The Durus Unit: A project for Cinevate
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 9:34PM Tweet
CINEVATE // THE DURUS UNIT from Casey Warren | MIND CASTLE on Vimeo.
Just over three weeks ago Danielle and I had the opportunity to work on a commercial project for Cinevate, inc to be shown at NAB in Las Vegas. It all started a couple months ago when we were visiting Patrick and Amina from StillMotion.
When we were there Patrick had asked us if we were interested in working on a commercial project, thinking it would be cool to create something for Cinevate to show at NAB since they were making their first appearance there. He thought that a series of 5 commercials, each put together by different studios around the world, would be a creative way to show off what the Cinevate products can do. The studios involved were Ray Roman Films in Miami, Matt E. from Shadowplay from Australia, Joe Simon Productions in Texas, and StillMotion from Toronto. We each chose a specific product to center our commercials around.
Danielle and I focused our commercial on the "Durus" follow focus unit. Which in the cinema industy, a follow focus is a gear driven focus grip and ring that runs perpendicular to the lens and allows for greater control in focusing the lens while the camera is in motion. We also used a whole buch of other Cinevate gear including the "slider" Heavy Lifter Linear Tracking System, which is essentially a highly compact and mobile camera dolly. In addition used the Brevis 35mm adapter which allows for 35mm still lens to be used on video cameras, giving them full 35mm frame depth of field.
There will be a BTS (behind the scenes) post coming soon too with a bunch of photos and a cool video that Joseph Jang put together of everyone working on the project.
A Huuuge thank you to all the people who helped work on the commercial!
Amish Solanki -- who drove all the way down from Vancouver B.C. His day job is photographing amazing weddings up in Vancouver and he took the time off to come down, stay at our house (when we were in the middle of a remodel) and also provide some pretty sweet acting skills...well, were not really sure if its acting, because he makes for a pretty awesome and legit secret agent. He also spend many late nights brainstorming ideas with Danielle and I.
John Hammer -- A good friend of ours who we met awhile back from shooting his wedding with his beautiful, awesome, and rock star wife Ali. Blowing some dust off this link from the past, here is a short clip from their wedding, and then a day after video as well. Ali also helped take a bunch of behind the scenes photos which will be in another post shortly.
Joseph Jang -- Who helped brainstorm ideas and concepts late into the night before the shoot, and also shoot all the behind the scenes video. He put together an awesome behind the scenes trailer as well that I will link up in another post soon :)
Kate McEwee -- Provided the excellent voice over work at the beginning and end of the commercial. She is a local Seattle wedding photographer who we met at Nathan and Jenna's wedding last October. Everything about her is truly amazing, she is VERY kind and loves to have fun....thus, we thought...hmm, wouldn't it be AWESOME for her to rock her accent in the commercial, which she kindly agreed to. After about two hours at her house, and with a DVD of James Bond for inspiration, she was able to conjure some awesome voice content :)
Clyde and Tyler from Novalight media-- Clyde has worked with Danielle and I on almost every wedding film since we started and he kindly agreed to take a couple days of his time and help us on the shoot. He pretty much knows everything there is to know about commercial production. He, along with Tyler helped set up all the lighting in the film, as well as construct the sets, man cameras, and pull focus.
Karen and Chris at Koerner Camera in Seattle who provided some of the cameras and support.
Reader Comments (7)
wooooaaa. haven't seen this since before the colour work and foley. wicked...
Dude! That is freaking incredible! Truly, you guys did an amazing job with this!
My little babies are growing up;) This is unreal. What a pleasure to watch this video come to life. Anything you guys touch turns to Platinum in my book...jolly good show, Mates:) K
me=blown+away.
GORGEOUS, you guys. briliant, even.
OMG, OMG, OMG. That was so, so cool! It was like watching a suspense drama trailer! I also love the music...incredible!!!!
That is SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!! Amazing.
umm I am totally speechless right now!!! WHO Are you!!? this is brilliant!!