The Rim Of Fire collapses and expands and it is in upheaval right now. I could feel it coming while we were on Bali. Daily messages came in the form of little tremors, groans and bumpy vertiginous moments. A larger quake hit as we left Depassar. Now pain reigns in may places in the Rim. It is something I am cognizant of, but cannot focus on. I am just very sorry for them all right at the moment.

I am in the most polar opposite of places right now as Tyler Swain, Rob Dafoe and I work on content acquisition for a music video for phenoms Elliot Minor. We are in the desert in Riverside county which is only two hours outside of LA. We make daily creative forays out into the dusty oddness that is the Salton Sea. Our tempo is measured but intense. Temperatures are in the 100’s and we work fast. Tyler toured with Elliot minor doing some road documentary reality work. He likes and is inspired by them. They have a song that may never go anywhere due to it’s non pop nature. It is pretty dark, and beautiful. So of course Tyler figured that it would be a great platform to base a production on.

So he had called Rob Dafoe and I up. In working together,  each brings a huge amount of talent, creativity and teamwork to the table. I reckon Tyler thought we would have some fun and just do something different. We are. It is a fantastically creative environment and we all feel blessed to be here.

I have had to throttle back all my other ambitions and have thrown everything into Tyler’s concept. I am convinced this will be better than any of the main stream efforts I have seen. All of our creative friends are throwing down in an effort to produce something great with little to no budget. Once again we are using the Canon 5D Mark 2 system and the Panasonic HVX 200.

Last night after we had wrapped we sat in a nearby sports bar. The toast as we held cold glasses aloft? “To superior work and superior friends” I ‘m continually reminded of how high the bar actually is in cinematography and photography as I travel. I am so blessed that I have friends who regularly leap over that bar and drag me across with them. Egos? Yes they have them. Does one actually ever see evidence of that? Only in the content on the screen. Great artists are like that. They only seem to be having a good time. Part of the illusion they weave.

Here are some stills that are example of the motion segments we are collecting. Time to blog is brief. Back to our desert set in a couple hours with a talented model and actress.