Featuring Joseph Stunzi from www.ience.org and www.jstunzi.com but does not in anyway feature www.tomguilmette.com

Only in Texas.

Shot on the Canon Vixia, .7x wide angle and crappy shotgun mic with the cool Zacuto Z-grip which made shooting it handheld very easy.

Check this out!

So anyway here is the first one. I won’t be creating a new page for each post. Just for each location. So there will be 4 pages. Vegas, Austin, Hawaii and LA.

Please do visit my main site for the serious stuff away from this madness!! www.philipbloom.co.uk

So here is Part 1: “Vegas bound”

Get ready…this will be a soppy blog!

A week ago I went down to Dungeness to make another short film the Cinemek G35. I was supposed to go on the Saturday but he weather was awful. That day I drove to my parents house in Kent, where I grew up. I needed to still get this filming done but didn’t want to miss out on spending time with my parents. 

So I asked my dad if he fancied coming to Dungeness with me after lunch to help me film and to be in it. He said sure ,which was great. Mum didn’t want to come as it was too cold but I got a chance to spend a really nice day with my dad. He was cold, bored by how long it took to do each shot, especially the time lapses but it was wonderful having him there. 

I think by having my dad with me inspired me to create something special. He liked “My Autum’s done come”  but he was a bit upset by the song and it’s implications. I did say to him, “Dad, you are the actor. It’s not about you!” That film remains one of my favourites, something long planned but made more special as it had my dad in it. Return to Dungeness became special to me by the presence of my dad. Without him it would have been pretty, much like Mark Dawson’s film.  But I had already made that film a year or so ago which you can see here.

When I do these little shorts I often have music in my head, and for a long time it was Saturn by Gustav Holst. The previous Dungeness film was Neptune so I wanted a theme. But when I realised I would have my dad I knew my plans would go out the window. This was going to be a much different piece. 

This is a place both myself and my dad have visited in the past, maybe together when I was very little, but separately in Adulthood. I wanted to make a film that showed this, showed how similar we were but ultimately we now have very different lives. Emphasized by the end shot. 

I can’t say how much it meant to have my dad there, it made this day really special and the film for me, along with “my autumn’s done come” will be very special as they have my dad in them. My family are ever so important to me and recently I have been trying to make up for not seeing them that much over the past year by seeing them as much as possible. 

Please do watch my film “Return to Dungeness” with this knowledge and it may speak to you in a different way knowing this. 

Now my mum wants to be in a film. Where shall we go? I have some ideas… shopping linked I think!

I want to thank my parents for everything over the past 37 years and especially the past 18 months.  I love you both. 

Tomorrow (well today as it’s very late here) I make my Zacuto promotional film for NAB. 

Bloom out.

Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. 

In two weeks am getting on a jet plane to whizz over the pond and pay a visit to our former colony. The United States of America. Now this isn’t my first time there. In fact have probably been to about half of the actual states now and on this trip I add two more, Texas and Hawaii.

So I get in to LAX, jump in my Mustang Convertible, drive to Las Vegas. Rock up at the MGM and hang out with all you NAB people for 4 days. Should be fun. Be great to catch up with Steve Weiss of Zacuto, Aaron Pinto of LetusDirect, Joe Stunzi (finally), hopefully see Tony Selzer again, my good friend Tom Guilmette as well as Dennis Kane who I almost met last time. Will Be popping over to B & H photo, Cinevate, Redrock, Panasonic, Sony, Red Giant etc. Should be fun. Bit of work, but mostly just schmoozing!

Then I get on a smaller Jet Plane and zip to Austin, Texas. I am there for about 5 or 6 days. First two days is to hang around, meet a couple of people and do some filming for myself. Not sure what is best to film there but am looking forward to it.

I will be presenting and doing workshops at the RE:FRAME Austin event which is going to be at the Alamo Drafthouse, so should be super cool. Bit nervous but I have done a fair bit of presentation work in past year and starting to get there. I just need to know how dirty my jokes can get BEFOREHAND.

I haven’t quite worked out what I will be doing or saying yet. But I hope to make the presentation as informative as possible, mainly about bringing that elusive “Film Look” to your work. Something I have been trying to perfect since before film was invented!

Now there are some seats left so click here to book. I think there are just 4 seats left…You get to stay in the same hotel as me and have the privilege of buying me Appletinis all night so I can be utterly hung over each and every day. Like any good cinematographer, I  work best when hungover! Remember Appletinis…

THEN I get on ANOTHER jet plane and zip off to a little place called Hawaii, Kauai to be precise. 

As you can see from the above picture…it looks awful there. Going to be hell there. Meeting up with a nice chap called Jimit who wants me to film the entire island at some point. So it’s a semi recce/ break. I will be filming out there obviously so really looking forward to it.

THEN I get on another jet plane and zip back to LA where I may or may not hang out for 3 days before going home. My flight is changeable so going to decide soon what I want to do. I originally thought about going to SF along route 1 but think i may go and see some cool spots like Joshua Tree and the like which I have never seen before. 

Am very open to suggestions. I have a max of three days before I need to get back to blightly for proper work. I want to film some really beautiful stuff and make the most of my time there.

Later in May I head over to Boston for a week for a project, hopefully meet up with Tom again, maybe rope him in to helping out, or if anyone fancies helping out in Boston (you need to be local) for four days on a shoot, let me know. Can’t pay much more than money for grub but it should be fun.

Even later in May am off on another jet plane to do more teaching in Sofia, Bulgaria. This should be great. Never been. I seem to be getting asked to do more and more teaching, which actually I quite enjoy. As long as I get to still do my main passion, which is of course filming.

So if you are in any of these places let me know. Be great to hook up and get drinks bought for me

Been a great few weeks work wise recently. Done some really cool personal things like my “Return to Dungeness” , shot a TV commercial for “Bag For Life”, shot my first ever commercial to be shown in movie theatres for the National Theatre. Done some corporate work, some broadcast work and loads more reviews. Been nice and varied. Exactly what I want from freelancing. There are times I really love this job!

Phil