Recently, I was called to NYC to shoot East Coast unit for Phish’s new tour promo video. I was contacted by Jason Baum, who produced the Nada Surf video I had shot with director Eli Stonberg. Several days later I was getting in a car with director Philip Andelman to shoot the promo. The concept is from the perspective of a road-tripping traveller who follows Phish from city to city as they play their tour. Tight time constraints made travelling the country impossible, so it was decided that both East Coast and West Coast crews would drive around their cities and outskirts to capture a variety of locations.

We shot on the Canon 5D Mark II with a 24mm 1.4L lens, recording to 16gb CF cards. The camera was mounted to the inside of the windshield using a suction cup and grip knuckle. Our PA Stephanie Shannon offloaded media to a laptop in the back seat as we filled the cards.

We drove from midtown Manhattan up to Bear Mountain, and then back down to Atlantic City. In the process, we picked up city, mountains, countryside and highway areas. The goal was to capture as many large road signs, over which graphics and tour dates would be overlaid. Depending on the lighting situation, I was constantly changing exposure by dialing in new apertures and ISOs. I also used a polarizer to reduce or eliminate reflections in the windshield.

Check out the completed promo below.

Phish kicks off their 2010 Fall Tour on October 10th with a three-night stand in Broomfield, CO and wraps with three shows on October 29th, 30th and 31st at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ (including a very special Halloween show). Dates along the way include stops in Amherst, Charleston, Utica, Providence, Manchester and Augusta. Phish will also headline the sold-out Austin City Limits Festival on Friday, October 8th.

For complete dates and ticketing information, please visit phish.com.

This summer, director and actress Chelsea Marino approached Enki Studios to shoot and deliver a short film called The Retreat. I was tasked with coloring and finishing, and quickly set about finding a workflow that would fit the budget and scheduling needs. Chelsea specifically requested that everything look beautiful, and that the film accentuated the beauty of not only the location but also the actresses. Our initial discussions revolved around bringing in the type of large-source soft lighting that would wrap around faces and fill in any imperfections, in addition to shooting RED with various beauty filters.

Due to budget restrictions, The Retreat was shot on a Canon 7D dSLR with Canon L lenses, and lit with a standard tungsten package provided by gaffer Jordan Parrott of Vision Rover. Although the shots were well composed, lit and exposed, this meant post had to fill in the gap.

I followed our tried and true method using MPEG Streamclip to convert the 7D footage to ProRes422 LT. Audio was synced with Pluraleyes. After organizing clips by scene, editing and grading came quickly.

The two biggest challenges in finishing this project were matching shots within scenes and making each actress look their best. I had a very short deadline to accomplish this, so I turned to Magic Bullet’s new Colorista II plugin. This allowed me to color correct while our editors were making tweaks without having to jump through hoops like I would with a typical Final Cut and Color workflow, and presented me with options to mask, relight and soften imperfections.

Since turnaround was quick, I didn’t have much time to get too creative, but there were a few situations in which the color as it was shot didn’t fit the mood, even with a little massaging. For example, this scene was very dark for the character in the photo, but was shot with a warm look. I decided to balance it more towards tungsten to give it a cooler, bluer look.

Before:

After:

Another useful feature of Colorista II is the ability to create powermasks, and effectively relight a scene to lead a viewer’s eyes to a certain area. This shot was relatively flat, so I created a vignette to isolate the action.

Before:

After:

My favorite and one of the most useful features is Pop. When combined with a skintone mask, you can enter a negative value and smooth out skin. This was particular useful on closeups, such as this scene.

Before:

After:

There are many aspects of the Apple Color workflow that I personally prefer, but this was a great solution for the time we had, and it helped us edit and finish simultaneously.

For more information and tutorials on Colorista II, check out the official website. Camera, crew and production/post-production services for The Retreat provided by Enki Studios.

Continuing a string of successful collaborations, director Eli Stonberg once again joined forces with Enki Studios to shoot a music video for Nada Surf's newest single "Electrocution". The song is a super-catchy ditty in the style of the alternative rock from the '90s -- in other words, it comes straight from where Nada Surf is coming from. The tune's author, singer-songwriter Bill Fox, is certainly no stranger to that scene either, having achieved cult status with alt-rock band the Mice in the '80s, nearly a decade before the movement was going at full speed. (via Spinner)

Check out the video below:

The video was shot in Brooklyn on the Canon 7D. Steadicam operated by Jeff Melanson.

There's nothing like healthy competition to incite creativity. Riding the recent wave of video dSLR filmmaking, Vincent Laforet's Beyond the Still contest called filmmakers from all over the world to interpret a still image into 2-4 minute short films. We are proud to have submitted our entry, simply titled "Bruce", alongside the many creative and impressive films.

Shot over the course of three days on location in Wellesley and Belmont, MA, writer and director David Kruta and Director of Photography/Steadicam Operator Jeff Melanson were joined by a talented and hardworking cast and crew. Thanks so much to everyone involved, and we wish the best of luck to everyone who entered.

Credits and stills after the jump.

Written and directed by David Kruta

Cast (in order of appearance)

Jules: Jonathan Thomson Mia: Colleen Leary Bruce: Mark Boyajian Boss: Andrew Fitch

Crew

Director of Photography/Steadicam Operator: Jeff Melanson Gaffer: Jordan Parrott Key Grip: Teresa Rhinehart 1st AC: Sarah Tricker 2nd AC: Zachary Crosby Sound: Kevin Land Grip: Fritz Ceriales Production Manager: Mami Akari Hair/Makeup: Rachel Ayars Editor: Jose Reyes

Post production and original music by Enki Studios

Special thanks to:

Monet Spells Jedidiah Burdick Claire Severance Philip Kruta Lauren Jalette Ryan Klock Salome Katwiwa Kevin Barry Evalena Marie

Shot on the Canon 7D.

The Sony Make.Believe campaign is live, and the spot on Dave Chaimson and the Goodman Community Center, directed by Eli Stonberg and shot by David Kruta and Jeff Melanson of Enki Studios, is now available. The spot features the song "Beach" by Mew. Check it out below.

You can also watch the spot on Sony.com. Just click "See it now" next to CES 2010. Then click "Make.Believe Stories" along the top.

You can read my company's previous writeup about this project here, with technical information and lighting breakdown.