Mike Rilstone's Media Blog

New Website

2011-11-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

New website! Nothing special but it's a start!

Journey Project

2010-12-28T16:36:00.000-08:00

I shot this in my first year of Media Arts at Sheridan College. You had to follow someone's journey that had to end at the main entrance of Sheridan.

Made by:
Dylan Butler, Mike Rilstone, and Chris Call.

Actor:
Alex Booth

Shot on Sony HVR-Z7U

Making of True Grit Featurette

2010-12-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

First Canon 5D Mark II Shoot

2010-11-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Canon 5D Mark II

I am surprised that it took me this long to shoot a project with this camera. A lot of the commercial shoots I have been working on in Toronto in the past couple months have been using the 5D. I was super happy with the way the camera performed for me.

We had too shoot a P.S.A. for a class project and I signed on as the D.O.P. The commercial follows a girl on her way to school and then home while encountering storybook characters along the way. I went with naturalistic lighting for the shoot. When I post the final video in a couple of days I will talk more about the technical details.

Corus Quay

2010-08-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

Taken on my iPhone

I want to work here. Corus Quay. Look it up.

Ideas

2010-08-04T14:04:00.001-07:00

I start my second year of Media Arts at Sheridan College in less than a month. I can’t believe how fast the summer has flown by. I’ve balanced 5 jobs this summer and banked as much money as I possibly could. I don’t want to be eating peanut butter with a spoon again like at the end of last year.

I have plenty of ideas floating around in my head for films I would like to shoot this year. I find the majority of my ideas come when I am about to fall asleep and there are few minutes of quite. A projector turns on my head and I watch my ideas play back in mini films. I have always been a visual person. I could see a finished product from start to finish in my head, which leaves the challenge of capturing it on film . I took art lesions for 11 years when I was younger. Before I started drawing a picture I developed a way in my head to imagine the finished drawing on the canvas. All I had to do was outline what I saw.

First shot I took on 120mm

2010-07-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

2010-07-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Today I say goodbye to my first IPhone. It lasted me about 2 years and 4 months. A couple days ago the power button stopped working. So I opened it up to take a closer look because I needed to back up my new IPhone. Looking at the inside there was no way for me to fix it so it’s become a new paperweight. I was really hoping this phone would last me until the IPhone for made it to Canada. On top of that the mic would never work so calls could only be made with a blue tooth device and about four times a day I would have to restart my phone to regain bars.

Sheridan College 2010 Convocation Flash Mob

2010-07-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Sony HVR-Z7U

I directed this video during my summer job at Sheridan College. I have been producing videos for Sheridan's "Big Picture Gala". I pitched the idea of doing a flash mob to my boss who immediately thought it was a great idea.

Steph Korski and myself worked on all the planning to get the idea into production. I have to give a huge thanks to Steph for keeping things organized, tracking down the choreographer, and finding all the dancers.

I want to thank everyone at Sheridan for giving me a budget to make the video happen. I would love to do it again! Maybe next time on a larger scale!

Song of the day

2010-07-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

Breakdown, Whiskey Pete & Stellar MC - Ice Cream - Hoaxx Dirty Disco Mix by Breakdown

Old Tree'z

2010-07-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

Kincardine, Ontario

2010-07-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

Windmills
Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

I am slowly overcoming a fear I have had of windmills that started at a young age. I remember the day it happened. It was when watching the 1998 film "Mac and Me". There is a scene in the film where the family of aliens find themselves in the middle of a wind farm. Something about that scene turned me off windmills altogether. They are super creepy too me.

Talk T'ya,
Mike

Kincardine Lighthouse

2010-07-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

Kincardine Lighthouse
Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

Farm

2010-07-05T06:55:00.001-07:00

Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

Shot this farm just outside of Kincardine, Ontario.

Storming the Beaches

2010-06-30T20:26:00.001-07:00

Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

Candid shot of Sarah while she was storming the beaches of Bruce County.

Kincardine, Ontario

2010-06-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Madison House
Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

This is inside of the Madison House from my last post. I snapped this photo of my girlfriend Sarah on the third floor just before we went up on the roof. I love how this one turned out. I am a huge fan of this lighting. I really want to shoot an interior scene that is exposed for outside light, but still have enough light on an actors face before they are lost in a silhouette.

Kincardine, Ontario

2010-06-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Madison House
Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm

The Madison house is located right downtown Kincardine. It is said to be one of the most haunted houses in North America! Article about the house. Apparently the story was completely fabricated by some recent owners for a haunted bed and breakfast they turned the house into. I got a tour of the house all the way up to the roof. The 9500 square foot house is currently being renovated into apartments by some friends of my sister.

Earthquake Damage in Hamilton

2010-06-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Just had a photo sent to me of some damage that was done in a backyard in Hamilton from last week's Earthquake.

Thanks for the photo mom!

120mm Film

2010-06-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

I recently started shooting with a Mamiya RB67 Professional 120mm camera. I was at my dads place one night and he pulled it out of a box that was buried deep in a closet. He said he hadn't shot with it since the late 80's. It is such a rad camera to work and learn with. Growing up in a digital age I never got the chance to shoot still photography on film.

Last weekend I spent a night up in Wasaga, Ont. and a couple nights at my sisters place in Kincardine, Ont. I lucked out with some awesome weather and was able to shoot some really nice landscapes. The photo below is a shot I took of some windmills near Bruce Power Nuclear Plant.

Long Take

2010-05-28T11:54:00.001-07:00

Behind the Scenes

The Commercial

I found this great behind the scenes video of Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like". The commercial is shot in one continuous take where the actor Isaiah Mustafa moves seamlessly through a series of manly man scenarios. I am a huge fan of this type of shooting. In the future I hope to choreograph long takes in my films. It adds such a great value to a film. The planning that goes into the execution of such shots is enormous. This Old Spice commercial took three days to shoot and ended up using take 53 for the commercial.

The clip below is one of my favorite long take scenes. The camera follows Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco’s walk through the Copacabana in the film “Goodfellas”. The shot is used to put the audience in the point of view of Lorraine’s character Karren. It’s the first time she experiences the Gangster lifestyle. The shot took only 8 takes to nail down, which extremely impressive. While watching the clip think of all the cues the extras have to hit. There is also lots of dialogue throughout the shot.

TRENT: UCID TRAILER

2010-05-17T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here is the official trailer for Peter Guzda's new film "Trent: UCID". I posted a few behind the scenes photo's on an earlier post when I was working on this film. I was key grip, gaffer, and cam op.

Summer Time!

2010-04-26T21:58:00.001-07:00

(Screen shot from Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot)

Summer is here. Right now here. Cold soda's in the fridge.

I got two weeks off. Then work starts. 5 jobs to balance this summer. Should be fun. Soon to be in the black in my bank account :)

All the best,
Mike

Mont Tremblant

2010-04-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

Mont Tremblant
Bolex 16mm Color Reversal Shoot

This is some 16mm color reversal film I shot back in January on a trip to Mont Tremblant. Due to a light leak during processing some of the colors went a little nutty, still looks cool though.

Last week of 1st Year

2010-04-18T16:50:00.001-07:00

Mike Howey

It is now the last week of my first year in film school. It's a rush to get the last of our projects in. I was up for 36 hours straight working on my year end film last week. I took this picture of my roomate Mike Howey who was recovering from a long night of homework.

A week from now I want to be far away from my cell phone and macbook as possible, face down in a bed sleeping.

Films

2010-03-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

Skywalker Ranch from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Amazing short Filmed at Skywalker ranch on the Canon 5DmkII conformed to 24p and the Canon 7D shooting native 24p. Shot by filmmaker Phillip Bloom, Read his blog about the shoot here: philipbloom.co.uk/2009/12/12/the-tale-of-lucasfilm-skywalker-ranch-red-tails-star-wars-and-canon-dslrs/

Photography

2010-03-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

I took this photo in Kensington Market in Toronto for a school photography assignment. I found this man in a park dancing for a group of people. As soon as I pulled my camera out he started posing in various positions like being in a photo-shoot. more to come...

Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot

2010-03-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Screen shot from "Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot".

Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot

2010-03-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

School Film

2010-03-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

second shoot day with leroy

camera op brian parsons and myself on set of
"Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot"

Media Arts: Sheridan College

I finished shooting one of my first year films at Sheridan College titled "Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot". It was written and directed by Dylan Butler and I was the director of photography. It was my first shoot with the Sony EX1 which was a rad camera to work with. We are cutting it now and picking up a few more shots in the next couple days. A locked cut will be done in a week.

A couple weeks ago I had my second shoot day with Leroy. In September of 2009 I started a 10 minute documentary that I plan on finishing by December 2010. Simply titled "Leroy".

A quick trailer of footage shot on the first shoot day.

Work On-The-Go

2010-02-18T14:47:00.001-08:00

I am in the middle of pre-production on a new short film Dylan Butler and myself are producing. The film is called "Arnie and the Lonely Hearts Bot", Directed by Dylan with myself being the Director of Photography. It's for a school project called "The around the table". We will be shooting on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of March 2010.

I will be shooting a music video for a Toronto band called “The Archives”. They have a very fresh sound and just released an E.P called "Hail Caesar"

CHECK THEM OUT!

Internet Videos

2010-02-11T17:28:00.001-08:00

"Carrots"

I found this video today. I have no idea what is going on but I really dig the dancing. One day I dream of making something as epic as this. Enjoy!

Shoot Days

2010-02-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

"Bread and Butter"
Paul Seaton captured this video on his IPhone on set of "Trent" last week. I got to Camera Op a hand held scene with the RED in the film. In this video we are rehearsing the shot with the actors.

Sheridan

2010-02-09T07:34:00.001-08:00

"Sweet Corn"
Dug these photos off my hard drive today. I shot the first photo for a photography project in my first year at Sheridan. I had to take a portrait that represented my life. The second was done in a image production class. I had to design a realistic magazine cover.

Film

2010-02-08T17:37:00.001-08:00

"Gravy"
A video done for a school project. We were given a poem and had to create video to go with it. We shot it with a Bolex on 16mm color reversal film. The actor is Reese Smeltzer.

Photography

2010-02-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

Lindsay Miller

Drew Cohoe

"Cranberries"

Portraits I took for a school project. They were done on the same day of the photo's in the "Turkey" post.

Photography

2010-02-06T10:11:00.001-08:00

"Mashed Potatoes"

I took this photo for a school project. I had to recreate a painting of my choice. The goal of the assisgnment was to match lighting, position, props, frame, etc. as best as possible.

Shoot Days

2010-02-06T09:37:00.001-08:00

Window mount with RED camera | Hood mount with 125 Pocket Par HMI's

"Spoon, Knife, and Fork"

I am currently working on Peter Guzda's next film titled "Trent" In Welland, Ontario. It's a 5 day shoot being shot in various locations around the city. (Check out Peter's work: http://www.myspace.com/peter_guzda)

Photography

2010-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

"Turkey!"

I took these photos mid September of 2009 in Grimsby, Ontario.