95% of the gear I use to create high-end advertising images, videos, and commercials is the highest end stuff you can buy. Tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and production often comes together for much of the commercial work you see. This gear all serves its purpose, and there's good reason for every single piece of it, but.... PROBLEM: I understand that, for a huge cross section of this community,... read more ›
Jun
17
May
05
You know I love to deconstruct a photo. And I know from your previous feedback that you love it to, so let's dig into another one. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. It's always been one of the most helpful technical exercises throughout my career to try to dissect the images of others, and so here I am encouraging you to take your shot at this image today. (If you want to... read more ›
Apr
29
Hey hey. Reminder that over at creativeLIVE.com, we're bringing in my good buddy Vincent Laforet for a FREE all-weekend-long workshop about making videos with the new breed of HDdSLR cameras. [update: we're LIVE now! check it out. And... you spoke, we listened. For those who couldn't catch it, every night there is a full FREE playback starting 8pm Seattle TIME (gmt -8)...still pay to download if you wanna keep it...] Starting tomorrow, from 9am to... read more ›
Apr
21
One of the things I loved about learning to speak a decent bit of French a few years back was that just when you realized that you knew enough French to get by, THAT's when you realized that you had so much more to learn. Same goes with any second language, or flyfishing, or race car driving or laundry or medicine, yoga, or anything that you can really sink your teeth into. And the same... read more ›
Apr
15
[Note: I'm excited today to bring back an element to this here blog that we started a while back, but got lost in the mix: monthly guest posts from my badass staff. Since each of them are experts in their own right, I figured you'd be interested in hearing some different perspectives. Today, our tech guru and all things 1's and 0's master, Dartanyon, drops some knowledge about how to create a podcast in 6... read more ›
Apr
05
Too often advertising is a lot about BIG. Especially automotive advertising. Big budgets, big gear, big egos. Big and boring. This latest Nissan commercial from TWBA Toronto, however, isn't big in those traditional senses. Instead, it's big on spirit, innovation, and effectiveness. Plus big points on photography/cinematography. Seriously great camera work. Enjoy the making of video here above, but be sure to click the 'continue reading' link below and enjoy the finished commercial after... read more ›
Mar
24
Even after years of doing this stuff, I still get excited watching $70k worth of camera hanging 30 feet in the air off a couple of measly bolts.Last week I posted two 3 minute films that I've been commissioned by Russell Investments to create exploring the topic of 'risk'. In these vids (please check them out here if you missed them), our crew hauled a RED One digital cinema camera and a handful of... read more ›
Mar
12
It was good fun poking through all the great comments as hundreds of y'all deconstructed the advertising image I posted on Tuesday. Tons of great insights, lots of great ideas I didn't use (but might next time) and, while it was a tough choice, I think J. Harrington was the first person who most accurately pulled apart the technical aspects of this image. We'll send him a signed book or something fun. In the meantime,... read more ›
Mar
09
Deconstructing the work of others has been--and continues to be--one of the most influential things in my technical development as an artist. I’ll always bring my own vision, but I’m constantly asking myself, how in the hell was this, that, or the other photo made?That said, we’ve dug into this before on a similar post that proved to be quite popular and--according to feedback--fun and helpful. As such, I’m interested to hear how YOU think... read more ›
Mar
02
Ok, I promised a follow up to Friday's funny video post about making sausage. If you missed it, my point was largely that shooting ads and making commercials is much like making sausage--you love the taste of it, but you'd probably risk losing your appetite if you watched it being made.That last part of that statement is of course tongue-in-cheek, since learning more about how we make this sort of stuff--as it relates to... read more ›
