Music Video - The METTAphors "My OwnFist"

This month has been a pretty busy one and a few weeks ago, in the middle of it all, I had the chance to film a local group (the METTAphors) as they did their thing.  With limited time and resources, we had to keep things nice and simple. So, with that in mind, I put together a rough little storyboard, we got a great location thanks to Bex McG, and off we went!  

If you haven't seen the METTAphors play live yet, add it on your to-do list... until then, check out a few still shots, the storyboard, and the final video down below!

My 2011 at a Glance- North Bay Photography and Video

Today I quickly scanned through my year in pictures, and if I talked about each of the shoots I had, this post would go on and on. Instead, I thought I'd just pick a few here and there and put together a random little collage of a few of the photos I was asked to take in 2011... Click on the image to get a closer look!

Check out "Small Town Girl"! - North Bay Video

I've talked a few times before about our "Small Town Girl" music video which was in the works over the summer, and I thought it might be time to post the finished product.

We wrapped shooting on the video a while back, and the final edit was done shortly after, but since Pam was going to be having a big show at the end of this month, it seemed like that would be a good time to give the video its official premiere. The show took place on Saturday, and everyone had a great time... aside from kind of faking it for the video,  this was the first time I actually had the chance to see Pam perform, so it was nice to sit back and enjoy the show (without a camera in my face). 

I've had the video posted on my website, which a few people might have seen, but I thought I'd wait until after Pam's show to start posting this all over the place.  We had a great time working on this, and I'm happy to share it with everyone. If you haven't already seen it (and even if you have, hah), please take a few minutes to watch it, and pass it along! Here it is, Pam Millar &  "Small Town Girl" ... next step, CMT! 

Attending NOMFA, and more! - North Bay Music Video

The Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards & Conference took place this past weekend, and I had such a great time! I was nominated for Best Cinematographer again (won last year), and even though this year's award went to Nano Debassige and not yours truly, I'm so happy to have been a part of it all. 

Last year was my first time attending the event, and I was only able to make it there in time to take in a few panels, and quickly get ready for the awards ceremony. This year, I headed to Sudbury on Thursday, and really had the chance to get to know a lot of people. A few I had met last year, like Ryan La Via (who was a winner this year, yay!) & Faye Blais, and many I had never met, like Nano, Lee Chambers, Curtis Jensen, and many more.  They were all such nice people, and I look forward to our paths crossing again.

I also got the chance to spend time with Dennis Landry and some of the folks at MFM who put this all together, and they were all so great. It's quite a weekend they put on for us, and they do a lot for the film industry in the north. We really are quite lucky to have them around, so It was nice to spend time with them as regular people, and not just the organizers of the event.

Coming back from a weekend filled with so many creative and talented people, I'm feeling pretty inspired to get rolling on so many projects.  For starters, It's time for me to start editing "Missing" which we recently got in the can, and I'm looking forward to our next round of shooting on a music video with singer Pam Millar. With those projects, and many more on the horizon, 2011 is shaping up to be a pretty productive year. Now I just have to make sure to leave some time in there for my regular business too!

I'll talk more about the music video project and the awesome people involved pretty soon. Until then, here are a few screenshots of the first day of shooting with Pam... 

A little teaser...The House - North Bay Cinematography

Well, for those who might not have heard, The Lake won for Best Short at Film North International Film Festival last weekend.  That was pretty good news, and a nice way to end things with The Lake's festival run. I've posted more details about this film a few times before, but the last thing I'll say about it is a big thanks to Kevin Hoffman who did the editing, and submitted the short to a bunch of festivals a while back. If that hadn't happened, nobody would have heard of it, or heard of me for that matter.

Now that The Lake has run its cycle, it's time to start pushing the next project: The House.

The House is a short film I worked on earlier this summer, and it's just now starting to get submitted to festivals. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it does well over the next year or so. You can do the same if you'd like, but people might look at you and think you're a bit odd. I'm seeing a bit of a trend with the titles of the some projects I've worked on so far: The Gloaming. The Lake. The House. what's next? The Backyard, The Car, The Sky, The, The etc... Time to mix it up a little!

As usual, we had a pretty small group working on this short, and we actually shot most of it in a single day. Really we shot the whole short in one day, but there were a few things we weren't completely happy with, so we spent a few hours reshooting a scene a few days later.

Starring in the film are Jim & Claire Calarco, Danielle Baker, Abigail Calarco, and Lewis Hodgson.

Jim wrote, produced and directed the piece, I worked on cinematography and Kevin Hoffman handled art direction, sound, as well as the big task of editing the whole thing together. Heather Cairns-Hodgson lent her hand to wardrobe, as well as helping with just about anything we needed throughout the day (including holding an umbrella over me for a while so my camera wouldn't get soaked... Thank you!). And of course thank you to Nicole who puts up with me leaving for a day to get a shoot done.

I can't really say much more about it, but you can watch a little teaser of it below the poster.
Have a good weekend...

The Lake showing at Cinefest - North Bay Cinematography

Well, The Lake (one of our short films) is showing at Cinefest International Filmf Festival today. This is pretty cool, unfortunately I don't think anyone who was involved with the film will actually be there for the experience.  Most of the cast and crew have regular jobs they couldn't just duck out of to go to a festival, which is too bad.

In my case, it's pretty much the same. I have quite a full month with a lot of different contracts on the go, from websites to video work and photography. I just can't take another day away from the computer right now. It's a little disappointing, but in the end paying the bills and hopefully keeping the family fed for a while happens to be quite a bit heavier on the priority scale.

The lake will actually also be showing at Film North - 2010 Huntsville International Film Festival this weekend.  I'll be out in the wild doing a full day of shooting for the tourism industry, so I'll have to miss this festival too. On the plus side, writer and partner in crime Michael Humble will be making it to the event, and I'm sure he'll have a blast.

This weekend will pretty much mark the end of The Lake's festival shelf life. It has been around for a little while, and played here and there over the past year. One of the highlights was the Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards where a certain Patrick Gilbert (yay me!) and Ed Regan won for Best Cinematography. now it's time to move on and start pushing the next one.

We have had a pretty good run with The Lake, and I look forward to continued success with our recent, and future projects.

If you haven't seen it yet, why don't you take a few minutes to watch The Lake...

The Lake

"The Lake" has been accepted into the NSI Film Festival! The Lake is a short film written by Michael Humble, Directed by Kevin Hoffman, and cinematography of flashback sequences in the film was done by... Yep, Patrick Gilbert. hah. You can see a bit about the film here http://www.nsi-canada.ca/the_lake.aspx
Here are a few stills I took during the shoot...