In the spring of 2011 Eden Robbins was asked to create a challenging image for Guinness and their freshly launched Extra Stout brew. The art director on this project, Simon Newman from Grip, had a vision of a place that didn’t quite exist, except in his head. I codenamed this project “epic” in my mind since it reminded me of imagery and architecture that I associate with Greek epics.
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Early in 2011 Shin Sugino asked me to put together a reel showing some of our most recent footage shot with one of our Phantom Cameras. The footage is a mix , coming from both the Phantom HD Gold and the newer Phantom Flex. The reel features work from Shin Sugino and Rob Quartly.
I arranged some music using resources available in stock libraries and than timed some transitions, speed ramps and camera zoom/focus effects around the sound. The idea was to have it sound aggressive yet slow to complement the footage. I also added some tempo matched particle effects to some of the shots to add some depth.
The Phantom demmo reel along with artist specific reels was advertised in Lurzers Archive in the spring of 2011 via QR codes. As of the time of this posting chances are our Phantom is not the only in-house Phantom Flex anymore.
In the spring of 2011 I worked on a VW Passat car shoot with Todd McLellan. It was on of the most enjoyable car jobs we have done in a long time. We were asked to provide an image that looks and feels like a good photograph rather than going with the currently popular style which pushes the car into heavily stylized territory that blurs the borders between photography, illustration and 3D renderings.
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Todd McLellan Demo Reel from Maciej Roszkowski on Vimeo.
Sugino Studio Directors and Photographers recently updated their portfolios for 2011. I was in charge of editing a few of them. For Todd whose main body of work is Stills based I decided to make the reel itself motion based. We briefly considered doing a physical shoot of a table surface with images but decided against it since it would limit the control of camera moves and image quality.
I worked on this back in 2008 and seemingly never posted it on my blog. It was an interesting process because it was one of my earlier RED camera projects. It was shot by a combination of our artists and the direction grew as we shot it. About 15 minutes of footage was recorded per person. The footage was paired down to less than 20 seconds per clip. The initial edit was in FinalCut using a ProRes422 HQ path. The output was later processed in After Effects for Color, additional timing changes and all post effects.
I had the pleasure of doing some work on Finn O’Hara’ s piece for ESPN the magazine on strong man Kevin Fast. Like most of my work Finn the post is straightforward requiring only a color grade look and the occasional sensor dust removal. Finn tends to get everything he wants in camera, which makes this very different from most of my other jobs that are heavy on compositing. I must say I do enjoy doing this though, it lets me focus on slight colour adjustments and has a natural real looking end result.
More info on Finn’s Blog
Ford’s challenge: Create a new interactive project with a Time Freeze effect incorporating motion – within 3 weeks. Our solution: Use 36 Canon DSLRs to shoot a 120-degree sweep around the new Fiesta. Simultaneously shoot 12 motion videos on the same cameras, creating interactive hot-spots that continue the frozen action on demand. We spent 2 days on location in Toronto’s Distillery District shooting 3 scenarios.
I got involved in the early planning stages of this project. The goal was to work out a realistic budget, equipment needs and technical issues that may arise. We decided to use Canon Rebel T2i since they provided a good still image capability and was the lowest cost camera that shot the video quality we required. The equipment is in short supply luckily with the help of Canon and Vistek we were able to get 40 of the cameras on short notice. We used the kit lens that comes with the camera, the cost of 40 additional prime lenses would be prohibitive. Testing started with a small number of cameras to figure out the timing and possible spacing of the cameras that would still allow smooth motion. Over a two week period we worked out the show-stopping issues that could arise and had a working solution. The last part was working out post image stabilization. No matter how much time was spent aligning the cameras there are minute difference is positioning on all axis and occasionally lens barrel expansion due to temperature that changed the FOV. The solution was to build a virtual “suspension” in after effects that absorbed the camera movement and stabilized the footage.
Click the link and then click EXPERIENCE NOW to see the end result.
During our last session with Pamela and Candace we decided to shoot some out takes while Pam’s hair was getting done. The result is a nice aged autograph image. The background is composed from various elements I shot during my travels through northern Ontario. The autograph is not Pam’s real signature. Due to my horrible calligraphy skills (yet the stylus feels like a natural extension of my hand) I enlisted my wife for her first encounter with a Wacom tablet which resulted in a rather pleasant looking signature.
New Hot Wheels commercial Shin Sugino shot on location in Toronto. I was the Phantom HD Gold slow motion camera operator on set.
I edited together a video of the behind the scenes footage shot over the course of the day. Majority of the spot was shot with the phantom with the exception of the car hood shot which was shot on a RED One.
Footage shot by Shin Sugino over a 6 week period. I decided to experiment a little bit and turned it into a PSA.
