Sunday, November 9, 2014

Cam Scott 'Somethin bout a Girl'



My old friend Josh Wallace asked me to DP this music video for him. Josh and I used to work together over ten years ago, when we had a small production company and released a couple of Snowboarding films. Josh had a great concept, and the song was good. I was happy to come on board.

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We filmed for three days, in and around Queenstown.

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I used my Red Epic Dragon cameras, and I was assisted by my local crew. Cam Stoltz Camera Assist, Josh Dunn Grip, and John Hogan Gaffer.

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I filmed the first part of the clip as a bit of a road movie, prodominently with a handheld camera, and an organic feel.

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There was a flashback component. I didn't want to go the usual cheesy post treatment for this, so I achieved the effect in camera. I used a custom made lens, and shot right on sundown.

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The performance was one of my favourite setups. I always like creating an environment with light. We chose a small Church Hall as the location, and I had a great time lighting it to look like a small town pub concert.

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We didn't have the budget for a Dolly or a Jib... but, luckily I own a MoVI, and my Grip Josh Dunn was happy to haul it around the concert. I operated remotely from a 17" monitor.

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We continued using the MoVI on some of the Jetboat shots, and we also used a Quadcopter with a GoPro4 on it for the aerials of the boat.

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It was a very ambitious shoot, with lots of locations and components. But, it was a great opportunity to make something we could be proud of, and I really enjoyed working with Josh again.

Stills Photography by: Paul Green, Holly Wallace, Cam Stoltz



Saturday, November 1, 2014

Bridgestone 'Blizzak VRX'



Director Toshihisa Koike asked me to film these two commercials for him in New Zealand. The agency was Dentsu, the Production Company Dentsy Creative Cross, with AJ Films working as the New Zealand Line Production Company.

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The two commercials were both very different, and very technical. We had to shot the Tyres performing on very specific road conditions.

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To achieve this, we filmed at SHPG near Queenstown, New Zealand. They had the facilities that we needed to make various road conditions. Varying from pure ice, solid snow and slushy snow with road surface below. Art Director Ken Turner did a great job liaising between the various teams to deliver the surface that the client needed.

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We experienced some extreme weather on the first day. A storm came through and we experienced wind chill of minus 18 degrees celsius. We achieved a few shots before the weather forced us to wrap early. Thankfully, it cleared and we had good weather for the remaining two shoot days.

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I used two Red Epic Dragon cameras. I always prefer to work with two cameras when shooting car commercials. It saves a lot of time, and lets me move from one set up to the next with no delays.

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We had a mixture of rig shots, built by the great grip team of Sam Strain, Josh Dunn and Chris Thomson.

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We also shot a variety of tracking shots, where I used the MoVI M10 on a small tracking buggy.

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The second spot involved a few stock shots from Japan and also several VFX shots, where the background was composited in to match with the foreground elements that I shot in New Zealand.

With 15 second spots, so much of what you shoot on the day does not make the final broadcast edit. There is also an online web version.

It was a great shoot, and the client is very happy.






Sunday, September 7, 2014

Smile 'Pyaw Aung Nay'


I travelled to Myanmar, (formerly known as Burma) back in 2013 to shoot and direct this music video for the pop star 'Smile'.


I bought one of my Red Epic cameras and a set of lenses. I picked up local crew and basic lighting and grip equipment.

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I took advantage of a local nightclub for the dance scenes. We had a great group of enthusiastic extras. Communication was challenging, but I managed to control the club's lighting fixtures. I also supplemented the disco lights with beauty lighting on Smile and her onscreen partner.

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The bulk of the performance was at the beautiful park location, that I shot past dusk... until we were ordered out by the security guards.

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For the second performance scene I had the lighting team make up festoons of lightbulbs in a semi covered location. We only had the location during the day, so I blacked out two sides, used the ambient daylight for fill and keyed with HMI's.

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It was a challenging shoot. We had limited access to locations, and no art department. The local crew that I had were a great bunch. We had very limited resources, but everyone was there to help and solutions were always found.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Mini Cooper 'Goodbye Pork Pie' Scene Remake



I was lucky enough to be asked to DP the Mini Cooper 2014 'Goodbye Pork Pie' scene remake.

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The original film 'Goodbye Pork Pie' is an iconic New Zealand film from the 1980's, directed by Geoff Murphy. It's a very popular movie, still to this day. I remember watching it when I was younger, and the film made quite an impact on me.

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Director Matt Murphy (son of Geoff Murphy) asked me to shoot the project for Mini New Zealand, and Production Company Goodoil Films.

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We filmed at Lake Hawea, near Wanaka. We had to keep the shooting day within 10 hours, including travel time and meal breaks. This left us with 6 hours and 15 minutes to shoot the job.

Fortunately, Matt was very organised, and he knew exactly what shots were needed to tell the story. We wrapped onetime, and I even managed to sneak in a couple of extra setups.

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I decided to shoot on Red Epic cameras. I used two, and kept one in production mode for the tripod shots and the handheld in the back of the Mini.

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The second Epic started the day in the MoVI M10 on the back of the tracking ute, after we go these shots it became the rig camera.

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Aerials were provided by Peter Thompson with his Cineflex.

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With such a short shooting day, and so many stunts the pace was non stop. Fortunately all of my crew were very focussed. With a good plan, and good management, we moved from one setup to the next smoothly. It was a great day, and a really fun variation on the traditional car commercial.

Photo Credit: Simon Darby




Monday, May 12, 2014

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (三菱アウトランダーPHEV)



Japanese Director Koshi Horibe had seen some of my previous car work and he asked me to DP this commercial for Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.

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The commercial was for the Japanese market, and we actually scouted two completely different locations. After some input from the client, the decision was made to shoot in Queenstown.

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I decided to shoot on Red Epic cameras, mainly because I wanted to take advantage of the small size so that I could use the MoVI M10 Handheld Gimbal Stabiliser on the tracking vehicle. I really liked the organic look of the MoVI, as compared to a crane and remote head. It also meant that I could devote the Libra mount to the Helicopter full time. Pete Bradshaw bought a lot of experience as Tracking Vehicle Driver, and I could count on him to line up the best moments freeing me up to work in with my MoVI Grip Josh Dunn.

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I shot all of the aerials with a Libra stabilised head, Red Epic and a wide zoom. Alfie Speight was my pilot and we achieved some really dynamic images.

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I had a third Epic with a long lens dedicated to my B Camera Team. Operated by Takashi Chiba.

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Kanta Yamaguchi from Greentea Film & TV was the Line Producer, and we wrapped the shoot on time and on budget.



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Appalanchia



I was the Director of Photography on this Korean Commercial for Appalanchia Bikes.

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Michael Cha from Oyster was the Director.

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Michael came well prepared, and we had several discussions about the look that we wanted to achieve. We decided to shoot on the Arri Alexa XT using Zeiss Ultra Primes.

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We wanted to place the family in nature, and our Location Manager Phil Turner gave us some great spots to work with.

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For the tracking scenes I used a bungy rig, and had Josh Dunn as my key grip.

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It was a fun shoot, and most importantly, the client is very happy!