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For the past three weeks, I have been on the road shooting 3 Minute Shorts (3MS+) as well as a murder mystery documentary with Philip Bloom, as both his intern and second unit DP. My trip started out in Glacier National Park in Montana where I spent three days traveling through Flathead National Forest, Glacier National Park, Lolo National Forest, and Clearwater National Forest. While on the road, I set up an editing station in my car as well as a charging station for my batteries and it worked very well. It enabled me to edit while sitting by the campfire.

Here are the films from these three days:

• Glacier National Park

• Huckleberry Lookout

• Selway Falls

• Face to the Sky

Out of the four shorts I completed before making it to Lewiston, Huckleberry Lookout was by far the most work to complete. For this film, I hiked 9km’s to Huckleberry Lookout — the most excruciating experience of my life. All bones and muscles in my body ache. Lesson learned; Realize how far 9 vertical km’s is, bring more water, bring food, and pack WAY less gear. I managed to get to the top of the mountain with four cameras — 5D Mark II, 7D, HVX 200, and D80 — along with two tripods. I am currently sitting in Rawhide restaurant and am about to head back to my campsite to try sleep off my aching muscles.

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Following my stint in Montana, I headed over to Idaho to prep for my internship with Philip Bloom. On the first day of production I was lucky to meet up with some really cool people. The producer/director duo for the project (Murder mystery doc — 5 unsolved homicides between 1978-1982) Vernon Lott and Jennifer Anderson (Bad Writing) were more than welcoming. They were very prepared for the project and offered very light production days. Also on board for the project was Christian Kinnard as editor (Religulous, Sin City, Hellboy) and Steven Bechtold for sound (World’s Toughest Fixes, Hoarders). Both Christian and Steven are clearly masters of their craft.

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After each day of production, I wanted to continue to shoot a short a day so decided to check out a few things around town. On many of the days, I got very little sleep as I was either up for sunrise or filming late into the night. For one of the shorts, I was lucky enough to tag along with Steven as he tried his hand at some small mouth bass fishing.

Below are the shorts that I managed to shoot/edit/post:

• Lewiston, Idaho

• The Bean Stock

• Asotin County

• Old Route 95′

• Field Test – The Meet Up

Lewiston @ Night

• Philip Bloom’s Last Few Frames

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Out of the films above, the one film that I am very excited about is The Bean Stock. Over the next month, I will be shooting a short film — with the only crew member/actor/etc outside of me working on the project will be Julia-Lee Fullerton, who is acting as writer and adviser on the project.

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The Philip Bloom Experience

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Working with Philip was a great experience. I learned a new method of production utilizing new equipment — offering a superior image with very little equipment. For most of the documentary, we used five primary pieces. We used the 5D Mark II, the 7D, Singh Ray Vari ND (Essential) the 24-105 and 70-200 L series lenses. Although we did pull out other lenses and equipment for the project, these were the lenses that were used most often. If you are looking for a tripod, Miller (which we used on the project) is the way to go. Philip is a great guy who knows his shit — almost a cyborg with the way in which he is always ‘connected’ to either an iPhone or iPad. The best thing about the experience and knowing Philip is the way in which he is willing to answer questions at anytime (even if he has already been asked the same question a million times). I don’t know how he deals with it.

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I am hoping Philip’s experience was as good as mine and would love the opportunity to work with him again on one of his personal projects.

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Following the experience in Lewiston, I headed to Banff, Alberta, Canada to see Julia-Lee Fullerton and shoot a week of 3 Minute Shorts.

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Here are the films that I produced while in Banff:

• The Way to the Hoodoos

• The Bow River

• Banff @ Night

• Mountain Theme Song

• Lake Minnewanka

• To Lake Louise and Back…

• Cloud Control

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The three weeks on the road was a great experience and I feel the quality of 3MS+ has increased dramatically in comparison to the shorts before the trip. At the end of the documentary, tentatively titled (working title) “Confluence”, I was given a Pocket dolly by Philip Bloom and a tripod from Vernon Lott. I plan on using both on every short from here on in. Overall, a great learning experience.

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