Tired

I have been working on a new show for Tv One, and this past weekend, it involved a rather odd trip out of town.

I drove from Atlanta to Memphis on Saturday. While checking Facebook, I saw my former dogsitter, was on vacation in…yep…Memphis. So through the miracle of the internet I found myself having a beer with her and her friends.

The next day I awoke, eager for my shoot. All 20 minutes of it. Yes I drove to Memphis to shoot 20 minutes of tape. But wait-there’s more!

Off to Nashville! Yes, another shoot that day-20 more minutes of video! Then back to Atlanta. I spent 15 hours of driving to shoot 40 minutes of video.

This coming weekend, it’s another reality show-Bridezillas. The irony is overflowing on that one. :)

New video posted

Just posted some clips of interviews I did over the last few months or so. This shows some of the ways I can light an interview. Go to the video page or click the link below.

Pulling a rabbit from the hat.

The phone rings. “Hey what cameras do you have?” “Well, I have the Panasonic HDX900…used on many shows around the world”. “Oh, well we want to shoot on the Canon D5…this is a very stylized piece”.

I get this quite often…requests for a certain camera. Understandable, if it’s due to workflow, format or cost. But…style? Really?

Style isn’t something that comes from a chipset. There’s no “style” switch on a camera. Style is something that comes from the eye of the person shooting, not from randomly pointing and pressing record. It’s as if, “hey if we have XYZ camera, that will make it look great”. Never mind the guy holding it, he’s inconsequential.

I equate this with something very simple-pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The trick is pretty simple….Uncle Harry does it at the kid’s birthday party. And David Copperfield does that  trick too. Same hat. Same rabbit. Yet one gets a slice of cake and some kids screaming as his payment. The other gets $145 per ticket in Vegas to do the trick. Why?

Style. Copperfield puts more style into the presentation than Uncle Harry. Harry has whatever compact flourescent that happens to be in the room for light. Copperfield has a truck full of stage lighting. Uncle Harry has to raise his voice to be heard. David has a 60,000 watt sound system and wireless microphone. They do the same trick, yet one is paid more and gets more acclaim for it…..because his style of performing the trick is much more thought out, and executed.

Same with shooting video. I can make pretty, stylized shots with an HDX900. With a Xdcam, an F3, a RED, or a D5, or even (given time) an Etch-A-Sketch. Could you hand Uncle Harry a Arri Alexa and get the same results? Years of experience and shooting have taught me how to make great images with any camera. Shallow depth, vivid color, clean audio…that comes from experience and knowledge….not because you have the latest camera (that is already outdated by time you have it in your hands).

It’s not the wand….it’s the magician that waves it.

Welcome to the new site!

Well hello there! Welcome to my newly re-designed website. This is designed…or should I say..re-designed… to give Tvshooter Video Productions (that’s me) a little more presence on the web.

In the course of human events, I will be posting my random thoughts, pithy comments, some possibly useful information, and occasionally some pictures of what I’m up to in the field. Kind of like Facebook, but without the multi billions of dollars in my pocket.

Comments are welcome, of course I reserve the right to edit, delete, make fun of, or re-post on a Kim Kardashian fan site.

Until such time as I have something interesting to say-thanks for reading!