Our latest episode of “Plants are cool, too!” is now online! This one was shot right up here in Upstate New York and features a plant called “Skunk Cabbage”. Our host Chris Martine visits Rachel Schultz to learn all about this amazing plant that can generate it’s own heat and smells like a “Zombie”! Find out how and why by clicking below.
A collection of Winter clips I’ve taken with the DJI Phantom Quadcopter and GoPro Hero 3 Black edition camera since I received it 2 months ago. It takes some effort to get footage this smooth but it IS possible! Start with balancing the props! Many videos online about how to do it and it makes a HUGE difference. I picked up an isolation mount for under the copter, this keeps alot of the vibration from reaching the camera. Then I got an ND filter holder and ND filter for the Hero, this removes the last bit of jello in the footage!
Finally, I post stabilize each clip in Final Cut Pro X. Since I shot the footage in 1080 60p, I conform it in the timeline to slow it down to 50% speed, but because it was shot at 60 fps, it looks silky smooth!
So not quick, but this will get you the results shown below!
Isolation mount was purchased from here:
tppacks.com
ND filter holder from here:
snakeriverprototyping.com/shop%20filters.html
I do some local commercials for Time Warner cable from time to time. Usually it’s for the smaller establishments that want to get their message out but on a limited budget. This commercial for An Italian Affair in Massena, NY is a prime example of that. The owner Aaron clearly loves everything about his restaurant and wanted to promote it. I came up with the idea of the tired Mom, just getting home from work, and being met by the kids looking for dinner! To keep the costs down, I managed to talk my wife into being in it along with my son and his girlfriend. I also did the voice over for the rest of the commercial!
I utilized my new GoPro Hero 3 camera to get some unique angles. Its a small, 2×2 inch camera that you see snowboarders using strapped to their helmets as they fly down the mountain. Here I attached it to the pizza peel as it removes the pizza from the oven and into a box and also on the order the waitress is bringing to a table. 
The food was all shot on a rotating table my Dad built a few years back for me using a chicken rotisserie motor! Food always looks better when it’s rotating.
We wanted to give off the vibe of a fun place to eat with great food. I think it worked with the help of all the great staff, great food and oh yeah….my understanding family!
Bluff Point Golf Resort is one of the oldest golf courses in America. It’s located on the shores of Lake Champlain, NY, near Plattsburgh. Last year the owner contacted me about shooting some footage to highlight some of the unique features they offer. Probably the main one is the lodging rentals right on the course. They have great “cabins” which may sound rustic to some but are actually quite cozy. There is also access to a private sand beach, horseshoe pits and more! This is an example of a video a client can put on their website by embedding it from YouTube at no cost. People love to watch video on websites now and there’s no better way to really get your message across then with video, narration and music all cut together into a 2-3 minute message!
Here is some footage from the DJI Phantom quadcopter. If you check the earlier post, I crashed it on my second flight! Now I’m getting better flying it, and also learning how to get the smoothest video from it. Still a little way to go before I’m REALLY happy with it but it’s getting there. For those who are interested in the technical details here is what I’m doing:
1) Balance Props! Basically you put prop on a rod, and see what side is heaviest, then you sand that side down or add tape to the other one. Continue until they are perfectly balanced and can stay in a horizontal position on the rod.
2) I’m using a GoPro Hero 3 Black-1080 60p medium view with Protune mode on. (This uses a higher bit rate for less blocky footage).
3) In FCPX, import footage to a 30p timeline and slow clip to 50%.
4) Use FCPX stabilization feature (I forgot to on the one clip at 1:05-for an idea of what a non-stabilized shot looks like).
5) Fly in as straight a line as possible in ATTI mode.
I’m only looking for short smooth shots to use in my video productions. Not in capturing complete flights.
Still some warble, mostly in the sunny clips, I think it’s the GoPro3 making an adjustment to battle the brighter light. Either cranking up shutter speed internally or lowering ISO? Not sure but on a bright day some kind of ND would help.
It’s getting there!
This TV ad features the wonderfully talented Aengus Andrew! He was in a spot we did last year called “Boo Boo” and did such a great job that we wanted to use him again. He has no formal acting training but really loves doing it and comes across very natural on camera. I Co-Produced, shot and edited the spot, Tim Kramer Co-Produced and ran audio and Alice Hyde’s Cathlyn Lamitie was also Co-Producer. We shot this all on the Canon 7D with separate audio recorded on a Zoom H4N and synced in post on FCP-X.
I’ve been wanting to try out shooting video from a remote controlled quadcopter. The small cameras like the GoPro 3 Hero can now shoot HD video that rivals the bigger cameras in quality. I got my GoPro Hero 3 Black edition in December and have been reading about the new DJI Phantom helicopter online. Its made for beginners to fly and is designed to fly a GoPro for video! Plus, it is one of the cheaper ones out there. It arrived in the mail yesterday, I did a short, low flight near my house (deep in the woods), it went pretty well so I ran in, attached my GoPro to it and took off for my second flight! Eager to see how video from it will look.
Well, it didn’t go so well that second flight! These things are quite a challenge to control. I ended up crashing it 40 feet up in a tree! At least the camera was rolling and it makes for a pretty funny video to watch!
Luckily, the copter seems to be fine and still flies. I’m now taking shorter, lower flights until I get better at it!
This a teaser for a public television documentary on Charles Steinmetz. I’m Producing it with Bruce Carlin. Steinmetz was one of the greatest minds of the early twentieth century. He worked for GE and was considered the wizard of electricity! When you throw a light switch on, it’s largely due to him that you get power. He was a hunchback dwarf that barely made it into America. He was the one Einstein and Edison went to when they were stuck on problems, however he has been largely forgotten.
He was also an avid photographer, socialist, philosopher, and his story is quite simply amazing!
We are currently in the pre-production and fundraising stage.
I made this video as a recruitment tool for the SUNY Plattsburgh Men’s Cardinal Soccer team. It’s my third year doing one for them and was struggling to find a “new” way to do it. While researching I found the speech “I am a champion” and with that it just came together. I shot this at just two of their games during the Cardinal Classic weekend. Luckily they scored alot of goals! It’s really tough to make a highlight video without scores. Having shot alot of sports highlights over the years, I’ve learned to move around the field alot and get different angles. It’s also hard to make a dynamic video when all the shots are from the same angle and framing. Finally I shot some of this at 60 fps, called “overcranking” so when it’s played back at the regular speed of 30 fps, it will have very smooth slo-motion!
Crank this one up!
I have relatives who live about 20 miles from Newtown, CT. They have three children who are in elementary school, and when I heard there was shooting in CT at a school my heart stopped. While I was glad they were OK I’m still sick to my stomach, as is most of America, at what happened. I started putting this together a few days later. It’s dedicated to all those we lost in Newtown, CT on December 14th, 2012. This video uses a haunting song written by Hans Zimmer called “Aurora” that he created for the victims of the shooting at a movie theater in Colorado this past summer.
When will it all end?
pfproductions 