The Hook It’s 2:30 AM in a Victoria, BC rental house we’re using for Maid. The ARRI Alexa Mini LF is sitting on sticks in a bedroom we’ve dressed to look like poverty. The 1st AD is pacing outside because the neighbor’s porch light keeps bleeding through our blackout, and the DP—Colin Hoult—is explaining to … Read more
The Hook: The 3 AM Call Time That Made Me Care About Camera Angles February 2021. Maid, Episode 7. I’m set dressing a domestic violence shelter scene at 3:17 AM in New Westminster, and the 1st AD is losing his mind because we can’t get the sight lines right for a dolly move through a … Read more
Disclosure: Some links below are affiliate links. I only recommend tools I’ve personally used on set or in pre-production. If I think something’s overpriced or wrong for your situation, I’ll say so. The Hook The morning we shot Going Home in 2024, it was 41°F and the location — a small residential street in Victoria … Read more
The Hook It’s 3:47 AM on a beach in White Rock, BC. I’m rigging a GoPro to a homemade slider for Going Home, my 2024 short that would later screen at the Soho International Film Festival. The ocean’s louder than I expected. The Hero 12 Black I’m using keeps fogging because I didn’t account for … Read more
The Camera That Died During My Grandmother’s Story It was 2015. I was shooting In The End, a short about my grandmother’s dementia. Twenty minutes into an interview about meeting my grandfather, the camera stopped. File corrupted. Recording limit I didn’t know existed. That story—gone. I’d spent $1,800 on gear that looked professional but couldn’t … Read more
The Hook 3:47 AM call time. Victoria, BC. February. The set for Maid smelled like sawdust and stale coffee, and the BC dampness had already soaked through my rain shell—the cheap one I bought thinking “it’s just drizzle.” By hour six, I had a headache sharp enough to ruin my focus, and by hour nine, … Read more
3:47 AM: The Moment the Math Stopped Working I’m crouching in a Vancouver alley on the Maid set, spray-painting a milk crate to match an art department reference photo, and my hands won’t stop shaking. It’s not the cold. It’s the math. I’d been running the numbers for three hours: if this 10-episode gig dried … Read more
The Hook Middle of night three on Married & Isolated, I’m wrestling a SmallRig cage onto an iPhone 12 at 2:47 AM. We’re shooting the breakup scene—tight quarters, one practical lamp, and I need that horizontal flare without blowing out my actor’s face. The Moment 1.33x I’d been using all week is back at base … Read more
The Hook At 4:30 AM on the Maid set, I watched a $50,000 cinema camera rig get canned because someone forgot to hit record on the audio. The DP was livid. The AD had to reset 40 background actors. And the sound mixer? He just shrugged and said, “That’s why I always run a backup.” … Read more
So You Want to Be an Actor? (Yes, You Can Start With Zero Experience) The Hook I stood in a restaurant set at 6:47 AM, wearing someone else’s sweater that smelled like moth balls, waiting for my big moment as “Restaurant Patron #3.” My job? Blink at the camera while pretending to enjoy a prop … Read more