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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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We’re getting ready to kick out a series of photos and a short art film from a sweet session we did a couple weeks ago featuring designs from Sugarpuss! As you can see from the karma shot, Jen Summers uses lingerie to inspire this line. Faces you might recognize include Jesse Bodas, Lisa Zomer and of course set meister Stacey. I am being flanked by the wonderful talent bundles known as Alexis and Angela. Hope this has wet your whistle!

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We’ve seen our way through the first installments of the series we did with Siam. The basement section has been processed and looking delicious. We shot this section last as we knew that even at her chipperest, she would only be able to withstand a few minutes at a time. Plus it took us all day to rig up the box truss and harness to place her up there safely. Such things we do for art.

I think when done, this series and the other section may hang on a wall together, but may not occupy the same frame as originally intended. But things change and you have to open to where the road leads you.

The (super awesome fun time) team reads as follows: photo: Jason Mitchell; production (set) design / retouching: Stacey Ransom; model: Siam, model: Patrick; hair / mua: Mil u Ranon; clothing designer (Siam): Meli Innes-Brown; wardrobe stylist (Patrick): Laura Hollabaugh; rigging / gaffing: joe Mendoza, Jesse Dana; grip: Mike Boyd Williams; set dressers: Rachael Nichols, Mike Boyd Williams; set construction: Tyler Murray; wrap crew: Jewlz Comita

Okay, enough already, show us the pics …

… and I’ll let you know when the short film comes together as well. We always like to double load.

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We are starting to kick out our first bits of work from our Consumption series … and first out the gate is Absinthe. And we’ve melded the photo and motion works to provide a complimentary work for an enriched experience. The photos were captured using a fresh Nikon D3x at 1/250 with an old 50mm 1.2 at f8. And then we retooled the set to work with HMIs and Kinos to do the motion work on Red with the Red Primes 60fps with the lenses wide open.

While the short has a very simple narrative it does bring the story of the photo out a bit, and it leaves in of the subjectivity enjoyed by the still medium.

A taste of Absinthe … and for the movie click here.

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Had an extremely prolific week last week with a pair of photo/motion shoots for our consumption series (described in an earlier post). As always you are as strong as the team you pull together.

For both shoots we had the scrumptious fashions of Meli. She pulled together a couple of gauzie numbers and a special bustle to hide a flying harness. The details are always what make the outfit with little red bows dripping down the legs and black leather straps.

On hair and makeup was the freaky stylie Mill and some fantastically big hair. I had to grab a couple specials just to highlight his concoctions. The makeup was superb and flowed with the concepts nicely providing a great punch.

And I am a bit biased, but Stacey rocked three kick ass sets to put our models into an ocean of goodness. She flipped one of the old-money sets from the first shoot to make a decayed decadance for our Absynth drinking damsel. You could put the two next to each other and you’d be hard pressed to see the similar bones.

We topped it off with some lovely motion captures that should cut into something interesting. I’ll hopefully run it through next week and have a little something to show for our efforts. I finally have the edit suite up and running at the studio. It’s painfully easy to work there in the little opportunity I’ve had so far. There is a photo shoot in there Sunday that will give me a some more time in the seat.

Another important detail is that I need to dial in the music to the piece. Something that will compliment it and find the right tone. Again, a chance to dabble in something hehe.

I’ll post up a couple of karma shots when I get home (writing this post while killing time at the tattoo shop). I want to make sure you know everyone who’s responsible for what has become. Especially cats like Joe Mendoza and Jesse Dana who helped hang Hattie through a ceiling from a box truss. It’s nice to have commrads with skills.

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I had the good fortune to team up with Eric Shamlin on another project now that he’s made his move over to JVST from Goodby. As is happening these days, they had a campaign that needed the talents of both a photographer and director/dp. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii was making it’s push out and due to the concept at the time, they needed someone who could shoot a range of styles and stay true to the vision. The funny / ironic thing was literally the day before, Stacey and I were talking about career paths and shooting Resident Evil came up. So, uh, check.

As the industry goes with combining acquisitions, this was for print campaigns in SF and NYC plastered all over the trains and subways with corresponding web banners with motion.

And as a bonus, they opened it up to worldwide and the UK tossed in a concept.

Each setup for the US was shot both still and motion. In the directing I found myself playing the roll of the zombie to get the proper reaction when there were two ‘normal’ actors in the shot. I’m sure it must have hilarious to be down the hall from us and here me doing repetitive zombie roars (or shouting some non sequitur). And due to the cross shooting, I again chose to go with a gaffer (Charles Griswold from Little Giant) and a photo assistant (Lauren Stocker) to shape lighting and ideas … plus they’re good company on set.

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