Post production is going well. Today I even had one of those happy accidents that make a project so much better in the end. Sometimes- ok, usually- I stumble around for a while figuring out exactly what I want for a shot. Then, usually after a good night’s sleep, the solution pops into my head and everything seems to completely inevitable. In a good way.

It’s pretty cool when something comes together.

Yeah baby, this is a post production week and I’m neck deep in Shake. I’m replacing all the greenscreen with a subtle white gradient right now. I absolutely love making stuff happen. And yes, I’m aware that the monitor on the left needs to be recalibrated.

This week I directed a commercial for Biotene on a greenscreen stage. It’s awesome how blue the sky looks after you’ve been in a completely green stage for 10 hours.

I am getting DAMNED good at greenscreen work. No surprise, since my very first student film had visual effects in it. I’ve gained a lot of hard-won knowledge from my short films and other projects that I put into place on this shoot. Most people like to keep such knowledge to themselves. Not me. Here, for free, are the Patrick Ortman “Dos and Don’ts When Dealing With Greenscreen Projects”:

• Do rent or buy a waveform monitor. Use it. Learn what a properly lit greenscreen should look like. Hint- it should look like a pretty, thin straight line.
• Don’t be afraid to tell the bestboy that the lighting isn’t even. If you don’t speak up now, you’ll have hell to pay in post.
• Do place markers. In the photo above, my markers look like crosses. If you have any camera movement that has to match a background plate, you’ll thank yourself in post if you have these markers.
• Don’t forget to shoot a take of a gray card. And a gray ball and mirror ball if you have them. This will help you recreate the on-set lighting in post if needed. And if you’re REALLY smart, you’ll shoot some footage of the screen with nothing in front of it before each camera angle change. Trust me.
• Do light your subject completely separately from your background.
• Even though your whole set is virtual, don’t forget that your actors often need something to interact with on set.
• And finally, don’t believe this kind of work is easy. It isn’t easy to do well. Testing and preparation are key. Pun intended.

Last year SprintTV and Blip decided not to carry my series ‘Deliverance By The Slice’. It went on anyway to become the #1 video on MySpace and got featured all over the Internet. It’s been seen millions of times.

Still, I’d pretty much given up any hope for it being picked up by a mobile distributor. Even though the scripts weren’t anything naughtier than a typical Simpsons episode, the Blip person told me that their channel was for “family friendly” product only. Oh well.

But now Sprint’s competitor Verizon has decided to pick it up.

I’m on to much different things now, but it’s good to see that the Pizza Dude has finally found a home. A lot of people put their hearts into this show, and it deserves a venue.

Getting the show up on Verizon is definitely a good feeling for me, it’s a vindication of our little indie web series. We did it on a shoestring, and it turned out alright.