There’s something very powerful about taking advantage of the seasons. Even the cold ones. Usually, when you think about shooting something outside, green grass and sunny skies come to mind. This week, we got to capture the refreshing beauty of winter for a project for our client, Yess Yoga. It’s just another reason we love Lucia:  she was game for bundling up and shooting some stretches on the frozen surface of Little Birch Lake in central Minnesota.

If you’re familiar with yoga, you know that breathing is a major focus of the practice. And this week’s sub-zero weather allowed us to actually “see” her breath. Yess Yoga emphasizes finding peace with yourself– letting go of regrets and expectations. We found the crystal clear sheet of ice was representative of “coming clean”. And the sun salutation, one of the most important poses in yoga, was made even more beautiful by the long shadows cast over the ice by the rising sun.

I’ll be honest. We were wary that this was just a corny idea. That it wouldn’t work. And even we were a little surprised at how well the shots came together. We’re lucky that Lucia was brave enough to risk hypothermia, in order to give it a chance. Because the results speak for themselves. The final video will be posted soon, and we hope you agree, that the frostbite was well worth it.

I know most people are down on winter. They don’t like the cold and the snow. But if you take a few minutes to fill your lungs with that crisp air– and breathe– I’m willing to bet you’ll find some unexpected beauty in the season.

January, 10, 2013

Here’s a couple of crazy statistics:  72 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and a billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every day. When marketing experts talk about “cutting through the clutter”, this is just how huge that mass of clutter has become. Getting your message out to the masses has never been harder– and at the same time– never been easier. In 2013, we have the luxury of numerous (free) platforms from which to launch a video, but getting that video to rise above the rest takes more than dumb luck. The ad agency, Unruly, recently posted this blog about some strategies for getting your video noticed in 2013. I found it enlightening and wanted to share.

January 3, 2012

Keep it simple and have fun: the two rules I try to follow at the beginning, middle and end of a project. Because I’m a nerd, I spend countless hours scouring the web for great videos. It gives me inspiration and its entertaining as well!

There haven’t been many videos that have really hit the mark for me recently, but the videos that have ALWAYS been an inspiration are the Jeep commercials done by the ad agency Wieden Kennedy out of Portland. They started with a great commercial introducing the new Grand Cherokee:

In my opinion, this was the first success of the “manifesto” style campaign. Now, while the production-side of things may not have been simple, the message was clear and concise. It would be a safe bet to say it resonates with almost everyone. It pays homage to the old pro-American commercials during WWII. In a time of economic turmoil, they really hit the nail on the head with this commercial. Hell, it even made ME want to buy a Jeep.

After that, W+K really started playing to my weakness…the single shot commercial. I have been looking at doing one of these for a LONG time, but the proper subject has never really presented itself. Expanding on their success with the Jeep commercial, they launched a series of single shot commercials touting the strengths of certain aspects of the Jeep:

Now THIS is what I am talking about. I know its been out for a while now, but it is a good reminder that SIMPLE is STRONG. You don’t need fancy effects, crazy transitions or scantily clad women. You just need a good message and a little bit of creativity.

Next time you embark on a project, take a second and ask yourself how you can strip away all the excess stuff and make it as simple as possible. It will help keep your message believable and most importantly, keep the audience engaged.

December 31, 2012

I won’t wax poetic about 2012. Simply put, it was a fantastic year for 515 Productions: traveling to China to shoot some super cool bikers break their ribs, winning the “Best Cinematography” award for “Where the Trail Ends”, moving to a new HQ, shooting a Degree video campaign with the infamous Bear Grylls,  and- oh yeah- hanging out with President Barack Obama. It takes a dedicated team to pull all that off, and I want to thank all those who gave their blood, sweat and tears to make the last 12 months so successful. I’m incredibly lucky to get to work with such talented– and FUN– people.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I’m optimistic that 2013 will be just as good– if not better. It’s shaping up to be another stand-out year, and I’m excited to get cracking on the projects already in the hopper. I’m looking forward to collaborating with the crew– to push ourselves creatively to turn out some more amazing videos that we can be proud of– and, of course, show off to the loyal readers of this blog. Both of you. 🙂
So stayed tuned…

I just heard an interesting story on NPR about the shrinking attention spans of Americans. “Viral videos” are losing their luster, in part, because there’s just too many of them to make them memorable. Our strategy for cutting through the clutter has always been putting an emphasis on high quality and creative content. That’s what makes people pay attention– and more importantly, REMEMBER the video for more than a few minutes. If you want a video to stick in someone’s mind, in our opinion, this is the way to do it.

We’re taking a moment to catch up with family and catch our breath. 2012 has been incredibly good to us. We want to take time to reflect on that, and be grateful for all the amazing opportunities we’ve had over the past 12 months. More importantly, we want to thank all the people who’ve been an integral part of our success this year. We couldn’t have achieved any of it without your help and support.

Hope you have a fantastic holiday season.   

For those of us in mourning over what seemed to be the looming extinction of film, some good news.

For over a hundred years, film has been king. It has those pleasing skin tones, the wide variety of stocks to choose from that will handle light, dark, flat, contrasty and any other situation you throw at it. Arguably, the RED camera began the downfall of film in major studio pictures. Directors like Soderbergh, Finch, Jackson, all flocked to the new camera system. It saved them tons of money in the camera budget, and opened up whole new avenues to explore.

It was an obvious choice for the more “average” production companies that were looking to slim down their budgets. Cutting out the use of film meant you didn’t have to buy reels and reels of film stock, let alone have it developed and transferred before you could watch your dailies. Instant gratification for you and your client. It was a win win.

So Kodak and Fuji have been slowly dying out. Within the past year, all the major film camera manufacturers have announced that they are ceasing production of their film camera line up and focusing solely on digital. And those who want to shoot, or develop film are left with severely limited options.

This all got me thinking. In a recent post, I talk about taking an average shoot and trying to make it unique. The other day I was looking at a project and thought to myself “man, it would be cool to try and shoot that on film”. It dawned on me that the video/film production world is, like most things, a cyclical world. Take a look at the resurgence of Super 8mm film: Kodak just announced a new Super 8mm film stock for the masses.

Our good friend and team member Dave Poyzer loves turning to Super 8 to add a little creative flair to his projects, and he isn’t alone. While in China shooting for Where The Trail Ends, our DP was regularly busting out his new 8mm film camera to add a little color to the project.

In the end, while the digital era is reigning supreme, I think it won’t be long before DP’s around the world are choosing to revert back to 8, 16 and 35mm film to differentiate them from the competition. While I can’t say if that means the film camera manufacturers will decide one day to bring their line-ups back, I am confident that, while times may look bleak, film will never really die.

It’s that time of year when relatives like to dust off the home video cameras to capture the happenings at holiday gatherings. Typically, the quality of said videos is, well, unfortunate. And now that most mobile phones have video cameras built into them, you can expect to see more and more grainy, shaky video. Now, we realize a “home video” isn’t supposed to look like a professional shot it, but here’s a few quick tips on how to improve the quality, if just a little bit: 

Lighting, lighting, lighting. Just flipping an overhead light on can make a big difference. Dark, candle-lit ambience looks lovely in person, but it doesn’t work on camera. The more light, the better the video will be. Also, try to avoid pointing the camera at a window (or pull the shades), to avoid the silhouette-effect. And when in doubt, go outside. When the sun is up, natural light rarely fails. 

Slow, steady movements. When I was a kid, my mom had a habit of whipping the camera around so fast, it made you dizzy. (Sorry, mom.) Just slow it down a bit when you pan the camera from one side of the room to another. And if you can steady yourself on the back of a chair, for example, to reduce the shakiness, all the better.

Keep it short and sweet. Let’s face it. Who actually sits down and watches hours upon hours of Uncle Frank shoveling mashed potatoes into his mouth? Try to edit “in camera” as much as possible. You certainly don’t want to miss a golden moment, but a table of dinner scraps probably isn’t going to be one of them.  And now, thanks to smartphones, most folks have editing capabilities right at their fingertips. Learn how to use them, to cut out the boring stuff. That will help you better organize your most important moments, not to mention free up memory space on your phone.

Home videos capture life’s milestones. Why not make them look as good as possible? Good luck, and happy holidays!

I spend a lot of time watching other people’s work. Whether it be a feature film, or somone’s latest post on vimeo. There will naturally always be a lot of similar videos, but what I love to watch are the ones that take a very popular subject (like skateboarding, skiing, how-to videos,etc) and use a totally different approach to shooting and editing. The result truly stands out. You may not realize it at first, but then you catch yourself watching it for the 50th time in a week and it dawns on you that it’s a truly inspiring piece of work. I applaud that. It’s really hard to take the risk and push the boundaries of video production– especially for a paid project with a new client, or your favorite client for that matter. You fall into a very comfortable routine: shoot the same shots, edit to the same style of music, on beat and very simple. Before you know it, you are in a video production rut. The best way to fight this is to just have FUN. Take a subject that you really like. Hell, take a subject you HATE and see if you can make it something that is engaging to watch. Don’t do it for money, don’t do it to try and get attention, just do it for yourself. I hear from a lot of people that they “don’t have time for those types of projects” or “I’m too busy with real projects to play”. I think this is the very attitude that leads to that dreaded rut. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has at least 30 minutes to point a camera at something mundane and try and make it cool/exciting/inspiring– whether they like it or not.

Now don’t mistake the point I am trying to make. You don’t need to make something cool/exciting/inspiring for your viewers. The point of this exercise is to inspire yourself, and to remind yourself that the reason you got into this game was because shooting, editing, lighting, writing, whichever role you play, when it comes down to it… it’s just awesome.

With all that being said, here are some videos I have seen lately that speak to this point. They take something that has been shot every way from Sunday, and still found a way to make it really fun to watch:

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

I LOVE this take on the standard street skiing or “jibbing” scene in your typical ski movie. The skiing isn’t amazing, it doesn’t have any earth shattering new tricks, but the shooting is so simple and pure, and the editing is constantly teasing us with really simple shots that pull the piece together. Case in point, at 1:02 the kid has just tossed a snow ball and the next edit is a brief shot of him obviously ducking from one being thrown at him. we are only seeing his brief reaction, but its just enough to get the point across. The whole lead-in to the skiing is built like that. we see just enough to know that there is a skier hunting for some sweet lines through the neighborhood, and it builds up are anticipation. This is seriously the best Jib scene I have ever seen.

FIREFLY from samadhi production on Vimeo.

Here is another example. I don’t think I have ever seen skateboarding shot like this. Again, no crazy tricks, just a cool concept that is executed really well. The introduction of an RC Heli really helps get creative too. I am not normally a fan of RC Helis, but this one was definitely used right! There is something really mesmerizing about the LED’s on the skateboard too!

GHOST OF OLD HIGHWAYS from Lovett on Vimeo.

I first found this video on No Film School (a great resource by the way). The band who wrote the music wanted a unique music video to go with it. they pulled together a talented team of people who had access to gear and all had the drive and passion to want to make something great. The result is a pretty fantastic music video shot with no budget at all. If this doesn’t help prove my point, I don’t know what will.

Again, this is an awesome time to be in the video production business. Go out and play.

EDIT:

I mention making something engaging to watch, I neglected to include this video:

Love Letter to Plywood. By Tom Sachs from Tom Sachs on Vimeo.

Here is a topic so simple, plywood, but for some reason I can’t stop watching it.

        71 years ago today, the U.S. found itself going to war. Today, you’ll likely see that infamous video clip of FDR declaring that December 7th would live in infamy. And it has. Perhaps, in part, because that powerful speech was recorded into the history books with a film camera. Prior to the World War II era, important moments in American history were recorded with pen and paper, and then eventually still photographs and radio. It doesn’t make those moments any less important. But watching the film of warplanes attacking Pearl Harbor somehow keeps that moment in history alive and connects us to it, as if we were there ourselves. Its a reminder of just how powerful the medium can be, and how it needs to be handled with great care.

        More importantly, today we want to thank all those who have had the courage and strength to answer the call of duty and serve our country. We sincerely appreciate the sacrifices you’ve made, on behalf of the country and the world.