NBC Fire and Ice

The torch for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games may have just gone out, but our excitement over being a part of it lingers on — even on the ice.
This past fall Travis worked with internationally renowned photographer Sampson Chan as his 1st AC to capture some of the most intricately detailed shots on the ice. It was part of NBC’s Olympic profiles on some of America’s greatest hopefuls (in athletics, that is — there’s still plenty of hope for the rest of us.)

The 2-day shoot at the West Valley Accord Ice Center covered women’s figure skater Rachel Flatt, US speed skater JR Celski, curling team skipper John Schuster, women’s ice hockey team member Julie Chu and figure skating pair Caydee Denny and Jeremy Barrett. The profiles aired leading up to the Games and as transitions through the various broadcast events and opening ceremonies.
To capture the meticulous shots the crew’s greatest find was the Phantom. Not a super-hero itself, but pretty special. Same camera used for parts of the movie Ironman. It’s a special high-speed camera that captures up to 5,000 frames per second (that’s super slow-motion for all you math majors). All of this, so that some of the high-speed action from the winter Olympics fastest sports could be brought to television viewers around the globe.

For a special low angle shot right down on the ice itself, they also used a snorkel lens (no, it’s not for water unless we’re talking about frozen water). At one point they were working with such a high shudder speed that they had to employ four 6,000-watt HMI lights concentrated onto a 4 foot area of ice. Almost caught the gear on fire and made the ice melt. Let’s just say it made Travis see the light (and it almost burned his retinas too). Despite that, it was definitely a unique opportunity and a chance to cover the best of both worlds. Slow motion, ice and a snorkel lens, we’ve got everything covered!

Sundancing with the Stars

The gig is up and the results are in: this year’s Sundance Film Festival was a blast - not to mention a big success!

For the 3rd year in a row we worked for the Sundance Channel, this time getting a piece of the pie working hand in hand with Pickerel Pie Entertainment, a clever and creative production company based in New York City. But we did more than just gaze at the stars (the real ones, not the posers wearing their sunglasses at night). We actually talked to them, inviting them into the intimate Sundance Channel studio in the heart of Main Street. Radio and television personality Faith Salie hosted the show and interviewed dozens of actors from Joan Rivers, David Hyde Pierce, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Ryan, Daks Shepard, Alan Tudyk, Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling, Elijah Wood (who, by the way, actually is a hobbit), and Jonah Hill to veteran filmmakers like the Duplass Brothers and a number of first-time directors.
Arguably the top Indie Film Festival in the world, we all choreographed our parts, smooth as butter, with Travis in Post Production, Mike on Camera, and Genevieve and George on set, who got a month’s worth of exercise running up and down the stairs of the three-story studio location. We captured the interviews with Panasonic cameras and edited daily on Final Cut Pro.
With plenty of bagels and Brita water on hand, we were able to work like tireless Olympians on the 11-day shoot and engage in the daily battle for parking places (with what they’re charging we swear Park City gets most of their annual revenue from just that).
All in all, it was a great experience and a successful production - one of the best yet even against the tight deadlines. As the 77-year-old Joan Rivers said in her interview, who has less wrinkles than all of us combined, “there’s no excuse for not doing anything you want to do. Stop complaining and get to work”. Which is exactly what we like to do at Kineto.

Check out our photos by clicking below.

It’s the end of the world as we know it…well in 2012

As Field Producer and Set PA respectively, Travis and I and a crew from Ron Hill Imagery traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming back in October to interview some of the cast and crew of the new hit movie “2012” for SYFY. Just a couple actors you may have heard of in movies like “Better Off Dead“, “Say Anything” or maybe “The Whole Ten Yards“,or “Serenity“,”Children of Men“, what about “The Patriot” and “Independence Day“.

Thursday night was the press Pre-screening of the movie, and what a movie. You get about 10 minutes into it then you better hold on for the special effects ride of your life.

After setting up on the Friday for the interviews in the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in Teton Village we were ready to deliver questions to, can I name drop here?… John Cusak, Amanda Peet, Chiwetol Eijofor and Director Roland Emmerich.

A short trip to Jackson Hole but a fun one. A chance to get to work for the SYFY channel, a two camera crew using Panasonic Varicam HDX900’s and shot on a green screen for their 2012 special that aired just before the movie came out.

oh and I will just add… John Cusak can hold a boombox over his head on my front lawn anyday.

A little bit of Heart and SOLE

Have you heard of SOLE fitness? The guys make some great fitness devices. We met with Will McFarlane, one of the head honchos of SOLE and it was clear that he is committed to the quality of his treadmills and elliptical machines. He talked about headshake, stability, q-factor. I mean, I don’t know much about running anyway, but he made me feel like I had never used my feet before.

Anyway, everything about their treadmills and elliptical machines make you feel like the machine isn’t even there. It works around you and most of their features are only really appreciated by the hardcore runners.  And he has a marketing philosophy that is also very understated. They also have a great TV that can be used with their ellipticals and treadmills (or anywhere else for that matter) and they are going to be in DICK’s sporting goods across the country. He wanted to create a DVD that would show off the DVD player but also the machine’s that they stand beside.

So after a sight visit to Dicks we came together on a video that could speak for itself in a crowded store. We built one video as a commercial lead in and three others to show off the product.

First we cast some fitness models. Which meant we watched a bunch of incredibly fit people run and criticized their form (all of this coming from a guy who gets out of breath after clapping vigorously).

After we cast come great fitness models/actresses we shot the videos.  It was a fun shoot.  Travis and I got to drive illegally through mountain paths. He got to play with prime lenses, while I got to cast images on the wall.

Blair Kunz thought we were having so much fun in his studio that he snapped a few pictures of us. (Sure we have a studio too, but we needed to fit Glenn Fisk and his GIANT jib in as well)

Then Mike edited the body of the piece while Travis cut the open. Bryan put together some restrained motion graphics. In the end we had to use his DVD/TV combo as our line monitor since that was the final destination. It was a great opportunity to have a collaborative experience with a forward-moving company like SOLE and to develop something together. Now I just have to wait for the Holiday sales so I can practice my Jamiroquai moves on a treadmill, or maybe I will just recreate the OK Go video.

SOLE Fitness intro video, SOLE Fitness Treadmills, SOLE Fitness Elliptical

Workplace Hazards

Who doesn’t want to destroy some things at work every now and then.

Working with McCann Worldgroup we had a chance to produce a Microsoft spot where we completely crushed an office desk with a 3000 lbs. pallet of manuals and squashed a 6’ 5” man into a kiddy car ride at Lagoon.   Nothing short of interesting, let alone fun.

In order to make this happen we set out to build a mock office in a warehouse where we could drive a forklift in, raise a pallet of manuals up to an unsafe height and smash a desk to pieces 3 or 4 times. To get that done we first had to buy four identical sets of everything; desks, lamps, plants, pen holders…etc. just in case the first pallet drop didn’t quite crush right.  Thank goodness for IKEA. To make a long story short, the first take made it to the final cut.  So even though we pretty much had it on the first try, we still decided to hoist the pallet up one more time and have another go at it… Why?  Why not?

The next day Devin Graham, our DP, and Redman movies helped us rig the RED One camera to the Speedway Jr. ride Lagoon cars with a miniature car mount.  The Master Prime lenses were a nice look.

Nectar of the Mayan Gods

What a busy month June was. A big shoot in Mexico, editing the launch video for LifeVantage and starting one of two Microsoft projects was just the beginning.

Travis traveled to Cancun Mexico with Devin Graham and James Dayton to shoot an Apocalypto-style Mayan reenactment for the chocolate company Xocai in the beautiful backdrop of the Xcaret Eco Park. Travis directed a cast of 10 locals in costume, fire, torches, drums, conch shells and an ancient canoe in a ceremonial tribal scene where Cacao was harvested, prepared and offered to the Mayan gods. Scouting ancient temple sites, finding the Cacao pods, dodging Iguanas and keeping the chocolate from melting in the heat of the Mexican sun were just some of the many challenges. The boys used our Panasonic HVX-200 with a Cinemek G35 lens adapter, Zacuto rails/lens support, and 6 Nikon lenses lenses with a Micro Dolly to capture the action.

Overall it was a memorable shoot. Coming back to the office was the hardest thing after being in such and picturesque location.

Put Another Shrimp on the Barbi..

In May we made a great find and a much needed addition to the Kineto team- Genevieve. An avid defender of all things “down under” (Vegemite, ACDC, Men at Work, INXS, Crocodile Dundee) and a heck-of-an office manager too. The Aussie accent doesn’t hurt either.

She comes to us after several years as a flight attendant supervisor at Virgin Blue airlines and a stint as a stunt double for Sheryl Crow. Excited to have her aboard and we love the way she gets the job done. Took a while to find her, but we hope to keep her around, at least until Air Supply goes on tour again.

This is where I am from