Aug 31st
The polls are closed and the people have voted.
The winner of the entire Cinema Caravan commercial competition is Jennifer from Portland!
1st prize is a spot at November’s Evolution Experience (Evo) for the editor of the group, which was Jennifer. But the rest of the group gets rewarded for all their work too. Every member of Jennifer’s group gets a Canon T2i!
Thanks for voting, and thanks for participating in our trip of a lifetime!
-The whole SM team.
Aug 23rd
the top five have been chosen!
on the line, a T2i for everybody in the group and the last spot at this year’s evo experience (or to the photo version, the ‘y’ experience next summer).
click above to vote for your favourite, or head on over to the submissions page.
congrats to chris, jennifer, john, thomas, and tyler!
- the entire stillmotion crew.
Aug 22nd
Despite doing our best to minimize the wind (running the transmitter really low and running a big windscreen on the lav) it was so strong that it still interferes in certain parts. being that this piece is much more raw we wanted to leave it as-is (we also thought re-shooting the VO in a pristine location just wouldn’t jive.)
a couple things we couldn’t add in due to time. you can also record a frame in video, then playback and use the indicator that shows you what is blown out by flashing, or ideally the histogram to check your exposure. this works on the 7D, MKIV, and MKII and is great when you don’t have a z-finder and you need to ensure your exposure is spot on.
thanks also to zacuto for providing the z-finders and tiffen for providing the ND filters.
Aug 12th
six two day workshops. eight powershot cameras. four people per team. four script options. one four hour shooting exercise. each team to produce one 30-60 second commercial. SM as art director.
the four script options; fashionable, smart shutter technology, HD video, tilt/shift and fisheye features.
what is on the table:
- each member of the winning team receives a Canon EOS T21.
- the editor of the commercial wins a spot in either our sold out evo experience this november, or the ‘y’ experience next april.
many of the entries are live now under the submissions section (to the right). check them out, leave a comment if you love it, and hopefully that will help push the entry into the top five.
the fine print:
- each team was composed of a director, camera A, camera B, and a grip/gaffer. stillmotion acted as art director and challenged their lens choices, composition, camera tools, and the look and feel they were achieving.
- every person in the team had the chance to edit their own version of the commercial. so each team could have up to four entries. the editor wins the workshop spot. the deadline was one week from the respective workshop.
- the last cinema caravan stop wraps up august 11th. the deadline for their entries will be august 18th. the following monday, august 22nd, the top 5 entries, as determined by stillmotion, will be moved into a different section for open voting. voting will continue for one week and the top entry wins!
- the sm team will also be providing critique on many of the entries in the comments section, so stay tuned for that.
- when you vote, please keep in mind who this camera would be targeted at and try to consider how effective it would be to that market. think about the lens choice, composition, camera movement, color, light, audio, and storytelling and how each was used to further the message being made.
Aug 12th
Greetings from flight AC487 to Toronto. We’re in the last hour of the Cinema Caravan and Justin just called me a dork for pre-writing my last Fiveaday post without any internet. Typical…. :)
It was a full day today. A little driving, walking, shooting, cabbing, and now flying. When we get back to the big TO, we’re going out for drinks with the rest of the team (at midnight mind you) because it’s the last night that Quenna’s with us before she flies out.
We want to thank everyone who made this trip possible and all of our amazing attendees who have inspired us so much this past month. We’ve made a lot of new friends and look forward to seeing where everyone goes with their art in the future.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be accepting the last few submissions for the Powershot commercials and will be announcing the winner. For more information on the competition, please visit this post.
But for now, thanks for watching, and we’ll see ya’ll soon.
-Amina
From our mini trip this morning. We loved the combination of nature and urban lines. Isn’t that what the West Coast is all about?
Later on we grabbed a snack – See’s assorted candies. Made in San Francisco, we had to taste the renowned California classic. Especially since a few weeks ago we passed the factory while driving!
Mmmmm. Every single one is amazing.
Shot from the window at seat 15F. I switched to the 135 to eliminate the view of the wing, and for the smooth bokeh it renders.
How can you suggest a film is ending through your shots? Or a bus tour?
Aug 11th
Almost done. We have the rest of this evening and a little bit of tomorrow before we head home for good. Well, as “for good” as it gets. Of course, Justin and I fly out for a shoot in NYC next Monday… 
Today, after much discussion of tools and techniques used on a “typical” shoot, we broke into groups for the commercial exercise. I was intrigued by my group’s brainstorming technique, as at the beginning of the project, everyone broke away to brainstorm and came back with post-it notes to share. It was interesting to see the directions people went in!
A big shout out goes to Blue Sky Studios who helped us immensely during the day and stayed WELL after hours to make sure all of our FedEx endevours were completed successfully. And when Justin and I were stuck in the streets with luggage and no cab showing up, we were offered a personal ride by one of the graphic designers. Super nice people.
Fiveaday – 27 of 28. Over and out.
Amina
The decision-making process begins. Shot overhead using live view.
Patrick’s group actually held “auditions” to pick the best model/actress for the job. [click image to enlarge]
The creation of a concept. Shot with a 24 on a 7D for a bit of expansion/distortion to amplify the space taken up by the post-its.
Our model, Cherish, wasn’t afraid to get a little wacky.
And Ray, of RayJoyce photography+cinematography showed off his previously hidden modelling skill. Thanks to the both of you for all your help during the last 2 days (and always).
Aug 11th
We’re a little sad that day 1 of the San Fran workshop is over. It’s our last city of the Cinema Caravan, and to be honest, we’re going to miss it! It’s definitely nice to visit home once in a while, but we’ve had such a blast on the trip.
Today, after the workshop, we headed over to XYZ, the restaurant attached to the W Hotel where we are staying. We met up with Jamie and Carey, a couple of ours who is getting married in Paris this October, and Asa and Coralie, who are getting married in San Fran next March. It was awesome just being able to chat and get to know each other a bit better while having a really REALLY good meal.
After dinner, I grabbed my camera and shot some design elements of the hotel as I headed up to our hotel room. It was a really late night last night with our flight getting in after 10PM and us still being on Toronto time. I love the design of this hotel. It’s really functional and comfortable, but really cool at the same time. I love taking inspiration from such a different medium into my own work.
-Amina
In the afternoon, we review some class-shot footage.
And discuss the shooting techniques used.
All morning while we were speaking, I was mesmerized by the light filtering through the little holes in the curtains. I HAD to shoot them. But since these holes were a little high for me to reach for this angle, I put live view on so I could stretch my arms as high as they could go but still see my composition.
In the studio where the workshop is being held.
The lighting at the W is just as cool as the design. Without the light, it would be quite boring actually.
Aug 9th
well folks, EVO is officially sold out to the general public. what’s even more amazing than that is nearly 50% of the attendees for EVO also attended cinema caravan workshops!
with that being said, we still have 1 more EVO spot reseved! it’s reserved for the winning caravan commercial contest editor. voting begins real soon (after the san fran workshop, keep reading). we’ll be sure to post the info here on where and how to vote. for now, you can check out the already submitted entries here.
still want to get in to EVO for the full on 3.5 days of intense learning? visit us in san fran on our last canon caravan stop, soak up the 2 days of information, and then submit an amazing contest entry and you could win free admission (and the final spot!) for our EVO experience.
get your feet wet, then dive in!
- justin
Aug 8th
As we gear up for our final Cinema Caravan city – San Francisco, Patrick hangs out with the Saints in New Orleans.
Why exactly?
Well, this weekend, the Saints are actually heading up north to shake hands with sort of a significant figure. So, in a few hours, the recent Superbowl winners and Patrick (who is the ONLY camera person accompanying them) board a privately chartered plane, and head to Washington DC to hang at the White House.
Mr. Obama plans on meeting the Saints and personally congratulating them on their amazing victory.
Mr. Moreau plans on following the action and updating us via the Caravan Blog, the stillmotionblog, and via twitter about the experience.
He’ll be meeting us all in San Fran in time to host the last workshop and filling us in on all the little details when we’re all together again.
-Amina
Aug 4th
when brian at the nfl network asked us to come in and do a workshop for his crew, everybody from photographers, to producers, to directors and editors, it was quite the overwhelming proposal. stepping into the room today, a huge shooting stage where they shoot several of their shows throughout the season, it was even more overwhelming. how do you speak to a group of people who have so much more experience than you, who have been shooting much longer than you have, and many of whom who have produced more pieces than i can imagine. your biggest fear walking into things like this is always ‘what if i really have no clue about what i’m talking about…’ and no matter how much you run through what you want to share, how much you plan and prep, that feeling just doesn’t seem to go away until you get started and you can start feeling some reactions.
this workshop was much more technical based than our evo or cinema caravan. we didn’t get much of a chance to chat about our philosophy of storytelling and instead really focused on the technical challenges faced by shooters transitioning into DSLRs.
near the end of the day as we broke into groups and some people started to head out, we started to get more into a Q and A and it was really amazing to hear some outside perspectives on some of the pieces we have produced. aside from the visual aesthetic, it is always great to hear when people really see or feel the storytelling or thought put into the narrative of our pieces. it can be really subtle things like how we open or close a sequence, to some of the more ‘in your face’ sequences like motion matching through a series of plays, but either way it is so rewarding when people whom you haven’t met until now really connect with and appreciate all that attention to detail.
needless to say, day one was quite the experience and something i won’t soon forget. tomorrow is our last day and we get to hit the field for a high school practice and put some of the techniques we chatted about to use. above all of the technical and philosophical discussions that we have in these workshops, it is always so rewarding to see a group of strangers come together to produce a piece together. for most, there are a lot of aspects that are completely new to them and to see people come together and really pool their knowledge and find a way to blend their combined strengths is always fascinating and special.
i can’t wait for tomorrow.
P.
here are some BTS images from joyce of rayjoyce studios. thanks guys!
