Yearly Update! Greetings from 2013.....

Aloha All!  I had never intended this to be a once a year posting.  I even had trouble remembering my password to answer all of those (well, not that many) who have emailed in the past year.  So, if you don't mind not much news about Magnum, P.I., here's what's going on:

I'm afraid my "new career" as a Creative Director for a special events company only lasted 10 months.  The job wasn't particularly creative, nor was there a need for the kind of creativity I could provide.  So other than creating an 18' long smoke breathing dragon we put into the middle of a swimming pool at a hotel for a food and wine festival, I spent most of my time doing Xcel documents in a cubicle!  I now have a much greater respect for my sister who managed to do 38 years in a cubicle for the phone company.  I'm not a cubicle kind of guy!

Earlier this year, I spent about 10 days as the Production Designer for the opening credits and trailer for the new "Dog and Beth Bounty Hunter" show.  It's actually not being filmed here and I don't know if they used any of the footage we shot since I haven't seen the show now on the CMT network.  I thought I was going to be working on "Godzilla" which just wrapped.  The day and location for my interview were set, but the call with the time never came.  They did bring over a huge number of crew people from the mainland and Canada which was mildly insulting.  It's ok, a movie about Godzilla attacking Waikiki will not be on my viewing list anyway.

What will be on my viewing list is my next job--one of the potential best of my career. Funny how one job doesn't even want to meet and a much bigger one, with an Art Director position working for an Academy Award winning Production Designer and very famous director on a true story with an incredible script does work out.  Unfortunately the 3 page non-disclosure agreement I signed prevents me from discussing it here!  But I think I can say that I am very excited and look forward to my 6 week involvement.

I can tell you, however, I have written up a Production Design course outline I will be teaching at Pacific New Media through the University of Hawaii extension division this fall.  There will be 6 weekly 2 hour sessions for anyone who wants to sign up.  It will be a chance to educate a group of people what actually does happen in the art department and hopefully give some insight to visual aesthetics when creating a film or video production.  If nothing else they will learn how to fake it and find it!  I am hoping that this will eventually lead to the possibility of teaching more within my field.

The only Magnum News to report is that a local helicopter company did bring Roger Mosley over here to land in their Island Helicopter looking helicopter that is now doing tours here on Oahu.  The actual helicopter crashed years ago, but I believe this is the same model and is painted to look like the original.

Other news is that the facility that the new "Hawaii Five-0" had been using in an old newspaper warehouse complex near downtown is being torn down for one of 22 new 40 story high-rises being built in Honolulu.  Apparently being recognized as already having the worse traffic in the USA, we need to be even more crowded in our city core so that our new $5 billion monorail might actually get used. (yes, I have my own opinions!) Now that Disney has given up their lease (originating with "LOST") on the State Film Studio at Diamond Head (where the original "Magnum, P.I." was filmed), 5-0 has moved in there.  Shows today are so much more complex than they were 30 years ago so they are also renting additional warehouse space.

I will try and post more than once a year!  Thanks to those of you who do keep in touch.

Rick

Even Happier New Year!

Ok, my thanks to whoever is doing all that praying or whatever on my behalf because it's been working! After being ignored for the decorator job on a surf film about Bethany Hamilton and then turning down a 2 week job as their shopper buyer, I was asked to be the art director for a national Capital One ("What's in your wallet?") commercial with those wild and crazy visigoths. You'll probably be seeing the commercial in a few weeks. I worked 11 days, hired 9 guys, filmed 2 long days for 30 seconds of air time. We were based out of the same hotel as the surf movie and even another Capital One commercial for the Canadian market. It was a completely separate commercial and crew but for the same client. It's funny that several of them said how spoiled TV people were because commercials are so fast paced now. Then TV people think film people are spoiled because TV is so fast paced. Film people think TV people are spoiled because they don't have to worry about all the details of "The Big Screen." My take is to just shut up and do my job.

Right now besides "LOST" there is a George Clooney film, an Adam Sandler film, the surf film, and early rumblings from "Pirates of the Caribbean" filming here this summer and my phone wasn't ringing at all. Then 10 days ago I got a call to interview as Set Decorator for a new pilot for CBS's "Hawaii Five-0" Wow, that will teach me not to believe rumors. Lest you think I was a shoe-in because of my experience here, wrong. It wasn't until I was able to show my work online at www.flickr.com/photos/rick_romer/ that I was seriously considered. Then it took some discussion and another meeting before I was offered the job.

This is just the pilot. It has not been pre-sold or picked up yet--or so we are told. However, the script is absolutely amazing and riveting. Remember, I did another 5-0 pilot in '96 or '97 that never even aired (although it probably did help Gary Busey's career on Celebrity Rehab) so I am cautiously optimistic on this one. Daniel Dae Kim is going right from "LOST" into 5-0 as the character Chin Ho Kelley. Well, if they can revive "Hawaii Five-0" can a revival of "Magnum, P.I." be too far behind? There was only a year between the series after all.

I wasn't going to, but I got talked into seeing "avatar" in 3-D imax. I don't often say OMG, but OMG! I was ducking under those palm fronds in front of me during every chase scene. Nothing stayed inside the screen, it was right in front of me. I decided that it wasn't a film at all. It was an event. I came out of the theatre covered in popcorn and wanting to keep my yellow 3-d glasses on for the rest of my life. Go Blue People!

Well, Aloha from the only state that didn't have snowfall this weekend. I do assume there is snow on top of Mauna Kea, though. You have to drive up 14,000 feet to see it instead of outside in your driveway.

Aloha, Rick

Where Did the Locations Come From??

Before I get into this, be sure to check out some of the post comments.  People are asking really good questions--and I am giving really good answers!  I don't know how much longer I will be able to keep going back through past posts to answer since they are getting longer with each day!

There are SO many misconceptions about locations, I think I'll address that now since it's Halloween and I've got things to do and locations to haunt!

"Please pick my house to film in!!!"  Ok, do you having a full square block of parking for just the basic equipment within a short walk of your house?  Are you on a quiet street away from a freeway, airport, or other noise?  Do you have neighbors that will agree to the lack of parking,blocked driveways, cable running, lights placement, and maybe even rain towers if called for?  Are you ready for at least a day of prep, a day of filming possibly for 12-14 hours starting at 5:30 a.m., and another day of wrap?  Ok, this is just for the EXTERIOR of your house!  Want people inside?  Do you have room for 25 not counting the actors in the scene?  Can your floors take  many hundreds of pounds for a camera dolly, very hot lighting and sound equipment, and possible damage to your hardwood floors even if they tell you they will have rubber tips on all the equipment?  Do you mind having all of your furniture, pictures, family photos and personal items, moved out and other things brought in that you can't use?  In fact, you will probably be moved OUT of your house and put in a hotel and not allowed back in while they are filming!  So, no, you won't be having a leisurely breakfast with Tom Selleck in your kitchen, sorry!

How do people find your house, business, farm, or back alley?  There is a Location Department with a locations manager.  They  have thousands of photos (now on CD's) of locations that have been used in the past or clients who want filming in the future. The location head reads the script to imagine what they might be looking for.   The director will describe what they are looking for in the old farmhouse, abandoned factory for the big shoot out, or family home on that quiet street required by the story in the script.  First looking at photos and then driving to see preliminary locations is the director, assistant director, maybe a producer, a production designer or art director, the location manager, an assistant location manager, and sometimes a DP (director of photography) all crammed in a van for days at a time.  Sometimes they may even pass a location and like it and direct the location manager to check it out later.   They may find the perfect location for each scene.  However, the schedule and page count at that location can also dictate where they film.  Ok, if according to the schedule, the house and the farm have to film on the same day (each one being only a half day in film time estimation),  then they need to be fairly close to each other since the company (a small city on wheels) has to pack up in the middle of the shooting day and move to the next location.  While they are packing and moving, the are NOT filming.  When they are not filming, they are costing the production company many thousands of dollars an hour in salary and equipment rentals in non-productive work.  So even if PERFECT locations are found, a money producer can say "NO, find something closer to each other.  We can't afford to move that far."  So, once the perfect locations are finally found, the right amount of parking nearby, and they are affordable (more on that later), now the REAL location work starts!  There are City and State rules regarding filming on City or State property.   There is a City and a State Film Department that generate these permits to make sure the public is not overly inconvenienced or interrupted.  Traffic may need to be held, security hired, parking reserved, maybe an explosion happens, rain, we even did snow and ice once downtown on "LOST." With multiple locations it takes multiple permits which are for specific times on specific dates.  The schedule changes (all the time!), the permits have to change and maybe not be approved the second time because of a conflict.  But we're still not done..........now the preliminary scout happens with department heads to check out those problems and situations that pertain to their department.  Lighting guys are looking for power access, I'm looking for set problems, construction people are measuring, etc.  Then a few days later there is the final scout which can include 25 department heads and their assistants looking to finalize and minimize any problems.  They don't like problems.  Now as exhausting as this location process is, those people who are scouting are still working on the current episode that is filming during this process and your "normal" work is still going on.  It's called STRESS!!!  Sometimes 24 hours a day and 7 days a week are still not enough time.  And then you are told you can't work any more overtime!

It is very rare that a location had everything I needed on Magnum.  If we did film inside a home, like we did in the episode where Tom went back to Virginia and Gwen Verdon played his mother (I spent the whole morning talking with her--I didn't care how busy I was!) I might get lucky.   That house had appropriate furniture and things which could stay.  Sometimes we try to get old photographs of the actors to "personalize" the set.  Keep in mind when an actor opens a door on a location and walks into a room.......that same door might have been taken or duplicated so the actual room is now on the sound stage maybe 4 days later.  Filming in a home with fixed walls, low ceilings, and having to worry about their floors, walls, heat, noise is not as desirable as filming on a sound stage with "wild walls" (that move), no noise problems, AIR CONDITIONING!, etc.  When homes were not appropriate inside from a set dressing  standpoint (but worked for every other department) then we had a lot of work.  Sometimes the rooms had to be painted or walls added.  Unfortunately this was done by the construction department that for some reason always thinks that the 1 or 2 days we have to prep the house is ALL theirs!  Many times I have hung art work on walls that still had wet paint because the painters had just finished and the company was moving in to film!  We would move out the owners items, construction / paint would move in for a day or so, and then we would have very little time to unload our 5-ton truck (or sometimes 2) and dress the set.  Sometimes we couldn't even get our truck near the location because grip and electric had gotten there before us and were unloading their equipment at the same time. These were daily occurrences and somehow things got done.  Many times I thought that what went into getting a set dressed was MUCH more interesting than the story that was being filmed there!  But does anyone listen to me..........?    Aloha