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.

At this point, everybody’s loving Showtime’s new series Nurse Jackie. My aunt, a retired nurse, is a big fan. We were lucky enough to do all the behind the scenes work on the show. We shot interviews with the cast and crew and B roll as well. It was exciting to shoot most of the stuff onset, so we got to see the show in production. The promo below includes a lot or our work.

One day, we got to shoot real nurses telling us about actual on the job experiences. The stories are hilarious, shocking and squirm inducing. Especially The Testicle Story. I suggest you take a look below.

Our work for Showtime was shot by Matthew Kulvicki, Derek Edwards, Ira Brenner and Ron McCain. The audio was done by Diana Milani, Alex Sierra and Max Kalmanowicz. Anthony Barrese was a utility, Lauren Dale Weinstein handled makeup and Mariclare Rivera operated the teleprompter. Their hard work kept Showtime coming back to us for more work.

You can check out more of our behind the scenes work on Nurse Jackie over at their site.

“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.

Our crews are very professional around celebrities. They are polite and respectful. They do not ask for autographs. They do not take pictures. However, on a shoot for Lifetime, our camera operator Matthew Kulvicki met Patti LaBelle. She insisted on taking a picture hugging Matt and managed to bring a smile to his face.

In 2007, Riyo Mori was crowned Miss Universe. Shortly after that, Lifetime featured her in a series of PSAs. Having shot many of Lifetime’s PSAs in the past, they called us to work on this one. We provided the crew, the gear and the location—they shot at the dv Depot offices. It was an easy day. Our crew was prepared and efficient. And it was a thrill to meet a real beauty queen.

Matt Kulvicki shot the PSAs in front of white seamless paper. Ethan Goldberger handled audio.

You can see more photos at our flickr site.

The Smithsonian Channel runs a show called Aerial America. The idea is to fly over every state in America and shoot it in stunning HD. They use the same techniques as they use to shoot Planet Earth.

We were lucky to be able to work with them in Princeton, NJ. Possibly the most exciting part was shooting a helicopter as it landed. Luckily, we had a brave, professional crew. Hats off to Matt Kulvicki on camera, Diana Milani on audio and our utility Derek Edwards.

There are more photos up at our flickr site.