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!
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.
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.
More Real Estate Videos!
I have had the pleasure to work with Merrill L. Thomas Inc. recently doing more real estate videos for some amazing high end properties! Most are edited to music and are done mostly for social media use and promotion. (All of them live on the website for that properties listing too). Some however are more like mini-documentaries, telling the story of the property from a first person perspective. With my documentary background from working at PBS for 11 years, these are right in my swing zone! Below are some examples of both types that I have made with Nick Politi of Merrill Thomas.
If you have a great connection make sure and watch in 4K resolution!
“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.
“Living and Working in…” regional tourism videos
Last summer I had the pleasure to work on this series of videos for Northern Adirondack Board of Realtors. It was also a chance to work with my former colleague Kari Hoffman, who was the Producer on these. The idea was to highlight what select towns in the region are like to live and work in for potential home buyers. We shot the vast majority of it, but some select shots were supplied by ROOST. Kari did the rough editing in FCPX to flesh out the story lines, then I did the final edits by adding music and effects, B-roll and all graphics etc.
“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!
Plants are cool, too! (NEW EPISODE)
It was back on the road this summer to shoot a couple more episodes of our plant show! This time we went to the central part of Pennsylvania. These are always so much fun to make. It’s a chance for myself, fellow producer Tim Kramer and host/producer Chris Martine to get back together. We all used to live in the same area when we started this series, but now Chris and Tim have moved away. Getting to see them and make these programs is like getting the “band” back together again!
Here is Chris’s explanation of what this video is about from YouTube:
“Many off-roaders think conservationists are all “tree-huggers”… and many conservationists think off-roaders are all “tree-killers.” But somewhere in between there is a sweet spot where forests are appreciated and cared for. In the case of the Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA), that sweet spot might even help to reinvigorate a local economy.”
We met some fantastic people making this one including a kindred spirit in Lance Schwartz who makes his own videos for ATV Rider magazine! He is in the video and was loads of help, and fast became a good friend!
Animals may get all the love on TV but……Plants are cool, too!
Epic Great Camps in the Adirondacks!
Been having the honor and pleasure of shooting some fantastic camps/homes in the Adirondacks that are for sale. My friend Nick Politi of Merril L. Thomas Inc. asked me to shoot some of them. The first two here were just set to music.
This third one however the owner agreed to be interviewed for a more documentary styled video.
I hope you enjoy them and if you decide to buy one from seeing it here first…I’d be more than happy to come stay and film some more! 🙂
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.
Cumberland 12 Cinemas
I made some spots for Cumberland 12 Cinemas recently. Three that will play on local cable TV and one that is a policy spot for playing before the movie about cell phone use. They were a lot of fun to make. As the budget was tight, we had to get people to be in it in exchange for a few movie passes. My friend Todd Brunner and his wife Jodi and daughter Tia were the perfect family to be featured in the policy spot. Todd has done some acting for TV shows like NYPD Blue when he lived in NYC and he ad libbed most of his “annoying chatter”. One thing I really wanted to do was an homage to GOODFELLAS, when they freeze Ray Liota laughing and continue the voice over. It worked out well here too!
Other spots included this one for their birthday parties they offer at the cinema. My neighbors were perfect candidates for this one and they helped secure other family and friends to be in the “party” as well. The challenge here was to shoot it all while the theater was open, thus we had to do the red carpet scenes inside the same room where the birthday parties take place. I changed the lighting for the red carpet shots to look more dramatic, like at a movie premiere, even having the back light appear in the scene. In reality it’s the same room as the other party scenes. Finally using 120 frames per second as a shooting rate made it all look more glamorous when played back in slow-motion.
The theater does 10am shows on Wednesday for just $5! Not second run films but whatever is currently playing at the time. I thought a clever way to promote this was with a 1980’s theme as that is what a premium ticket used to cost back in the 80s! Again, the talent was some friends and neighbors. They really embrassed the theme and went all in with the look of the 80’s including big hair, spandex and a fanny pack and mullet!
Finally we wanted to do a spot that promotes the C12 “Experience” of their large curved screen, surround sound and 3D!
Overall, we all had a blast making these and it’s fun to go to the movies now and see them up on the big screen!
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.
Merrill L. Thomas Inc. – Company video
This is a video I worked on for adworkshop in Lake Placid (an advertising and marketing agency). They did all the concept and producing and directing, I was the videographer and editor. It’s nice to be a part of a team for projects like this one. It allows me to really focus on the shooting, and what is the best way to tell this story visually. I used a variety of cameras on it, my main camera the Canon C100 for the majority of it, but also set up a second camera for the interviews, the Canon 7D DSLR camera. I used the GoPro on a handheld gimble and the Inspire 1 for some aerial shots.
Editing is always a hidden craft, but it’s really driven by finding the right music. I usually piece the narrative together first (on this project from a script supplied by adworkshop), then find the right music to give it energy and convey the mood. That then drives all the edits of the cut away footage or Broll as we call it in the industry.
Check it out! Merrill L. Thomas Inc. is a great company and I am happy to get to know them better working on their video.
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:
“Songs to Keep” PBS documentary wins EMMY award!
“Songs to Keep” is a Public Television documentary about the life of Marjorie Lansing Porter. She was a collector of Adirondack folk music in the early 1900’s. Marjorie would go around and actually record musicians singing to preserve the songs which were handed down from generation to generation. The program won a regional Emmy, and I had the pleasure to be the videographer on it along with Daniel McCollum. It was produced by Paul Larson at Mountain Lake PBS.
One of the highlights was getting to videotape Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael perform “My Adirondack Home” at their studio in NYC.
I’ve worked with quite a few well known celebrities over the years and these guys were a couple of the nicest! Very generous with their time and cooperative to give us “one more take” for the music video portion of the shoot. The song is super catchy, just click the link below to see this section of the show. (The scenic shots from this section were also mostly mine -except the aerial- including the misty road shot which is actually my driveway)!
…more photography!
We went camping recently at a very secluded 18,000 acre hunting camp in the upper Adirondack Mountains. I always get up for the sunrise when we go camping. 80-90% of the time, it’s either cloudy or just not much color. Well this time it did not disappoint! The color and clouds were spectacular. I was shooting both video and still pictures so there was flurry of activity for about 8-10 minutes during the peak color. This is a panorama I stitched together in Photoshop from 3 different shots (I then cropped it slightly for better drama):
CLICK IMAGES TO SEE LARGER!
This is one that is closer and a single shot.
Shooting in RAW is definitely the way to go so it can be dialed in afterwards in post! I also used a tripod and set it to a 2 sec. timer shot so there is no shake in the camera from triggering it.
This is one from the next morning, again a panorama stitched together from 3 shots:
…and a few more!
pfproductions 