Visa receipt - Grand Plaza Liquors

Law & Order SVU Set

So I was lucky enough to get to hang out for a few hours on the original Law & Order SVU set today with DP Michael Green and see a few scenes being set up and shot. I met Kelli Giddish (Detective Amanda Roillins) and brushed shoulders with Ice T and Cameron Monaghan who was guest staring. This is the set which contains the courtroom from the original series which began more than 20 years ago and has always been my favorite TV show so it was pretty surreal to be here.

Law & Order SVU

This morning I had to shoot a wedding at the New York City State Office building which is oposite the Supreme Court. I had passed by yesterday and made a passing comment on how every time I see the Supreme Curt it reminds me of Law & Order. So then today when I rolled up for the shoot I see them setting up to shoot a scene for SVU. On my way back to the subway I caught Olivia "Liv" Benson (Mariska Hargitay) shooting a scene and snapped a few pics.

Expensive DSLR Accessories & Cheaper Alternatives

Before I begin I must state that in most of the cases below, the more expensive options are better quality however the cheaper options I have listed are great alternatives for filmmakers on a budget and do the job more than adequately for a large percentage of people out there.


VIEWFINDERS

These are a must have for shooting in bright sunlight and also help to keep your camera steady whilst shooting handheld. I have been looking for an alternative to the Zacuto (which is amazing yet super expensive) for quite a while and I certainly want going to shell out $79.95 for the Hoodman H-LPP3 HoodLoupe which looks like it was made in someones basement. A couple of weeks ago I found the NEEWER Hoodeye HD viewfinder on Amazon and have been really happy with it.

Zacuto Z- Finder Jr.
$236.95



ALTERNATIVE: NEEWER Hoodeye HD
$52.45


RIGS

Most camera rigs are expensive even for the most basic, entry level models. If you're looking for something to give you a bit of stability and ability to hold the camera at low angle for shooting something like skateboarding, then the Opteka X-Grip is great value for money. Compared to something like the Can Caddie you cant go wrong.

Cam Caddie Starter Kit
$109.95


Opteka X-Grip 
$34.95


MEMORY CARDS

I've been using the Transcend cards ever since I started shooting video with DSLRs and they have been great and usually get good reviews. The class 10 is way cheaper than the Sandisk Class 6 too. Can't beat the price!

SanDisk Extreme 16GB SD Card - Class 6
$43.50



Transcend 16GB SD Card - Class 10
$24.14




LED LIGHTS
Here is one that has a massive difefrence in price... LED lights. LightPanels makes the model below which retails for over $400 but you can pick up a very similar light from ebay or Amazon for under $50. When I first used the LightPanel model I thought it felt very cheap for something so expensive.

Pros of the cheaper models: Price and the fact that you can use various camera batteries as well as AA batteries.

Cons of the cheaper models: The mount is usually plastic and breaks easily (but I use mine hand held or on a stand i made in 5 minutes for 90% of shots)

LightPanels MicroPro
$404.90



Opteka VL-126 LED
$59.00



DOLLY/SLIDERS
One more piece of equipment that I have recently started using that is a much cheaper alternative to what else is currently on the market. The Motion Slider is a bare bones camera slider. it can be mounted on a tripod and can have a tripod head attached or have the camera directly mounted onto it.

Pocket Dolly v-2.0 Basic 
$499.95

Motion Slider 36 Camera Slider
$159.00 

GoPro Helmet Rig (with Canon 300HS)

This is the rig i constructed on a rock climbing helmet to mount a GoPro pointing towards my face and have my Canon Powershot facing outward while i flew down the water zipline at camp.

Google + got it right the first time

If only Facebook would get their damn IA guys to take a look at the new Google + page layout and see that it makes perfect sense to have a clear and separate link to videos instead of burring it within the photo page... common sense really isn't that common at Facebook.

Facebook

Google +

Knicks v Boston - Game 3, 2010/11 Playoffs at MSG

4 of us bought tickets to the Knicks game 3 last Friday night. We paid $260 each on Stub Hub and we're right up in the nose bleed section. After 2 close loses in Boston in games 1 & 2 we figured they had a good chance of getting a win in game 3 at home at MSG... this was not the case. They played terrible (mostly defensively) and ended up getting some pretty nasty jeers & booing from the crowd in the 4th quarter.