Stories

Fly to Chicago, set up – shoot (for 12 minutes).

Drive to the airport.

Fly to Newark, set up – shoot (for 12 minutes).

Drive to the airport.

Fly to Buffalo, set up – shoot (for 12 minutes – twice).

Drive home – pass out.

I got out of the house recently and visited the PriceChopper headquarters in Schenectady, NY to shoot interview footage for NYSERDA. It was a great maiden voyage for my new Honda Odyssey as well as my new Canon 5DMKIII. Whoot!

(Shannon Madden photo)

Just got back from New York City after 2 solid days of shooting for New Era Caps at their 2013 NFL Back to Football Photo Day Contest photo day with 32 fans who entered and won the contest. Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the National Football League stopped by and the New Era Caps stores should be featuring content from these 2 days real soon.

I just returned from Rochester, NY where I operated camera for my pal Adam Richards who made it back to the Western New York area to direct and shoot commercials for Eastman Savings & Loan for 3 days. That marked the end of about 2 straight weeks of work for me, so now I get to catch up on mowing my lawn – whoot!

I just recently returned from a 4 day gig shooting some behind-the-scenes and on-camera footage for New Era Caps with their new cap fanatic, super-fan – Lane Carter (a very cool guy for sure).

We visited Lane’s super dope downtown loft and spent 2 days there as well as working a bit with Lane and MLB’s Matt Kemp.

Oh and the weather was great and I OD’ed on green tea Bobas from Urth Cafe!

This is the 3rd spot (I’ve shot) for Milk for Health on the Niagara Frontier with director John Takacs. The concept is all John and some may recognize John’s signature style if they’ve seen a certain short film I co-produced (and shot) with John a while back.

He pushed for this concept which employs Tyler Ennis of the Buffalo Sabres and the project was in the works for over a year until the planets aligned, the NHL strike ended, and the client said “you betcha.”

The first thing I thought of when I saw the rough edit was “it looks like a film,” and I’m pretty sure it looks and feels exactly the way John wanted it to look.

Working ALL day on an ice rink wasn’t fun for a guy who hates ice, but the client is happy as pie from what I hear, so it’s all good 🙂

(all photos: Ethan Calabrese)

My friend Adam Richards came home to Buffalo, NY recently to shoot 6 days of cinematic gold for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield in conjunction with ad agency Partners and Napier and production company DPost. I hear the footage looks amazing, as expected, and it felt good to work with “the best of the best” of the local crew here and back Adam up as Chief Lighting Technician in this effort.

I just got word that a web spot I shot for New Era Cap has been adopted by Major League Baseball and is currently airing in the top 10 US markets: