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... 

New Short... "MISSING" - North Bay Cinematography

OK, I need to take a quick time-out in this crazy day to post something about a new short we've got in the works.  I can't really say much about it because it is really going to be quite short, so any explanation would probably describe the entire thing, but I figured I'd put up a few screen captures.  With an afternoon of shooting behind us, I'm pretty excited about how this one's looking.  We just have an other hour or two to spend whenever we can get together again, and then it'll be on to editing, and on to planning the next film. I'll go into that one (which will be a longer project) some other time.  One film at a time.

Here are the screens...

FACES - North Bay Photography

I have fun taking pictures and video of just about everything, and I've especially enjoyed aerial work, and food photography I've done over the past few years. 

I have to say though, there's nothing that's quite as rewarding as taking shots of people. When your subject is a person, anything can happen. You can control the setting and lighting all you want, but if the person you're taking pictures of is insecure, not comfortable in front of the camera, or even worse very unhappy about having to have their picture taken, it can be a pretty big challenge to get good results.  

People can be pretty unpredictable, and that lack of control keeps things interesting. If all goes well, you get nice shots that make the person look great. If it goes really well and you have a little luck, you get a few shots that give you a closer look at a person, almost like a little sneak peek at their soul. That's what I'm after, and that's what has made me decide to start this new project.

FACES

I'd like to put together a collection of portraits, a book of faces, or maybe even a wall of faces. I guess it all depends how many people want to take part. I don't just want to get a group of clean, corporate looking head shots, but rather a bunch of portraits showing the real personal side of people.  An old mechanic covered in grease, an adrenaline junkie about to jump out of a plane, a widower talking about his lost love, a baker working in the kitchen, a burn victim showing her old scars, a couch potato sitting in front of the tv with chip crumbs on his face...  You get the idea. There isn't anything specific I'm looking for, just an honest look at all types of people, men and women, all ages 18 and up.

I don't have a whole lot of free time, so I have no idea how long this will take, or when I'll consider the project complete (if ever).  but I just thought I'd get the ball rolling.  

If you'd be interested in taking part in this project and being one of my faces, please click here to send me an email at faces@patrickgilbert.com, and tell me a little bit about yourself, just so I can have an idea of who you are and what makes you tick. This will help me with planning some shots. 

I'm really hoping to get a LOT of people involved in this, so please pass this along to anyone you can think of.  I can't pay anyone to take part, but at the very least, you will get a cool free picture out of it! 

I'm looking forward to getting this started! Here's a little look at a few faces I've had in front of my camera in the past (shots not a part of this new project)...

Not a Complete Waste - North Bay Photography

A little more than a year ago, I posted something about a bad day I was having. You can read that post here to refresh your memory.

I thought about that today for a few reasons...

1) I was editing some shots I took at the ski hill a few days ago (shots I wasn't able to get the miserable day of that post a year ago)

2) this also happened to be one of those days where things just aren't going well, except for the part about people pointing and laughing at me. Well, actually I'm sure that happened today too, just not to my face. hah.

So, as the day is close to being over, I thought I'd just wrap it up with one of the new ski hill shots. This wasn't the type of photo I went there to capture, though I did get a lot of what I needed, but it just happens to be one of the shots I like best. I guess the day wasn't a complete waste...

It's Jake Time Again! North Bay Photography

A little while back, I was happy to get the chance to take some more pictures of my buddy Jake Lacourse, who I've posted about before. 

The shots were for an ad, welcoming Jake back to Clarion Resort Pinewood Park, where he had started his career in hospitality years earlier. With him working there as the Director of Sales and Marketing, it will be interesting to see how the resort will change over the next few years.

I always have a good time taking pictures, and this was definitely no exception. It was hard to stop laughing long enough to snap some shots, but in the end everything worked out great, and we got what we needed. With life, kids, business, etc... it's hard to make time for socializing, so it's nice to sometimes be able to work, and catch up with an old friend at the same time. OK, maybe we're not all that old, but it does feel like it sometimes.

Here are a few of the shots, and the little ad I whipped up for the Nugget...