Film Courage: I’m going to read the first page of California Christmas and as a cinematographer
maybe you can interject and tell me what you think of different parts that I'm reading?
Exterior Northern California skyline (morning):
In a soft glide through a cluster of clouds we ascend above multiple
wine vineyards and rolling hills until San Francisco's skyline emerges in front of us.
Brad Rushing, Cinematographer: I knew as soon as I read that, that was stock footage. I knew
the scope of our of our film and and I knew that our only aerial would be would be with
a drone that couldn't get that kind of altitude and distance and the funny thing is is is more
than a few people have have emailed me and their compliment is oh my goodness I just
loved those aerial shots of San Francisco and the bay bridge and I'm like well thank you I will
pass those compliments along to the stock footage company which they always take in good humor but
but yeah funny anecdote they wondered how you got those those they I don't think they wondered they
trusted but I had I had to I had to tell them that well that's the dream but it's only a dream
because you would have had to do it with would have been a helicopter a helicopter right a drone
at that altitude a drone won't rise to that altitude and you couldn't get that
kind of distance with it it's not going to fly into the over the bay and into the city
right okay yeah because that's have you been on that bridge did you drive over that I'm sure I've
been to San Francisco many times but I don't specifically someone is afraid of heights okay
well in a car I don't I only care when there's nothing between me and and the and the drop if I'm
in a car or a helicopter I don't even if there's a high railing I'm fine we soar over the golden gate
bridge until we arrive at an upscale building interior van Aston hotel suite bedroom morning
sunlight pours into a beautiful high-rise hotel suite as Joseph Van Aston 25 attractive with
egotistical confidence enters the bedroom from the bathroom wearing only a towel so so when I
heard that I felt it was a penthouse kind of thing which which would have been challenging because
when it's a when it's a penthouse unless you've got the money to to lower a scaffold outside
the the building you can't light from outside fortunately we we landed in in this really cool
structure which was part of a hotel it was a it was a banquet area in a hotel
that we treated as a bedroom and it was not only was it not a high level it was actually
slightly submerged but there was this really nice high window that you actually see in the movie and
that was I have these wonderful lights called m18s which are these lovely hmis they're just such a
go-to hmi and and I put one out the window and that was a scene we didn't have a lot of time for
because they wanted us out of the hotel we we had somewhere else to be originally I was going to do
two hmis out that window and we just didn't have time we just we just did the one and fortunately
it works perfectly looking at it I am like I don't even know why I would have wanted the second one
and really I would have used it to create more depth but the director didn't want the
the camera there anyway so it all just worked out fine but yeah I put that I put that light in there
and it was pretty hot and spicy and I was a little bit worried that maybe it was too hot we modulated
it some and then in the end I've had some people say that that's one of their favorite scenes
he throws open the closet door walks in interior van assen hotel suite walk-in closet morning
Joseph grabs an expensive suit off of the rack and rips the tags off of it the towel drops to
the ground around his feet when I heard that I figured closet we're probably gonna have to build
a little piece of a set because any real closet you're not gonna get the camera far enough away
from him to get behind the the clothes I guess if you had a big walk-in you could pull back and
just set some clothes in the foreground but for whatever reason I was thinking that we
would have to build that and and as it worked out again it was a banquet room and that door that he
goes through is actually it just goes back to a prep area where are there all these trays and
and metal things and and and racks and crap and we just cleared out a space and and we shot a little
corner but it's actually a really big big like if you turned around there's just tons of room
filled up with junk and then we we pulled the camera back and and we stole one of the wardrobe
department's rolling wardrobe hangers and we just stuck it in there and but again we had to
shoot it really really quick and that was one of those things where like with his feet and the the
towel dropping literally I was just trying to get it in place and like roll roll roll
oh my goodness so we didn't get a the shot looks fine but I didn't get to finesse it it was just
kind of like whatever the lighting was by the time I got the camera down there because they're
like shoot it let's get out of here we gotta go interior van aston hotel suite bedroom morning
Joseph steps out of the closet fully dressed in his suit he looks fantastic then looks at
his phone with a cringe insert phone gemma three missed calls I think they ended up cutting that
out I don't think they've got the gemma stuff oh I see okay all right well no I'm just saying I don't
I don't even know if I don't even remember if we shot that okay trying to remember I thought he
had some kind of a phone but well he has it when he talks to his mom but does he have it in this
scene maybe he does oh I'm not sure because he's dealing with this this gal that's in his bed yeah
I knew a chunk of this scene was cut out and I'm trying to remember which piece it was
I think it was the stuff in the closet it's either cut out or it's truncated oh okay well
here we have Jasmine oc in a sing-song voice joey Joseph looks up from his phone to the bed
there is the gorgeous Jasmine 20s naked in the bed just waking up before she can speak Joseph grabs
a room service menu and brings it over to the bed I remember I remember when I read that I was like
what's this naked stuff because I think it's a Christmas movie I don't know it's California
well Lauren wrote it and I think that girl is a friend of theirs so I who knows but she was
wearing a what do you call it a camisole so she wasn't naked okay but that was that was that was
funny I remember I remember thinking oh my gosh because anytime you do nudity it's like there's
some sensitivity and clear the set and and that's all good but it slows things down because you have
to clear the set and I'm just thinking well that's gonna complicate stuff but in the end like I said
I think she had a camisole on and we just did the the blanket in a quasi-suggestive way and
and and there you go and I think that I really like the way that that that sun looks the the the
light looks and it's it's so funny because I think when I really get it right it feels like I didn't
do it and I'm just looking at it going wow that looks cool I wonder who did that I don't I don't
feel the ownership of it when it when it really just goes straight down the track like that and
and the flare in his in his face which is a little of a stylistic non-sequitur because I don't think
we have a lot of other flares but it just worked so well in that scene and it was so beautiful
and and maybe if I'm being honest it's a tiny bit gratuitous but I think everybody liked it and I
think it's pretty so there you go Joseph handing the menu breakfast breakfast is on me checkouts
at noon she grabs the lapel of the suit jacket and holds him close Joseph denies her kiss with
a smile he hovers to say I have to say he played that so much better than I pictured it in my mind
I just love the way he played that scene and but the coverage and it really turned out a lot the
way I pictured it in my mind when I read it I felt that it really because things don't always
do that sometimes you you picture it one way and then you get there and the location is different
or the actors play it different or the act the director wants to cover it different and it's
not quite what you picture but I that that scene really did play out kind of the way that I
imagined apart from the fact that that his the way he did that that kiss avoidance was just so so
much better than what I imagined it would be right and she says Joseph continued soft I’ll call you
Jasmine makes a pouty face and I think if I remember correctly she says no you won't yep
yeah that was perfect yeah okay that was an interesting it was an interesting way
to to introduce Joseph and it was it was wonderfully succinct you you set a lot you
set a lot in that that little tiny scene just to set up what kind of a playboy and cad he was
and and I think that that made his transition more meaningful when you saw that he actually was
falling in love with this tough country girl right who came from two separate worlds he was used to
always hearing yes she was probably always used to hearing no she wasn't taking any stuff from him.