Calm Before The Storm

Calm Before The Storm, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

This was taken moments before all hell broke loose on flight 3472 from Washington DC to Hartford Ct. After 2 grueling hours for a 45 minute flight, 3 hair-raising attempts to land and my reconsidering religion, we diverted to Providence RI for a scary landing. After several passengers called the police once we landed, demanding to be let off the plane, we joined them. No way was I about to stay on for "another try". Happily, we rented a car and drove two hours with a very nice retired couple, getting there only about 30 minutes after the plane made it to Hartford. Either way, the return flight must have totally sucked, as the weather did not improve much. I will certainly fly again, but next time the clouds look like this, I will wonder how horrible it might get.

Del Padre Digital shoots Johnny Saxx video

4k RED ONE, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

I took our brand-spanking new RED ONE camera out to Detroit to shoot a music video for Hip-Hop artist Johnny Saxx recently. Including a shoot in Blue Sky Studios, an office set and club scene in Lansing and a moving car scene on Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe, it was a very full couple of days.

The rig was fitted with The Redrock microMattebox which we got a few days before to write a review on the product for Studio Monthly Magazine. You'll have to wait for your issue to find out the full story, but I can say it was sweet!

The video is for the song "Take Me Away" and is now in editing. Of course, the RED workflow is, let's say...a challenge, but the image quality and dynamic range is just astounding. Paired with our Nikon prime lenes, we had excellent depth of feild control and plenty of light. Incredible support and lighting from Dave St. George of Advanced Multimedia. I literally would not have made it through without him, and his parents, who put me up for a solid four hours of sleep per night, and wonderful breakfast in the morning. So much better than a hotel.


The footage is ready to go, so I get to editing tomorrow, after Nino DelPadre spent the last 6 days and nights working out the kinks in the notorious RED workflow. Talk about "Bleeding Edge", at this point we are ready to get to the fun part, seeing it come together.


The video is headed for MTV, BET and ANT1 in Greece, so of course we plan to pull out the stops and get pretty extreme with the edit and postproduction. Johnny is a very cool guy, and his crew are all righteous dudes, so we are looking forward to heading back to Detroit soon.


First, let's finish the video.