Solar Bears

For the past three weeks, I have traveled with a small crew of talented individuals filming this three-part series promoting the use of solar energy thoughout the United States.

The project was directed by Alan Blake of Blake & Co.
Director of Photography: Peter Fernberger
Sound/Data/Timelapses/General Trouble Maker: Ted "NWA" King
Camera Operator: Derek Decelles
Producer, Camera Operator: Moi

This lovely actress featured in these webisodes is Christine Daley.

Here is webisode II.



If your computer is manly, you can watch it in HD. (As it was intended)

Solar Crayons

For the past three weeks, I have traveled with a small crew of talented individuals filming this three-part series promoting the use of solar energy thoughout the United States.

The project was directed by Alan Blake of Blake & Co.
Director of Photography: Peter Fernberger
Sound/Data/Timelapses/General Trouble Maker: Ted "NWA" King
Camera Operator: Derek Decelles
Producer, Camera Operator: Moi

This lovely actress featured in these webisodes is Christine Daley.

Here is webisode I.



If your computer is kick ass, you can watch it in HD here:

"Elephants"

Early this summer, Peter Fernberger and I were asked to go shoot an ambitious music video for Casey Shea.

The video for "Elephants" involved A LOT of green screen work and it had to be completely shot over one weekend. Ultimately, we decided to shoot the entire project with my Sony EX3 camera, the Letus Ultimate DOF adapter, and my Nikon prime lenses.

The project was conceived and directed by Ryan Stober. He envisioned a video where Casey would play both himself and a sleazy coffin dealer.




The only other talent on set was a "trained" black cat.

Alongside Ryan was an extremely talented Visual FX Supervisor named Robert Morris. It would be his responsibility in post production to combine all the footage that we shot with Maya generated environments and props. For anyone familiar with Maya, this was no feat.

It took several months to finally put it all together, but you can view the finished product HERE. (For fluid playback, you should give it a minute for the buffer bar to fully load)

Music videos can sometimes be torture to work on. After dozens of music playbacks, you can never get the song out of your head. However, I came away really liking this song. More importantly, I though that Casey Shea was one of the nicest and most professional musians I have ever met.

I sincerely hope that this music video does wonders for the careers of Casey, Robert and Ryan.

Tastemaker Series

I have always wanted to work with Robert Redford.




For the moment, these one minute spots that we shot for the Sundance Channel will have to suffice.

Tastemaker - Lisa Phillips

Tastemaker - Stephen Starr

All work and no play ...

I have now worked every single day (Including weekends) for almost a month. My camera and I are booked solid through August 24th.

At this rate, my entire camera system will be paid off by my birthday.

God, I need some rest.

I thought I would include this postcard from the edge.

Even thought the title of this post comes from another Kubrick film, when I look at this on-set still, it reminds me of Clockwork Orange.




As you can see, when you work with my Sony EX3, you need to be flexible.

The Only Difference Between Men and Boys Is the Price of Their Toys

Since I only seem to talk about politics on this blog, it is not very obvious that in college I majored in film-making.

However, after four years of film school, frustratingly I didn't get many chances to shoot film. Instead, I found myself spending more time as an Assistant Director and Producer/Production Manager. Since I am approaching 40, I thought it was time to remedy this by buying myself a serious camera system. Call it my mid-life crisis.

The camera I decided to go with is the Sony EX3. It is the first small HD camera endorsed by the Discovery Channel to be 100% broadcast-worthy. Much to the dismay of my check book, I added to it the Letus Ultimate depth of field adapter. The adapter, which looks a little like an elephant trunk, allows me to use the fast Nikon prime lenses that I already own, instead of the stock video lens that the EX3 comes with. To add insult to injury, I added the Arriflex MMB-1 Matte Box / Follow Focus system and Zacuto plates and rods. When all is said and done, I basically could have bought myself a new BMW and a vacation to French Polynesia.

Here are a couple pictures of the fully built package.*

*(For those people in the know ... I have mounted the should pad under the lens assembly simply as a place to keep it out of the way and the hand grips would normally be removed while on the legs.)






On our first weekend together, we spent our honeymoon in one of my favorite places, Shelter Island, NY. I grew up on the island and it holds a special place in my heart. I picked it because our house there is spacious, clean and quiet. This is essential when learning a new camera system. The island also has a number or good locations for camera tests.


The beach and the nesting ospreys.




Time lapse sunsets from Serpentine Road.



With any camera system ... and this one especially ... you are forced to become your own technician. Some of this equipment is very specialized, and I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was taking stuff apart and putting it back together again.





With each day this is getting easier, and I hope that by the end of this month I no longer need to carry a bottle of aspirin around with me.

Hopefully I will post some test footage in the near future.

*Special thanks to my novice assistant camera person, and unpaid personal photographer.