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

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!

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.

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

joe

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

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 : 

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…

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