Here are two corporate video we did with Director Cliff Prowse from Pin Point productions over a year ago:
Click the teaser images above to view them. Safari Man Dan | Dinosaurs Unearthed
This first is a childrens promo spot funded by the BC Chicken Marketing Board which us on a week long tour of the British Columbia chicken industry. We wore bio suits and hosed down our lighting equipment in chemicals to pass bio security checkpoints in order bring cameras and lights into places nobody but chickens go. The spot was narrated by Adam Groves who coincidently plays Amir in Under the Apple Box the feature we recently completed earlier this year.
In the second we did the camera mounts for Dinosaurs Unearthed a promotional video showcasing the traveling animatronic dinosaur event which was installed at Metropolis at Metrotown.
We have discovered two more videos by premiere 35mm country music video production company — yes this is probably our 15th one with them – Arkadia Pictures the collaborative duo, director Stephano Barberis / producer Alex Galanis.
As with all of Arkadia Picture’s beautiful country videos, much of the magic in the cinema is brought out by senior Technicolor Creative Services colorist Gary Shaw in a 2K film to digital transfer session. The details are extracted from the 35mm work print. The end result is delivered digitally to the TV networks. The film latitude and the extensive digital timing allows us to get by during the shoot with more available light and less time consuming setups then typically on a feature film shoot. This helps offset the huge time constraints of trying to cram an entire narrative story and live performances into a single days shoot.
Above: The charming (dare I say sweet) “If I Fall” by Doc Walker – cinematographer Ron “Rocket” Williams presiding.
Below: Another timeless combination…girl’s and power tools! Greg Hanna – “It’s a Man’s Job”:
The first was filmed with an Arri 435 by Rocket and lit with a 6k HMI Par and some custom string lights. The background was a 20×20 painted backdrop suspended on location in a barn. The second video was filmed by producer Alex Galanis himself using an antique Arriflex 35 film camera with a rotating turret of prime lenses. We shaped available light with grip gear and did not require a movie generator or HMI for our interiors to produce a quality video on a tight budget
TALCO assists
Danny Nowak C.S.C. in a first of it’s kind
Capilano University Cinematography Workshop for indigenous people of Canada.
The intensive studio course followed the success of another workshop we did at BCIT Film Flex program for graduating students who — prior to us — felt that they were lacking in hands on education and real world experience.
At both schools we brought in our 5-ton lighting and grip package truck for a week and helped provide the students a crash course in cinematography, Danny style…
It started with overviews of the truck, the equipment, and essential lighting principals such as: a) the inverse square rule for fall-off of light and b) the relative size of a light source as it relates to the softness of the light a.k.a. the importance of a large bounce or diffusion frame; we then built sets and put them hands-on through the process of shooting a scene.
Teaching was a very rewarding experience –The indigenous people at Capilano for example were grateful of our filmmaking wisdom and eager to apply their newfound knowledge to complete their film studies at the university. They will soon return to their native lands to become filmmakers and story tellers for future generations.
The BCIT Film Flex students began their final practicum following our workshop and worked for 30 days in the industry.
Currently Danny Nowak C.S.C and TALCO are looking for more opportunities to take the workshop on the road.
These photos were taken at the Capilano cinematography workshop.
The Zombie Flu reaches Vancouver with a recent horror film,
H1Z1, by director Tim Lok.
We filmed extensively in the forest out on Pipeline Road with a few scenes around downtown Vancouver.
Shot on RED Camera by DOP Randy Che we had to maximize our production value with minimal equipment for what was predominantly a night exteriors shoot.
The production was self-funded by the director. We couldn’t afford condors or use any of the typical large area lighting we would have wanted. Instead, we pulled it off with a 12k honda diesel “hog” generator, a couple of 2.5k HMI PAR, 1k JEM BALLS, and some 750 watt SOURCE FOUR PARS.
The heavy fog was accentuated by backlight/crosslight from our HMI. The campfire fill was a poor-man’s helium balloon light. It was created by suspending the Jem Balls above our campsite location on a giant 30′ menace arm/mambo combo built from schedule 40 aluminum pipe joined together with a Modern Studio Equipment boom kit. We could have flown the Jem Balls with rope and pulleys from the trees, but the menace arm allowed us to easily reposition the light close to our frame for coverage and was quicker then climbing up in the trees to set ropes (we had to wrap and return to the same location over several weekends). The lanterns radiated outward from the centre of the campsite creating a warm glow from the set and leaving lots of shadows on the outside.
We struggled for exposure on our background from our 2.5k HMI (we needed at least a 6k for the area we were trying to light) so we had to fill in the near background in places with the Source Four Pars. They were punchy enough but had to chase the camera around depending on which direction we looked.
For scenes that took place without a campfire we raised a 6′x6′ Bounces into the air and filled it with an HMI so the fill would be more directionless (emanating from above the camera, rather then glow outward from the center as it did with the lanterns.
These sweet photos were taken by stills photographer, Mike Mander of sublimephoto.
Arkadia Pictures music video director Stephano Barberis was at it again with another CMT music video, this time for Canadian Country Music artist Jaydee Bixby in support of his album, Cowboys and Caddillacs. Shot by the Rocket a.k.a Ron Williams C.S.C. using an array of 9-light maxi brutes pulsing together on a 600 amp dimmer pack, he backlit the performances and flared the lense, often accentuated by streak filters. We had a second generator available to power our 6k HMI Par key because the amount of line disturbance from the fluctuating high current created visible HMI flicker until we re-patched to the backup generator.
Stephano intercut the video performance with a second day of b-roll footage using the band on location around town with available light. This allowed us to concentrate on lighting the performances at the farm location and for pyrotechnics expert Darcy Davis to blow up a van for the finale.
We’ve been “off roading” with Adrian and Rugged Media — hundreds of miles on unpaved roads west of Williams Lake, BC on native lands in the Nemiah Valley. We’ve proven that grip buckets can float. Here is a tease from Konni Lake.
The green bucket saves TALCO grips during the great flood!
One hour earlier (before the great flood)
The TALCO truck survives a logging road and spends the night on the Chilcotin Plateau near an ancient Burial Ground.
Behold, a RED Camera underslung on TALCO’s Porta Jib standard. The picture may be old, but we thought it looked neat enough to post. It’s turning into a busy summer.
The dolly belongs to Peter Reynolds and is an Italian made version of Chapman’s Peewee Dolly. It crabs and has an excellent hydraulic boom movement. Notice how we have triangulated the legs on the dolly (front wheels square at 90 degrees, back wheels parallel at 0 degrees) for a smoother dance floor style move — a trick we learned from Peter himself.
RED Cam underslung on Porta-Jib using an Italian Peewee pedestal
On the subject of old photos, here’s another one of the Italian peewee dolly in action for us.
Reynolds Peewee Dolly behind the scenes on UTAB
