More Christie's Videos

No insight or commentary here - just showing off some other Christie's videos I found.

I really like the style of the auction videos.  The editorial team and producers at Christie's really do their best to inject life and excitement into the videos.  Also, my role is almost always the roaming B-camera.  It's me and one of the producers just running around and getting good content.  I like the freedom and the creativity that particular duty allows and encourages. FWIW, DP on the auction video was Tom Giovanelli and sound was Kenny Chin.

Below the auction video are a couple of interview-heavy videos about specific works.  I shot those alongside DP, Mead Hunt.  Sound was Mark Mandler and John Zecca.

Wait, did I say "no commentary?"  Oops...

A Lot Of Art

First off, please excuse the title pun.  You'll see...

For those of you that have known me or have followed my blog and/or tweets, you've heard all about the variety of art videos I work on.  For years, I've been shooting art-related content for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions but over the last twelve months, I've added Christie's to the mix.  Shooting artist interviews and exhibits is great fun - shooting auctions bringing in millions of dollars is, well, a whole other game.  I guess the function is similar, but to be in that high stakes auction environment is unlike anything I've ever done.  Last week, I was fortunate enough to be shooting at a record-setting sale at the NYC auction house, and you can check out the video below.  If I can track down other videos I've been a part of, I'll post them as well so check back soon and often :)

Busy vs. Social Media

Looked at my site today and I realized that it's been a while since I've posted a proper post.  It reminded me of the funny balance of being busy and looking busy.  Any casual viewer of my site might think I haven't had anything worth posting about, but the truth is, it's been too busy to post...  I've been working on a large corporate gig, a few more art videos, and doing some TV work for some Discovery Channel recreation crime shows.  I've been able to tweet fun stuff from these jobs, including pictures from the set and other things worth sharing, but that's all on my smart phone.  It's difficult to actually get some time to sit down and write a post.  Hopefully by moving my Twitter feed to a more featured location, it will help convey that I am actually working, even if I'm not posting a lot on this blog.

Here's something new, another art video I recently shot for Particle Productions:



Produced and directed by Philip Dolin
Lighting cameraman: Me
Sound recordist: Ben Berger
Production Company: Particle Productions

Video As Art

Here's another video about a video I shot for Philip Dolin of Particle Productions.  Unlike the Bill Viola piece I posted a while back, the one is more about the artist, Hiraki Sawa's body of work.  It's a cool piece with a lot of clips of the actual work - very different, very out there stuff (definitely worth checking out).  Enjoy!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Produced and directed by Philip Dolin
Lighting cameraman: me
Sound recordist: Bret Scheinfeld
Production company: Particle Productions

Oldie

In the fall of '09, I shot a piece about video artist, Bill Viola and his innovative installation, "Pneuma."

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

This was great to be a part of.  First, I was really happy with how I was able to integrate the art into the interview shot.  You'll notice the key is clean, but the fill (shadow side) on Mr. Viola varies depending on what the art is doing.  It's subtle but I really dig what I came up with.
Secondly, the interview was eye-opening.  I had never been into video art before this job, but Bill Viola has an amazing approach to the medium, especially in this recent installation.  Take a look at the video, and I'm sure you'll agree.

Produced, directed and edited by Philip Dolin
Lighting cameraman: Me
Production Company: Particle Productions

Art Upstate

Here's a link to a great art video I worked on with Philip Dolin of Particle Productions/Circle Terrific Media.  It's a short doc about Sherry & Joel Mallin and their amazing outdoor art collection on their expansive estate in Bedford, NY.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

On this piece, I shot b-cam for the sit-down interview and a bit of the walk and talk stuff.  Then, as the D.P. and producers continued with the subjects, I roamed the grounds and did beauty work - the landscape, full coverage on the art (details, wides, etc.).  It was a lot of fun to be able to just set off and shoot.

Produced, directed & edited by Philip Dolin & Molly Bernstein

Director of Photography:  Mead Hunt

B-Cam, 2nd Unit Photography:  Me

Location Sound:  Mark Mandler

Production Company:  Circle Terrific Media

**For the geeks, the A-cam was a Sony PDW700, and the B-cam was an EX1.

Off topic (and without motion)

Some recent stills of mine that I'm particularly fond of.

Authorship

Many art forms are the result of an individual's painstaking commitment to his or her craft; countless hours toiling over the piece, funneling their own emotions and experiences into this very personal expression.  In these such cases, like poetry and other forms of writing, music, and visual mediums like sculpture, painting, sketching, etc., it is always clear who is responsible for this work.

Film, however, is in a gray area.  Occasionally you have a movie where one person conceived and produced a work in its entirety - including shooting, editing and other parts of the process.  More frequently, however, the final movie is the result of many individuals' hard work and expression.  And yet, so often there is a certain credit that reads "A Film by [director's name]" at the beginning and end of the movie.  This brings up the question of true authorship.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately after a friend asked me who's responsible for the shots of a movie, the director or the cinematographer.  Is the D.P. just a technician that does what the director tells him to?  I've been lucky enough so far that all of the directors I've worked under have really allowed the process to be collaborative - thorough discussions of look and feel before shooting and then come time to roll camera, I am entrusted with the image.  A lot of this may be due to the fact that in documentary, there really isn't an opportunity for the director to nitpick my shots.  On "Director's Cut," the narrative feature I'm currently working on, my relationship with the director is similar to my doc work.  She has put so much trust in me that the process of shooting is stress-free and fast.  Prior to shooting, Elana and I figured out our style for the film and from then on, we just do it.  Elana does her director thing with the cast as my crew and I set up the shot.  Then she comes around to her monitor, smiles, and calls action.  So for "Director's Cut" the direction of the film is Elana but the compositions and a lot of other visual elements are very much mine.  As I understand it, the process is very different with other filmmakers.  James Cameron, I hear, is meticulous with his planning and shooting.  I think he even operates the camera.  While he doesn't set up the lights himself, I'm sure he has a heavy hand in that stuff as well.  AND he edits.  So perhaps "A Film by James Cameron" is appropriate.

I guess there is no single answer for my friend.  Different films have different hierarchies and different degrees of trust between crew members.  Sometimes, the singular authorship of a movie is valid.  More often than not, though, these "A Film by" credits ignore the crucial creative contributions of many key crewmembers.  I've found that also more often than not, I tend to think the more collaborative movies are better anyway.

A post by Dave Dodds.

What's Up, Doc?

My life as it relates to film has taken a number of unexpected turns over the years. When I first got into film, I did so because I had an idea for a film and wanted to follow through. That particular movie has not been made yet. It is shelved but not forgotten. Through college, I maintained my interest in narrative films, particularly in becoming a successful Hollywood director. When I started learning about cinematography, I found I had a knack for it, and my classmates noticed too. As I shot more and more, I realized that I might be happy becoming a big-time Hollywood DP. And then life happened...

When I graduated college and had to figure out how to make a living, I realized that if I was going to direct, I'd have to spend a lot of my own money. So I turned instead to the camera and lighting departments, where I'd work for all those directors-to-be who were spending their money.

Remember that whole bit about being a Hollywood DP? Yeah, not the easiest thing to do on the opposite coast. There is a lot of fiction work in NY, but the most work for a cameraman in NYC is in documentary. I assisted under some of the most notable documentary cameramen and slowly but surely began to really feel my place was there. In time, shooting documentary work became my bread and butter. There's something special about it - it's spontaneous, energetic... I enjoy it more and more on each doc shoot I do. There's always something new and interesting and I always learn something. Sometimes, I figure out a new way of shooting or lighting. Often, I learn just stuff I never knew or never thought I would ever know because of the documentary subject itself... and I love learning.

And then there's stuff like today. Today I shot an interview with video artist, Bill Viola, for director/producer, Philip Dolin. First of all, I was very pleased with how it looked. Found an excellent framing and the lighting was great. The film is about his latest installation, basically a room of screens and this carefully constructed beautiful display of audio and visual white noise. We framed his sit-down so that the background was half black (directly behind Bill) and half his piece. I set a daylight softbox as Bill's key (daylight to match the color temperature of the projections), bounced some of that back for an edge, and let the projections subtly play over Bill's fill-side. Everyone was really happy with the visuals.

On top of the look, Bill was probably one of the most kind, profound, funny people I've ever met. Such a sweetheart with such amazing things to say about his work and inspiration, life and death, love, religion... it goes on... coming out of the interview, I just felt good.

That's documentary for ya'. And I love it.

Confidence (monitor)

The 3-day Lon Blais ended up being only 1. Early that morning, the s#*t hit the fan for Lon. Within hours, Lon found out that his dear puppy Aggie was sick and then Lon's escort from NY to North Carolina - 1/3 of the trip - had a medical/family emergency and would not be able to do it after all. On the ferry trip over from CT to Orient Point, NY, Lon decided he should ride as much as he can and when he's tired, just get driven home. He figured he'd be in a better space for the ass-hauling he'd need to do to rally emergency support for the next leg. So we set off to ride as far west as possible.

I hate shooting from cars with handheld cameras. Full-size shoulder cams are fine, but small guys, like the DVX100 cams we're using for this piece, are a bitch to keep steady in a moving vehicle. The DVX is probably the best-looking non-HD camera around (in the hands of a capable cameraman), but it's small size meant I was really insecure about shooting from the chase car. I brought along whatever I had that would help me keep it together. One thing was my saddlebag, which is one of my favorite tools. It allowed be to lean up on the windowframe or dashboard and really keep things together. Another thing I had was my trusty monopod. Extended fully, I was able to shoot out of the sunroof with the stick firmly pressed against whatever was nearby. So we rode and shot and rode and shot and got whatever we can. I cussed a number of times when I thought things weren't working quite well and wasn't feeling it most of the time. The stuff at the stops when were were out of the car and shooting more traditionally was good - really good. There just wasn't enough of it. One of the better moments was Lon's day-early arrival home. Lon's wife, Joanna, and of course Aggie, were thrilled to see him again after 2 weeks. Jo was concerned and supportive of the problems Lon now faced. It was dramatic, warm, and I think really nice stuff.

After we wrapped for the day, Bret (my sound guy and amazing pace car driver), went to my place and plugged into my trusty Ikegami CRT monitor just to see how things really looked. My on-camera LCD isn't exactly spot-on and it wasn't easy to tell how smooth things were when I was being tossed around in the car. But on a carefully calibrated and extremely accurate monitor... wow... We done good.

Today was uneventful - no shooting. Tomorrow, a NY1 crew will be filming a story about Lon for a nighttime broadcast. Bret and I are covering that and will shoot a little with Lon after the news crew leaves. Sunday, Lon's taking off at dawn no matter what. With an escort if possible or just by himself with the only bare essentials on his back. Elana will be taping the goodbyes and Lon riding off on what will probably be the most challenging part of his journey - and the part which happens to have no video support either :(

Monday, I'm shooting a modern art installation in the morning for producer Philip Dolin, and then at night, shooting some footage for a spec doc with director, Scott Floyd Lochmus.

Talks are continuing on the possible feature film. More on that and anything else soon...