Your Vision Goes Here

Ahhh, the fall. Always a time of somber emotions and cooling weather. This short piece closely examines autumn beauty often hidden in plain site… leaves. Dressed in fall colors for a only a slice of time, there is much to be observed and appreciated.

Music: “Fac 21″ by Stars of the Lid
Buy the track at: amazon.com/​Fac-21/​dp/​B001GH07HC/​ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287994715&sr=8-1

“No Country” is a recreation of the coin toss scene from “No Country for Old Men”. The characters are quite different, but the general idea is the same. I was DP on this shoot.

Shooting in this location needed some quick creative lighting choices due to the limited space in which the entire scene took place. The room was no more than 10 feet across and 12 feet long, guiding me to choose large soft lights to light it, while the Fresnel and PAR lights were setup at a distance for detail. A few screen-grabs from the set. (Click on pictures to see a bigger version)

Shot on my trusty Canon 5D Mark ii.

Way back in October 2010, I was brought on to shoot “Chimes” a very short piece in a bar location, featuring only two actors. This creates a fun situation for the cinematographer. Generally the checklist for creating a clear image is quite long… focus pulls, lighting various marks the actors will hit, discussing dynamic composition and blocking…etc. But with two actors sitting, I really had the chance to tweak and perfect the lighting. A few stills from the film below.

Click on the images for larger versions

Another set conquered with the Canon 5D Mark ii.

Southside is a cool place. A photographers playground, a serene destination hidden in plain site. A short walk away, interstate 70 traffic speeds by. Further North, Denver International Airport moves thousands of people daily all over the world. Yet amongst the constant motion, Southside stands still.

Shot on Canon 5D Mark ii with a 17-40mmL and a 30 year old Kiron 80-200 f4 Pentax K mount lens.

Enjoy

A short film about inspiration, momentary love, art. Harmony was developed over 3 weeks and shot in Wash Park, Denver. Overall, the production process was wonderfully simple. Planned camera movements were simple and subtle, only two actors were required, and the whole film took place in one location.
The biggest challenge was the timing. I wanted the project to take place during the transition of summer to fall, which is hard time to predict in Colorado. A sudden cold front can instantly change the scenery from green to dead with little or no transition of color. We got lucky when we had a moderate storm come in the week before production, enough to loosen a few leaves off of the trees. During a few shots (many of which didn’t make the final cut unfortunately) leaves were falling around the actors, a very cool effect.

This film was planned, shot, and edited in Denver Colorado. Shot on the Canon 5D Mark ii with a few Canon lenses, primarily the 100-400L.

A Film I DP’d on the RED One.

“A young man struggles against his father who refuses to cope with the foreclosure of the family farm.”

The American Dream. Developed and believed in for decades. But with the downward turn in the economy, is the dream dissipating? Is the dream nothing more than material pursuit? Andrew Wagner (30′s) drives to his father’s farm for the first time in years. Nolan Wagner (60′s) isn’t terribly excited to see Andrew either. Despite their distant relationship, Andrew knows he must step in to help his dad figure out the farm foreclosure, much to his father’s dismay. Yet through the loss of one dream, another is born.

A quick piece about an abandoned farm in Eastern Colorado.

This video is a part of my exploration in using wide lenses for video on the Canon 5D Mark ii. The majority of shots in this piece were shot on a 17-40mmL Canon lens. As you can see in the weeds, the DSLR does NOT like fine details. Aliasing is everywhere. It hides behind compression on the web, but the original h.264 files.
Biggest lesson learned: anything close to the camera (5-10 feet, with a few exceptions) is usually excellent shooting material, anything further needs to carefully considered and probably shot on a different camera.

Music by George Winston. “Plains” from the Plains Album.
amazon.com/Plains-George-Winston/dp/B00001O2V3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1271223391&sr=8-1