I’ve been pretty lucky this fall that I’ve stayed busy with a lot of shooting, but haven’t had too much travel beyond the Northeast. I do enjoy, in theory (and usually in practice) the idea of traveling for work, but I often hate the hassle of airport travel with lots of gear, connecting flights, etc. I also like to come home at night and see my family. But still there is an adventure in business travel, and it’s part of the job, so I don’t generally turn it down when it comes my way. Read more…
Blog
Honoring a Legend
I recently completed a project for Rosie’s Place, a homeless women’s shelter in Boston, for their annual “Funny Women, Serious Business” fundraising event. This was the fourth video I had created for them (including this piece that I did last year). Earlier this year, Kip Tiernan, the founder of Rosie’s Place, passed away, so they wanted this year’s video to be a tribute to Kip. I had met (and filmed Kip) on a few occasions in the past, and she was a very interesting woman, with a long history of social activism. I felt pretty honored and inspired working on this project, knowing that I needed it to feel worthy of Kip. Read more…
The Big Ole Lens Test Party
This all started because on a daily basis, it seems, my Twitter feed is chock full of discussions about how lens X is SO MUCH better than lens Y, etc, etc. People talk about how much better a certain lens looks over another and I just don’t buy it. I mean, I would guess that there is a difference, and I’d hope so for the difference you can pay between cheaper and more expensive lenses, but I just couldn’t imagine that on the same camera, the differences would be monumental. Read more…
Keeping Up With The Joneses
It’s been all quiet on the blogging front the last few months. It’s not a big deal really, and I’m sure my loyal readers (hi, Mom!) have gotten over it. But I just feel annoyed when I look at my site and see that I’ve posted nothing in the last few months. When I started this site I had grand visions of, at the very least, weekly posts about what I was doing, what gear I was working with, and other narcissistic subjects. But that never happened. When I sit down to write something, it is very trying for my words to hit the page, and I just sort of think “why does anyone care” (and this is EXACTLY what I am thinking RIGHT NOW). Read more…
And yet another… 48 Hours
So if my memory serves correct, two weekends ago I shot my SEVENTH 48 Hour Film. (For those unfamiliar with the quite popular, international filmmaking competition, the 48HFP gives filmmakers the opportunity to write, shoot, score and edit a 4-7 minute film in, you guessed it, 48 Hours.) I actually get fairly preachy about how great the 48HFP is, and I HIGHLY encourage people filmmakers of all skill levels to try it out. The most you have to lose is one weekend of your life, and hopefully at the end you have something shiny and new to show off. Read more…
Lighting With What ‘Cha Got
As I’ve written about before, I like shooting interviews, and it’s sort of the mainstay of my work. I know it’s odd, but I sometimes imagine the perfect interview setting, with the perfect wall colors, the perfect background props, the perfect lighting, the perfect audio, etc. It’s weird, I know. Someday I’ll reach this nirvana of perfection and it’ll probably be downhill from there, but until then…
When I was starting out, and my lighting kit was all tungsten (3200K) fixtures, the normal procedure was to walk into a room, close any blinds or window coverings, turn off all existing lights, and start from scratch. The darker the room, the better, as I felt there was nothing to “contaminate” our lighting. Read more…
NAB 2011 Recap
So when I got on the plane to return to Boston after several days in Vegas and at NAB, I had this sinking feeling that I had missed a lot of things and people that I wanted to see. I’m not sure if it was mis-management of my time, my hurting back or the constant beckoning of the blackjack tables, but I definitely wanted to do more in my time at NAB. Oh well. It was still a great trip and I saw cool things and cool people, and I already can’t wait for next year.
So here’s the highlights of this year’s show: Read more…
Welcoming the AF-100
So I recently received my newest addition to my camera collection, the Panasonic AF-100. There are countless sites and blogs that talk about this camera, so I will not go into lengthy details on what this camera does, etc. Most of you that are reading this post probably know a fair bit about this camera already, but I just wanted to post some of my initial reactions to working with it. My time with it has been a bit brief, do to a busy month involving staying home with my son for a week, and some other shoots out of town where the new camera was not the desired tool for the job. That said, I’ve had a fair amount of time to play with it at home, and have taken it on a few jobs. Next month I start some big projects where the AF will be the main camera, so I think pretty soon, I will know all the tricks for getting this camera to sing. Read more…
Happy Holidays
It’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again, but alas, the holiday season is in full swing and the end of the year is coming quickly. Both personally and professionally this has been a highly eventful year, certainly highlighted by the birth of our first child, Owen. My wife, Kate, and I have made holiday videos the past few years instead of sending out cards, and this year we knew that Owen would have to have a starring role. Well, let me just say that I have spent the last couple weeks kicking myself over coming up with a concept that was somewhat demanding for our lead “actor”.Between naps, tantrums, bottles, and diaper changes, it took us a long time to actually shoot this, and here I am, on Christmas Eve day, finally finishing it up before racing off to the stores to finish my Christmas shopping. Read more…
The Power of Words
I feel like a lot of my blog posts recently (as well as many on other people’s blogs that I read) have been very gear oriented. That’s not bad; I like to read about new gear, but I think all this talk about gear gets us further away from discussing and sharing WHAT we are doing. Because ultimately it doesn’t matter what we’re using, right? (I only sort of agree with that last statement, but let’s just leave it at that.) Anyway, I’ve also realized that I’ve done very little posting of what I’ve been working on this year, so I’d like to change that. I’ve been fortunate to have had a pretty busy year. I just wrapped up what was my biggest job to date for a company in Boston, but it will probably be a few months before I am allowed to post the final video. But I thought I’d share a short piece I just finished this week for, Rosie’s Place, a shelter for poor and homeless women in Boston. Read more…