Hello!

A lot has been going on since my last post…here to catch up on a few things we’ve been doing.

Roger Ebert

I was fortunate to participate in 2 shoots recently with Roger Ebert, Chicago’s legendary film critic. He is developing a new television show and announced a new computer program that will allow him to use his REAL VOICE through a computer, using his commentary from his recorded voice from his many years on “At The Movies” they were able to make this possible. I was lucky to be invited into his home as well as participate in this interview in Champaign that was concurrent with his film Festival.

L.A. – Joe goes to Hollywood

hollywood sign

Updating a recruitment video for a tax consulting firm gave me the opportunity to hit L.A. for about 48 hours. And no trip to L.A. is complete without a visit to the In – n – Out Burger! Check out this menu.

pretty simple menu

Spa Commercial – I did the lighting, Jon Ellison worked the Jib, Hoffman media supplies the gear to visiting DP Skip Roessel. Cool shoot at a Korean spa in Niles, IL. Haven’t seen the final commercial yet. more happy clients! Here’s Jon Ellison operating the jib:

weightliftin'

Look at that beautifully lit scene with my kinoflo divas! and the hpx2000 is featured here also:

skip with the 2000

Some great projects so far this year, here’s to a great summer.

see you soon,

Joe

there is a lot of debate right now going on about how to transfer your p2 footage. panasonic just announce a simple p2 card reader which will be available in april for around $350.

to me, the best way to download p2 footage is still with a mac powerbook g4 and a lacie rugged firewire 800 hard drive. you can find a used powerbook g4 on craigslist or ebay nowadays for around $450, and the top models can still be fast enough to run the latest final cut pro.

So for just about $100 more than the panasonic p2 card reader you can get a reader and a laptop. panasonic knows this, and that’s why the new macbooks with the latest mac OS aren’t compatible with the usb-type p2 card adapters.

this is how we do transferring in the field.

Also, P2 is the official format of the vancouver olympic games – i wish i was there shooting!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks leading up to the holiday season…is there a day that sounds more ominous than Black Friday? I’d say it’s a bit of an exaggerative moniker, but then there’s the pesky business of people getting trampled at walmart. Hey, why not shop online this time? I think i’m going to skip shopping but possibly see “the Road” this weekend, the film based on Cormac McCarthy’s stunning postapocalyptic novel.

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLgszfXTAY

okay – so some recent shoots included a great day spent getting B Roll of Chicago for ABC’s Dancing with the Stars show. A beautiful sunny day. Just me, my camera, and my (adopted) city of Chicago.

This was a great shoot – the producers wanted Varicam, but were easily convinced (after a conference call with the post-production supervisor) to take the footage on a hard drive after being gathered by my beautiful HPX2000 p2 cam. I shot at 720p in 24p (the same specs they are used to with the varicam) and the footage looked great. The great thing about shooting tapeless is I was able to make an archived copy for them in case anything happened to the drive in shipping. If your expediter loses your tapes, you can get royally effed. P2 acts like a security blanket. Great format for making backup copies. Thanks to Rich from Editone for hooking me up with this gig.

Miley Cyrus, what can i say? She puts on one helluva show (for the, ahem, kids!)

she can change outfits really quickly. i think she had a different outfit for each song. great crew of backup dancers kept things interesting, and i had “party in the U.S.A.” stuck in my head for a few days. Miley had invited a group of special needs children and their high school cheerleader mentors to the show and brought them onstage for her final song. Thanks to Aaron Britton of ABritton Productions for having me on as his second cameraman. Look for this one on the show that someone just announced is ending in 2011. Here’s a shot of Miley and Me in 2007. Miley looks a bit 2-dimensional here…hmm…

ESPN! Got to go to Green Bay, WI. for the immortal cheesehead Brett Favre’s return to Lambeau. If you’re familiar with Kenny Mayne, you know he is the funniest reporter at ESPN. Here is Kenny getting ready for his live report:

Other shoots included a trip to the Cleveland Clinic where i learned Walnuts are good for you, a shoot with Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, an interesting shoot where Jon Ellsion and I rigged up some security cameras to show a fire-retardant foam sysytem that replaces sprinklers. we rigged them to the ceiling above the foam spray and ran cables to some DvCam decks in another room. Didn’t want the equipment (or ourselves ) getting foamed like we were on “Double Dare.” Here’s a shot of of me attaching the security cam (Jon shot the monitor) :

Who likes those ghost hunters shows???!?!? I shot for one of them – got to do some spooky lighting for the interview, which is always fun. here’s a shot of the lighting setup:

Enjoy your turkeys, turduckens, and tofurkeys.

I took a trip to Hudson, NY this summer to shoot two travelogues with Potttery Barn’s best designer, Mr. Jeffrey Moss. (editor’s note: see blog entry from july 6th, 2009 “Upstate New York – Pottery barn”) The results of our efforts can be seen here: http://www.potterybarn.com/stylehouse/?cm_type=fnav —- The videos are titled Hudson, NY part 1 and part 2 under Jeffrey Moss’s “On Assignment” section. Enjoy! also check out the other design videos from Jeffrey’s trips to napa valley and sonoma. Those were shot by the talented Mr. Jonathan Ellison.

In other news, I just ordered a sectional couch from pottery barn. It’s orange!

joe

man – i love my p2 camera! more and more news organizations are converting their productions to solid-state acquisition, and who can blame them? HERE IS SHOT OF ME IN ACTION WITH THE 2000:

the hpx2000 is not only great for day-to-day ENG, it also performs well for special documentary uses. here it is working on a documentary last week (2 camera interview setup). shooting 1080i no less!

enjoy your week everyone!

joe hoffman

every once in a while, you get a project that has so many unforeseen problems arise, you consider having your spouse hide all the sharp objects in your house. this business isn’t easy. it can be downright difficult at times. that’s why it’s great to have people you can count on. just want ot say thanks to JOSH TALLo and ROSS GERBASI of www.popcornisland.com – also thanks to DAN O’BRIEN from www.vividascent.com. cheers guys

shot recently with the sony z7u…i’ve used this camera much more frequently this year. many reality shows are using the camera because of the improvements made on this model over the hideous sony z1. major improvements to the lens, viewfinder and the overall function of the camera has made it a viable economical option to acquire hd 1080 footage at a price that beats the more expensive f900’s and hdx 900s of the world.

also did a shoot recently with the camera that started the tiny-camera craze : the panasonic DVX100. hadn’t used this one in a while, as most people are looking to increase the quality of their acquisition formats, but it worked great as i covered a charity walk. it’s lightweight and easy to operate, which made it hugely popular with beginner videographers. 

here’s me smiling at the event. man, i needed a haircut : 

last week marked the unveiling of the all-new 2010 Ford Taurus. I was there for CNBC helping them cover the event. It was great going to a auto factory where the story is not the last car off the line before the plant closes, but rather the very first of many. Being a a Detroit boy originally, I was always rooting for the big 3 companies, especially Ford. I own two fords. So it was heartening to see the resilience of the Ford company, when 8 months ago it looked like things might be over for them like they were for GM and Chrysler.

It’s great shooting p2 for news coverage. Have you ever been shooting a press conference, and that little warning light starts going off that you are about to run out of tape? yikes! all those little prayers i used to say for the speaker to stop talking and wrap things up so i didn’t miss anything are over. The p2 cam just rolls, and rolls, and rolls…

So this pretty much sums up our business. Yesterday, i was relaxing at home minding my own business, when one phone call changed my whole afternoon. What other job takes you from your chillin on your couch to kicking in doors with U.S. Marshalls looking for prison escapees? definitely got the adrenaline flowing! The nice thing about shooting for America’s Most Wanted is the cooperation you get from law enforcement. The show helps them locate so many fugitives they are willing to help you even when it could put the camera crew in danger. 

i was wondering if i should have had a kevlar vest on, but no one offered. i should just buy one probably.

So one of the things we have been focusing on more this year is production of videos and graphics for the web. While our background has traditionally been in productions meant for broadcast on television, more and more projects are going to an even smaller screen, whether its your computer or iPhone or the new computer chip that is installed right into your eyeball. These videos have been made more efficient to produce by using our p2 cameras. Our HPX2000 and HVX200 are ideal for their versatility in collecting different formats (4:3, 16:9, SD, 720HD, 1080iHD, 24p, 30p, 60i etc). The ease in which our footage is imported to our final cut pro edit suites saves our clients precious edit time by not having to wait for tapes to digitize. We can literally hand our footage on hard drives to our editor and boom, we’re starting to log and assemble.