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! 🙂
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!
I’m not the best at keeping up on showing examples of my commercial work. It seems like they get made, then it’s off to the next video project, with little thought of using them for my own promotional purposes. For those of you coming here to check out examples of commercials that I’ve done, here are a few. I’ve been doing all the commercials for Curtis Lumber (18+ locations in NY and Vermont) for the past several years. First up is two testimonial spots (actual customer interview and comments, not scripted at all) one for Kitchen Design and one for Deck Design that features a video jib or boom. Then a spot that is scripted about hardwood flooring with their spokesperson. She’s wonderful actress from the Albany region, Rachel Jenack. The fourth is an example of a scripted commercial from actual contractors, each reading a line that connects to the next to form a completed thought.
Next is a fun little spot for Pro-Care Hearing. We wanted to make a hearing aide commercial but didnt want it to be doom and gloom and talk about what people can no longer hear but instead be positive by having people say what they LOVE to hear!
Finally here is a spot I wrote, produced and shot and edited for RotoRooter in Plattsburgh. I worked with Charley Tagliarino of Growtrends in Plattsburgh. He lined up all the talent. You may recognize one guy in this and the ProCare hearing spot!
Shot this a few months ago but forgot to post it! Was having fun shooting snow falling at 120 frames per second on the SONY A6300. When played back at 24fps, or normal film speed, you get very smooth 1/4 speed slow motion. This was shot out at Pt AuRoche state park near Plattsburgh, NY.
I’ve been waiting to get into 4K video for a little while now. Not that my clients were asking for it, but that I LOVE technology and always try and stay on the front line of it. I shoot and sell nature stock footage as well as make scenic shows that run on PBS. It was a natural fit to start shooting nature in 4K. The price to get into it was always quite steep. However leave it to SONY to bring the price of entry down. Their mirrorless cameras have been all the rage and the Sony A6300 has some of if not THE best 4K video out there. And it is under $1k!
Did I mention it is downright TINY!! This is a camera that can easily be popped into a backpack and hiked around without causing any back issues. I have added a few accessories to it but overall, this little baby can sure shoot some amazing 4K video!
This video also features the Edelkrone Slider Plus with Action and Target modules. (all seen below) I’ll do a full blog post on that soon as it truly is amazing at what it can do!
Check out this video out in 4k if you have the connection speed. (Click play, then where it shows a little wheel with HD in lower right corner, click that and select Quality then 2160p, then zoom it up by clicking the square in the far right corner).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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