Keep Drifting Fun – Irwindale 120 FPS

Production Company: Self Produced

Project: Use motion graphics to track info graphics to RED One footage from Irwindale 2011. Test the RED One with the RED 18-85 and RED 300mm lenses.

Role: Director, DP, and Editor. Motion Graphics by Skylar Smith.

Shot on the Red One MX.

Special thanks to Formula Drift and Skylar Smith.

Samuel Hübinette Racing – Formula Drift Irwindale Finals

Production Company: Self Produced

Project: Samuel Hübinette is the winningest driver in Formula Drift. Nicknamed the Crazy Swede, he is known for his rally style driving and loud MOPAR machines. For 2011 he brought on Irishman Dean Kearney on his SHR team in the SRT Viper. Sam talks through the journey to professional drifter and teaming up with Dean Kearney.

Role: Director/Operator (with Skylar Smith) Editor

Shot on the RED One, Canon 5D, and Contour + cameras

Working on a project for K&N Filters with Vaughn Gittin JR and HPI racing – here is a little screen grab from the shoot today. Can’t wait to share the final product in a few weeks.

- Will

Need for Speed – Matt Powers 2011

Production Company: Self Produced

Project: Matt Powers went from finishing in 16th place last season to entering the final round of 2011 in 5th place overall. Thanks to two podium finishes and some great qualifying runs – Matt Powers is a new force in Formula Drift and a legitimate threat to finish the season on the podium. I sat down with the always entertaining Mr.Powers and then used footage from this year to fill out Matt’s answers.

Role: Director/Operator (with Skylar Smith, Joe Ayala, and Justin Shreeve)/Co-Editor (Skylar Smith)

Shot on the Canon 5D and T2i cameras.

Special thanks to Charles Kha, Rachel Kelly, Matt Powers, Skylar Smith, Joe Ayala, and Justin Shreeve.

NOS Energy Drink – Chris Forsberg 2010

Production Company: Keep Drifting Fun

Project: mix interview segments of professional drifter Chris Forsberg with footage from the 7 event Formula Drift season.

Role: Director, Co-Camera, Editor, Colorist. Additional camera by Joshua Herron. Music by Run Sheng.

Shot on the Canon 7D, Canon T2i, Contour POV, Panasonic HPX-170 & Panasonic HMC-150. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

Watch it 1080p with the speakers cranked for the best experience.

Here is a teaser video from a recent day at Willow Springs for a Just Drift event – the full edit will be a part of Keep Drifting Fun.

Keep Drifting Fun is my grassroots drifting documentary – with Joshua Herron. Due out end of next year, 2011.

NOS Energy Drink – Chris Forsberg @ Formula Drift Irwindale 2010

Production Company: Keep Drifting Fun

Project: Document Chris Forsberg’s weekend at Formula Drift Irwindale 2010 – where he ended the season 6th overall.

Role: Director, Co-Camera, Editor, Colorist. Additional camera by Joshua Herron and Pete Varley. Music by Praun.

Shot on the Canon 7D & Panasonic HMC-150. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

Chris Forsberg (2009 Formula Drift Champion) v James Deane (2010 Pro Drift Champion) in the Great 8 @ Formula Drift Sonoma. Shot on Contour HD cameras.

NOS Energy Drink – Chris Forsberg @ Formula Drift Sonoma 2010

Production Company: Keep Drifting Fun

Project: Document Chris Forsberg’s weekend at Formula Drift Sonoma 2010 – where he finished fourth.

Role: Director, Co-Camera, Editor, Colorist.

Shot on the Canon 7D & Panasonic HMC-150. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

Thanks to Day Light Savings time, I got an earlier start than usual on my Sunday and started working on a few edits. The following are screen grabs from a quick assembly – for Chris Forsberg’s year in review video for NOS Energy Drink. They’re all from FD Long Beach and represent an event – we didn’t get to cover for NOS/Chris this Formula Drift season – meaning that all of the footage for the year in review – will be fresh and unseen.

At Long Beach, I was testing out my Red Rock Micro – captain stubbing rig. Which allowed me to get closer and navigate quickly – without the bulk of the standard tripod. DSLR video is not the greatest handheld and when shot handheld it can be vomit inducing – there is no image stabilization.

Long Beach has a great backdrop, being the city’s downtown. The trade off being that the entire course is surrounded by fencing and barriers. Establishing the location and surroundings is important to my style of presentation – context and details.

Excited to log some more hours on this project and a few more – then share them with you.

Until then, stay up.

Matt Powers and Mad Mike Whiddett take a practice run on Infineon Speedway during Formula Drift Sonoma. Shot with Contour HD Cameras.

August 21st was the 5th round of the 2010 Formula Drift season – Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is not my favorite course on the Formula Drift circuit, but it is unique because it runs later in the night than the other rounds. Due to the later start, practice happens in the early evening also the time of the day with the best light – magic hour or the time right before and right after the sunsets behind the horizon. The colors are unbelievable in the desert sky of Las Vegas.

This is a screen grab from one of my video files. Team Need for Speed driver Mad Mike Whiddett creates a golden cloud of smoke with his Mazda RX8. Mike made first appearance in the Top 16 this weekend and drove like the mad man.  Formula Drift fans will come to recognize Mad Mike as one of it’s best entertainers.

Congrats Mike. Be on the look out for a new Team Need for Speed video – coming soon.

If you can’t make it to Vegas, too bad. Maybe you’ll be at Sonoma or Irwindale and scoop up those stickers instead.

Excited to hear Chris Forsberg’s new Nissan CORR truck motor in his NOS Energy Drink 350z.

NOS ENERGY DRINK – Drift POV: Chris Forsberg

Production Company: Keep Drifting Fun

Project: Cover Chris Forsberg’s Qualifying run with Contour HD Point Of View cameras.

Role: Director, Editor, Graphics, and Co-Camera Operator.

Shot exclusively with the CONTOUR HD cameras. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

REDUX - re-imagined and re-edited short form piece of one qualifying run -t hat addresses the pacing and length of the original edit.

Team Need For Speed – Formula Drift – Seattle In-Car with MadMike Whiddett

Production Company: Speedhunters/Need For Speed

Project: Short in-car clip of Mad Mike Whiddett utilizing the Contour HD 1080p Camera.

Role: Director, Editor, Colorist.

Shot on the Contour HD, converted with MPEG Streamclip to XDCAM 1080/30p 35mb/s, edited in Final Cut Pro, graded with Magic Bullet Looks.

Team Need For Speed – Introducing Team Need For Speed Drift

Production Company: Speedhunters/Need For Speed

Project: Introduce viewers with the Team Need For Speed drivers Matt Powers and Mad Mike Whiddett.

Role: Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Colorist.

Shot on the Canon 7D and the Pansonic HPX-170. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Cropped to 2:35.1. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks. Sound design by Ekstrak. Motion graphics by Josh Awesome.

NOS ENERGY DRINK – Chris Forsberg @ Formula D New Jersey

Production Company: Keep Drifting Fun

Project: Capture Chris Forsberg’s performance at Formula Drift New Jersey behind the wheel of the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350z.

Role: Co-Director, Editor, & Colorist. Co-Directed, Co-Edited by Joshua Herron.

Shot on the Canon 7D, Pansonic HMC-150, and CONTOUR HD cameras. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Cropped to 2:35.1. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

After basing our first video on Chris’ interview following Formula D – Atlanta we decided to go a different route and make a film that told the story of the weekend through a visual narrative. We knew that without the interview to use as a skeleton – that the visual image and sound design would be crucial to the success of the short film. Better to show and not tell.

Taming the Beast. from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.

Throw out your Hero camera and pick up a ContourHD. Unlike the GoPro the ContourHD cameras actually work.

The ContourHD cameras are simple to setup, easy to operate, and the image quality is superb.

For the shots from Andy Sapp’s car, we utilized the windshield mount kit with the first camera, and the universal mount adapter with a Manfrotto magic arm attached to the roll cage with a Manfrotto super clamp with the second camera. The windshield mount kit suction cup was mounted to the upper windshield and pointed forward at the hood. While the super clamp was attached to the passenger side impact roll cage – then the magic arm attached to the clamp – pointed out the window extending about a foot outside of the passenger side window. Then the universal mount equipped Contour Camera was attached to a camera platform on the end of the arm. The distance outside of the car is what gives the side angle shot of Andy driving such a cool feel. It’s a view that is out of the ordinary and in a location where few cameras have been mounted before (none that I can think of – that’s why I put it there…)

Andy did a nice job syncing and mixing the audio from the two cameras. The split screen works well. So press play and ride along.

Hobo and I are on the road for Keep Drifting Fun – here is our second collaboration project to date Chris Forsberg – Formula Drift Atlanta 2010. Chris is the 2009 Formula Drift champion and driver of the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350z. The video follows Chris through his weekend competing in Formula D.

Thursday April 8th, 2010 is the Formula D: A 2009 Season Retrospective gallery presented by ID Agency and Formula Drift.

It features the work of photographers: Linhbergh Nguyen, Jose Martinez, and Estevan Oriol + a new video by me. The video is going to be a re-cap of the 2009 season featuring footage from all seven rounds. Including Sonoma and Irwindale, which I shot for clients and didn’t release publicly – until now.

Don’t forget the first round of Formula Drift is this weekend in downtown Long Beach.