Another Year In Review

Hello 2012!  2011 had some fun stuff going on... you've got some pretty big shoes to fill...

2011 Highlights:

*I got married.

*I worked on a nice variety of documentary, art, industrial and commercial work.  New territory included some great transmedia work with Kinetic Fin, and my return to commissioned film (doc for hire sort of stuff).

*I finished up work on a compelling documentary, "Different Is The New Normal."  This was a great film on a boy with Tourette's Syndrome and aired on PBS in the fall.

*I attached myself to a very important documentary-in-progress, "Coached Into Silence."

*I bought a home and subsequently set up a sweet gear storage setup in my new garage.

*I shot (2nd) an episode of Animal Planet's "Confessions: Animal Hoarding."

All in all, I had a great year, both professionally and personally.  Let's hope 2012 continues the positive trend.


CHIN CHIN!

Jaguar/Land Rover USA

A few months ago, my frequent colleague, DP, Roger Grange, called me to gaff a series of videos for him for Jaguar/Land Rover USA.  It was a fun, productive 2-day shoot at the US headquarters of the company.  It was varying sizes of talking-head shots in front of and inside these very nice - and very expensive - cars.  We had a relatively small crew for this - Director, DP/Operator, AC, Gaffer (me), Key Grip, PA, Hair/MU, Art Director and some brand reps - but we managed to make it work.  Take a look at the final product(s) below (click the pic).

WATCH THE VIDEOS HERE

The most fun we had was lighting the cars right.  Lighting talent for this sort of thing is pretty straight-forward, but on top of that, we had to work hard to capture the unique style of these vehicles.  We had to, of course, get exposure, but beyond that we had to accentuate the contours of the bodies while at the same time managing reflections and glares.  It took time, but in the end we got what the client desired.  Below are some snapshots of the set and some of our lighting setups.

Side note: we regularly made use of 2 of my favorite lighting tools on this shoot.  Blondes (2kw open-faced fixtures) and "The Whale" (a 3'x4' white softbox with removable black skirts which allow you to use it traditionally or, with the skirts removed, as a large space-light).

Roger and Me in front of a Range Rover we were working with.