It's been a year since the last Girls Who Rock video we put together, but on June 10th, it was finally that time again for us to rock out with Cynthia Hellen and She's the First's, Tammy Tibbetts! It was a full line up that evening, with performances by Kimberly Nicole, Eddy, Nikki Jean, Nina Sky and JoJo! The event's music was provided by DJ Kiss and was emceed by Touré (Fuse). There was also stand up comedy performed by Heather Knight and Data the Robot. John Wanda, co-founder of Arlington Academy of Hope, also took to the stage to deliver a special message to all of the supporters that night. Check out the video of this memorable event.
The goal of the event was to fund at least $20,000 to sponsor girls’ education at the Arlington Academy of Hope, where primary school education is $360 a year, and then students continue secondary school education nearby for $1,000 a year. AAH’s visionis to transform villages in rural Uganda into vibrant, self-sustaining communities through quality education and healthcare.
As usual, we had a great time working with Girls Who Rock and She's the First and really look forward to next years concert!
This past summer, I brought together some of the most talented models and artists I've worked with for a fashion shoot in Gramercy. The theme of the shoot involved the contrast between light and shadows in a lush, beautiful garden. The models, Caaha Xaashi and Joo Young, wore beautiful garments and accessories pulled by wardrobe stylist, Carol Hong. Their hair and makeup was done by the amazing Amanda Forsyth. The location was especially picked out for it's gorgeous garden and it's bronze double doors. It will also be my future photo studio location. On that hot summer day, we put together some sizzling fashion.
Here's some behind the scenes of the shoot as it progressed.
Camera Settings: The garden photos were taken with both daylight and artificial lighting to give them a very commercial feel. I used both a canon speed light on an impact stand and an excalibur strobe with a westcott softbox. Because of the midday light, I turned down the ISO all the way to it's lowest setting and purposefully increased the amount of stops in order to control both exposure and to get every beautiful detail of the garden. The indoor photos were taken with a 1k rifa continuous light. All photos were taken with a 70-200mm Canon lens. You can see more photos on our website.
Canal Street is a quick 3 minute short film I put together with actor Sean Hudock.
We initially had the idea of just walking around Chinatown and getting some pretty shots, more like a screen test than something with a narrative and a thought out visual language. But as Sean and I talked about the idea more, we got more interested in seeing what the most we could do was with the least amount of pre-production, equipment, and crew. Part of that had to do with situation in general, we didn't really have much time to plan anything. So we fleshed out a loose "plot" that basically consisted of a setup (walking around Canal street), a shift in mood and scenery (the restaurant), the only planned shot (close-up of the text message), and then a rough idea for a resolution (the CU of Sean on the phone at the end.) Otherwise, the short is more or less and example of impromptu film making and thinking about the edit as we looked for shots on the fly.
We constructed the ideas as we went, finding interesting spots as the night went on, and we overshot, getting more footage than I thought would be needed in the edit. Basically, we had a rough idea of the story we were trying to create, but I knew I was going to lock down the plot in editing, so we shot different interpretations of our loose storyline and hypothetical routes the narrative could take. I also took a lot of shots of things that I thought could be useful later in building up a system of symbols that could add depth and structure to the story--raw material for shaping context.
Camera Settings:
This was shot starting at around 8PM on a cold January night. It was roughly about 4 hours of shooting, including a sit down dinner that we integrated into the storyline. All the lighting is ambient, meaning it was just myself, Sean, and a 5D MKII on a tripod with no additional lighting equipment. Other than one shot, the entire piece was shot on a Canon 50mm F1.2 L-series prime. The CU of the text message was on a Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro. My intention was to keep the ISO low to control the noise and minimize grain. All the outdoor shots were ISO 320, and some of the indoor shots went up to ISO 1250. I wanted to keep my options open when it came to how dark the blacks were going to be, so I had the style setting at Standard, but with sharpness and contrast all the way down. I dropped saturation down a bit as well, but not too much because I didn't want to have to spend a lot of time later fixing flesh tones and trying to figure out the "correct" color of things.
On December 3rd, Chamber Images was hired to cover a second party for Who.A.U, the Korean based, California-styled clothing store. The grand opening party for Who.A.U's SoHo Store was a RSVP-Only event complete with a red carpet treatment, a step and repeat, Who.A.U models and the California Grizzly Bear, the Who.A.U Mascot. DJ Kalkutta was there spinning and had all the shoppers dancing the whole night through. Those who RSVP'ed were treated with step and repeat photographs with the Who.A.U models and mascot, free food and drinks, and if they shopped around long enough, a special appearance by MTV Jersey Shore reality tv stars, Ronnie and Sammi. Everyone that stuck around were able to take photos with the two and received autographs from them at the end of the event.
It was the first time we've brought on a 3rd shooter to help take care of the step and repeat, while Chris and I took care of capturing coverage of the whole event. I would have to say, it went incredibly smoothly and it was an enjoyable experience. Check it out!
Camera settings: The step and repeat photos were taken by our assistant Rey, with a Nikon D200, using a shoot through umbrella and an Alien Bee. They were taken around f/8 and at about 1/100 shutter speed at 800 ISO. The video and other photos were taken with Canon 5D Mark II's. Despite how well lit the store was, I had to keep the aperture wide open for video and slow down the shutter so I could take ambient photos. It was too much trouble to use a speed light while I was switching between photos and shooting video as well. I used the quick camera settings (C1) to switch between shooting and capturing footage. It turned out to be useful for that situation.
You can learn a thing or two from stand-up comedian and marathon runner Liz Miele about what it takes to be a hardcore endurance athlete. Check out this "interview" we shot with her!
Awhile back a video came out showing that chickens have steadicams for heads:
In case you're wondering, the reason the chicken is able to do this is because of what's known as the Vestibulo-ocular reflex. Humans have this too, only it just doesn't look as funny.
YouTube user destinws2 actually went ahead and turned a chicken into a steadicam.
Living things as camera equipment? I'd love to show up to a shoot with that thing.
Anyway though, it's not nearly as creepy as these pinhole cameras made out of human skulls!
This one is a 150 year-old skull of a 13 year old girl:
And this bad boy is made out of silver, gold, mercury, gem stones and a blessed Tibetan monk skull! Talk about hardcore.
I'm thinking we should stick to metal and plastic.
As a former 3D animator, I can tell you that there is an immense amount of science involved in trying to recreate human movement and facial expression. I remember studying how to animate eye saccades to make more realistic facial animation, learning about the structure of facial muscle and how it produces facial expressions, and a few things about the science of facial expression recognition. From that perspective I can really appreciate the work that went into making this robot move and express more realistically while effectively (at least I think so) overcoming the Uncanny Valley problem.
But from the point of view of an image maker, it got me thinking about what kind of media controversies the future might hold. Will models ever have to compete against robots like this? What happens when you have mannequins that can move and walks realistically? How will that affect the commercial industry? How will that affect our perception of attractive body image? Will Elite, Ford and Wilhelmina have robot divisions in the future?
I know it sounds crazy (and incredibly nerdy), but consider how much science and technology already goes into making people look pretty. That's not even getting into things like makeup, surgery, dieting, and all the other ways in which tech and the body come together in front of a camera.
But the robot invasion probably isn't going to happen any time soon. In the meantime, I'll settle for good old fashion computer graphics when it comes to distorting my perception of reality.
You may have heard of it by now, there's this supposed time traveler in a Charlie Chaplin movie called "The Circus". Belfast filmmaker George Clarke, a collector of Charlie Chaplin memorabilia, made the discovery. In the movie, there seems to be a woman, though most people say it looks like a man, seemingly talking on a cell phone. Take a look at the video and make your own decisions.
I'm hesitant to believe any "time traveler" theories since it's just plain silly, but I attempted to do my best at making a still, trying some enhancing in photoshop, which is nearly impossible. Problem is, it was really old footage, taken from a distance, and the focus was on a statue of a zebra and not the subject so much. So what I have is a blurry blob of a face since the the harsh shadows of the midday sun hide a lot of detail, especially because the subject has a hat on. There is also some motion blur due to the cameras frame rate. Can't say I didn't try.
Digitally enhancing photos is no easy task either. To give you a better idea of the serious attention to detail you need and the sophisticated technical know how, watch the following video. It pretty much sums it up in a nutshell.
Last month, we posted that Shukmei of WeRoqq PR managed to get us a nice write up on Just Jared Jr. website of our bracelet photo shoot for She's The First with Interscope recording artist, Joanna "Jojo" Levesque. The shoot started with us taking product photography of the She's The First bracelets designed by Asha Patel. We then took photos with Jojo wearing the bracelets. The shoot was fun and laid back since Jojo is very easy going and a pleasure to be around. Our team for that day was also amazingly efficient. We ended with a PSA in which Jojo spoke about why she supports She's The First. We got it in only three takes, giving us time to have a little fun and take a few group shots to end the shoot. If you would like to support She's the First and wear one of these bracelets, you can get one from She's The First gifts.
Camera Settings: Product was taken with a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens; Jojo's photos, the PSA video and group shots were taken with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens. The video was recorded at 24fps at 1/50 shutter.
Since recently completing our first music video, I've been looking at ways people having been getting viral buzz from their music videos. A cool music video you may or may not have seen was taken in the NYC subway on what seems to be an iPhone. The band Atomic Tom, had their equipment recently stolen. But because of their desire to jam and their ability to improvise, they actually made something worth watching. Production values aside, their concept for the video was actually the coolest part. I'm familiar with some of the apps they used to perform the piece so it's nice to see that they can be used for actual improvisational performances.
Here are two videos demonstrating some new incredible post-production software that really takes video doctoring to a whole new level.
MovieReshape is a post-production system being developed in Germany that seems to use adjustable 3D models as a basis for deforming a 2D moving image allowing for the readjustment of body shape in post.
While there's nothing new about computer generated visual effects, looking at these two techniques makes me wonder what amount of unreality we will be willing to expect and accept in future media. I imagine that most people already assume, and rightly so, that every commercial image they see is retouched in some way beyond mere adjustments to color, contrast, and brightness.
Am I just going to assume in ten years that all the bodies I see in big budget movies have been reshaped? Will I expect most videos I watch to have been doctored so that elements have been removed?
I was pretty surprised seeing the anti-aging effects in X-Men: The Last Stand. Check out these images from fxguide.com showing a before and after shot of how they made Patrick Stewart look 25 years younger in post-production:
If you've seen the movie, the effect is very convincing. But this is an extreme example. I wonder where this effect has been used more discreetly to hide age?
Lastly, as someone who shoots video, I wonder when this sort of manipulation becomes a standard part of my workflow. I already retouch headshots and commercial images. If anti-aging, body reshaping, and diminished reality techniques ever become easily accessible in your standard off the shelf editing software, how will that effect how I work? What will be expected from me as a professional image maker?
Check out this video of photo enthusiast Joe Wigfall talking about how he shoots street photography without bringing the camera to his eye! He brings up a lot of good points about some of the advantages to doings so.
I sometimes used a similar approach when I was in Afghanistan, and even today with some of the event coverage I do. I find that sometimes you HAVE to shoot this way if people are particularly aware of you and your presence changes the way they behave. Of course it's harder to do this indoors when it's darker and you need to open up your aperture, which makes your depth of field narrower and the focus much critical, and if you're shooting with a flash--well, good luck.
But try it out! Let me know if you get any interesting results!
Recently, we covered an event for SHAPE, who partnered up with JCPenney and held a fashion show at Manhattan Mall. "Shape Your Style" was hosted by Jacqui Stafford, the Executive Style Director at SHAPE Magazine. Donna Kim of DonnaDaily.com also modeled in the event.
It was one of the first open to the public events we've ever covered for a corporation and it was certainly a unique experience. It was fast paced for us since we didn't know what was happening and when it was going to happen, aside from the usual pre-event footage we captured. Working around the public was interesting as well since we squeezed in every possible space we could just to get as many fresh angles as possible. The greatest challenge was with something we weren't very experienced with, using the main soundboard provided by the production crew to capture sound. After many trips to Radio Shack, we were all ready to go. We got the footage and sound we needed to put together the piece you see here.
Camera Settings: Since the whole event was indoors, you would expect some sort of lighting to be necessary, but thanks to the skylights in the Manhattan Mall and it being an early event, lighting was simplified to ambient. The ISO was kept as low as possible, but since there were sometimes multiple targets on the stage, we would have to change the aperture accordingly to keep everyone in focus and sacrifice ISO. Shutter speed was either 1/50 or 1/60 and we were shooting at 24fps.
Visual effects were done by CafeFX. Check out this interview with Jeff Goldman with a breakdown and explanation of some of the work they did on the series.
Check out the recent interview we shot with American Apothecary's Co-Founders Jeremy Sziklay and Matthew Kronenberg, and lead designer Anastasia Fokina!
From American Apothecary's website:
"American Apothecary is an avant-garde T-shirt company showcasing remedies that are no longer available because they are now illegal or exceptionally dangerous. Cocaine, heroin and cigarettes were not always feared and controlled substances. In the early 1900's cocaine was widely used in cough drops for children, heroin was used as a painkiller and cigarettes were offered to asthmatics for instant relief. By placing vintage medicine labels on the finest cotton shirts, American Apothecary is commenting on how our perceptions of these taboo substances have changed drastically over the last 100 years.
Aiming our attention at these questionable cures are two former assistant district attorneys, who, after finishing their law degrees, opted to create this fashion line to challenge current public opinion. With these daring designs, they hope to expand the public's knowledge of our dubious pharmacological past and encourage people to consider what the future opinion of today's widely prescribed drugs will be."
Camerasettings:
We shot this on two Canon 5D MKII's. The interview portion was shot on a Canon 50mm F1.2 and a Canon 24-105mm F4, both L-series. B-roll was shot on a Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro and the F4 zoom. No artificial lights were used and we shot on 1600 ISO, kept the aperture around F8 the shutter at 1/60. We used a standard picture style and graded the colors in post. The sound was recorded on a Zoom recorder with a Sony wireless lav and a Rhode NTG-2 mounted on a boom pole.
A totally awesome and inspiring music video by Dancing Pigeons shot on the Phantom camera. It definitely makes me feel like I gotta go out and start shooting more crazy stuff! Directed by Tomas Mankovsky. Director of Photography Adam Frisch.
With the introduction of the Canon 5D MKII combined with America's recent recession, we've entered a period of radical change where the old way of doing things simply isn't going to work anymore.
"One could legitimately ask: is the sky falling? Short answer: I don't think so - but I do think the cloud is falling. What do I mean by the "cloud?" I'm talking about that cushy comfort zone and business model we have all become accustomed to: the idea of a staff job with benefits and company gear, the idea that if we follow the traditional career paths of our predecessors we too will find long term financial security, the idea that if we do things the same way that we've always done them, or are being taught to do them at schools/universities - we'll be "OK."
The truth is - our way of doing things - not only the way we gather our content, but also the way we package, deliver and the way we expect to be remunerated for that work - is being shattered by a variety of internal and external forces that simply aren't going to go away. And the reason that I'm using the analogy of the "cloud" - is to point out that as frightening as some of these prospects are, clouds always obscure the blue sky above - our industry is not dying - it's evolving - and there's no reason to run around in a panic... many of us will survive...and many of us will be forced to work in an entirely different field."
“Nowadays digital cameras take movies, performance of cameraphones is rapidly advancing and demand for simple movie cameras for uploading video on the Internet is on the rise. Redefinition of photography may become necessary.”
Furthermore, when asked about what Nikon had in the works, Kimura said:
“It will be a camera that may take photos of the world that the traditional SLR cannot reach.”
I think one of the more radical concepts to take away from the Wonder Camera video is the idea that still capture of images might go away all together. The narrator says that photography might become something of an archaic art form, like calligraphy. The Wonder Camera only shoots video, and the stills are taken from the individual frames, which would be at a ridiculously high resolution that isn't currently possible.
Of course a photographer would know immediately that taking a photo and pulling a still from a video are not the same, resolution aside. What about motion blur from shutter speed? If you're pulling a sharp photo of something in motion, the entire video sequence would need to be shot at a high shutter speed, and you'd get a stuttering effect as opposed to smooth motion. While that might be good for the stills, it's not so great for the video. And what about depth of field? What if you don't want infinite focus like what the Wonder Camera promises?
The answer lies in emerging post production technologies and future file types that aren't currently in existence. Take depth of field. This Homebrew Scanner creates files that allow you to change the depth of field in post-production. Plug-ins like Alien Skin's Bokeh already allow you to add realistic depth of field and blurring effects in post. Or even consider this video where the tilt and shift effect was added in post.
"I did some initial tests a while back using a rented 24mm tilt-shift lens, which is the standard way to do this. However, after my tests, I found it made much more sense to do this effect in post, rather than in camera."
A fast and effective plug-in that would let you control shutter speed and motion blur in post doesn't yet exist for videos, but I think that's largely due to the fact that the need isn't really there just yet. But if the Wonder Camera's narrator is right, that stills in the future will be taken from video frames rather than shot separately, you're talking about a new market where video and photos are essentially pulled from the same files and a new set of post-production needs will arise.
Photography and film aside, new technologies and software are also changing the nature of production itself. Just consider the implications of the following:
LensVector is working on liquid crystal lenses that change their optical properties based on voltage, essentially leaving you with a lens that has no moving parts but that can focus from 10cm to infinity. Rather than using mechanical parts to focus, LensVector uses electricity to align liquid crystals to a target shape. Not only do you get smaller and lighter lenses, but it opens the door to different lens designs since you don't necessarily need to use a focusing ring anymore.
The iPhone4 captures pretty impressive video at 720p. Just check out this comparison of the iPhone4 to the Canon 7D:
While not robust enough to really affect production just yet, I think the idea of changing lights like this in post is definitely on the right track.
Radical changes in media capture and delivery aren't going to go away any time soon. Cameras will get smaller and lighter while outputting higher and higher quality images and video, while new post-production capabilities and file types will change the way we handle production. And while a lot of things won't change (casting calls, call sheets, getting permits to shoot, doing multiple takes, feeding the crew, etc.) you'll be able to do much more with less. The Canon 5D MKII has already proven that.
It's like moving from silent films to talkies, print to online publications, television to YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, and NetFlix. The market is changing, nostalgia be damned. There's a whole undiscovered country out there waiting for someone to connect the dots.
Domenico Vacca in conjunction with Models International, had a fabulous private preview of Vacca's line of mens denim jeans. Chris and I were invited to get some photos and footage of the event as it took place. Domenico was on hand to take a few photos with the models provided by Models International. We captured great shots of everyone having a great time in the SoHo location on the corner of West Broadway and Broome Street in Manhattan. Thanks to Domenico Vacca and Models International for having us and for putting together another excellent gathering. Here's some of the photos I took.
Camera Settings
The video was shot entirely on one lens, a Canon 24-105mm F4 L-series. The photos were taken with a Canon 50mm F1.2 L-series. There was a ton of sunlight on location so Chris didn't need to switch over to a faster prime, which was good since the venue was pretty crowded and we didn't want to be going back and forth switch lenses from our bags. All the shots were on a Manfrotto monopod with a fluid head. You can't really get a solid pan out of it, but you can get a short dolly effect, good tilts, and an organic camera shake. Usually we'll go in with a tripod and just convert it to a monopod by bringing the legs together, but he wanted to have a physically lighter setup this time around. He also usually shoots with a Zacuto viewfinder for fast and accurate focus, but he went really minimal this time around and just did everything by eye off the LCD screen.
The ISO was around 160 to 320 outside, and about 1250 to 1600 inside. Shutter speed we kept mainly around 1/60, sometimes 1/125. We shot on standard picture style because we wanted a faster turn around time on the post side with minimal color grading. We just lowered the contrast a bit so the blacks wouldn't be too dark. We also shot on auto white balance. We find shooting manual white balance slows us down in fast changing environments and the automatic settings have worked fine for us so far.
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