Stories

I spent a few hours at Quinlan Co. yesterday grading five commercials we produced (with the help of DPost) for Northwest Savings Bank. I hear the spots did well with the focus groups and everyone involved is happy with the outcome (even me!) Look for ’em on TV soon.

We just finished a week of shooting for New Era Cap in Los Angeles and it rained twice in two days so you know the gods were smiling down upon us. We had a Red Epic and two Canon 5DMKIII running and we captured many gigs of some pretty decent high speed (240fps) footage for the cause.

Shooting underslung on the slider at floor level for the pushups footage.

I tested out the “War Machine” apparatus prior to shooting a workout. 

Getting ready to grab some low angle hand held high speed footage in the rain (in Los Angeles!!!)

(BTS photos: Shannon Madden & Jessica Imbriano & Craig Scime)

Recent work for BlueCross BlueShield got us out of the cold for 2 days to shoot work with the Red Epic and DPost. Eric Frick was on hand to shoot stills also, so it was a good 2 days at that.

(photos: Shannon Madden)

I spent the day at DPost last week shooting a quick bit of footage for Hospice Buffalo with the Red Scarlet, John Takacs, Shannon Madden, and Josselyn Scott on the makeup brushes.

(photos: Shannon Madden)

I got out of the house a few days ago after 3 days of sub zero winter hell to operate an Arri Alexa at my friend director/DP Rhea Anna’s NEW HOUSE for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Pretty pictures were made and we spent the 2nd half of the day outside which was pretty much a walk in the park after surviving the “polar vortex” – ugh.

The drive to the location got more interesting after inching along through many blocks of traffic crawl.

The camera I hate to love – Arri Alexa. When WILL they figure out how to put the viewfinder in a comfortable position???

Me and Rhea! Good times! 🙂

One of our AAA spots made it onto Top 10 Best list:

http://southernstatesinsurance.com/10-best-insurance-commercials/

A recent and unexpectedly truncated shoot day for New Era Cap to produce a music video featuring 5 salesman to be shown at their annual sales meeting came off well enough for us to get an avalanche of positive reaction at the recent meeting in Buffalo.

To quote the director/producer/editor who was actually at the sales meeting of 300+ people giving me occasional text updates – as the video dropped:

“Hahahahahaha massive!”

The lip-syncing salesmen got coached by a pro choreographer and had a catchy boy-band type track to groove to and for some reason – it looked and felt like a “real” music video.

(all photos: Shannon Madden)

The weather gods were merciful (enough) recently allowing DPost, John Takacs, and I to pull off 5 shoot days in the eye of the late fall weather turnover storm in Buffalo. Holy moly, that was close!

We faked a concert scene, worked with puppies and kids (at the same time!!!!), braved early snow, frost, and icy gusts, and managed to do it all while shooting 6 commercials PLUS stills (hundreds of stills – oy) in yes, 5 days.

Did we shoot on Red? Alexa? Nope. We shot raw with the Canon 5DMKIII – my all time favorite camera for footage AND stills.

The new spots should be airing around the first of the year. Whoot!

(all photos: Shannon Madden)

I got word recently that my photography of model Yu Dy was accepted by Graphis to be included in their juried 2014 photography annual. I submitted a series of 5 images but I’m not sure if they’ll be publishing all five or just one. Either way – I am stoked to be included in such a prestigious and long running international annual! I had an image published in Graphis Photo 1990 and in their Alternative Photography annual 1995.

A little recent work as imagined by director Peter Cumbo: