CTCA 2009

For the last three years, I have been hired by O’keefe & Associates to shoot and edit some of the content for the annual “Celebrant Ceremony” of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

These videos introduce the audience to the five-year cancer survivors who are being honored at the event. Working with these people who have gone through so much is always a very moving experience for everyone involved.

Part of the fun of producing these video profiles is that we have a very short turnaround time. We shoot the interviews on Thursday afternoon and then edit them on Thursday night for delivery before the event on Friday morning. It feels like I’m back in my news days again!

This year we shot the Celebrants with two cameras in high definition against a white background. The end result was something that we’re very proud of.

Kathy Griffin Interview

I got a call last week from some nice folks who are putting together a new TV interview show that will air nationally this fall. Author, entrepreneur and TV host Lance Heft, is building a catalog of interviews for his new TV show “Inspiration” which is slated to air in high definition on PBS in September.

We set up a two-camera sit-down interview with Emmy award winning comedian and actress Kathy Griffin. She gave us some time between her stand-up sets at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ on Saturday night and she was great to work with. It’s nice to meet a celebrity who greets you and interacts like a normal person.

ESM Productions Interviews

I spent the last few days shooting interviews for ESM Productions in Philadelphia. Politicians are busy people and we don’t usually get much time to set up an elaborate interview rig. I kind of like that run-and-gun approach. You can still shoot a good interview with minimal lighting.

Tuesday I traveled to Dover, Delaware for an interview with Delaware Governor Jack Markell. Thursday it was Trenton, New Jersey for a sit-down with Jerold L. Zaro from the Office of Economic Growth of the Office of Governor Jon Corzine.

A frame of my interview with Delaware Governor Jack Markell

Building a Memory

Friday evening was another one of those great gigs you get from time to time. I got a call from my colleague and friend, Brad Nau to shoot a few elements for a documentary he’s working on.

Brad is a true inspiration to film and video storytellers who care about their craft. He does more good work with minimal gear than anyone I have ever known. He’s living proof that a great story is 10 percent gear and 90 percent attitude and approach.

Brad is working on a documentary about America’s Showplace, the legendary Spectrum in Philadelphia. The 40+ year old building is set to be torn down in the near future and Brad’s work will touch on the musicians, athletes, broadcasters, writers and fans who have made the Spectrum one of the truly great American venues.

The Spectrum – “America’s Showplace”

Rob Parker, Mickey Hart, Brad Nau – May 1, 2009

Friday night we interviewed legendary broadcaster Tom Lamaine and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, two personable guys from two completely different backgrounds who are connected through this building.

“Building a Memory” will likely debut in August on Comcast SportsNet.

Comcast SportsNet – Phillies

It’s always a treat to get to work a Phillies game so I was glad to get the call last Saturday, even though it’s a bummer to have to work on weekends. Can’t be choosy in this economy, you know?

The Phillies hosted a Harry Kalas memorial service and tribute earlier in the day and SportsNet needed some extra help for the game.

I set up a live feed from the post-game press conference room so we could feed back live footage of Charlie Manuel’s comments from the podium. Then reporter Kevin Walsh and I shot post-game interviews in the Phillies clubhouse.

On this night, Brad Lidge suffered his first blown save in more than a year.

Etta: A Novel

Last night I shot some stuff for an old colleague, Gerald Kolpan. I had he good fortune to work with Gerald for 9 years at FOX in Philadelphia. Some of my favorite work from that era of my career was done with Gerald. He’s a masterful writer and a truly decent guy and so when I heard he was venturing out on a tour to support his novel, I asked if I could help with some video.

Gerald’s website says of “Etta: A Novel” – “Beautiful, elusive, and refined, Etta Place captivated the nation at the turn of the last century as she dodged the law with the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Her true identity and fate have remained a mystery that has tantalized historians for decades.”

Gerald Kolpan reads from his book "Etta: a Novel"

Gerald gave an interesting talk and read some excerpts from the book. I’m looking forward to reading it. The high point of the night was when Gerald was questioned about his decision to write a book that combined facts with a ton of fiction. Gerald explained, “It’s basically a bunch of lies based on actual events. Kind of like TV news.”

The crowd roared.

Media Training

I’m shooting media training again today with the folks from Bellevue Communications Group.

It’s always interesting to hear how media savvy trainers talk to their trainees. It’s a really valuable experience for these corporate people to get prepared to respond to any media requests that they may encounter during a crisis. Their companies are wise to be this proactive.

My job is to shoot interviews with the trainees and then play them back for immediate critique. It’s an incredible learning experience for most of these folks.

Dealing With Workflow

I’m shooting a media training session today with the good folks from Bellevue Communications Group. We’ve been working together for several years now and they’re real pros.

As we all make the transition to high definition video, we can expect many things to get easier and some things to throw us a curve. Issues arise from new workflows and that leads me to today’s shoot. After a few months of using tapeless cameras, I’m back to using my DVCAM gear. Read more…

Sony SxS Drivers Now Support Latest MacBook Pro

Woo hoo! I bought a new MacBook Pro last fall in anticipation of a 5 camera XDCAM shoot at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The EX series of XDCAM cameras are tapeless, storing their images on what is essentially an ExpressCard. All of that HD video data results in some pretty big files and that can mean long transfer times.

Sony’s USB readers just don’t cut it compared to using the ExpressCard slot on a MacBook Pro. The problem is that Sony’s cards (they call them SxS cards) aren’t natively recognized by Mac OS X. I was crushed to find out that while the driver would install on my new MacBook Pro, it rendered the maching nearly unusable. With 5 cameras shooting for several hours, that can be a real problem. I had to suck it up and use the USB readers that we had.

Well, now Sony has released version 1.0 of the SxS driver and I’m thrilled to report that it works perfectly with my MacBook Pro! I have had it installed for nearly a week with no issues of any kind.

Happy ending. Happy editing.

Corporate Video

Corporate videos can sometimes challenge your creativity but we did a job recently that was a lot of fun. We’re working on a video for ePharmaSolutions in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken. What a nice group of people to work with! We used the Sony XDCAM EX cameras for this shoot. They make a really nice HD image and they’ve got the pro features we need.

Clockwise from upper left… Rob Parker eyeballs the shot, producer Courtney Rau logs the good takes while Denis O’Keefe mans the prompter camera, Denis adjusts a Keno, sound recordist Frank Kubitsky syncs the slate with the EX3′s timecode.