This is the Canon XL2 I’m gonna be using to shoot a short drama in a month, to be directed by my friend Erica. I’ve never used an XL2 before, although we did use a Canon H1 (Canon’s next gen camera) on Melissa and Brandon’s PSA a month or two ago.

Why am I posting and talking about the camera and not the project here?

Simple, because the way a lot of so-called filmmakers talk you’d think the latest and greatest gear makes all the difference in the world. And the XL2 is not exactly obsolete, but it’s a couple of years out of date. An eternity, for those indie filmmakers who talk about high def. No, who talk about 1080p. Or of even higher resolutions. Maybe 4K like the upcoming RED camera system. To those indie filmmakers, shooting with a standard definition camera like the XL2 just isn’t worth it.

Funny, ’cause most of those indie filmmakers seem to talk and talk and never actually produce any content.

I’m not saying HD isn’t awesome. I’ve done a lot of HD and HDV projects now. And the flexibility it has given me in post- being able to zoom in, pan, reframe, etc- is awesome. But I keep thinking of The Beatles and how they and George Martin created some of the best ever songs and recordings using 4 or 8 track audio recorders that have much less horsepower and flexibility than the audio circuitry found in a common laptop computer these days. Or of Phil Spector, and how he did all these great songs… in mono.

The idea is, yes technology matters to a point. But without creativity, technology is really just a bunch of stuff. Useless. Hollow. Of no use.

My first office was a leaky basement in a cold midwestern town. The second was an apartment in Atlanta. The third was a room in a cool house up in the hills of Los Angeles.

This is version 4 (Beta), which lives in a bitchen’ high rise apartment in Los Angeles with a view to forever. Sure, my Mackie speakers aren’t installed yet and you can’t see the audio mixer, microphones, guitars, etc. But the basics of my office are up and it works for me. I’ve got wireless networking, 3 Macs and one PC. I’ve got all my editing and visual effects software running. Each of my monitors is a 23 inch LCD, and the one on the left can accept high definition signals for display. The music studio is fully operational, too. I’m fully equipped and able to tackle any project that is thrown my way.

If you look, you can see the very edge of my bulletin board. This will soon be filled up with storyboards and index cards for my next projects.

I’m actually a big believer in ergonomics, hence the stupid cheap Ikea tables (yet with adjustable legs- the better to get the right keyboard height!) but the money well spent on a damn nice chair. After all, this is a place one spends an awful lot of time working in.

This is a 13 minute comedy short film that I made last year, and which has played at film festivals and is now available via Cinequest’s online service. It was shot by Stacy Steinkuller, written by Rick Bourn and myself, and I edited, did the visual effects, ran the steadicam, and directed the movie.

We shot it with a Sony Z1, and this was the first movie I worked on using Shake for visual effects. I also used After Effects, Lightwave, and a bunch of plugins.

Check it out