I'm Back

Sorry for the long radio silence. Here’s what I’ve been up to.

In early April I traveled to Montreal to direct a Canadian Lysol commercial for Euro RSCG NY. If you live in Canada and have tried to view a web video recently, you may have already been forced to watch it. When I get my director’s cut done, I’ll post it. We shot on the Alexa, and it marked my first opportunity to direct for Bodega, a production company run by some old friends with whom I’m delighted to be working.

I then flew directly to Toronto to help my friend Scott Stewart with a very exciting new project. Scott was invited to direct the pilot of a new Syfy series called Defiance. The show, developed simultaneously with a Massively Multiplayer Online game from Trion Worlds, was so enormous in scope that Scott lobbied for me to be brought on as “Additional Units Producer.” Terminology in TV is a little different than in features, but the role was very similar to my second unit directing duties on The Spirit. For just over four weeks I shadowed Scott with my mini “splinter unit” crew, picking up inserts and sometimes even entire scenes of this epic show. Scott and his cinematographer Attila Szalay chose the Epic for the pilot, although one of our three camera bodies was a Scarlet. We almost never cared which was which. I met some amazing new friends, learned a ton, and, as you may have noticed, didn’t have much time for Twitter or blogging.

My sudden streak of back-to-back work overlapped with NAB and its aftermath, leaving some to speculate that my silence on certain camera and other filmmaking tech announcements held some portent. People were drawing all sorts of conclusions, none of which were true. Maybe I was testing a new camera and sworn to secrecy? Maybe I was snubbing certain tech intentionally?

The only accurate conclusion, and the one that seemed most obvious to me, was one at which no one arrived:

This is not a camera blog.

There are plenty of wonderful blogs out there that exhaustively and reliably cover every new camera, every new piece of filmmaking tech. You read them every day, and so do I. We can all be grateful for them. But I hope you see a difference between those sites and this one.

This difference must not be as obvious to some as it is to me. I’m always amused when I receive a kind message to the effect of “I can’t wait for you to review this new camera!” Looking back through the archives, I don’t believe I’ve ever “reviewed” a camera.

I do write a lot about cameras. I also write about screenwriting, post-production, and other filmmaking things. Sometimes I write about tasty beverages. This blog is not my work. It’s a reflection of my work. It’s me learning out loud. And I’m always thrilled and honored when you enjoy it.

SpotCast

Ron Small of Sway Productions invited me onto his new podcast called SpotCast, which focuses on the craft of commercial directing. I’m in wonderfully good company there—he’s also interviewed Jason Wingrove, Adam Lisagor, and Vincent Laforet.

You can listen to the show at the SpotCast site, but really you should just subscribe in iTunes.

I very much enjoyed my chat with Ron and love that he’s taken on the task of this show. I like the way our episode turned out, and I hope you do too.

Chasing Wildebeests

I had such a fun time talking with Kanen Flowers and Merlin Mann on Kanen’s Scruffy Thinking podcast. As Kanen puts it:

We discuss living in San Francisco, Star Wars, finding and doing what you love, trusting your grandmother’s advice, being unemployed after having lunch with Stu and a lot more.

Check it out, as well as Kanen’s other podcast, That Post Show. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how to find Merlin Mann’s amazing 5 by 5 show Back to Work.

If there’s anything I’m proud of about this episode, it’s that I may have tricked Merlin into being inspirational.

Subscribe to Scruffy Thinking in iTunes.

Small Gunns

My wife Michelle Stock and her sister Diana Stock just launched an online boutique called Small Gunns. Their first products are a custom-designed line of graphic tees for kids. My contributions included some photography on their site. And celebratory cocktails of course!

Check it out if you have kids (or know people who do), and bookmark it (or follow @smallgunns on Twitter) if you don’t — their next product will be available in adult sizes and you’re gonna want it.

Mostly Coherent

I was the guest host on this week’s Mostly Photo show with Leo Laporte and Lisa Bettany. We talked about shooting stills and video and getting the most out of post-processing, and I showed off some video gear from Redrock Micro and Zacuto. I’ve been a huge fan of Leo’s entrepreneurial empire and Lisa’s photography for years, so it was a blast getting to hang with them.

Click the photos to jump directly to my three tips:

I used this shot to talk about what I call “decoy shooting.” Canon 5D, 50mm F1.4.

I used this shot as an example of achieving apealing (i.e porange) skin tones. Canon 5D Mark II, 50mm F1.2L.

I used this shot as an example of color contrast, and showed how to use the split-tone controls in Adobe Lightroom to achieve this look. This image is available as a free iPad wallpaper here. Canon 5D, 24–105 F4L.

Lisa very kindly mentioned my Fact, Moment, Light post. Please do check it out if you’re a new visitor to Prolost!