 Today is episode is sponsored by Squarespace Hey, happy Spotify rap season or don't December whatever you celebrate technically it is January when this video is getting released So a lot of you have probably already mentally moved on from the holidays And yeah, some of you probably finally took a dump, but fuck it Let's go back for a minute and review my personal holiday season as we've been doing for six years now I know that I said that I wasn't gonna do another one of these but here we are anyway So I guess I'm just a liar and you can't trust anything I say ever So I'm basically a politician this holiday season was a bit of a letdown if I'm being honest There was certainly quite a bit going on But I pretty much just worked and worked and then worked some more until I threw my hands up and said fuck it and just went Home for the holidays. Of course, I also shot some ectochrome But we'll get into that in a little bit doing YouTube is my full-time job now So in this video, I'm pretty much just running all over the place like my ass is on fire You know stuff like going to events shooting campaigns and even doing some action-packed editing that'll leave you on the edge of your seat This video truly has it all this joyous time of year began with our dog Baxter doing what he does every day Sleeping on the human couch and occasionally throwing tantrums when he feels like his sacred presence is being ignored Got a new camera so I can actually See myself in screen Still look pretty bad Ectochrome Christmas maybe this year. I have a new appreciation for Ectochrome this year I'm gonna be shooting with my contacts t2. I have not shot with it all year that cameras basically Ice like bling, you know what I mean water because I haven't shot with it all year the battery is currently dead So let's replace that Dude, I swear I can never find a quarter When I need it What should I do with the old battery? That's right toss it in the ocean good to go Let's put some film in it try to ignore the mess, but if you've been watching for a while, you know that My office is always like this this year on the podcast We're doing like a holiday special the podcast is momy amigos if you're not following along I hate you and we're doing like a white elephant sort of thing. So I Got a gift here. So it's a shirt It says I'm not afraid to go to hell. I've eaten at Arby's Whoa frame change the lighting is a little bit better here tonight We're going down to San Clemente, California for the release party of Phoenix 200 today is the 30th of November Phoenix comes out tomorrow all this shit is film I'm gonna be going to Spain the biggest Fania in a couple of days Literally right after the event in San Clemente getting on a plane flying over to Spain for like a commissioned project Yeah, so you see this shit I need to dethaw this Cinna still at BWXX role was like literally stuck Up here in the ice like Luke Skywalker on the ice planet hot Forgot my phone charger So I still love you probably Yeah, so this year Monaco was going to give the old film thing ago She shot a little bit and even did some developing in high school, but has since strayed from the path. Yeah My god, I wanted to start her new journey off with 8 by 10 But I decided to go easy on her and just lent her my Manolta freedom zoom a point and shoot and after watching all my videos Over the years. She was a total natural the continental breakfast aka the poo stopper That morning started off pretty strong Not only did Harman release their new surprise color film Phoenix 200 But some of the folks from the factory tour that I did not too long ago were in town as well And we all got a tour of the dark room They even very kindly turned on the lights and we got to see their dip and dunk processors and the forbidden But oh so tempting chicken noodle soup that develops all of our film Aaron to run this morning, but That's over with Just bit my tongue still got some extra crumb. I need to smash out. So let's do it After all that it was Honestly, it was pretty chaotic We rushed home and then rushed to the airport to board an international flight to Spain where I Jett lagged to the very core of my being shot for six days straight some of the most beautiful occasions I've ever been in my entire life. There are ups and downs as per usual But it was a total sprint to the metaphorical finish line And we made it leg cramps fatigue diarrhea and all our last night out in Spain We went out with some friends and got you know, totally obliterated So the three connecting flights back to LA were pretty rough the next day And well, that's where we basically just reconnected with our main plotline We just got back from Spain last night. The jet lag is starting to get to me I think I shot like 30 something rolls of film when I was in Spain over five days It's gonna be very crazy. I have to turn around these 30 rolls of film in like less than two weeks I think something like that. So I'm trying to figure out the best way to You know split up the the workload between labs and just make sure everything gets done on time The problem is there's some ecn2 in there There's e6 there's c41 and then there's some black and white that's been pushed There's a whole bunch of stuff and not one lab can do all that tomorrow. I'm going to run to 35 m pro I haven't used them before but I'm trying them out because they can develop c41 in like less than 24 hours Which is uh quite nice for a project like this. My friend joey was Selling off some uh some hp5 in 8 by 10. So I bought it off of him should get that in soon man I don't know I'm just drawing a blank. I'm probably because it's like 4 a.m in spain right now ordered uh monica's uh Christmas present today. I got her a uh steam deck I don't think she would kind of spend that kind of cash on herself, you know She loves to play uh stardew valley and star bound So the other day when I realized I haven't shot my contacts t2 all year I also realized I haven't shot 8 by 10 all year either. I think the last time I shot 8 by 10 was last christmas I'll try to have more functional brain activity tomorrow. Hey, what's up? Welcome to My car. We got a bunch of errands to run this morning. I gotta drop off a Lens at ups. It was a lens that uh my friend won. Let me borrow the foilander 35 mil 1.5 I used it for a lot of low light stuff I gotta drop off this big ass package for the dark room. Um, and then I'm also gonna run by 35 m pro Jet lag update I still am it got a lot done today Kind of It's only 6 30. Um, I think I mentioned at some point. I haven't shot any 8 by 10 this year So I think I'm gonna kind of do a bit more of that in 2024. I'm kind of starting to figure out how I don't know that sounds dumb I definitely have some other stuff planned for 2024 some big stuff that's gonna Alter the course of history. No It's not and that's definitely way too much to promise Baxter says hi Monica got me this in uh in spain It's uh Yeah, it's a pen That uh is the poo The buff express making my daily run to the lab to develop more spain stuff more spain film I guess I went to a party last night and I felt like a bit of a zombie. I'm like Deathly afraid to look behind me. It's probably at least Five Coke zero bottles back there not filled with like piss or anything just um because I've been drinking them to For like caffeine Um today is the 15th ordered some gifts from my mom last night I still don't know what I'm gonna get my brother every time I ask him. He just calls me Dumb I just got a package from Joey Friend of the channel. Oh, wow. Here's the hp5 Let's see what else. Yeah, fp4 With more Gotta wipe that off, man, and then He sent me this So uh that unmarked role was actually x-ray film that joey sent me I'm not a radiologist and I've never shot x-ray film And I don't really know much about it other than it's black and white If anyone has any tips on how to shoot it and how to develop it let a play and know Also, I got my cinestill 400 daddy in 4x5 as I'm sure you also did if you ordered it after that Monica was packing up to uh go back home and leave me with Baxter Which meant it was going to be party time at the apartment No girls around to make the rules and tell us when we can and can't eat kibble Nobody wants to see you. I know. I know he's the store Oh boy, that's an angle Maybe someday we'll own property and be able to put up decorations and have fun This house Is definitely haunted Drop Monica off at the airport last night So now it's just me and Baxi. He's being a little needy right now because it's five o'clock Which means it's just about his dinner time and he's always a little bit nicer around dinner time I got in the box from a glass key photo. So let's pop it open I don't even remember when I ordered this to be honest with you That looks pretty good to me. I think I just finished The first batch of film. It was like Six rolls? No, 12 rolls. It was 12 rolls of 120. I got some more Black and white 120 coming in this evening. I haven't even started the 35. I think I'm gonna start that tonight but um Yeah Just woke up made some coffee ready for the work day to begin the past four days have been nothing but photo editing video editing I've basically been glued to my computer probably less than 200 steps a day. You know what I mean? I've put a good uh dent in it, but I still feel like I'm only 30 percent of the way Through tomorrow, uh, we're gonna go record a podcast sort of an emergency podcast today. We were supposed to record. I was Uh brutally sick, of course So we're just gonna do a uh Caleb and Jason podcast tomorrow and then I'm thinking Saturday we head up to the bay. That'll be the 23rd So cutting it a bit close. I still have to get my brother a gift. I'm thinking RAI gift card. I know that that's kind of a uh non thoughtful gift, but F*** it. He makes more money than me probably. He's getting a gift card Okay, I'm giving myself a hard deadline tonight 11 p.m. Right now it's 8 30 Uh, the deadline is to finish these images and then just Cut it off for the time being Fun times Yeah, I feel like I've just been redlining it for the past two weeks. I'll just finish up these photos and Hit the road bring the contacts t2 with me and try and finish up that roll of ectochrome. I'll also bring back to her Do you think if uh, you got abducted by aliens? Yeah, sure and you're like lauren I just got abducted by aliens. Do you think you'd believe you instantly? Oh, I mean, we're married now. So I think I think uh, I think I know. Yeah, no I don't think monaco would believe me either Yeah, so anyway, I basically got as much work done as I humanly could but I was still quite backlogged Wise and work wise. Neff was enough though, and I really shouldn't miss Christmas with my family So I hit the road due north because I knew my mom was making her legendary gooey butt cake Which always gives me heart palpitations, but you know what? It's always oh so worth it If you can uh name in the comments every song playing in my car during the drive up based on only these brief clips here Then you will have unlocked possibly the greatest reward known to mankind my respect About halfway. I stopped for gas food and to walk my dog pig I bust out the contacts t2 and even took a photo or two because gas stations are so photogenic on film as we all know Eventually, I did make it to northern california with the most precious thing in my life That's right my contacts t2 and yeah backster. I guess we got to work looking for food sleeping and taking camel sized dumps in the backyard All right time for some content some holiday content abc always be holiday content and gift card For my brother kind of smashed because it's been in my wallet, which has been in my ass Biggest bag we have More boxes for your cat not you well of all those animals howling looks like um They all stepped on like a lego or something That night instead of getting totally blasted on whatever creative alcoholic concoction We can come up with we decided to head out and take a stroll through this holiday light display thing that my mom had heard about Does the ectochrome in this video look a little bit different to you? Maybe so I read up a little bit on ectochrome I was just kind of looking for a An alternative way to scan it or shoot it just something some kind of new look You know, I've been shooting it for six years now And I've just never really fallen in love with it as you probably already know Traditional ectochrome has sort of a purple blue cast to it quite a significant one if you ask me and because that it was You know never really my favorite film stock throwing the usual kodak high price tag And well, you can see why I didn't really shoot it too much Anyway, after a little bit of internet digging some people online have speculated that the bluish cast exists on this film Because it's a slide film and was meant to be projected like for example How people used to go on vacation shoot a bunch of slides and then come home Invite their friends over to sit in their living room while they projected these slides onto the wall and show them their Vacation it sounds pretty lame, right? I mean who wants to go over to a friend's house to watch basically a powerpoint presentation of somebody else's vacation Not me don't invite me to that but I guess I don't know back in the day People were constantly bored and that sounded like fun to them because I guess back then they didn't have the Totally sick stuff that we do nowadays like xbox 20 minute pizza delivery and online blackjack These old slide projectors used light bulbs that let off a very warm color temperature So the theory here is that the blue in ectochrome is sort of a holdover from back in the day And it's there to kind of bounce out the warmth from the light from the projector. Is that true? I don't know probably not because I read it on the internet, but let's try it anyway The color temperature of the light table that I use for scanning is 6500 kelvin and uh, I'd want to get it down to about 3200 kelvin to simulate the color temperature of a tungsten light bulb Luckily for me there is a lighting gel called the 204 full ct that I can place between the suspended ectochrome and the light source when scanning to Rebalance the color temperature down quote-unquote accordingly. Does it make a difference in the scans? Yeah, totally a good difference though. Well, I suppose that's subjective. It's certainly warmer, which is nice I mean, it's not going to save a photo that you shot in the middle of the day But otherwise, yeah the default blue ectochrome overwash can really take control sometimes And I think this effectively eliminates that Anyway, unfortunately real life eventually came calling and real life in reality sucks I still had a mountain of work. I need to catch up on so on the 26th I drove two times the speed limit back to southern california with old backseat baxter How does that in my chamber? Baxter had his dinner about 30 minutes ago, but that's not going to stop him From wanting my dinner as well should be back home in about three hours or so And uh, I guess I'm just gonna do some more scanning and editing tonight. I got some film in while I was gone Okay, whoo huge head been home for uh Maybe about an hour I've kind of been scrambling around rushing around because one of the two packages of film I was waiting on developed film from From spain one of the two packages says it was delivered In or at my mailbox, but it ain't in or at my mailbox anywhere. I've like quadruple checked I'm gonna go in tomorrow and see if They know anything kind of sucks seven rolls of film from spain that was like 25 of what I shot lost rolls of film Update I went to the post office this morning. They don't know what happened to it Basically, they called me about an hour ago and we're like we delivered it to the wrong unit So I went over there. They're not home. I left a note on their door. I guess I'll update you when uh If that gets resolved. All right, so still no package This whole thing has been It's been a saga it seems like nobody knows what happened to this package Courier says it was delivered to my neighbor neighbor was incredibly nice They say that they haven't seen it courier also said that the label was misprinted We found a I guess they photograph every package that comes through the usps. They photograph the label The label was not misprinted. So I don't know which really sucks because seven rolls of film for a commission project What's up? It has been A very interesting couple of days. I went to the building manager and asked if we could look at the security camera footage Turns out package was delivered by the usp also service just as it should be a couple hours later Uh, somebody I mean took it they stole it basically very frustrating because As soon as they opened the package, they probably saw it. It has no value to them and then they just Probably threw it away. It's been about five days I Don't really think I'm gonna see that package Yeah, it just really sucks because it was uh Seven rolls of developed film From spain medium format 35 millimeter film stocks that are no longer made anymore is ectochrome panther 50 and retrochrome I don't know I'm just feeling kind of uh Defeated right now. I don't want this video to end on a bad note. I'm gonna see a chance of you All right, welcome back to uh My messy office. I'm about to go out and shoot a video with kaleb But we're going out to the desert again pretty standard formula for my videos at this point Um, like I said earlier in this video I have not shot any 8 by 10 this year. So it is going to be an 8 by 10 video We have a two sheets of portra 400 leftover I think i'm just gonna kill them off. We also have some uh fp4 here it expired in 96 And then we've got good ol hp5 with uh Sh** stains on it pushed to 1600 which is kind of an odd move on 8 by 10 But we'll uh, you know, we'll get it done. That might be the end of uh Hector chrome christmas this year. Was it fun? It's never fun But uh, if it's fun, you want to have real fun Then why not build a website through today's sponsor square space if you're new to square space? 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You can start a free trial today at square space comm slash grainy days If you use the code grainy days that check out you can get 10 off your first purchase So that's that I can't believe I've been doing this series for six years now I thought for sure I would be done after last year, but it just keeps coming back like gonorrhea I do kind of feel like new life has been breathed into this series a little bit Ectochrome is still not really my go-to film stock, but with this new technique for scanning It certainly makes it a lot more interesting, but it also presents its own challenges too I suppose film photography is all about challenges and then you know overcoming them Which makes me wonder why we even do this in the first place I was a quite a bit happier with the ectochrome shots on this go around and I can even see myself using ectochrome again In the future now that I've sort of, you know, cracked the code It only took six years. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed another year of uh Slice of Jason's holiday life and uh, I'll see you next year Maybe if you're lucky if I do ectochrome christmas 7 Should I split it into two installments like they did with the harry potter franchise? I guess I'd have to actually find interesting stuff to do I know So the craziest thing just happened. I just got back from a movie Yorgos lanthimos poor things shot on ectochrome not important Uh monica got a call on her cell phone asking if somebody named jason lives in this apartment Of course I do we let the person in the front gate and he Hands me I guess like it's just an unmarked box I didn't really make much of it because that's just kind of how deliveries go sometimes and uh, so I open it up and it's film And I'm like, oh, okay Well, I ordered I did just send some film off that I should be getting any day now But I look closer at the film and guess what it's roles and roles of my stolen film I don't know who this guy was He said sorry for the confusion or the mix-up or something at the door and I was like I didn't really know what he was talking about. He didn't have any Postal service or any like uniform on or anything like that. I don't know It was kind of a strange thing, but inside the box is just all my roles my lost roles from spain, so um That's good Well, I guess now that means I have more work to do