Kicked in the face

At least that's what I feel like just happened to me, anyways.  Someone broke into my car last night and stole my amplifier and power inverter.  The jerk smashed a $400 window to steal about $150 worth of crappy off-brand equipment.  My landlord knocked on my door about 7:30 this morning.  I called the cops and they were here within an hour asking me questions and getting me a police report.  Now I'm waiting for someone to stop by and take prints off the car.  The "print girl," as they called her, starts at 10am, so depending on what's on her schedule already, I could be waiting a while.  Might as well take a few snapshots of the damage for you all.



Whoops... *ahem*... Nick says hi.  Ah, here we are...





Ripped it right out of the back of the car.  I never got around to mounting it to the trunk ceiling, so really it was my own fault.  Crimes of opportunity are easily prevented, I'll think twice next time.

In other news, my trip to Phoenix went well.  I was there for four days in charge of camera and lighting for a promotional video for a software company in La Mirada.  They write software for this huge robotic laser that cuts sheet metal and wanted interviews and footage of the machine in action for an updated video for the company.  Apparently they do a few every year.

Considering the fiasco in Michigan, this shoot was a breeze!  All expenses paid, my own hotel room, the best steak I've had in my life, and did I mention a paycheck at the end of it all?  Sha-wing!  Most of the work was setting up lighting and the second and third cameras for the interviews.  I shot it on a DVX, which I had to rent from a local rental house since my first connections dropped out on me.  Over all, I think my favorite part of the trip was going indie and having the boys in the warehouse lift me twenty feet in the air on a forklift while I stood on a pallet with the camera on a tripod and drove around the factory to get an aerial flyby of the laser cutter.

The whole thing was pretty liberating since I've never really been able to take charge of the entire artistic direction of a video since the last wedding I taped three years ago.  In hindsight, weddings aren't nearly as exciting as laser cutters.  I'll post the pics of me going monkey on the forklift when I get them.