Follow up to the Biking shoot
Here’s the result from the green screen biking gag I shot the other day for Elastic Creative / Cisco.
Click the image to watch …
Two photos selected for gallery show
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.
Biking on the green
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.
First A’s spots making it out
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 …
A’s commercials in da can
Just returned from a week in Phoenix at the A’s spring training facilities shooting commercials for the 2010 Oakland A’s season. I had a great time working with director DJ O’Niel of Hub Strategy, and brought along Joe Mendoza to light and Aaron Meister to AC. I was thankful that I could bring in these key players as it proved pivotal to handling our super tight schedule. We scouted for a day and a half, picking angles, calling lenses, figuring blocking and light placement. It’s always nice to have a firm game plan going in to battle … especially since we had about two hours to shoot each spot.
The combination of key players worked together very well, including the producers/creative team from Hub and local hire keys as AD and Key Grip. So well that we were able to grab an extra spot one day and finish early every day (except the last day when we were just on time).
I’ll also have to give big ups to the A’s players who were wonderfully humored and let their natural talent come through. We ended up with some pretty funny stuff in the can.
Working with multiple players can always be a challenge as their time is tightly scheduled. Add in such variables as live bulls, firecrackers, tight restrictions on what can go on a baseball diamond and you’ve just opened a whole can of worms. But at the end of each day, and the end of the week, it was smiles all around. I’m looking forward to the next time we get together.
Early on in the process we talked about what camera to shoot on. Hub has an EX3 they’ve been using for the bulk of their work. We knew the schedule was going to be tight so we explored using a DSLR with video (like the 5D Mark II) as a light weight rig that would be easy to move around. Two things made us go in a different direction …
When we explored the scripts closer and crafted the shot list we saw we were after between 3 and 5 shots each spot. And I received a quote for a kitted out Canon 5D Mark II package with the proper accessories to shoot our setups (multiple lenses, focus rings, matte box, etc.) the quote wasn’t significantly less than a Red package (at least one in SF). I had a talk with Joe and Aaron about the different setups and we decided the best too was going to be Red.
I am no fan of carting large camera packages through airports, mainly due to the horror stories that I’ve heard from boxes tossed around spilling out. I usually open them and find both a TSA notice and things mispacked after they pawed through them, most often with something sharp resting against something it shouldn’t. Turns out, however that the price/packaging from our source in Phoenix wasn’t matching up. They were much too expensive/wrong equipment and it was cheaper to fly my package out even with USAir’s excessively stupid baggage fees.
The results are often what matter most, and the camera Red was the right call for this gig. And we kitted out their EX3 with a Pro35 adapter so the Red Prime package would work on both cameras. On set, I wasn’t terribly crazy about how they were matching up. But I’ll reserve my judgement until I’m sitting in the color session and it starts to get pushed around.
drinking still and motion
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.
Fiona’s Script at Method Fest
On the heels of finishing up the color correction comes word that the feature I shot in August Fiona’s Script will be playing at Method Fest in LA on Saturday, March 28, 2009 9:00pm – 11:00 pm at the Founders Hall, Calabasas Civic Center. Triple bonus is that it will screen in HDCam which should make for a great transfer from the Red footage. The look was quite dialed in during color correction to accentuate the different story spaces in the film and highlight Fiona’s transformation of self.
If you’re in the LA area check it out. I know the director and a number of Actors will be there. Not sure if I can break away to catch it, but I’m sure it will be fun.
too delicious …
Cool! So one of the Doritos spots I worked on (camera op) and provided gear for was selected as the top five! It’s a great spot and made possible by the talents of a number of people involved. Good friend Bob Brindley plays in it (and it’s where I was introduced to Erin Coker). The Dandy Dwarves put it together and did one hell of a job at it. The concept was a last second game plan and I thought it was pretty cool when I heard it. Just the right amount of off-the-wall.
So now what … head over to http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com and click to vote once per day (for TOO DELICIOUS)! The top vote getter is going on TV during the Superbowl! To see the spot spot directly check http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/video/330/
The spot was shot on our Red with the Red 18-50mm T3 zoom. A smattering of HMIs fleshed out the landscape with some kino fill. I also appreciate the details like the name of the company as Dusterman and Crunché.
lucy’s in the can
Finally getting the chance to catch up on jotting down some notes. And I’m happy to say we are wrapped on principal photography on Lucifer’s Crewcut! This has been a long and awesome show. Just two more bits of shooting for fx and we’re done acquiring. In the meantime, I’ve been working a cut together to get into color. I should have some teaser clips up soon … especially the dolly shots through their cribs. Those were pretty tight. It will take a little bit to get them just right and I’ll have to do the color first and then comp the 10-bit pro res clips to maintain a consistent look and quality. I’m pretty happy working in Color to preform look surgery on the Red material.
But for now, I leave you with some of the photos grabbed by Mark Brecke that really capture the days.
The glory days of Lucifer’s Crewcut!
Jason talks the shot over with the amassing throngs of extras. Sal provides moral support (and comic relief).
bud spot
You can see the finished spot here …
http://www.poptent.net/media/7033
and a little karma photo at the end …
