San Fransisco - Film Trip (March 28-31, 2011)

The week after Spring Break I went for another vacation instead of going back to school. I was in need of more hours for my internship at Robin Bond Media (www.robinbondmedia.com) and what better way than a trip to California?

The final videos:

Rodney Strong:
http://www.robinbondmedia.com/videos/rodney-strong-vineyards-pacific-gas-and-electric-climatesmart-series

Mrs. Grossmans:
http://www.robinbondmedia.com/videos/mrs-grossmans-stickers-pacific-gas-and-electric-climatesmart-series


3/28 - Monday morning Robin and I met Mike the DP at the airport, and took the flight to San Francisco. We rented a minivan and headed off to Healdsburg, stopping at in-n-out burger on the way. After checking into the hotel we went over tomorrow’s plan and all the equipment Mike brought. He brought a 5D Mark II for the video (requested by the client), two lights, a bounce, rails, a Panasonic hvx 200, and a GoPro. Then we went to dinner at the Healdsburg Bar and Grill. As it was getting dark I tried for a geocache down the street (GCB25A) but didn't find it.

Equipment crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

3/29 - Tuesday was the first filming day, at Rodney Strong vineyards. We got there at 8am and took a quick tour of the area to familiarize ourselves with the location and choose where to do the interviews. There was Robin Mike and I, Andy the soundman who drove up from south of San Fran, a Rodney Strong rep, and a rep from Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). The first interview was with Ryan who is the horticulturist for the vines. Next was the owner of Rodney Strong, Tom, and we interviewed him in the higher priced oak barrel aging room. Finally it was Joel of public relations in the tasting room.

Filming Ryan the horticulturist at Rodney Strong Vineyards

Interview with Tom Klein the owner

In the tasting room

Rodney Strong wines

After lunch, back in the tasting room we shot some b-roll, then onto the bottling plant (which I held the LED light for since it was very dark). After that were the two barrel rooms and the challenge of showing the motion detection lights turning on. Finally we went over the barrel room to shoot the solar panels and an establishing shot at the entrance.

Bottling area

Aging room

It was already 4 pm by this time, but the Rodney Strong rep and Ryan led us several miles down the road to Rockaway vineyards because they said it was much more scenic for outside shots. We went to the river to get b-roll for talking about erosion control, fish-friendly farming, and re-vegetating the riverbanks with native plants. Then we went up to a lookout of the area, and on our way back down the hill we did some car-dolly shots with the vines. Headed back to Healdsburg to find shots of ‘community.’ Finishing around 7pm, we had dinner at the Bear Republic Brewpub, and drove from Healdsburg to Petaluma.

Underwater shots with a GoPro camera

Ryan and Mike taking in the view at Rockaway vineyards

3/30 - Just before 7am we headed over to Mrs. Grossman’s. Had a quick tour of the place, then Robin made a run to starbucks for coffee and craft services (where I later got the classic intern job of handing out coffee and cutting the pastries!) Andy arrived just after the tour, and we had a new PG&E rep today. The whole day was full of overbooked tours, but we were still able to keep the gift shop area to ourselves for the time we needed. We talked to Jason Grossman, son of Mrs. Grossman (who practically invented the scrapbooking sticker) and current owner of the company. Mrs. Grossman has nothing to do with the buisness now but did come by to visit just for us.

Jason Grossman and Andy our soundman

"No pictures!!" Mike can be quite a character

Jason Grossman and Chip

After the interview we shot a little b-roll of the shop and factory downstairs, then Mike and Andy ran off to get some shots of Jason and Mrs. Grossman walking through the factory with their dogs. It’s a ‘bring your dog to work’ type of company. Then we filmed the recycling area downstairs (they found a way to recycle all their scrap adhesive papers), the water treatment, quality control, light motion sensors, and main entrance. Mrs. Grossman’s is all the scrapbooking-type stickers, and Paragram is all of the wine label stickers, which is about 90% of their business with this economy and all the sticker competition being made in china.

Printing sparkly rainbow star stickers

Products of Paragon Label (part of Mrs. Grossman's)

Our last stop was the wetlands that the building overlooks. Best of all, they sent us away with tons and tons of free stickers. Around 4pm we were wondering Petaluma in search of more ‘community’ shots. Opting to move as little as possible, we had an exquisite dinner at the hotel. After dinner, I headed out with Mike, and finally found a geocache in California!

The wetlands behind the building

With Mrs. Grossman

Finding shots of "community" in Petaluma

3/31 - On Thursday we had to leave the hotel at 5am to get to the San Francisco airport in time. Dropped off the rental car, then I went on standby for the earlier flight since I still had tickets for 6pm (they changed their flight after the restaurant location postponed the shoot for another week). I did get on the 8:20 am flight with them. I got asked a lot if anything I’m learning in classes is remotely related to what I saw this week on location. There are only two classes I could think of that remotely related to what we did: lighting and grip, and production management. One thing I found interesting is how crazy and outgoing they are, yet magically focused during shoots, and how much philosophy they talk over dinner! I’m hoping I might get more opportunities with Mike, since he works for Cheyenne Frontier Days, and seems to know quite a few people in the business.