Speedhunters – SUMO Power Retrospective
Production Company: Speedhunters
Project: Three rounds of FIA GT1 championship edited together to highlight SUMO Power’s inaugural season.
Role: Director, Camera, co-Editor, Colorist. Music by Ekstrak.
Shot on the Canon 7D &Panasonic HPX-170. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.
2010 has come to an end, here is a look back my life & memories from the year two thousand and ten.
January.
Started the year off in Dubai. Shooting the Dubai 24hour race for Speedhunters and covering Team Need for Speed – in it’s first outing. Dubai is a collision of culture and progress. The architecture is like a post modern and modern designer’s wildest dreams.
Sundance Film Festival 2010, was my third year in a row at the festival. Working with a team of talented producers, shooters, and editors to create the official live @ sudance content. I got the chance to shoot interviews with Bill Gates and Sundance founder – Robert Redford.
Then of course, get knee deep in some fresh pow pow for a few days of snowboarding in Utah – post festival.
February.
After months of planning, purchased a 1974 VW Westfalia van. Westy, as the van became known, would be the transportation and symbol for Keep Drifting Fun – my grassroots drifting documentary. Co-director, Joshua Herron, made the trip to LA a few times to help me complete body work on the van.
Turned 26. Everything after 25 seems down hill and less reason to celebrate. However, I knew that 2010 would be a big year for me and I was excited regardless.
March.
The ID Agency and Formula Drift asked me to put together a 2009 Re-cap video for the 2010 season kick off gallery. I was able to show my work along side friends: Linhbergh and Jose J. Martinez in a Long Beach art gallery prior to the first round of the 2010 FD season. Rad.
More work on Westy.
April.
Formula Drift Long Beach. First event as a Speedhunters/Team Need for Speed filmmaker.
Left Lost Angeles on Keep Drifting Fun. Las Vegas bound to pick up Hobo and head east.
May.
Westy blows up motor #1.
FIA GT @ Silverstone, UK.
Formula Drift Atlanta.
June.
Pike’s Peak 2010 with Porsche & Jeff Zwart.
Westy blows up motor #2, just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This past weekend, was the 2011 Dubai 24h race at the Dubai Autodrome. Here is a screen grab from the my upcoming edit. Team Need for Speed #76 – dominated the final 2/3rds of the race and finished first!
For the camera dorks out there:
Canon 7D 1080/30p + Canon 200mm f2.8L + my own Custom Color Grade in Magic Bullet Looks.
This song has been cemented in my brain thanks to Forum’s F IT video. Recommended by Andy Sapp. It’s my selection for Video Of the Week.
Six days out riding so far this 2010-2011 season, which is close to the amount of days I rode for all of 2009-2010. I was told once that you need to ride the number of days you are years old. Personally, I think that is a good guideline and means I have some more riding to do! At least I’m on pace for the month of December!
Method drop off @ Bittersweet. Photo from a screen grab by Nate & Chris Adams.
Midwest surf.
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.
Thanks to Pittsy, this is my selection for Video Of the Week. This song, on Dangerbird Records, is going to be on repeat for a while…
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.
Recently did an interview with Will Cannady of Will’s Car Cast. Listen in to find out about how I got started in automotive filmmaker, what’s a medium monster, and more Keep Drifting Fun.
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.
Team Need For Speed/Speedhunters – Ask Team Need for Speed
Production Company: Speedhunters/Need For Speed
Project: Pose a prompt to the Speedhunters audience and ask for questions to the drivers of Team Need for Speed.
Role: Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Colorist.
Filmed over the course of 6 months – covering Formula Drift New Jersey to Formula Drift Sonoma. On location in Vancouver, British Columbia and in Marseille, France. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks. Motion graphics by Josh Awesome. Music by Guilty About Girls
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.
Steve Powers, the artist behind the Love Letter murals, speaks to a conference about the origins of the Love Letters mural project in West Philadelphia.
Get acquainted, here on my blog, I will continue to share bits of content and entertainment that I enjoy and are relevant to my life and interests. Having finished Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point last month – here is a great short form documentary on trends and the essence of influence. It is incredibly well made. Well shot interviews, slick motion graphics, and interesting facts. The filmmakers did their research. They even reference Gladwell and have a mograph that shows the chain of influence from hip hop artists – Notorious BIG to Kid Cudi and Drake. DAMN.
INFLUENCES is my Video Of the Week selection. Take a 15 minute break from your busy busy busy life and watch it. Things don’t just come from a vacuum – they come from influencers.
Look, no hands! This video blows my mind. This is almost as amazing as an ice skating-barrel jumping competition. Video Of the Week.
Blue Media – Behind the Scenes – :60 Promo
Production Company: Keep Drifting Fun
Project: Behind the Scenes look at Phoenix, Arizona’s leading provider of design and printing for vehicle graphics, large format printing and environmental graphics.
Role: Director, Co-Camera, Editor, Colorist.
Shot on the Canon 7D, Panasonic HMC-150 & Panasonic HPX-170. Converted to Sony XDCAM HD422 50mb/s codec. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.
Thanks to BlueMedia for supporting Keep Drifting Fun.
Had the pleasure of visiting SUMO Power in Rye, England this month and to shoot in their impressive facilities. Both R35 GT1 cars were present and about to be loaded up for a test session in Spain. Having seen the GTRs race around Silverstone, Paul Ricard, and Algarve – seeing them in the same garage bays as street cars was a trip. I have a hard time imagining one of these monsters driving down the street. Traveling Budai also got a closer look at the Rays One Lug GT1 wheels.
Thanks to Andy and James for their hospitality. Excited to share more information about my current project(s) as soon as they get declassified. :p Stay posted and there will be plenty more behind the scenes.
Where the demons from my past, leave me in peace.
Thanks to Rodzilla for playing this for me today. Really digging it. Will listen to it another 25 times in a row.
by Will
1 comment
add a comment link to this post email a friend