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.
Did a quick JOB, Jumping On Beds session in Washington state during Formula Drift Seattle. We had a solid crew of bouncers: Andy, Linhbergh, Hobo Herron, and I. Above, Linhbergh gets caught mid jump in a yoga like pose.
While I practice gravity defying one-handed handstands on the wall.
Andy dusts off his break beat record collection and spins a windmill out on the wall. I never knew he could break.
Hobo gets very swan lake with his jumps.
If Andy tripped while walking across the wall, this would be him catching his fall. Reality is more like jumping from bed to bed and smacking yourself against the wall in mid air. Dedication.
Stuck in a moment, mid air. Its hard not to flinch even when you’re about to land on pillow and mattress.
That’s it for JOB Seattle 2010. Hope you enjoyed.
Jeff Zwart | Luminox | Porsche Motorsport North America – GT3 Climb
Production Company: Medium Monster/Will Roegge
Project: Create a short film that captures the essence of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb & the Porsche GT3 Cup
Role: Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Colorist.
2nd camera operation by DC Chavez.
Special thanks to Red Bull USA & the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Very big thank you to Jeff Zwart, for giving me the opportunity to document his run and be involved on the project!
My first trip up Pikes Peak was with Rhys Millen in a Ford Focus rental car. We were scouting locations and camera positions for the 2009 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb short film I was creating to document his run. That film would later be called Climb Attack, a play on Hill Climb and Time Attack – the class Rhys was competing in that year.
For 2010, I shot my second Pikes Peak film with driver/director/writer/photographer – Jeff Zwart. With the support of Porsche Motorsport North America, Jeff had setup a Porsche GT3 Cup car to campaign at this year’s race to the clouds. I’m familiar with the GT3 Cup, having shot rounds of ALMS stateside and FIA GT-3 abroad. The 997 GT3 is a serious circuit machine, but how would it fare on the varied surfaces and weather conditions of a 14,000ft mountain?
This year’s strategy would be a less slip, more grip prerogative. How would the tail happy-mid engine 997 do on gravel? A bit out of place?
Pikes Peak 2010 seems to be a transitional year, more of the mountain is paved and the new batch of machines reflect this evolution.
Fortunately, DC Chavez was available to come on as a second camera operator and we split up the mountain based on my shot list.
On average, we were each operating 3 to 4 cameras at once. Coverage is key, especially with a practice and run schedule like Pikes Peak. 3 days of practice and 1 run on Race Day.
For this particular setup, I hiked out to a out cropping of boulders and shot between them.
These are all screen grabs from the final edit.
I’m excited to share the finished piece tomorrow – July 26, 2010.
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.
Strokes front man, Julian Casablancas ’11th Dimension’. On the tardy train with this album. As a Strokes fan, should have heard about Julian’s solo project a while ago.
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – Jeff Zwart’s time attack championship winning and record setting run.
Project: Record in-car footage of the the Porsche GT3 Cup racing up Pikes Peak during the PPIHC.
Role: Director, Editor, & Colorist.
Shot with the Canon 5D MII. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.
Its been almost a week since the 84th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and normalcy still escapes me. Waking for 4 days in a row, hours before dawn to ascend a 14 thousand foot mountain left quite an impression (as it did the year before). As the sun separated the horizon line and the lifeless gray shapes around me formed the spectacular landscape of Colorado Springs – I found myself wondering ‘ why did you sleep in all these years?’
I’m working on a follow up to 2009′s Climb Attack. New driver, new car, and same class – Time Attack 2WD. Its my hopes that the film leaves your mind with the same sense of wonder – that mine experiences being on the edge of Bottomless Pit.
Bonjour, from France. It will be strange to see Porsche 911 GT3 cars in their natural environment at Paul Ricard this weekend.
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – Jeff Zwart’s record setting qualifying run
Project: Record in-car footage of the the Porsche GT3 Cup racing up Pikes Peak during the Friday qualifying session.
Role: Director, Editor, & Colorist.
Shot with the Canon 5D MII. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.
After reviewing the practice footage from Friday, Jeff wanted to release the in-car footage from his record setting qualifying run. I agreed. This is from the production of my second Pikes Peak short film – which will follow driver Jeff Zwart as he drives a Porsche GT3 Cup up the 14k mountain.
Get excited for my follow up to 2009′s Climb Attack.
While in Philadelphia on Keep Drifting Fun, I went and explored West Philadelphia with Andy, Jacob Chills, and Linhbergh. I brought along my Canon 7D to do some ARTPANTS‘ing, but ended up shooting some video as well. When I downloaded the clips, I really liked their feel. Dark skies, off and on rain, really nice lighting to show off the Love Letter murals; so I cut them together with a new Roots track. The Roots – “Dear God 2.o” works well because it feature the Monsters of Folk who I am hooked on and the Roots who are Philly born musicians. It was important to me that the music add to the message of the art and not just be something to cut with or be a background to the image. The track adds another layer of meaning to the overall composition.
I was stunned when I did a quick search of YouTube and found little to no coverage or video of the Love Letter murals. They are significant and important pieces of art. They help to define and inspire a community with a rich heritage of hand illustrated graphical art. Hopefully, this edit will expose more people to Stephen Power’s murals – Love Letter For You. Enjoy!
On YouTube too
Happy birthday and Happy Father’s day Dad. This is for you.
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.
Team Need For Speed – FIA GT3 Silverstone
Production Company: Speedhunters/Need For Speed
Project: Document the first FIA GT3 race of the 2010 season at Silverstone. Utilize interview footage to create a narrative around the weekend’s events.
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.
This is a still frame from some of my recent footage from Formula Drift New Jersey. Hobo and I are documenting NOS Energy Drink sponsored driver – Chris Forsberg. This weekend was the first production that I exclusively utilized the Canon 7D. The HD DSLR image quality is incredible compared to previous cameras I have utilized – like the Sony EX-1/EX-3 and Panasonic HPX/HMC.
More to come soon.
A good friend from Charlotte and a good friend from Los Angeles joined up with a good friend from Philadelphia that we were crashing with to explore West Philadelphia on a Tuesday afternoon. I’d been following the Love Letters mural project in West Philly for a while now online – so it was awesome to see the murals in person. More to come soon.
Off and on rain all day. Humid and miserable = perfect.
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.
Fantasy
It gets the best of me
When I’m sailing
All caught up in the reverie
Every word is a symphony
Won’t you believe me
This song has been stuck in my head all day. I had to look up the lyrics because at one point I thought he was talking about midgets, magic, and mind blowing. Turns out, the lyrics are incredibly well done – Yacht Rock.
USAC Sprint Car – Lake Perris National Championships
Production Company: Will Roegge/Medium Monster
Project: High energy promotional spot for the final event of the 2009 USAC Sprint Car Series
Role: Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Colorist.
Shot on the Canon 7D and the Pansonic HPX-170 with the LETUS 35mm Adapter
While JOB’ing it up at the Chateau Elan I smashed my head into the ceiling – FAIL.
Linhbergh got this snap mid-fall on the return. The beds were too soft and the ceiling was too low.
Gotta pay the cost, to be the boss. Or some other cheezy idiom for the occasional cost of being rad and doing goofy stuff.
Yo! One of the reasons I started this blog was to let people in on how I shoot and create my work. These two images are screen grabs from Final Cut Pro and from footage from the 2010 Formula Drift Altanta event. Since November 2009, I have been integrating the Canon 7D more into my productions. Along with my work horse video camera – my Panasonic HPX-170.
The top image of Ken Gushi is from the bottom of the hill at Road Atlanta. 1080p/24 Canon 7D with the Canon 400mm f2.8 IS
The bottom image of Andy Sapp is from the starting grid at Road Atlanta. 1080/24p Canon 7D with the Zeiss 85mm f1.4
Both shots were graded with Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Looks 1.0
More coming soon. Back to editing.
by Will
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