One view into the commercial photography/film business...
Another film we won an AVA award for was the proof of concept we shot and then cut together for Fullbridge after a photo/video trip to Korea.
The crazy thing about this film was that it was shot in only four days of filming. Out of those four days, two were interview days, and on top of that, it was constantly raining with only about 3 hours of sun. We really had to hustle in order to get enough “B” roll footage.
This film was awarded a platinum for cinematography.
All well in Madrid. First day of shooting (12hrs straight) went great. Great client, great subject matter, great food… What could be better?
Sitting in the hotel room downloading data… just thought I would take a sec and talk a little about some of our films that we were lucky enough to be recognized for in the AVA awards on Friday.
The first film I want to show again was probably my favorite of 2011. The film, called “PUSH,” was shot on location in Wampatuck State Park with the sole purpose of experimenting with the slow/quick technology in the new Sony F3 Super 35. The film includes our very own Rabbit, and our summer intern Scott Wesson. (thanks guys!)
The itteration I submitted to AVA was sans the “behind the scenes” component, however it probably does a bit more good to have the first part of the film included as it talks about what exactly we were doing.
Hope you enjoy!
Just got some good news…
Last night the AVA awards were announced. When our friend and colleague Tim Llewellyn texted a “congratulations on the award,” I was a bit confused.
We had submitted some of our work on Tim’s urging, but never expected to win anything.
I was totally surprised when I logged on and found that we had won 7 Platinum, and 4 gold awards. I will try to rep-post some of the films this week.
We are off to Spain today for a week of shooting, so look for some road posts. Thanks to all those involved with the production of the winning films! (you know who you are!)
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the number 33 in front of this “Behind the Scenes,” but this is our 33rd in the series. It’s pretty cool and talks about how we shot time lapse footage whiles on location in Madrid.
Enjoy!
One of the things I love about Nikon is their NPS program. If you are not a member, you really should look into joining.
There are two big aspects of the membership that we take advantage. First, is their replacement program. We are pretty harsh on the gear, and usually have one or two pieces out for service. When this happens, the NPS has program in which they FedEx us any item we need for use while our gear is off-line. (very handy indeed!)
The second thing we take advantage of is Nikon’s Priority Purchase Program. In a nutshell, every time Nikon releases a new bit of kit, the members get first dibs on getting the units. This month, we got an eMail letting us know the new flagship camera, the Nikon D4 was out and immeadiatly put our order in for two.
Hopefully next month, we will be getting a call from Newtonville Camera (our go-to camera shop) in order to pick up the new toys.
If you haven’t joined, take a look at the NPS program. It is well worth the free membership!
Just want to take a second and say goodbye to our fall intern Ryan. After 4 long and hard 200+hr months, we can surely say we are going to miss him.
Ryan primarily spent his time working the box learning Adobe Premiere, and for the past 5 weeks, has been working on an epic Alaska road film we are cutting (look for it in the spring.)
We wish you the best on your journey! Thanks for the hard work.
If you’ve followed this blog, you know we love to do our annual holiday film. This year is no different! From all of us, to all of you… We hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Just finished the latest Investigator Profile for MIT RLE. This film was cut for MIT RLE using interview and “B” roll footage left over from the Carl Zeiss Research Award film we did for a PR firm in Germany in conjunction with the The Carl Zeiss Company.
I rarely post other content on our blog, but I just watched a very cool short on design that I think is worth watching… Thanks to Erica Gorochow and crew for this very cool video. Make sure to check out her site. I love how she shows her portfolio.
We have been testing the Atlas 30 from Cinevate. It has turned out to be a very cool bit of kit and has made it onto the set of most of the film work we have been doing as of late.
Here is a short “Behind the Scenes” on the rig, as well as some of the footage shot whilst on the origional job we used it on.
We were contacted by a PR firm in Germany to help them with a unique event.
The Carl Zeiss Research Award is given every two years for special achievements in the field of glass research. This award is often the precursor to the Nobel Prize.
As we have a close relationship with the Research Lab of Electronics where Professor Fujimoto (this years recipient) is affiliated, we were a natural partner in order to create a film to be screened at the award ceremony.
This opportunity was a win win for RLE as we would then be able to use any additional footage shot to create an “Investigator Profile” for Jim.
Stay tuned for that film…
We just delivered what I consider to be our best Work N’ Gear film yet! Sometime last year, Anthony Modano (the AD over at WNG) came to us with this very cool idea.
He wanted to create a series of shorts that featured the Work N’ Gear customer using the theme “Driven.” We had some prelim meetings, did a proof of concept, and the series was born.
This film, “Driven – Jim Weston,” gives us a quick look into the life and passion of woodworker and drummer Jim Weston.
The film is the first in a series of five that will be completed over the next year.
Work N Gear has been a great client over the years with the work ranging from product and model photography to some really cool film projects.
We are very thankful for the on-going opportunity to push the envelope with them, as well as work with some inspiring Art Directors.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out some of the past “behind the scenes” with Work N’ Gear, here are a few of the films
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Just delivered a new film for the M+Vision project in Madrid. Pretty cool indeed.
We are scheduled to go back to begin another film next week, and are pumped to be back in Madrid!
If you are viewing this post in an RSS feed and want to watch the film, click HERE:
Back off to Denver for the day.
At Starbucks this morning (4:45) the barista asked “How can you go just for the day?!?”
I agreed for a brief sec, but then remembered just how easy it is thanks to JetBlue. The priority security line, the priority boarding, the non-stop flight, the extra leg room, and the satellite TV makes it a really enjoyable trip.
Perhaps I may feel a bit differently at 11pm tonight as I board the red-eye home, but we’ll see.
The only thing that might be better is our own plane… I’ll have to work on that!
Once and a while I get surprised in this daily grind and find myself totally stumped.
After day upon day of getting pushed, kicked, disrespected, turned upside down, wallet forcibly removed and evacuated of all contents, I was truly not ready when I saw the quote from Hertz tonight.
I have to fly to Denver on Thursday for a meeting. It’s going to be a surgical strike… Leaving on the 7am Jetblue outbound, and taking the red-eye home that night.
If you’ve ever been to DEN, you know that they put it about fifteen pig-fu#ks away from Denver. Really a pain to get there if your an independent guy like myself. Oh well I thought… Just rent a car and I will be fine.
Off to Hertz I went and plugged in the data…
Who woulda thunk…. $14 to rent an almost brand new car for the day. Surprised….
Thanks Hertz for taking care of your Gold Members.
Here’s the behind the scenes film for a day shooting for Reebok at Exposure Place in Waltham. Thanks to all my guys, as well as TEAM for perfect hair and make-up.
If you are viewing this in an RSS feed and can not see the video, click here:
We are a bit behind on cutting our blog films (thankfully cuz of a back log of work) but we finally had a day to sit down and start to catch up.
This is a short on the building of our cyc wall here in our new studio.
Shooting today on the 128 rim with another tech company. Thank God for the Magliner from Filmtools cuz carrying all that crap from one room to the next is such a drag.
I’m not sure what he has been up to… but I think young Rabbit has been hitting the gym.
The funny thing about this photo is that in actual reality, Ryan (our fall intern) at 5′ 6″ and 120lbs can not even lift this bag off the ground. (The bag is actually filled with 2 C Stands, 4 stands, a boom arm, 4 blade stands, chords, and a whole bunch of other small crap…)
If you have been following our work over the past couple of years, you have seen that we have been up to our asses in elbows trying to keep on track with all the video interviews we have been doing lately.
The dirty little secret of the video interview is that it can pretty much be shot anywhere. In fact, in a pinch, we have even shot one with the subject sitting in a closet, and the camera in the hall…
Closets aside, the most important factor of all is the audio. Get stuck with a loud HVAC, an unruly shipping department in the next room, or door slamming looky-loos and you can find yourself up a creek without a boat.
Yesterday, we shot interviews for a bio-tech company here in Boston. We had gotten the word before arrival that we were scheduled to shoot in the cafeteria. Ok… sounded good in the eMail, but when we got there and checked out the scene, we quickly realized that on the other side of the wall were the kitchen’s freezers (and compressors.)
Because the compressors were cycling on and off, the room was a no-go for audio. We quickly punted, and found an office we could strip down and set up our gear.
One of the things you will notice in the photo is that we use the actual color seamless we want (in this case white) as a background and NOT “green screen.” Sorry folks… but in my opinion, green screen is LAZY. Although more difficult to light, and the need for twice as much equipment, having an understanding of lighting and taking the time to properly illuminate the background will net you a much better looking piece of film.
For this shoot, we used 4 tota lights to evenly wash the white seamless in the back, and used a tungsten balanced Diva Lite just above the subject for a beautiful key.
I just realized that we have not yet written a post on our fall intern MC Ryan… (sorry Ryan) It’s not cuz we dont luv ya…
I really should take a sec and introduce the mac-daddy Mr. Ryan G. This is his 5th week here with us and we have covered a ton of ground. Ryan is a graduate of the Temple Film & Media Arts program and has brought a unique set of experiences to “bear.”
Over his five weeks, we have gotten him up to speed working with Premiere, let him get his hands on the Sony F3 Super 35, and given him a chance to write some music for some blog films.
Right now, Ryan is midway into a cut of a film project we are working on called “Alaska GSA” which is slotted to be finished before Thanksgiving.
I consider our intern program an important part of our company and are starting to think about our winter internship slot. This will begin in early Jan just after the winter break. This internship will also be weighted towards post production, but will also combine a bunch of pre-production work for a summer feature we are shooting (more on that later…)
If you, or anyone you know might be interested in the opportunity, stay tuned to the blog. Calls for applicants will go out in mid December.
Very excited…
Today we went old school and hung an 8 foot chalk board on one of the empty walls so we can use it to flush out all kinds of nutty thoughts. (looks tiny in the photo against the wall… but its 8′ if you can believe it. (we still have lots of empty space to fill in the studio)
We also hung a white board in one of the editing bays to use as a “Job Que” in order to keep track of all the on-going movie jobs that are stacked up. The biggest learning lesson thus far… We need another board.
Full on madness around here this weekend as we make the move to ID every single thing in the studio. It’s inventory time, and EVERYTHING must get logged…
It’s a serious question for any artist. Just what the hell do you own? So many of us don’t really pay attention because the reality of doing an inventory is just to daunting. But what if there was a loss? Fire? Theft? Just how in hell could you ever recover all the little bits and pieces…?
Daunting or not, we have been putting it off for just too long and are finally ready to tackle the challenge. We went ahead and picked up a Brother ProXL label machine (that prints barcodes) along with a barecode gun and have kicked it into high gear. Everything is getting a label and I mean EVERYTHING. Every camera, every lens, every CF card, every computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speaker, drive, stand, strobe, weight, toolbox, drill, battery, telephone, cable, printer, shop desk, chair, and on and on and on…
Once a barcode is generated, it is scanned and logged including make, model, serial number, service date, and value. With this data, we can hopefully keep better track of what is here, and what is not, as well as gauge a total value of all the hard and softwoare we are sitting on.
If you have not done this, I urge you to at least spend a second and think just what you would do if you suffered a loss… If not the small stuff, at least get a list going of the large stuff. The big brush strokes and at the very least, get it on your homeowners or renters policy.
Wish us luck!
The road is a constant theme in our biz… Like a wanna-be band of way-word Kerouacs, we hop this way and that across the planet in search of who knows what.
Intrigue, inspiration, high adventure… After all this time, it’s probably a little bit of everything. The only real certainty is that we are back out on the road, and that the road is good.
I should keep my mouth shut not to tempt fate, but today is the best kind of travel day.
First, Starbucks bestowed a small gift by opening a half hour earlier, which means we to grab a proper cup of Joe.
Second, we are traveling super light, which means no checked bags.
Third, we snagged the second exit row (which means both extra leg room and a reclining seat.)
And fourth, we are on a non-stop flight.
At this point, we’ll sit back, relax, an enjoy the flight…
Off to Denver today for a surgical strike. Meetings at 2, work tomorrow, and the. The red-eye home.
Seems like we have been shooting and editing non-stop for the past two years. Just cranking these films out one after another… We are so fortunate to be able to keep cranking along with this “Investigator Profile” series.
Anyway… here is the latest iteration focusing on Al Oppenheim. Al is a fellow pilot, and a really interesting guy. His lab was exclusively theory, which is always a bit difficult to illustrate on film.
If you have been following our posts, you will have read that Final Cut Pro is dead… This film is the first film of ours cut exclusively with Premier. So far, we are loving it. I will try to write a post on the experience when I get a free second…
I hope it goes without saying that we love what we do. I think if we didn’t, it would be fair to label us as insane. Perhaps at the very least masochists. The long hours, the sleepless nights, the early call times, it can truly wear a body down. The only real way to escape the cold hard reality of the downside, is to be in love with the upside, and that we do.
I think this passion has really manifested itself in this obsession with our on-going series of “Behind the Scenes” films.
At any rate, here is the latest one that was shot in our studio whilst shooting for one of our long term clients Work N’ Gear. The subject was health care clothing.
A big thanks to all my guys, as well as TEAM, Models Club, and Click.
