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
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.
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.
2011 starts off slow (I'm taking it easy because I'm getting married in 6 days)
So, 2010 in review:
* Budapest
* A feature film I shot in the spring, "Director's Cut" is produced (and is currently at the Hollywood Reel Independent Festival and other festivals)
* "One Night Only: Barbra Streisand and Quintet Live at the Village Vanguard" (which I was a key camera operator) is released on DVD and Blu-ray (and DVD/CD combo) and subsequently goes platinum.
* I shot a very nice tribute video for Ruth Messinger featuring a pretty awesome interview lineup, including Mia Farrow, former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, NY Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof and more.
* I shot second unit and b-cam material for a nice series of videos for Columbia Business School.
* I became a HDSLR convert (I'm not a an evangelical HDSLR shooter but I've discovered it's an amazing tool for a lot of things).
* Some fun industrial work for Nokia, Wunderman, PwC, BBCAmerica, and Kraft Foods.
* Gaffed and shot NY material for a feature doc, "Small Matters" (currently in post-production, eying a PBS run).
* I lit a commercial photo shoot... for video. That was different. For designer, Ippolito.
* A whole bunch of other little things...
...I learned a lot this year, as a cameraman and gaffer and filmmaker in general. When I was assisting, my years tended to yield lessons on practice - new lighting principles, methods of operating, craft-based things like that. As a working cameraman (and occasional gaffer for other D.P.'s), my years have brought about fewer and fewer new technical lessons. This year was sponsored by... "Compromise."
While working on the Ruth Messinger piece, for the higher profile interviews, the crew went in with the mentality that the subject could walk in any minute and demand to do the interview then. Working faster that we'd have normally liked was the compromise for having access to these folks.
On "Director's Cut" the production had much less time and money than ideal. We compromised on setups to get the movie finished.
For the BBCAmerica videos which took place in real, functioning focus group sessions, we had to have high production values in terms of lighting and camerawork, but at the same time, we, the crew could not infringe upon the participants' comfort levels. Usually, what's out of frame doesn't matter (leading to forests of c-stands, messy rigging contraptions and stuff like that just out of the camera's view), but for this, it had to be pretty. Even a clean-looking large Chimera overhead was too "movie-set" for the clients liking. But they loved when we rigged a very large chinese lantern overhead (it felt "homey"). Meanwhile at the PwC industrial I gaffed maybe only a month or two prior, the client insisted we use the Chimera for it's "expensiveness." In that situation, meanwhile, it would have been a LOT easier to rig than the large Chimera. Compromise...
2010 was a great year and there's some pretty fun stuff on the horizon for 2011, not the least of which is getting married. More on that (and the great video team I hired for the event) and other stuff in February, when I return...
and 
(
) and subsequently goes platinum.