Damn that high quality American craftsmanship

Erik and I shot more second unit stuff tonight. Spinner shaking. "Stars" falling from the spinner. Lots of close-ups. Getting the spinner base to shake was difficult. For some close ups, we tried all sorts of appliances trying to get the items to vibrate. Vornado fan. No good. The motor is too smooth. Blow dryer. No good. Too smooth. Damn these well-made products. Electric hairclippers. Ahh, just right... if held in a particular way at a particular angle under the table. For most of the shots though, we just did old fashioned table shaking. And then there was the rack focus. The HDR lens doesn't track accurately, so you have to purely eyeball focus changes. In other words, you can't mark a lens adjustment on the camera. Erik is a good sport. I always think that I can somehow do the shaking faster or better than him and he lets me try and of course, most of the time I can't. He also helped me plant a tree this afternoon.