Last night I got some sudden inspiration to go back and add more clips, from films I worked on, to my cinematography reel. It’s been awhile since i’ve worked on a film. I’ve been putting so much time into photography that I’ve neglected my passion for film. Maybe that will change when I go back to Portland in December. To view the reel in HD click on the link below the film.

I will be showing one of my short films (You Have Decided to Improve and The Beginning is Here combined) as a part of LizzieMoves Co. Benefit and Showcase at the Someday Lounge this Saturday, May 10th, in the Pearl District of PDX. There will be some other talent artists there as well. Cost is $8 and 5% of the proceeds goes to the American Cancer Association and the rest of the proceeds go to support LizZieMoVeS Co. summer projects and full length show to premiere in Fall 2008. You should come!

To find more info about my short film go to my blog entry about it.

Over the last couple months I’ve kind of strayed away from video production and have been concentrating my time on photography. Two Mondays ago I got back into doing video production work helping my friend Brad, who was my 2nd AC on the short film “Berlin”. out on a shoot. We shot at a Spa down near the Willamette river. Rebecca of Bystander Productions directed it. The final video will be used on Navigate Portland. If all goes well we’ll be doing more business videos for Navigate Portland in the future. I believe I am also going to be 2nd ACing for Brad in an upcoming music video so look out for that.

(Rebecca: Director and owner of Bystander Productions)

(Brad: DP)

(owner of spa)

shot with:

Canon 30D, 50mm 1.2 L, and 85mm 1.2 L

Berlin, the film I worked on as B-Camera Operator, is coming down the home stretch to completion. I went over last week to take a look at the lock edit and help offer suggestions for the final color correction of the film. I must say I was impressed. The visuals are stunning and the music is great as well.

Just yesterday Norm posted a BTS highlight Reel (the one on the DVD will be much longer). There’s a couple short clips of me in there. You can view it here:

Web: www.eefilm.com/berlin/bts/berlin-bts.wmv
MySpace: www.MySpace.com/NormSanders

For the establishing shot to the cabaret scene I took a plate photo which was converted to look like a German street by Ryan Kozicki. The photo is below. The photo is comprised of about four different shots that I stitched together using Photoshop CS3.

Go here to view the photo

For more updated info on “Berlin” check out the DVXuser thread he has going for it: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=113648

The final product should be out within a couple weeks. There will be a screening for the public when it is released most likely at Cinemagic theaters or the Hollywood Theater.

Back in July, July 4th to be exact, Peter Schmidt of Chemistree photography asked me to come do a shoot with him, with a dancer, Lane Hunter. The shoot was for Lane Hunter’s upcoming debut show “The Beginning is Near.” And I’ll just say it was a somewhat strange film shoot. To get an idea here is are some photos that was taken at the shoot.

At the shoot Peter mentioned to Lane that I made movies as well as being a photographer. Lane quickly jumped on this and asked if I would be interested in making two short films for his show. Knowing this would be great exposure for my work I agreed (Lane is fairly well known throughout town).

In August and September, after all the pre production planning of the shorts we started filming. Lane’s friend and fellow performer, Eowyn Barrett, helped out on the shoot. Both Lane and Eowyn were very professional and fun to work with and as a result the production went on without a hitch.

This past weekend (Friday and Saturday) Lane’s production “The Beginning is Near” played to packed audiences at the Wonder Ballroom in NE Portland. My two short films oppened and closed the performance. I attended on Saturday and I’d have to say Lane gave out one of the best plugs/thanks to me in front of the audience for my contribution of the two films. We’ll definitely be working together in the future.

In the program, instead of standard bios, Lane decided to do tankas. Here is Lane’s tanka of our encounter (used as my bio in his show’s program):

Two renaissance men / Meet at an awkward film shoot / volunteered to help / turns out, these aren’t home movies / (Jaw drops) these films are for reel.

Bellow are the two films. I used youtube to upload them so they aren’t the best quality. Once I get my website working again I’ll post higher quality versions on there.

The two short films were shot on the Panasonic HVX200 HD camera. Songs by Mc Honkey and Yusuf Islam

Written, Directed, and Produced: Lane Hunter
Director of Photography & Editor: Isaac Lane Koval
Assistance: Eowyn Barret

You Have Decided to Improve

The Beginning is Here

Our Producer/Director Norm Sanders just uploaded some footage from “Berlin.” I’ll just quote what he said:

“PLEASE everyone keep in mind that this is a ROUGH edit, with next to nothing for color correction, other than some stuff I quickly slapped on for some slight desaturation, sepia, and old film look just for kicks & giggles. The look (other than frame & movement of shots) is not to represent the final product. But it’ll give you a fair idea of locations, settings, perhaps a couple of plot beats, etc. I didn’t want to show too much to where it hinted at any twists either….”

Here is the link to download the clip. It’s over 50MB so depending on your connection it may take a little while to download. Here you go: www.eefilm.com/berlin/clips/berlin-cabaretvideo.wmv

For those of you with slower connection here is the video on Myspace:

NEW!! “Berlin” – Cabaret Music Video

Originally posted Monday, October 29, 2007 at blogger.com

For week two of the short film Berlin we were up at Officer Row, at Fort Vancouver in the city of Vancouver, WA (little redundant, )

Here are some photos I selected from the day. For more go to my flickr site.

Key Gaffer Matt Semchee and Key Grip Fro Waters

Crew of Berlin.

Director Norm Sanders, AD Bree Dennis, and Key Gaffer Matt Semchee

1st AC-A Camera Ryan Walters

Director Norm Sanders and AD Bree Dennis

Edwin (Norm Sanders) and Katherine (Rebecca Dunn)

Edwin (Norm Sanders) [taken by Brad Reeb, edited by me]

On Sunday morning, 1am we were back at Huber’s restaurant. Unlike last week we were able to wrap by 9am. And that my friend means the end of principal photography. I will most likely be doing post color correction work on the short once Norm gets the final edit done. As of right now the film is scheduled to be done in December, before Christmas.

As far as the footage, a couple of sneak clips will hopefully be up by Friday for your viewing pleasure. I’ll keep you updated. Also for more updates on the film you can check out the “Berlin” forum on DVXuser.com.

A little tech. info on the short film:
We shot the film using two HD cameras, the Panasonic HVX200s. We shot in 720p at 24p. We were going to use the Letus35 Extreme (a 35mm adapter used to achieve less depth of field) but the light lose from it was too much with the already low light we were shooting in for the barn scene and the cabaret scene at Huber’s.

Originally posted Sunday, October 21, 2007 at blogger.com

This weekend we started shooting Principal Photography for the short film Berlin, produced by Norm Sanders and Rebecca L. Dunn. I am the B Camera Operator for this short. The film takes place in Germany during World War II and centers around a love triangle.

On Saturday we shot at an old barn up in northern Vancouver. It was quite the set. Inside there were cobwebs everywhere and it had such great production value that we didn’t have to do much to dress it up.

[The outside of the barn]

[DP Dan Ayers and Norm Sanders discussing the next shot]

After Saturday’s wrap we then turned around and began shooting again at 1am Sunday, at Hubers in downtown Portland (Portland’s oldest restaurant). We didn’t end up wrapping until 1pm.

[Leading lady Katherine (Rebecca L. Dunn), singing in a Berlin Cabaret club.]

[AD Bree Dennis, DP Dan Ayers and Director Norm Sanders deciding what to shoot next]

Principal photography will pick back up and wrap this coming weekend.