Canon's 800mm 5.6 coupled to a RED One Camera with a RedRock Micro lens support system.
Allow me to introduce the Big Kahuna.
I mentioned that I was working on a few prototypes/gadgets for this production with Jamie O’Brien – here is one of the first things that I can share.
The Red EOS Mount by Wicked Circuits was created by Andy Lesniak and Richard Wardlow. It allows you to control both Iris (Aperture) and focus control of any Canon EF Lens mounted to a RED One (Link to Wicked Circuits to come.) This will allow us to shoot 4K, 3K and 2K footage at up to 120 fps. The lens (w/ the crop factor) will be the equivalent of a 1280mm 5.6 and up (depending on the resolution we set.) Needless to say – I can’t wait to see what this looks like on the beach! Read the rest of this entry »
Pipeline Masters 2006 ©Vincent Laforet
I’ve been unusually quiet on the blog because I’ve been in pre-production for the past few weeks gearing up for a pretty fantastic project. I will be filming a short narrative film on one of the world’s top surfers Jamie O’Brien over the next 3 weeks on the North Shore of Hawai’i. Jamie is an incredible talent who grew up on the Pipeline – one of, if not the surfing mecca, and the final spot for the sport’s Triple Crown competition – the Pipeline Masters. I had the pleasure of photographing this amazing sporting event for The New York Times Magazine’s PLAY two years ago – and have been trying to find a way to return to ever since. When Jamie’s manager contacted me the day after “Reverie” was released on the web asking if I’d be interested in collaborating on a project together – the project was very quickly afoot.
Jamie is a free surfer who is forward looking and very focused on the future of his sport and helping steer it back to its roots. He is also a very successful competitive surfer (although that is not his main focus,) and gets to travel the world as he chases the world’s best waves and is keenely focused on producing awesome imagery of his own – both video and stills. Jamie is one of the first surfers to have his own production company. He lives the dream of every surfer, few contests, just surfing and traveling where the waves are best at any given time.
We’re going to work together on narrative film – based on his life on the Pipeline – and possibly throughout the next year or two around the globe. Jamie lives at Pipeline – literally – he grew up looking directly at Pipeline and his bedroom window literally looks straight at the peak. His is the closest house to the wave, many people shoot straight from his front yard and balcony as they command a near perfect view of both waves, Pipeline and Backdoor. So this is in many ways a dream project for everyone involved. Doesn’t hurt to be away from the East Coast in wintertime of course…
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I just got back from the EOL APA event that took place in Los Angeles last night – and it was pretty fantastic. It was well worth the cross country round-trip.
There seemed to be great interest out there on behalf of photographers who were contemplating making the jump into video/film. While there is a lot to learn in terms of the nuances between shooting a still vs. moving image – I think that one of the biggest hurdles for most will be post production.
Therefore I wanted to let you in on my little secret: Ripple Training. I met Steve Martin (the person behind Ripple Training) two years ago at NAB – we were both there as guest speakers for Apple – at the time he was helping to announce Final Cut Studio 2, and I was there to talk about Aperture and my experience with it. Steve and a few of the other experts out there (many of them the actual product managers for many of the Apple apps) gave me one on one training during the lengthy breaks back stage – and you’d figure that with that kind of tutelage that I’d be an expert at these apps by now… but I can tell you that there’s ALWAYS more to learn.
As I find myself jumping into video/film now – I felt that I needed a refresher course and a more in depth understanding of workflow etc. I’m not a big fan of books – they’re often too bulky to travel with – and I just love video tutorials. I found myself asking quite a few friends who work at/with Apple where the best source for such information could be found – and quite a few of them kept sending me back to Steve’s Ripple Training series. (Note: I use Apple’s Final’s Cut Studio 2 to cut/grade/export my video – and the Ripple Training series focuses on that product.) Read the rest of this entry »
