Having studied martial arts, Warren Drummond understands how to draw action and exactly what is needed when shooting a scene. He’s worked on over thirty feature films including The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Bourne Identity.
Blogger DVDs
Daily Blog
November 11, 2008
The week has started out well, and as things go, once it rains, it pours (on in this case, drips faster).
On Monday, my buddy, Darrin Denlinger (who has been mentioned in a previous blog) recommended me for re-shoot boards on a Fox film. I’ll discuss that when the gig is done. Basically, it is a few days of drawing new scenes for a children’s film that has already been shot.
Believe me, a few days will come in very handy with bills. If it is a week, it will be even better. It is good to be back on a feature. Hopefully, I will make some new connections.
The same day, I got a call from my old client, the commercial company Hungry Man for a job Tuesday (today) with a new director I haven’t worked with. Unfortunately, I had to turn the job down as I am now on the feature. My friend Steve, who has freelanced there for years, always looks out for me. Very cool guy.
Then, I get a call from a producer friend who needs spec boards ASAP for a possible project. He can’t pay unless he and the director get the gig, which is fine, as they are close friends and great guys. I might be able to fit it in, but I won’t know until I get some of the feature boards done.
Slowly, but surely. Hopefully, I will get a long-term gig very soon. Or, sell my screenplay. One has to think big.
November 4, 2008
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME, so sang Sam Cooke, and it’s a song I emailed to some close friends tonight. I will NOT use this blog for politics, but I am in a good mood.
My old and close friend, director Maurice Marable (he directed the title sequence for ENTOURAGE and I did some of the boards) called me on a last minute promo spot for the ABC show FRINGE just before “President elect Obama’s acceptance speech.
I was with 100 or so of my “closest friends”. Actually, 99 percent of them were strangers. Very happy strangers.
I will meet “Mo” (we call him by both names, including Big Willie, Grand Puba, and and Lens Master ) and the crew during a location scout tomorrow (Nov 5th for you all) and at least get a day’s pay. The production company only “limited” funds do to it being a rush gig, but the money is close enough to my rate and it is money coming IN. Always beats money going OUT.
I am VERY grateful to Maurice, as he has used me for years and has always been a true friend in every sense of the word. Mo is also a director of color (rather than being translucent, of course) who is has transcended the confines of what a Black director should do. If there is a story, Mo wants to tell it, and he will tell it in a visually dynamic manner.
This is a link to his reel, and you will recognize a good number of these commercials.
http://believemedia.com/director.php?director_id=24
I have to get to get my equipment ready for tomorrow. I will use paper and pen, do to the fact I have to draw on the spot and be quick about it. No Cintiq.
I think I can make it the old fashioned way.
Good night and good morning to you all.
October 28, 2008
Well, can’t say the work week has been any better. I did get a check that will tie us over for a bit, but a brother needs a nice long-term gig. Six months would be great.
Just spoke with my buddy Darrin Denlinger, a talented colleague who offered his usual good words of encouragement. Always nice to hear. Darrin is on the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS.
The weekend was good, as I took my son Joshua (12) camping for the first time, and he loved it. Anything to get the kid away from video games, which he has been on a bit too much. Our neighbor Don, road Josh and some other kids on a ten-mile bike ride during the trip, and Joshua had such a sense of pride that he finished it.
A got a nice little surprise when I bought the DVD of YOU DON”T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, a film I worked on last year for about four months.
On the audio commentary, director Dennis Dugan refers to me as “an idiot savant of martial arts movies” and “the Rain Man of anything martial arts”) which had me laughing out loud.
I guess it beats just being “an idiot”. As he went on, Dennis was actually very, complimentary with my involvement and helpfulness in the process of designing the stunts for the film.
I bought the DVD at a 2020 DVD store Sunday night, and when I walked out of the place there were about 7 cop cars and a police helicopter outside of the fast food store (I think El Pollo Loco) twenty feet away with two guys already cuffed on the ground.
All of the customers were marched out (hands over their heads) and put against a wall where they were ALL frisked. Like 20 people!!! I assume cops couldn’t know who was involved (robbery attempt) and may have tried to blend into the crowd (ala INSIDE MAN). Sorry for the film reference.
I had to wait outside for over an hour as I smartly parked my car EXACTLY where the police pulled in kitty corner like to block any escapes.
I knew it was tense when they pulled the pump action shotguns from the police car trunks.
All this for a DVD ego boost!!!
Anyway, props to Eric Ramsey, who boarded the enjoyable RED BELT, which I just saw on video.
October 22, 2008
It was Monday night at about five-thirty in the evening that I got the call. There was a nice sounding woman on the phone saying that my good friend Danelle (lovely person and talented fellow storyboard artist) recommended me to her for doing boards.
This woman, worked for a company called THE JONES, and they had a gig where their current storyboards needed to be changed.
The previous artist had to do forty-nine frames in ten hours (a lot), and new frames needed to be drawn, while other frames had to be cleaned or altered.
As work has been extremely slow all the way around, I instantly took the gig. I was told that I would only work “maybe three or four hours” and the rate would be good.
Well, I got to the office at seven o’clock, set up my computer and Cintiq monitor, and was given digital copies of the old storyboards that I needed to change.
First thing is that it was TWO spots that needed to be worked on. I actually thought the first artist did a good job, given the time frame he had to work in.
I had to add new frames and keep the style someone consistent. Well, that wasn’t much of a stretch as I had to legible scribbles just like the first artist. Boards had to drawn, added to the old frames, re-cut into four frames per page, and then sent to the production team, who then had to type descriptions, run it by the director, then email these boards to the agency.
GOT ALL THAT????
This repeated for both spots, and as I got tired I made mistakes when it got past two o’clock in the morning.
Suffice it to say, I didn’t get home until five o’clock the next morning. When I got home, my wife Betty had slept in the living room so she could greet me.
Yea, it was freaking hell in terms of the hours and the rushing. The production team were all nice people and very professional and I will get a nice little check in a few weeks.
But, it was one day, and I need a long-term gig. Keeping things in perspective.
October 13, 2008
Hello all of you out there.
I’m afraid this will be another one of the short blogs as the only
I really didn’t work this week. I did get in a little practice time on
My STORYBOARD PRO software, but besides from that, family
business took over. My lovely mother, Ruth turned 85!!
I am however, taking a little time to clear my workspace, but then,
that is akin to keeping a sandcastle at high tide.
Put a lot of work in, and then it gets wiped out when things get
busy.
Just took my son Josh to see EAGLE EYE. Yes, it is entertaining,
with an initially interesting premise of an omniscient villain, but if
you are over thirty five (that would be me) you will see elements of
* LIGHT SPOILER*
a certain Kubrick film that takes place oh… SEVEN years ago. That is, if
this is 2008. Shia grows on you.
Anyway, if I work this week that means money, right?
