Keeping Busy

I embarked on perhaps the biggest, busiest, and most exhausting shoot I've taken part in two weekends ago.  I was one of the camera men for a reality show pilot that was shot in the Bronx and New York City.  Lots of unnecessary waiting, as the case might be for most shoots, but the crew was awesome.  Some of them I've worked with before on cheer leading shoots.  Others I was working with for the first time, but they were very professional and helped out a lot (especially the guy who acted as the technical adviser).  I did the bulk of my shooting out in the field so to speak, and I feel I captured some pretty good stuff (at least when the camera wasn't shaky or the weather wasn't too bad).  I was the only guy shooting to tape (the other cameras used SD cards), and earlier today I finished logging all of the footage I shot (writing down what happened and when it happened over the course of eight tapes).  I set my camera to continually run on regular time so myself and others could document when things took place.

I can't say much at all about the subject matter of the show, but the people we shot (the stars of the show) were very nice to us and accommodating... if not pretty overbearing.  That's just personal opinion, as is me saying that this show wouldn't be something I'd watch.  Of course, if the pilot gets picked up and I continue working on it, I wouldn't have to.  Supposedly some people higher up are supportive of it, and some networks have expressed interest in the concept.  We shot three days' worth of footage, perhaps enough for three episodes.  There's going to be another crew meeting (we had three prior to filming) to go over the direction this first episode can take.  

This pilot was done on spec, so there's no money in it yet.  Provided it gets picked up, it should be pretty lucrative to myself and others involved.  In the meantime, there's also the chance of me shooting more high school football games this fall, plus I owe it to myself to attend some local sports and shoot for my own benefit (making some kind of reel to show to potential customers).  

Speaking of my own benefit, it's been well over a year, and I've posted the majority of Release The 7" to my YouTube page.  The original DVD, however, is still available.

Two New Tools

My first blog in a long time; I've still kept busy (lots of cheerleading shoots in the spring, a full day of dance recitals to shoot two weeks ago), but there just haven't been any unique developments worth writing about.  Now, I have a somewhat-minor entry about two things that would impact my work in a major way.

The first is a Sony Bloggie, a handy pocket camera I got in the beginning of the year.  I initially received an Ultra HD FlipCam for Christmas, but it didn't work out of the box, even with different batteries, so I returned it.  The Bloggie is nicer, more compact, and uses internal power.  The silly name comes from some social networking features in its software, but none of that is compatible with Macs.  Still, this camera allows me to shoot the spur-of-the-moment stuff on the go, and I can drop the footage and upload it online easily.  Unfortunately, something this small doesn't allow for a lot of control that I'm used to, such as brightness and focus.  I tried using it at another band party in Pennington last night (the last such one, as all tenants will have moved out by the end of the month and will set up shop elsewhere).  The compactness came in handy for the close quarters, but being at the mercy of the poor lighting and shoddy focus for such a long time did me in, so I opted to just enjoy the show as is (it's also still a very hot area to showcase music during this time of year).  I still took some footage early on to add to my growing collection of short videos on Facebook.  The further adventures of the involved artists can be found at NefariousIndustries.com

The second thing?  A new camera for professional use: a Sony HVR-Z1U.  I bought it from a gent in Ardmore for a very good price (he has his own business in the field), and he threw in a Pelican-brand hard plastic case to use with it.  He's had it for a year, but it's in excellent condition and works a lot like my own camera.  It shoots in 1080i, so I've crossed over into the HD world after two and half years of doing camera work.  It still uses miniDV tapes as opposed to a lot of similar cameras using SD cards, with a lot of features accessible through the LCD menu.  My work should look a lot nicer now than it has before, and I've already put this camera and its wider frame to good use for my aforementioned dance recital shoot.  I'll be using it even more in the near future for a big project that was cooked up last month, but I can't talk about that for a while.  Overall, I'm feeling quite good professionally.

My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip...

So last weekend I spent an hour at The Dickens Festival in Medford, as organized by the Medford Historical Society.  All of Main Street was closed off for pedestrians.  Some people were dressed up as Dickensian characters and were caroling.  Other people were playing instruments.  Others were simply local vendors selling food and other merchandise.  The mayor spoke briefly, a Christmas tree was lit, and kids lined up to talk to a Santa.

Meanwhile, I was filming various things with my camera.  Truth be told, I wasn't really happy with what I shot.  Amidst the heavy crowds in cold weather, I was pretty shaky, and that's not indicative of what I'm truly capable of.  Also, my heart just wasn't into much that day overall; I was all on my lonesome amidst all of these happy families and young couples, and I foolishly parked farther away than I had to.  On the bright side, I bought some kettle corn.

So a full 5-10 minute video about the Festival is out of the question based on the footage, but I could probably squeeze out two or three quick videos that are less than a minute.  That's all based on when I get around to reviewing what I shot.  The holiday season is starting to pick up here - I still need to buy gifts - and my day job has been very busy lately.

Back to the field.

So I once again shot a high school football game, once again in Montvale for iBN Sports, once again at St. Joseph's Regional.  More or less the same kind of shoot I had back in September, only with a few changes.

- Different matchup obviously, with St. Joseph's murdering their competition from Wayne Hills.

- Also obviously, it was much colder.  The media booth has very little protection from the weather, especially since I need a large open window to shoot.

- I worked with a different broadcaster this time.  I didn't have to pick him up or anything, but he came later than expected and left even earlier.  When the St. Joseph's-Wayne Hills game winds up on iBNSports.com tomorrow, his work will speak for itself, especially if you take the time to listen to the broadcaster on the 9/19 St. Joseph's-St. Peter's game.

I do feel I did a better job shooting this game than the last game.  Things were relatively more comfortable, but I did have to work from a slightly different (and slightly more cramped) position, so coverage wasn't as good as last time.

Happy Halloween!

My video on the scarecrows of Medford, NJ - simply titled Halloween 2010: Scarecrows of Medford, NJ was wrapped up Friday night, and I linked to it through my Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Now I'll link to it HERE!  

The ten minutes of footage was trimmed down to five when all was said and done, and the video itself is immensely simple, transitioning from one scarecrow to the next.  I wasn't trying for any dynamic shots either.  The transition I used in editing is Cross Stretch, which to me gives the impression of the picture being on a rotating cube.  For music, I found covers of both "Monster Mash" and the theme to The Munsters.  I also had "Halloween" by The Misfits available, but that would have been inappropriate for the dominating goody-goody tone of the video.

I tried something new for the titles to this video.  I normally just add them in while I'm editing in Final Cut.  I noticed in the past, however, that when I uploaded a video to YouTube (and this one was going to be strictly YouTube), the titles would look a little grainy.  So instead I exported the movie from Final Cut into a Quicktime Movie, which I always do, only without any titles added to it.  I then imported it to iMovie, which I always do when I want to upload something to YouTube (one of the program's built-in sharing options, perfect for the casual filmmaker/Mac owner).  So I added titles using iMovie's functions, thinking they would come out sharper considering the strong cooperation between iMovie and YouTube.  In the end, I think they do look sharper, but the simplification of iMovie's tools are almost too simple for me.  Everything in Final Cut offers me a lot more control.  Granted, this is a 2008/2009 version of iMovie I have that was included on my computer when I bought it, so some functionality may have changed (I'm well aware of new overall features recently added to it.

So that's my video.  Hope you enjoy it HERE.  Have a fun Halloween.  Also, I wouldn't normally say such a thing, but check out tonight's episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  They're making a haunted house attraction in Oregon, and one of the guys that did the horror makeup on this episode is a 'net friend of mine.  He and his partner are very talented at what they do.

Nothing much to crow about.

I haven't written anything in quite a while because I haven't been shooting anything in quite a while.  Work and other things have occupied my time, plus the think tank for projects to dive right into has been pretty dry.

Fortunately, there's my hometown of Medford.  Every October, they allow people and local organizations to create and present scarecrows along historic Main Street.  A nice little companion to the annual Halloween parade the township holds every year.  I'm usually shooting some cheerleading events this time of year (since 2008), but I haven't been brought on to shoot any yet for this season.  A bit of a relief considering what those events consist of, so I used this free time to take my camera to the gentler environment of Medford.  I walked up and down Main Street for good while and captured maybe thirty seconds of footage of each scarecrow, amounting to a little over ten minutes.  I can whip up something out of this, set it to some music (perhaps the theme to The Munsters if I can find it), and throw it onto the Internets in time for Halloween. 

In addition to Halloween festivities, Medford also holds an event on Main Street around Christmas called The Dickens Festival, where the township takes advantage of this historical part of town and people wander up and down the street on a cold December evening.  Provided it doesn't become a haven for Tea Party folk, that would make for a nice little project as well.

5-10-23-Skiddoo

I had a pretty exciting weekend professionally.  After shooting cheerleading competitions for the past two years, I had the chance to shoot a different, more traditional sport: football!  A guy I worked with in the past named Ed, who is based out of Philadelphia and has his hands in a lot of things, contacted me to shoot a high school football game Saturday afternoon in Montvale, NJ (a two-hour drive for me) on two days notice.  I took him up on it since I'm up for anything, especially something new.  The shoot was for iBN Sports, a Los Angeles-based company that is doing more stuff on the East Coast now.  Instructions called for me to shoot in 16:9 in standard definition, which is no problem at all on my end.


During the shoot, I worked with a New York-based broadcaster.  I had to pick him up on the way to Montvale by stopping in East Orange, subsequently getting lost in that town going to and from the shoot, but that was the only real negative on an otherwise smooth day (plus I left home early enough to give us plenty of time for error).  Using an XLR adapter I have attached to my camera at all times, he plugged in his headset mic for one channel of sound, while the other channel was for my shotgun mic picking up the game and crowd.  I was told to bring a monitor when I was brought on to do the job, so I bought a 15" monitor that same day which I would be needing down the line anyway.  It helped me make sure the picture was accurate and wouldn't actually be too dark or too light on the tape, plus the broadcaster used it on occasion for reference  We were shooting from a media booth right above the crowd that housed a couple other broadcasting representatives, including the ESPN radio station out of New York and Verizon.  The sound came out good, the picture was good (the weather was on our side), and the football game itself, between St. Joseph's Regional and St. Peter's Prep, was actually quite fun. 


After wrapping up, dropping off my broadcasting partner at the train station and getting lost in East Orange again, I met up with Ed so he could get the tapes from me and edit them.  Sure enough, as of last night, the game I shot is available for streaming on iBNSports.com.  It's free to watch, but the site requires Microsoft Silverlight (a video format free to download and trying to rival Quicktime) to view everything.