St. Lawrence Hockey: Playoffs 2024
I shoot and edit a lot of projects for St. Lawrence University. Especially a lot of sports! In March of 2024, the Men’s Hockey team made an incredible run. They got into the ECAC Championship tournament in Lake Placid, NY. I shot the game and all the excitement. Luckily I’ve shot hockey for decades in that arena for CanAm hockey and have learned quite a few tricks. The main thing is you have to tell a story visually. With just shots and no narration. Show the setting, the crowd arriving, the team about to come out, then action and celebration. Don’t stay in any one spot for long. If you get a shot you know is good, move somewhere else! That way it looks like 5-6 people are filming all over the place. The big risk is you miss a goal while getting all these angles. Just moving from place to place takes some time. You need to time it when the game play is paused for whatever reason. The Saints ended up upsetting the #1 seed that night and it was fun to be a part of it!
Go Hard: A Culture of Winning
I graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh back in 1990. Over the last 30 years I’ve had the pleasure to work with my Alma matter creating videos. Mostly to recruit students or athletes. This was a blast to work on. It requires many, many hours of shooting games in all seasons and weather. Some games are losses, or low scoring, so a repeat visit is needed. But when it all comes together with the perfect music, its sooooo worth it! This video is actually 2 videos put together for their website. A hard recruitment video to start then at around 2:30 into it, the second video starts. That one is a music up, action packed sports highlight video! The music is everything, find the right song and the rest is magic. I get goosebumps watching it, do you? (And that celebration at the end by the men’s lacrosse team is the single greatest celebration I’ve ever shot. They went CRAZY, I love it!!)
The Gibson Brothers: The North Country’s Favorite Sons
Another mini-documentary on The Gibson Brothers. They are from far upstate NY, fairly close to where I live. Chris Harris from Rain Maker Music Management contacted me about helping put together a short video on the guys. It would run on the RFD Network to help promote them. He said the budget was tight, and his vision was ambitious, perfect…when do we start! It was just the two of us and the band. Chris had done some camera work in the past and helped when we recorded the live performances. I also recorded the audio live into a portable 8 track recorder and synced up all the cameras. We shot at Dick’s Country Store and Music Oasis in Churubusco, NY! Trust me, this place is not to be missed!
Working with the guys was so much fun. Real down to earth and super talented singer and songwriters. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking their story would make a great hour long PBS documentary. That requires large amounts of funding, or it becomes a passion project. Stay tuned. It could happen!
Behind the Scenes at a Local Movie Theater
I’ve been making little videos for our locally owned movie theater (Cumberland 12)for years. Some are about not being annoying, others about cell phone use etc. All have featured my good friend Todd Brunner. He’s done some acting in NYC in the past and is an absolute creative blast to work with! This video shows before the movies start. You know, during that pre-show block of ads and quiz questions that play while people arrive for their movie. It was meant to show what “Behind the Scenes” is like in a modern movie theater. Of course, we had WAAAAY too much fun with it! Manager Colin Quakenbush was more than eager to play along. Crowd response has been fantastic for this one!
Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk
This. Now THIS is a special project. Only once in a career does a project like this present itself. A story so special you feel compelled to work on it. There is no funding in place so this is representing the first time I’m a part of crowd funding a project. Here is our trailer:
Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk (Trailer) from Paul Frederick on Vimeo.Vladimir is a special man. So full of life and charm. He smiles with his eyes. I can’t help and wonder what horrors those eyes have witnessed. He had never been back to Auschwitz since 1945. This year marked the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp and he was asked to go back on January 27th, 2020.
To learn more about the story and to support out project please visit: Returntoauschwitz.com
New Year…catching up!!
I’m not the best at adding new videos to my site! Usually it’s because I’m so busy I can’t find the time, but sometimes it’s because of client confidentiality. My New Years resolution is to try and stay more current adding samples of my work.
(I’m currently working on a new passion project that may take up considerable time this spring but more on that soon!)
Here are some videos I made this past year for clients that I wanted to share, in no particular order:
Dino Roar Valley is a new seasonal attraction in the Lake George are featuring animatronic dinosaurs! I had the pleasure of working with some very dear friends on it too so that’s always a bonus!
DinoRoar Valley rough cut 1 from Paul Frederick on Vimeo.
MAGIC FOREST is the sister/brother park connected to Dino Roar Valley! It is a very old and charming place with lots of nostalgia for parents who may have been as kids themselves.
Magic Forest Promo Video FINAL from Paul Frederick on Vimeo.I can’t believe I didn’t post this video on St. Lawrence University’s ADIRONDACK SEMESTER program yet. It was one of my favorite projects this past year! Students spend a whole semester in the Adirondack wilderness. No power (solar panels only) and no cell phones. A complete re connection with nature and outdoor learning at its finest! It’s been a great year working with Tara Freeman and the team of creatives at St. Lawrence. Can’t wait to see what the new year brings!
Also for St Lawrence University were videos for celebrating fall on campus:
And a fun one for their Holiday video!
And last but not least they honored me by asking me to put together a highlight reel of my favorite shots from the year!
In other work…..I also completed a documentary for PBS stations with Producer Vin Tabone called The Hudson River School Pt 2: Cultivating a Tradition. Here is the first 2 minutes of that program. It is available on Amazon Prime and you can also see it on PBS stations around the country!
I’m still doing TV commercials for Curtis Lumber and now some “Day in the Life” spots as well. These highlight what certain positions are like in the company. Here is a sample of what one of their delivery drivers does:
….and a Stager.
That’s along post but I needed to catch up! Have a great New Year everyone!
Documentary style Real Estate videos
I have been making documentaries for almost 30 years now. In this day and age of shorter and faster, it’s nice to still be able to tell a story with some feeling in it. I’ve been lucky to work with Merrill L. Thomas in Lake Placid NY for a few years now. They believe a good story is as important, if not more so, than how many bathrooms and bedrooms a place has. Here a few of my favorites we have done recently in this style.
Happy Anniversary!
My wife and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary this past memorial day weekend. We ended up in Lake George, NY (Had a shoot scheduled but it was cancelled at the last minute). As I usually do, I brought a camera to keep from going stir crazy! If I don’t have it with me, I always see things I wish I could capture. Luckily my wife Teri is used to it now and accepts that she will likely be the subject for many shots as well.
When we got back I put a bunch of the shots to a catchy, thoughtful little song I found on artlist.io called “Next to You”. Many of the words are spot on perfect to how I feel about her. I hope you enjoy watching it. Sort of a personal peak inside our relationship, but that sometimes makes for a great video.
Student profile Mini-docs!
I’m thrilled to be continuing my work with St Lawrence University! Recently we created some student profile videos. Little mini-documentaries on their experiences and their lives. This is right up my alley as I started with making documentaries at PBS close to 30 years ago. The big challenge now is keeping them short enough for today’s young audiences! Check ’em out…more to come!
Zach Latinville-Inside The Studio
Zach is a friend of mine. He has his own real estate company, The Z Group, but also makes incredible furniture and cutting boards in his garage during his “spare time”. He’s recently been asked by NBC to submit a video for a possible role in an upcoming TV show they are working on. Anyway, I really like doing small “mini-documentaries” on interesting individuals and Zach fit the bill. Shot this on my Sony A7III in about 4 hrs one day while they were getting some group photos done. We then shot over to his very cool garage on a blustery cold winters day to finish up some shots of him making cutting boards for the holidays.
St Lawrence University-Holiday Greeting
I was asked by St Lawrence University to help create a video that the President could send out as a “virtual holiday card”. Tara Freeman worked with some very talented students to write an original song. I felt it would be best to get it recorded and then we could shoot to them lip syncing to keep it consistent. There wasnt much snow on campus at the time we had to shoot this so we utilized older campus winter video and shot them on a theater stage. A little smoke, some fake snow near the end, and voila!
St Lawrence University-Capital Campaign
St Lawrence University launched their capital campaign with a gala weekend of events in October 2018. I had the pleasure of working along Tara Freeman, the Director of Visual Communications in crafting a video to highlight the weekends events but also promote the message of the capital campaign launch. We shot this in a 2.5 days and edited it in a couple more days for a quick turn time. The audio content is from the University President’s speech at the formal dinner.
Due to the run and gun situation of trying to cover many events around campus I shot most of it with a gimbal carrying my Sony A6500. I also had my SONY A7III with a 28-75MM lens for getting closer shots handheld as needed. The drone shots were with my new Mavic 2 Pro drone. The image quality is much improved from the original Mavic Pro. It has a new Hasselblad lens and an improved camera system. Shoots 10bit 4k HLG video in H.265 format which vastly reduces the mosquito noise in the image.
The video has been widely received by both alumni and staff at St Lawrence University!
Chazy School: A Look Inside
This is a video I made to highlight Chazy Central School. The origins of the school date way back to 1916 when William H. Miner started it as the first centralized Rural School in the country! At the premiere of my “Heart’s Delight” documentary on William Miner’s life, I was approached by Chazy School administrators to help make a video on what the school is like today. They are a small school but with deep passionate roots and quire a few events and activities that make them very unique! The idea was to put this on their website to give people that are thinking of moving to the area an idea of what the school system is like.
“Caught in Time”
Another little video featuring my wife and a warm day in the Adirondack Mt’s of NY. All shot with the SONY A7III, a SONY 10-16mm, Sony 35mm F1.8 and a Sony 50mm F1.8 lens. Used a gimbal for only a few shots the rest were handheld.
I frequently head out to shoot stock footage to sell online. It’s one of my favorite things to do and occasionally I can bring my wife out with me! She is a real trooper about carrying tripods and lenses but also for being in my shots. I’ve found nature shots with people in them tend to sell a little better than just pure nature shots so it’s fantastic that she is so cooperative.
This is real short, the song I picked for it was only 1;15 long but I really liked it and felt it matched the mood of the footage and the day.
Always & Forever
Short film to test out my new SONY A7III. Sort of a love story to my wife! The early shots represent life without her, sort of stark, lonely, struggling to “get off the ground” (leaf), barely hanging on (blue tarp) but then when she arrived in my life all was “wiped clean” (car wipers) and we’ve never looked back! Shot in 1080p 120fps. I only had crop lenses to use at this point, mostly used a SONY 50mm F1.8 and and SONY 35mm F1.8. Shot with EOSHD ProColor 3 settings and then added a slight film grade with filmconvert. All shot completely handheld, which when slowed down to 120 frames a second looks really smooth.
The Stagecoach Inn – Lake Placid, NY
This is a promotional video I recently made for a beautiful Inn dating back to the early 1800’s. Decided to try and do it more “Documentary style”. I actually shot the couples first visit and then at the end of the stay did an interview to capture their feelings about it. Was meant to be mostly from the female perspective. It really is selling unplugging, relaxing and reconnecting with a spouse as much as this particular place. That’s a little different than most promo videos but I think it worked overall. It tells a story and that is more interesting I think than just having a narrator tell stats and scripted material about the property. I also wanted it to be told mainly from the woman’s perspective, finding the song was a key part to giving me the idea on how to put this all together.
The owners of the Inn are friends of mine that I got to know by filming their wedding in lake Placid in 2010! The couple visiting are also friends of mine that didn’t know the owners or had ever stayed at the Inn before.
Tech details: Shot with the EOSHD Pro Color 3.0 Picture profile for the SONY A6500 and a SONY A6300 on a Zhiyun Crane gimbal. Also used a edlekrone motorized slider for several shots.
“Grace Guitarz” promo video
Nothing I like better than making a promotional video for a small company doing great things! Grace Guitarz is just such a company. It consists of two people (and their dog Bullock) making world class guitars.
Tom and Tracy are some of the nicest folks you could ever hope to meet. They converted their old garage into a wrokshop and formed GRACE GUITARZ. Their work is impeccable and if you get some time check out their website for some more information and high resolution to their work.
This was filmed over almost 8 months of time, thus the winter and summer footage in the same short video! Sometimes it just takes a while to make it come out just right. We were waiting for one of their house concerts in the summer to really show that they eat, sleep and breathe music!
For those who are into production details, I used my Canon C100 for the interviews shooting in Clog profile. Then I used my Sony A6300 shooting at 120fps for the broll. This allows for those super slow motion shots seen throughout the film. I think slow motion is sometimes overused lately. However, I felt it really showed the detail and craftsmanship of what they were doing. I noticed things when playing it back in slow motion that I just didnt catch in real time. The bits of dust coming off the sanding block, the particles floating in the air during the cutting of the wood… all microscopic details that show when you can alter time!
More Cumberland 12 Movie Theater policy videos!
These are always fun to make! This summer we made three new policy videos for our local movie theater. These run before the movie and are a lighthearted way to remind people to not bring in food, be annoying with your cell phone etc.
My friend and colleague Todd Brunner and his family were again used as “the annoying ones”. I also had many friends, neighbors and some theater employees help to fill out the crowd. Everyone was trying to keep from laughing as Todd and his antics are quite hilarious! The manager has said he has seen real results from the “Dick and Mary” spot we created last year, with fewer people talking on their phones during the movies. That’s always great to hear!
Interviewed on TV for “Heart’s Delight”!
I was fortunate enough to be asked by Thom Hallock to appear on the program “Mountain Lake Journal” and discuss my documentary “Heart’s Delight: The Story of William H. Miner”.
I got my start working at this station in 1990. Its the PBS affiliate in Plattsburgh, NY and started as “WCFE” then became “Mountain Lake PBS”.
We taped for about 35-40 minutes and it was cut down to about 13 minutes. I am clearly better behind the camera but was happy to be able to discuss the program and William Miners life and legacy. The segment below starts with the program trailer, if you have seen that already, you can skip to around the 3 minute mark.
An interesting behind the scenes note, I was just diagnosed with a herniated C6-C7 disc in my neck and was in a lot of back pain. It really hurt to just sit still so that’s why I am moving my arms so much! That, and I am of French-Canadian decent! Enjoy.
William H. Miner documentary preview
I’m happy to present a “coming soon” preview trailer for my next documentary called “Heart’s Delight: The William H. Miner Story”. I’ve been working on this off and on for almost 3 years now! It’s a passion project of mine and I’m finally done with all the interviews and am entering the writing/editing phase. It’s a massive undertaking as William Miner had a very complicated and “rich” life!
More to come for sure but for now, please check out this short clip. Narration by my friend Greg O’Brien.
DJI Inspire 1 – New quad copter!!
I recently acquired the DJI Inspire 1 quadcopter for shooting aerial video and stills.
It’s an awesome platform to shoot from. As you can see the camera is built in and sends a full HD signal down to the remote so you can monitor the shot from an iPad. It can shoot 12MP stills and 4k video! It is also bigger and heavier than the Phantom model I was using before and that means more stability in the air. The camera is gimbal stabilized too so the footage is rock solid. The range is also very impressive! In the video below, the last shot is of a train and I was over 3000 feet away at the furthest point. This video is all made with shots from the first day I flew it and is more of a test video than anything.
Jumping the K120 – Lake Placid, NY
What’s it like to fly through the air at 80 miles an hour off a 120m tower on a pair of skis? It’s something I always wanted to know! The ski jumps in Lake Placid have always dominated the landscape since they were built for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. I’ve been up to the top a few times covering corporate events up there, but was never fortunate enough to see it being used. The smaller 90m is used year around, but the 120m takes a lot of effort to get up and running and just one 45 degree day can melt the ramp surface. With the warming temperatures of the last decade or so of winter, it hasn’t been open…..until this year!
A friend of mine is a ski jumper and mentioned I should come get some shots of it in use. Luckily the technology of video has come so far so fast that there are now some new tools to show this sport in a way that wasnt possible just a couple years ago.
I just received my new DJI Inspire 1 aerial drone and its the perfect flying platform to get super stable shots! Couple that with the incredible GoPro action cameras and we were in business! I hope you enjoy the video, its the closest many of us will ever want to get to going off a massive ski hump like this!
“Divine Discontent: Charles Proteus Steinmetz” documentary EMMY nominated!
This is a documentary I produced with Bruce Carlin. We tried for 7 years to get funding and finally managed to secure a grant to get it made. Our good friends at wmht, the PBS affiliate in the Albany area was the presenting station for it to the PBS system. It is now airing across the country! We decided (and at the suggestion of Dan Swinton of wmht) to put it in for a NY regional EMMY award. That’s a tough market as it includes all of NY City and NJ! So we are up against MSG, Yankeeograpy docs etc… It was announced last week that it has been nominated in the BEST DOCUMENTARY category! Winners will be announced on May 2nd.
Here is the promo for it:
And here is the open to the show and a round table discussion we shot at Mt. Lake PBS with Thom Hallock for Mountain Lake Journal. The narrator is none other than Kate Mulgrew who is best known as Captain Janeway on STAR TREK VOYAGER and as Red in ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK. She was a delight to work with and added so much to the finished production.
The entire documentary can be viewed here:
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