A few weeks ago my buddy Syl from Pixsylated.com asked if I’d like to come up to the beautiful wine country of Paso Robles and help shoot a little behind the scenes documentary of a Joe McNally photo shoot. Um. Yeah.

I arrived just as Joe was finishing up the last hour of the last day of his workshop. I’ve got to say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier bunch of photographers at the end of workshop. I don’t know what kind of magic pixie dust Joe and his top assistant Drew were sprinkling around over that week, but it was great to see its effect.

The other thing that caught my eye? One of Joe’s gear bags had like 40 Nikon flashes in it. Yeah. That’s what he travels with, that and six or seven other gear bags – any of which were large enough for me to crawl into and stow away on their next adventure. But did I crawl in? Yes.

Joe, Drew, Syl, and I headed out on the town and had an incredibly delicious dinner at a swanky, upscale I-talian joint. We were by far the most under dressed people in the room. I’d say I don’t know how we got in, but Syl knows how to pull strings in this town. Over creamy concoctions and bottles and bottles of fine wine we talked about the photography business, film making, pushing the creative envelope, and staying current with our work. As good as the food was, the conversation far exceeded it.

I’m not going to say what happened after the last bottle of wine magically disappeared, but I will quote from the comment Joe put up on Twitter that night: “JoeMcNallyPhoto @zeke_kamm and @syl_arena –Friday night heading for tattoo parlor w/ $249 among us — we are all getting OCF tattoos”

The next morning we had breakfast at a diner surrounded by Shriners with miniature cars, folks with restored historic tractors, and biscuits the size of a basketball. Then it was off to the secret location, an abandoned laundromat, for Joe’s shoot and the behind the scenes doc.

I was impressed to see how just a short discussion between Joe and Drew resulted in a lighting setup that pretty much stayed the same the entire shoot. A few small adjustments at the beginning to lock down the power settings was it.

The best part, though, was watching the way Joe works with his models. This shoot was a mixed bag in that department: one professional model, and then a few pierced, tattooed tough guys with no modeling experience. That didn’t slow Joe down. He talked to everyone like you would talk to a good friend, constantly engaging them, encouraging them into the positions and expressions he was after.

I wish I could be more detailed, but words cannot do Joe’s style justice. If only someone had been recording the whole thing on video. Hang on! We were! I was crawling around with my 5DmII filling up cards faster than elf at Santa’s workshop. The footage is currently embargoed, but I will definitely let you know when it is up.

It was a long day. A hard working day in a filthy, run down, abandoned laundromat on the bad side of town. Yet, when we wrapped I looked around and everyone had that same expression that the folks from Joe’s workshop had on their faces. It was spotting that detail that lead to this revelation: Joe McNally is not only a master of photography, but also a master hypnotist. Fortunately he uses his powers for good.

Nice!

The photo above stars London, my son. He’s almost a year old. Last Halloween he was dressed as a pumpkin.

Nice!

Here’s a weird short film by world famous director Spike Jonze featuring Kanye West playing himself. The video feels very long in parts, but I have no doubt that is intentional. Hang in for the wonderfully disturbing end.

The first time I watched this there were big chunks of the film that annoyed me. The pacing and shooting style are very different from my tastes. But the film made me think and the more I thought about it, the more powerful it felt to me. After some reflection I found it to be incredibly inspiring, not in it’s messege, but in reminding me to think beyond the obvious, the pat, or even the understandable.

I’d love to have some interaction with my ever-clever readers about this short film in the comments below.  So go ahead and share your thoughts.

While you’re at it, I have an idea for a short and have access to a sloth and an amusement park bathroom, so if someone could get get me Lady Gaga’s cell number I seem to have misplaced it.

Nice!

In this day and age with ultra fast computers and programs that auto-sync your sound files from 100’s of sources (if you got ‘em) with just the click of a button, why bother with an old fashioned slate?

A slate is an erasable board about the size of a magazine (for those that don’t remember magazines, they were kind of like a laptop made out of a stack of paper, containing photographs and text). You write on the slate information that is pertinent too a shot in that movie you’re making featuring your neighbor Danny, his 83 cats, and that overly friendly lady in the short skirt. You know, the one that hangs out by the bus stop and smells like coleslaw and feet.

Hinged on one side, two blocks of wood sit above the slate. That’s so you can clack them together and make a nice clap sound. That’s why some folks like to call slates “clap boards.” What’s the point of all that noise? So you can take sound that you recorded separately, out of the camera, find the point where that loud clap happens and slide it over to the exact frame of video where the two blocks of wood touch for the first time, lining those suckers up.

As I mentioned, there is software that can automatically line them up for you. So why bother with the slate? Because slates do more than just help you line up the audio.

Well, you’re not writing poetry on them, you’re writing important information about the shot that you are going to want to have later when you or your editor are sitting in front of the computer faced with a mountain of video files, Balthazar, your lead actress’s “friend” telling you which take has the most “realisms.” At the very least you’ll want to write down the scene number, shot number, and number of the take. Make sure the slate is in front of the lens when you hit record and now you can use a program like Adobe Bridge or your editing software preview window to see what each file is without having to hit play. Unless you are shooting a completely unscripted doc like a wedding, concert, or kid’s party, without those numbers your life just took a sharp turn down the off ramp to Sucksville.

Now, you could just write that info onto a piece of paper and hold it up in front of the camera. That’ll work. Kind of slow to have to write down the headings for each number each time. And it’s not very pro looking, but it’s way better than nothing. However a good slate also has stripes.

That’s right. Stripes. Those boards on top that you clap together, a decent slate has color, black, gray, and white stripes on there that help you with exposure and match your white balance later when you are color grading. It’s right there on the stripes. Big time saver. You could just use a gray card for that, hold it next to your janky spiral bound notebook that you’re writing your scene numbers on. I won’t, but you could.

Yes, having a really decent quality slate can be temporarily replaced with items you have already, but nothing quite replaces that really good clap sound. So what if you don’t need it to sync sound anymore? Well, that sound has a magical effect on a set. It snaps your crew and cast to attention. Don’t underestimate this power. No joke.

Buy your last slate first. Slate’s seem expensive. Heck, they are expensive. Even crappy ones are around $40. And that’s $40 you are just going to throw away because you’ll be lucky if they last through a pair of productions. For less than double that you can get the best made slate I’ve ever used, the CineTools Engraved Film Slate (currently $75). It’s made in the USA and I think it might last forever. It’s made of a dry erase marker friendly plexi that is engraved with the headings that don’t change from shot to shot and super solid clappers with a magnet in the ends to make sure you get a solid clap! I likey. Throw down an extra 35 smackers and they’ll custom engrave what you want on the board. Why engraved instead of just printed on there like the cheepy ones? So it doesn’t wear off after a couple hundred takes.

As I was saying, slates seem expensive, but at $75 for one that will outlast your next five multi-thousand dollar cameras, and considering all the time they can save in the editing room, etc., I’d say it could be one of the best values in your bag.

Essential gear for HD DSLR film makers? I’d say so.

Nice!

Nice!

UPDATE: The camera has now been officially announced.

(via Jesse Rosten)

Nice!

I love animals and I love photography. But with rare exception, animal photography just doesn’t give me what I’m looking for. Well, not long ago I came across the breathtaking animal photography of Shannon Plummer. This is exceptional animal photography. It has that something that fine art portrait photography (my favorite kind of photography) has. It’s something that is difficult to quantify. Perhaps impossible. And Shannon Plummer has it in spades. Even better, she uses these powers for good, working with organizations like the Australian Koala Foundation to help save these incredible creatures.

Shannon was kind enough to let me interview her for my and your edification. Enjoy.

What inspires you to get out there and take photographs?

First and foremost – animals!  They are my passion and that is closely followed by the natural world.  I’ve always been creatively inclined and photography fulfills that need.  Being able to combine that with my love of animals makes it even more rewarding.

When taking photographs of animals, what tips could you offer that would take what could be ordinary photographs and makes them extraordinary?

Ask yourself why you’re taking the photo.  Allow yourself the time to really look at the image you have composed in the viewfinder rather than simply pressing the shutter in the direction of the animal for fear it will move.  Working with animals takes patience and complete empathy for the animal.  There is no use working with animals if you are going to project your frustrations on them.  They can often be quite nervous or scared in the first place so you need to be calm and in complete control and always have the animals welfare the main priority above your own desire for results.

What is it about animal photography that draws you to it?

It comes back to my first answer – it’s all about the opportunity to work with and be around animals of all kind.  Even when I’m not shooting I’m at my happiest when in the presence of an animal.

When you decide to start a series, what is your creative process like? Do you set goals, have a theme, a story or message you want to tell?

It varies but in the case of the Native Australian Portraits series the idea was planned before I started shooting.  I had the opportunity to photograph the Australian Koala Foundation’s CEO Deborah Tabart OAM (Order of Australia Medal) for a magazine and before I left I gave her my card.  It had my ‘Elephant Mirror‘ photo on it and she was really impressed and suggested we collaborate on a series and that’s where the idea came from.  Then it was a matter of shooting a variety of native Australian animals when the opportunity presented itself which took over two years.

Do you have a favorite type of animal to photograph? If so, which and why?

While it’s hard to choose just one type of animal I’d have to say reptiles.  I have a deep-seeded passion for them and keep a variety of amazing Australian reptiles myself.  While I keep mainly lizards my favorite to photograph is snakes.  Every movement they make is beautiful and I’m continually inspired and fascinated by their colours and shapes, which translates so well in photos and usually the feistier the snake the better the resulting photos!

Can you tell us about the AKF?

The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) is the principal non-profit, non-government organisation dedicated to the conservation and effective management of the wild koala and its habitat.

Australian Koala Foundation was formed in 1986 and celebrates over 20 years of operation under the direction of Chief Executive Officer Deborah Tabart OAM. During this time, the Foundation has grown from a small group of people interested in researching koala disease, to a well-known, global organization with a strong track record in strategic koala research, conservation and community education.

The goal of my Native Australian Portraits series is to help raise much needed funds and awareness for AKF.  Half of all profits from sales of the series go to AKF who have funded approximately $7.5 million on koala reseach through universities, institutions and in-house research including the Koala Habitat Atlas, conservation projects and restoration work.

It a sad fact that Australia’s national icon is in decline with habitat loss being the greatest threat facing koalas today.  In 2008 they estimate there are less than 100,000 koala’s left.  Embarrassingly, Australia has one of the highest land clearing rates in the world and although koalas themselves are protected by law, around 80% of any remaining habitat occurs on privately owned land and almost none of that is protected by legislation.

Thanks for sharing your time with us, Shannon. And thanks for helping those cute, little fuzzy guys.

Nice!

(via Zacuto)

Nice!

(Thanks for the heads up Mr. Hobby)

Nice!

Nice!

Here’s a nifty trick. An innocent little $20 remote that Canon has been selling since long before the 5DmII was even a twinkle in your mamma’s eye, built for nothing more than wirelessly triggering the shutter of generation after generation of Canon SLR’s, has a not so well known feature: starting and stopping video recordings on the 5DmII.

Whosawhatsits? Yeah, that’s right. And it works from a pretty good distance, too.

Not just any remote will work, though. It’s got to be that remote, the RC-5. That’s the one with the 2 second delay button. A very handy and cute idea intended to let the photographer be in the shot with his family for a change, but still give him time to pop the remote into his pocket. Cute, right? Well, cute gets all grown up now that it can also start the video recording mode on the 5DmII and rumor has it, the Canon 7D movie mode as well.

It is line of sight IR, so if you want to trigger it from behind the camera, you’ll have to get all fancy pants and mount a little mini bounce card or mirror if you’re outside. If you’re inside there’s a good chance it’ll just bounce off the walls. Kinda like you are doing now that you found out about this handy dandy, Mayor Clancy!

Same goes for triggering multiple 5D’s at the same time. As long as they can all see the IR signal you’re as golden as Bee Arthur!

There is one catch. I know, I know. There’s always a catch. If you’ve never used a remote with your 5DmII before, there’s a good chance you’ll excitedly tear open your package with the RC-5 remote, power on your camera, and start trying to trigger it. What’s that? It’s not working? Did you get a bad unit? Is the battery dead? Did Nice sell you a load of hokum? Nope. The catch is, you have to hit the AF*Drive button on the top of your camera, then roll the select dial on the back of the camera counter clockwise for two clicks. That’ll put the camera in remote ready mode and put a cute little icon of a remote on the top window just to the right of your ISO setting. Yeah. That’s it. That’s the whole catch. Not such a bad catch really.

Now that you can remotely start and stop the video recording mode on your 5dmII and fancy new 7D what sort of opportunities does that open for you? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Nice!

No plot, but wonderfully shot. Definitely worth a minute and a half of your time.

Nice!

The film was shot as a proof of concept to myself and some buddies of mine. We wanted to see shooting a movie on a 5DmII would be a nightmare. We also wanted to practice the workflow, as well as test out a bunch of cool new gear I’ll be talking about in future posts.

I wrote the script in an afternoon. My producer found the actors the next afternoon. We shot for four and a half hours one afternoon a few weeks later. Then we shot the next morning for three and a half hours. Yeah, there were other steps, but I’ll get into the details later. For now, I just wanted to give you a teasey sneak peeky. These are screen caps from the first frame of a couple files. Hover over the image and hit the play button for a slide show or click on the little thumbnails. If you look closely you can see one of my favorite new accessories, a fuzzy red fur ball that keeps the wind noise out of my recordings! It’s called the Red Head (though they have them in other colors, too). I’ll talk more about it in a future post. But it is a must have if you are recording your audio separate (the best way to do it, btw) with the sweet Zoom H4n.

Stay tuned for the full shebang in a couple weeks.

Nice!

My personal experience, based on the last 20 years of me working out here, creating television shows, video games, and movies, is that people’s perceptions are that you are only as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.

It’s sad, really. You could have one medium size hit and float on that hot air for decades. You’re next three projects could turn up face down in the LA river, yet every peanut brained suit with a personal parking spot would cream corn just to have you dump your latest steaming child off in their pool. Why is that? Because they don’t have to take a chance on you. Someone else already did and you made that person a lot of money. So if you blow chunks on this guy’s buffet, as the stockholders are trying to gnaw his sack off, he can try to stop them with this simple phrase, “He was a proven winner!” Losers.

I have created, developed, recreated, written, produced, or directed a crap load of crap in this town and maybe even a gem or two. Loads and loads of it has hit the airwaves over these many years, but I’ll tell you, for the most part I’m not proud of the results. I put up a fight plenty of times, but in the end it was always the studio’s money. That means they get the final decision. All the really good stuff I’ve cooked up never saw eyeballs because somewhere after the time the studio gave me their money but before it went into production the president of Warner Brothers or Disney or Dreamworks or Nickelodeon or Sony – who picked up the project in the first place – got fired for some good reason. Or because the option ran out and they couldn’t get the star’s schedule to match up with buying season. Or because the marketing department of a MAJOR Hollywood studio was suddenly put in charge of the creative department and they couldn’t figure out how to sell products based on a TV show that dealt with drug abusing, sex crazed, suicidal high school kids dealing with a paralyzing fear of loneliness and a terrifying tragedy that shook their small town. I mean, how do you fit all that on a T-Shirt, right? Or once, just once, the project got killed because it actually sucked. I knew it when I pitched it, but it took two years for the other people in the room to catch on. Who knows, maybe the gems that died before they saw the light of a projector would have transformed into fecal matter by the time they hit this rarefied desert air.

Maybe they stank to start with.

My point is that you aren’t only as good as your last project. You aren’t even as good as your best project. If you are trying to create art that communicates an idea, moves your audience, or tells a story, then you are only as good as your NEXT project.

I know what my next project is. What’s yours?

Don’t tell me about it. Do it.

Nice!

Nice!