Phil Holland

Director/Cinematographer.
Sometimes I do other things too.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@quirkdup Tricky balance out here because SoCal is big. I like the ocean a small trip away personally, but beach life is neato if you can live with what's not nearby. Not that your asking, but my strategy has been: Neighborhood first, then proximity to things you want to do semi-often.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿. Has mostly been exceptionally kind to me. These were photographed during a bizarre evening where visibility was very low in Los Angeles. Damp and dark, it was a very quiet and still night.

The majority of people stayed off the road and it was late. But, there were several car accidents and emergency services had to drive at a slower pace to even attend to those safely.

I was exploring the night for a while. By vehicle and by foot as the eerieness attracted me for a couple hours. It felt like every street was a whole unusual story being played out before my eyes, which only made me more curious as to what the next had to reveal. Occasional silhouttes barely emeging to added to the oddity of it all. A dance of me freezing in place until I discerned if it was of concern or part of the normality of the weirdness. And then the sounds.

Strange. Some natural ambiance. Sometimes hints of a late night creature nearby, I hoped. Also, odd loudness followed by nothing. But the rare crackle of electricity vaporizing the mist around me is what stayed with me the most from this night. I've experienced similar, but not as loud nor as close as this presented.

Happy October spooky friends.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗗𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗨𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲. Personal share.

For long time followers, concept design, illustration, and production art has been a part of my professional journey since I was a teenager. Daily sketching keeps me sane and the mind flowing. These skills are still critical for me as a full time filmmaker and visual storyteller to this day.

Perhaps through the joy of frustration, I somehow used my original wobbly drafting table I've had since I was a teenager. Dings, stains, and worse. Well earned wear. It was a surface that treated me well, but equally made me want to ripe my hair out whenever I worked on it.

Slowly a plot emerged. I formulated a horrific plan to replace my beat-to-hell table with another that doesn't know whats coming. Something I refused to do until this specific moment as well. The construction of a new multipurpose studio space with a focus on creating freely informed by all that I do in medium sized boxy interior spaces. Camera, Sound, Art, and other mischief when it must be managed.

Through a slightly emotional "I don't need you anymore" cinematic scene, I sent away my old table with the extreme intention of replacement with something geared (literally) more towards my desires.

Side note. Something you should know about me. I am a work surface man. Carts, desks, shelves, etc. Most of what I do has inspired considerations from how I do things. And a lot of my frequently used spaces have gone through scrutiny and thought to make them vastly more enjoyable and functional.

I commissioned a new table built to specification. Sturdier, easier to adjust it's height, one that can go horizontal to vertical if I'm in easel weasel mode, but will likely be used most of the time on a slight tilt. A new smooth solid wood surface and steel construction. Pedals and countereight based control. And sized for small through medium-large work, but can expand if needed.

Held out for a long while to do this. Too long. But this year was the year to improve many things. And this one haunted my thoughts for a long while.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@key_vfx Well the 2nd shack emerging from the ground was nightmare fuel :) Sim looks incredible!

[Phil Holland @phfx]

If camping or willing to explore, Little Harbor is by far my favorite place to camp. I wear a necklace of that era since I was 4. Avalon has modern conveniences, Two Harbors is smaller and less so, everything else is nature on Catalina essentially. Santa Cruz is a different planet.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@elonmusk Thank you for investing in increasing the quality of the visuals from way out there. Mesmerizing and inspiring.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@QuestTheLine OG guy here, watching beta peeps explore the refreshed and expanded Azeroth. Played the alpha/beta long ago before Classic launch. Really impressed with the work you all have done.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@lanabeesfw This is place is a favorite of mine. If you missed the inside succulent garden, often closed during the week, worth planning a trip to see those. Little alien plant creatures essentially. Lots of spiders throughout the grounds too if you look closely.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗮𝘆 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵. I frequently visited The Salton Sea and surrounding area for many years. It's mysteries attracted many to document notable oddities, this being a rather iconic one. And though I've seen many images of this trailer at different states of decay, I never ran into anybody when I was down there somehow.

Unsure of it's current state. Last I saw it was far worse off than this. Of all the compostions I made over the course of a decade plus of this thing, this frame I can comfortably say is my favorite.

Storms and floods make this area have marshmellowy quicksand-like ground that you do not want to stand on. But it's a haul to get drive down and I worked hard at being there for a specific pocket of light. And the Airstream was oddly in better shape than the prior visit. Likely due to rain removing the evidence of a prior dust storm.

This was eventually printed large, Ilfochrome, mounted on a lightbox. And oddly, during the early days of HDR motion picture mastering, this was one of the images that aligned with my vision and aim during those earlier days of a fresh technology.

A good weekend you have.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@TPAIN I have never been so uncertain of a fashion trend. Unsure what occasion, place, or situation this is ideal for. Like, I'll wear this and go get ice cream, then people will think you crash landed on earth 5 minutes earlier.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@finkd Well then. These are certainly interesting.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆. Difficult to post on the regular lately with the usual spilling of thoughts out of my brain bucket. Octo-Phil-opus has deployed all available tenticles to work on many things for a little while. There is no consistent beat to the circadian rhythm nor overlap with the work burn. And occasional zone or temporal displacement adds even more excitement. Mental state and sanity is just fine, just a busy octopus type creature man.

It's hump day, so here is a mountain. Though intended as a monochrome image during capture, this is a rare instance where I like the color and achromic versions equally so. The color version has the bluest of skies and is so serene. But the dramatic shapes, forms, and silhouettes here provide the mood I'm after sans the calmness found in color.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗿. This was a nice day. Way out there, away from it all. I found a quiet place that time forgot. Just me and the poppies watching an optical phenomena in the cloud layer above as a storm develops. Sort of a faint spectral flare where daylight was fighting hard to squeeze through. Only sound for miles was a light breeze with little rusty whispers blowing through these decaying structures, only occasionally interrupted by a rolling, deep, gutteral rumble of thunder warning of what was to come thst you could feel in your bones. Bottled this moment up with this composition and exposure to take me and you there. And here we are. Have a good weekend.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@Warcraft Nightmare fuel.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟰. The past week or so has been a hot injection of nostalgia ramping up to Blizzcon and the World of Warcraft Forever announcement. Old friends, coworkers, collegues, and guildies all reaching out with "I am excite" mode. And many who haven't played in a very long time. Wholesome.

For my WoW friends and peeps at Blizzard, I have a few fun images prior to the game launching. The 2002 E3 announcement. You had to be there to understand how cool the new perspective and game concept was compared to the extremely popular Warcraft III. Very well recieved. Pretty much the same whoa impact that Mario 64 had for Nintendo bringing a 2D plumber into a 3D world.

Also, 2004 E3. This was a few months before official launch. At this point some of us were on the alpha and beta for a while. And we all knew people who haven't yet explored Azeroth were in for an absolute treat.

I had 3 big playing arcs over the years. Mage of course. Alpha/Beta, Launch PvP focused, took a break, then PvE focused. I can't explain how naturally my PvE guild came together, but most of us were all entertainment industry professionals somehow and ran by a high up at the mouse house. Filmmakers, artists, producers, actors, musiciansz and more. We would wrap filming or long hour work days at studios, then login for our "second shift". Eating dinner, and *gasp* sometimes breakfast while raiding was mandatory multitasking.

Ah, and for those newer to WoW. As you can see in the picture here, the game was initially designed for 4:3 aspect ratio Cathode Ray Tube televisions. Lots of glass, vastly deeper than modern flat screens, and heavy. That is why all your key loading screen art in Classic is that aspect ratio and why the HUD is what it is. I have some old screen shots on drives, about 8 petabytes ago I should dig up of old zones under construction to share at some point, but for now, enjoy this jolt of WoW history.

Very impressed by the immersive visual improvements and content shown for WoWF. Congrats to those baking that loaf with so much love.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@JamesGunn This is a very, very good poster.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@nikitabier I would say not everybody is "that way", but it certainly is a projected vision in most cases. Then again, social media in general is different things to different people in that regard. I sort of treat it like a journal to a degree, but with that, there's a lock of "focus".

[Phil Holland @phfx]

𝗥𝗼𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗔𝗦𝗖, 𝗖𝗦𝗖, 𝗡𝗭𝗖𝗦. We lost a very talented cinematographer and director as well as a nice fellow. Rodney has had a storied and legendary career across features and series.

I first met him briefly in Woodland Hills while he was filming 24. This was a long time ago. He was a road paver in exploring early digital cinema cameras, video cameras, and eventually DSLRs that could shoot video. Rodney was inspired by the potential strengths of the cameras being small and more ideal for tricky filmmaking scenarios compared to lower sensitivity found in motion picture film.

On that series, he was focused on working in very difficult lighting setups and partially occluded camera framing. This produced a very immersive visual storytelling language for that series that is iconic to this day. I was brought in very briefly to share thoughts on how to work in low light, natural light, and practical driven scenes and how best to film them with whatever worked best, cameras and glass.

Had no idea that this would lead to a joyful longterm same/same relationship over the years. He provided some great advice early on as well.

One random highlight memory for me. I remember one day randomly running into Rodney in the lobby of RSH and spending hours with Rodney helping him out with his RED One. Like, we both left in the evening but we bumped into each to each other just after lunch.

We subsequently would run into each other at many events and tradeshows over the years. Always made time to catchup and chat. Occasionally a dinner here and there with friends. Life, work, and family chatter with a few laughs and certainly discussions about camera and lighting technology.

This image was from a moment at Canon Burbank, i shot this with an absolutely ancient lens. He certainly found so much joy being on set and chatting with filmmakers at these sort of gatherings. I will miss the man and our little chats full of whimsy.

[Phil Holland @phfx]

@NoMansSky Ooooh. That extra spend on the flat screen!