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.

140928_111

We filmed for three days, in and around Queenstown.

cam-scott-shoot-day-1-001

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.

cam-scott-shoot-day-2-071

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

cam-scott-shoot-day-2-280

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.

dscf3818

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.

dscf3831

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.

cam-scott-shoot-day-3-098

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.

dscf3628

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.

dsc_3308

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

1y8c0235

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.

img_4533

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.

1y8c0224

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.

dsc_3277

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

dsc_3250

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

dsc_3307

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.