Cinematographer Philip Holahan lent his photography skills to the creative team of BLOODTIES, a rock musical written by Ned Massey. They smashed 4 acoustic and 2 electric guitars during their promo photo shoot at dvDepot. BLOODTIES will premiere at The 2010 New York Musical Theater Festival. Holahan shot the photographs at dvDepot using a Canon 5d camera.

An Array of Advantages

The Canon 7d camera is very popular and exciting to work with, shooting still pictures and digital video. Canon single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras create high quality video and give filmmakers more control over their image than video normally allows. The fact that the cameras are affordable and very lightweight only adds to their appeal.

Digital cameras use chips as their sensors. Larger sensors mean an ability to take in more information and therefore, a better image quality. The Canon 7d’s chip is larger than ¾ of an inch, which is a step up from the ½ inch chip in a Sony EX1, which is itself an excellent camera.

More Lenses Means More Merit

Canon’s SLR cameras open more possibilities in shooting because you can use Canon photo lenses. Still camera lenses are more readily available to the average user, allowing more choices in how you want to shoot. Additionally, using these lenses can help create a very cinematic look, including more control over depth of field than you normally have with digital video. As you can see in this video, a shallow depth of field can create a very dramatic look.

dvDepot carries a full array of L series prime lenses, including:

14mm F/2.8
24mm F/1.4
35mm F/1.4
50mm F/1.2
85mm F/1.2
135mm F/2

And the 70-200mm F/2.8 L series zoom lens.

Other New Equipment

In addition to all the new Canon cameras, the Zacuto double barrel shoulder mount is now available at dvDepot. Not only does this cutting edge shoulder mount adapt to any DSLR camera, but it also looks super cool. It can easily be customized for every camera operator; the shoulder mount can be rigged on either the right or left side and is height adjustable. Throw in the Zacuto follow focus and you’ve got everything you need. This new equipment can be rented from dvDepot as a part of any package that includes a DSLR camera.

The Canon 7d is available for rent or in a crew package with an operator and the Canon 5d is available with a shooter package. Call 212.333.5100 and get in touch with the rental or crewing departments for pricing.

dvDepot is always excited to work with student filmmakers. After two months of preparation, on Saturday March 6th, a group of NYU film students shot a music video for the indie band Kafei. The Lansdale, Pennsylvania band is comprised of Alex Kahn on guitar, keyboard and vocals, Doug Raus on drums and vocals, and Eric Henkels on vocals, keyboard and guitar. Guitarist Alex is an NYU student, as well. Check them out on tour or online! http://www.myspace.com/kafeimusic This video is for “Stay Close” off of their new album Intimacy Addiction. Read, watch and enjoy. http://vimeo.com/10537859

The Crew

In late January, director (and my good friend) Zoe Robyn approached me with the task of producing the video. I jumped at the chance to work with such a great group of people, all NYU film students. The production staff consisted of Zoe as Executive Producer and Director, Megan Pinson (aka me) as Producer/AD and Kathleen Sullivan as Assistant Producer/2nd AD. Mandy Mandelstein served as DP with Gabby Moses as her AC (who also served as onset photographer) and Josh Glass as DIT. Mandy also worked closely with lighting designer and gaffer Eric Mann. Joanna Naugle handled art direction. Elexa Cangelosi did wardrobe and makeup for the actresses. Divya Gadangi served as hair stylist.

PreProdcution

Finding the right location, a large enough space which we could get on our small budget was the first task. Transforming that space – a large basement with black walls and a stage for the band – for the video was an undertaking. The art direction was an enormous amount of work. Joanna designed and created the three life size Barbie boxes, which along with the stage, served as the set. It took 12 large cardboard boxes and nearly a whole roll of duct tape to make them!

Finding the right look and personality for the “dolls” was essential. Sara Nurmi, Chantelle Fuoco and Dasha Kittredge were all highly enthusiastic about the project and they were great sports when it came to spending an entire day in the Barbie looks Elexa and Divya crafted for them. We also organized a couple dozen extras to shoot a crowd scene, only to discover that we could not bring such a large number. It was frustrating to find out we had to eliminate that scene the day before the shoot. I was so concerned with finding enough extras; the regulations of our location never crossed my mind. However, eliminating that scene from the shot list and shooting schedule meant more time to work on other shots.

The Budget

Realizing, however, just how much a shoot requires is always eye opening – equipment, art supplies, wardrobe, craft services, etc. Working with a low budget meant renting and borrowing equipment from several different places – some last minute essentials (apple boxes!) came from dvDepot. Eric and Mandy came up with a lighting set up which effectively lit the space according to Zoe’s vision, using as few lights as possible.

At the end of the shoot, we did go over budget but only by about 100 dollars. The budget was broken down in terms of equipment rentals, art supplies, wardrobe, and craft services. Art supplies and wardrobe actually turned out to be the main areas where we went over budget. Chances are we could have stuck closer to the budget with better communication between all members of the crew. While the budget was broken down by department, the decided upon numbers did not make it to each crewmember who was then reimbursed for their particular purchases. Emergency purchases the day of the shoot were also not factored into the budget. Who knew we would run out of false eyelashes?

The Shoot

It’s a lot to ask a college student to be awake and alert at 8:00am on a Saturday, but not when it comes to a shoot. Shooting started at 9:30am and lasted until around 10:00pm. With Mandy leading the camera crew, the shoot went very smoothly. Her job as DP started months before the shoot. She and Zoe worked closely to create a look and tone for the video. While location scouting, her ability to visualize the shots before the sets even existed was an asset in planning. When it came to shoot day, Mandy knew exactly what she was looking for.

During the shoot, my main responsibility was making sure everyone was happy, well fed, and in the right place at the right time. Shooting in a location with poor cell phone reception definitely complicates things! As it turns out, the greatest obstacle was completely out of our control. Kafei’s car had been towed earlier and getting it out of impound took far longer than expected, delaying the second half of the shoot by about three hours.

Cutting the crowd scene, though, meant we still had enough time at the location to finish shooting and clean up according to schedule.

After the Shoot

Looking back, there were a few things that could have been done differently. During preproduction, a lot of time was dedicated to location scouting and casting, which was, of course, very important. However, waiting until just the week before to figure out the lighting set up and look into lighting rentals was a risk. One thing to keep in mind for the future is that everything takes more time than you think it will; planning is key. Zoe finished editing the video this week and the final product looks amazing. I am very excited to have been a part of this project. Watch “Stay Close” here! http://vimeo.com/10537859

Today, we’re prepping for a multicam reality shoot in January. Those sorts of shoots require a lot of preparation and often take days to get ready.

One exciting piece of gear on this shoot is our Starlink wireless monitor system. The Starlink is a powerful wireless transmitter and receiver that can be mounted onto the camera. We’ve cameras down to the street and received the signal in our seventh floor office. On a multicam reality project, it allows a producer to monitor all cameras from a centralized location, no matter what environment they’re in.

Has anybody else used the Starlink? Are you as excited by them as we are?

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 get a lot of requests for multi-camera shoots. Musical performances are the most common reason, but people also want to shoot boxing matches, corporate events and other things. We have an excellent HD/SD flypack we like to send on these shoots and decided to host a demo for our clients to get a better feeling for it.

The flypack can shoot with six cameras and is compatible with a variety of HD and standard definition cameras. It has a 16 channel mixer for audio.

While each camera records its shots separately, we can also do a live cut during taping. Some people want it recorded to a tape deck, but we can also record it to a Final Cut Pro file. The client can then open the project in FCP with a near finished product. This can speed up editing drastically.

The demo went over very well. We have an upcoming job with the system for six cameras shooting a Chinese language musical performance.

You can see more pictures from the demo at our flickr site.

Tags:

The Moving Pictures Collective of NYC, MoPictive for those in the know, is a non-profit community that works to support filmmakers in New York City. They provide a helpful environment for their members to learn new techniques, discuss resources they can use and share their work. They host monthly meetings to help these ends. Their website is http://www.movingpicturescollective.org/.

dv Depot was excited to host their April meeting, a panel of experts in various fields of digital filmmaking. The speakers included Anthony Q. Artis, (producer and author) Patrick Inhofer (color corrector and finisher), Pete Levin (audio mixer and sound designer) and Michael Vitti (shooter and editor). They talked to the audience about the realities of digital and tapeless production. The event was highly interactive, including videos from the speakers and a lot of questions from the audience. They took more than two hours of questions, trying to help people decide what equipment to use, weighing cost against artistic ambitions against network and studio requirements. The enthusiastic crowd was a mix of MoPictive members and the general public.

The dv Depot space was ideal for the event. We also lit the event and set up the audio. We shot the event, which is to be edited into a podcast (available to MoPictive members only, unfortunately). We also ended up helping the speakers. Our technicians were able to answer questions about various camera formats that the audience brought up.

You can see more pictures of the event at our Flickr site.

Sadly, Michael Vitti died a few weeks after this event. He was the founder of MoPictive and leader of the community. He was a friend of dv Depot and it was through him that we were able to host this event. There is a tribute page for him at http://www.imugonline.com/events/2009/michaelvitti.shtml. Helping people was Mike’s passion and MoPictive is the child of that passion. Nobody cared more about creating a collaborative environment in which people can share their knowledge. He was a fixture in the New York film world and he will be missed.

We’ve updated our demo reel for 2009. There’s more recent footage and clients, including our work with Showtime, promotions for “Bee Movie,” and the commercials for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.

The reel was edited by our in-house editor Nayim Saati.

When Antoine Fuqua was filming Brooklyn’s Finest in Brownsville, he was impressed by the strong community he found in this impoverished section of Brooklyn. The people were very supportive of him and his work. He met many young filmmakers who lacked the resources to get their career started. In response to this, he founded the Fuqua Film Program.

The Fuqua Film Program gives students the opportunity to write and direct their own short films. They are guided by mentors and have their productions staffed with working professionals. The program also provides speakers and trips to help educate the students about filmmaking.

The program has asked dv Depot to help find working professionals willing to work on the students’ films. We have a large database of freelancers and many of them enjoy working for non-profits. Hopefully, we’ll be able to help this admirable program. If you’re interested in helping as well, visit http://www.fuquafilmprogram.org.