Plants are cool, too! Episode 2: Fossilized Forests!
This episode of Plants are cool, too! brings us all the way out to Idaho in the summer of 2012. We were visiting the Clarkia Fossil Bowl, one of the most unique and rare fossil deposits in the world. In 1972, the land owner was expanding his dirt bike race track when he uncovered some fossils, a fish and some plant/leaf ones. The Professors at the University of Idaho thought the fish was “Ok”, but the leaf ones were what really amazed them. They weren’t compression fossils like you normally see, they were the actual leaves, preserved in the mud, from 15 million years ago!
It was the perfect place for the next episode of our internet show! We worked with Dr. David Tank and his grad students Hannah Marx and Simon Uribe-Convers of the University of Idaho for 4 great days of shooting. While there we met some remarkable people such as Dr. Bill Rember who showed how he can actually “lift” the leaf off the rock and hold it in his hands. I shot it and co-produced along with Tim Kramer and Host Chris Martine. Tim helped rough in the edit and I did the graphics and added all the b-roll footage. It was a real team effort and one I’m real proud of!
An amazing story like this couldn’t be told in 3 minutes so block out 15 minutes sometime and check it out! Its further proof that, well….Plants ARE cool, too!
Hannah’s Hope Fund 2012
Hannah’s Hope Fund is an organization some very dear friends of mine started when they discovered their daughter Hannah had a very rare, neurological disorder. I made a video for them right after they learned of it and this is the follow up four years after. What they have done is nothing short of a miracle. I really wanted to accomplish two things with this video, first, let people know what these ordinary people were able to achieve in just four years and two, help them raise awareness and ultimately…money.
I’ve often times wondered if I could have managed what they have done if put in the same circumstances. We all say we will do anything for our kids, but to actually go out and not only raise 3 million dollars, but sit on the doorsteps of finding a cure in such a short time, is well…mind boggling!
Please take some time to watch this incredible success story!
Alice Hyde Medical Center TV spot-“Parking Lot”
This is the new TV spot called “Parking Lot” just completed for Alice Hyde Medical Center. They wanted to promote the ideas of “Keyhole Surgery” and “Minimally Invasive”, which are a challenge to do in 30 seconds! Public Relations director of Alice Hyde Cathlyn Lamitie planted the seed of using “siri” on her iPhone and away we went. Tim Kramer of Northway Productions and I worked on a script and then he found the actress Michelle Ouellette. This changed a few times from concept to completion, at one time she was going to be arriving at a convenience store to get coffee. That was when we were going to have part of this done by a narrator, but as it evolved into a straight conversation with her phone, it wouldn’t make sense to have her talking to it in a crowded store, so the parking lot scenario was born!
How to shoot from a boat!
This is a short video that shows how I shoot video from a boat including some sample shots! I like a flat bottom boat for minimal clearance under it (you can go to REAL shallow water), and also for setting a full size tripod on it, being able to smoothly pan is a big plus. I also shoot from a canoe but a flat bottom “John” boat works better as it’s less tippy. Use an electric motor driven off a deep cycle marine battery, this will add minimal vibration to the boat. Setting the bubble (keeping horizon straight) for the tripod is important and tricky as a slight shift in your body will change the horizontal level in the boat. You need to put your one arm back on the motor like you are running it, then adjust the bubble of the tripod to keep it level when you are shooting. If your arm isn’t back like you are steering it, then the level will be off when you DO move your arm back!
Pick a very calm day (no wind or waves) and use an external monitor.
Good luck!
TV Commercial-Bluff Point Golf Resort
This a TV spot I made for Bluff Point Golf Resort in Plattsburgh, NY. They are one of the oldest golf courses in the country! It’s very scenic being located right on the waters of Lake Champlain. It was a pleasure to work with the owner Paul Dame and his staff, as well as my niece Emily and her friend CJ who are seen in the cabin section! We are going to putting out an extended video for Youtube soon that explains the cottage rentals and golf course in more detail!
Summoning of the Muse
Here’s a spot I put together to show some new clips. I recently went to Vermont and shot a bunch of covered bridges, old barns etc., most are for my stock footage company www.shutterstock.com, but I thought I would put a bunch of them together in their own video and post it to Vimeo. Believe it or not, by posting videos on there, I get quite a few requests for footage from people searching there for clips now. I always liked this song by DEAD CAN DANCE and thought it might work with some of these clips. The lead singer Lisa Gerard has such a haunting voice…I’ve been hooked on her since hearing her sing “Host of Seraphim” in Baraka.
TV spot I shot for adworkshop
Here is another TV spot I shot and edited for adworkshop in Lake Placid. They are the marketing agency for North Country Savings Bank. Its a humorous ad based on the bank’s “We Get the Whole Story” Mortgage/Lending campaign. The spot highlights how NCSB loan originators look at more than just the credit scores when evaluating a loan applicant. I lit it with 3 LCD dimmable lights and 1 of my ARRI 350’s. There was some nice ambient lighting already in the restaurant, and believe it or not, it was during a bright winter day with banks of windows behind the camera and to the left of camera! Using the LCD’s with daylight color temperature as the outside light helped make it all match. I then set the camera for shooting at 5600k and it then it was a matter of augmenting what was there with the 4 lights I used.
As always, adworkshop did a great job of finding the actors and dressing the set to look perfect! And of course they came up with this funny way to show off a service the bank offers.
TV Commercial with some special effects!
This is a commercial I shot and edited for adworkshop. The client was Canton Potsdam Hospital. It was a fun one to work on. I was going to be shooting it and doing the editing. There was some special effects for this one, beyond what we normally do, so I did some test shots in my yard with my son to figure out how to do it. We wanted a jogger to be jogging in slow motion while everyone else was running full speed. At first we thought having him run against a green screen would work, then we could composite him in and then slow down the footage, but then the realities of painting a treadmill chroma key green and how realistic it would look began to sink in! Plus the shot he was to go against would have to moving at his slo mo speed, meaning a dolly or truck shot. To avoid this he needed to be coming directly at the camera.
After some test shots, I figured out that if the camera is stationary, then you can shoot multiple passes and then just mask out certain things (the guy jogging) and it would all look seamless. With the camera locked off on the ground level shot, we had the guy jog towards us, I shot this in overcrank mode (60 FPS instead of the usual 30FPS), so the slo mo would look better/smoother after when played back at 30FPS. Then once he ran by, we positioned the other runners to run on each side of where he was, when it came time to edit, I masked out a box around him and put it over the background runners shot! Since the camera didn’t move, it looked seamless! For the next shot to freeze him, I took a freeze frame, cut out around him (And his shadow!) and put that over the same composition of others running by, again, don’t move the camera and it’ll work! What really sells it is the foreground runners, which I shot over a chromakey on location. Just frame up the chroma key in bright sun, then have some runners run through the shot! The blur is perfect, and all you need to do is composite them on top of the other two layers!
Check it out below!
TV commercial I shot for adworkshop
Here is a spot I shot (DP- Director of Photography) for adworkshop. They are the marketing agency for Canton Potsdam Hospital. Its a great concept that was a fun time to shoot. Kari Hoffman was Producer and Anne Rast was the Director/Art Director. They did a great job of finding all the 1950’s props and also in hiring the 2 kid actors. Anne also made those cool looking baseball cards of regular people to look like 1950’s baseball cards!
My Demo Reel 2012
Check out my Demo Reel for 2012! Its just a collection of some of my work from all areas of what I do. A little bit of everything thrown in with some cool music. If you are thinking of hiring me, this is a good place to start checking out what I do! Then click a category across the top of the page that is more in line of the type of video you are looking for and give me a call to discuss rates. Asking what a video costs is like saying “What does a car cost?” It all depends on the options! Are looking for a KIA, a basic model to get you where you need to go, or do you want a Lamborghini, something very high end that makes people say “Wow!”? Either way, call me and we can discuss it and figure out the best way forward. With over 20 years of doing this, from National TV shows to Weddings, I am confident I can help you get your project started on the right track!
Return to Moose Pond
UPDATE June 2012: This was chosen as one of the five short films to be shown at the Lake Placid Film Forum!!
I usually do non-narrative short films. This one is different! My wife, son and I love to go wilderness camping. Where you canoe in with a tent, food and all you need to a remote site. The last several years we have not found the time to go, however our son is getting older and soon won’t be able to go with us, so we made sure to get away the summer of 2011.
It was a special trip and one that I felt needed some narration to explain how I was feeling about it all. Most of the music is by a friend of mine, Scott B. Adams from the CD “Listening to the Adirondacks”. Check him out on iTunes!
I hope you enjoy what is surely my most personal film to date.
On the technical side, I used a SONY EX1 and a Canon 7D along with a Konova slider. Only had room in the canoe for a real junky tripod, hence not much panning or tilting! I shot the 7D footage with the Technicolor cinestyle preset and graded with Magic Bullet Looks.
Let me know what you think of this departure from my normal videos!
Silent Winter
Winter can be so still and quiet! Had some time to kill the other day so I shot this video, what struck me most was the stillness of the afternoon. I went back to Pt. AuRoche State Park in Upstate New York to shoot this. Same location as my Winter Solstice piece, but the same place can sure look different depending on the light.
I also finally got Magic Bullet Looks. Used it to add the vignette and to color correct these shots. Used it even more toward the end to add the soft warm glow to the footage. It’s a powerful tool but I see it overused alot. I’ll try not to do that even though it is quite fun to play around with the look of your footage. To me it’s all about enhancing the mood you are trying to convey.
Music is by Bill Douglas “Earth Prayer” from Hearts of Space records.
Stay warm! Spring is coming….so they say!
Technicolor Dreams
WARNING: This is a post for those who like to know the technical side of things!!! If you are not interested in that, just scroll down and hit “play”!!
This is a video I made to test the Technicolor Cinestyle preset for my Canon 7D. It basically is a free download for Canon DSLRs that greatly opens up the shadow areas of the image. The picture as shot will look very washed out, (MANY examples of uncorrected technicolor cine footage on VIMEO) so it needs to be color corrected in post production to dial in the correct black and white and color saturation settings. But once you do…..WOW! It adds more dynamic range to the image, and it doesn’t have that DSLR, super contrasted look as much. I also feel the moire is reduced quite a bit!
To really test things out, I shot what I consider a contrast range torture test! A mountain stream on a bright sunny day, with lots of dappled light. Bright, bright highlights and deep, dark shadows!
I then transcoded all the footage into ProRes LT, imported and edited in Final Cut Pro and then used Magic Bullet Looks to color grade all the shots. Basically I used lift/gamma/gain and then color saturation. I did not use curves as I found it crushed the blacks and blew out the whites a bit too much. Actually I had issues getting the LUT (Look up table) Technicolor supplies to load into Magic Bullet Look Up Buddy (I think my system- a G5 PPC-is too old to properly use it!). I felt using Lift/gamma/gain gave me the best tonal gradations anyway, especially for nature subjects where a real cine tone isn’t as needed.
I mostly used my Tamron lenses. My trusty 17-55 F2.8 and the super zoom 18-270 F3.5-6.3. Kept shutter speed at 60 at all times, using ND filters when needed to expose properly.
Remember, this is shot using Technicolor cinestyle, but then color corrected in post. Your footage MUST be worked on after you shoot it, it does not look like this out of the camera. It amounts to alot more work in post production, is it worth it? I think so! I found this to make the 7D footage look quite stunning, especially considering what I usually get shooting such a contrasty subject.
Music is from Stock20.com, an excellent source for buyout music.
Enjoy!
Arrival of Winter
Here is a short video of some new clips I got with the Canon 7D in the fall and early winter of 2009. Shot in the Adirondack Mountain region of far upstate New York. I missed the peak fall season because of some projects I just couldn’t get away from, but I also like the end of the season and the transition into winter. That is what this video represents.
Hope you enjoy it! The music is “Rock Island, 1931” by Thomas Newman from the “Road to Perdition” soundtrack.
November Gray
Another short that I shot with the Canon 7D. November is a dreary time of year here in Upstate New York. Not much light or color. Very short days. I went to a waterfall not too far from my house that has an old abandoned mill next to it.
I used the indiSlider in a lot of these shots to add some interest. I call this piece NOVEMBER GRAY, though in reality, the 7D captured alot of color in these scenes! It continues to amaze me. I shot this one at 1080 24p. I also used the stock lens that came in the kit for some of the closeups of the waterfall. Its the 28-135 f.3.5-5.8 IS Canon Lens. Its tack sharp and the depth of field is quite nice when you are zoomed in, even though it’s only a f5.8 lens at that point.
I did some color correction, mainly to adjust white balance, I was shooting so early after sun up that the color temperature was changing quite rapidly.
The music is from Digital Juice. Vol. 50 the song is called MOVING FORWARD.
Balloons!
My son and nieces and nephews wanted to make an action movie a few summers ago. We even had a few extra kids from the neighborhood join in. This is what resulted from nearly 2 months of on again, off again shooting (tough to get everyone back together!). It is all in good fun and I hope everyone can see the “violence” is tongue and cheek!
Its a little long, (8 Minutes) but the bloopers during the credits show how challenging this actually was to shoot! Its quite a departure from the usual videos that I post!
Shot in 720 24p with my Sony EX1 and Letus Extreme. Most is overcranked to 60fps for the slo-motion. Color graded with Magic Bullet Looks. Enjoy!
Autumn Glory
My mentor who taught me so much about TV production back in the early 90’s passed away in 2008. I hadn’t seen him in a few years but still think of his lessons nearly everyday. Many of these locations we shot together nearly 20 years ago. I will always remember him and I offer this video up as my way of saying thanks to an old friend. This was one of the most popular videos I ever did, it was featured on the VIMEO HD Channel.
Technically speaking, this was shot with an EX1 in 1080 30p. Some shots use the Letus Extreme, some do not. A few also use the indislider, but mostly it’s just the stock lens. Cut in FCP and lightly color graded in FCP as well.
America’s Team TV Show preview
This is a promo for “America’s Team: Being a US Air Force Thunderbird”. It’s a show about the US Air Demonstration team, and the first ever female pilot to fly with them. The program ran on US Public Television stations nationwide in 2007-2008, and even worldwide. In Japan they made a Blu-ray disc of it for retail sale!
I shot most of it with a Sony FX1, then I edited down over 60 hours of footage to a one hour program! All in cockpit aerials were done by SSgt Josh Gray, the teams videographer.
Last Days of Autumn
Probably my most viewed film online! Posted this over at VIMEO a couple years ago when I first started using the Canon 7D camera. It now has over 44,000 views and is a big demo video on that cameras abilities, being embedded and reposted about on many, many sites!
I shot everything in it in just a few hours one late October day in 2009. It edited together quite quickly too. Not having endless amounts of video makes an edit go quick as your choices on what shots to use are limited!
Natures Serenity
Spring is a wonderful time of year. Birds are chirping and the air is fresh and clean in the mountains! I find it very serene and peaceful. This is a collection of images I have shot in May and June in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York.
It’s my first attempt at presenting a video in a panavison, or cinemascope widescreen format! The 2.35 aspect ratio works well for these shots, especially in HD on a BIG screen. I used my Sony EX1 and also a Canon 7D camera. Lenses used were my Tamron 17-55mm 2.8, and the 28-135mm kit lens.
Enjoy and I hope the wide format is OK with everyone, it really is fun to compose for it! It’s much more epic this way! Let me know what you think.
Plants are cool, too!
What a fun project this was! Botanist and Professor Chris Martine asked Tim Kramer and myself to shoot a pilot episode for a TV series called “Plants are cool, too!” We traveled to Louisiana in the summer of 2011 to shoot this great story of a carnivorous plant that eats bugs! We co-produced it, shot it, edited it, recorded and mixed the theme song and did all the graphic animation for it too! Truly a one stop shop!
We are hoping to shoot more as funding allows.
Plattsburgh State Cardinal Soccer Classic 2011
The first highlight video I did for the Plattsburgh State Cardinals was very highly received! Coach Waterbury asked me to make another for the 2011 season. So I shot the same tournament weekend as the year before. I also used some of the same big movie trailer type music. The final game could not have ended any better with an overtime goal and a huge celebration right in front of where I was standing!
Plattsburgh State Mens Soccer 2010
This is a video I did for Plattsburgh State Mens Soccer in 2010. It was meant to be a recruitment/highlight film for the coach to use. I covered 2 games in the Cardinal Classic tournament to get enough footage for this video. Could have used a few more games worth but that was the only chance I had to shoot!
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