Project: Au Revoir Simone - “Knight of Wands” Director: Eli Stonberg

DP: David Kruta

Steadicam Operator: Jeff Melanson

Today marked the debut of Au Revoir Simone’s “Knight of Wands”, off of the band’s third album, Still Night, Still Light. Check it out right now at theknightofwands.com. We shot this video in Brooklyn, NY with a small crew in a tiny apartment over the course of one day. Once again, it was a pleasure working with director Eli Stonberg.

Mashable had a nice writeup of it. An excerpt is below.

“The video, directed by Eli Stonberg (who has worked with bands like Passion Pit and Nada Surf) and illustrated by Chris Sanchez is a creative effort that asks audience members to directly interact with the music and the world the band has spun via melody.

Videos like this — and those created by musicians like Arcade Fire and Andy Grammer — demonstrate how the oeuvre of the music video is changing as the web continues to become a destination for music and entertainment.”

Once you click “Play,” you are taken to a coloring book page featuring band members Heather D’Angelo, Erika Forster and Annie Hart standing in what appears to be a haunted house. A palette of colors to the left allow you to fill in the world they inhabit, and, as you paint, a phantom flits through the frame, adding to the eerie atmosphere created by a song drenched in keyboards, dreamy vocals and periodic handclaps.

You can also watch the video on Vimeo, and be sure to check out director Eli Stonberg’s site.

Earlier this month, David Kruta and Jeff Melanson of Enki Studios flew to Dubai to shoot a feature with Jonathan Bregel and Khalid Mohtaseb of Next Level Pictures. We are wrapping up the last few days of production here and heading to Bangkok soon. During our downtime, Jeff and I have been collecting footage for a montage of the city. Below are some quick stills I pulled and graded. Dubai is an incredible city and offers a rich variety of culture and sights. I’ll post more as they come along, so make sure to check back for updates.

Footage shot on Canon 7D and Canon 5D MKII with Canon zooms and Zeiss ZE primes.

Project: Source Director: Will Simmons

DP: David Kruta

Gaffer: Jordan Parrott

Steadicam Operator: Jeff Melanson

1st AC: Teresa Rhinehart

Earlier this year, director Will Simmons approached me to shoot a pitch teaser for his feature length script "Source".

A century after the nuclear holocaust, mankind drifts towards the precipice of extinction. The discovery of a source of infinite energy ignites hope for the future, but its whereabouts are shrouded in secrecy and controlled by those who lust for power. After an enslaved mercenary uncovers the truth, he must decide whether to fight for survival or sacrifice for the greater good.

An ambitious project, we shot 14 pages over the course of four days, including extensive action sequences shot handheld and with Steadicam.

We shot on RED with the Mysterium sensor and Red Pro Primes. I lit the background with three ARRI 1.2k HMIs with 1/4 CTO, and subjects with a 1k tungsten in a 32" chinese lantern. Specials were scattered around the set to provide accents, in the form of 300w and 650w tungsten fresnels, and incandescent practicals.

Below, my crew and I prep a shot as the actors review the scene.

Here, 1st AC Teresa Rhinehart and I discuss a shot. We made extensive use of Steadicam, and due to our small lighting package, we shot wide open most of the time. Luckily, Teresa is a fantastic focus puller and was able to nail most shots on the first take.

Will and I spent a significant amount of time discussing the world in which the story is set, and how the environment would look, in addition to how a group of mercenaries would light a warehouse with practicals. Glowsticks came up early in the discussion, but were scrapped because of their limited glow time.

Overall, the look of "Source" is dark, and I focused on using silhouettes and darkness to accentuate this. As you can see, there are almost no hair or edge lights used, and the actors faces would go from light and fall off into darkness. Unfortunately, the M sensor doesn't do well with low light, so I exposed a bit brighter than the final look, which will show in the final grade.

Gaffer Jordan Parrott really came through on this shoot. In the below shot, he was able to edge the gun from the right of frame with a special, without casting light or a shadow on the ground.

Overall, the shoot was a fantastic experience with a great cast and crew, and I look forward to seeing this made into a full feature.

The "Source" teaser is currently in post-production and will be released soon.

For one of their first RED shoots, Nail, an advertising agency in Providence, RI, hired me as DIT for a series of spots for restaurant chain Margarita’s. Written and directed by Nick Spooner, the spots feature the Margarita’s parrot enjoying life in public - waiting for the bus, buying a hot dog and taking a gondola cruise down the river.

In addition to offloading and verifying footage, I was asked to assist Director of Photography Frankie DeMarco, who traditionally works with film. When shooting digital, it’s extremely important to capture a correctly exposed image. Unlike film, digital does not have any organic leeway, and if treated improperly will result in poor image quality. The biggest hurdle was learning how to expose for the camera, which meant relying on the histogram and false color. The RED we used had the original M sensor, so we also made sure to be careful about crushing shadows by filling them in with bounce cards.

We shot mainly on the RED Drive, which I would offload via R3D Data Manager during lunch and after each day. We had only one drive, so I had to juggle speed with data verification - at times I could only offload part of the footage. Luckily, 1st AC Sarah Tricker was able to stay on top of when we were free to format the drive, and we stayed in constant communication throughout the shoot. Although not my preferred way of working by a long stretch, all footage was accounted for at the end of the shoot.

Below, Nick frames up a shot with Frankie.

Editing and finishing was provided by Beef Films and Chop House Edit, with same day edits started by editor Jaime Arze.

Next week I'll be in New York City at Abel Cine Tech for their Phantom Flex Refresh, where their qualified technicians will be updating Phantom techs on the latest and greatest from Vision Research. Feel free to read up on some new specs below, and I'll post a report from the session here next week.

The Phantom Flex offers an unprecedented degree of flexibility in all areas of high-speed image capture, and goes beyond HD to support 4-megapixel imaging, when the highest resolution is required. Depending on the shooting mode and resolution, the Flex is capable of shooting from 5 fps to over 10,750 fps.

The Phantom Flex offers two user-selectable shooting modes, each adapted to a particular shooting environment. In Standard Mode, the Phantom Flex is just like any other Phantom digital high-speed camera. Shoot at resolutions up to 2560x1600 pixels at anywhere from 10 frames-per-second up to 1,455 frames-per-second (fps). Maximum speed increases as the resolution decreases – up to 2,570 fps at 1920x1080, 5,350 fps at 1280x720, and 10,750 fps at 640x480.

In Phantom HQ Mode, Vision Research's proprietary image enhancement technology results in electronic image stability unprecedented in digital high-speed cameras: stable blacks, low noise, higher dynamic range, and repeatable shots over the full range of supported resolutions, frame rates and temperatures without the need for pre-shot black references. Maximum frame rates in HQ mode are about half those in Standard mode, which means that in HQ Mode Flex captures images at speeds up to 1,275 fps at 1920x1080 or 2,640 fps at 1280x720.

The Phantom Flex supports multiple workflows: a raw digital workflow, a video workflow, or combination of both for maximum control and flexibility.

With a video workflow, the Flex offers a video signal on the dual-link HD-SDI ports independent of the camera resolution. Set the resolution to 2560x1440 (16:9), and the camera will automatically scale the oversampled image when rendering the video signal. This technique increases the dynamic range and decreases noise in the video signal.

The Phantom Flex accepts a wide range of industry standard lenses. 35mm (PL, Canon EOS, Nikon F Panavision), Super16m and 2/3" lenses are all compatible.

Check out the official Phantom Flex page on Vision Research's site here.