Nike shoot

This past week I operated the B-Cam/2nd unit DP'd a Nike spot produced by Dirty Robber. Since we were shooting for Nike's displays, which are widescreen televisions rotated 90°, we also turned our cameras on the side, resulting in a 9x16 aspect ratio. That was a fun aspect ratio to shoot in, as it's not something I normally get to do.

While the A-Cam was handheld and operated by Director of Photography Chris Saul, my B-Cam was mounted on a DJI Ronin the entire time. It was quite the workout with the additional weight of the gimbal and I did a lot of running (forwards and backwards) with the unit. At times I'd use an Easyrig, but since it can add a lot of bounce, I just used my arms when running.

The spot was shot on RED Dragons with Zeiss Super Speed lenses in 6K HD.

In the rain. Photo by @emmahollyjones

Director Nick Frew looks over my shoulder as I get a sweet sunset shot.

Director of Photography/A-Cam Operator Chris Saul gives me a break from operating the Ronin rig.

Joseph's Toiletries commercial released

The commercial I shot for Joseph's Toiletries last year has finally been released, so now I can share the final video with you. I love shooting in black and white, so this was a lot of fun for me. We shot on RED Epic Dragon and Canon C300 with Canon EF lenses.

The video can also be seen from their website splash page: https://www.josephs-toiletries.com/ edit: The video has played through its lifespan, so isn't on the splash page anymore.

More opening credit sequences

Last week I shot more elements for the opening title sequences of another show. Once again, I can't name the show, but it's a big one. It's not due to air until 2016 according to my internet searches, so it'll be a little while before I can say which one it is.

This time there was a lot of macro work with the camera on a Dana Dolly which was tough to do, as the macro nature amplifies any bumps. At one point, the director said out loud (more to himself than anyone else) that he wished we had a crane so we could jib up and down instead of being limited to only side to side. So we rigged up a solution where I mounted the tripod plate to the side cheeseplate of my camera (rotating it sideways) and then turned our object sideways as well. This way, instead of dollying side to side on the piece, it turned into a dolly from top to bottom, effectively giving us a jib movement relative to the frame. My setup is pictured below.

It was a long day of work, but we managed to get everything shot. Part of the fun was figuring out how to shoot FX sequences practically instead of relying on compositing later. I think we came up with some very interesting solutions (including rear projection, glass, and printing graphics on paper). I'm curious to see how it all comes together.

Sideways camera on the Dana Dolly.

Back from San Diego Comic Con

I took last week off to attend Comic Con. Space Command had a panel along with a signing, and Nobility had a panel, a couple signings, and a booth. It's pretty cool to have shot two projects that both have panels at SDCC.

The big announcement for Nobility is that they will be debuting the series at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo in October. I've been told that they've brought a colorist on to finish the looks and the FX are coming along nicely. A lot of these sci-fi films I shoot have very long post-production times, mostly due to the amount of VFX work needed on lower budgets. So it'll be nice to have Nobility coming out this year and seeing the final product.

At the Edge of Time: screengrabs pt. 4

Okay, here's the last batch of screengrabs that I managed to snag for At the Edge of Time. Hope you like them!

At the Edge of Time: screengrabs pt. 3

I got to review more of the footage from the feature I shot last November-December, At the Edge of Time. Here are a few more screengrabs that I wanted to share.