New ESPN film - Terrell Suggs: Unmasked

Well, after the beatdown put on the New England Patriots yesterday I suppose I should throw up a piece we shot for ESPN a couple of months ago:

Terrell Suggs Unmasked from Chris Cardno on Vimeo.

The piece was shot with two Panasonic Varicams, with one outfitted with the Letus Ultimate and B4 Relay Lens. WE also had with us our Matthews Doorway Dolly and Long Valley Seven jib. The background was painstakingly built by Bruce by cutting out the squares from large piece of foamcore and then attaching sheets of Opal. Finally, we had a flicker generator and a smoke machine for effect.

Big thanks to ESPN for having us be part of a really fun shoot and thanks also to the folks at the Baltimore Ravens for being so generous with their time, especially Terrell Suggs who was a blast to work with.

Live Blog! Kinda...

So, Bruce is out shooting right now with the Panasonic Varicam for ESPN. The job came through Jill Woo at EyeMagic (who is enjoying the sights, sounds and, more than likely, the wine in Florence...) and Bruce is shooting b-roll for the upcoming NCAA hockey finals.
They are currently at the Air and Space Museum, as you might be able to tell from the pictures above and below. The other fellow in the shot is ESPN producer Jim Reed. We'll be updating throughout the shoot with photos, courtesy of our roving photographer, Michael Coleman. It's really quite amazing what he can do with an iPhone...

Well, they've moved on to the Capitol now. The green screen is to matte in elements when they throw to commercial breaks or sponsorships. Bruce has the portable jib working in the shot below.
We do have to thank the National Park Service and the DC Film Office for their help with permitting for this shoot. So...thanks!

The crew's at dinner right now but then they're heading to the White House. Can you feel the excitement?

It's Bruce Liffiton at the White House!
As you can see, they're still shooting -- it's currently 8:52pm EST. I'm not sure what's worse: the fact that I think this is cool or the fact that I have nothing better to do right now. Either way, I think it probably speaks to a sad and empty life.
Due to the Secret Service's very understandable refusal to allow generators on Pennsylvania Avenue, and our reluctance to wander down that particular street with a bulky belt on, Bruce is using the 1x1 Litepanel to light the green screen. The unit is powered by an Anton Bauer Dionic battery on the back -- it's really quite a fantastic piece of kit.
And that's a wrap, ladies and gentlemen.
10:36pm and the crew is done for the night. Thanks for staying with us, BIG thanks to Michael Coleman for the shots from location and I hope y'all enjoyed the updates. Come back soon and check out www.visualedge.tv for all the gear mentioned here tonight.

Friday round-up

It's been a busy week for Visual Edge. We've had a fair few rentals, quite a few shoots, received some new gear in-house and celebrated a holiday created solely by the brew-making industry. Job done.

HD CAMERA RENTALS
The HD cameras have ruled the week, with the Panasonic HDX900, Sony HDW730 and the Sony Z1U being the most popular. That's not to say the SD cameras didn't represent themselves well -- the D600 Betacam just won't stop working. In addition, the Panasonic HD1400 decks have been out extensively.

SHOOTS
In addition to the jobs already mentioned, Bruce worked on an Animal Planet show, Dogs 101, with the wonderful team from Powderhouse Productions -- that was shot using the HDX900. He also shot for EFX Media, based out of Arlington, VA, using the Panasonic SDX900 and then today he was shooting for The Colbert Report's Better Know a District segment on Capitol Hill. Running camera alongside Bruce was Bill Donald, audio tech was Michael Coleman and our intrepid Production Assistant was Kristen "Nepotism" Liffiton. As you can see below, Stephen was thrilled to be working alongside her:
Finally, Gonzo's up in New York on a two-day, two-camera shoot for the Knights of Columbus. We'll post the details when he gets back.

All in all, a good week with a fun shoot at the end. We'll post or link to the Colbert segments when they air, which will probably be in a few weeks. As for next week, we start with a bang: Bruce is shooting DC b-roll for ESPN and Gonzo's going to be running around the National Shrine/Catholic University area on a multi-part shoot with the USCCB. Stay tuned and please pop over to www.visualedge.tv for more information about all the gear mentioned above.

UPDATED: New gear and meeting the new resident of 1600 Pennsylvania

First of all, Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all. Visual Edge had a couple of interesting things happen today -- we received our new set of 35mm prime lenses and Bruce got to meet President Barack Obama. Any objections if we start with the meeting of the 44th President of the USA?

Bruce was booked through Eyemagic to work on an ESPN shoot at the White House. Shooting with Ken Woo, Bruce took along our Panasonic Varicam and they proceeded to shoot a piece with President Obama as he filled out his bracket for the 2009 NCAA men's basketball tournament. Yes, the madness has reached the White House. Please, no obvious jokes...
The segment is due to air March 18 at noon on SportsCenter on ESPN and we'll either embed or throw a link to the piece once it goes live on ESPN.com. By the way, Bruce says the President was very nice, shook everybody's hand and there is a photo with him and the crew -- if they send it to us we'll put it up.

The other good news today was receiving our 35mm prime lens set. The four lenses (24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm) are modified 35mm still lenses with 32 pitch gears added, an 80mm front pressed on for use with matteboxes and the click-stops removed. They can be used with any DoF adapter, such as the Letus Ultimate we already own, and will also work when we get the B4 relay lens in-house. Peter at RP Lenses - www.rplens.com - put the package together for us and we're looking forward to putting them through their paces over the next couple of days. We'll post a review and some images in the near future.

UPDATE: As promised, here's the shoot with President Obama as he picks his bracket for the NCAA tourney...