I was flattered when Mitch Aunger, the creator behind the successful website Planet5D.com (devoted to all things Canon HDSLR), asked to do a live web interview with me. We met at NAB last month at the All-In Film event, which I had invited him to, and he recently saw the latest 48 Hour Film I DPed, and asked if I wanted to do an interview. So tonight at 9pm EST I will be having a web video interview with Mitch. I imagine will talk about cameras and other fun toys, as well as some of my other work and my favorite breakfast cereals. Read more…
Blog
Another 48 Hours
So here’s how it went down:
At 7pm Friday night, my buddy Keith texted me: “Sci-fi”. I responded: “Ick”. He wrote back: “I’m sorta thinking ick also”.
I was about to embark on my sixth effort in a 48 Hour Film Project and Keith had pulled Sci-fi as our genre. I didn’t really want to make a Sci-fi film. Neither did he. We had the opportunity to throw it back and go for the “wild card” genre, but that could have been worse. Read more…
NAB Wrap-up
I just got back last night from my first trip to the NAB Show in Las Vegas, and after a good night’s sleep I am now beginning to feel human again. It was a short trip, only there for 2 full days, but I sacrificed sleep in order to pack each day with as much stuff as possible, and my head is still spinning a little from everything I saw and everyone I met. This trip also included what will hopefully be the first of many All-In Film Charity Poker Tournaments on Monday night. It went great, and was well received. I will go through my highlights of the whole trip for you all. Read more…
Giving Back
I am very excited that today I get to announce the “All-In Film: Charity Poker Tournament” that I conceived to take place during the NAB show in April (National Association of Broadcasters). Last fall when attending and shooting at the “Blogs with Balls” conference they held a similar tournament and it was a blast, so I am (not so subtly) taking their model and running with it. This promises to be an awesome event. It will take place on Monday, April 12th at the Hard Rock Casino’s very swanky Poker Lounge. This will be a great way for industry folks to meet-up and we have a few celebrity filmmakers that will be in attendance. Read more…
Beauty and Beautiful Cameras
This past week I had two shoots in NYC for Image Source. I did my first shoot with them back in December and it was their first time using the Canon 5DMkII, but they were thrilled with what they got from it and liked the stuff I was shooting. The client I worked with on that shoot (Lisa Curesky) passed my name on to other art directors at Image Source and photographers they work with, which landed me these gigs. I went into these jobs pretty stoked as the content of these shoots (“beauty”) was different than what I am used to. I have certainly shot a ton of people with the goal of making them look as good as possible, Read more…
Meeting of the Minds
Last weekend I did a second project with photographer Jack Hollingsworth. We hit it off on the first job I did with him back in December, and seemed to have similar styles and way of working. This time, Jack hired me to shoot a video to promote him as a photographer. He really understands the power a video can have of giving potential clients a glimpse at his style and personality, which will ultimately help in getting him hired. So Jack had a two-day photo shoot planned, doing several lifestyle and glamour photography with 10 different models, and my job was to shoot behind-the-scenes footage of him working. Read more…
Do We Need 3-D?
I haven’t really posted on my (young) blog my general musings on industry trends, but it’s my blog and that’s what I want to do tonight. I have been thinking a lot recently about 3-D technology. These thoughts were certainly sparked by the release of Avatar and all the hype surrounding the new 3-D technology James Cameron helped to invent for this film. I have to admit that when I first saw previews for this film, it looked unappealing to me (some may think that comment is blasphemy, and I apologize). I am not really into fantasy-based movies, and while it appeared to be stunning visually, I figured I could pass. Anyways, after it’s release and all the hype and some rather positive reviews I figured I’d check it out in 3-D. Read more…
A Shift of Focus
I am experiencing the lull that often happens in January. Now that I am entering my fourth year as a freelancer I am more comfortable with this lull and feel confident that things will pick back up. Fortunately I’ve had some editing projects for shoots I did at the end of the year, a few shoots in the past week, and some bookings for bigger projects in the upcoming months. Plus it’s been nice to have a little breather. (Too bad, though, that this annual lull happens to coincide with the crappiest Boston weather, as it’d be lovely to spend this time outdoors.) I’ve been able to do a some long-needed housekeeping on my computer, and gear storage and also start to flesh out some fun personal projects I hope to do this year. But it’s also given me some time to think about the biggest change that will be happening later this year: the birth of my first child. Read more…
A New Year
Well it’s a brand new year, new decade, and a good time to reflect on the past year and come up with goals for the next one. I had the good fortune of spending New Years with my wife and some other folks in sunny Jamaica, on a work/pleasure trip. A friend of mine is developing some property in Jamaica into a resort/tourist attraction and he hired me to come down and do some video and photos of the progress. I went down 2 years ago, when he was just starting out, to do a video, and he wanted to update people on the progress. It was not a lot of work, and frankly spending some time (especially in the winter) in 85 degree weather was a treat. Read more…
Chasing Robots
The other week I had a long week of travel, shooting videos for Kiva Systems. Kiva makes robots and software used in order fulfillment distribution centers. I have been working with them for about two and half years now; they were one of my first clients when I went freelance and also one of the only jobs to come through Craigslist. (I have done about a dozen videos for them now, so it just goes to show to keep your eyes open for all possible job leads.) This particular job was to do two case study videos on two of their clients, DJO Medical Devices and Diapers.com. Our plan included shoots in three cities (Indianapolis, San Diego and Reno) Read more…