Video/TV Production for almost 30 years!

Latest

Quest for the Magic Light

It’s all about the light! Photography and videography are, by their very nature, dependent on light hitting the sensor of the camera. That light can be soft and muted or bold and vibrant. I found both kinds while out shooting this years autumn colors in Northern New York. It was a spectacular year (2012), with many bold reds mixed in among the yellow and orange hues. Most of these clips are again from the Adirondack Mountain region of far upstate New York.

While I think you can’t beat bright blue skies and sunshine for the best Autumn shooting, I did go out on some misty, rainy days and found the light to be quite spectacular as well, but just in a different sort of way.

I’ve included both in this video, which features the music of Tim McMorris (“Translation”). His work can be found on AudioJungle.net. I just recently learned of this site and find the licensing fees to be priced right and plan to use more from there in the near future.

FInally I used the Canon 7D and my Sony XDCAM EX1 for the cameras, and my cobracrane jib and Konova slider for the moves.

Posted by  |  October 24, 2012 | Categories: Scenic Short Films | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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!

Posted by  |  September 20, 2012 | Categories: Misc. Videos, TV Shows, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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!

 

Posted by  |  September 5, 2012 | Categories: Corporate Videos, Misc. Videos, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

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!

Posted by  |  September 5, 2012 | Categories: TV Commercials | 1 Comment

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!

Posted by  |  July 16, 2012 | Categories: Misc. Videos, Scenic Short Films | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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!

 

Posted by  |  June 29, 2012 | Categories: TV Commercials | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/42665465″>Summoning of the Muse</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user434753″>Paul Frederick</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Posted by  |  May 23, 2012 | Categories: Scenic Short Films | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted by  |  March 26, 2012 | Categories: TV Commercials | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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!

 

Posted by  |  March 23, 2012 | Categories: TV Commercials | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

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!

Posted by  |  March 23, 2012 | Categories: TV Commercials | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment