Tag Archives: Tina Z

Boston University Commencement 2011 (365 Day Photo Project: Day 108)

As most of you know, I graduated on Sunday.  Woohoo!  I’m officially an adult!  BU’s graduation ceremonies are split into two parts:  Commencement, a huge ceremony with all the graduating seniors on BU’s Nickerson Field, and the individual college ceremonies.  Unfortunately, the ceremonies for Film and for Spanish were at the same time, so naturally, I chose Film.  Anyway, here are some of my pictures from Commencement.  Luckily this year, COM was seated right up front (they switch it around– last year COM was way in the back) so I got some awesome pictures with my 7D and my trusty 28-135mm lens.

I sat with a lot of my Film 2 and Film 3 friends.  Pictured are Ian B, Steve D, and Tucker B.  Behind them is BU’s West Campus housing for Freshman.

Julian and Terrence, my fellow Mountain Fishers

Zack M, another DP from Film 3

I love this picture because it looks like Kenneth Elmore, the badass Dean of Students, is looking right at me.  Maybe he was…

Ron, Film 3 director of Guppy Love, kept making silly faces at me when everyone else was marching in.

Ron and Tina.  Tina was the fabulous production designer of Cowboy Cafe.

Another photo of the fishes

Me and Terr

Our ever-photogenic President

Our student speaker of the year

Javi’s hat said “Gracias Mami y Papi.”  Javi directed “Mute,” a film I edited this semester

The Student Marshall for our section was listening to music throughout the ENTIRE CEREMONY VERY LOUDLY.  I could hear it three rows back.  Bad student marshall!

Several people received honorary degrees, including Ted Kennedy’s Wife (Victoria Reggie Kennedy, pictured above), chef Jacques Pepin, artist Frank Stella, NPR personality Nina Totenberg, Nobel prize winning scientist Ahmed Zewail and broadcast journalist Katie Couric

Katie Couric receives her honorary degree, she was also our Commencement Speaker:

Watch Katie Couric’s Commencement Address below:

Cowboy Café Day 5 (365 Day Photo Project: Day 99)

Day 5 on Cowboy Café was our last day at The Diner, and boy do I have some great pictures for you.  One of the last shots of the night was when Van Cleef (“The Bad”) gets shot.  Our special effects guy, Brian, did a FANTASTIC job.  All hands were on deck for that shot as everyone was super excited to see the special effect and also because it was a one shot (no pun intended) gag.  We had to get it right the first time because it would’ve taken tons of time to reset, especially since almost every surface in the entire diner was covered in blood by the end of it.

Notice the blue tarp on the ceiling trying to prevent blood from getting everywhere.  The blinds on the windows were ours, so it didn’t matter if blood got on them.  Interestingly enough, most of the fake blood that Brian uses is soap based, so it’s easily cleanable from clothes and surfaces.

And here’s Van Cleef right after he got shot.  There was a squib in his shirt that looked like a gunshot, and then Brian used a CO2 pump to shoot fake blood all over the wall as an exit wound.  It looks shockingly realistic on film :)   Definitely my favorite shot in the movie (also, no pun intended).

So much fake blood!

The aftermath of Van Cleef’s death.  Everyone frantically trying to clean blood of the ceiling, floors, booths, etc.

Even the script was covered in blood.

After we shot Van Cleef’s death, we shot Cowboy getting shot in the arm.  Brian made this fake skin patch to put under Cowboy’s shirt to look like a bullet hole that you could ooze blood out of.  Unfortunately we didn’t end up using it because Steve didn’t have Cowboy rip his shirt open.  Still, very cool.  Brian even airbrushed little blue veins into the skin.

Cowboy Dan was covered in blood when the take ended.

Even his boots were soaked in blood…

And pretty much everywhere on the floor…

And the counters…

I forced everyone to take a big group shot.  Represented we have (approximately from left to right): Colin Hammel (Van Cleef), Sandra Roberts (Extra), Zack McGeehan (DP), Alisha Barrett (Jeana), Dimitri Kouri (AD / Sound), Trevor Taylor (1st AC), Dave Roberts (Extra), Mike Moote (Sound), Steve Ohl (Director / Writer), Brian Mahoney (special effects), Max (Billy), Dan Merriman (Cowboy), Kevin Anton (Grip / Sound), Tina Zito (Production Designer), Olivia Kimmel (2nd AD), and Chris Herbert (Grip / Electric).  Go Cowboy Café!

We took a few grey card portraits of important cast and crew members (since it’s an 18% Production, after all):

Chris grey cards as Brian cleans up flesh and blood in the background

Cowboy Dan does some grey carding

Notice his blood soaked hand… “Killing comes with being a cowboy”

The view from the monitor on the Alexa

Finally, I took some pictures of Kevin’s sound log.  He drew a lot of little comics for me, which will make my job as an editor all the more fun.

I’m not really sure what brought this on…

Apparently Tina drew the cupcake, Kevin added the cannon, and Tina added the face.  Oh, the things film students do during downtime on set.

That’s a wrap on Day 5!  More pictures from Day 6 to come!

Cowboy Café Day 2 (365 Day Photo Project: Day 97)

It’s high time I catch up on all the blogging I need to do.  Cowboy Café finished on time Thursday, April 7th.  Friday, April 8th, I spent the day with Trevor and Peter planning for Veronika Ballerina, which had its first day of shooting on Saturday, April 9th.  April 10th, I slept the entire day, because aside from getting 1-3 hours of sleep every night for an entire week, I picked up a horrendous cold on Thursday, which unfortunately I still have.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the second day of shooting “Cowboy Café.”  The second day of shooting was our first at The Diner, an aptly named restaurant at 11 North Beacon St. in Watertown, MA.  The Diner graciously allowed us to transform their very minimalist diner into a Cowboy Café for three days and nights after they closed at 2 PM.

Here is The Diner as is.  I took this picture at night after we had cleaned up all evidence of Cowboy Café.

And here is Tina Zito’s Cowboy Café.  Tina Zito is our wonderful production designer who turned this modest diner into a kick-ass Cowboy Café.  It took us about two hours every day to set-dress the place, but it was totally worth it.

Believe it or not, that’s the same angle as the first picture above.

Notice the little taxidermied rattlesnake

Peter stands beneath the John Wayne portrait.

Shooting begins!  Above is Dan, our Cowboy hero.  Recognize that kick-ass camera to the right?  It’s the Alexa, that amazing camera that I’ve been raving about for the last several months.

Cowboy talks with Billy (played by Max) in the opening Cowboy Café scene.  Max spent all of his time on set shooting people with his cap gun.  I’m pretty sure every person on set was shot at least 300 times.

Peter and Chris talk between takes.  Notice the Cowboy Café menu between the two of them.  Go Tina!

More pictures to come soon!