this rubber stamp documentary project I've been working on. It's still just a collection of notes, books, and websites at this point. Surely I'll post more about it along the way. No question I'm more a collector than consumer or creator, but I did jump in and started carving my own rubber stamps.

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My kiddos are the illustrators of the family so I've been hijacking their drawings and turning them into stamps. Again, SUPER stoked about ending up behind the business end of a camera again soon enough. There's plenty of real art kids and I'm collecting links to my favorites along the way. Here's some recent favorites if you're up to check them out:

It's still a weird time

Right now feels equal parts numb and overly emotional. Work has been slow as per usual this time of year, but the Covid version of this normal season has been rough. It's crazy how bad I want to be back on a film set with a camera on my shoulder. That's such a weirdly specific urge.

One of my escapes the last few months has been getting out and flying a drone. Those absurdly cold weeks back in mid-February at least made for some interesting looking landscapes. I'd never seen a near white-out here in Oklahoma City and there were some wild looking fog over Lake Hefner due to the painfully cold temperatures. Freakin' kudos to DJI for developing such a hardy little flying chainsaw in their Mavic 2 Pro. The cold did shorten the battery life, but they still lasted long enough for my fingers to go way past numb while working the remote control.

This weird, smeary time where days don't seem to count hasn't been all bad (I hope). I've been working on a personal project based on my rubber stamp collecting and digging up all kinds of nonsense. There's plenty out there on the collection and study of postage stamps (Philately) and I found a website for the National Postmark Museum. I'm still digging around for organized groups of collectors somewhat similar to my nonsense, but I've found a few things already.

  • StampZine: an ongoing collection of original rubber-stamp art from different contributors around the world.
  • National Park Travelers Club: an organization for anyone who enjoys visiting our National Parks and everyone collecting cancellations in the Passport to Your National Parks Program.
  • The whole world of Correspondence Art.

Once international travel opens up a bit more and I've got the margin, I'm hoping to head over to Asia and snag some of the eki stamps available at train stations in Japan and Taiwan. By all means check out some of the examples over at Hyperallergic.

Also, I've started cataloguing my personal collection and hit 665 stamps as of the end of 2020.

Oconnor 1040 Fluid Head & Flowtech 100 Tripod System

For this week's effort in procrastination, I'ma quickly talk about a piece of gear that'll help carry me through the next decade or so (it's a tripod pun).

The end of the year normally means offsetting the year's revenue for tax purposes with some gear purchases. Last week I mentioned the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and a few weeks before that the QNAP NAS setup. The big one for 2020 though was the OConnor 1040 Fluid Head & Flowtech 100 Tripod System. I say 2020, but it'll end up on 2021's tax nonsense due to AbelCine butchering the ordering process. I'm still a fan of AbelCine and how they do filmmaker community stuff, but good grief after this sour experience there are other places to buy gear.

Back when I still had a day job I'd purchased a Miller DS20 fluid head setup for what felt like all of the money. At the time I'm pretty sure it was close to what I was making each month. We're talking Panasonic DVX170 and EARLY DSLR days, but it was right on for the type of projects and cameras I was shooting on. Ten plus years and at least three to five camera packages later I've finally upgraded to a system that'll, well...hold my camera.

Seriously, super stoked about getting this fluid head and tripod. I'd been dreaming about one day owning its predecessor, the Oconnor 1030, since it came out back in 2011-ish(?), but fancy tripods aren't super sexy and with it being in the price range it is/was, the 1030 never made it to the top of my gear purchasing priorities. It'd made several appearances on projects with any kind of budget, but always got returned to the rental house afterwards. That freakin' fluid head got replaced in the time it took me to finally commit to the purchase.

I've not had it long enough to put it through its paces, but the first test run had me roaming around after dark in NYC's Chelsea neighborhood with a super scaled-down RED setup. That fancy new fluid head is heavy, but damn it's smooth AF. That beefy 1040 fluid head is tinier than its Oconnor siblings, but it's still close to a hearty 20 pounds with the Flowtech 100 carbon fiber legs. That's like three of my Miller DS20s I'm used to lugging around. I'll need to figure out a shoulder strap setup to help with the one-man-band nonsense I'm normally up to.

Once I got it back to Oklahoma City I figured out the rad counterbalance feature. I've shot on quite a few Oconnor heads but never knew how to legitimately balance one out. Those Flowtech legs too are something else. I've had carbon fiber tripod legs for years, but not having to bend down to near ground level to adjust the camera height will surely save my back. The whole magnetic closure feature seems like it should've happened years ago.

It's never about the gear, but it doesn't hurt when your equipment helps you do the thing. That poor Miller DS20 fluid head was showing its age after having been overloaded for years with my RED package and whatever nonsense I could add to it (teleprompters, sliders, multiple monitors, etc.). I wore the right side rosette smooth in adjusting the operator handle these last ten or so years. It's not like it'll get tossed with the week's trash or anything, but it may end up getting sent in for some much-needed servicing before transitioning to its B-cam package days.

Death from Above with the DJI Mavic 2 Pro

So drones, huh? Well, once again I'm no stranger to being late to the party. One, I don't like parties to begin with. Two, I'm still mentally recovering from that Kessler Cineslider purchase back in the early 2010s to go along with my Canon 7D that Phillip Bloom told me about. Speaking of good 'ol Phillip Bloom, this week I'm finally replacing my tried and true (but very past its prime) Miller DS20.

But back to that drone party thing.

Towards the end of last year, I caved and joined Team Drone. Over the years I've lost work because I'd not jumped on the bandwagon sooner, so after a few months of eye-balling a couple of different ones, I ended up buying a DJI Mavic 2 Pro at the closest BestBuy. I got home, unboxed that nonsense, and headed straight back to that BestBuy because the dude in the blue shirt and khaki pants didn't mention also needing to buy memory cards. I also bought an extra battery, another set of propellers, and a tacky carrying case out of spite. "That'll show 'em," said the guy who just spent even more money on a toy camera that flies through the air.

Oh, and a quick Google search pointed out that the Chinese dude behind DJI is about my age and is worth about a billion dollars more than me considering DJI has 70% of the consumer drone market. While he was building drone prototypes in his college dorm room, I was, well, not doing anything that cool or profitable.

Turns out those flying chainsaws are great and probably too easy to get into. Gravity always wins and I've already crashed a few times – the first one being pretty rough. Luckily that unplanned landing was easily fixed with a multitool. Thank goodness for muscle memory from all the mechanical nonsense I broke and tried to fix as a kid at my grandparents' place.

There's a 500+ page handbook of aviation goodness I've started reading in preparing for the Remote Pilot with a small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) rating test. I'm already bulking up on my acronyms and learning about weather patterns, but I've yet to come across the sections on "Properly Filming Arial Footage to Effectively Open and Close Documentary Films" or "That One Shot Every YouTuber with a Drone Does."

Soon enough I'll be adding "Pilot" to my DP resume and wearing out Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" every time I unpack that remote-controlled widow maker from its tacky fanny pack of a case. I'm currently accepting call sign suggestions to embroider onto my bomber jacket.

All kidding aside there are steps I'll need to take to be doing this drone nonsense professionally and above board. For sure the FAA-Certified Drone Pilot test is on my short list of to-dos along with insuring this spinning plastic death from above for commercial use. I've had production insurance for years, but my insurer shot me down a few months ago when I reached out about covering drone use. There are other options, but I've not gotten there yet.

*Finally Takes a Big, Deep Breath*

Preface: Any and all the nonsense I've tried to write the last few days for this week's post was simply a waste compared to what's happened today, Wednesday, January 20, 2021. It felt like finally coming up for air after being forced underwater for nearly too long.

“Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause: the cause of democracy.”
— President Joe Biden

The last four plus years have been more than rough. I'm ready for politics to be boring again. I'm hoping they move back to being as important and memorable as a routine dental visit. The dentist we go to here is fantastic and the entire staff is incredibly professional and kind. But still, the entire time they're digging around in my mouth with metal tools and scraping away the past, I'm outwardly pretending everything's fine while fighting off a blinding panic and choking on my own juices.

It's only fitting that I was at the dentist today during the inauguration. I sat there in that fancy robot chair with the dentist and his assistant on either side and the three of us watched Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take their oaths of office on my iPhone. The assistant was an older white lady who was in tears seeing the first woman being sworn in as Vice President. Yea, I cried too with this stranger who only moments earlier had her gloved fingers in my mouth. Good Lord, what a time and place to sit and pay attention as once again adults are back in charge.

Bonus points too for a couple of my FilmSupply clips landing in the White House's "The Work Begins" video.

As for the previously scheduled nonsense I was writing for today, I'll try and polish that turd to post another time. You're not missing anything.