Groupon Video Shoot @ Martini's Bar and Grill

Nuvo Dance Competition

Spent the weekend operating EX3's for a national dance competition. Here's my view from the camera deck.

Hatch Community Makerspace

I started this project for Hatch Makerspace in Watertown, Massachusetts.

We shot most of the interviews on Canon Rebel DSLRs.

A screen grab from the T4i with 50mm f/1.8

 A wide view of the lighting and camera setup

Edwin, the camera operator, is an old friend from UMass Amherst.

Picture Profiles on the Rebels were set to STANDARD (-2,-2,-2,0)

A grab from the t3i with 55-250mm @ f/4.5

Here's where we ran into a bit of trouble. The t3i began to overheat (my guess) and would no longer turn on after 2.5 hours of interviews. Luckily, we had backup cameras on hand. At first, I put my PXW-X70 in place of the t3i. I knew it would be extra work to make the images match because of very different sensors and codecs. But, I went with it... at first. Below is a sample image from the X70 ungraded and another version that was adjusted with Davinci Resolve Lite 11. I'll have to take another pass on it to make the green background match the yellow/green in the DSLR footage.

Screenshot from Sony PXW-X70 ungraded

Adjustments to skin tone, slight softening, and darkened background via power windows

We had to take a break, and I decided to switch to a 5dmkii which, as luck would have it, was also on hand. It turned into a good experiment in testing the compatibility of all three cameras. The image below is from the 5dmkii with STANDARD PP to match the Rebels.

The 5d2 color, DOF and skin tones matched the Rebels much better than the Sony, as expected.

I felt confident swapping the cameras because I knew I had the consistent coverage I needed on the t4i. This one interview is a fraction of the scope of the project, and I could edit around any potential image compatibility problems. Next visit to HATCH will be to gather b-roll of the community space in action.

Groupon Video @ Coolidge Corner Clubhouse

Pingree Musical

A few quick looks at a reality show satire video that I was on this week. I operated second camera and assisted with lighting. The project was for a private school's musical, and we used their performance stage to shoot and light. We brought some daylight fluorescents but were also able to use the stage lights to add creative flairs.

View from Camera 2, Canon 6D with 70-200mm

Still from Camera 1 (on jib), Canon 5dmkiii with 24-70mm

MOE Fencing Tournament

X70 on the right and a Flashpoint 300 on the far right. Jeff (center) is directing and interviewing, while Todd (left) runs b-cam. 

The scene from behind the camera.

 Screen grab from the 1280X720 proxy file.

Friend and colleague Jeff Palmer invited me to shoot with him on a documentary he's making about the MOE Fencing club in Somerville. More of a relaxed and creative problem solving sort of shoot than a tightly scheduled affair, which I really enjoyed. I got a chance to really put the Flashpoint LED to use, and was very pleased with it. The NP-F batteries I'm using are a bit sketchy. They only seem to work so long as the light is set at half brightness or lower. That's what you get with generic third party electronics, I guess.

Jeff interviews one of the young fencers.

 The Flashpoint 300 with it's tungsten filter created a warm highlight. The house lights were used as key lighting for all of the interviews.

The X70 was set to custom picture profile with cinematone1 gamma, elevated black gamma, and custom color correction to enhance skin tones. These settings and more are available thanks to the X70 user group on Facebook.

The LED that is stationed camera right produces a nice catch light in the subject's eyes.

Slow Motion Web Commercial - Premium Q Moving & Storage

Commercial Sample 1 from Adrian Atwood on Vimeo.

This short web commercial was shot on a PXW-X70 using the S&Q Motion function. I followed the crew as they unloaded a truck, and just rolled at 1080@60p that was then conformed in camera to approx. 42% slow motion.

Coqueteur @ American Dream House

Learn more at Coqueteur.us

I've been producing videos for the CQTR blog since the summer. Their most recent interview was in NY, so I tapped an old friend who lives in the city to shoot the segment. Kudos to him for great camera work. Edits were done in Premiere Pro CS6.

MLK Day Breakfast

American Library Association: Libraries Transform