Mike & Jaemin Make A Movie

Over a cheap lunch (or was it dinner?) of fried food at Carl's Jr., Jaemin and Mike reviewed their script and described the shots to Sean, the wizard behind the camera---literally. He'd be holding the Steadicam Merlin for the rest of the night, and yes his arms would be sore tomorrow. I was in charge of sound, not the clunky boom-pole type, but the kind you hold with one hand and point like a pistol. Lucky me. I just sat there in the booth and picked at my nuggets.

Of course I had to use the little pistol type. Anything more would draw attention. Recording video without a permit in the streets of L.A. is against the law; and of all the places, Jaemin and Mike picked the facade to the Museum of Art. This was their warm-up script, a silly shoot to test how we'd work as a team. But how would we get away with shooting without a permit, and with those guards dotted around the museum?

In case you ever wondered the difference between a policeman and a security guard, it's that a security guard isn't paid enough. Oh sure, they stared at us from their posts, folded their arms across their chests even. But only when Jaemin and Mike started skipping and twirling gaily along the poles did one of them tap me on the shoulder. He said it wasn't safe to twirl along the poles and that someone might get run into and hurt. The four of us considered this and nodded. The man was absolutely right. It isn't safe, you shouldn't run with scissors, and somebody could lose an eye. We'll be more careful, sir.

So he turns and walks away to sit on his folding chair.

We shot for four hours, from eight o'clock to one o'clock in the morning. What you see is not the final cut. Mike is still in the process of tinkering with it. Though it's not like it needs to be tinkered with much more. It is what it is. Depending on the take, you can hear the hum of traffic in the background. And in certain shots a tourist flashes by like a ghost in the periphery of your vision, like a trick of light. But I assure you there were indeed tourists. And bums, and teenagers, and what-have-you.

My guess is that, combined with the little pistol-mike I held, the DSLR camera attached to the compact Merlin may have disguised us from being plucked out as a filmmaking crew. Surly by now you can't say DSLR filmmaking isn't good for anything.