This started out as one of those “Drive up there and check this out” assignments that KCRA assignment desk editor Melissa Chacon gives me from time to time. The thought being that at worst it will be just another VO-SOT story on the 6 o’clock news. Or at best it could become a “Mike Carroll...

(When you read this (if you read this), imagine the voice of the curmudgeon in the tone of Peter Falk.) “I’m artistic! I need to create! I need to create and share with others!” “Okay. But are you sure that these other people will want it?” “What do you mean? I have a great screenplay...

There was simply too much in the 2001: A Space Odyssey room in the Stanley Kubrick Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to contain it in one blog. 2001 is one of the most revolutionary films ever made. It completely defies screenwriting analysis. There are no backstories offered for any of the...

In 1968 the world was going through a radical social shift with the war in Vietnam, the anti-war movement, the rise of drug experimentation, the youth movement, music taking radical shifts from being something to dance to into something you listened to and made you think. Movies seemed at a loss as the old guard...

I’ve now listened to three episodes of the Digital Cinema Café and I have to say . . . I’m loving it! I’m up to Episode 3 in their 7-in-7 debut week — seven podcasts in seven days. Hosts Chris Fenwick and Alex MacLean are born conversationalists. The podcasts so far have run around 45-50...

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog about the Dixon movie studio. In that I mentioned that everywhere that I’ve lived there have been people who have been very vocal about wanting to build a studio of some size, one sound stage to a vast complex, complete with offices and state-of-the-art post-production facilities. And...

The Digital Cinema Cafe is a new video filmmaking & editing podcast and I couldn’t be more excited! The podcast is the creation of Alex MacLean, with Colorflow in San Francisco, and Chris Fenwick, a professional editor with Slice in San Francisco. Chris has been one of the three weekly hosts of the Digital Convergence...

Ever since the first inklings of the new American Independent Film Movement started evolving back in the 1980s, everywhere I’ve lived there’s always been somebody getting their names in the press and is discussed as hobnobbing with the local politicians and movers and shakers. And none of it — none of it – ever amounted...

I’m a screenwriting junkie. For twenty years I was either writing or trying to write screenplays. Then when I joined the Digital Revolution and decided to only write scripts that I could make myself, as opposed to trying to write something for others to like and want to buy. But I still constantly am on...

Last weekend I was sent out to shoot a quick V.O. (voice over) of the once-a-month vet clinic that veterinarians and vet students from the U .C. Davis Hospital of Veterinary Medicine provide for the pets of Sacramento’s homeless community. Most of the  medical staff are first and second year students who are volunteers from...

Several months ago I was sent to cover Veg Fest, an all-vegetarian food & health event, for KCRA-3‘s weekend news. One of the people we interviewed there was Ilsa Hess, who was selling her all-vegan nacho cheese dip Nacheez, which she had invented and was selling in stores across the state. Ilsa has a genuine...

After Spartacus and Lolita, Stanley Kubrick had the clout to do anything he wanted. The Cold War was near to boiling in the early 1960s with the Berlin Wall going up, nuclear tests and missiles being developed with no end in site, with each passing moment the World looked like it was ticking closer to...

I first discovered Anthony Hontoir shortly after I’d purchased my Éclair Cameflex CM3 35mm movie camera last year. I was Googling for information on the camera and came across Anthony’s website downwoodfilms.com with images of him filming his newest film Ghosts of Glamorgan with an Éclair CM3. I e-mailed him some questions about care and...

It’s been a while since I’ve done a same day news story — as both photographer and reporter — so I’m very glad to resent this latest addition. Last weekend my Saturday was all mapped out: Do some morning news live shots, then go with KCRA morning anchor Mae Fesai to cover the grand opening...

Every now and then a film organization reaches out to me to help spread the word about their film. This one sounds interesting. And it’s from a new website that’s geared to independent filmmakers. This sounds like a very intriguing organization that I would be interested in being a part of. Please read about this...

Over the past few weeks, as I’ve been wrapping up the final tweaks and layouts for the newly revised Naked Filmmaking: How To Make A Feature-Length Film – Without A Crew – For $10,000-$6,000 Or Less Revised & Expanded For DSLR Filmmakers and creating the Kindle version, I’ve noticed that my daily habits have been changing....

Stanley Kubrick made the astronomical leap from $900,000 art house war movie The Paths of Glory to $10 million Hollywood spectacle with Spartacus. Spartacus was made in the wake of Ben-Hur and the wave of the biblical epics and sword-and-sandle spectaculars of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Spartacus was the one film that Stanley...

When I first heard about the Stanley Kubrick Exhibit when it debuted in Melbourne, Australia, I saw photos of displays of Kubrick’s personal cameras and lenses. As a filmmaker and cameraman, this I was chomping at the bit. After making 2001: A Space Odessey in the studio for MGM, Kubrick signed with Warner Brothers on...