India and Conan!
So recently I got to go to India with director Bryan Buckley to do this great American Express commercial starring Conan O'Brien. The spot is on the air and on YouTube and I wanted to share it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZCtDJtFPw&hd=1
And there's a behind the scenes video too which is pretty cool and you get to see a couple of shots of me holding a camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlzUdZWetK8
It was a cool trip and honestly I don't know if I've fully recovered from the jetlag yet. Also, here's a WSJ article about the spot.
It was a really cool job. We shot on film with Super 35mm 3perf Arricam LT's supplied by Prime Focus Mumbai. 2 cameras all the time on crane, dolly or handheld. It was all top notch on every level. The one funny/different thing was how the 2nd AC and Loader and any VTR guys or camera equipment tech were all employees of the camera house. The 1st AC pulled focus and sort of directed them but he didn't load the camera or check the gate or anything that involved manipulating the equipment. I think it's some sort of insurance thing.
Right when we got back we did a second spot which isn't on the air yet. I'm sure that will be out in a week or two. That's a nice one also.
And here's another cool spot we did with Conan O'Brien for TBS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSFbf0f4Ch8
This one was shot with Red Mysterium X using Stedicam, Scorpio Crane and Helicopter. We also shot additional cameras including 5DmkII for additional coverage. I haven't seen it yet but there is a shorter version of the spot that has a cutaway to the inside of the car which we did with the GoPro Hero digital camera. We mounted it inside the car and sent it over the cliff. Unfortunately it got smushed. The files on the card from before the launch were fine but the file from the smushed take was unusable. We then hooked the GoPro up to a remote control helicopter and flew it around and that was what was used as the background.
I had a great couple of months. I was happy to get to work with Conan on such great spots. He's a really nice guy. Very gracious with his time. There's some other spots we did that haven't come out yet. I'll show those on here as soon as I can.