dvDepot filmed the latest installment of Food For Thought, a BET television series, on May 27. This episode, “Food For Thought: Conversations with Ice Cube” aired in early July. As in previous episodes, three media personalities, the Media Assassin Harry Allen, Hot 97’s radio host Angie Martinez, and sports journalist Stephen A. Smith, conduct interviews with Ice Cube over lunch. Previous installments of the show featured musical celebrities Jay-Z and 50 Cent. Since this was the third time dvDepot has shot Food for Thought, members of the crew have become friendly with the interviewers, leading to what we in the industry call “water cooler conversations.”

Lots of Equipment; No Space

With this shoot, dvDepot continues to provide the BET series with both crews and equipment.

The crew used four HDX900 cameras to obtain top quality footage. Using the steadicam also contributed to a very smooth shoot. Due to multiple cameras, lots of lighting equipment, and many crew members, the set was chaotic, to say the least. In addition to all of this activity, the restaurant was open to the public; diners looking for a quiet meal certainly got an unexpected surprise!

The Location: Sylvia’s Restaurant

The interviews took place at Sylvia’s, the world famous soul food restaurant. Situated uptown in Harlem, the eatery is famed for providing great service and an array of Southern favorites. Sylvia actually came out from the kitchen to meet the crew and personally took their orders. Munching on delectable macaroni and
cheese, divine fried chicken and catfish, and delicious cornbread kept the entire group more than well fueled for a full ten hour day of filming.

Multitalented Crew

Each member of the nine person crew brought their unique talents to set. Alex Sierra resumed his position as DP for the third installment of the series. Ameer Grice exhibited enviable packing skills; the utility’s ability to stow so much gear into a relatively small van was nothing short of beautiful. dvDepot’s own Jose Caraballo along with freelancer Jack Hutson handled the audio with impressive skills. Most importantly, however, everyone displayed impressive eating skills that would have made anyone on the competitive eating circuit jealous.

Ice Cube

Working with Ice Cube was wonderful. The artist had a professional attitude that translated to a very functional, stress-free shoot. Ice Cube’s acting background became obvious as he handled the shoot like an experienced professional. The platinum artist had only one indisputable stipulation about the shoot; the day had to end early enough so he could watch the Lakers playoff game which, fortunately, they won.

Though the shoot was crowded and long, our crew maintained a cheerful attitude. With great food, better company, and completely functioning equipment, the day ended on a positive note. We look forward to working with BET on the next episode.

To see more pictures from this shoot, visit our Facebook page.

A series of Earthquakes absolutely devastated Haiti on Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday night, BET called us to shoot a series of PSAs to help raise awareness, get people to contribute and to connect people with loved ones in Haiti.

We cannot imagine what the people of Haiti are undergoing, our thoughts and prayers are with all those suffering in Haiti. The outpouring of support over the last week has amazed everyone and we hope it continues.

The Weinstein Company is releasing their new movie “Youth in Revolt” starring Michael Cera this month. dvDepot worked on a series of promos for the film featuring Michael Cera and the cast of MTV’s The Jersey Shore.

As anybody who watches the show knows, the Jersey Shore kids are a wild bunch. They did not disappoint us here. DJ Pauly D took one look at Michael and decided he needed a makeover. They changed his wardrobe and spent an hour giving him Pauly’s signature hair style. Also, once they heard there was a hot tub on the roof, there was no keeping them out of it– not even the 20 degree weather. In spite of all the fun they had, our crew reported that everybody was professional and easy to work with. We can’t wait until the promos premiere so we can see our finished product.

The promos were shot on three Sony EX1s with our operators Jeremy Leach, Andreas Wagner and Chris Piazza. We had two audio techs on set to mic all the people: Diana Milani and Michael Correa. Kevin Provost was a camera utility and handled data transfers. Joseph Bandelli was our PA. We worked with Partizan, who were producing the spots.

You can see more pictures on the sites we borrowed these from: People Magazine and the Huffington Post. We also get mentioned in the article at New TeeVee.

Matthew Kulvicki has been working with dvDepot for years as a camera operator and producer. Recently, he’s become the Director of Production for the NY State Senate. He’s in charge of all video produced for the Senate, ranging from press conferences, to the coverage of all proceedings, to PSAs.

Filling out his crews, it’s no surprise to see some of the people he’s worked with at dvDepot popping up in the credits. Andreas Wagner is also a shooter/producer, but here, he works his acting chops on the voice-over. Matt Geldof is a master of all things audio. For Kulvicki, he wrote the music in the video.

It’s always exciting to see the work our freelancers do outside of dvDepot and we’re also pleased to know that they continue to work together.

“Pitchmen,” on the Discover Channel is a great show. It features informercial veterans Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan searching for new products to sell. Rather than being a strict contest show, it is also a chance to spend time with the stars in their world as they shoot their commercials and run their business. It’s a project that we were proud to have worked on. Original Productions is a great company to work with and the cast were friendly and fun.

Unfortunately, one of the stars, Billy Mays, passed away recently. It was terrible circumstances to be involved in, but we were honored to be able to work on the memorial episode.

Matt Kulvicki (camera) and Ethan Goldberger (audio) worked on the show the most for us and spent the most time with Billy. Matt said, “Good man, small ego.” Ethan agreed he was “a great guy, and one of those rare celebrities you work with that leaves you with total admiration. A total gentleman and a complete professional, he always made sure everyone felt good around him, remembering the names of everyone on set (including the sound guy!).” Matt also assures us that “there is nothing like watching a soundman throw his headphones off in pain when Billy turned the volume up and made his pitch.” Billy’s pitches weren’t just loud, there were passionate and filled with joy. Billy always believed in his products and was his happiest telling the inventors on the show that they had a hit.

You can see a brief tribute to Billy Mays at the “Pitchmen” site as well other clips.

He believed in these products and took his greatest pleasure when telling the inventor they had a hit.

The camera ops on the show included Matthew Kulvicki, Alex Sierra and Andreas Wagner. Audio was done by Ethan Goldberger, Diana Milani, Alex Sierra and Stephen Collins.

R.I.P Billy.

Our clients came to us with a new idea: rap battles on mobile video. They wanted to shoot MCs battling each other, then give let mobile phone viewers the opportunity to vote for who advances on to the next round. The project was called “The Rap Game.”

We worked with them through preproduction and provided the shooting crew. We had five cameras, three on stick, one handheld and one Steadicam. Our crew lit the whole club. While the performances happened on the stage, we were also shooting the audience, wanting them to be as much a part of the

experience as the performers. Our audio crew had mics on the two battlings rappers, the host, the audience and a feed from the DJ. We also handled communications.

It was a fun experience for everybody and it went smoothly thanks to our awesome crew, which included DP Daniel McKeown, camera ops Matthew Kulvicki, Andreas Wagner, and Liz Rubin, steadicam op David George Ellis, audio supervisor Diana Milani, audio tech Gabriel

Cyr, utility Kara Haas and PAs Tory Clark and Mike Misslin.

The Rap Game was the first large shoot after I started working at dvDepot. It was great to go into the field and see our crew in action. It helped me to understand the ways they worked and in what situations they worked best. And nothing is more thrilling than taking on a challenge and succeeding.

You can see more pictures from the shoot at our flickr page

At DV Depot, we build strong teams on our crews. Often, our crew members recommend talented colleagues. Sometimes, our crews develop such strong relationships, they want to work with each other outside the Depot, even if they never knew each other before. Obviously, our talented and ambitious freelancers want to work on their own projects and we’re proud of the great work they do without us.

Closer to God is an example of this great work, it was directed and edited by Matthew Kulvicki, shot by Andreas Wagner, produced by Andrew Brennan and has sound by Matthew Geldof. All four work with DV Depot.

Closer to God is an exciting and moving documentary about people gathering from all over the country, banding together to make a trip to Washington. They are a part of the Campaign To End AIDS and they are joining thousands of others for five days of political action featuring congressional visits, educational programs, and acts of civil disobedience. These people are not victims, suffering from a disease, they are taking the steps to change the world, to fight for themselves and everybody like them. It’s a powerful story turning a new light onto AIDS a generation after it began.

Take a look at the trailer below for Closer to God and visit the site to learn more about the film.

People use dv Depot’s offices as a shooting location. We do a lot of simple ENG shoots with backdrops or in our lounge area. Recently, a group, Skoob TV, used our offices to shoot their sketch comedy pilot. They liked the variety of locations all within one office, using our kitchen, our gym, our basketball hoop, our offices, our lobby, our bar and our conference room.

We also provided the crew and equipment. The project was a challenge. There were 16 different skits with at least 38 set-ups that had to be shot in one day. We shot 41 setups and did not go a minute over on time. It was all thanks to a hardworking cast and crew. The cast from Skoob TV were very cooperative. Our DP, Andreas Wagner, stepped up and made shooting go smoothly. Everything was lit by our gaffer Tim Crook and our Utility Derek Edwards. They were actually lighting two or three scenes ahead and taking lights down behind us. Michael Solomon did our audio, booming scenes with 7 or 8 people improving on occasion. Nick Cretaro and Adam Rauscher were there from dv Depot to handle any issues with the location.

Visit our flickr page to see more photos.