My buddy Keith asked me to shoot a video of a recording session for his new album “Seethrough”. Keith is a charismatic, “interesting” fellow, and one of my favorite people to put a camera in front of so I couldn’t say no. Read more…
Posts Tagged ‘director of photography’
Keeping up to date
So remember (probably not) a few months ago when I blogged about wanting to keep more up-to-date on my blogging and what I’ve been up to? Yeah, well it’s March 22 and this is my first blog post of 2012. So much for that.
In 2011 I only uploaded 5 videos to Vimeo. Not that it really matters, but I do think it helps to keep things more current. I know part of this is because of things mentioned in the post linked above, namely that what I do is not necessarily made for “public” consumption so most of you may not care. But still, since Vimeo basically serves as the easiest online portfolio of my work, it’s good to show prospective clients a range of recent projects. So without further ado, here’s 3 projects, completed in the Fall/Winter of 2011 which I’m adding to Vimeo, and a brief description of the project and some of it’s challenges: Read more…
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…
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…
It’s small, it’s HD!
So back in April I wrote my recap of attending my first NAB conference. I discussed how one of the items I was checking out to buy was a new HD field monitor. I wanted something to work with my 7D (which I was starting to use more then) and my EX-1 (as well as any other camera going forward). I was most interested in the existing Marshall 7″ offering, the prototype Marshall 5″ and the SmallHD DP-6. I settled on the SmallHD and soon after returning from NAB, pre-ordered one. The big selling point for me (other than image quality) was that the DP6 would have HDMI, Component AND HD-SDI inputs. Neither of the Marshall monitors had that. This meant it would work with any camera out there, which was a huge plus. They “guaranteed” that we would have the monitor 75 days after purchase. That was fine; I wasn’t in a huge rush. Read more…