Building the dolly

Today we continued with building our dolly. And yes, I have to confess that we do it after one of those tutorials on YouTube. Anyway, it was great to feel the smoothness of those wheels.

On the search to build a dolly

Something good about Medellin (among many) is that many stores are clustered together if they sell the same thing. For example, if you want to buy tires, you will find like fifteen tire shops next to each other.

Today we went looking for parts to build a dolly. A dolly is a moving "cart" or "waggon" for a film camera. So we went to the "woodshop" area of Medellin. Lots of stores selling wood. Perfect. It wasn't hard to find what we were looking for.

Dollies are great for enhancing a film. The camera moves slowly to the side or forwards. It creates that "film" feel. Wanna see what our dolly looks like? Hang on.

Preproduction for our short film

"Preproduction" is a term used a lot in movie production. It means to prepare the production, to schedule, to plan what will be needed. Things and people, locations, clothes etc. Because on those days of rolling cameras everything needs to be in place.

Yesterday we went to scout one of our main locations for our short film "At your side", a luxurious apartment. Later we will visit a location that is totally the opposite.

We also sat down to schedule the shoot, with our producer, production designer and assistant art director...

Avid

Today we went to an AVID seminar. Avid is the world-leading software for editing film and television. It was held in a television studio at one of the universities here in Medellin.

One helpful feature that they showed us was how you can search for a word or a phrase - spoken - in your footage. Pretty cool. Imagine you have a long interview and need to find a specific phrase. You do a search and you instantly know where it is. Not bad.

I used to edit in Final Cut Pro but I have recently switched to Adobe Premiere Pro. Premiere offers better real-time capabilities. Apple, you guys need to realize your'e not the only ones out there.

Flowers with a purpose

Today me and a couple friends went to "do good", we went to a prison here in Medellin, where we gave flowers and sweets to the wives who are waiting in line outside to get in to meet their spouses. The line was about five hundred meters long (at seven in the morning) so there were plenty of people. Most women brought food with them, that I suppose they later share with their loved ones. We told the women that we appreciate their faithfulness and perseverance in meeting their spouses. Needless to say, our visit had no political purpose whatsoever, but only to show the love we believe God has for people in need.

Short film "At your side"

In March, we are shooting a shortfilm here in Medellin! "At Your Side". It's a film about hope, and about the differences between rich and poor. The basic premise is,

"Pedro is a street bum. During a specially rough day, he finds the wallet of Sofia. Will this change his life for ever?"

The film will be directed by a friend of ours from Medellin, who is very experienced in short film and television directing. Myself, I will be a DP (Director of Photography). Very exciting!

We are looking for $3,200 to complete the film with the lights and equipment that will add that "extra" feeling. If you feel drawn to it, welcome to contact me.

Medellin Malls

If you walk in the center of Medellin, Colombia, you will see many people who live in the streets, others who go searching in trash bags, and yet others who just go around begging.
The contrast is pretty big if you enter one of the fancy malls in Medellin. Especially in Poblado, which is the richest and fanciest area.
Entering one of these malls, is like entering Paris or New York. Everything is clean, modern and fancy. It's all glass, metal and fountains. Here you will find brand stores such as Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Zara etc.

This just made me realize two things. Firat. To maintain a shop with something of value in Medellin, you need to put it inside a secure system, like a mall. Just having it in the street would make the risk of robbery just too big. Second. There is money in Colombia. It's just not distributed.