Grant Gravitt on LinkedIn: Location Scouts, Chicken Fingers and Lionel Messi. The Thursday blog… (2024)

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Tall Ships, Stanley Cup Hockey and Clean Up Monday. The Tuesday blog begins now.—The day after a shoot is never pretty. Mostly your brain dead. Add major aches and pains along with some sleep deprivation. Then mix in rental return deadlines and logistics with your crew. It can be a mess. Trust me the end result is never pretty. But with the assistance of line producer Tiffany Terrell we got her done. I was especially crispy after a rain out from the day before. But despite wanting to stay in bed I left Quayside for Doral and the HD House promptly at 9 AM. While I was running errands, Tiffany met up with the production truck at Egon Stefan’s CineVideoTech in Hallandale. They offloaded the equipment and put it back into place. While Tiffany and our Assistant Cameraman Artem returned the truck to Enterprise at FLL. All under the rush of a deadline.Then we all returned back to CineVideoTech to pick up a cleaned Alexa and take her back home. Then finally back to the band house to do one last offload of craft services and equipment. Because everyone knows the gig is not finished till everything is put away. And this one was a rough one. Nothing worse than doing all of this after raining out. But with forecast of flooding and record rainfall the next few days. One must remembered never to schedule outdoor shoots in June!——Check out these pictures from the vault of the Around the World Tall Ship Regatta of 2000. Fourteen Classic sailing vessels were a part of this race around the world that culminated in Miami. After completing their voyage, they allowed our Miss Florida USA contestants on board for a tour that became part of our international broadcast that year. Reigning titleholder Kristen Ludecke hosted the segment that took us around this amazing vessel.Not only did the girls get to meet the crew and take a tour of the ship. They also got to climb the mast and generally have a blast during the day. The crew was so amazingly nice to us. But of course, after a full year of sailing across the oceans, pageant girls couldn’t have looked too bad! We also got some really fun video. We all had a day that we will remember for a mighty long time.——Game number two of the Stanley Cup was the highlight of the evening. As our high flying Florida Panthers were looking to go up two games to none in the best of seven series. We also were defending our Home rink in Sunrise right at the mouth of the Everglades. The crowd was fired up at the opening face off. But quieted down with a quick goal from the Vancouver team. In the second period the Cats came back to put the biscuit in the basket and tie the match. Then they pulled away with three goals in the final period for resounding four to one victory. Now game three is back in Vancouver Thursday night and what should be another hard hitting game. You know it’s going to be chippy! Let’s go get them, Panthers! These are my truths. My pronouns are he, his and him. Much love from a soaked Miami Dade County.

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Rain, Rain and more Rain! The Monday blog begins now.———-Sometimes showbiz is not pretty. Sometimes it’s downright wet! That is how to describe our concert shoot this Sunday afternoon. For the first time since I can remember, we got rained out. The monsoons that were predicted for the north side came down and hit us in Homestead. I’ve got a bone to pick with the WPLG weatherman today!It was a beautiful start early this morning as we were packed up and heading south towards the Redlands. For some reason Waze take us down Eghth Street to Chrome and then south. It was actually a wonderful ride and really took me through the agriculture section of Dade County. Being a metro person I really had no idea how huge agriculture was at the south part of the county. It’s pretty mind blowing when you see it.Once we got to the Tilt Farm it was all hands on deck as our lighting plans were very ambitious. Director of photography, Egon Stefan had his crew working hard as we were fighting the shade of 100-year-old Banyan tree. I also had a video crew led by Mike Malanga as we were multiformat the shoot. We called lunch at 1 PM and then never saw the dry set again.Lunch was going great as we catered with the amazing local barbecue restaurant called Shivers. We always feed our crew well. Ribs, chicken, and some killer pork were on the menu. Then weather hit during lunch and it was a good two hours of heavy monsoons that only can happen in South Florida. Being that we were on the ground and not on the stage, it just became too wet for any electronics. So we had to call it a day. Nothing more of an empty feeling than that.We had a small window of sunshine to wrap. It was time to put all of that gear back in the truck. Film requires so much more stuff than Video. It is truly hard to explain. We were that close to making some amazing film. We will regroup with the band Foom! And figure out our next moves going forward. We are looking at rescheduling in August. But man today was a buzz kill! But you can’t win them all and we have recently been on a roll. Such as showbiz. These are my truths. My pronouns are he, his and him. Much love from a very soggy Miami Dade county.#Foom!#TiltFarms#TropicalMonsoons#RainRainGoAway

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Shoot preparations, Pageant Parties and Stanley Cup hockey. The Sunday blog begins now.———-With a film shoot one day away. Saturday was by no means a rest day. It was up and at em early as a full day awaited. The goals was to gather all that was needed for our concert shoot tomorrow in Homestead. I left at 8 o’clock for the band house in Hollywood to prep Alexa for the weekend. Then it was off to CineVideo Tech to meet the crew for prep day.While Egon Stefan‘s team was pulling the equipment for the shoot. I was off to Enterprise at FLL to pick up the chariot for the weekend. I do have to say that they do a very nice job of providing good rental trucks. Unsolicited plug! Then it was off to Doral to pick up our HD video village gear. Another solid vendor is HD House Video Rental Equipment as this is our third rental from them, and they are pretty awesome. Even though on the way, we almost ran into a tornado!At this point, I caught up with assistant Director Janina Morejon, who worked with me the rest of the afternoon. It was back to the load in to make sure everything was going well and of course take a Pollo Tropic break. A well fed crew is a happy crew. Around 4 PM we called it a wrap. Janina did some craft service shopping while I went back to the band house and loaded up the car.11 AM call tomorrow morning in the Redlands. It’s nice being prepared! Now all we worry about is the weather. Lol.———-In another archival picture find. Check out this group photo from the 1996 Miss Florida USA pageant. This is in the judging room with our dear friends and pageant judges. We used to have so much fun in Mary lou and Grant’s Suite at the Western Diplomat after the judging competitions. We always had the most interesting judges, and many of them became dear friends. These get together lasted well into the wee hours. There was never any sleep pageant week!———For the second year in a row my beloved Florida Panthers have made it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. The pinnacle in all of Professional hockey. Our final opponents is the Edmonton Oilers. Apparently the longest distance between two opponents ever in the finals. And no Canadian team has won the cup since 1993. Game number one made it look like it will be a while before a Canadian team wins again. The Panthers looked far superior as they compiled a goal in all three periods and we shut them out three to nothing. Nice first game win.This season has been such a dream. I can’t believe we’re only three games away from hoisting our first ever cup! Who knew Miami was a hockey town? Well, in just a few years, it has become. I can’t be more excited for my cats! These are my truths. My pronouns are he, his and him. Much love from Miami Shores.#TelAirInterests#CineVideoTech#EnterpriseRent-A-Car#FloridaPanthers#StanleyCup2024

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Camera scouts, Trail Runs, and music videos from days gone by. The Saturday blog begins now.———-Being that I was left to my own devices the end of the week. I was impressed that I kept a very busy schedule. Friday was no exception. The main event was heading down to Homestead to meet my Director of Photography Egon Stephan and his wife Kat at our location for Sundays concert shoot. It was an insanely rainy afternoon as we met at Tilt Ranch located in the Redland section of Homestead.This will be the location for our Sunday concert with the hip-hop/jazz group Foom! Producer/Guitarist Theo from the band joined us as well as our audio man Chris for a run-through of everything needed for Sunday. We checked for power. Figured out what was needed for lights and all our camera positions. Now we’re just hoping for much better weather than what we saw Friday. But such as life in the tropics. ———-On my way into Hollywood this morning I stopped for a run at the historic Greynolds Park in Northwest Miami Dade. This was the go to park of my childhood. The third park ever in Miami Dade County. This Civilian Conservation Corps project made this former limestone quarry into a park oasis in 1936. I have fond memories going back to my childhood picnics, church events, and lots of hiking through the trails. Something I still enjoy today!Seems that Greynolds is getting a makeover as construction is going on all throughout the park. Glad to see Miami Dade County investing in their parks system. This is also where I played my very first golf round at the age of four. Such great memories of my childhood.———When cleaning out the archives, I found this fun picture from one of my sets circa 1987. I’m trying to remember the music video but I I definitely remember the experience of five people trying to look into one small monitor. It was back in the day when our productions were fast and streamlined. But such as the life of a video producer. I can’t remember how many videos I directed in my hay day. But I can’t recall any that were not fun. ———Saturday is the final day of prep work for the shoot on Sunday. Time to go to Enterprise to pick up a truck. Then out to Doral and The HD House for my rental monitor and Terradec wireless monitor system. Then finally to load the truck with gear and craft services into my car. It takes a village to make a film! These are my truths. My pronouns are he, his and him. Much love from the Film of Florida!#Foom!#TiltFarmS#GreynoldsPark#TelAirInterests

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