Crazy Duck Productions

Something Old Something New

2012-01-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

There is a certain joy and empowerment attached to a piece of gear with karma and such has been the case with a lens I received from my dear friend and fellow DP, Roberta Findlay.

I use a Sony PMW-F3 for much of my work. The F3 is a large sensor, state-of-the-art digital camera and I am currently mating it with a lens that is over 40 years old. The lens, an Angenieux 25-250 3.2 zoom lens, was also state-of-the-art, somewhere around 1970, right around the time it was used to create a string of low budget horror flicks including the cult classic "Snuff".

When I first received the lens, it was a bit stiff and I immediately brought it over Du-All camera in Manhattan for service. A place you just have to visit if you've ever, seriously used a super-8 camera, Although my lens was certainly, no longer state-of-the-art, the crew at Du-All treated it with the utmost respect and within a couple of days, they had cleaned, lubricated and collimated the lens to properly work with my camera. It was like new.

I took it out to my favorite spot overlooking Manhattan for a test drive and the results where no less than amazing.

Like classic guitars and microphones, lenses, each have a personality all of there own.

In the days when I used to shoot with 4x5 and 8x10 cameras, it was not uncommon to own three of the same focal length lens, each from a different manufacturer and use each for a different, desired result. For example, Nikon lenses were cold and clinical, while Schneider lenses had a bit more warmth and roundness. Warmer still were lenses from Goertz or Kodak.

If I was photographing a new bottle for Clinique, I would use the Schneider, but if it was a beauty shot of a model's face, I would definitely use the Goertz. No need proving how sharp a lens could be there.

And although a lens might not be critically sharp, that doesn't mean the image is soft, either. When you are speaking in terms like "roundness" or "creaminess", it's not just about technical accuracy. Many shooters are finding the quality of older lenses from Cooke, Zeiss, Nikon, Pentax and others are giving them the look they desire.

Now, I know that there are issues with using older technology. At T4.0, this lens is very slow, especially considering I have to stop down to at least 5.6 to get a decent image. (Fortunately, the F3's low light sensitivity works in my favor there). The lens "breathes", which means the focal length might appear to slightly change when focusing, but for most of my NYC filming, this is not an issue. And finally, it is heavy, which necessitates rails and lens support provided by a rig from Genus.

Still, all of this becomes secondary after seeing the stunning images the lens delivers.

If you ask The Edge or any other well known guitarist why they travel with 20 different guitars, they will tell you that each has a unique sound and personality and so it goes with lenses. There will also be an added boost if one of those guitars was owned by some legendary character making it special to the artist and so it is with Roberta's lens.

Visit the Crazy Duck website

Taking Time To Make TIme

2011-11-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

The last few months have been the busiest ever for Crazy Duck Productions and for this both Sarah and I are extremely grateful. The work we have produced for our existing clientele, as well as the exciting projects from our newest clients, VIP Community Services, Acatel-Lucent and Clear Channel have all been very well received and we're excited that much more is on the way.

In the last six months we've been able to completely upgraded our camera and lighting packages, greatly expanded our editing capabilities and we're in the process of launching a brand new duckyou.com web site.

Most importantly, we have taken time to spend time with each other and our family and to say thanks. Without this time, what would be the point of being so busy?

Unfortunately, many personal side projects, including my NYC filming and this blog have had to take a back seat while we finish up our current productions. I miss them both and I've begun winding the gears of my filming mindset as well as writing new blog stories to correspond with the release of our new site.

There's so much ahead of us, just down the pike and I hope you'll stay with us as we explore it all.

All the best
Chuck

Journey to the New (3rd) Dimension

2011-08-07T21:07:00.001-07:00

About a year ago I was honored with an invitation to join Sony's elite ICE team. ICE, an acronym for Independent Certified Expert, is a small group of working professionals from across the United States. Most are specialists in some form of broadcast or cable television, while others are involved in producing corporate or event video.

After providing training, Sony often calls on members of the ICE team to test out preproduction cameras and other gear for the purpose of receiving realistic feedback from those actually using the stuff in the field.
In some cases, our input is incorporated into the final production design of a camera or influences the design of future models.

At dinner, after my first night of training, one of Sony's product managers asked me what I thought about 3D video?

I must admit my response was not very positive. I thought of 3D as another marketing push to sell more DVDs and players. Another fad or gimmick. After all, what possible use could it have in everyday production?

About a month later, my opinion would turn about 180 degrees. As I have previously written, Sony sent me to St. Louis to document the use of 3D laparoscopic surgery. There in a darkened operating room, stood a surgeon and an assistant, performing an operation using images appearing in 3D using a microscopic camera inserted into the patient, with the results appearing on a 48" monitor.

The incision was minimal, yet the accuracy achieved was far greater than any 2D image could provide.

Up until this time, my only experience with 3D had been some cheesy horror flicks and Michael Jackson's 3D Captain EO at Disney. I wanted to know more.

At the NAB trade show in Vegas this year, Robin Berg, a producer/director of several adventure reality shows (and a fellow ICE member) was demonstrating several new Sony 3D cameras and the images were spectacular.

After the show closed to the public, Robin walked me through the camera systems, educating me with knowledge he acquired taking an intense, 3 day, 3D course, at the Sony Studios in Culver City, CA.

I was zapped and immediately starting thinking of ways I could use this technology with my clients.

Now, hold on there Tex. 3D technology is finally coming of age, but, creating bad 3D is very easy.

So now, I'm heading off to Culver City, to learn professional 3D from scratch, from the same folks that have taught feature film and major sports crews the magic. My goal: Learn how to make good 3D

Follow Chuck on Twitter
Crazy Duck Web Site
Chuck Featured on Sony's VideON channel

The Manhattanhenge

2011-06-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

I had filmed it twice before, but, until now, I hadn't realized that there was actually a name for it.

The Manhattanhenge occurs semi-annually around the summer and winter solstice and it is the only time that the setting sun is in alignment with the streets of NYC. Meaning, that on a few specific days, when the sun sets over the Jersey palisades, there is an unusual opportunity to film and photograph sunsets in Manhattan.

This is a very blessed occasion, because even with a half dozen IPhone apps, and all the cosmic info available on the net, tracking exactly where the sun will rise and set can be tricky business. Yeah, you can calculate where it will occur, but finding the right place to put down your tripod, so that the shot looks decent is another thing.

Last year I filmed the sun down 13th Street, near the Gansevort Hotel, just as it was setting over the High Line. Stunning! I was using a 300mm lens on my EX3 which with an MTF adaptor, which magnifies the image by a factor of 5.4. So, in essence, it became a 1,600mm lens.

This year I put the same lens on my Sony F3 and recorded into a Nanoflash external recorder. Although the lens was not as extreme, the results were still excellent and the low-light capability of the F3's large sensor allowed me to catch the last bits of golden light, long after the sun had dropped.

One important suggestion when using any type of telephoto lens is to have a solid tripod. The tiniest amount of vibration will show up when using a long lens and having a decent foundation is crucial.
As of late, I have been using the new 509 fluid head and the 536 carbon fiber legs from Manfrotto. This gives me the firm foundation I'm looking for while still remaining an amazingly lightweight package.

Aside from being very easy to balance, it has a light-up bubble which is essential for low-light shooting.
An important feature when you are huffing around Manhattan with a camera over your shoulder.

July 12th is the next time Manhattanhenge will occur so, be ready!

The Crazy Duck Web site
Chuck Featured on Sony's VideOn site

The Green Lantern

2011-05-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

Last we Sarah and I helped launch another new coaster at Six Flags: The Green Lantern!

This ride has two minutes of the usual spine-chilling climbs, loops and corkscrews, all performed at a lightning speed. The difference here, is that the rider is standing.

Our job was to work with Kristin, the park's PR manager to film the ride, create and duplicate a video press kit in a time frame of less than 48 hours.

Weather was not on our side, either. It had been pouring for the last few days and we had a limited window of opportunity to pull this off, the press launch could not be moved and was now or never.

A local weather report indicated some clearing was heading our way, but, for now, it was still raining.

We arrived a 9:00 am. Our first task was to mount a POV (point of view) camera on the front of the ride. After which, we would need to reverse the camera and film a crew of brave riders.

We've mounted cameras on dozens of coasters over the years and still our deepest concern is safety. Rigging used to take hours and often required mounting large cameras and portable tape decks. Everything had to be taped and bungeed into place. A loose part becomes a missile at 60-80 mph, endangering riders and anyone on the ground. We also take into consideration that this is a multi-million dollar ride that they are letting us play with and we want to leave it just as we found it.

Although mounting a POV camera has become a much easier affair with the introduction of miniature, light-weight cameras like the Go Pro, everything must be secured and safety checked by the ride park's engineers before we proceed.

Carefully covering the ride with gaffer tape to prevent scratching the paint, Sarah and I used a Manfrotto maffer clamp and Magic Arm to secure the camera to the front panel of the ride. Amazingly, we were able to immediately view the test results, get our client's OK on both angles and move on to our ground shots.

I was fortunate to have the loan of a Genus shoulder mount for this shoot. In the past, I found it difficult filming rides using my Sony EX1 and EX3 cameras. The EX1's LCD viewer sucks in daylight and the EX3's shoulder mount is both clutzy and difficult to hand-hold, especially when you are trying to follow a high speed coaster car around a steel pretzel.

The Genus consists of a hot-plate, rails, a shoulder pad and counter-weight was quick and easy to balance and it fit very comfortably on my shoulder. That's pretty much all you want to say about a shoulder rig, except this one was designed to be used on my tripod as well, so with a simple click, it was in place and no time was lost changing mounts. Simple, perfect, sweet.

The rain cleared long enough for us to shoot, but, care had to be taken to properly show off the ride against the bright white skies. The best camera's can be pretty dumb at times and seeing all that brightness, the camera's internal metering system would change that white sky to 18% grey for very unpleasant results.

After a late night edit and a few online approvals the job was delivered with 18 hours to spare and the Green Lantern press event (this time with sunny skies) was very successful. Go Kristin!

Check out the ride: The Green Lantern Ride film
Other links:
duckyou.com

Chuck featured on Sony's VideOn site

The Genus Rig

Getting Back to Business

2011-05-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

I've received dozens of inquiries as to why I had not been keeping my blog up to date. In fact, I heard from people all over the globe that I had no idea were following my ramblings and often, reading all the way back to my first entries. I was chuffed.

Well here's the deal...

I put away my writer's cap for a few months, because I began to feel that I was talking more and doing less.

It's not true, really. I'm just kind of tough on myself, which is the result of being self-employed for 30 years. None the less, I felt I had to stop writing for a while and get out into the field and do more doing.

Fortunately, in the last five months the studio has been jammed with new projects, acquired several new clients and purchased a state-of-the-art camera. Sarah and I are moving forward and making significant progress in a very sluggish economy and I am truly thankful for the blessings bestowed upon us.

Best of all, we have found a great deal of joy and artistic direction in filming New York City. Getty Images has proven to be a decent stock footage partner. We now have hundreds of video clips online and our images have been seen on everything from CSI to CNN to SNL.

Even more important than finding the time to do all this new work, Sarah and I have gone out of our way to find the time to enjoy each other and our beautiful daughter, Ellie, who just last week, celebrated her 2nd birthday. What an amazing thing that is!

(Sorry Eric... I couldn't help myself.)

At a time when most workers and business owners are looking toward retirement, I am more stoked than ever about the type of work we do, the people we work with and some of the brilliant and talented professionals that I have had the great honor of swapping industry stories with.

I look forward to more!

Chuck's Bio on Sony's VideOn Network

duckyou.com

All that Jazz and More

2011-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

One of the great perks of our video production business is access to things we might never see on a day to day basis. Last week was no exception.

I was brought in to film Latin Jazz pianist extraordinaire Michel Camilo, an amazing performer that I am proud to say that I have had the honor and pleasure to work with previously. We have twice filmed him recording in the studio and on stage at the Blue Note in New York City.

Michel is a brilliant, extremely energetic composer/performer. He's won a Grammy, a Latin Grammy and an Emmy for is work and he plays every show as if it was his last chance opportunity to perform.

Jeff Davis, a long time friend and associate of Michel and his wife Sandra, arranged the recording session for Universal Records and also arranged to have us come in and film. The location was Avatar studios in NYC where only a few weeks before, we had been filming Alicia Keys. The studio staff is great to work with and very accommodating.

It was a Saturday and Sarah was not able to make the shoot. I was fortunate to be able to get my associate and good friend Danny Hoffman to come in and assist me. Dan is an experienced video professional in his own right, yet he can easily put the ego aside to assist me. Truly an asset when I have a limited amount of time to make things happen and need to move very quickly. We were also aided by John Sampson, a high school freshman that has just begun interning with us.

Every time we film in a recording studio it's a brand new adventure.

When possible, I like to get into the studio early to enhance the lighting, while the artists are still setting up and long before they actually begin recording. This way the performers are familiar with the cameras and the slightly higher level of illumination, right from the start.

Having said that, it's not always possible. Sometimes, due to the nature of the recording process, my actual access time with an artist might be limited and more time will be spent hanging out in the studio hallway or lunchroom, with equipment ready, doing what production crews know how to do best.
"Hurry up and wait".

It is rare that all the performers are in the same room. Often the percussionist, bass or other musicians are isolated in sound-proof rooms with glass panels so that the artists can see each other, while not over powering each other's sound. So, when possible, I try to incorporate more than one camera.

Even if it's just a small handy-cam type camera, the added production value of being able to cut between two artists relating to each, in sync, makes all the difference in the final film.

Lighting in recording studios generally sucks and is rarely designed with video in mind.

I try to keep my lighting as simple and as cool as possible. Small rooms heat up very quickly and respect to the artists and their environment is key. I try to work at an illumination level that will allow me to incorporate the existing lighting while still maintaining a complimentary light on the artist's faces. So soft, indirect lighting is usually the way I like to go.

Michel's percussionist for this CD was the incredible Giovanni Hildago, whom I've had the pleasure of working with previously while directing a PBS special with ex-Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and his Planet Drum project. Giovanni's performed brilliantly. His energy seems endless and he appears to have grown younger with time.

Giovanni Hildago

I used a Sony EX3 as my primary camera with an EX1 as my alternate angle camera and backup. As they are nearly identical, the resulting images match in both color and texture. With the correct profile setting, the EX cameras will work well in controlled, low light. Usually working at a lens setting between F=2.8-4.0, at 30P. On the primary camera I also used a Nanoflash recorder which automatically gives me a backup copy of my footage at a higher bit rate.

Charles Flores on bass

The EPK (Electronic Press Kit) is like a mini-documentary, composed of interviews, performance and perhaps some B-Roll (background footage) to help knit it all together. The Avatar tech supplied both cameras with an audio feed direct from the recording console, insuring the best possible sound and less audio complications when it come time to post the video.

There'll be no searching for the right take, it's there, locked right in the correct place.

Michel Camilo

Jeff Davis is a professional writer and great as an interviewer. He listens to his subjects as they speak, doesn't over-complicate the questions and he skips over questions that have already been answered. And to this end, all three performers gave terrific, enthusiastic interviews. There would be no doubt that these gentleman truly love what they do. They just seemed to say all the right stuff and you could see the edit points fall into place as they spoke. The EPK will almost edit itself.

I am looking forward to filming some New York footage just to compliment some of Michel's compositions.

Michel Performing at the Blue Note

Michel's Website

Crazy Duck's Website

Chuck Featured on Sony's VideOn Website

Jeff Davis' Website

A Walk In the Park

2011-01-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

It was Christmas day and I was still with my family in North Carolina when they announced that a major snow was heading for New York City.

Most folks would want to avoid a storm like this, but I packed up the car and immediately headed right for it, straight up I-95. The snow was already beginning to fall when I hit Virginia and I was fortunate to get home before the sky opened wide.

The actual snow didn't begin until first light, the next day and I was determined to be out filming in it.

I used a custom raincoat to protect the camera, carefully taping the connections around the matte box and eyepiece. The basic matte box on Sony's EX3 camera has a built in door that can be closed to protect the lens and the lens itself was protected by a clear UV filter. My tripod was made of carbon fiber and would therefore be safe out in snow.

Ok, the camera will remain warm and dry. What about me?

Knowing that we would be filming through the winter, both Sarah and I had invested in serious winter ski gloves and coats made by Killy. I layered myself in thermal socks, shirt and underwear, a scarf, knit hat and gloves. I felt like the Michelin Man, but it was all necessary, as 30 mph gusts were creating a wind chill in the lower teens.

Over four inches had fallen in the first few hours of the storm. By the time I reached Manhattan the streets were already covered in white and taxis were skidding and sliding, everywhere.

Although the entire city seemed magical covered in white, my first destination was Central Park. At this point, I was not sure how long it would remain snowing or for that matter, how long I could remain out in the snow without freezing my face off.

I was thankful that due to the holiday, there were plenty of empty spaces near the park, so, I set up the tripod, mounted the camera and headed past the Dakota into the park at 72nd Street and Central Park West.

To conserve on energy and remain able to move around comfortably, I only brought one additional battery with me, which fortunately, I didn't need until the very end of my shoot. I wanted to avoid opening the camera's protective coat, as the windblown snow would quickly melt on the camera's warm surface.

The EX3 uses SxS media cards which, if you are using 32gb or 64gb cards, allows for hours of HD shooting without having to expose the camera to the elements. A reel plus in this type of weather.

It was amazing. Even with the heavy snow and blowing wind, the park was still fairly populated. Along with your die-hard runners, there were cross country skiers, dog walkers and a good share of tourists.

All of that aside, Central Park was absolutely stunning. Every angle was simply breath-taking and I immediately began filming.

The snow was falling very fast and quickly accumulating on my camera and in front of the lens.
I brought along a very small can of compressed air to blow the snow off the lens. I avoided using a cleaning cloth for the lens as it would simply smear up the filter. Fortunately, the cold wind kept the snow dry and it was easy to blow away. At one point I discovered a small drift that had accumulated in my matte box.

I filmed around the lake for just over two hours. It was exhausting. I don't know how the explorers climb mountains and carry a ton of camera gear, Just moving a few hundred yards was challenging in the wind and heavy snow and removing my gloves to make a simple adjustment, became painful.

Much more snow had fallen and conditions were growing worse by the moment. I wanted to be able drive out of the city without getting stuck. I decided to head back to the car.

By the time I reached our Volvo it was covered with at least 10 inches of snow and I was thankful that the car had little issue with the icy streets.

Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Sarah and I filmed in the two following storms and they're predicting a heavy snow next week. I'm pretty sure that I'm one of the few people (over the age of 16) looking forward to it.

Why are we filming in the snow this much? Because it's never around when you want it.

If a client is looking imagery under unique conditions, such as a heavy snow storm in Manhattan, it's a good bet that it's not going to happen on cue. Conditions must be right, if the conditions will occur at all and chances are that they will turn to a stock agency to try to find the shots they're looking for. So, the broader we can make our collection, the more opportunity we'll have to sell our work.

Aside from all that, it's fun.

www.duckyou.com
Chuck featured on Sony's VideON site

A Production Date with Alicia Keys

2010-12-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

On Friday, Sarah and I filmed performing artist extraordinaire Alicia Keys for an upcoming exhibit at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in NYC. What a fun gig!

As her performance will be integrated with computer graphics and we needed to film her against a green screen so that the final images can be composited.

Alicia was great to work with, but our production day started 7 hours before she sang a single note. The black lacquer Yamaha piano might as well have been a mirror. It reflected nearly every corner of the studio and we had to make sure that none of the green could be seen in any of those reflections. In the end it looks like a simple shot. Hah! And that's just what it should look like.

Stepping back a moment, there were so many things that needed to be arranged for this shoot to go off as planned that it took weeks of preparation to make it all look so simple. Sarah, in the role of senior producer was at the helm of this ship and organized everything and everyone, flawlessly. From day one, we had the right people, asking the right questions so that everything would be in place on the day of the shoot.

Of course, it was more than just the act of filming her singing. One of our first consideration was audio quality and to this end, Sarah decided to set the shoot up at a recording studio. Why try to reinvent the wheel when a decent recording studio will have most everything in place for us? For this, she set us up with Avatar Studio on 53rd Street. A classic studio that has been host to major recording stars for years.

Her next step was contacting the Jedi Master, Grammy winning producer / audio designer Jeff Jones.

If the position of the microphone in piano is off by a couple of degrees, well, honestly I'd be talking out of my butt if tried to explain any of that stuff and with the Jedi on board, I was free to concentrate purely on the visual aspect of the production.

Sarah also contacted Kevin Hunt of Top Gear Lighting. Kevin has worked with us on several major projects for Victoria's Secret and several other clients. Like the Jedi, when Kevin is on the set, everything arrives on time and remains cool and calm. He knows how to light, but much more importantly, he knows how to listen. He's great to work with and one of the best reasons to not try to do it all by ourselves.

On a recommendation from Kevin, Sarah brought in John Chiaparti to operate the XDCAM F-800 that had been arranged for the shoot. John is an experienced DP/camera operator and as my sole function was to be the director on this project, she wanted someone she and I could trust looking through the viewfinder.

Anders Sulisalo from IMS was in charge of the hospitality and rider and made sure that everyone was comfortable, well fed and that everything was presented beautifully.

Sarah had gathered a well crafted pool of talented, low maintenance professionals who managed to deliver excellent results without the least bit of friction. That, is a talent in itself.

Piano tuner, special microphones, hair, makeup, clothing stylist, security, audio technicians, studio management, tele-prompter, production assistants... All of these elements needed to come together to make this a smooth production and I'm so proud of Sarah for pulling it all off without a hitch.

Tech Talk:

The F-800 is a stunning HD camera and part of the CineAlta line of Sony Digital Cinema cameras. It recorded directly to optical disk at 1920x1080 4:2:2 50 mb and we were able to simultaneous record out of the HD/SDI port onto a Nanoflash digital recorder at 100 mb. This gave us great quality and a backup recording at the same time.

The audio was being recorded separately with a feed returning back to the camera. Jedi will work his magic on the mix of vocals and piano and later we'll match picture and sound with the help of a time code slate that marked the location of the audio as it was being recorded.

The last of the technical speak is about the monitors. Sony provided us with a PVM-740 OLED monitor which has the truest reproduction I have seen in a long time. Skin tones were accurate and it helped us create beautiful, clean lighting with an accuracy that has followed all the way through to the post production. The monitor has a built in waveform monitor that helped us balance the lighting on the green screen and our talent. The photo above shows us that the screen is brighter on the right and needs to be balanced properly. What a great tool!

For our clients we rented a few Sony LMD-2450 studio monitors so that we could monitor the action from the control room. This also aided in crowd control on the set.

All in all, Alicia was beautiful and terrific to work with. And OMG that voice!
She recorded parts of "If I Ain't Got You", "For No One" and "Empire State of Mind" and we all got chills watching and listening to her perform.

It's one of those times that an extra take is a gift.

www.duckyou.com
Chuck on Sony's VideOn Channel

Finding The Zone

2010-11-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Where did my mojo go?

Some days it's tough to get that creative flame ignited. Winter is approaching and temperature is dropping down into the 30s again, making it that much tougher to get out of a warm bed and stand in the darkness waiting for the sun to rise. Wind off the Hudson River is constant and biting.

It's 6:30 am and the city is enshroud in a blue-grey haze and I'm fairly certain that the sun - not interested in my desire to record its brilliance cutting through the mist - has decided to stay in bed a few minutes longer.

There is also the fact that I have not been out filming as much as I'd like. Family and our daily production work comes first and recently, I have spent more time at the editing and photographing than filming. Unlike falling off a bicycle, I do lose my focus if fall out of my usual routine and it takes a while before I can get back in the groove. When I do return to it, I instantly want to jump in at the speed I was previously moving and that doesn't always happen.

Adding to the morning chill is the after taste of the camera issues I've been facing in recent weeks. Several stunning sunrises had to be scuttled because the images appeared soft. Not soft like Elvis singing "Love me Tender", more like "Killing Me Softly" or plain out of focus, which in HD is the death card.

Perhaps my EX3 was annoyed that I was using other the PMW-500 Sony let me borrow last month. Certainly, it had been the top banana up until that day.

And of course, there's my day job. After spending all day looking through the viewfinder and staring at monitors, do I really want to get away from it all and spend my personal time doing the same kinda thing?

So, what do I do when the urge to create isn't exactly feeling... urgent? Well, I do find that not unlike jogging, biking or any other activity, once I get out there, I'm usually pretty glad I pushed myself to do so and even though I might not have the slightest spark of inspiration, simply setting up the camera and looking through the viewfinder will give me some sort of direction.

Once, I resorted to flipping a coin to decide my shooting location. Heads, I'm heading for the east side.

I've often read the same about writing. You may stare at your blank page with absolutely nothing coming to mind, yet, you still have to discipline yourself to sit down and write something every day, even if the only thing you write is that you are sitting here with nothing to write.

Sometimes a new lens or tripod will inspire me to get out there to test it, but it's not a sustainable practice. It's not only the expense of always needing the next great piece of kit, I actually find it often gets in the way of creating decent imagery. It's only after I get totally familiar with a piece of gear that it becomes transparent enough to enhance the picture rather than become it. The recent over-concern for depth of field or over-use of camera sliders and follow-focus devices is pretty obvious evidence of this.

A few times, what seemed like a plain vanilla morning turned into a blazing sunrise and on one occasion the Queen Elizatbeth II glided past in the mist of the early dawn. I was so excited that I almost forgot to press the record button. It was certainly a day that I was glad that I didn't sleep in.

www.duckyou.com

Jones-ing for Great Sound

2010-09-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

A Sound Investment

Over the years, I've invested thousands of dollars in newer, better cameras and lenses, each time in an effort to create the best visual product possible and it's fair to say that much of my effort has paid off. Still, with all that effort, the best of my images will receive a poor rating if accompanied by crappy audio.

I have seen (and heard) some amazing video recordings of performing artists go right down the flusher as soon as the volume is raised to a level louder than an opening announcements. The artist says "Ok, Now we're going to play our hit song" and as soon as the drummer's stick hits the skin... Wham! A very cool video instantly becomes junk.

Sometimes, it appears as of some camera manufactures intentionally designed their cameras to make as much bad audio as possible. Cameras with built in microphones will not only pick up all the ambience and echo a room has to offer, often, it will also catch the subtle noises created by your camera's electronics or the motor focusing the lens. The farther you are from your subject, the more noise you'll catch and if your camera has automatic gain, which means it adjusts the volume automatically, you might get large swells of white noise if nothing else is heard. White noise is that swushing sound your TV makes when nothing but static is on the screen.

Some of these problems can be easily eliminated. Moving closer to your subject will not only help you achieve better audio, it will probably give you less shaky video if you are hand holding your camera. Some cameras allow the use of external microphone that can be closer to your subject and/or allow louder sound to be recorded without distortion. If you know in advance that you are going to record in a rock club on the lower east side, call and ask the sound man what you need to bring in the way of a wire to get a feed from the audio board. (A $20 tip will usually enhance his response). Also, check the internal menu in your camcorder to see if there are any audio adjustments for very loud sound.

If you often shoot your footage outdoors, there are foam and furry microphone covers that will eliminate the harsh noise of wind hitting the mic.

But what about the audio situations that you don't have control over?

Has this ever happened to you?

Your client has asked you to record the CEO of a very large corporation. A receptionist ushers you into a beautiful conference room and after you carefully set up your camera and lights, you realize that there is no way to turn off the air conditioning that is swushing through the vents on the ceiling. No one is around so you ask your assistant to carefully step on the cherrywood meeting table and close the vent which then begins to whistle violently. Oh dear!

This and a host of other common noise problems such as, steam radiators, aircraft, sirens, traffic, the folks in the next office and the ever so famous,"backing up UPS truck" can absolutely kill the best take your talent has to offer.

This is where a decent audio sound designer can save your butt. Sometimes your audio issue can be corrected with a simple adjustment to your EQ settings, available in most non linear editing systems, but for anything more serious a good technician with the right assortment of hardware and software can take the pressure off your shoulders, by removing the noise from those air conditioning ducts. Armed with the knowledge that you can "fix it in post" for real, will give you the confidence you need to get through some awkward situations.

Last week, Sarah and I were in just such a situation. As part of a promotion, Sony asked us interview Francis Kenny, a DP with over 40 features to his credit. When we visited the potential site as the setting for an interview, it seemed like the perfect location. The room was absolutely beautiful with glass panels and copper-clad walls. When we emptied the room for the production, the glass and metal walls created a strong ambience. Regardless of type of microphone I tried, every sentence had a slight bit of echo, as if we were in a cavern. But, it was too late. Everything was in place and we had to proceed. The sound we recorded was Ok. We could get by with it, but that isn't be the way we work

I remained calm, but I knew that I would be calling the fixer.

"Extraordinary art takes extraordinary effort...."

Jeff Jones is an extraordinary recording engineer, sound designer, musician and producer, who, more than once, has bailed me out of an arresting audio problem. Jeff Jones is well known in the music industry as "Jedi" and his tweaking is taken very seriously by many of today's most popular performers and recording artists. Jones recently received a grammy for his live recording of Dr. John, "The City That Care Forgot". He also engineered an album with Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson. His engineering skills are intuitive and I am honored that on more than one occasion, he has help me out.

Although he likes explaining these things to me, the Jedi's techniques are not of this world and usually way over my head and I sort of like it that way. He has successfully removed most of the common audio problems I previously listed, as well as noises that I didn't yet realize were present. His ears are critically sensitive and his technique superb. The coolest thing is that Jedi really loves what he does and Sarah and I love him even more for that.

I believe he will eventually recognized as an engineer on par with the likes of Rudy Van Gelder, who ears and technical sensibility is responsible some of the most important jazz recordings of our time.

Well, bottom line I sent Jedi a sample of the audio I felt needed some attention and he sent back the same audio clip free of any unwanted noise or ambience. Once again he began to explain the ways of the force, but I knew it was way over my head.

I truly appreciate Jedi's magic and skill. But most of all I appreciate his friendship.

The Crazy Duck Website

2010-09-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to try out a new "high-end" pro camera from Sony called the PMW-500. There would be only one of these cameras in the United States and after listening to a brief description of the camera's capabilities, I jumped at the opportunity.

The camera is the top end of Sony's Cine Alta line of XDCAM, memory card based cameras and a big brother to my EX1 and EX3 cameras.

I'll spare you a ton of technical detail about the camera except to say that it it is a full size shoulder mount with interchangeable lenses. It uses a 2/3 CCD imaging chip and outputs 4:2:2 50 megabit files that can be recorded on an SxS data card. Although I consider myself a fairly decent image maker, I'm not much of an electrical engineer, but like gravity, I can't explain it, but I know it works and how to use it.

To learn more about the technical specs of this camera you can look right here. Sony_PMW-500

If like me, you've used a camera like the EX3, you know that 50 megabit recording and 4:2:2 color space is important and a big leap forward in quality. I had recently purchased a NanoFlash recording device for just that reason. To tap the superior quality that the HD-SDI output of the camera supplies, before it is "dumb-down" within the camera's recording process.

So here was the deal:
1) I would only have a weekend with the camera.
2) I could not tell anyone any details about the camera.
3) It was a pre-production model, so there might still be a bug or two in it that needs to be worked out.
4) I would report my impressions honestly, positive or negative.
5) I could film anything that I wanted.

Of course, I pointed it towards New York.

The camera was supplied with a beautiful zoom lens from Canon with a 2x lever that allowed me to double the focal length of the lens at any time. The lens was sharp with excellent contrast and it gave me a brilliant range of focal length options, from very wide to extreme telephoto.

It's funny how Canon and Sony might be fierce competitors in one arena and the perfect match in another.

The first day, I filmed from pre-dawn until midnight targeting the types of issues that plague my current camera which is mainly lack of deep blacks and digital noise in low light. I

From the first moment I looked through the monitor is like "Damn! My EX3 is dog compared to this!"

It's like, being really happy with your well tuned, little VW or Nissan and then you sit down in a Mercedes or a BMW and pffftttt... it's all over.

That's the feeling I got with the PMW-500. So, I immediately took the camera out to the streets and tested it under the conditions that give me the most problems with my current equipment.

Shooting directly into the sun is a problem for most any camera, but an extreme issue for a video camera, so I started there. In my previous blog I refer to three intensive days of shooting and I was slyly using the PMW-500 to get all of my images. So, starting in Hoboken at first light, I filmed the sun rising just to the left of the Chrysler Building. The detail in the image was phenomenal. The camera's imager held the subtle tones of the morning mist hanging over the city. Breathtaking.

As a side note to this experiment: The zoom range of the Canon lens allowed me to pick off details while the subject remained far off in the distance. Using a telephoto lens in such a way compresses the subject and its background, often pushing them together in a unique way. The ship cruise ship below was still a mile or two away when I first shot it in front of the financial end district of lower Manhattan. Even with the haze and contrasty early morning light, the camera delivered excellent tonal quality and blacks.

The camera is supplied without a lens and if you don't already own one, you might be in for some sticker shock when you first open the lens catalogs from a few different manufacturers out there, but like anything else in this business, you have to spend it to make it and a good lens will last for years to come.

The next morning I hopped into the city to get a few early morning shots of streets and buildings. Normally, much of the filming that I am doing around New York City is for Getty Images and I may not see an immediate financial return on my images for a while, so I am careful to be prudent with my expenses. Filming in the city before and after parking restriction hours has saved me hundreds of dollars and when I do have to pay for parking, a little advance research will find the cheapest parking lots in the areas that I intend to film in.

Even with all its sophisticated electronics, the camera was very simple to operate. All of the controls were found in their traditional locations. White balance, gain, time code setting, all the same as a traditional Betacam setup. That's one thing I really like about the Sony professional products that I've owned and used over the years. When things are working right, they leave it alone and only make improvements of the things that really need it.

My tests included extreme contrasts in lighting, deep shadows and camera response time. All passed with flying colors. Their was no noise in any of the images shot at -3db and 0db gain. The blacks were deep and rich while still holding detail. This was the same in bright light and very low light. Very nice.

Unlike the EX3, the camera was ready to use in seconds. The black and white viewfinder was bright, contrasty and sharp making fine focusing a breeze, even at long lens settings.

This prototype PMW-500 was supplied with 3 nickel-metal hydride batteries and although I carried all three with me, I only used one in over 5 hours of having the camera on and shooting, so power consumption was very low.

Back at home, I was able to download my clips as native .mxf files right off the card to use them in my Avid Media Composer and by using the XDCAM transfer software, it was easy to open them as .mov files for use in Final Cut Pro. The 4:2:2 quality was immediately apparent in the deep blacks and color saturation of my images. Furthermore, the images held up better to color correction, yielding much less noise than usual in both Avid and FCP.

Again, for more detailed information on the technical specifications of this camera, you'd only need to do a quick web search and you'll be flooded with information.

As for me, some people can fix guitars and some can play em'. I can't do either, but with this camera in my hands, I was able to create some spectacular images. I want one!

The Crazy Duck Website
Chuck's Photography Website
Chuck's interview with Sony
Chuck as a featured DP on Sony's VideOn Network

The Lower East Side

2010-09-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I dedicated several hours each day to filming around Manhattan. If you've read my post or seen some of my films it's obvious that I am in and around New York City all the time, but it's almost always broken up, in between other projects.

For me, there is a definite benefit in being able to immediately apply yesterday's experience to today and then, use it again tomorrow while it's still fresh in my mind. One of the great perks of working on a long term project.

I started my first day around 5:00 am, by setting up my camera near a fishing pier in Hoboken, just south of the Empire State Building. The view also afforded a clear shot of the Chrysler Building, which I knew this time of year would remain lighted until around 6:00 am. My goal was to film the light on the Chrysler Building turning off and then film the sun rising behind it, while keeping the city deep in silhouette.

To do this, I planned to expose for the sky and let the buildings go deep into shadow. Usually, I would use a graduated filter to knock down the brightness in the sky and gain detail in the foreground, but today, I wanted the foreground to go very dark.

For these tests, I was using a camera that I was unfamiliar with and it was fortunate that I brought along a small LED flashlight to find some of the controls. The light would increase very soon and there was already a soft blue glow growing rapidly in intensity around the buildings, but on my side of the Hudson it was still pretty dark.

Finally, camera ready, focus set, I'm in the right place at the right time to get the shot.

I remain here for the next two hours. The skyline is constantly changing with the movement of the sun. Ferries and runner have appeared as if out of nowhere. Dozens of interesting angles to be found without moving more than a few feet and I want to exhaust the shots in this area before moving on. Fortunately, just before I am about to leave a very large cruise ship glides up the Hudson. Excellent!

That night, I spent a few hours filming traffic movement on the west side of Manhattan. The recently installed bike lanes provide safe platforms to shoot from, two lanes into the street. Eighth Avenue between 23rd and the Village is brightly lit and well populated, making for good filming. I experimented with time lapse and slow shutter speeds to enhance the constant flow headlights moving uptown.

Saturday morning, I revisited the same area in hopes of getting some of the same angles that I filmed the night before, only now, in early morning light. Having the same, or at least a similar image available in a variety of lighting conditions is very important when shooting for stock. A television show or feature film might require an exterior shot to establish a location and/or time of day.

Keeping a journal of the previous day's location is key to the success of this technique.

That evening, I returned to Hoboken because I now knew that two more cruise ships would be departing

and I wanted to film them both with a variety of lenses. It still amazes me to see an object the size of a shopping mall floating down the Hudson. "The Macarena"must be the official music for a party cruise as it can be heard on nearly every cruise ship leaving the harbor.

Scheduling is perfect and I have plenty of time to create some unique images.

Sunday morning was not going to happen until Sarah kicked me, whispering, "Get out there."

The bed was comfortable, but I grabbed the gear and stumbled to the car.

It was time to move from the west side, so with little or no pre-planning I drove through the Lincoln Tunnel heading for the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. At 5:45 am I expected the underside of the FDR Drive to be life-less, but to my surprise and delight, (relief) the area was filled dozens of people walking, exercising or fishing along the East River. It was Sunday and fortunately, parking was available nearby. I grabbed my rig and got out there.

The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges are a spectacular sight in any light, but with one in silhouette and the other catching a red glow as the sun rose over the river, I felt blessed to have a camera in my hands. Even more impressive than the bridges was the action happening below the highway. With Chinatown nearby, the diverse population of the east side of lower Manhattan provided a wealth of images in the golden light of morning. I filmed for two hours and still got home in time for breakfast.

To keep the gear in your hands for more than a few hours a week is essential. With constant use the camera becomes transparent and you begin to concern yourself less with the technical aspects and become more involved in the images you desire to create.

the Crazy Duck Website

Chuck as a featured DP on Sony's VideOn Network

Chuck's Photography

2010-08-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

It's a fact, that in this business you can never be too well prepared.

Friday, Sarah and I were on set of "Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life" an indie film currently being shot on several location in NYC. We were there to film promotional interviews with members of the cast and in particular, the film's star, Mira Sorvino.

The location was in Harlem and the cast and crew were staged in a gymnasium at the Riverside Church, about three blocks from the working set. The actual set was a very small and very warm apartment and considering its size, it was filled with an amazing amount of gear and talent.

From experience, we know that filming or photographing actors, musicians and politicians often involves a whole lot of "Hurry up and wait". Today was no exception.

Call time was 3:15 pm and as usual, we arrived about 30 minutes early, so as not to have to make any excuses about being stuck in traffic. Justine, an associate producer on the film warned us that we would be carrying our gear to several locations and that some of them will be "walk-ups" and she assigned to us a production assistant to not only help move the gear, but also to keep an extra eye on it. Something that you need to be careful with anywhere, but especially on the streets of New York City.

Marissa, our PA, certainly earned her pay that day.

At around 4:00 pm we are instructed to bring our gear to a location a few blocks away, where we could set up for our lights for Mira's interview. This was a small, 2nd floor walk-up apartment that Mira is using as dressing room. Unfortunately, the shoot schedule needed to be constantly revised (That's show-biz) and we were now to shoot one of the cast members back at the church, before she leaves for the day.

One of the film's producers insisted "Leave your lights as there is plenty of natural light in the makeup area." So we ran back to the apartment, grabbed the audio gear and headed back to the church.

The lighting in the makeup areas was fairly dreadful and for anything more than a basketball game, pretty much useless. Sarah and I grabbed some Japanese shoji screens and three of the clip-on lights that had been set up in the makeup area to create a soft light source and background. It looked good on Sarah, it looked good on the talent. Roll camera! On to the next challenge.

Schedule change again and we would taping the film's lead character, Jeremy (Max Beer), in the same room as Mira. "It just needed to look a little different". Thank God for plants and flowers.

The room set aside for the interviews was approximately 8x10 and loaded with furniture and clothing for the set stylist. The walls, a pale, semi-gloss blue and an small air conditioner screamed from the window. Yuck!

Obviously, heat would be a huge consideration and it was important to keep the talent comfortable, especially after a long day of filming. I used a small Lowell Omni light with a Chimera soft box, replacing the 600w halogen with a smaller, cooler 300w bulb. We also used several battery operated Lite-Panel LED lights for any additional kick that was needed. Excellent light quality with nearly zero heat. At the very last second, the AC unit would be silenced.

As this was Mira's last day on the set, the director wanted to squeeze in as much face time as possible and we were informed the day might run long. It did and around 11:45 pm she finally sat down for the interview.

I had a monitor standing by so that she could see herself on camera. A professional with 30 features to her credit will know how she wants to be filmed and sure enough, concerned with the way shadows effect her deep set eyes, she asked me to move the main light an inch or two lower. She looked at the monitor and said, "That's pretty good". I was able to breathe again.

Camera rolled and she gave a fantastic interview. Difficult to believe that she had been on camera for the previous 14 hours. What a pro!

The Crazy Duck Website

The Greatest Show on Earth for 10 Minutes

2010-08-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

I'm a night person. Check out any of my posts and you'll usually find that they were created late in the evening. Although I've not spent more than a week at a stretch in California, I seem to have embraced their time zone. It's not that I have a beef against early risers, it's just that my biorhythm is set for night.

Well, I've been trying to buck that trend for the last week or two. I've been working on getting myself up and out of the comfort of my bed to film the sunrise over Manhattan.

Like running or bike riding, once I'm out there, it pretty feels good and if the conditions are right the images can be quite spectacular. Ok, but I have to get out there at 5:00 am to appreciate it. Ugh!

Strangely enough, the best conditions are not always a perfectly clear day. In fact a clear blue sky can be a bit boring, photographically. Instead, add some puffy clouds or or brilliant red sky of an approaching weather system and things might begin to happen, but often, only for a very short period of time.

A few days ago, I arrived at a location that I had previously scouted and in the few minutes it took for me to mount and power up the camera, I had already missed the most brilliant part of the display. Although I researched the schedule of the sun and moon, I had not taken into consideration that finding parking could be a slight issue. Even at 5:30 in the morning

From experience, I have found that I need to begin setting up in the dark, just prior to a period designated as "Civilian Twilight", which is usually around a half hour to 40 minutes before the sun actually peaks above the horizon.

One of the key elements to capturing a decent sunrise or sunset with your video camera or still camera for that matter, is having control over the brightest areas of your image. Now in a skyline, that's usually (but not always) the sky.

In my situation, filming the sun rising up from behind Manhattan, the sky is always the brightest part. To balance this I use something called a graduated filter, or grad filter for short. As the name implies, the filter, which is a piece of glass in front of the camera lens, gradually gets darker, allowing less light to get through to the camera's sensor. If you put the dark part over the sky, then it will darken just that.

Sometimes, if the sun is reflecting on the Hudson River, I need to use a second filter, upside down, with the dark area at the bottom of the image. This way, I can reduce the amount of light coming from both the sky and the water in the foreground, leaving the city in the clear part in between.

This technique can often solve a myriad of problems and not only on the skyline. I have used graduated filters to knock down the reflections on buildings, sidewalks and any other part of an image that needs to be evened out or even intentionally darkened.

Once you get into the edit room, it's often too late to fix the problem. There are "digital grads" available as plug-ins for most edit systems, but if the bright section of the image is too bright, their is rarely much you can do to recover the detail that you have lost.

The strength of a graduated filters is conveniently measured in the same way as Neutral Density filters.

.3 = one stop less light
.6 = two stops less light
.9 = three stops less light
1.2 = four stops less light

A good set of filters is quite an investment. I've purchased my filters from a company called Formatt and I've found their quality control to be quite good and their prices a bit more reasonable than some other companies. But, even at a reasonable price, they're not cheap, so gather them slowly.

Aside form all the technical stuff, just standing out there along the river with a skyline the looks like OZ looming in the distance is a beautiful experience. The noise of traffic and construction will not begin for another hour and it is just a magical time, especially now in the late summer. It will be a bit more challenging at 15 degrees in the winter, but for now it's perfect.

A few runners, a fisherman and myself appear to be the only folks witnessing a giant ocean liner, pursued by two small tug boats, slowly cruising into port. The sight is breathtaking!

By seven o'clock, the sun is high above the buildings and the show is pretty much over until the following day. Time for a cup of tea as I sit down to review the images.

Not every morning is golden, but everyone is different and with a little bit of luck there'll be a cloud or two and something great to shoot. I can pretty much guarantee that the images will be one of a kind.
Crazy Duck Website

Back in the New York Groove

2010-08-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

July has been such an incredibly busy month. (Thank God!) So busy, in fact, that I've had difficulty finding the time to sit down and write about it. Well, it's 2:00 am and I'm once again, experiencing the joys of jet-lag, caused by my second trip to the Hawaiian Islands in less than a month. The flight was grueling but the locations of Maui and Kauai were both stunning, so, I don't really expect a pity party over my pain.

I'm taking advantage of this quiet time to gather more footage for our New York City HD collection rapidly growing and soon to be revealed by Getty Images. This has been quite a learning process for us. Getty's standards are higher than other stock agencies and necessarily so.

The EX XDCAM cameras that I use are terrific for most applications, but I've learned that it is very important to pay close attention to the internal profile settings of the camera as well as the exposure. Images that look fine on a computer screen or even a 50" LCD may not look as good when they are blown up for use on large projection screens.

Proper exposure in a video camera is critical. When the camera's sensor is not getting sufficient light, that area of the picture won't just be dark, it might get very noisy. Noise in a video signal looks a bit like the kind of grain you might have gotten from high speed films like Kodak's Tri-X.

You do remember film, right?

If the camera's gamma setting is set to low or the detail is set to high, you might be plagued with subtle, digital noise in those dark areas of the image. And if the exposure is too hot you run the risk of losing detail, as well.

Ordinarily, these issues may not affect your video at all, but if your images are to be used in a broadcast commercial, a television program or on 20-40 foot projection screens, that digital noise might stand out against the pristine images created with more expensive cameras.

Other factors may come into play, as well. Sarah and I found issues with the way our Avid editing systems were processing the XDCAM files. We found that in some instances, Avid's color corrector was adding a small amount of banding and other digital noise into our pictures. Banding occurs when the blending between shades or colors appears more like bands of color rather than smooth, subtle transitions. The digital noise appeared like excessive grain. The same as if you had the gain on your camera cranked to a high setting like 9 or 12db. (Gain gives your image an electronic exposure increase)

When Sarah tested the same images using Final Cut Pro and Adobe's Premier editing programs, this particular problem did not occur. So, for us it was a matter of finding which program worked best for the individual images.

Again, this matters a lot less if the final destination for your images is Vimeo or YouTube.

I tend to push the Sony EX3 far beyond its normal operating limits, often working under the extreme lighting conditions of a sunrise, sunset or moonrise while using auxiliary Nikon and Canon lenses, as well as neutral density and graduated filters. In most cases the camera has worked just fine, but I've learned that I can achieve even greater results with a bit of research and experimentation.

One of the great things about the internet is that you can benefit from others experimentation as well, just don't take anyone's suggestions as law. Sample the information out there and discover what works best for you and the way you like to film. Perhaps digital noise is what makes your work come alive.

Of course, testing and experimentation takes on a big roll in any creative endeavor and although it can be quite frustrating at first, the results are that much more rewarding when you've taken a less traveled path.

With that in mind, I'm looking forward to several days of filming (and experimentation) in Manhattan this week. With my jet-lag placing me about six hours behind the rest of the east coast, I figure it will be a perfect time to work on my night shots.

duckyou.com

Amazing Space and what to do with it.

2010-07-14T03:03:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, Sarah and I were asked to photograph another production company at work at a location on the lower east side of Manhattan. The parent company of Target department store chain had arranged a benefit to aid the Food Bank for New York City and some friends of ours were brought in to stage it.

"Just a little something we threw together" is how Lisa put it.

Lisa Archambault and Andy Spray and are the owners of Palm Productions LLC in NYC and they seem to know everyone that can do anything. Their cell phones contain more than enough connections to stage any size event from a stadium rock show to lighting up the Plaza Hotel with fireworks.

For this event, they converted a giant, dusty warehouse - formerly known as Basketball City - into Manhattan's largest food distribution center and indoor party. Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

We often attend events like this and stand their in awe of the lighting, sound and decor, the total experience, without giving a single thought as to how it all comes together. That first "oh my gosh" when you walk into a concert or convention and see the stage, sets and giant lighting rigs.

Very few of us get to see just what is involved in making these events come together. The logistics of getting the stuff you need, getting it to the place you need it to be and then getting it up and running in time for the event. Then, when everything is over, taking it down and getting it back were it belongs.

Not a lot of sleep involved here.

Having filmed during several U2 and Garth Brooks tours, we've experienced first hand, the process of getting a rock show out of the trucks and assembled in an arena in 6-8 hours. No simple feat. Then it's back in the trucks and broom clean in four hours. Oh yeah, and don't forget to feed the cast and crew, as well. We've time lapsed the process more than once and it is pretty amazing.

For this event, Target in conjunction with other corporations that had donated supplies, had stacked a few thousands empty boxes that were to be filled with food by a small army of volunteers and distributed to those in need.

Apparently, Target does this all around the country as part of there Other Community Giving program.

Here, in a space about the size of a football field, just getting it "broom clean" might be a major undertaking. Building a stage, video projection screens, lighting, supplying power and even cooling for a space of this magnitude, a logistical nightmare. By the time we walked in, most everything was in place and Lisa and Andy seemed pretty calm, considering the amount of balls they were juggling at that moment.

In our "You're only as good as your last production" world, this event was a phenomenal success.
Thanks for inviting us!

NYC Food Bank
Palm Production LLC
duckyou.com

Chuck's work featured on Sony's VideOn site

Another Cat Tale

2010-07-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

This week, we headed back to Hersheypark for a few more days of HD filming of rides and attractions. We had a lot to accomplish in a short period of time and we were grateful to the park's public relations department for organizing the logistics to move both camera crew and extras to each location.

Our first opportunity was a small water park. The early morning sun was still fairly low in the sky and the light was beautiful. There was plenty of visual access around the perimeter and it was easy to get pretty shots of the kids having fun.

Our biggest challenge was a wave of water vapor, every time one, of two giant water buckets tipped. Arion covered the EX3 camera with a protective raincoat from Camarade and with the additional aid of a 4x4 polarizing filter, the camera and lens remained dry.

There was also a series of water slides and a terrific surfing ride called Wave Runner which, if given the time, we would have happily put down our gear to try out.

We moved seamlessly from one attraction to another, ending the day with a sunset, vista shot of the park.

The next morning, we started our day by mounting a POV (point of view) camera on a wooden coaster called Lightning Racer. Two cars, each with 24 passengers, race around a classic, old style roller coaster and we wanted to show the point of view of the riders in the front car as they swoop down and around bends and drops racing the opposite car to the finish line.

I used the Sony EX1 for this, as it has a smaller profile as the EX3 with the same beautiful HD quality. I added a unique, heavy duty base plate to camera from Juice Designs. http://www.juicedesigns.com The plate attaches to the camera chassis and strengthens the connection to my tripod while also eliminating any wobble that might be caused using a camera with a plastic bottom. It made a big difference in the camera's performance and our confidence in getting our camera back, alive. Like they say about flying, "Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing, but if you can use the plane again, it's a great landing."

We mounted the camera using the same still camera mount from Manfrotto that we used for previous rides, only this time we used bungee cords rather than clamps. I also turned off the camera's stabilization as we wanted to catch some of the frenetic motion of the ride, without it just looking like crappy video. A few trial runs and then a few takes with extras in the opposite car. Each time we shot, we all gathered around the cameras monitor to make sure that everything worked as it should, which fortunately, it did.

The day moved on and we filmed S'Mores, the Kissing Tower, the Storm Runner coaster and kids eating ice cream. Once again, the Manfrotto 536 carbon fiber legs, this time supporting a Vinten Vision 8 head was essential for gaining clear visual access to angles obstructed by buildings or safety nets. It saved us a lot of time. And speaking of which, it was almost time to call it a day. Just one more location to go.

Hershey's Zoo America had just obtained a pair of Ocelots and we were asked to film and photograph the new cats for their debut at the zoo. There was a small challenge here. Ocelots are nocturnal animals and tend to sleep during the day. These cats had recently arrived from a zoo in San Francisco and they were not only timid in their new surrounding, but possibly jet-lagged, as well.

We arrived at the zoo later that evening only to find two very shy, reclusive cats and very fortunate for us, one of the cats decided to give us a few minutes of face time.

Arion set up two small Lowel Pro Lights, point through the glass, with one on each side of the rooms enclosure. He slowly adjusted the light level and direction of the lights, so as to not startle the animals. The Nikon D3 had no trouble giving me a decent image at ISO 3200. The sensor in the EX3 video camera is a lot less sensitive, yet I was able to get a good image, wide open at plus 6db. Any gain higher than that would introduce totally unacceptable noise and grain.

The results were worth the effort. Our client's reaction? "The shots are great! We love it!"
Our footage appeared on an ABC affiliate in the Harrisburg area, today. Sweet!

www.duckyou.com
www.hersheypark.com

More Adventures in Paradise: Kuai

2010-06-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

I've often mentioned that one of the perks of my job is that it has taken me to some unique places that, chances are, I might never have gotten to on my own. And if I did happen to get there, I probably would not have stayed in the same level of accommodations that my clients customarily provide for me.

Having said all that, I just returned from Kuai, the northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain of islands. The St, Regis hotel was in an absolutely stunning location overlooking Hanalie Bay with a wall of green mountains as a backdrop. Several times throughout the day, brief rain showers over the mountains would create breath-taking rainbows and glories. Each one more amazing than the one before. Just gorgeous!

This was an incentive trip for a corporation and my assignment was to photograph a group of about 80 of the companies top sellers, along with their significant others, happily enjoying themselves surfing, diving, boating, hiking and fishing in a lush tropical paradise.

I know, I know... "Tough job, but somebody's got to do it". Right?

The fact is, although the scenery is amazing, it really is quite a rigorous exorcize in photography.

The best lighting for scenic pictures is usually found at sunrise and sunset, especially on an island. So, it's up at dawn to get that spectacular sunrise on the water shot and then, the rest of the day is spent trying to spread yourself out enough to cover as many events as possible. An evening event is usually on the agenda and then it's off to your room to to download a few hundred images, do some color corrections and sometimes prepare print orders to be displayed the next day.

I have worked this type of assignment in Rome, Alaska, Ireland, Bermuda and most of the Hawaiian Islands and each location has had its own collection of unique challenges.

Still, you're busting your ass in an exotic location, so there's that.

My good friends Dan and Frank from Altered Image were along on the assignment. Dan was shooting HD video. The fast moving clouds and rainbows made for some great footage and Dan's coverage of the island and the events was very impressive. Frank was helping cover some of daily events with his still camera, while also directing an awards program to be held mid week.

I've been using a Nikon D3 for most of these assignments, carrying along a D200 as a backup or second camera. I used two basic lenses the entire week, a Nikon 24-70 2.8 and a Nikon 70-300 3.5 VR and due to the grand views of the island, I found myself using the 24-70 most of the time. It was also the perfect focal length for photographing couples and large groups, the largest of which was just under 200 people.

I brought along the same tripod that I brought with me to Kenya. The Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 is small enough to fit in my suitcase, strong enough to support a 300mm lens and light enough to carry all day. I was also able to strap it to the top of a ladder to shoot the group.

If you can only bring one accessory, make sure it is a circular polarizer. Nothing reduces glare and helps to separate the clouds from a blue sky the same way. It will also eliminate most reflections allowing you to see right down into the water. Definitely an essential part of your kit.

I used Adobe's Lightroom to color-correct and manage all the images and I won't leave home without it.

I find the switch to photography both a challenge and an asset to working in video. Good composition and lens selection are essential in both mediums and training in one will certainly enhance the other.

The project was a success and once I clear my jet-lagged head, I can sort through a few hundred images and make my selects. Paradise was fun and I appreciate the work, but I'm really happy to be back home.

www.duckyou.com
www.duckem.com

Taking Stock of Our Work

2010-06-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy and exciting spring and we're about to launch into summer with an even stronger team working along side us. Our ever growing collection of New York City footage will now be represented by Getty Images, one of the most prestigious stock houses in the world.

Although Sarah and I have amassed a sizable quantity of footage creating our short films, it is just the tip of the iceberg for what we need to gathering in the way of new imagery. There is a lot of city out there and we intend to film a large part of it. So, I'm using the start of summer to begin a year long expedition into the sights and sounds of New York City. Well, at least the sights.

Over the last year I have been keeping a journal of interesting angles that I've noticed around the city, logging the date and the time of day, while also noting the position of the sun. All extremely important facts and figures when you return with a camera. I also note if the area is safe to film in and if there appears to be any reason that I might need a special permit.

Along with creating new footage, we will also need to update many of our existing images, as the skyline is continuously changing and keeping our work current is important.

My first location was not in the city at all. I started in Bayonne NJ, across the harbor from Manhattan.

On the tech side, I have been fairly successful using our Sony EX3 HD camera filming 1920x1080 24P. 24P is the electronic equivalent of shooting at 24 frames per second (fps) with a film camera and gives a "film look" to video. I have also taken to using Nikon prime lenses instead of the lens that came with the camera, for many reasons, the first of which is that that they are sharper with less chromatic distortion. Thee color is more true and there is less fringing around the edges of object that I am filming.

Another reason I like prime lenses is that they make me think more about what I am shooting and how I am shooting it. This means finding a creative angle and using the best lens to capture my vision, rather than just zooming the lens in and out like a trombone.

The next time you watch a feature film, notice how rarely they actually zoom into or out of a subject.
Although the director and cinematographer may use many different lenses and angles to achieve the final scene, it's still pretty uncommon to zoom. Now, in contrast to that, many reality shows and TV documentaries commonly use the zoom effect, ad nauseam. Often, I speculate, to give a totally dull scene some sense of movement.

When using long, telephoto lenses on a video camera, every vibration is magnified. The Bayoone location was very windy and even with a sturdy tripod like the Manfrotto 536, I needed to use my car as a shield.

I had been sitting at the edit desk all day, so a last minute run out to the harbor was a great way to chill out. I love this stuff and I'm really looking forward to our new adventure.

duckyou.com

The Jackson Tornado

2010-06-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Last week we helped launch THE TORNADO, at Six Flags' Hurricane Harbor, a giant, blue and yellow, funnel shaped water slide, 132 feet long and 7 stories tall!

We were asked to create an HD B-Roll package for a press event announcing the opening of the ride. Originally, we had a four or five days to shoot, edit and deliver the images in a variety of formats, but some rainy weather and minor construction delays forced us to turn around the project in about 12 hours.

Nothing new for this type of project.

Sarah, our assistant, Arion Doerr and I arrived in Jackson early so that we could scope out the best camera angles. As the ride was not yet open to the public, only park employees were allowed to use the slide. Angel, Six Flags' Public Relations Manager and her assistant Jenn, lined up a few dozen volunteers. Unfortunately, they would not available until around 3:00 p.m. that afternoon.

The temperature had already crept into the 90s. Sun block and water were the first order of the day.

We were happy to run into a friend of ours, Ron Wyatt who is responsible for much of the park's photographic needs. Talented photographer great disposition. An invaluable combination.
Check out his work at www.ronwyattphotos.com

Not until we got right up to it did we realize the immensity of this ride. It was huge! It was also very wet, so we made sure that most of our gear would remain outside the splash zone.

We had brought along two Sony XDCAM cameras, the EX1 and an EX3. The EX3 was my primary camera fitted with a Sony .8 wide angle lens. The lens is remarkably sharp and it allows you to use the entire zoom range of your lens. The EX1 we placed in a Ewa splash bag to create some POV footage.

My biggest challenge was the position of the sun. By the afternoon, the sun was positioned high and behind the opening of the funnel, putting the interior of the ride in shade. There was plenty of light, but the contrast between the walls of the funnel and the hole at the bottom was extreme. Putting the camera on automatic would compensate for the brightness, but doing that meant that every time I panned passed the opening, everything else in the image would become dark.

The remedy was to keep the lens on manual and slowly rack the exposure as the ride reached the end. It was a bit clutzy at first, but after a few tries I found the rhythm of the ride and everything balanced beautifully.

The riders pick up speed while in the tube and with a sharp drop, fly out of the shoot into the funnel. Fortunately, there is a small rush of water before the raft arrives so it was a little easier to track them.

We gathered footage from every angle we could reach on foot and ladders and then Angel handed me a harness and then took me up on a high lift so that I could get an arial view. Very cool!

I had previously prepared all the elements for the release. All that was needed when we arrived home was to load the footage into Avid and pull the best takes. Much more time was spent watching files compress.

There is still much confusion when it comes to which HD formats television stations will accept and some smaller stations, are still not using HD at all. Sarah prepared disks with a variety of formats so that there would be plenty of options for the editors.

She delivered the project early the following morning, to guarantee it's safe and timely arrival and we were delighted to see our footage show up on ABC's Good Morning America the following day.

Thanks Angel!

www.duckyou.com
Chuck as a featured DP on Sony's VideON

www.sixflags.com

Packin' Heat

2010-05-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Just back from filming at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. The arena is home to the Miami Heat basketball team and serves a large array of touring musical performers, as well as the Ringling Brothers circus.

Sony just worked with them on upgrading all their systems to HD and also installed an amazing digital signage system that works in nearly every area of the complex, including a giant mesh video screen on the exterior of the building and a massive conglomeration of screens and signs that hangs over the center of the arena floor.

I flew down there with Dara and Rob from Sony to film a few interviews and collect enough B-roll to create a short doc on the success of the project.

The production team at the area has an amazing setup. The video team broadcasts "Heat" games live to the web, as well as creating highlight and pre-game videos for TV. They also produce a ton of internal programing.

Integrated with all the video production is the digital signage team and I have to say that their work was stunning. The system (developed by Sony) was called Ziris and it took the concept of the "video wall" to a much higher level, using 12 or more 60" LED screens mounted in various shapes and configurations. The programmer was able to have a single image run across all the screens or have each screen with an individual image. The combinations were endless and the connections were all web based, so changes could be made at any time, from nearly anywhere.

Dara arranged our lighting and grip from a local Miami company. I brought the camera and audio gear from home, along a small pile of "just in case" items. All of which ended up getting used at some point during the day.

I stuffed my EX3 into the same large Kata VB-26 back pack, camera bag that I used in Hershey, gambling that the flight team would not make me gate-check it due to its slightly larger-than-legal stature. Still, it was not the largest carry-on being carried on. Now
that most airlines are charging for any bags you might check, flyers are going to ridiculous extremes to avoid fees. Seems like I've been talking about packing a lot, but it's often the most complicated part of the production. Especially when I'm flying.

Despite the travelin' blues, the shoot was fun as each location added a new set of opportunities. (That's corporate for problems).

Each situation involved unique lighting, white balancing and audio and it made the day go by very fast. I've been including a handy battery operated Lite Panel LED light s part of my regular kit and it is extremely handy as a small fill or kick light. It was especially helpful while I was using the light from a computer screen as my main light and using the panel as a fill. I also used a small ND grad filter, sideways on the lens, to knock down the screen's intensity.

Back home in New Jersey and very happy that our friends at Sony are extremely happy with the two hours of footage that we gathered and we're looking forward to the next gig.

All in all, a fun trip.

www.duckyou.com
www.duckem.com

Why did Hershey call them Kisses?

2010-05-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hersheypark: Part Two

With our coaster POV shoot successfully behind us, it was now time to begin creating some additional HD B-Roll for the park's press reel.

We spent spent the next few hours scouting locations with the public relations crew and Hersheypark's Rides Operation Manager. Again, safety is paramount at Hersheypark so we had to seek out the best possible angles while maintaining a safe distance from each ride.

The park is fairly large and some of the rides travel pretty far. Our job at this point, was to determine where we needed to be to get the most exciting shots, in the least amount of time, keeping the sun at the proper angle. We also needed to have a talent releases for each and every person on the ride we were filming. Finally, to enhance the challenge, we had the threat of rain on the horizon.

As the park would have a few thousand guests while we were filming, we needed to travel light. Time was limited and it was in our best interest to carry all of our gear to each and every location. Running a quarter mile around a wood roller coaster to chase down an accessory was simply not an option.

After having great success traveling with a Kata backpack on a recent trip to Africa, it was a no-brainer to try out their slightly larger Kata VB-510.

This backpack/camera bag was able to hold our primary camera, a Sony EX3 HD camera with a full Chroisziel matte box and rails mounted to the camera. It also held a wide angle lens, four batteries, six SxS cards, two Lite Panels, six Panavision size Formatt grad filters, a Sony ECM-674 shotgun microphone, an ECM-77B lav mic, headphones, cleaning cloths, sunblock and a small bottle of Tylenol.

All of this, along with a Manfrotto 536 carbon fiber tripod with 526 fluid head was carried by our virile young assistant Arion Doerr and might I add, without much complaining. Perhaps it was the Hershey bars we kept dangling in front of him.

The bottom line is that we had a production company in a bag and we were able to shoot for hours without any interruption.

We actually started gathering our B-Roll outside the park at the corner of E. Chocolate Ave and Cocoa Avenue. On some days the air is so thick with the smell of chocolate that its probably fattening.

We were directly across from the famous Hershey chocolate factory and were informed that they still make Hershey Kisses right there in the plant, the same way they've made them for years. Milton Hershey, the legendary founder of the company named them Kisses, because the machine produced a smacking sound every time a Kiss was created.

On more than one occasion, the extreme height of the Manfrotto sticks was a life saver. Several locations required higher vantage points and there would have been no way to keep a small camera like the EX3 steady, hand-held. Especially, at extreme telephoto focal lengths, such as filming the cars at the peak of the Fahrenheit and Lightning Racer coasters.

Although much of our shooting would be on tripods, filming Fahrenheit required that I hand-hold the camera. The EX3 is a bit of a dog hand-held, without some type of additional shoulder mount hardware.

Sarah had hired a Vari-Zoom Steady Rig from a NYC rental house. It was one of the klutzy-est devices I have ever attempted to use and in fact, we didn't bother bringing it with us to Hershey. It might have worked fine if I was walking around trying to be a human tripod, but to follow a speeding car around a coaster, well, there was just know way it would work. I ended up mounting a small, $ 10.00 pistol grip on the end of rails that support my matte box and it worked fine.

You can easily twist into a pretzel or at the least, lose your balance trying to follow Fahrenheit with a camera. Fortunately, the EX3 with its simple pistol grip worked brilliantly this time around. It was certainly much easier than using a large shoulder mount camera.

Click here to see the edit combining the exterior B-Roll with the POV shots:

We had a very successful morning of filming, but sadly, as our lunch break approached so did the rain. Rides look pretty bleak against a while sky, so we'll have to schedule another day.

When we returned home, I embarrassingly empty my pockets of reams of silver foil.

Ah yes. The diet starts again on Monday.

www.Hersheypark.com

www.duckyou.com

www.duckem.com

Filming "The Sweetest Place on Earth"

2010-05-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

Last week, Sarah and I, along with our freelance assistant Arion Doerr, traveled out to Hershey Pennsylvania. Hershey, Pa is the home of Hershey chocolate and Hersheypark and we were there to create some HD POV B-Roll at on two of their roller coasters, Fahrenheit and Storm Runner.

If you haven't already guessed, POV is the acronym for point of view and that means we needed to mount HD cameras on the first car of each ride to show what a park visitor will experience sitting in the front seat.

This in itself creates a challenge. The cars on which the cameras are to be mounted were designed to carry riders safely around the track, but they were not necessarily designed to have cameras mounted on them. And while my cameras are capable of creating beautiful HD images under some extreme conditions, I'm fairly confident that they were not designed to be subject to the physical stress these rides can demand.

Fortunately, we've had prior experience mounting our cameras on several high speed coasters, including Six Flags Great Adventure's Kingda Ka, the tallest and fastest coaster in the world.

Our first concern is safety. Not just the safety of our cameras, but the safety of everyone working on the crew, everyone around the coaster and of course, the coaster itself. We did not make a move without the approval and oversight of the park's ride technicians. This is a multi-million dollar investment that they were letting us work on and they wanted us to leave it, and everyone around it, just the way we found it.

We had brought two cameras with us to Hershey, a Sony EX3 and a Sony MC1. The EX3 was our primary camera and we brought it along to create B-Roll of the exterior of the rides and surrounding park areas.

The MC1 is a unique HD camera in that its lens and body are separate from each other, connected by a six foot tether. This makes the camera head extremely small, light-weight and easy to mount almost anywhere. It also allowed the addition of filters and wide angle lens adaptors. For better audio, I had Arion tape a small piece of windscreen foam over the built-in microphone to help minimize wind noise.

The recorder part of the system uses readily available AVCHD cards or Sony memory sticks. It fits easily in your palm and includes a built in HD monitor with a touch screen that controls all camera and recorder functions.

Both the MC1 and EX3 are file based systems, which means no video tape. This is important when filming rides. The tape drum in the camera spins like a gyroscope and hard turns are very difficult for the camera's tape and mechanical system. A spinning gyro doesn't like being forced off its current direction.

The built in screen was very important to us, as it allowed us to check the position of the camera as we were mounting it, as well as giving us a confidence check after each run of the ride. The torque during launch and many of the ride's turns and corkscrews can easily alter the alignment of the camera. Being able to rapidly check the previous shot, without having to remove a card and download the shot to a computer saved us considerable time and helped us travel lighter, as well.

I used a Manfrotto 405 geared head bolted to a 2x4 to hold our camera head. We needed a mounting device that could be delicate enough to give us critical, reposition-able movements while aligning the camera head with enough strength to hold the camera in place. I've been using the 405 to hold a Sinar 4x5 for years, so I knew it would hold our cameras securely. The quick-release plate was an essential part of the process and made it possible to remove the camera without undoing everything else.

The 2x4 was clamped and bungeed to the ride with the tripod head positioned between the two front seats. Once in place, nylon zip ties and sash cord were used as a backup on each and every element, ensuring that even if the mount should fail or come loose in transit, it would remain securely in place.

The wood 2x4 also acted as a bit of a shock absorber. I wanted the image to be steady, but not to look like it was floating. On the contrary, although I wanted some vibration to show through, I didn't want it to all be a blur. So, the wood base was a perfect compromise. It was also light and easy to install across two seats.

Regardless of our care and concerns for safety, my heart is always in my throat when the camera launches for the first time. Seeing it come back into the station, in one piece.. still functioning, always brings a sigh of relief.

Check out the Fahrenheit POV here

The end results were worth the effort and hearing "I love it!" from my client was simply icing on the cake.

Of course, that would be Hershey's chocolate icing.

www.hersheypark.com
www.duckyou.com
Chuck is a featured DP on Sony's Videon Site
www.duckem.com

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. Really!

2010-04-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

It’s 2am and I’m anxious for the LBI lighting crew to lift a half-ton truss of colored spotlights 30 feet above me. I'm time-lapsing the building of a stage and two hours had passed with little movement.

Time-lapse gets pretty dull when nothing moves.

Although tonight’s installation is for the launch of a new product, it will still be quite an extravaganza of smoke, light and sound. A rock show without the band.

One of my first time-lapse project was for a production company working with U2. The group was slated to appear at Giant’s Stadium deep in the New Jersey Meadowlands at the beginning of their Stadium Zoo Tour. A producer named Ned from Dreamchaser Productions in Dublin, Ireland called looking for someone to do the deed.

I asked, “What does it pay?” and he responded "Six grand.", after which I suggested that I was the perfect one for the job.

I ran off to buy my first time-lapse camera and as such, began my new specialty.

On the early gigs I was using inexpensive super 8 film cameras, often with as many as 6 to 10 cameras in use at any one time. Each camera needed to be locked at a fixed position and was usually mounted on a tripod or a super clamp, pointing in the direction where different events were presumed to unfold.

Time lapse, for those unaware of the technique, is the process of shooting one image at a time at a set rate, say, one frame every five seconds and then playing it back at the normal speed for the format you are shooting in. For film it would be 24 frames per second (fps) and if you are shooting video, it is usually 30 fps. The result is that everything you have filmed is now showing up at a much faster rate. Clouds form and zoom by the camera at breakneck speed, city traffic will race down the streets and with amazing grace, flowers bloom in seconds.

Often, the difficulty in creating a time-lapse is having the patience to wait for an event to unfold.

At times, it works out just right and another time someone might park a truck right in front of your shot and kill it, but the results are worth the challenges, as time lapsed images can be both beautiful and fun. The simplest movement can take on new life when ramped up several times its normal speed.

The first time lapse films that I worked on only used one camera. It was locked in a singular position and from that one angle, you might witness the construction of a building or amusement park ride while shadows shifted from west to east and clouds flew by. This type of rig became pretty boring to me after a while and soon after, I began using several cameras so that later, I could edit between the camera positions. This, along with a cool music track created a fun experience.

Eventually, I began to walk around, placing cameras in multiple locations in the hopes of capturing short term movement. Like a back-hoe digging a foundation or a steel column being lifted into position. I would spend many hours walking between the different cameras to make sure they were still working, that there was still enough film or tape left and finally, to check that their position was still valid.

Time lapsing the construction of a roller coaster for Six Flags was a fairly slow moving process and in the case of Kingda Ka, the worlds tallest and fastest coaster, it took all of that winter. As there was not enough money in the budget for us to be there daily, we would try to arrive on days that a major element of the ride, like a giant piece of steel was about to be lifted into place and it always seemed to happen at first light. We froze our butts off.

Still, Sarah and I rarely found it boring and it became a challenge anticipating how the slow moving action in front of me would play out in high speed time lapse.

In the case of U2, time lapse was only part of the story.

It was day three at Giant Stadium and the rain had been coming down for hours. My cameras were all wrapped in plastic bags and the summer heat was causing the lenses to fog. Finally, there was a break in the weather and the backing tracks from “Real Thing” began to wail over the PA. The band appeared on the B-stage which was situated out at the 50 yard line.

I desperately wanted to get some close-up shots for myself, so with my small Hi-8 camera in hand, I slowly moved through the shadows towards the stage. I had the Edge in my viewfinder when suddenly Bono abruptly raised his hand, halting the rehearsal.

“You there, Mr Tiffen". (I had a Tiffen hat on.) "Is that an 8mm camera?". He spoke very politely, but his voice boomed loudly over the monitors. I was positive this could be heard on the NJ Turnpike.

I was like, “S***t! Busted!”

Then Bono gestured and asked “Wouldn’t your shot look better from up here?”

My eyebrows went up. “Really?”

At this very moment, my battery light is blinking and when I check, I find that I only have three minutes of tape left.

Raising my finger I shouted “Just a minute!” and ran off to retrieve my case on the sidelines. The band must of thought I was a lunatic. To assure them that I was, I tripped and slid about 6 feet on the wet tarpaulin, camera held high like Miss Liberty.

Standing up, I shouted "I'm good" and looked over to where I thought my assistant John Decker was standing with our gear, but he was no where to be seen.

I was mortified! So now, with pants jacket soaked, I turned and ran back towards the stage.

Approaching the stage, Larry Mullen stepped out from behind his drums to give me a hand up to onto the platform after which the band finally went on with their practice while I proceeded to roll off those last three minutes of tape. To be honest, it was so cool having them in my own viewfinder that I pretended to shoot for another five. Then with a wave of thanks, I slipped back into the shadows.

I have worked on three different U2 tours since and fortunately, no one has ever reminded me of my brilliant slide, diagonally, across the forty yard line.

Time lapse has become much more common since then and much simpler to achieve. Many, simply shoot long clips with their video cameras and then speed up the footage in their non linear editing systems. Others are using DSLR cameras to achieve the same technique by using the camera's built in intervalometer. Regardless of the method, it's still important to think in time lapse to get the best results.

To see some of of our time lapse films, please visit our website at www.duckyou.com

Back at the launch site things are finally getting back underway. The chain drives above me have begun to grind and any second a 50 foot lighting truss will be lifted into position.

Roll the cameras!

www.duckyou.com
www.duckem.com

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/video/videon.do

Family Matters

2010-04-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

When I opened my first studio, I worked more hours than I ever could have imagined. Sometimes, after photographing for an entire day, I would then spend hours in the darkroom printing all that I had shot.
Digital was still a long way off, but whether your hands are immersed in Dektol or your fingers are mousing away at Photoshop, time has a way off slipping by when you're concentrating on your work.

At 2 am, talk radio was not only a companion, it was the only thing keeping me awake, yet of all the hours I spent listening, only one program remains clear to this day. I was listening to a radio host named Barry Farber and on this particular night he was talking about making a recording of his father.

Now in today's electronic world, picking up and using a video camera is a pretty common thing. I mean most people's phones can shoot video now, but in the mid 1980s, the technology wasn't there and he was talking about using a audio cassette tape recorder.

But all technology aside, I found his discussion both brilliant and illuminating. He was talking about recording the voice of his father so that future generations of his family could hear his voice and perhaps a little family history. Something that more than often, gets lost.

You may have a recording of your grandmother holding your child as an infant, but what format is it on?. VHS? VHS-C? Hi-8? Does that camera still work and if it does, will the tape still play after laying in the basement since you replaced it with a DVD player?

Many of us "filmmakers" have watched hours of documentaries on PBS or the History Channel television, but rarely have considered documenting our own histories? And if so... Why not?

You might also be quite surprised at some of the things you learn about your grandmother or grandfather. Believe it or not, they were kids once, too.

I have a friend named Rob Katz and he's made a business out of recording family histories. He calls his company Small Talk Productions Small Talk Website and he creates delightful films about other folk's families. He calls it "Oral Histories" and although Milton Shwartzberg might not have held the fate of the empire in his hands like Winston Churchill, his own life experiences might be just as interesting to his family.

I had the pleasure of filling-in as Rob's DP last year and to my surprise, it was an interesting shoot. Rob's line of questioning was well researched both with other family members and the prevalent history during the time his subjects were growing up. This gave them something to relate to and also helped jog their memory a bit.

I remember the sound and smell of the Revere projector that my father used to show us the family films. There was always a mall amount of smoke rising above the machine as dust would burn off the bulbs.

One of the unique things about old style 8mm home movies, was that the camera carried a very short load of film. Usually between 2:40" and 3:20", depending on the speed the camera was set to and due to the expense, it was pretty rare to simply blow an entire roll of film on one event. So, it was not uncommon to find shots of birthdays, weddings, family outings, your grandparents the beach and Niagara Falls, all on one 50 ft. spool of film.

The jumping from subject to subject was part of the fun and we always knew what we were looking at because my mother and father would keep a constant narration in flow, discussing how dirty the pool was or how much weight my aunt gained.

Which brings me back around to recording your family.

Wouldn't you like to know what your great great grandfather sounded like. Don't you think your kids will, when they grow up? Think ahead.

With the passing of my own mother, I now realize that my one year old daughter will probably not remember the sound of her grandmother's voice. We will tell her all about grandma and there will be plenty of home movies and photographs, but it would have been nice to have an audio recording, as well.

My suggestion is to create a simple time capsule. Include shots of the current objects in your living room or kitchen. Include current events, like a newspaper heading and shots around your town. It may seem like ordinary stuff now, but very shortly it will change and disappear or be covered up by something new. Plan your shots well so that you can use them in your family documentary.

Who knows, maybe in a few years (when you become famous) the History Channel will come looking for your personal b-roll or at the least, it will be fun to look back and reminisce.

www.duckyou.com
www.duckem.com

Following the Footsteps of Robert Flaherty

2010-04-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

I have a weather app on my iPhone that shows the current weather conditions in some of the more interesting locations that I have filmed or photographed at, outside the New York area. Much of the time it is little more than a conversation piece between myself, Sarah and an assistant or two that traveled with me. It’s fun to add a “weather snapshot” to a story I’m relating and this particular app cost under a buck.

Usually, if you’re down to talking about the weather, it is already pretty a boring conversation, except when the location is Igloolik.

I could have easily guessed from the name that we would not be filming in a tropical paradise, yet, it has to be one of the most beautiful locations I have had the privilege to film in.

To take a step back for a moment, a soft-spoken and often silent director brought me onboard the project after I had shot some interviews and B-Roll for him in Manhattan. Mac Dara O’Curraidhn, was from Galway, in the west of Ireland. He was working on a documentary that was following the footsteps of legendary filmmaker, Robert Flaherty.

"Flaherty was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature length documentary film, Nanook of the North (1922). Of the eleven completed filmed that Flaherty produced, only Nanook of the North had commercial success."

Something he desperately tried to reproduce in the other ten.

Dr. Brian Winston, a brilliant, feisty little British gentelman, penned our script. He is an Emmy winning writer, scholar and author of several books on the subject of film. He was also the Dean of Communications, at the University of Lincoln, UK, and every conversation was truly a delight. It was like having my own personal, college level film course and I was getting paid to attend. Sweet!

My leg of the journey involved three of Flaherty’s films: Nanook of the North, The Twenty-four Dollar Island and The Louisiana Story and I would be traveling to Hollywood, Boston, Vermont, Ottawa, Louisiana and of course, Igloolik.

Two of his other well-known films, Man of Aran and Moana were covered by local DPs, due to budget restrictions.

Twenty-four Dollar Island is a stoic, silent film shot mostly around New York Harbor. The imagery was stark and dirty inspiring my first New York City film, STEAM View Steam

Mac Dara had begun the filming in PAL HDCAM and I rented a Sony F900 to film interviews and b-roll around Manhattan. It was only after I showed him some footage from my Sony EX3 that he agreed to switch to XDCAM. Fortunately the EX3 will film in PAL as well as NTSC. That means more potential production work from a larger client base for us.

The Louisiana Story was more of a docu-fiction. A propaganda film created by Flaherty for the Standard Oil Company, illustrating the virtues dropping wells all over the Louisiana bayou.

So, Arion and I, along with Mac Dara and Kay, our production manager, traveled down to Avery Island, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, to interview the star of that film.

The island held the locations for several scenes in the film. It is also the home of Tabasco Sauce. No matter where in the world you see it on your table, it came from Avery Island. It was on their property we that we were filming, so, we stood in 90% humidity, in 90-degree shade, learning all about Tabasco sauce from the company’s historian.

Avery Island is one of the weather locations on my phone.

The lead character in The Louisiana Story was around 12 when the film was made. Now, he was in his 60s. He and his wife were absolutely charming. They lived in a small white trailer, surrounded by dozens of chickens, which made for a very lively audio track.

Mac Dara interviewed him about the making of the film and then we drove to the site where, in the film, he allegedly fought with an alligator. I filmed a few alligators, turtles and spiders of my own to mimicing some of the shots in Flaherty's film.

A few days later, we were to head up towards Ottawa to film Flaherty's granddaughter and then further north to Igloolik, deep within the Arctic Circle.

On occasion, the Canadian government can be fairly strict when it comes to working and filming permits, which I found out late in the game, had not been obtained. After some heated discussion, it was decided we would cross the boarder as tourist/filmmakers, rather than an actual crew. In the future, I sincerely recommend getting the permits to avoid any hassles and the very real possibility of being sent back home at your own expense.

Igloolik is a small village in the northern most part of Hudson Bay. It took us three flights to get there and at each leg of the journey, the airports and the airplanes, each got much smaller.

It was early spring, so the temperature was a hearty 20-degrees.

A few weeks prior to the trip, Kay informed me that the local food consisted of fish and decayed walrus meat. As I am allergic to fish and thought of walrus was iffy, I packed plenty of instant soup and energy bars. Upon arriving, we toured the town and found their local market stocked with every product Oscar Mayer and Sarah Lee, ever sold.

Food was no longer an issue, although, clothing still was.

The local Inuit people are quite used to the cold and laughed when they saw what we considered to be “extreme weather” clothing. I don’t remember the exact word they used, but “gringo” would be a safe substitute.

A short while later, Kay arrived with special cold-weather coats, pants and boots for our journey out onto the ice. The coats were big, bulky with a fur-lined hood and remarkably warm, like the type you’d see in National Geographic magazine. Apparently, many geese gave up their feathers for our comfort and safety.

Our sled, little more than a plywood box on skids, sat about 60 feet off the shore, tethered not to a team of huskies, but to a snowmobile driven by our guide, Jason Kannuk. As the rope became taught, we jerked into motion, bouncing over large ice shards and crevices broken only by an occasional glide through a large, turquoise pool of water. All very exciting in the beginning, but a bit tiring as the hours moved on.

Mac Dara wanted to film seal and walrus at the edge of the ice and although we saw many off in the distance, they all made a quick escape through small holes in the ice as we approached. We settled for filming our guides fishing for Atlantic Char in the icy waters of a snow-banked stream on a nearby island. Still, quite dramatic and preferred over the clubbing of seals.

For this leg of the journey, I chose to bring the Sony EX1 and a smaller Manfrotto tripod. Space was very limited on the smaller aircraft and as usually, I refuse to check my cameras into cargo for safety reasons. Although the camera returned stunning images, it was perhaps the wrong camera for this particular occasion. The bright ice made it difficult to focus using the camera’s monitor and the rear viewfinder was not yet improved as it has been on the EX1R. At times, simple shooting was a bit of a challenge and I longed for the EX3's viewfinder and long lens capabilities.

The upside of filming in the arctic this time of year is that the sun continually remains in the sky 24 hours. Our production day was endless. Unfortunately, our energy was not and at one point, after schlepping camera and tripod through snow up to our waists in winds upwards of 30 mph, Arion and I were exhausted. Partially, from laughing about it.

After one additional, 20 minute interview, we bid our friends goodbye, got back in our sled and made the three-hour journey back to the village. The bumping across the ice seemed endless, but we finally reached the shores of Igloolik. A warm shower, a hot meal and we hit the sack.

The documentary is near completion and will be aired on the BBC and many other stations around the world. I’m really proud to have been a part of it.

On really cold days, Sarah and I laugh about the fact that it is probably colder in Igloolik and she pulls out her Iphone to prove it. Even though we are heading into the warm days of spring, I still miss that arctic explorer coat.

www.duckyou.com

www.duckem.com

On Safari: In New Jersey

2010-03-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

I admit that I am envious of some of the wildlife filmmakers I’ve seen on Nova, Discovery and Nat Geo, chasing down wild game with 800mm lenses mounted on the open roof of their well-worn Range Rovers. So, any time we get a call to shoot the animals at Six Flags Great Adventure & Wild Safari we jump at the chance. Wild Safari is the largest safari park outside of Africa.

Now, of course I’m not comparing the challenges of the bush or open Savanna to the comfort and control of a New Jersey theme park, still, the thrill of seeing lions, tigers and bears, along with giraffe, rhino and zebra filling my viewfinder can be pretty exciting and just as intense.

Today's assignment is to gather new B-Roll for the park's press reel. B-Roll is essential to producers and reporters creating stories about the park. They come to the park, do a few interviews and walk away with a half hour tape of animal shots that they can have their own editors whip into a story.

It is not uncommon for our images to show up in dozens of films, all over the globe, every year. So, the B-Roll for the Safari Park, Great Adventure theme park and the Hurricane Harbor water park must constantly be replenished with exciting new images that reflect what you can experience at Six Flags.

We set out with the park’s chief veterinarian, Dr William "Doc" Rives to create a behind-the-scenes "Wild Safari Tour” film. Although most of the animals seem undisturbed that we are driving among them, we are assured that many of them are still wild and as soon as we step outside the vehicle, we are invading their territory. Strict rules of conduct must be followed.

"When I say get back in the vehicle, I mean it" Doc says without a smile. "Some of the animals are very territorial and there are also a lot of new babies, so the mothers will be extremely protective."

It wasn't long before his words rang true. A 7 foot tall ostrich approached the truck, feathers ruffled and pecking at our windows.

For today's shoot I am using my Sony EX3 with a variety of Nikon lenses. Using telephoto prime lenses gives me an additional magnification with incredible sharpness and very low depth of field. By staying back from a herd of animals such as the zebras, which are naturally skittish, I can still observe them up close and undisturbed. The waves of heat off the ground and the low depth helps maintain the illusion that our subjects are out in the wild and not confined to the park.

I've also brought along my new NX5U so that I can change cameras quickly. I've done some test with the camera and I've been pretty happy with the results. I've found that if I set my camera profiles with a slightly lower gamma and saturation the files cut together nicely with the XDCAMs and because of its lower weight (and cost), I feel more inclined to mount it on the hood of a Jeep heading off-road. The AVCHD format allows me to shoot up to 11 hours using the FMU128 flash drive. Don't leave home with it.

Both cameras have mounting plates that will work on my 519 fluid head which I have mounted on 545B tripod both from Manfrotto. The combination is quick to set and fairly steady with telephoto lenses up to 1000mm. The 545 legs open and level very quickly, which is important as we need to get in and out of our car rapidly. It's also affordable, so I can own more than one, add accessories like additional camera plates, spreaders and carrying cases without having to mortgage my home.

Of course, some of the animals, such as the big cats do have to be confined in large pens and safety rules require me to film them from outside their cages. Here again, using a telephoto lens or the camera’s zoom lens at its farthest setting, will make the fence all but disappear. Close ups of lions, tigers and bears (oh my) are now much easier and safer to accomplish. The low depth of field makes focusing a bit of a challenge, yet, the results outweigh any difficulty I’ve encountered.

As a side note:

It is important to use the widest iris (aperture) setting available to you, as the links of the fence will begin to show up if you stop the lens down to 5.6 or beyond. I have also found that the Sony EX3’s kit lens loses a bit of sharpness when using settings higher than 5.6 and I tend to use the camera’s internal ND filter or a third party filter to reduce light entering the camera.

We return home from our shoot to the comfort of a hot shower and our own bed.

In recent years, Sarah and I have gone to much larger, African safari parks while visiting Kenya yet, we still find the Wild Safari Park at Six Flags to be one of our most fun adventures. We love it!

Visit our website to see more.

Chuck featured on Sony VideON
www.duckyou.com

"You Have 2 Minutes!"

2010-03-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

A few days before I left for Kenya, Sarah and I had the pleasure of filming a short video clip for designer John Varvatos. The company that represents his fragrances was having their annual sales meeting and as he was unable to be there in person, he requested this video to thank everyone for helping his brand grow while others suffered the difficult economy.

I've had the opportunity to film or photograph many well known personalities and performers over the years. Names such as Ray Charles, Bruce Springstein, Stachy Keach, Allen Ginsberg, Bill Charlap, Walter Cronkite, Yoko Ono, Billy Joel, Isaac Hayes, Bono, Gabriel Byrne and even the great Mickey Mantle are just a few of the personalities that I've been lucky enough to see through my own camera's viewfinder.

Some of them were fun or interesting to work with, while others were a bit more challenging and on occasion, the talent's assistant or agent was more difficult than the talent.

"You have two minutes" one assistant barked, once while I was photographing Fred Wilpon, a part owner of the New York Mets baseball team. I was all set up and ready to shoot when Fred started asking me questions about photography. This led to a discussion on how he came to own the Mets and a half hour later we wrapped.

Admittedly, other sessions were not as relaxed. While being interviewed for Amnesty International, Yoko Ono was fairly strict in regards to the type of lighting to be used (she specifically requested three Chimera soft boxes) while Billy Joel just scowled at the camera the entire shoot.

Whether it's a rock star or the CEO of a pharmaceutical firm, the last thing we want to have happen is an unnecessary delay while the talent is already on set. Nothing looks (or feels) more unprofessional than searching through your bags for an accessory or standing there fiddling with your camera's menu while your subject is growing even more anxious in their chair.

Sarah and I often rehearse our set up before a gig by discussing what gear we will be using and in which equipment case it will be located. With five bags and twenty-two pockets, it's easy to play "Where's the lens cleaning cloth" or "Did you bring that adaptor?"

Because we do both video and photography, some gear, such as light stands, super clamps, extension cords, gel filters and the like get moved around into different bags and it is important to run through a check list making sure everything is where it should be. Forgetting a simple item like a tripod plate or the tiny screw that holds it in place, can lead to a disastrous shoot or at the least, suffering the embarrassment of having to use gaffers tape to hold you camera in place.

"Wouldn't this shot look great hand-held?"

Another consideration that we prepare for is whether the talent will be able to speak off the cuff, or will they need cue cards or even a tele-prompter. If it's an interview, the talent is usually responding to questions being posed by Sarah or someone else, but in the case of someone making and announcement or addressing their employees, it is good to know if they are comfortable in front of the camera. This is something that we always try to discuss in advance with our clients. Even a simple paragraph can be a mountain of anxiety for someone not use to speaking without a script.

To our delight, John Varvatos was a gracious host. Although we had brought along a full lighting kit, John's office was bathed in beautiful natural light and with his rock memorabilia as a background, it was beautiful thing. We set up all our gear outside his office and when given the "go", we moved everything into place, tested the audio and rolled tape. John was very relaxed in front of the camera and after two brief takes, the message was complete.

As we were packing, John came by and thanked us for making it easy for him.

In truth, it was the other way around.

www.duckyou.com
Chuck Featured on Sony VideOn
www.duckem.com

Kenya; Day Four and Five

2010-03-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

The trouble with travel is that as soon as I become acclimated to my destination, it's usually time to go home. This time I was anxious to return to the states. I had done all I could do in the allotted time and the bulk of the work would be done by others using the photos and video that I have created.

Regardless of the project that Sarah and I are working on, we always seem to come home with the feeling that we could have done more, but this was not a commercial shoot or a reality show. We did not take out permits to stop traffic or hire actors to reenact true life stories. This was life in progress in at an orphanage in Nairobi and for a few days I was able to experience a small part of it.

The last few days were spent interviewing some of the kids about the things they like and what they wanted to be when they grow up. Some wanted to be teachers, others doctors and a handful wanted to drive or repair cars. "Automobile" is a beautiful word when spoken in Kenyan English by an 8 year old.

The kids loved seeing themselves on the video camera's monitor and they were even more excited when I let them look through the camera and film each other. After a short lesson, ten potential filmmakers were filming each other singing songs and making faces for the camera, no differently than your kid would be doing, here in the states.

The things that would normally make me anxious on the return flight home, seemed quite trivial compared to the living conditions I had just witnessed and I felt fortunate to be aboard a jet fly home.

I've said this before, yet it rings even truer today. I often don't feel the impact of where I've been until I return home. Then, surrounded by all my stuff in the comfort of my own home it hits hard.

I have gone on about the gear I've had the opportunity to use for this project but the bottom line is that I hope the resulting images will help to create positive and effective awareness for the kids of Rehema Home, because it is only through the love and kindness of others that these children have survived.

Their faces say much more than my words.

www.rehemahome.com
www.duckyou.com

Kenya; Day Three: The Roads

2010-03-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Driving in and around Nairobi is an extreme sport. For many travelers, the transportation system is made up of small vans called Matatu. The Matatu drivers will advance through traffic at all costs. They will pass each other while speeding down the dusty, rut-filled highways, flashing their lights as they speed towards you, head on, in your lane. Traffic lights appear to be optional and the roads are shared with large trucks spewing black diesel, men pulling heavy carts and goats.

It was around 11 am and we were heading across town to interview Dr. Joseph Mophat Kilioba, the Bishop of the PEFA Church Doonholm. The Bishop had been instrumental in helping form Rehema Home and it was apparent that he was still very passionate about the orphanage.

Traffic in Nairobi is absolutely stupid. Dangerous roundabouts every mile or two with cars, trucks and buses refusing to give way to each other. There is much improvement of the roads going at the moment, so things were backed up even more and the normally quiet back roads were now choked with heavy traffic.

The amazing thing was the absence of horns. If this was the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, the horns would start blasting immediately. The drivers were aggressive, but I hardly heard a beep.

We were in an area that was considered middle class, yet it still looked like the worst area of most cities I have visited. Decaying concrete and stone buildings, dirt roads, children and animals running everywhere.

A guard waved to Johnathan and instructed us to pull into a yard filled with children in bright blue uniforms. Labor is very cheap in Kenya and many homes, office buildings and factories are surrounded by high walls or fences and men are employed around the clock to protect the premises.

One of administrators of the church showed us around the building and introduced us to each and every teacher. They were extremely proud of their school and rightfully so.

The Bishop welcomed us warmly. He had known Johnathan since he was a boy and he spoke a bit on the current state of Nairobi and of the difficulties and importance of Rehema Home.

I had brought along a small carbon fiber tripod from Manfrotto called a 055CXPRO3. That’s a lot of numbers for just three legs, but it was the perfect number for this trip. The tripod easily fit in luggage and I brought along a 501 fluid head for the video and a ball head from Gitzo for the stills.

Although I do a fair share of hand holding my cameras, I prefer to use a tripod when possible. I like shooting with with longer lenses and for that, a steady foundation is essential. This set of sticks was strong enough and light enough to be handy all day.

The interview set up was intentionally light weight. Window light with the Lite Panel MircoPro to subtly fill in the shadows. I used a Sony ECM-77B lavaliere mic and the buds from my Iphone to monitor the audio. The PCM audio from the NX5 is incredible. It was a production kit in a bag.

We headed back to the orphanage, bumpy and bouncy along the dust filled roads.

Every day at around 3pm, the jet lag would kick in and we always seemed to be driving when it would come over me. The bright, warm sun, the diesel fumes and the traffic was the perfect recipe.

We arrived back at Rehema Home about an hour later. I wanted to photograph the kids for a while and then head back to the guesthouse to sort through the tons of images. I had already shot over 2,000 stills at this point and it was time to take a break and get some quiet time for myself. I skipped dinner and set up the computer to download my cards.

As it was Nairobi, it is not uncommon for the electricity to go off at any time. As soon as I sat down to work, boink, it was gone. I set up one of the Lite Panels on a clamp and dimmed to its lowest setting, it was more than bright enough to work for hours on four AA batteries. Fun! I felt like McGiver.

As a visual artist, I rarely know where I’ve been or who I’ve met until I look back at the pictures.

I believe that I have fallen in love with each and every kid at Rehema Home and am photographing them much more than necessary. I love their smiles and I find that I am photographing them as if they were my own.

I reviewed the footage from the NX5U video camera and it looks and sounds great and I am hoping that I have enough stuff for a small documentary on the Rehema. I was impressed with Lance’s photos in the slums and I am hoping that my video work does as much justice as his stills.

I scanned through hundreds of images using Lightroom, occasionally stopping to check focus or adjust expose. The Nikon D3 is an amazing camera and the detail is just amazing.

In a short while, everyone is back and the silence is broken.

The room air is stale as the windows remain closed to keep the mosquito at bay. Nairobi is high on a plateau and malaria is rare at this altitude. Nonetheless they’ll bite the piss out of you if you’re not careful.

And it was only on the last day that I would find out that the mosquito nets were ineffective against the bed bugs.

www.rehemahome.com

www.duckyou.com

www.sony.com/videon

Kenya; Day Two: The Slums.

2010-03-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

It was now Monday in Nairobi and most of the kids at the Rehema Home orphanage were in school. Some were in classrooms within the walls of the property and others went to public schools just down the road.

Not all kids in Nairobi have this opportunity; we were about to meet some of those kids.

It’s was one thing to do a drive-by camera shoot on the outskirts of a slum, but getting out of the car and walking through the despair and among the desperate was something I was not prepared for. Nonetheless, I had requested it and we were there.

Isaac, a trusted worker at the orphanage had driven us to an area called Ekodoro. The van had been bumping and sliding down a narrow, muddy road for half a mile. We turned right and crested a small hill and suddenly, we were surrounded by dozens of children and an odd collection of dogs and mud stained goats.

The hand gestures offered by the kids offered were not designed to welcome us. At that moment, I sat there with my cameras thinking that I really didn’t belong here, but, in truth, I did. We were here to show the conditions that the kids at Rehema Home have been spared. We were not there to exploit them.

Some young men who insisted we not take any photographs in the area approached us. Isaac explained that we were making a film for the orphanage and although our pictures might not directly benefit them, they might have an impact on their children in the future.

That seemed to satisfy him and for 200 shillings, he offered to watch our van while we entered the rows of sheet metal and chicken wire homes.

Yeah, we were hustled, but it was a fair compromise.

Without hesitation I slung the Kata bag on my back, grabbed the video camera, handing off the tripod so that I could film as I was walking. Jonathan, Lance and myself followed Isaac down the narrow paths of mud, laced with animal and human waste. The area was composed of dozens of small shacks made of wood slats and metal scraps. Some were insulated with mud and others with rags or sticks.

As I was primarily dealing with the video end of things, I had handed my still camera off to Lance and he did a great job taking these pictures.

The NX5’s active stabilization in addition to the wide-angle lens allowed me to track smoothly. My footing was not all that secure and the kids marching alongside of us took turns holding our hands and pulling at our pockets.

I’ll admit that I was burying myself in the technical aspects of my job to block out the physical and emotional stench of the environment. The conditions were horrendous. No one in the world should have to live in a sewer like this.

It was all quite overwhelming. Unless you've seen this in person, it is truly difficult to imagine. I began to think of my wife and child, our home and the work I choose to do. I couldn't help think of all the trivial stuff we complain about and how, in our worst times, we really have it quite good.

We walked a few hundred yards and it was just more of the same. I mounted the camera on my tripod to do a slow pan of the area. The kids, being kids, always ran in front of the camera, regardless of which way I was pointing it. It quickly became a game and for a brief moment were having some fun with the kids.

It was time for us to leave and it was that fact that we could leave that made it difficult for me to look at the children’s faces without my camera as a buffer.

Although I never felt that we were in danger, Isaac was thanking God that he got us out of there not only with all we were carrying, but without harm.

When we returned to the orphanage, I set the camera up to shoot a panoramic of the property. The kids immediately gathered in front of the lens and as I panned they laughed and scrambled to stay in front of the camera.

At this moment, I really wanted to be back home.

www.rehemahome.com
www.duckyou.com

Kenya; Day One

2010-03-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Nairobi around 10pm and met up with some of the other members of the team. The organizer of this group, Johnathan Shwandt, had joined me in London and we were standing alongside the baggage belt sharing the exact same fears. To our surprise and relief, all of the bags arrive intact.

I had been up since 5am the day before, so, I was good and ready for absolutely nothing. We headed off to the guesthouse, struggled with 220V power outlets and stumbled about in the dim light getting our mosquito nets in place, before crash landing on cots disguised as beds.

On Sunday morning, we were greeted with a hot breakfast and for some of us, cold showers. We gathered up anything valuable, piled into a small Toyota van and headed over to the orphanage. Thirty of the fifty-two kids would be heading off to church and we followed along. The plan for the remainder of the day was to begin photographing the kids. That is until jet lag began to alter some of my plans.

Still, nothing I’ve done compares to the feeling I got when dozens of kid ran over to great me. Some yelled out my name, others just grabbed my hand and walked along with me. It was my great fortune to return to Rehema Home and the kids made me feel welcomed.

The roads in Nairobi could easily bring a Jeep to its knees. Every road we traveled was punctuated with the smell of diesel or the smoke from burning garbage. Although I had slept, my internal clock was way off the mark and I found myself drifting off. It was only 11am and I felt wasted.

On the way back to the orphanage, I pulled out my video camera to get some basic background footage of Nairobi. I felt it important to illustrate the desperation that surrounds the Rehema Home in order to properly contrast the benefits to the children that live within the walls of the orphanage.

I had recently replaced my Sony Z1U camera with a new NX5U camera, mainly because I had dropped it and did not want to spend serious money on repairing old technology.

Both cameras had many similarities, but the big difference in my mind was that the NX5U doesn’t use tape. It records beautiful 1920x1080 HD onto two easily obtainable SDHC cards or one very small and powerful 128 gig flash drive that mounts neatly on the side of the camera. Roughly the size of an audiocassette, the drive is capable of recording close to 11 hours of high quality HD footage and it’s powered directly from the camera. No tapes, no extra wires and no additional batteries.

We’ve been using the Sony EX1 and EX3 as our principal cameras, so we’re used to, and prefer file-based cameras.

There are some areas of Nairobi that it would simply be unwise to stop your car and whip out your camera, yet I still wanted to capture much of what we were seeing. From past experience I knew that shooting out the side window would basically blur anything that was close to the camera, but I had read a post on DVinfo.com that touted a unique, slow motion feature built into the NX5, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Twelve seconds later I was stunned when the camera’s monitor began to playback ultra-slow, images of the people we had just passed. Very cool! It took me awhile to get over this. The downside of the effect is that once you have shot your twelve seconds, you have to wait for it to render out, but there was also a six and three second setting with shorter render times, with the three second setting resulting in the best quality.

I spent the rest of the day photographing the kids. To keep it simple, I had brought only two lenses to Kenya, a 28-105mm Tamron lens and a 70-300mm Nikon lens. My intention was to directly engage the kids in these photographs, so I used the Tamron for most of the shots, allowing me to remain close to my subject, but not so wide that I would distort their faces.

These are the lucky kids, the ones that have been spared the terrible conditions outside of Rehema Home's walls. Some of the children had been abandoned, others abused. Nearly half of them are HIV positive, but you'd never know it. Seeing them lined up in their Sunday clothes or their school uniforms you would hardly suspect that their lives were any different from children raised in a middle class town in Long Island. But, the evidence is there, we had just driven through it and keeping fifty-two kids healthy, fed, clothed and safe is a never ending task.

It's only though the love and kindness of others that these kids have been given a chance to survive.

The orphanage receives all of its funding from private donations and it's a constant challenge to keep the money flowing. It's a daunting task to constantly ask for money in light of today's economy, especially with a new crisis developing somewhere in the world nearly every day. Rehema Home has a small, very dedicated marketing team back in the states that is constantly working on their behalf. The images I'm capturing will hopefully be effective in raising both funds and awareness of their Sponsor a Child website and other fundraising programs.

Seeing the children's faces in my viewfinder is pure joy. The kids insist on seeing their images displayed on the cameras LCD screen and they giggle almost every time. Fifty-two incredible kids and five hours later, I had already shot over 900 images. Thank God for digital!

By now, the jet lag and warm sun had begun to blur my vision and the day ended at a nearby Ethiopian restaurant were we ate and discussed the week's schedule. It was ironic that we could get so much for so little money.

A few hours later, we scrambled into our mosquito nets and lunged into sleep.

www.rehemahome.com
www.duckyou.com

Packing for Nairobi.

2010-03-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

I only had a few days to go and I had not yet packed for my trip to Africa. It’s always a challenging process deciding just which camera items to take with me omn a journey. There are the items that I need to take along and the items that I want to take along.

This time, it was not going to be as easy. I was traveling to Africa to document the work of a mission team visiting the Rehema Home orphanage, an island in the sea of slums found in Nairobi, Kenya. Even though I was volunteering my time, the expenses must be limited with every extra dollar going directly to improving the lives of the children.

My travel was booked on British Airways and like most airlines; they have very exact specifications regarding the size and amount of items I could carry on to the jet. There was also a limit to the amount of bags that I could check.

There are some items that I simply know better than to load into the hull of a Boeing 777, like my primary cameras, lenses, computer and a few-not so easily replaced- accessories. There were simply too many perfect opportunities for my bags to fall off the cargo belt, between Newark, New Jersey and Nairobi, Kenya. So, I knew for sure that certain stuff had to travel with me

I would be splitting my time between photography and video, both of which were of equal importance on this trip. I considered using a DSLR, but I knew in advance that I would be interviewing many of the kids, as well as some prominent Nairobi officials and I did not want to be limited on the length of a take. Both kids and officials say the darnedest things and I like leaving the camera on record.

Using a separate recording device was neither space efficient or practical. For the most part, I would be working alone and without someone to slate and record audio cues, I would be left with a massive post-production headache.

So, bottom line, I was looking for the best combination of gear that would satisfy my production needs, allow me to carry most of it on the plane with me and in addition, not cripple me as I attempt to move through crowded airport security and narrow jet aisles.

There is no single camera bag that suits every occasion. I know this, because I have owned most of them at one time or another, but I did find a backpack from Kata that really worked well for this trip. I’ve previously owned camera backpacks but I quickly abandoned them because they were inefficient or very uncomfortable.

I loaded it with a new Sony NX5U video camera, a wide angle lens, Nikon D3, two lenses, microphones, batteries, and Lite Panel Micro and MicroPro LED lights. There was also space for my computer and additional pockets for the normal stuff like a cell phone, Ipod, passport, pens, magazines and a snack, all with very easy access.

The Kata pack allowed me include everything I needed to carry with me, kept it to a size that allowed me to get it on a plane and as a bonus, it was comfortable to carry around on my back. The bag would become a genuine asset while working in and around Nairobi.

In my luggage, along with my clothing and personal items, I needed to include a tripod and an endless array of non-creative, yet, essential stuff such as additional batteries, battery chargers, extension cords, power strips, lens cleaning cloths, adaptor rings, power converters, etc. The list was endless.

Often, when I travel, I’ll pick up some items like extension cords locally, to save on the weight. It’s often cheaper than the cost of overweight fees, but getting stuff like that in Nairobi is often not as simple as it sounds and it’s very possible that you will pay triple the amount for less than desirable products. I had to take the stuff I needed with me.

My second bag was filled with clothing for the kids at the orphanage, donated by some very kind and caring people. A special thanks to Ronnie, Nicole and Veronica.

When I’m on the road for a company like Estee Lauder or Harley-Davison, getting charged for a few extra bags is just part of the deal and in most, if not all situations, my client is going to cover those extra fees. I knew in advance that this was not going to be the case.

As this was an international flight, British Airways allowed me to check the two bags without any additional fee. I made sure that the weight of each suitcase was just under the 50 lbs. limit set by the airline and it was a relief to drop them off at the check-in counter.

I don't sleep well on flights. In fact, I rarely sleep at all. If I do manage to drift off, it's while we're still on the runway or 3 minutes before they begin to serve a meal. Having previously flown in the comfortable seats at the pointy end of the plane, adds to the discomfort of flying economy and the fact that they march you past the big comfy seats on your way to the rear only adds to the pain.

I was delighted that my bag easily fit in the overhead bin and that there was an overhead bin available to be delighted about, as that is always a challenge when flying with camera gear.

Unloading the bags, clearing security and lifting my bag into the overhead were just an appetizer. Now, I was about to settle in for the first course. A seven-hour flight to London, followed by an eight hour flight to Kenya. They have not even closed the cabin doors and the woman in front of me is already trying to lower her seat all the way to the floor.

It’s was going to be a long flight.

www.duckyou.com

www.rehemahome.com

www.vimeo.com/crazyduck/videos

It's perfect! I just have a few changes.

2010-03-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

This is a recent quote from one of our clients:

"It's so bloody good i could cry (seriously)!
Overall spectacular, exactly what i wanted it to be.
The music is so on point, so dramatic and so perfectly timed i am in awe.
You guys outdid yourselves on this one !!

Just a couple of minor adjustments..."

And so goes your life when you are the editor, the writer, the musician, photographer, etc. Five hours of editing later and we're sending another approval copy up to the server.

Flexibility is the keyword here and a few ounces can go a long way in keeping your client relationships not only intact, but fruitful. Most of my clients have a crystal clear picture of what they need and want to say with their presentations, yet they may not be able to immediately express those ideas in the language of our craft.

Sure we could argue over every change, especially the ones that are not corrections, but new additions to the mix of images and information that we have already crafted into our perfect sequence. (tongue in cheek), but certainly, that would simply lead to an extremely aggitated and very unhappy client.

We might win the battle, but we would certainly lose the war.

As senior producer, a large part of Sarah's job at Crazy Duck Productions, at times, is to be an interpreter. She is often responsible for communicating with our clients and translating their wishes into a language that is familiar to myself and/or the others involved in our project, like an animator, writer or a musician.

Very often I count on her to help breakdown descriptive phrases such as, "The script is not earthy enough" or "It's a great shot, but it doesn't motivate me. Can we change it?" And unfortunately, sometimes, her job is to act as a buffer, so that my initial response to the list of changes is to her and not directly to our client.

We work very closely with our clients and try our best to give them everything they need, still, we don't cower to their every whim. There are times that the direction is just wrong and changing a specific element in the timeline will effect everything else that is already in perfect placement. After all, that's why they hired us in the first place, but it is important for us to remember that our client has a specific message that they want delivered and many of those facts and figures are as important to them as our exposure and color balance is to us.

If you are doing this as a business, it's important to build a specific amount of revisions into your original agreement with your prospective client. How many revisions are included in your original price is up to you, but you do need to set a number or time limit. Otherwise, your project might take much longer to complete than you anticipated. We have heard nightmares about projects that had everything approved until the client showed the finished product to their cousin Bob. Of course, Bob had some suggestions of his own and now their client wanted to incorporate them. This has the potential to go on for months if you don't have a plan in place to limit the amount of changes that will be done for the original cost.

This is particularly important if you are hiring an animator or a musician. What might appear to be minor changes to your client, may require intensive work and hours of render time.

Of course, if the changes are errors on your end and you haven't delivered something that you promised to deliver, then obviously it's your responsibility to make it right.

Proper planning in the early stages of your production is essential to avoid serious and possibly costly changes later.

You might get your prospective client all excited, touting the virtues of 24p and high definition, only to find that their state-of-the-art, internal video system only plays in 4:3 NTSC. If you have taken great advantage of the 16x9 format, you will have little choice but to letterbox. We had one client tell us that the reason we were hired was because the last production company shot everything in the wrong format and the TV stations that they normally dealt with would not run their footage. Ouch!

If a client is supplying footage to you, in addition to what you are creating, make sure it is compatible with your current format, before you begin production. It might be an easy fix now, maybe as simple as the a flick of a switch, but later, mismatched formats will become a very costly and time consuming problem.

So, ask lots of questions, because the more you understand about your client's needs, the better chance you will have creating a successful, finished film, with the least amount of changes.

And sometimes changes are good for business. If you have planned your proposal properly, changes over and above the agreed amount of revisions can mean serious, additional income. It's for this reason that we create our client's programs on a drive that remains exclusive to them. This way we can pull up their project, hours, days, even months down the road and make any changes they might need, like adding spanish subtitles or editing out the old CEO and replacing the opening with the new CEO.

In any case, be patient. "It's perfect, now change it" is a compliment of the highest order. Your clients count on you for your input, experience and your artistry, but just like your mother, they're prone to express themselves in strange and unique ways.

Hopefully, they'll prove it by calling you first on the very next project.

www.duckyou.com

www.duckem.com

http://vimeo.com/crazyduck

My African Adventures

2010-02-26T12:44:00.000-08:00

This business, like any, has had its share of ups and downs. Whether you're a photographer, musician or carpenter, the independent path is often an uncertain one and filled with mixed blessings. Sure there's the freedom of being your own boss without the need to punch the clock, yet owning your own business often has you working away while your friends are quitting at six and there have been more than a couple of slow months when I wished I was on somebody else's payroll. Let's not even begin to talk about medical insurance and the like. Sarah and I often joke that "freelance" means "out of work".

Still, with a mix of blind persistence, dumb luck and a whole lot of help from our friends, we've managed to do more than just get by. We've been fortunate and we believe it's essential to help out others as much as we can.

I'll be traveling to Kenya in a short while to document in video and photographs, the amazing children of the Rehema Home orphanage in the heart of Nairobi. This will be my third visit to Kenya and I'm often asked "Why Africa?" The truth is that my first trip was initiated by my own arrogance.

We were watching a video presented on behalf of the orphanage, created by a congregation member that had recently returned from Kenya. Even by amateur standards, the video was pretty awful. It had all the best mistakes. Filming with a bright window behind their subject, mega-shakey cam with tons of zooming and simply terrible audio. Of course, as a professional, you just cringe at that stuff, like chalk squealing on the blackboard. "How did they expect to raise any money with a video like that?"

Ok. Long story short, after $400 worth of vaccinations and 16 hours on a jet, Sarah and I are standing in Nairobi airport with a six others waiting for our ride. Totally out of context and just a little bit anxious.

Our photography and video production company keeps us traveling quite a bit and we are used to packing our gear so that, if it arrives at all, it will arrive safely. It's for this reason, that we never send our cameras through regular luggage, they always get carried on the plane with us, or at the least, we carry them up to be gate checked on the smaller jets. Nairobi has the unfortunate nickname of "Nai-robbery" and we wanted to make sure the cameras never left our site.

We had checked in advance and we knew were allowed one carry-on each, so I packed a small roller case with a Sony PD-150 video camera, a Nikon D200 and a couple of lenses. Sarah carried a our mac book and our personal items in a back pack. Finally, I disassembled a small Manfrotto 441 tripod and put that though with our bags. I was relieved to see that it, and our clothing had mad the journey unscathed.

Irv Shwandt, who runs Rehema Home with his wife Ruth, greeted us with a friendly voice, scooped us up into a small, Nissan min-bus and shuttled us down the bumpy roads into Nairobi. It was now 10 pm, and we were jet lagged out of our minds. The dark highway turned into a gravel road that now changed to a dirt road, filled with rocks and pot holes. For awhile, our headlights were the only source of light, but eventually we pulled up to a small guest house with a bright lamp on the gate. We were introduced to our hosts and our rooms, read the rules of the house and then hit the sack. The accommodations were sparse, but it was "The Ritz" compared to what was around us.

Sunlight makes everything better. After breakfast we walked down the dirt roads that had us fearing for our lives and they were now filled with light and color. The homes and building around us were little more than loose wood and tin shacks, poorly thrown together. Dozens of people walked briskly down the roads among the stray dogs and roosters in the dust of passing vehicles. You could smell the poverty.

When I finally met the children of Rehema Home, all I could do was smile and sigh.. These kids, having faced horrific circumstance, many of them HIV positive, all abandoned for no reason of their own, greeted us with smiles and cheers. Without hesitation they grabbed our hands and lead us over to the area they were playing in. They were just kids, no different from my own. And fortunately, due to the love and devotion of Irv and Ruth, they had shelter, food, clothing and and were getting an education.

Millions of others were not nearly as fortunate. It was difficult to comprehend the conditions people live under in some of the places we visited. Kibera has the distinct dishonor of being Africa's 2nd largest urban slum with as many as 2 million people living in an area under one square mile. I've have traveled all over the world but I had never seen anything like this. Sadly, after a few days, it's all quite numbing.

We spent the week working at the orphanage, repairing and painting the buildings and taking breaks to play with the kids. In 10 days I shot 11 hours of video and took over 2,200 photographs. There were over fifty kids to photograph and the combinations were endless. The children loved seeing their own images and they would scream "Let me see me!" so that we would turn the viewfinder around so they could see themselves. Half of the fun was showing them their own images and watching them giggle.

When we left Nairobi airport for London, I felt like I had escaped, but I knew I would to return.

It really wasn't until I returned home that the full impact of our journey hit me. Everyone around me seemed totally preoccupied with what appeared to be extremely trivial matters. My first encounter was a woman who had been waiting at least five minutes for a taxi. She was absolutely livid. Had she witnessed the lifestyle in Nairobi, perhaps she might lighten up a bit.

Your camera has amazing potential locked up behind that lens and it can be used to do a lot of good.

I'm happy to say that my photos and videos have successfully been used to raise money and awareness for the orphanage. I enjoy using the skills I've acquired to give help to others and it's rewarding to actually see the results of my efforts.

If each person would simply help one or two others, we might actually put a dent in some of the worlds problems.

www.rehemahome.com
www.duckyou.com
http://vimeo.com/crazyduck

City Lights

2010-02-20T09:48:00.000-08:00

I've just past the half way mark on my latest short film City Lights featuring elements of NYC. All of the scenes in this film are made up of time lapse images shot in different locations around New York City. I had hoped to have City Lights completed by now, but unfortunately, the snow and extreme cold weather have made things a bit difficult. But the weather is slowly warming up and I'm ready to get back out there.

I enjoy shooting for time lapse and it can be done several ways. The original technique was to shoot one frame of film or video at a specific interval. For example, to speed of clouds, you might shoot one frame every five seconds and then when you play it back at 24 fps for film or 30 fps for video, everything will move extremely fast. It required using a device called an intervalometer. Basically a timer with which you could set up the interval of your shots and the amount of frames shot at each interval. Some cameras had this feature already built in.

When creating a time lapse this way, it helps to plan ahead and try to pre-visualize the movement in order to achieve the action you are looking for. If you set a longer interval between exposures, the resulting action will be faster movement and of course the opposite is true, as well. More on this in a bit.

The other way more commonly used these days is to shoot a long segment of video without moving the camera and then speed it up with your editing system. At your edit desk you can determine the correct speed for your project. The down side here is that this technique takes a bit more time, because you have to digitize all that footage into your system in realtime or fill your drives with very large files.

The most difficult part of working in time lapse is finding the patience to complete a shot properly. I might setup a shot of the NYC skyline, directly across the river from one of the Hoboken parks/piers. Everything looks great and I am trying to imagine how the slow moving clouds will look, sped up. Then, I'll see a large ocean liner making its way north of the Hudson, or a beautiful bank of clouds over the financial district. My current shot seems lame compared to these new revelations. Too often, I have returned home only to find that my original instinct was the best and I had killed a great looking shot by being impatient and leaving it too soon.

So, I have established the 20 minute rule for myself. I bring along a stop watch and continue to hold my position for a minimum of 20 minutes. I've also taken to bringing more than one camera when possible.

My longest time lapse to date was 7 days. I set up 10 cameras in the University of Nevada stadium to document the building of U2's POP Tour stage. Some of the cameras were capturing one frame every 2 minutes, while others moved much faster. If the action was slow, like the building of the stage and the giant POP arch and screen, then capturing the action at one frame every two minutes was perfect. That way, each hour of construction equalled around 1 second of screen time. A weeks worth of construction was captured in around a minute of playback. If people or objects are moving very fast in front of the camera, then I would set the camera to shoot one frame every one or two seconds.

The results were beautiful and were featured prominently in the U2 POP documentary film.

On the other hand, hanging out in the stadium while the week passed was a bit tedious. I had to make my rounds to the different camera positions all over the stadium to ensure that everything remained operating properly and to insure that the action happening in front of camera four was still moving. And of course, I needed to keep the continuous supply of fresh film and batteries flowing.

The lens I'm using is also a consideration. Clouds will move much faster on a close up shot of the top of a building than they will on a wide vista. The more you experiment the more it will make sense.

The first part of City Lights was created using my Sony EX3 and it included the use of some low light Nikon telephoto lenses to create some "big moon" shots, but I hope to finish it using our new Sony HXR-NX5 camera. Called NXCAM for short, this camera is smaller and lighter than our EX cameras and records onto AVCHD cards or a small flash drive that mounts on the side of the camera and it is capable of holding up to eleven hours of 1920x1080 HD video.

Regardless of the type of camera being used, it's key to have your camera mounted securely on a decent tripod when experimenting with time lapse. A stiff wind or the vibration of a passing bus will be very noticeable and can easily blow the best shot .

I've been using several different types of Manfrotto tripods when I go out on the street to film. If I know that I will be working close to my car, I might use a larger tripod like my 536 carbon fiber or 545B. Both offer great stability. But if I plan to do a lot of walking around, I might use something a little smaller and more portable. I don't really need a fluid head for time lapse, because I'll be locking the camera down in one position. So, in fact, you could even use a still camera tripod.

Speaking of still cameras, many new digital cameras have a built in intervalometer and will allow you to create beautiful time lapse movies. I have used both Nikons and Canon cameras for this purpose with amazing results, but there is a trade off. Digital SLR camera shutters have a limited life span and although the price of replacing a shutter is less than the price of a new camera, it can still be costly affair. It's a fair price to pay if someone is paying you for your work, but if you wear out your only camera prematurely, it's a drag.

That's why I have used the built-in time lapse capability in all of my Sony cameras. There are simply no moving parts. No shutters or spinning tape drums and therefore, nothing to wear out.

So, the snow is melting and hopefully it will stay away long enough for me to get back out into the mean streets of New York City. I'm ready to once again brave the cold and freeze my tush off for my art.

www.duckyou.com

www.vimeo.com/crazyduck

Team Work

2010-02-15T19:54:00.000-08:00

Every member of the film crew is extremely important. Just ask anyone on the film crew.

If not for the director, the talent would be impassionate and disorganized, their motivation, lost. There would be no… no direction. Without the DP and camera operator, all that great acting would never make it to the screen and what good is a collection of great acting and visuals, if you can’t hear it.

And so it goes down the line. The grips and gaffers, wardrobe and special effects, editors, the lists go on. Each, without whom the film could never have been made.

And what about the Fedex guy? Even with an army of talent, if it doesn’t get delivered, ya got nothing!

The truth is, everyone on the crew is extremely important and it requires a serious amount of teamwork to successfully pull off a large production or feature film, but for some, (er, uh, like myself) teamwork was an acquired taste.

My interest in film and video production had its roots in photography and began in Ireland. I was in Dublin taking photographs of an Irish rock group called Bagatelle when Jack McNiece, the president of the record label asked if I would produce and direct a music video for the band.

I said “Sure. I’d love to”, without having a clue what that involved.

Now, I had been a photographer for a dozen years or so. I knew a bit about lighting and I was having moderate success shooting fashion and portraits, but moving subjects. Nothing! I didn’t know where begin or who to enlist for help.

Still, I was young and cocky, so, I decided to pull it off by myself. As a photographer, I did it all on my own. I operated my cameras, set up the lighting. Sure, I hired assistants to help out and clothing and hair stylists, but basically, I was a one-man show.

Now I’m about to make a film. OMG! How do I do that?

The filming was to take place two weeks later at the Rose of Tralee festival in Co. Kerry. I flew back home, ran to Fishkin’s, my local camera shop, where my camera guru Paul set me up with a Nizo super 8 camera, a Bogen fluid head and a bunch of Kodak black and white film.

Back in Ireland a few weeks later, I set up a few lights that I had hired, and began filming each member of the band performing their part of the song, several times over, with the thought that I would film all the story footage back home in the states. Which is exactly what I did.

I had a relatively clear vision of the mood I wanted to instill in the video, but I had little idea how to make my images come together to make a film. So, I began to experiment, with everything and everyone around me. I shot and wasted a lot of film, but I was really enjoying myself. I was hooked!

Not surprisingly, my images looked like a series of still photographs with a minimal amount of movement in each frame. It’s all that I knew how to do. Later it would be suggested that this was ground breaking technique, but for now, I was heading back to Dublin with a few reels of processed film and little clue to how they become a music video.

Enter Liam, my first team member. Liam Walsh ran an edit house called Silhouette and was sympathetic to new filmmakers. Without a proper tele-cine available to transfer the film to video, Liam arranged for a small projector and we figured out the best way to project the images on a wall and capture them with a video camera.

He put me in a room with two Sony U-Matic machines and a young editor named Maurice Linnane. Maurice was young and cocky, as well, but here, on staff at a small editing facility, he had worked on dozens of projects and he was used to working with producers as a team member.

Even better, he seemed anxious to help me with my video.

I’m not sure how much Maurice knew, that I knew very little about the editing process. Perhaps he thought my silence was due to deep creative thought, when in fact I was probably praying for a miracle.

Nonetheless, after a very short while, I began to see what was possible and as I saw my vision coming alive on the screen, I felt the interaction between us creating a product that was bigger than both of us. Very cool!

The video was successful, but only because I was lucky enough to fall into the hands of other creative and kind individuals.

In the years to follow, I would work on much larger projects and with much larger crews. Although i was still a bit of a maverick, I did learn to count on each of them for their particular skills and frankly, it’s those individual skills, coming together in concert that often enhance my work to levels I certainly would have difficulty reaching on my own.

Today, I enjoy collaborating with my wife and partner, Sarah. She and I prepare the groundwork for a production and then hire a team of talented freelancers to join our projects. We still like keeping the production team small, but I am no longer trying to do it all myself.

Every member of team is important to us, but it still comes down to the Fedex guy if we want the job delivered on time.

Correction: After posting this page I received a fiery note from my writer saying that none of us, including the Fedex guy would have a job without a script.

Crazy Duck Website

Crazy Duck on Vimeo

Damn! Now Everyone Can Do It.

2010-02-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

As a photographer, videographer, or musician, there is always some product that is being announced in your favorite magazine or on the Internet that makes you think,

“Crap! Now everybody can do this!”

It could be a hot Digital SLR, a low cost editing system, Garage Band or a program like Photoshop. You’ve spent years honing your craft and suddenly, everything you’ve mastered seems to be available in a blister pack at B&H. With all your hard earned experience it is possible that you feel threatened by a plug-in.

Of course, there is some truth to this. There will be hot talent out there with newfound access to resources previously unavailable to them. Stuff, that in their wildest dreams they couldn’t afford to get there hands on. And you can be sure that if they have the talent, their drive isn’t far behind and they’re going to take that opportunity and run with it, fast and far.

Can this affect you? Of course it can! But how it affects you, will be up to you.

There will be some, well established professionals whose business might tank.

It might be the owner of an editing facility that was convinced and insisted that, “This Final Cut garbage will never catch on. Or the photographer that claimed film could never and would never be replaced by digital imaging.

Hmm. Getting many calls lately?

That fact is along with every advancement, a new seed has a chance to sprout while at the same time, a lot of the dead wood will be toppled in the forest.

I find it refreshing and necessary.

Some of the inventive and brilliant images appearing on YouTube and Vimeo are enough to make an established professional wet his or her respective pants.

If the reason is fear that you have lost ground, then it should be a wake up call to get back to the spirit you had when you left school. When you were ready to take on the world and you did.

On the other hand, if the reason is excitement, then there is no need to completely reinvent yourself. Embrace the new technologies and incorporate it into all those years of experience and creativity that you have already accumulated.

Better yet, hire one of those rising stars, complete with their new tools and techniques for your next production. And don’t impose on them what you think you already know. Let them show you what they can do, with ideas suggested by you.

You just might find their free and unbridled thinking contagious.

www.duckyou.com

www.vimeo.com/crazyduck

Getting a Leg Up on Down Time

2010-02-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

In our business, it’s not unusual for productions to jump from 0 to 100 mph in seconds or for that matter, screech to a halt in the same short period of time.

Budgets get revised, products might not be ready for market, the lead singer is saving the world, so the tour gets delayed or perhaps the FDA decides to take another look at the drug you’re about to launch.

Although it can be a pain in the bank, we’ve learned to use this time to our best advantage.

When we’re busy, we often discuss what we’d create if we only had the time. So we try to keep several experimental projects, at low heat, on the back burner.

It would be easy to sit around and whine about things we have no control over, but of course, that would accomplish nothing and there’s a good possibility that the new ideas we generate will help bring in new business, so perhaps it’s worth the effort.

Sarah and I have found that some of our most successful imagery has been created in down time and we’ve had just as much fun working together to create it.

First of all, when you are creating your own project there are no restrictions. Too often I’ve heard DPs or camera ops complain, “Well, if I was in charge I would do it this way”? Well, here’s your chance to do it your way.

We’re always interested in what the people we work with are doing as their “personal projects” and we have found that our clients are interested in ours.

For us, it’s producing short films. I use this time to create as many images as possible and the next time I have down time, I use them to create a new film.

In the olden days of film, you had to first buy the film stock, and then, after you exposed it, you had to have it processed and transferred to video to edit. That could easily run into a lot of money and not having enough funds to test was a fair excuse. Although, to be honest. Those cinematographers that really wanted to hone their craft found a way.

With today’s cameras, the costs are negligible. If you are recording to SXS, AVCHD or P2, it’s endlessly renewable and if you are using tape, you can always re-purpose a tape from that client that you never want to see again.

Just go out there with your camera and shoot. Make some incredible footage that you can use in your own project or shoot images for stock and put them up on one of the more popular sites like Shutterstock or Pond5. No matter what level of camera operator you are, the more you look through that viewfinder the better your images will become.

I’ve also trained myself to carry a small journal with me to write down ideas when they hit. It might be an idea for a film or a photograph or the location of a great looking shot.

How about all the times you’ve said, “Wow! This would make a great shot!” and then when you have time to chase it down, you’re like, ”Duh… Now where was that?”

I use the journal to remember those shots. You can do the same thing using your phone/camera, but I like the formality of a little red book and I look back at it often and plan which scenes I can get if I have the time. It also helps me remember the time of day and position of the sun at the time I noticed the shot. All of that will help you recreate your vision.

The worst thing that can happen is that you get better at using your camera. Learn different ways to set the personal profiles in your camera, get good at making a smooth pan with your fluid head or try out that new follow-focus you just handed over a pile of money for.

Don’t wait until you’re on a job to get used your cameras accessories. The last place you want to learn that kind of stuff is on the set.

If you’re writing a screenplay, or cracking a new editing program or animation software, again, this is the time to learn, not when you are under pressure to produce.

Finally, be diligent about it. If this is what you want to do, put your all into it.

There’s a lot of competition out there and the squeaky wheel gets the oil.

If all else fails, arrange a vacation. You can be sure that someone will try to book you for those dates.

www.duckyou.com

http://vimeo.com/crazyduck
www.duckem.com

Another Format Bites the Dust

2010-02-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

My HDV camera fell off its perch today and smashed on to the carpet. It was a Sony Z1, originally costing us around five grand when purchased four or five years ago.

F....Ouch!

The fault was my own and after circling the damage on the floor, stamping and cursing a bit , I got on to the business of getting it repaired.

My little Sony has traveled quite a bit. I have used the Z1 to film a Jazz documentary in Dublin, Ireland and for a radio promos for "I-105 in Sligo. It filmed the Celtic Woman at Carnegie Hall and chased Bono around the stage all over southern California.

The Z1 was also one of seven cameras filming several jazz performers at the Blue Note in NYC and I have used it in a variety of locations around the world, to collect nearly 500+ hours of stock footage in both NTSC and PAL Truly, the camera has performed outstandingly under most conditions.

Yet, sadly, despite all that great history, the camera had been used very little in the last two years and in fact, the illustrious camera has been relegated to the embarrassing task of documenting the first shrieks of our baby daughter.

Important images, yes, I know. Still, it’s like asking Spielberg to shoot a Bar Mitzva.

The problem is not to do with the performance of the camera. The Sony HRV-Z1U remains one of the most reliable cameras that we have ever purchased and I had kept it in constant use, often in conditions of heat and high humidity.

What killed this camera was not the fall to the floor, but the HDV format and more specifically, the use of tape becoming obsolete. Alarmingly, it all became outdated in a very short period of time.

Progress can be painful when you own and operate an independent production company. Every upgrade is supposed to bring something wonderful and amazing that will enhance your creativity or at the least, repair a bug from the last version you purchased.

Upgrades can also be a pain in the ass when they require that you stay current to remain in the game Like your shinny new Mac wanting Quicktime 8.4 while your Avid system chokes on anything higher

than version 7.2. Sometimes it's the software, other times the computers or the cameras, but it's always costly in one way or another.

Through our own mistakes, we've learned not to take out a lease longer than two years, as the gear we acquire has a real chance of being unusable, long before it's paid off.

One particular upgrade that effected us was the arrival of XDCAM and Sony ‘s EX1 camera. (sigh)

The quality was phenomenal and the image was far superior to any other small camera, under twenty grand that we had acquired to date.

In the time we owned and used the Z1 cameras, none of our clients actually finished any of their programming in HD. They were all excited about capturing in HDV, but when it came time to mass-produce a DVD, they all stayed with SD.

Partly, because of the cost and more importantly, the low percentage of people that actually had the capability to play an HD disk. And if they did have an HD player, which format did they own, Blu-Ray or HDD?

The format war was raging on there, as well.

Although some productions required higher formats, not all of our clients needed the technical superiority of HDCAM or Varicam and if the budget was limited, (and how often is it not limited?) we’d prefer to spend their production dollars creating great imagery rather than at the rental house.

To this end, Sarah and I completed many successful productions with our DSR-570s and the Z1. The cameras were professional, affordable and the images they produced were perfect for the majority of programs were working on.

Then, the EX1 and EX3 arrive and all our existing footage looks like junk next to it. Even projects that we shot in HD and posted in SD made the older cameras look soft and mushy.

In some cases, the EX1 images trashed those from the DSR-570 when posted side by side and it only took one instance of the client asking “Is that last shot a little fuzzy?” to motivate me to go back and re-shoot a few scenes with the new format.

That became our point of no return.

It would have been nice if any of the accessories from the Sony Z1 would work on the new gear, but other than the tripod plate, everything had to be replaced from the zoom controller to the UV filter.

So, even knowing all this, I brought our poor wounded camera to Sony Service in Teaneck, NJ last week, figuring the baby deserves decent HDV quality in PAL and NTSC.

As always, they were helpful, caring and mindful to remind me that there was a $135.00 fee for estimating the damage. The total repair was close to $ 600.00 and Sarah and I took a good five minutes to discuss the camera’s “illustrious” career and its future. We decided that to pay for the estimate only and cut our losses.

The Z1 will adorn the shelf next to my PD-150 my Nikon F4 and my father’s Pentax.

No real complaints though. None of them owe us a dime.

www.duckyou.com

www.duckem.com

On The A-List for B-Roll

2010-02-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

It's always fun to see our work appear on TV.

Sure, we do video work all year round, but not all of what we do is produced for broadcast. Some films, like a sizzle reel for Jean Paul Gautier or Issey Miyake, might be created to announce a new fragrance to magazine editors or cosmetic department managers. Films we create for Victoria's Secret, will be used to educate new employees on how to effectively approach their customers and a film for a government contractor might explain just why they need another six million bucks to finish the project they said would cost five.

But for many of our clients, the footage we're shooting is for broadcast and I'm proud to say that our imagery has appeared on all the major networks and many cable stations around the world. Sometimes it might appear in a completed documentary, or as background footage (b-roll) in stories about Six Flags Great Adventure, HersheyPark, U2, Harley-Davidson, Norah Jones, Garth Brooks or others.

On several occasions our footage have been used to add pepper to a report from CNN's Jeanie Moo, or to illustrate ride construction on "Megastructures". Often, reporters are on a tight schedule and it could take hours to film enough footage to produce an interesting four minute segment, so they'll ask our clients if they have any video or "b-roll" and for this reason, our clients will ask us to create it, so they can have it on hand, ready to go.

B-roll reels, are made up of a series of interesting video clips and on occasion, an interview, reaction or testimonial from someone involved in the story.

If it is a new roller coaster, it might be the ride's designer, engineer, the park's PR manager or even the company's CEO. This might be followed by some kids telling us how cool the ride is or how much "air-time" they got.

Sometimes we know when our material will be on the air, but most times it just appears and surprises us. The fact that it has been used by the news services means that we are doing our job properly.
Knowing what to shoot and how to deliver it is an important part of the process.

Monday night we received an urgent call from our friends at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where we are currently producing several films about blood management and bloodless surgery. They were having a major press event the following morning and asked us, "Could you put together an effective b-roll package from the footage you have been shooting?"

Fortunately, the footage had already been logged in our Avid editing system and it was just a matter of picking appropriate images, placing them in the correct order and adding titles and logos to complete the package. We came up with a fair price for the project and got to work. After creating the 5 minute reel we posted it on a secure site and sent a link to our client so that they could approve the content. We then prepared the final product as Hi-Def files, DVDs and Betacam SP tapes.

BTW: They needed it by 8am tomorrow. Here's Our B-Roll In Action

The reporters had their camera operator shoot the interviews, any relevant speakers and of course, the reporter themselves and then the rest of the story is made up of our shots. The more appropriate the footage is, the more stations that will use the images in their stories and in turn, the more press our clients will get. And that's what we're getting paid for.

Just yesterday afternoon we were informed that some of our NYC stock footage was purchased to be used in the network drama "24". I wonder how many episodes we will have to watch to cheer for our five seconds of fame.

www.duckyou.com
www.duckem.com

I Think I Can Feel My Toes.

2010-01-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

Friday night I was determined, once again, to film the full moon rising over Manhattan. There had been a lot of cloud cover in the past few months at moonrise and clouds covered the horizon on Thursday, as well.

But on Friday, the sky is clear and I was ready to go. My Focalware app on my iPhone would point in the direction the moon will appear and my gear was already in the car.

Just an hour earlier, I had received an inquiry from my stock agent.

"Do you have s shot of the Chelsea Hotel at night? I have a client in LA that needs an establisher for a TV show".

I thought for a moment and responded. "Let me check. Is tomorrow morning alright?"

I didn't have one. At least not yet. But, clear weather was predicted and I already have my gear in the car. Heck, I'll just jump in the city and shoot it.

It was cold all day and I knew the temperature was dropping rapidly. I put on thermals and carefully layered my clothing. I have often worked in extreme cold before, so I felt quite prepared.

My first location was a pier in nearby Hoboken. Even though I had left plenty of time to park and prepare for my shot, there was no free parking for several blocks. I drove to the nearest lot and parked.

With camera, tripod and camera bag, I began the 5 block walk to the Hudson. It was only then that I felt the stiff wind coming off the river. The wind chill made the 18-degree cold feel like zero. The pier pushed about 80 yards into the river and there was absolutely nothing out there to obstruct the breeze.

I pulled off my glove to check the location on my phone and it would not work properly. Apparently, all of the metal railing and benches around me on the pier were affecting the iPhones internal compass.

So, based on my earlier readings, I took my best guess and pointed across the river towards 34th Street.

Unfortunately, I was off by about 30 blocks and the moon rose beautifully, further uptown. I quickly changed my position, but it was too late. The moon had already risen above the buildings.

One of the benefits of using a camera that writes to a card (in my case the Sony EX3), is that there is little chance of the cold affecting your media. In the not so long ago days of tape, I would have to leave the camera on from the time I left the car, to keep it warm. If I dare to open the camera to change tapes in this type of extreme cold, I ran the risk that the blast of cool air would cause condensation to form on the tape drum, which would then, at the worst, stick to your tape and at the best, shut down the camera and set off the dew indicator light. With solid state, no such problem.

I stayed long enough to film the moon rising over the city and a few static night shots with the last glow of the western sky reflecting off the buildings. I was done.

I have photographed glaciers in Alaska and filmed on the ice in the frozen arctic, but neither seemed as cold as I was feeling at this moment. It was biting a my face and slowly penetrating my gloves. I picked up my gear and headed back to the garage.

My first inclination was to high tail it home, but I had made a commitment to deliver the hotel shot, so, after thawing my hands in the car for a few minutes, I headed into Manhattan.

Fortunately, parking was accessible and I was able to leave my car on 24th Street, only one block away from the hotel. Perhaps I was more used to the cold at this point, but the city felt much warmer, or at least there was not as much wind as on the river.

Fortunately, other than a few curious onlookers and the danger of dodging taxis while standing near the outside edge of parked cars, I was able to get the hotel shots without incident.

24 hours later and I think I can feel my toes again.

www.duckyou.com
www.ducken.com

I'm Shooting in the Rain

2010-01-26T20:40:00.000-08:00

I bought raincoats for my EX1 and EX3 cameras this week from an outfit called Camrade. I promised myself that would continue my personal quest to film in and around NYC, despite the grim weather that appears every time I have spare time to shoot. Nonetheless, I insist on keeping my vow and I’ll feel a lot better with the camera protected from the elements. I’ll also be able to stay in business, longer.

I had been using my Sony Z1 HDV for this kind of stuff, but I’ve been spoiled by the higher quality of XDCAM.

There are few things I’ve learned about outdoor shooting:

1. Get off the main road.

2. Get out of your car.

3. Bring a tripod.

4. Don’t wait for a sunny day.

The first two sound obvious, but they’re not. Scouting for a great shot from your car is like looking for a good movie from outside the video store. There are dynamic images all around, but sometimes you have to just stop and stare awhile. I’ve shot a lot of beautiful footage in Ireland, but from the comfort of our car, one town looks just like the next, as do the gorgeous, rolling, green hills between those towns. But, a short walk into a field or out to the coast will yield remarkable imagery.

And using Ireland as an example, well, there’s a place you just can’t sit around waiting for a sunny day. You just have to make the best of the Irish Mist and start shooting. Regardless of where you are filming, make sure that your camera is well protected. Especially if you might get hit by ocean spray.

The first step is to cover your lens with a UV filter. This not only keeps it dry, it also protects the lens from greasy fingers and potential dings. You can leave it on all the time. If a camera raincoat is not within your immediate grasp, grab a plastic garbage bag and make your own. After cutting holes for the lens and eyepiece, make sure to secure those areas with a rubber band or two to prevent water from getting into the camera.

On a rainy day the white sky can be 3 or 4 stops brighter than the ground below, so a grad filter can help modify the light. I usually carry several different densities of graduated filters from Formatt that fit my matte box, but you can find less expensive screw-on filters, as well.

I like using a tripod when shooting in the rain as it gives me an extra hand when trying to focus or change exposure with a cover on the camera.

I’ve yet to find a tripod that will get ruined in the rain and I find it to be a great asset when the camera is in a raincoat or covered with plastic. This is especially true in winter, when I want any free hand to be in my pocket.

As a side note, I do make sure to rinse off the tripod’s legs and feet immediately after the shoot if they’ve come in contact with mud, sand and especially, salt water. I also protect them with a little silicone spray before leaving the studio.

This weekend I was back out on the streets filming. There was only a light sprinkle of rain, but I confidently worked through it. The reflections of cars on the wet streets gave a beautiful glow to the images.

I appeared to be the only nut, out in the rain with a camera, but the shots were worth the effort and there is no way I could have filmed them in the warm comfort of my living room.

www.duckyou.com
www.duckem.com

Day Four, Englewood Medical Center

2010-01-25T16:37:00.000-08:00

We returned to Englewood Hospital today for the fourth of five planned shoot days.

It’s possible that we could have produced most of the footage required for our two films using up fewer days, but the surgeons are always on call and emergencies are a very real possibility. So, to make things move more smoothly, we scheduled our production days to allow flexibility for the many doctors, administrators and technicians we had to film. So far, we’ve been really lucky permitting Devin, our contact at the hospital to fill each production day from top to bottom.

Any extra minutes have been spent filming additional B-Roll, (background footage) in whatever area we happen to be in. Later, during the edit process, this extra footage will prove invaluable. As an Irish director I’ve worked with used to say. “ I’d rather be looking at a shot than looking for it.”

Today, we captured several interviews using environmental settings around the medical center. Although we have scouted these locations in advance and chose them for their seclusion and relative calm, it is another rule of production that as soon as you start your camera, someone will roll a noisy cart down a nearby hallway, a fire truck will wail down the street or a backhoe will begin beeping just outside the window. My personal favorite is the gas-powered leaf blower that can kill any shot from nearly a half-mile away.

We logged all of those issues at some point today, but fortunately, our interviews fell comfortably in between the distractions and the end result were far better than being locked away in a sterile conference room.

The soft background was created using a Letus depth of field adaptor on the EX1. The Letus attaches to my existing lens allowing me use lenses from my 35mm camera. Using this type of adaptor narrows the depth of field and creates a more selective plane of focus, permitting me to have a sharp focus on my primary subject while throwing the background into a beautiful softness.

The results are astounding. Ordinary backgrounds blur and return an image with a much higher production value.

Unfortunately, this type of accessory is a bit of a pain to set up. You have to mount and balance the unit, calibrate the internal ground glass, focus your 35mm lens and most importantly, remember to turn it on. It also limits how much you can zoom your lens. So, I usually bring two cameras if I intend to use the adaptor, so that one of them is dedicated strictly to this purpose. Finally, I’ve assigned the task of remembering to turn the Letus on to my assistant, Arion. Forgetting that could blow a great take.

The Manfrotto 536 tripod has become a regular part of my location kit. Aside from its height and reduced weight, it also allows me to clamp a small HD monitor on the legs of the tripod, rather than attaching it onto the camera. I find this arrangement to be less cumbersome, especially when I have to change locations often and rather quickly. It also makes it easy to spin the monitor in another direction if a client wants to see the composition.

Another small part of our script required some product shots of some very small bottles. For this, we brought along a compact, electric turntable to give some life to a very inanimate object. We also brought along a Nikon macro lens that, combined with the Letus adaptor, allowed us to get extremely close and made our subject really pop from the background. It also made it more fun to shoot.

A good shoot is when we come home with tons of great footage and the client is pleased with the results. A great shoot is all that, plus experiencing something new and unique.

That new experience makes our production day much more rewarding.

www.duckyou.com

Miss Kitty, Nellie the Talking Harp and the Jedi Master

2010-01-21T19:46:00.001-08:00

Yesterday’s video production was a musical introduction to some fun children’s stories. In the spotlight was a lovely Irish actress named Kitty O’Shea.

“Ah sure now” you say. The name alone should be enough to want to be pointing a camera in her direction.

Kitty has created a series of adorable songs and poems that are performed by her close friend “Nellie”. Nellie is an Irish harp. Kitty does all the talking.

Jeff “Jedi Master” Jones, a brilliant producer and recording engineer, introduced Kitty to Sarah and I.
In recent years, Jeff had recorded several CDs with Kitty and knew just what to expect. Jeff was also the recipient of a Grammy last year, for his live recording of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson and it is a testament to his art that he was still working with all his original clients. He is a perfectionist of the nth degree and I was really glad he was there.

The video was to be about five minutes long and it was our hopes to create it in one fluid take. I had a hunch there might be some variations as we went along, so, I brought along a second camera. This way, one camera could remain a wide shot while the second camera pushed in for some close ups.

As one camera was going to be a “lock off”, I felt I really didn’t need a second camera operator. Nonetheless, I still had to schlep twice the amount of gear. (I'm always schlepping gear.)

For the wide shot, I mounted a Letus Extreme depth of field adaptor on my Sony EX1 and fitted it with a 85mm 1.8 lens from Nikon. The Letus helps create a very narrow margin of focus, allowing for Kitty to be sharp and the background to soft. A very pretty look and an essential component to getting a more filmic look in my production. To that end, I also shot in 1080 24P.

The second camera, an EX 3 sat slightly farther back along the same eye line. This camera’s lens was zoomed its maximum telephoto setting, which would also help blur the background, allowing both shots to match. Using two cameras with different lens settings will allow me to edit between takes without any sort of jump cut.

Kitty, though beautifully preserved, is older than 28, and there was little need to prove how accurately my lenses could record her features. To this end, I added a ¼ Supermist Clear filter from Formatt to both camera lenses to reduce contrast a bit while adding the slightest halation to any bright highlights on Kitty’s harp. Very pretty.

The background was a muted color, painted muslin with a subtle streak of light from an Arri 300w Fresnel. My key light was provided by an Arri, open faced 1K, shining through a Chimera soft box. A second 600w soft box on an Omni light, added some side fill light. Everything looked great and we were good to go.

It was a nice change to be able to leave the audio recording to Jeff. Setting up the audio for a harp looks simple, but it had some minor complications.

Jeff brought along a studio ribbon microphone that he mounted on a boom stand and he mounted a specialized, lavaliere sized mic, directly on the base of the harp. He then placed my Sony ECM 670 shotgun mic a few feet out of frame and fed that directly into camera A, while the other two microphones, amplified and modified, passed through his gear, before being sent to camera B. The sound, even before any additional sweetening was phenomenal.

Jeff’s partner, JoAnne assisted him with placement and wiring, while Sarah organized everything on our end. Sarah also marked each take with a basic clapper slate to aid in syncing the footage in post.

After three or four takes, Kitty really nailed it with a near perfect performance. Just one tiny, little line was needed to satisfy the production and of course, in a room full of perfectionists, this would take an additional two hours.

Fortunately, we had only booked the studio for four hours. Otherwise, we’d probably still be there.

www.duckyou.com

My Father’s Camera

2010-01-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

My interest in photography and video is clearly due to my father. My dad loved taking pictures and he carried his camera, a Pentax H1A, everywhere. His job took him on the road daily and he was always looking for visual opportunities.

He would find pretty country scenes and photograph them from the same position in all four seasons and he had a passion for fire trucks and steam engines, so many of our vacations included museums and restored railroads.

He only used the 50mm Takumar lens that came with the camera. Nothing else and he shot amazing images. If he wanted to get closer, he moved closer and in place of a wide-angle lens, he moved back.

In fact, the only other accessories I remember was an A1 skylight filter on the lens and a little blower brush that he carried in his bag. His real focus was taking pictures, not collecting gear.

He competed in local camera club competitions and often won awards. More importantly, he documented people and place that are no longer with us.

All was good and then, without warning, it happened. My dad became a photo gear junkie.

First, a 100mm lens, then, a 35mm lens. A flash, filters, light meter, the list grew. Now, instead of taking pictures he was fussing with his accessories. His image quality rapidly tanked and the new camera bag when filled with all the gadgets was so heavy that he hardly ever brought it along. Eventually, he bought a point & shoot to take pictures of the grand kids and his photographs never looked the same again.

Very sad, it was. He genuinely had talent.

I keep his camera on my shelf as a reminder that the image and the story that you tell with that image, is much more important than the camera you shot it with.

Although it’s nice to own the latest HD camera with a matte box and follow focus, you don't need all that stuff to make your first film. I’ve recently seen many documentaries created with lower resolution formats like DV, Hi8 and even Super8 and Video 8mm appearing on HBO and several other cable programs.

If you can afford the best, by all means, go for it. Until then, use the best equipment available to you

If you have a story to tell, tell it in whatever medium you can get your hands on. Get out there and document people, places and events that mean something to you. Document these things now, because they may not wait around until you get the camera of your dreams.

www.duckyou.com

A Different Spin on Photography

2010-01-19T18:45:00.000-08:00

Today I traveled to Washington, DC with some dear friends of mine, Barbara and Justin Kerr. I worked for the Kerrs as a photo assistant in the 70s, just a few years after I left school and today, I had the pleasure of assisting them again.

Justin was a successful fashion photographer who, instead of falling in love with the models, nurtured a deep passion for pre-Columbian art. He has since become a bit of an expert on the subject and has been the recipient of an honorary doctorate.

His wife Barbara, was the team’s fashion stylist, and expert photo retoucher. Her skills evolved to art restoration and now, collectors worldwide seek her skills and experience.

I have to admit that back then, I really wasn't that thrilled with their decision to pursue this type of photography full time. I preferred spending my darkroom time printing images of pretty French models much more than Mayan statues and pots.

Still, they were great to work and Justin was a master at his craft. I was learning a lot about lighting. Techniques I still use. There were always there for me and it was at a time in my life that I really needed someone to be there. They also let me use the studio and all their gear at night and on weekends for free. A godsend and a tradition that I continue to maintain with my assistants today.

When Barbara called and asked me to help them with this project, I jumped at the opportunity to spend the day with them.

I picked them up, very early this morning at their Manhattan studio and we barreled on down the NJ Turnpike. Our destination was the Library of Congress.

Back in the 70s, Justin designed and built a peripheral camera he calls “the Roll Out” camera. The camera was the result of his frustration filming the exterior artwork on Mayan pots and vases. Like Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Mayan artisans painted symbols and characters around some of their art objects. Justin would photograph a pot from several sides and then try to paste the photos together to form one long photograph, but the curvature of the pot always caused distortion. So, he set out to find

a way to fix this the problem.

Now you might say, “Hey. I can stitch it together in Photoshop”. Right? Unfortunately, that would not be available for about another 25 years.

Justin figured out a system that worked in a similar fashion to the way planes used to be used to map cities. He slowly spun a pot on a motorized turntable and then, using a Hasselblad camera with a custom built film holder, he moved the film past a narrow slit in the camera. There was nothing like this available commercially, so he taught himself how to use a metal lathe built the thing from scratch.

After about a year of experimentation, he finally got it right. The resulting negative looked as if you had taken the label off a soup can and laid it out flat. It was brilliant.

Now, nearly forty years later, Justin has “rolled out” over six thousand art objects for books, museums and collectors all around the world. He has published several books of his work and the entire Kerr collection will be archived in Washington and available online, to students and researchers.

I truly felt honored to assist them today.

www.duckyou.com

Following My Own Advise

2010-01-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

Although there are times when I like to just roam around with a camera and let instinct and luck lead the way, I have found that for me, planning my shooting day is truly a valuable asset.

Often, I will spend a day scouting several areas with a still camera and log the locations in a small notebook. I write down the location that I am standing at, as well as the direction and elevation of the composition that I see. I also write down the time of day and the position of the sun. If I see a cool shot of the sun reflecting off the windows of a high rise building on the west side of town at 4pm, you can be pretty certain that it won’t be there at any other time of day.

Another thing I try to note is whether there is economical parking nearby and if not, where is the closest location. It’s also important to know if an area is private or restricted. Yesterday, I ran into problems with both.

As much of my filming is conducted on the west side of Manhattan, I decided to spend the latter part of my day concentrating on the east side, near 42^nd Street. The area is a bit elevated I had seen some great possibilities while cruising down Second Ave a few days prior, so I jumped right in.

Did I follow my own advise for pre-planning my locations?
Absolutely. Not.

As it was Saturday, I drove around the area for a few minutes to see if there was any chance of legal street parking. This is a long shot in NYC and misreading a sign can be a very costly mistake. Sometimes, getting a ticket for parking illegally is a blessing compared to the nightmare of having your car towed away.

Seeing that there was nothing available, I parked in a nearby garage. The sun would soon be going down and I was anxious to get on with my shooting. Apparently, too anxious to notice it was one of NYC's more expensive facilities.

I grabbed my gear and headed for 2^nd Avenue. The sun, low in the January sky backlit the all the cars and traffic signals. It was gorgeous!

Suddenly, the constant roar of traffic was broken by the squawk of a police radio followed by a tap on my shoulder.

“Uh… What are you’re doing?” the officer inquired.

“I’m filming NYC.” I responded confidently, although a moment later, it felt like a dumb thing to say.

Then again, here I was looking through a camera...

The New York City Film Board, the agency in charge of issuing filming permits, states on there website that you are allowed to film on city streets and sidewalks, without a permit, as long as you have nothing more than a camera and tripod. Anything more, like a grip stand or sand bag requires a permit, which they will happily provide. So, I knew that I was acting according to the city rules.

To make a long story short, I had parked my tripod near a building that housed a foreign embassy and although there were no signs or warnings, I was now doing something that was apparently, very illegal and subject to arrest.

The officer was pretty cool and he had noted that I was pointing my camera at the street and not the embassy. He explained the situation and asked how long I’d be.

The shot was already in the can, so I said, “I’m done.” and began closing my tripod.

Not two seconds later a van filled with more police officers appeared from behind me, siren whooping away.

“Whaddayathink your doin’?” A voice barked at me.

This time, I was interrogated, a bit less politely; by an officer whose use of adjectives, combined with a Brooklyn accent, clearly illustrated his point of view.

Nonetheless, he explained that the embassy that I was filming near was private property and that due to NYC’s heightened security, filming this close to the United Nations (a few blocks away on First Avenue) required a special filming permit if you are going to use a pro camera and tripod. Finally, he said that this permit is to be issued by the community affairs department for that area.

He checked my ID and after a minute, released me.

As I intend to film more in the area, I’ll certainly seek the agency that can provide me with the permit. And as Murphy’s Law has illustrated time and time again, as soon as I have the permit, nobody will ask to see it. Maybe I look more confident with it.

Oh! And the parking? Fifty bucks for two hours!

www.duckyou.com

I Love NY!

2010-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

Last year while Sarah and I were filming and photographing around Dublin, Ireland, I stopped and said, “Y’know if we were tourists in New York, we would never stop taking pictures of the city, but we live nearby and take it for granted.”

So, it was at that moment that we decided to start filming around Manhattan. There is an endless amount of amazing imagery in New York City. All you have to do is pick a spot and look around. Of course, in New York you have to look up, as well.

As luck would have it, a few months later my friend Maurice Linnane was directing a small indie feature and asked if I would shoot some additional imagery around the city to be used in his film. There wasn’t a whole lot in the budget, but gathering the additional stock footage of Manhattan would certainly be worth the time invested. And to make the filming more fun and interesting I added a few more items to my kit.

The first new accessory is an adaptor from Mike Tapas in the UK that allows me to use my longer Nikon lenses on my Sony EX3. Using a lens this long in the city creates an entirely new world of images. Taxis and traffic lights compress and seem to stack on top of each other. Details on tall and distant buildings become visible and the tiniest details will be isolated from their background.

Another item in my bag is a Nikon 180mm 2.8 lens. When using the adaptor on the Sony the combination increases the lens focal length by a factor of 5.4, which in essence, turns my 180mm 2.8 into a 1000mm 2.8

The depth is usually shallow at 180mm but at 1000mm it is extremely brief, helping to create absolutely stunning images, but requiring a decent fluid head on a steady set of sticks as the slightest vibration will be extremely noticeable at this range. Even busses and trucks rumbling past can affect your shots. So, although it might be a pain to carry the extra weight, it will pay off in the end product.

A solid platform is also helpful when I’m shooting NYC from across the river in Weehawken or Hoboken. The breeze off the river can be fairly brisk and a great shot-like a time lapse of a full moon rising over Manhattan-will be ruined if your camera shakes.

Of course, as soon as you put a long lens on your camera, the “wide angle shot of a lifetime” shows up just to satisfy Murphy’s Law. This is why I always bring the EX3’s zoom lens, as well.

I have to be extremely careful changing lenses and adjusting matte boxes and filters while standing on a corner in a busy town like New York. I usually carry a small, “comfortable” Porta Brace bag leaving enough room to swap lenses and lens caps easily. Also a decent lens cleaning cloth and emergency plastic bags are a must.

Most important:

1. Always turn off the camera when changing lenses.

2.     Never put your bag down on the sidewalk or even leave it unzipped while you’re filming in NYC. Not for a single second.

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