This is how I feel sometimes in order to get the action as it is happening. I have only shot a few live games and they happened to be soccer and although I was not allowed on the field as depicted in the video, it was challenging, possibly even more so to get the shot. I didn't have to run with the players, it sounds cool but those guys are bigger than they seem and very intense. That would have been a deathwish for sure.
Watch the video a have a laugh with me.
As a Cinematographer and Director, even tho we have that one little tool called "CUT!", it doesn't always apply or give you what you need, especially these days as we shoot episodes of "Now Go Cook", where food is being applied to the recipe & video and has timing urgency that could require re-doing the entire recipe if it fails. So I feel like these camermen, scrambling to depict the right shot at the right angle with focus and clarity. A little less dangerous perhaps and afterwards we always get to eat, so I am not complaining.
One third of a Terabyte of footage. Yep, One third and then some. We began shooting in West Palm with one idea in mind, but as creatives with vision can be once Ethan and I were together our minds flew away with what could be done. All the possibilities came upon us and we found ourselves not only shooting that weekend in several locations but many more locations in the following months.
Ya gotta love a shoot scenario where you arrive on location, planning on shooting the next day and before you get there you find out there is a show that night that needs to be shot also. So we shot it. Miguel Corteo and I took the train over, gear in tow, with no prep other than charging batteries, we jumped in.
The next day in the studio, we met Brandon Nelson for the first time. What a blessing. He showed up with a camera body, a Canon thank God, but it only shot 20 frames at the highest res. It looked good tho once we connected the 50mm 1.8 and set the direction of the shoot. So now with three shooters, several cameras and a few opps that weekend to shoot we were in Heaven. But it didn't stop there.
This Short Documentary, which is basically the trailer to a larger story yet untold, is aptly named "Occurrence" based on the circumstances that happen when you let the Lord lead your ways. The Occurrences that take place in a journey you pray will go in a direction only God could lead. Watch and Enjoy, let me know what you think. -JC
I received a call from a dear friend looking for Lower Third Graphics for a video he was doing for the School they support and currently send their kids too. I contested that finding some video graphics that would work would be harder than just creating a look, but the only time I had available was for a lower third, and as my friend shoots with a Canon 7D which was an upgrade recommendation from yours truly, I knew the footage would look good and some complimentary Graphics would be in order.
So I created the images you see below using the school logo in a background dealy as well as prime identity. I have included the video also so you can see the lower third in action. Not a big deal but worth a mention, I thought.
Some of the best shooting I have done or seen was captured with a prime lens. I recently borrowed what I guess is being hailed as the "Fantastic Plastic"! A 50mm lens surrounded by a plastic casing with great optics, offered by none other than Canon photography equipment. Wow! What a lens. Not perfect by any means but offering an aperature with an F stop of 1.8, again, WOW! Talk about letting some light in with great depth of field. So I had this lens and wanted to try it out, but I needed a project, a subject with some kind of purpose to utilize this lens and see what it could do.
Well the Annual Halloween Rant on evil was coming up and although we were not able to produce another chapter of Demon Squad, we decided to use Demon Squad - chapter 4: Bewildered, which actually was perfect for this years rant as it was focused on distractions the devil places in our lives. You can view that here. Something was missing tho, and since the primary topic of the rant was "The Cinematic and Commercial effect Halloween has on us", which boils down to why we seek evil, i.e. movies, haunted houses & theme parks, the pull evil has on our curiosity and what we are pouring into our lives, an illustration was needed. I had now found my purpose for trying out the new lens.
Canon always comes thru, this lens along with the Canon 7D is a great combo, like I said some of the best shooting is done with Primes and that is my new focus, along with either the 24-70 or another lens. More on that soon.
This past weekend Harborside Church hosted the first annual Men of Harborside Conference. Coming up on the heels of the conference is the second annual Mens Action Day or Mad as they like to call it and a promo spot was needed to advertise one event during another and play continuosly until the next event takes place. 21C DIGITAL had a short time frame to shoot the leaders of each of the daily events that will take place so it was quick and dirty time, but I hate quick and dirty video shoots, so to the grind with some still and motion graphics we go before we dive into Final Cut.
Once again looking to Adobe's After Effects for some motion visuals to get things started, but not until we incorporate the Haborside Primary brand in the form of the motion logo I animated earlier this year for the Harborside Theatre spot, you can view that as soon as I post it, a bit behind on my blogging, I am. Below is the final piece after I massaged it a few times, please dont have high expectations for the talent pool we had to choose from. Some dedicated fellas, but Brad Pitt they Ain't!
Although this Blog post is under the category of Motion Graphics, it does show off the Brand Id for the event also, along with the Brand Id for Harborside and the Men of Harborside. The primary Branding Identity with graphical treatment for the upcoming event is shown below along with a few stills from the promo spot. This image is also being used in an email marketing blast for additional promotional effort.
ThreeFold Student Ministries uses a contemporary Branded and focused theme, a Brand Campaign which was first created by the former Youth Pastor Tommy Shelton some years ago. I decided it was time to bring the Brand to Motion and here is the result. This Animation will play as the primary Video ID before Youth Small Group settings as a marker that events are about to begin with a short message about Wisdom and a lively Motion Brand Id.
The Neighborhood will never be the same, now that Michael and Harrison are on "The Watch"! Follow this journey of two neighborhood slackers as they 'find themselves' in their role as the new Neighborhood Watch in this belated coming of age, home grown adventure. If they are not careful, they might just find themselves behind bars! Neighborhood watch! Protecting lives.....one neighbor at a time.
House Season Finale shot entirely with Canon 5D Mk1 and how awesome that episoide was. Ok, so I am not shooting these days with a Canon 5D MkII or a MKI but I am using a Canon 7D and Loving it so far. So, I guess this is my introduction to whatever it is I might post here regarding the Canon 7D and the stuff I shoot or projects done within my Entourage.
I have to say, I hope you can Expect some good stuff as I have much in my mind I want to do and I guess my dislike for the look many other cameras offered over the years kept me ultimately from really wanting to do those projects..... or maybe it was my time....... or the lack of willing participants in my life .................. or the lack of real purpose ................ it just seems the huge onslaught of video with no real depth filtering in on YouTube and Vimeo, based on not only the lack of talent out there but also the lack of Lens based cameras utilizing interchangeable glass, really made me desire not to be part of that.
Things have been different for a few years now, Vimeo has proven to be HD and awesome and Canon is beginning to take the place of film or at least a pretty good go between.
In the meantime check out this article on the Season Finale of HOUSE shot on Canon HD. Caio!
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