Another month another winner of the Cracked.com Comedy Sketch Competition. We’re shooting again on the Canon 5D. Should be online in the next couple of weeks. Great job the director, Daniel Gordh and the fantastic performances by the actors.
↑ Tricked out my 5D. Nice.
↑ First time using an iPad slate. LOVED IT.
Just finished shooting some pickups on a feature I didn’t originally shoot. Kinda fun. Trying to mirror someone else’s thought process. Fun playing with the Red One MX again but I have to say I am getting somewhat used to significantly smaller cameras. We also shot a day with the 7D which to was somewhat fun (and not so fun). I did enjoy using a slider built by Brian at Wooden Nickel. Worked very well, very customizable and way beefier than our 7D on it (see photo below).
Can’t wait to see the footage integrated with the original footage. One scene I’m particularly looking forward to seeing takes place in a bedroom in front of a full length mirror as one woman combs another woman’s hair. We shot through the mirror with all the lighting coming from a balcony window that’s shaped by the window panes and sheer curtains. Also of note was working with C. Thomas Howell on one scene.
Hopefully a trailer will online soon to share.
Shooting a doc in Santa Ynez. Got a chance to shoot with the Panasonic AF100. Nice but not overly impressed. Still the images were beautiful and the stories were amazing – could have listen to our interviewee’s for many more hours.
Along with the sit down interviews, we also shot some aerial footage from a remote control helicopter using a Sony NEX-SF100. Look forward using this rig again. 
…let me count the ways. My first Alexa shoot and I’m super pleased. The footage looks wonderful. Working with the camera is a breeze. Menu structure is just robust enough but not suffocating. While I’ve seen the camera before, I was still surprised at how small it is, not Red Epic small, but small or at least smaller than I remembered.
We ended up shooting ProRes 422 HQ in Rec. 709 for the bulk of the footage. For the few FX shots we used ProRes 4444 also in Rec. 709. Would have like to have shot Log C, but the accelerated editorial necessitated shooting in Rec. 709.
The project was for Blair Underwood’s new line of men’s suits – the BU Collection. Can’t wait for the spot to be available to share.
I want to thank the amazing crew we had led by Gaffer Josh Day and Key Grip Dwight Stone. Thank you gents! Also want to thank our amazing Steadi-Cam operators, Justin B.! One of the best I’ve worked with. Look forward to doing it all again very soon.
↑ I love this photo! From left to right: Justin B. (Steadi-Cam), James D. (2nd AC), Koji K. (1st AC) and Blair Underwood as he gets final touch-ups. Great suit!
WOW! Wonderful news today. A presentation pilot I shot earlier this year for the “Annoying Orange” show was picked up by Cartoon Network. More to come…
Just got back from a location scout for a documentary I’m shooting in early December. We’re doing a number of interviews and we’re thinking the camera of choice will be two Red Epics and possibly a 5D. Looking forward to shooting with the Epic again, especially now that the firmware has had several advances since the last time I used one for the “Annoying Orange” pilot.
I have a commercial coming up and we’re gonna shoot with the Arri Alexa (at least that’s the decision as of this weekend). Curious to hear anyone’s thoughts, comments, concerns about the camera.
The commercial is for Blair Underwood who is introducing a new line of menswear suits.
The feature I shot – formerly known as “Box of Shadows” – has been sold to Spotlight Pictures and remained “The Ghostmaker”. Awesome.
I’m shooting another project with comedian Rachel Bloom. We’re doing a project for Cracked.com and while I wish I could say more, it’ll be out soon enough in time for the Holidays. Till then here’s the previous project we worked together on, if you’re interested.
Key Grip and friend Dwight Stone has made available an awesome piece of cinema tech. If you’ve ever had to mount a hi-hat to a ladder you know it can take some time, often need more than one person and a fair amount of gear. He designed a clamping system that does it all very easily and won’t stymie the operator with clamps, c-stand arms and the like. After several jobs using the prototype it’s great seeing the market version now ready for sale. Congrats Dwight!
Here’s a link to check it out in action as well as more detail.
http://www.gripnerd.com/1-step-Laddercam/
Who knew Dwight could be so good on camera!?
…DORITOS SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL CONTEST TIME! I’ve shot my first. Can’t wait to post it or link it. Miles Crawford – whom I’ve worked with on music videos – directed this funny spot. I’ll post a link once it’s up and you’ll have a chance to vote a million times for it to help us for the win. Thanks in advance for doing that.
Side note: Miles is participating in Movember again this year. If you can donate to this worthy cause, please do. CLICK HERE.
I once had a Minolta Spot Meter with a flip open rifle scope cover to keep dust from collecting on the glass. With the press of a trigger, the cap flipped open and most times it would be the talk of the set for a brief moment. Then I sold the meter and that was that. Filmtools still sells the cover for Minolta spot meters but I’ve got a Sekonic now. Tired of cleaning the front element of my spot meter, I got my calipers (yes, I have calipers… actually I have two… small and large… ’cause you never know when you might need them) …and proceeded to measure the barrel. What did I find? My L758-Cine at the widest part of the barrel is 36.6 mm (1.44″) and L608-Cine is 36.8 mm (1.45″).
Then it’s off to Amazon after a visit to Butler Creek the manufacture of the rifle scope covers I like. They sell two that interested me, the one like I had before with a trick red trigger, the Butler Creek Flip-Open Scope Cover No. 5 and another called the Butler Creek Blizzard No. 3 Scope Cover
↓ The Blizzard. You can line up the sight before opening the cap. Good during rain, snow or sandy conditions. Might be a good idea to have one also over the eyepiece.
↓ The classic. So awesome to have it back on my meter.
If you have a different meter, you’ll want to visit the Butler Creek website to find a scope cover that works for you.
A music video I shot for director Miles Crawford is up on YouTube and Vimeo. We shot this video using the 5D and a GoPro camera. It’s right up there as one of my favorites. Congrats to Miles and all involved. Hope you enjoy it and if so, please share with your friends.
Don’t think I’ve had so many data cards downloading at the same time. Nice. Several hours later it checked good.
Have a new music video to share soon. I shot the video for director Miles Crawford (our second music video together). For this project we again used the Canon 5D as well as the GoPro for some fun POV shots. The video is for a fantastic song and for it we’ve shot a warm hearted story that I’m very proud of – looking forward to sharing the video as well as more details very soon.
It’s finally almost done. ”Box of Shadows” is a feature length movie I shot, err…, let’s just say a little while back. It was worth the wait. The last time I saw the edit was roughly six months ago (maybe more). The quality jump since then has been huge. It’s tight, all the fat has been trimmed out and all the loose ends have been tied, in total, a very strong edit that only time can allow you to get. Add to that all the visual effects are finally in. Credit is due to the director Mauro Borrelli and producer Ed Polgardy who have worked quite some time on this labor of love (yes, I’m very aware they both have very Italian names). To get a taste, some of the footage is on my narrative reel.
I’m currently working on the final color grade. With luck, I’ll be done by this weekend in time for the cast, crew and agent’s screening this Monday night at Raleigh Studios. I cannot wait to see it on the big screen with an audience. Hopefully it’ll be available very soon for everyone to see. More after the showing.
Here it is (click here to go to my demo reel page or watch it below. As soon as I get a few projects back, I’ll update my commercial and music video reel. Till then, enjoy…
2011 Narrative Demo Reel from E Gustavo Petersen on Vimeo.
Narrative demo reel consisting of feature films and a web series.
Just ordered the latest version of Magic Bullet Suite 11. Looking forward to using it as I update my demo reel this weekend, with hopes of having it done this week. In leu of recent developments with Final Cut Pro, I’m seriously considering editing my reel in Premiere 5.5. We shall see. Just finished selecting the music, tomorrow I’ll start editing and decide then. Can’t wait to see what’s new with Magic Bullet. More later…
2011-07-17 So far, so good. The first cut is done, now time to evaluate. I’m using Premiere as mostly a straight cuts system so, as can be expected, it’s working just fine. No crashing, it’s fairly easy to get around and, uh, yes, I chose to do it on Premiere. While I’m still tempted on using FCP7, I’m reminded of something I heard on a recent podcast by the RC’s Mike Seymour about why he switched from Aperture to Lightroom. He commented on the continuity of software made by a software company (Adobe) versus a hardware manufacturer (Apple). I love Apple and their products but long term consistency and stability are winning out.
Magic Bullet Suite 11 is also working out very well. Loving how fast things render. I’ve used almost everything in the suite except for Denoiser – it’s been doing unexpected things so I’m going to research that tonight. Cosmo, the plugin that softens faces, is fantastic. Not trying to make anyone look younger, just need to take the edge off of some wrinkles. Works great, easy and the results aren’t distracting. Colorista II is as good as ever. Looks has been well redesigned. The only, only, thing I feel it’s missing in Looks is that when you make an oval vignette, there isn’t any way of rotating the oval. It’s a little thing that makes a huge difference on vignettes.
Should be done tonight. More later…
UPDATE: It seems that with Cosmo, when you leave the “Show Skin Overlay” on, it renders it into the video. Opps. Still a great plugin though.
UPDATE 2: So my narrative demo reel is done. (click here to view) Next, update my commercial and music video reels. The whole thing was done with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection. In all, I used Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop. The verdict? Well, in oh so many ways I much prefer FCS – better the devil I know, perhaps. If Adobe continues, as they’ve said they would, to support and improve these video applications, then yes, I’ll likely stay here using Adobe products. I’m not an editor, I don’t need do to this everyday and so for what I do need, it’s more than enough. It’s fast, worked with all the wacky formats I needed to drop into the sequence and most of what I need above and beyond the Adobe suite I can find in Magic Bullet’s Suite 11. Speaking of MBS11, I love it, period. My only gripe and I’ve already voice this to Red Giant (the folks who sell Magic Bullet) is that I can’t rotate the vignette. I’m not the only person to complain about this so I hope our voices will be heard and the minor improvement will be done soon. Other than that, for the level of color grading I do this combo is perfect. I will miss many of the plugin I have in FCS but it not as if I can’t still use it and will likely when the need arises.
I’m not usually a fan of Microsoft but I can’t argue with something good. I did a location scout recently and needed photos of places we were considering for later evaluation and planning. Whipping out my trusty iPhone, I started up the Photosynth app. It generates a 360° panorama created from numerous stills. You aim, it shoots, you move the camera a little to the right, it shoots a little more and on and on till you’ve photographed the entire vista you need and then you can watch it back as if yo were still standing in that spot. Here are some photos that might better explain the process.
I was in a rush so it could have been better but good enough for my purposes. Still you can tell what a good job it’s done where one photo overlaps another. Mostly very clean. Useful when having crew members review a location they couldn’t visit. Very handy little free tool. Kudos to Microsoft. Now if you can do something about your Office suite…
I totally forgot I can embed these episodes. Might be the best one yet. Enjoy.