Bus Stop from Ellen on Vimeo.

This is the documentation footage of my Time Studio final project. This video was made with the context of the bus stop in mind, and projected onto the surface during the evening in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. (There is no sound.) This was recorded with my lovely new Canon Rebel T1i. Enjoy!

Click through the images below to see more on flickr!

Night

Art Prize

Wedding

(not available on flickr)

These are not all the photos lately. These are just the ones from the beginning of October. I’ve been so swamped with school and NaNoWriMo and other projects that I’ve been slow to get around to edit my photos. So expect fall photos round about when it starts snowing! Just kidding… I hope.

It ended up being two days of very little sleep and long days of waiting around on set just being fascinated by the film crew, and a little time where you’re actually doing something useful while filming. I was cast as a hot dog vendor with three other guys, so I spent most of my time inside a little glass box that blocked the cold, under 50ºF winds and got to warm my hands on the heat lamps for the french fries. The other extras played tourists on Virginia beach on a hot Labor Day afternoon. HAH! Some warm Labor Day. Everyone was shivering and got to wear coats in between sets.

There were, however a few celebrities on camera. Jennifer Connelly plays the crazy ex-wife of Ed Harris, who is a sheriff running for State Senate. Toby Jones has a part. He plays Dobby the House Elf’s voice in the Harry Potter movies. There was one guy who was cast from Michigan playing Dale, the friend of the sheriff’s son, Emmett who was played by a guy cast from Australia. Dale has a cool death scene that was right outside my hot dog stand, so I got to witness that being filmed about two dozen times from inside there.

I’m so glad that Michigan passed the film incentives and is bringing the film industry into Michigan. It’s a beautiful state that can use the economic boost of Hollywood films. And a big thanks to TicTock Studios as well for being one of the first film studios to cater to Michigan. I hope to see lots more film productions coming to Michigan. I greatly enjoyed my teensy acting experience, and would like to be an extra again in the future.

My home at college was so exciting. I lived in the same building as many of my friends, I didn’t have to ask my parents if I could go out or have my friends come up for a movie. We just did it. And I loved the freedom. Now that I’m back in my parent’s house, it’s a little restricting again. Even though I do have more freedoms than I did while going to grade school here (read: car), I still have all those memories of being trapped here because I wasn’t allowed to go out. It makes it pretty suffocating here still. So my goal, as I leave my little dorm room an come home here, is to try to make it more exciting again. Basically, stay active and creative so I don’t feel so suffocated at home.

So guess what I did?! First thing I did when I came home Thursday, was jump in my car (I missed it) and drive down to the beach and take pictures of the sunset. I had about three minutes before it was gone when I got there, so I snapped until my battery died. Then I just sat in the car for a while and watched the sky get dark. It was nice. As much as I hate the clichéd pictures of my town’s lighthouse (there are only so many angles one can cover), I don’t think I can ever get sick of the sunsets over Lake Michigan.

I went out again last night. This time in an attempt to chase some lightning. I didn’t get any good lightning pictures, but I got some cool rainy night shots  of the bridge and the river downtown. I also have found some good locations for shooting lighting on the lake for when the weather is better. It’s still a bit chilly out here. Some summer rains will be more comfortable I think. See the results from both nights of shooting on my Flickr.

Dodgeball is a smaller sport in collegiate levels,  not many universities have them, but mine does, and we hosted the Dodgeball National Championship Tournament the other week. It sounded like it would be something fun to shoot so I took my camera and went to the game. I stayed through the semi-finals on the last day and let’s just say, my university dominated the whole time and went on to win. The best game was where another Michigan team had our side pegged down to one guy, but he kept catching balls that allows another player onto the court, and we turned the game around and still beat the other team. I don’t think I got as many pictures for that game because I was too busy yelling. And I think I’ve added dodgeball to my list of exceptions that I’ll watch.

Here is my flickr set of the best photos from the games. Click through to see more.

The other shoot I did that weekend was some behind the set stuff for my friend Mike. He has been filming his new student run TV show, Jeff & Mike Write A Comic and asked me for some photos. I have to say, his show looks hilarious and it was great fun being on the set in my friends’ apartment. I’m really looking forward to when the show actually comes out. But until then, enjoy these behind the scenes shots of the filming. Click through the image for more.