Adventures at the Landfill - by Mark Schulze

Mark Schulze on camera at Otay Mesa Landfill - Photo by Patty Mooney

Johnnie Perkins, Allied Waste Services Director, and Mark Schulze, Director of Photography - Photo by Patty Mooney

Video production has been my way of life since when I left college in 1981 and started my video production company, Crystal Pyramid Productions. One thing I love about the business is that no two productions are ever alike. Each one has its own special demands and features a whole new roster of people who are involved, as well as its own location or set of locations.

We have recently shot on various occasions for our local waste management company, Allied Waste Services. These shoots have been interesting in that they have also provided an education to all of us on what happens to our garbage once we dispose of it and cart it out to the street curb. My wife and partner, Patty Mooney, has blogged about it herself, as she accompanied me several times as a sound recordist at two of San Diego's landfills, and she edited the award-winning video, "Operations at Sycamore Landfill."

Adventures at the Landfill - by Patty Mooney

Check it out - it's really quite fascinating.

Balboa Park, San Diego's Jewel - by Mark Schulze

Mark Schulze collecting stock footage in Balboa Park, San Diego - Photo by Patty Mooney

One of the fun things I do in my job is to gather clips for our stock footage library, New & Unique Videos. We actually started the company after shooting a documentary called "Full Cycle: A World Odyssey," which took my partner, Patty Mooney, and me around the world with our mountain bikes and a ton of video equipment. After the documentary was completed, we started getting calls from clients who wanted to buy footage from the places where we had traveled. And thus began the stock footage branch of New & Unique Videos.



"Full Cycle: A World Odyssey" garnered over 13 international awards and lots of press; however, it was never broadcast on television because it was considered too "nichey" and because it was the first "reality show" ever produced, it was misunderstood and just too far ahead of its time. Patty and I started calling it our "red-headed stepchild" as we began parsing out clips like the crazy Tasmanian devil and the underwater mountain biker clips which both appeared on Real TV.



Anyway, one of my favorite places to shoot footage is our very own jewel, Balboa Park. Above you will see one of the two water fountains featured at the park along with the Museum of Man. If you ever get a chance to visit San Diego, you must be sure to check out Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo. There are also several museums that are excellent, including the Reuben H. Fleet Space Center & Theater, the San Diego Natural History Museum which is now showing the Body Worlds Exhibit, the Automotive Museum, the Hall of Champions Sports Museum, the Museum of Photographic Arts, and the list goes on. On a beautiful day you cannot go wrong.

Pat and Oscars Give Away One Million Breadsticks - by Mark Schulze

A very interesting production gig occurred in 2004 when Pat & Oscar's, a local fast-food restaurant chain here in San Diego, decided to give away breadsticks, calling the campaign "Summer of One Million Breadsticks." Their mascot, as seen in the above photo, is one of the funniest mascots I have ever had occasion to videotape. A very personable breadstick, to be sure!

I shot a VNR (Video News Release) for Pat & Oscar's. What this entails is first shooting footage of an event (such as "Summer of One Million Breadsticks"). After the shoot, the videographer (me), drives like a bat out of hell back to the studio to edit the best clips into a five-minute reel that then gets messengered to all the big local news stations. You hope for a slow news day so that your VNR gets aired. This particular one was picked up by two of the stations and shown on both the 6 PM and 10 PM news segments. So that was a successful campaign for Pat & Oscar's.

Shooting Footage at a Quarry - by Mark Schulze

One of my more interesting recent video production gigs here in San Diego involved a local quarry with large earth-shifting machinery manufactured in Ireland. I was a Director of Photography hired by Miracles Productions out of Ireland. These great photos are by Producer and Director, Dave Johnston.

Those Were the Good Old Days - by Mark Schulze

Soccer Team, White Horse, Yukon, 1986 - Photograph by Patty Mooney

My wife, Patty, recently had some slides digitized. These particular slides have been in a binder on a shelf since 1986 when she and I sold or gave away everything, halted our video production business, rented our house out to some tenants, and set out from our hometown of San Diego for the wilds of North America in a small Chinook camper. We ended up driving 25,000 miles in the course of nine months. Along the way, Patty took some photographs and I shot video footage to document our adventures. I'm third from the left in the above shot, the guy with the lanky blonde locks (which are sadly no more).

On this particular day, after hanging out with some newfound friends in White Horse, Yukon, Canada, the soccer team invited me to play a game. As you can tell, they were quite fond of Coke.

We have since unfortunately lost touch with these wonderful, generous and hospitable people, but here's a shout out, 22 years later. Thanks for all the great times! Man, those were the good old days!

My Days With Mario Lopez - Before He Made It Big - by Mark Schulze

Mark Schulze and Mario organize Mario's cue cards - Photo by Patty Mooney

This little girl had a Chihuahua (pictured below); she was enthralled with Mario - Photo by Patty Mooney

Many people don't realize or remember that before he was the face of Extra, Mario Lopez was once Animal Planet's Pet Star Search "ringleader." He and his "dog and pony show" used to come to San Diego every Spring in search of the world's funniest, most talented and videogenic animals. The first year there was a horse that could stamp out the answer to various math questions. There was also this amazing dog that ended up winning the prize for best talent that year. After that, no more horses showed up, and the level of talent seemed to decline. All in all it was a good three-year run and we are happy that Mario has been doing so well with his career since those happy and innocent days.

Don't Shoot the Brewmaster! - by Mark Schulze

Mark Schulze, Jim Koch and Patty Mooney

Don't shoot the brewmaster! Okay, that's my little allusion to the old quote, "Don't shoot the piano player." It's an inference that you don't want to destroy something or someone that brings you pleasure. And I was being sarcastic, in that I DID shoot this particular brewmaster, Mr. Jim Koch, the CEO of Samuel Adams, but I shot him with my camera when he appeared at the Craft Beers Convention in San Diego last summer. If you've ever seen the Sam Adams commercials on television, yes, that really is Jim's voice.

This is a man who knows his beers! And why not? He is a third-generation brewmaster, and he and his forebears have been immersed in hops for decades. See the taps behind us? That is what they call a "perk" of the gig. It was one of the best video production gigs I have had the pleasure to be a part of.

Some of the finest beers on Earth, right there in that room. Well, as they say, someone has to do it! As someone who is part German, I certainly know how to appreciate well-crafted beers. And so does my wife, Patty, who is part Irish. 'Nuf said.