sirius thoughts

We had the fortunate crossing of paths with David Pescovitz while enjoying watching Tartufi at a Rock Make street festival. And this is not the first time David, Stacey and I were staring at Brian Gorman making chit chat. The difference, we had shot a PR photo set for Tartufi that were gracing postcards prominently displayed on the merch table. It came up that we had shot the photos, and we naturally asked about David’s BoingBoing t-shirt. Bob’s you uncle and our photo illustrative narrative style is making an appearance on his culture blog. David was kind enough to send us a link when it posted, and then I checked our web stats … kaplooey!

This was the synergy of a number of professional efforts that we had been undertaking. It was a natural starting point for us to leverage all of our talent assets and resources to develop a photo style that mixes reality, sets, photo manipulation, lighting and direction. And I believe we made the right choice to pursue a content/creative style that came from our heart (ours being twisted and darkly funny hearts). Not the kind of work you find in the largest amount in San Francisco where you mostly see commercial-lifestyle-best-douche-ever photography. But I think we’ve always felt enough confidence and bond to the work to believe that if we do a good enough job, there’s stuff our there just perfect for us.

So this is certainly the largest traffic push we’ve had come through (except maybe a weird Vimeo thing I just discovered). And we’ve been fortunate enough to be included in a couple other marketing pushes that I can expand upon later (after publishing of course). But until then, we’ll keep doing what we like doing and hopefully more people will keep liking that.

Had a wonderful time last week clicking off a bunch of looks for friend/hair stylist Akemi Tarembuchi as part of a project for diPietro Todd Salon. Such a smooth and enjoyable experience pushing photons while keeping shadows. I find it tremendously rewarding to have someone appreciate your work pick up on the little things that I feel are important. And it’s nice to have them show up with a bunch of awesome girls from Look and Stars and an awesome creative team. As Akemi is so tremendously busy, the project deadline is not for another couple of months, so I’ll have to keep the goodness under wraps until then. Much wild and wonderful hair was had and it was lovely to light. And hopefully this will be the first of many more fun and interesting projects to come!

And thanks to a quick referral, I truly appreciated the wonderful help of Michelle McCarron in jockeying lights and flags and nets around. It always makes quite a difference to have attentive and capable hands on set … it makes the results sooo much better.

The whole of the A’s spots are not hitting the airwaves and internets near you. Nine spots in total, all with a wink and a nod to their very wry humor. I had a great time working these together, and meeting (and exceeding) our aggressive production schedule. Most memorable for me was probably looking down the backside of the bull after hearing some not-so-great stories of on-set mishaps. Especially with Suzuki yelling and throwing stuff. The bull however could care less and was the most docile thing I’d ever seen.

Or perhaps the best was on our last spot, Dartboard, where Bailey threw the dart so hard that it stuck into the cinderblock wall. We all had to stop and admire his handiwork for a sec.

Either way I had a great time working with the guys and gals at Hub pulling this together. Can’t wait to be on set with them again.

Here’s the result from the green screen biking gag I shot the other day for Elastic Creative / Cisco.

Click the image to watch …

Received a nice note that two of our photos have been selected to show at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado for the month of July. I did have an inclination of what they were after as their show theme is consumption – something we’ve been toying with lately in our work. And one of the photos, the lush overhead shot titled THE DAY WE STOPPED, was awarded an Honorable Mention. Woot! The other photo selected was the wonderful chaotic mess titled ABSINTHE. Interestingly both projects have a short art/editorial film we produced in tandem with the photo shoot. ABSINTHE will in fact be playing at the 12th annual Artsfest Film Festival in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the end of this month.

Here are the two photos and films …

Click here for THE DAY WE STOPPED.

Click here for ABSINTHE.

As for the details … in both instances we used the Nikon D3X for the still capture with strobes and relighted for motion using the Red and daylight balance lighting (HMIs, kinos, etc.). Absinthe was shot overcranked 60fps for 24fps.

Had an interesting shoot the other week with Elastic Creative where we had to capture an exec bicycling through various streets from different angles and such. Now I’m a big fan of doing things practically, but this was the perfect time for using green screen. It solved a number of issues from having to jack the cost up with either a camera car or process trailer, depending upon the weather gods to smile, maintaining focus and having the proper locations scouted and locked. Not to mention the nightmare of light and shadow control. Plus since they wanted all sorts of angles, we’d need a crane and scout more locations to match. And as we’re dealing with an exec, his time was extremely tight … you don’t want to spend days dragging him around to various locations. You’re luck if he stay for the few hours he can commit to.

So green is good – but creates a new problem: how to have him realistically ride his bicycle. The easy solution was to simply put him up on a bike stand a tilt the image in post. But you lose the perspective shift that happens in a ride by and his weight will not be positioned correctly on the bike. Enter Josh Koral and the good folks at ACME. The same guy who made the outdoor living room in Justin Herman Plaza I shot for Elastic a while back. He made a simple but effective bike rig that gave us great control over the rig to tilt and spin it while he was riding. And there was just enough play in the handle bars to do a little twisting for the turns. The result was awesometown.

And how about that crane shot that was ordered? Well, that’s the beauty of having a tall stage with your own scissor lift – easy high angle shots (as long as they’re static). That’s our Red up there strapped to the top with Joe E. Rivera making sure it doesn’t take a header.

And here’s the final film.

A little bit ago it certainly was hard to dodge all the news about Apple’s forthcoming iPad. And I was tuned in to it fairly heavily as I could see how the media was ready to embrace a new possible outlet for their relevancy while others were spiraling down the drain. (I remember being offered a newspaper job in 1999 that was almost too good to be true, mainly because they wanted me to help usher them into the digital era. I of course saw no future in it past me being the “Quark Guy.” So I jumped ship and got into streaming media … yeah I digress.) So here we are some 10 years later and while there is a place evolving for my old position, this new platform is solving a problem I’m having right now.

As we’ve made our headway into still photography as a medium, we recognize our intrinsic value of actually knowing how to do motion work while a number of photogs are trying to make heads or tails of it. And the agency side is muddying the waters as they figure out who’s going to work for who. In the meantime, if I walk into a portfolio review with just a printed version I’ll only be pitching a portion of our program. Enter the iPad.

Stacey and I were discussing the launch date one night, and weighing the pros and cons. What was it, who will use it, will it stick. As she was a proud newton owner (I could only lust for one), she knew the value of a smartly-designed handheld input device. But initially we didn’t think it was for us – yet. We saw a future with one or two hanging around with perhaps a little extra income. But after a little bit of analysis we hit on our sweet spot. The ability to show both beautifully reproduced still images and video on a smartly designed presentation for portfolio reviews. One cheap enough that we could arguably leave it behind and then have returned to us. I quickly found myself opening weekend at the Apple store picking one up before they became scarce.

Now that we’ve sipped the kool-aid, we are using it as fully as possible. A quick check of email in the morning while trying to assemble Ozi off to school. Sharing a couple of movies with the kiddo while killing some time. Not having to find a power outlet while waiting for class to get out or he takes a romp about a playground. Observing as the industry tries awkwardly to adopt a new platform by incorporating video and motion graphics. And setting up a portfolio presentation that shows we know enough to help guide a traditionally print medium into a rich experience (so it’s not so awkward).

And the sweet part is that the presentation is delicious. It’s a good size compromise for looking at both still and motion work. I did a new pass on our motion work with the Apple TV settings and the results are just nice. Of course, everything always looks best when big — but this is the right tool to address this audience of one. Now someone has to write the perfect portfolio review app that handles images and motion and we’re good to go.

Here’s the first couple of about 10 we shot in Phoenix just before Spring Training. This one was fast …

And then they got tiny …

Stacey and I hosted an APA SF Motion event at the studio the other night. And they had me sit on the panel to help explore the difference between the still and motion worlds. Moderated by local (and outstanding) ouside clicker Martin Sundberg and providing yin to my yang Portland shooter Andy Batt pushing the boundaries of motion. We all did a little show and tell and then dove in to the pointed questions of the topic.

The walkaway I understood was that there are different levels and types of video production. Some that photogs are used to, that require smaller crews and are more nimble. Others are larger undertakings that DPs are used to where it takes a small army. More over, motion guys have had to work large and small and understand the crew and approach depend largely upon budget, location, scheduling whatever. When possible, you put the right guy on the job so you can focus on the larger equation (they keep their eye on the minutia). Or another way to look at it: just as you choose the right tool for the job, you also choose the right crew for the job.

I see a Photographer as a production company, and as a result they can easily take on video jobs, provided they know how to scale to a project. The photog has been acting as a producer, director and cinematographer, sometimes as gaffer and (photo) editor, the list goes on. Smaller projects will require little flexing, some simple, non-scripted run and gun. But if you start to apply a narrative in most senses, you begin to need control. Angles should match, sound plays a huge role and they must consider film language, editing and other post workflows.

I think the happy ground, especially in my concern, is not that photographers will be taking over motion production, but rather facilitating it. For someone like me who directs and/or shoots I can find a compatible interface and I speak the language. And let’s say that the job grows bigger and needs a soup to nuts type of treatment. We can help support and work with the photographer to handle the whole motion side of the equation and still work it through their umbrella so they interface with the clients. This is just some of the benefits of having helmed our own productions already. And for the ethics question, I can point to the studio business, that a number of the rental clients are friends who bring their clients in to shoot. if I were to start hitting up every production that comes in, I would quickly gain a bad rep, lose a lot of friends, and ultimately lose a ton of business. So I see a good vision of the future … now I have to do the work to manifest it.

And there were some points / jokes lost on the crowd, like this one for instance. As Andy had learned from his efforts into the moving world, you have to have that b-roll.

we have a great couple of weeks coming up at the studio with some interesting projects. it seems our studio opening coincided with the upswing in the industry – bully for us. and we are taking on more commercial projects in a deeper level before matching our efforts in our narrative work. the fusion of print and motion has let us find a great home for our personal work. and we are starting to get interesting requests from the community at large to do bold and dramatic projects. I’ll post some specifics later but coolness abounds (always have to check with all parties before getting too vocal). on top of all that the studio is starting to take on a life of it’s own and making its own thumbprints on the local community. initial response has been extremely positive.

we’ve started to get our promo plan in swing getting our unique brand of work out. cause now more than ever it’s time to go big.