IBM

I haven’t updated this in quite a while. I guess I’ve been pretty busy. But I’ll try to recap some of the projects I’ve been working on this year as best as I can remember them:

In July I was asked to be part of a group headed to Raleigh, North Carolina, and Sofia, Bulgaria – a video and photo series for IBM. I was already pretty slammed with shoots, but I knew I had to experience Bulgaria, a place I never imagined going. I’m really glad I did.

It was a small crew and we each wore many hats. As a D.I.T. I helped establish a data wrangling system. At certain times we had four or five cameras shooting stills and video – Teddy Symes and I had to keep track of it all. There were more than a few late and/or sleepless nights, but we managed somehow. I also had the opportunity to assist our awesome still photographer, Theo Rigby, who was tasked with taking portraits and candids of nearly every face in both offices. He kept his cool like a total pro in every situation. It was inspiring.

Last, but not least, I was put to work getting some motion control time-lapse of the offices. We used the Kessler Oracle system, which took some getting used to. Using it in conjunction with an intervalometer I could program it to do a slow move down a slider, making the time-lapse shots a little more dynamic. I also used it as a motorized slider to create some video portraits of our subjects, which ended up looking really nice in the final cut.

This shoot was brilliantly produced/shot by Nick Bruckman and Yoni Brook. Part of the reason I enjoy working in film is that I’m in a different “office” each day. It’s so far removed from the big corporate engine that makes our country go. It was a very strange experience to be in a sea of cubicles in some office park for two weeks with limited access to daylight (I’m exaggerating… slightly). But Nick and Yoni kept it fun and I met some of the happiest Bulgarians ever (including my cab driver to the airport who wore a hot pink Nike track suit and loved AC/DC).

It was a great team and satisfying to see it all come together so seamlessly. Here we are pictured with Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boyko Borisov.