Landing in Montana

The Jobs

This past week was pretty hectic with 2 jobs in 2 states, requiring 6 flights over 6 days.  The crazy thing was that 2 weeks ago I had a clear schedule for this past week with nothing booked.  Then one job came up, and a week later another came up.  I do find that’s often the case; I’ll start a month thinking it looks pretty light, then all of a sudden it will completely fill up.  Destination 1 was to Las Vegas.  Now, I’ll rarely turn down an opportunity to go to Vegas.  To me it’s one of the best (read: dangerous) business destinations.  You’ve got gambling, great food, great shows, and you’re getting paid to be there.  Oh, I guess there was work too, but that didn’t get in the way of fun.  The job was for FanDuel, a UK-based fantasy sports website, that was holding their 2nd annual Fantasy Football Championships.  They wanted to produce a video to highlight the competition and use it to promote FanDuel and their competition for next year.  Now I am HARDLY a football fan, but I don’t think this put me at a disadvantage.  The gig consisted of 2 days of shooting, 1 was interviews with all 11 finalists and then the next day was filming during the competition itself.  We setup interviews in a suite in the Palazzo, and shot 2 cameras (Sony F3 and Canon 7D) with the same setup for each interview.  Fortunately we had a pretty large room to work with (for a hotel room), to setup a nice looking shot.  We very much wanted to give the whole piece an ESPN vibe, and hopefully that will come across in the edit.

F3 Frame Grab

Then second day was more event-style shooting in Lagasse Stadium, the largest sports book in Vegas.  FanDuel had a decent size private room with about 50 people watching the games.  This was probably the first time in my life I spent an entire day around people watching football.  The finalists were playing in a 1-day fantasy tournament, vying for $75K for 1st place (out of a $150K prize pool) so there was definitely a lot on the line.  I still am not sure I totally get the allure of watching football for an entire day, but I like the idea of winning $75K, so it made it exciting to watch the standings shift throughout the day.  The room was pretty dim, so we shot with on-camera Litepanel Micros, and cranked the ISO a fair amount (which is VERY clean on the F3), and basically filmed….people watching tv.  There were some dramatic moments throughout the day, though, and I think in the end we’ll cut this to look like a fun, exciting event.

Getting Vegas scenics at the Bellagio

F3 Frame Grab of people watching Bellagio Fountains

Next up was Missoula, Montana.  This was my first time in Montana, and I knew it would be beautiful.  The job was to shoot a segment for the Today Show about a 29-year old unemployed firefighter, who was recently diagnosed with cancer, and is using IndieGoGo to raise money to cover the costs of his treatment.  I met the producer in Missoula, and we shot for a day and a half, interviewing the man and his sister (who was heading up the fundraising campaign), and filming them in their daily lives.  We even went ice fishing early one morning, which was a first for me.  Missoula was a pretty epic place to film, with gorgeous scenery, and frankly since I spend probably 80% of my time shooting in doors, it was just so nice to be shooting outside (even on a cold, frozen lake).  I think we got some great stuff, and I am excited to see how it comes together.  (It’s slated to air on December 22nd, if you want to check it out).

Shooting in Missoula

F3 Frame Grab

F3 Frame Grab

F3 Frame Grab

Natural light interview setup

F3 Frame Grab

F3 Frame Grab

What I Brought

The biggest hassle of travel is figuring out what to bring.  I am completely envious of many business travelers who walk on the place with a small roll-on case and that’s ALL THEY NEED.  That would be freeing, but instead I have to go through expensive bag checks, lugging heavy bags throughout the airport.  Frankly, I think I pack on the lighter side compared with many people I know who travel for video production.  I had 5 bags in total, 3 checked and 2 carry-on (Kata HB 207 backpack with the cameras and lenses, etc, and a laptop bag).  My big checked bag is a Kata OC-88 which I can fit lights, stands, and other gear in (and my clothes).  The second was the Pelican 1510, which I usually use as an audio case, but I rearranged the dividers to use it for audio, some lenses, and the KiPro Mini and batteries.  Third, I had a tripod case with a tripod, boom pole and another light stand.  The biggest issue I find is getting my Kata bag to stay under 50lbs.  It’s VERY easy to load it too much, and I’m always rearranging stuff to try to keep it below 50, otherwise they’ll gouge you with additional fees.  I was meeting my assistant Mike in Vegas (he was flying from NYC), so I brought only 2 lights and stands (an Arri 1k w/ Chimera, and an Arri 300) and he brought 2 stands and his 2 Litepanel MicroPros.  This helped in keeping the bags light enough (although my Kata was 52lbs, but they let it slide).  We used all 4 lights in Vegas for the interviews, but in Montana Mike (who wasn’t joining me) and I swapped lights and I took the Litepanels and he took the Arris home with him.  The producer for Today said he wanted to use as much available light as possible, and we ended up not lighting anything.  I think for next year I want to build a small all LED light kit with very small stands especially for flying, because it is hard to keep the weight down.

This trip was also my maiden voyage for my new Sony F3.  I’m not going to go into a lengthy review of this camera (which has been out for a year and reviewed extensively) but I was THRILLED with the results.  I had dialed it in at home, using picture profile settings that I got from Abel Cine Tech, and those worked great.  The camera has a fantastic image and is definitely a step up from my AF100 (which has been a great camera, but the F3 was the one I really wanted last year).  I was using this with the KiPro Mini, which worked great and allows me to deliver ProRes files to NBC, which makes their life easier (and soon will be able to do DNxHD which will be even better).

The new rig

Here’s just a short list of the standout features of this camera for me:

-It works like my EX-1, so the menus and buttons were very familiar.  That’s great.

-I got new lenses for this setup, using Nikon lenses (my Olympus lenses for the AF100 won’t work with the larger setup).  The 17-35 f2.8 and 28-70 f2.8 zooms are pretty compact and have aperture rings (which I really hadn’t realized was such a huge deal).  I pretty much used these 2 lenses the entire time, other than an old 85mm f1.4 that we used for interviews in Vegas.  I think these zooms (while not parafocal) are very good as variable primes for video use.  Very sharp too.

-The KiPro worked great.  I was worried about only having 2 Anton Bauer TrimPac batteries, but I never ran out during the day of shooting.  The whole rig, which is rather heavy, is actually very balanced on the shoulder.  I wasn’t using my DP4 EVF, but even so I could just use the LCD pretty well off the shoulder.

-One of the biggest PIA of the AF100 was no expanded focus on the LCD.  I loved the EX-1 LCD, and the F3 is (I think) the same monitor, with phenomenal peaking and expanded focus.  I always felt the need to use my SmallHD with the AF100 for focus, but that wasn’t an issue with the F3 screen.  This makes the rig much smaller (especially in Vegas, where I was shooting handheld without the KiPro most of the time).

-The low noise at high ISOs is amazing.  I shot a lot during the FanDuel tournament at +12 and +18 (3200/6400) and sure there is some noise, but it’s totally fine and probably looks like +3 or +6 on the EX-1, and was way cleaner than the 7D we were also using.

-The image quality is just amazing.  It’s very sharp and detailed (which I like, although some like a smoother look).  It seems to have a wide latitude and I found it handled the higher end of exposure better than the AF100.  I always found I really had to avoid bright highlights or pushing skin tones too hot, but the F3 seems to handle this much better.  There is definitely more picture control too in the profile settings.  I am not using the sLog update, which many rave about.  Personally it’s not totally ideal for me as I often hand off footage to other production companies and editors who wouldn’t want to deal with sLog footage, and want more of a baked in look.  I know that many poo-poo the notion of shooting this way, but I think it works out quite well for many projects and saves time in the back end without doing heavy grading.  I’ll probably get the update next year, but since I just spent a small fortune this month I figured I’d wait.

So that was my week.  I am writing this from my last flight (of 6) of the week.  I am looking forward to going home and seeing my family before having a shoot in Boston tomorrow and one in NYC this weekend.  Whew.

-

I didn’t get the new car just for work, though.  As I’ve written about before, my wife and I are having our first child (any day now), and we needed to have a second car.  Since I travel a good amount for work, I didn’t want to leave her and the baby at home without a car.  It took me a while to warm up to getting a minivan, but it really is the most practical car out there.  A lot of the compact SUVs aren’t that much bigger than my Mazda and I liked having a third row of seats.  Plus, I know several people in production with minivans and they could fit so much gear in it, that I knew it was they way to go.  Really, the only thing that disappointed us when we began our search, was that currently, there are no hybrid SUVs.  When I bought my Mazda 6 years ago, I assumed my next car would be a hybrid.  Well that will have to wait, I guess.  When we began looking at the options, the only 2 minivans that seemed to be in the running were the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.  As far as minivans go, these were the “coolest”.  And on closer inspection, the new 2011 Toyota Sienna, really took the cake.  (Thanks, in part, to their excellent marketing campaign including this great video.)

So on Wednesday, we picked up the new addition to our family.  The thing is pretty massive.  We really could probably move into it and sell our house.  I am excited to take it on a shoot and have lots of room to spare.  I also will not hesitate to rent or bring bigger production gear on shoots.  In fact, I can probably seat 4 or 5, plus the amount of gear I bring on a normal shoot, which is something I could never do with the Mazda.  I am thinking of building some sort of shelving system in the back with compartments for stands, light cases, camera bags, etc., for even better storage of the gear.  The dual sliding doors makes loading stuff in a cinch, and the way the rear seats fold flat into the floor is awesome.  Surprisingly the car, as a whole, feels more like a luxury vehicle than a family car.  Basically, I am sold on the concept of the minivan now.

It sort of bums me out that what is now the most expensive piece of gear in my “kit” won’t really make me any money, but I guess that is how it goes with automobiles.  Now my only fear is that I am going to get asked by my friends now to help them transport lots of their stuff.

So in the vein of the “unboxing” videos that are popular online (where people shoot themselves opening up new products), we decided to shoot a funny little video ourselves.  Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is one of the recap videos I put together for the Blogs With Balls conference that I shot at in Las Vegas.  I assure you, this was as much hard work as it looks.  Read more about this trip here.

All-In Film

This definitely had to be the highlight of the whole trip for me.  This event was about two months in the making and I was excited and nervous to see it all come together.  I put the event together with two Twitter friends (now real life friends too!) Rob Imbs and Justin Carlson.  We didn’t meet in person until this trip and it was so great to meet them, and I could not have pulled off the event without them.  We had some awesome headliners at the show including Rodney Charters, Shane Hurlbut, Vincent Laforet and Kevin Shahinian.  Philip Bloom was the first to sign on but got very sick and sadly could not attend.  In addition we had close to 150 people play in the event.  Some I knew through Twitter, and it was awesome to meet everyone in person.  We held the event at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge which is probably the most beautiful poker room in Vegas.  Very swanky.  I found the whole event to be somewhat chaotic for me, in terms of getting everyone in, dealing with prizes and such, but from what I could tell everyone had an awesome time and we look forward to doing it next year.  I certainly did not play my best game of poker as my head was in another place, but I was seated with some good people and we had a lot of fun.  In addition we gave away about $18,000 in prizes, generously donated by over a dozen sponsors, and (the biggest highlight) we raised $7500 for the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund.  This was much more than I expected and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  I saw lots of people taking video and pictures at the event and I hope to see and post some of them as they appear online.  But thank you everyone who helped make the event a success.

Before the cards started flying

Rodney Charters and Vincent Laforet

The winning hand

All-In Film winner Tom Eberts

Meetups

The general theme of NAB for most people was making connections and meeting people, and this was one of the biggest highlights.  I started using Twitter about a year ago, and there were probably 50 people that I “know” on Twitter who were attending NAB.  Several of them I have gotten to know pretty well online.  So having the opportunity to meet up in person was phenomenal.  It’s definitely funny to go up to people or have people approach you and start chatting like you’ve known each other for years.  People asked about my wife’s pregnancy and other stuff that I share online, which I think is pretty cool.  I imagine that pre-Twitter (or other social media) the NAB Show would have been quite different in terms of meeting people.  It sort of makes it easier to connect when you already know quite a few of the names and details about the people.  On my last night there 7 of us went out to a great dinner at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grille and had an amazing meal (the coffee rubbed filet mignon was like a religious experience).  I already can’t wait to see you all again next year, but am glad we have formats like Twitter to keep in touch.

The Show

Oh yeah, there was the show as well.  The NAB Show is beyond huge.  I walked into one of the several rooms on the first day and it was cameras and gear as far as the eye can see.  Truly a techno-geeks heaven.  It took me 2 days just to see what I wanted to see and I still didn’t see everything.  By the end, everything was kind of a blur of cameras and toys and such.  The two biggest themes at the show were 3-D and DSLR video.  I really didn’t care that much about 3-D (as I have discussed here) but there were some interesting demos and setups.  I think 3-D is here to stay so I am sure I will be shooting it soon enough for some projects, but I really hate those darn glasses, and while certain shots are quite cool I find it still a little blurry and not nearly as sharp as 2-D.  I am not sure if that is my vision or the technology, but I would take some good 2-D most of the time over 3-D.

Panasonic's 3-D setup

DSLRs were reigning supreme and almost every booth featured some sort of accessory for the DSLR filmmaker.  Having started shooting with the Canon 7D late last year, I am excited to see the growth of this market and think that companies like Canon will have to (and have begun to) start addressing some of the weaknesses of the cameras when it comes to filmmaking.  I watched some presentations by Laforet, Hurlbut and Bruce Dorn at the Canon booth where they showed the creme de la creme of what these cameras can do.  I drooled over the new Zeiss Compact Primes specifically designed for Canon DSLRs.  These slick lenses will have a price tag out of the range of what I am looking to spend now, but I know my local rental houses will carry these, which will be great for certain projects.

Prototype Zeiss zoom for Canon DSLRs

Having the chance to get hands on with virtually every manufacturer’s gear was great for helping to make informed purchasing decisions.  I really want a new field monitor for both my EX-1 and 7D and checked out Marshall, Ikan and SmallHD.  I ultimately decided on the new SmallHD DP-SLR.  Great image, lots of features and includes HDMI and HD-SDI.  I also wanted to check out a second tripod.  Something smaller than my Sachtler DV8 which could also go lower and higher.  I found a good Manfrotto combo that fit the bill.  I spent some time looking at the new Litepanels offerings.  Seriously considering adding one their 1×1 panels to my kit.  Very cool product.  They have some more expensive lights that will compete with bigger HMI lights and run quite cool in temperature.  I just think the whole LED lighting technology is quite amazing and look forward to the day of never having to overheat my set or talent with hot lights.

My buddy Bill Parker checking out a Litepanel Ring Lite

Fujinon/RED setup. Lots of pretty girls posing at the show.

Joseph Stunzi working the crowded Zacuto booth

A disheveled self-portrait

Vegas

I love Vegas.  It is great for about 48 hours until the ringing of the slot machines starts to get to you.  I wanted to go around and do some shooting on the strip and in nearby Red Rock Canyon but really didn’t get a chance.  It was fun to hang out with new friends though at the poker and blackjack tables and some of the cool bars and restaurants and talk shop.  I am definitely planning to return to NAB next year and will hopefully be running the 2nd Annual All-In Film!

I loaded up my car with more gear than I could possibly use (and could possibly fit into my Mazda) and headed to NYC.  The shoots were over two days, each with a different photographer, art director, studio and models.  Each day also had a different concept and look.  On the first day (working with David Goldman) the theme was a “Splash of Color”, where we wanted high-key glamour lighting with one dominant color in each shot, be it in the makeup or the props they used.  On this shoot we used the Canon and lit the models with three Kino Flos “wrapped” around their faces.  This gave us a very soft look.  On the second day (working with Christopher Robbins) our concept was “Metal”.  The makeup artist (the excellent Agata Helena) used shimmery, metallic makeup on the models and we lit for a more contrasty, dramatic look.  On this shoot we used the Sony.

On both shoots we had two setups, one for shooting stills and one for shooting video.  Since the photographers were lighting with strobes we couldn’t share our setups (and in fact we couldn’t shoot simultaneously as the strobes would mess up the video).  Being new to working with photographers I enjoy watching how they setup, and even though some of their tools are different I think there is a lot to be learned from how they light for stills.  (And I know they were both very interested in learning the video side of things so hopefully they picked up some tips and techniques from me too.)  On both days they were shooting with a Hasselblad medium format digital camera (I am not sure the model) but I understand this is a camera with a price tag in the range of tens of thousands of dollars, and man did the images coming off that thing look great.  Even on the raw images that were being displayed on the computer I had never seen anything quite so sharp.  Working in a seemingly resolution-stunted format (even shooting HD video) I was a bit jealous of the clarity they could get when enlarging these images.  Obviously the need for such a high resolution image on the motion side is somewhat limited, but still, I was a bit jealous.

Now on to my little camera comparison:

I have certainly been a huge fan of my EX-1 since I got it two years ago, but buying into the Canon DSLRs in the past six months has rekindled some of my passion for making images.  Still every time I shoot with my Sony (which, actually, is more often than my Canon) I am blown away by how crisp and detailed the pictures are.  So I was really looking forward to having these two shoots back to back as a little comparison.  The bottom line is that they both look great.  BUT, I found that working with the Sony was a lot easier on the second day for one major reason…. monitoring.  I have a nice Dell HD plasma with a Blackmagic HD-Link box to send the HD-SDI from the Sony into the DVI of the monitor.  This box also has hardware in it to calibrate this screen much like a more expensive production monitor.  This gives me EXCELLENT feedback on my color, exposure, etc.  It really feels like what you see is what you get.  Plus the LCD on the EX-1 itself, is both high resolution with great color rendition so even that alone is a great monitor.  The Dell also has an HDMI port so I had planned (since we were in a stationary, studio environment) to use the larger monitor with the Canon as well, but I find that the image I get on the Dell looks much more muted and less contrasty than what I “think” I am getting based off the Canon’s LCD (plus my experience with the camera).  So while it is fine for framing and focus it is harder to use it to adjust white balance or exposure.  David and I both decided that we would just use the small LCD on the back of the Canon, instead of the Dell (which unfortunately shuts off the camera’s LCD when plugged in….otherwise we’d use both).  Due to the lack of “proper” video camera features like color bars (for calibrating an external monitor) or histograms (for checking focus) I find that I can get the images close on the Canon, but that I need to do a bit more work in post to adjust the color and levels of the image than I would have to with the Sony.  In this case shooting against a flat white background, I found it harder to assess the exposure level on the background, and in post I ended up having to bring up the level considerably more than I thought.  (It’s possible these cameras are going to make me relearn how to use an external light meter…. an item fairly foreign to most video shooters.)

Regardless, once I tweaked the colors and levels a bit, I really love the images out of the Canon.  Are they better?  That’s certainly subjective.  The Sony is certainly a sharper, more detailed image, and it’s harder to get a shallower depth of field, but that said, with these subjects we didn’t necessarily want shallow focus (both photographers were shooting in the f11 to f16 range, after all).  I did really like the look of the Canon on the close-up shots, and the ability to put a long, macro lens (the 100mm) creates a look that I cannot achieve on the Sony.  But it’s very comforting to shoot where you know what you are getting based on what is on the screen.

But the images speak for themselves, and I think most will agree that they both look quite nice.  I cut together this 90-second video of selects from both shoots.  I think it’s pretty easy to distinguish the two cameras, but the Canon is the one on the brighter white background.  Enjoy!

I am entering my fourth year of being freelance and am more excited than ever.  Last year, which started out a little slow, and gave me a lot of concerns given the economic “crisis”, turned out to be a great year.  I continued working for some old clients, and picked up a bunch of new ones.  I got to work on a couple different documentary projects, shot a few music videos, and short films.  I traveled a fair amount, taking over 25 flights, and god knows how many miles in a car.  I started using some new technology, shooting video on DSLRs, while still embracing more conventional video tech.  I embraced social media as a business tool and started using Twitter, through which I have made a lot of new friends and contacts, and even landed a couple jobs.  I started my new website (thanks to Rob Baker) and started blogging.  Professionally (and personally) it was a rewarding year.

I hope to continue this trend in 2010.  I am hoping to make some more time for some personal projects, and also cultivate new partnerships with writers and directors.  I would like to expand my work into some other avenues, maybe doing more commercials and tv projects, and further develop the documentary work that I have enjoyed so much.  I hope to collaborate as much as possible and really push each project to be the best it can be.

I want to thank all the clients, colleagues, friends and family that have supported me in my professional ventures.  I feel really blessed to have a job that I am so passionate about and working on projects that help to promote, raise awareness, entertain, or inspire.  Happy New Year!

I have written previously about packing for travel, and fortunately for this job, too, I could pack pretty light.  We were shooting a lot of b-roll with available light in the warehouses, and a few interviews, mostly on the warehouse floor.  I brought only 2 lights and a bounce card, which helped keep things more portable.  All told I had three bags to check (tripod, Kata case (with lights, cables, stands, etc), and a small bag with my clothes).  Unfortunately the airlines have a ridiculous pricing scheme for checked bags.  The first bag is $20, second is $30, and third is $125!  Ridiculous!  The client who I was traveling with only had one checked bag so we saved a bit by having him check my third bag.  But still, in this or similar industries, the costs for checking gear can sometimes surpass the ticket cost.

Our first shoot in Indy for DJO went off well.  I have done three of these case study videos for Kiva already so I am pretty comfortable now with all their lingo and the kind of footage we need so it makes it much easier.  We got to the airport for our flights to San Diego with plenty of time but our flight was already an hour delayed.  We had a short layover in Detroit before our second flight and I was already concerned that we might miss it.  Long story short, we were pulled from our flight because we WOULD miss the connection and found ourselves on a different airline with moments to spare.  So we got to San Diego that night, finally.  But no bags.  All I had was my camera (which I ALWAYS carry on) and some mics, batteries, etc.  No tripod.  No lights.  No clothes.  At this point it was about midnight and we had an early shoot at the DJO headquarters doing a couple interviews.  So, while en route to DJO the next morning we made a quick stop at Target to buy a cheapo tripod.  Something that could at least hold the camera (barely) for an interview.  And I decided to wing it for lighting, and we hoped to get lucky with a well lit space, or we could shoot outside or something.  As it turned out we got very lucky and DJO had their own photo department for shooting their product shots and the guy there had a small video lighting kit of some Dedolights.  And a nice Bogen tripod.  Total score.  That made things MUCH better.  Seeing as this was the second time I have had bags not show up for a shoot (and both times happened to be for Kiva) I am trying to figure out a kit that I can carry on with a small light and tripod with the camera but not sure I can do it if it’s just me.

That’s my rant on traveling.

The rest of the shoots went well and our other flights went off without a hitch.  I got to see Reno for the first time and got to play a little blackjack, so that worked out.  Kiva has been a fun company to work with.  They make an innovative product which is highly photogenic and dynamic so I always enjoy shooting their bots.  They also like to do some fun videos in addition to their product or client case study videos.  We shot this one a couple years ago for them to send to their clients around the holidays.  Earlier this year we made this video to show the basic idea that led to the creation of Kiva Systems.  Enjoy!

Rob and I shot video and stills during the panels, which they will be distributing for people who could not attend the conference.  We also did some shooting during the two parties on Thursday and Friday nights.  One was sponsored by ESPN and was a premiere of a documentary as part of their “30 for 30″ series.  The second night, which was definitely the highlight of the trip for me, was the Blogs with Balls Charity Poker Shootout.  This event was sponsored by Carbon Poker and put together by Dan Levy from On the DL Podcast.  The event was to raise money for Ante Up for Africa, a charity started by poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle.  Playing for charity is great, but playing at the stunning Hard Rock Casino with 99 other players, including a dozen poker pros was A BLAST!  I surprised myself by making it to the final table, getting knocked out in 8th place.  Not too shabby, if I do say so.  And I did this while jumping up to shoot interviews and b-roll, in between hands.

Me and poker pro Annie Duke

All in all it was a great trip.  Technically everything worked out quite well.  I shot a little bit with my new Canon 7D, but mostly it was used for stills.  I did take it out one night for fun and shot some very nice looking video in some very low-light situations.  I may try to put together a little video of the extra stuff I shot.  I mostly used my heavy, but maneagable EX-1 rigged out on my Zacuto shoulder mount system, with 2 wireless mic receivers, Zylight on-camera light, and battery for the light.  It is kind of a monstrous system, but it is much easier to shoot handheld with, especially with extra lights, batteries and mics.

But here is the first of several highlights videos that Rob and I put together for Blogs with Balls.  Enjoy!

I find packing for air travel to be somewhat of a pain.  Baggage costs are now astronomical, plus the logistics of transporting gear through the airports can be quite a hassle.  I tend to pack lighter than some other productions, typically with a smaller lighting kit then when I am shooting locally.  My goal is to check 2-3 bags and carry on the camera, laptop, and enough accessories that if that was all I had, I could shoot something.  Last year on a trip to Central Pennsylvania (flying to BWI) my large checked bag did not show up and I had no lights or tripod.  I was reduced to find a small camera shop and bought the best tripod they had (which was only $50 and ridiculously underequipped for a large camera), and fortunately could rely on available light for the warehouse I was filming in.  Basically I try to keep on my person whatever I need to get by in a pinch.  I also always look for rental houses in the area I am shooting (which sometimes does not exist in more remote places).

On this trip the only lighting I need is for run and gun interviews so I packed my Zylight Z90 LED light.  This is a very versatile little light that I can put on my camera or a stand and is really all I will need for this shoot.  I did bring an extra Sony EX-1 as we will be shooting some different things simultaneously and I also have my new Canon 7D, for it’s inaugural shoot.  I will mostly use the EX-1s this week as I need to run 2 wireless mics and an on camera light, but hope to get some creative B-roll with the 7D.  We may get out on the strip tonight to shoot some fun videos to show at some point during Blogs with Balls so I may use the 7D for that.

So I have my large rolly Kata case (the OC-97) with my tripod, several wired and wireless mics, the Zylight, my Zacuto shoulder mount system and other accessories.  I have 2 Kata backpacks (the HB-207…I love this bag) with the EX-1s, the Canon 7D and lenses, batteries, media cards, and a couple mics.  I sort of felt like a walking Kata advertisement, rolling through the airport this morning.  We checked in fairly easily with only a 70 dollar charge for our three checked bags (after shifting some stuff in the big bag to keep it under 50 pounds).  So all in all, it wasn’t a bad travel experience, but it helped to have Rob around to help out.
So on to Vegas and Blogs with Balls.  More to come in the next few days.

BWB was such a big hit, that Chris and his partners were asked to hold another conference as part of Blog World & New Media Expo, a huge industry conference.  Fortunately, through some very generous donations, BWB got enough funding so that I can go back and work the event again.  I don’t typically do a lot of event work, but this turned out to be a blast last time, and the conference is one I would benefit from attending otherwise, both for the content and the networking.

Plus it’s Vegas, and I’ll never turn down a job in Vegas.  The icing on the cake is that Chris organized a BWB poker tournament hosted by Annie Duke (a major poker pro).  I am an avid poker “hobbyist” so getting to go work a fun event AND play poker with a famous poker pro sounds like a total blast.

So that’s it.  I am just excited!  You can check out the highlights piece I put together right after BWB 1.0.

A friend and producer I work with quite a bit, Paul Dewey, was hired by filmmaker Kristin Canty to work on her documentary film, “Farmageddon”, and I joined him as director of photography.  This documentary is taking a look at the government’s over-regulation of our food and basically having too much say in what goes into our stomachs.

This job came along at a perfect time.  One of my repeat clients that normally does a large video job in the summer had to take the year off due to budget restrictions, and basically as I got that news, this documentary came along.  Plus, on a personal level, this film is right up my alley.  Over the last couple years my wife and I have made much more conscious decisions about what we eat, and having read books by Michael Pollen and watched recent food films like “King Corn” and “Food, Inc”, I was psyched to be a part of the food/agriculture conversation that is sweeping the media.

Documentaries are hard work, and especially in this case, take a lot of travel.  We have filmed in 8 states and our very lean production crew (just me, Paul and Kristin, with an occasional assistant picked up along the way) have logged over 50 hours of car travel, not to mention several flights, plane delays, and waiting for our smoking car radiator to be fixed while trying to get out of NYC last week.  But it has been worth it. We have been to some beautiful places and heard some fascinating and almost unbelievable stories.  I think this film will really open people’s eyes to some of the serious issues being dealt with by small farmers as well as consumers who are making conscious, educated decisions about what they want to eat.  I will blog more about this project as it continues over the months to come, but you can check out some stills from our travels.

]]> http://benjamineckstein.com/2009/08/life-on-the-farm/feed/ 0