Hey yall. Wanted to share some recent work I did for the awesome outdoor company, REI. Above and below are two videos in a series of 5 that I created for their online holiday campaign. Commercials ran in lots of places… Both vids in this post were shot in the lovely town of Telluride, Colorado last spring. And Both feature a friend of mine, Marni Yamada. She’s a dual sport (snowboard and ski) X-Games veteran athlete, a ripper, and an all-around great person.
Love to get your thoughts on either or both. And we’ll do our best to answer questions in the comments below.
The rail slide above was shot entirely on the RED One camera. The halfpipe sequence below was shot on the RED for the slo-mo stuff (120 fps) and the lo-fi handheld “followcam” look from within the pipe was captured with the Nikon D3s (B&H link for product details…).
Credits, links after the jump
Athlete: Marni Yamada
Director: Chase Jarvis
Client: REI
On the cameras: Chris Bell, Scott Rinckenberger, Erik Hecht
On the edit: Erik Hecht
Music: Mad Rad in the halfpipe. Cameron Patterson on the rail slide.
I’ve been looking everywhere for Cameron Patterson’s music online… does he have a link or information you can share?
I much prefer the halfpipe ad.
I guess the target market for these ads is mainly the aspirational average boarder. But the continuity in the cuts is really good in the halfpipe ad and actually makes a relatively tame run look visually more interesting than a choppily put together series of radical moves that are in any case out of reach for the average joe and which we’ve all seen thousands of times anyway.
Not overly keen on the rail ad. Seems to be trying to be a bit too epic given the material – too much slow motion and ponderous music. Could have done with a bit more contrast between fast/slow like the other one.
So an A- and a C+ from me – on the whole though I guess the client is happy as you’ve produced something relevant to the specific snowboarding target audience that also stands up as visually interesting and supports the wider brand.
To start with, I’ll say I like both of them. I like the first one MUCH MORE than the second one but thats personal choice and opinion. The first one, I loved the slow-mo shots and the tight shots showing the snow particles. I also like how in the beginning, you tried hard not to have the cameraman’s reflection in the goggles. Thats a huge plus for me. One thing I would have changed in the first one tho is the two people that were beside the main character in the first few seconds. I feel if it was just the main character in the entire commercial and also if you added a wide shot with the snowboarder as the only person around, i think that would have made it a bit nicer but great job on the first regardless…i really like the entire concept, attention to detail and editing. AMAZING EDITING!!!
The second one, i dont know. It felt a bit careless to me like not much effort was put into it (which i know is not true cos I see behind the scenes videos of how you guys work and i know you bust you a** to make quality work). This is just the perception i think someone who didnt know you may feel. Especially with the shaky shots, I didnt think it fit. Again, this is my personal opinion. I like the shots where you followed the snowboarder behind as she slide down…
To wrap it up, I liked the first one much better and I will give it a 96%. If you didnt include the other two snowboarders in the beginning of the ad and if you added a wide shot, the commercial would have been perfect but i still really like it regardless…
The slow motion shots are so clean! The footage from both cameras look great, each having its’s own distinct qualities. It’s cool to see video from the Nikon DSLR and Red used together and amazing how well they work together given the difference in price point.
All in all they were pretty good! Sometimes it’s easy to piss in others cornflakes, especially when it concerns online commentary. In the end, u got paid for the gig, probably had a good time making it and most importantly, everything looks effin cool in slow motion!