More Words About Cities & Films

I did a quick, little microsoft job today.  “Quick and little” are both accurate and completely wrong at the same time.  Accurate in that I was shooting a series of 1-2 minute clips where we had about 30 minutes to set up our frame with available lighting, rehearse the client and then get one or two good takes.   Completely wrong in that it was a 13 hour day and we were shooting high up VPs at Microsoft, whose time/image is very valuable.

I won’t go into details about what the videos are for, but it’s a pretty fun unique challenge to get thrown into these people’s work lives and have this short time span to get a workable performance out of these non-actors.  Although I guess at this point it really falls into my skill set pretty comfortably, since all those yellowpages/citysearch videos are essentially the same thing except with b-roll.

It’s been a while since I updated, but that’s due to too much work instead of too little.  Right now I’m in the process of creating a series of 43 videos for the NBC/Hilton joint venture Travelskoot.

A quick rundown.  NBC/Hilton are going to the top travel destinations around the world and creating between 40-50 videos at each place to highlight the different things tourists can do while in the area.  Then these videos are going to the web to create an interactive map where tourists can plan their trip.

I got Whistler, Canada as my city, which despite living in Vancouver for a year, I had never been to before.  Let me just say, if I snowboarded or mountain biked and had no other commitments, I think living in Whistler for a while would be awesome.  The town is gorgeous, the people super friendly, and the activities numerous.  Though I must say, trying to coordinate 43 shoots over the phone is a bit of a challenge.  And my AT&T is loving those international charges I’m sure.

Still, I went up last week and shot 22 videos on my first trip.  I went horseback riding, mountain biking, golfing, popped champagne bottles with sabers, tasted delicious seared ahi tuna, and walked more miles carrying a tripod/camera than my legs would care to remember.

And now I edit.  And plan my second trip up there so I can get the other 21 videos shot.  As far as thing goes, it’s a pretty sweet job though.