New York Festivals announced it’s 2011 finalists. The 2011 New York Festivals International Advertising Awards will take place May 4th-5th at the Skylight West in New York City. The HBO Retail Global Licensing video I edited, with Producer Meaghan V. Kimball of HBO, is a finalist for the Marketing Sales category.

Noah Todd Productions has officially been selected by agency Unified Field to produce interactive video components for the New NASCAR Museum. The museum is scheduled to open May 10th, 2010 in Charlotte, NC. We will be casting and filming three key characters to hold a virtual “strategy meeting” with museum visitors. This strategy meeting will replicate the type of meeting normally held between a crew pit chief, a race car engineer, and a driver prior to a NASCAR race. Based on the information discussed in this virtual meeting the museum visitor will be able to participate by making a series of decisions on how to prepare for the next race. The interactive kiosks built and programmed by Unified Field will evaluate the visitors input and return useful feedback, thus creating an engaging and educational experience.

Since these video components are being used interactively our challenge is to obtain and direct for a wide range of coverage. There will be times that the kiosks are allowing other portions of the program to run and so we will be obtaining footage of the actors that can be looped in holding patterns. There will be times when the actors refer to each other off screen, or even on another screen and so they must play to this effect. Also the computer will be calling up the appropriate performance depending on variable elements that the visitors input or that are pre-determined playback schemes of the program. This means we will be shooting multiple scripts with several variations to be facilitated in a non-linear fashion. Ultimately, there is a larger story, and through this type of interaction the visitor learns about cars, tracks, roles, and everything else that goes into a NASCAR race. Because of the interactivity the visitors get to “steer” the story in a direction that they connect with, providing a rich and memorable experience.

For the past few weeks I have been working as DP on a event honor video with Perception. We have been attending political events and interviewing several prominent New York public figures. I am pictured with former Mayor of New York City Ed Koch as we interviewed him at his midtown office. View the completed video on my work site by clicking here.

Behind the scenes photos of the Matt Zehnder short film entitled “This is Business.” It was like going back to film school as we all pitched in one spring evening to shoot Matt’s short and then proceed to hang out until the early morning hours having great conversation and a few drinks.

As Co-Producer on this short film I managed the insurance aspects of the production including issuing certificates, regarding vendors, locations, permits and crew including workman’s comp for Union actors. This was the first project I was involved in that was shot on the RED camera. The few photos below are ones I took from a day I was on set in Brooklyn. They are from the fight scenes of the film.

SuckerPunch was the second film I had the pleasure of attending a proper screening at the Dolby studios theater in Midtown Manhattan. To learn more about the synopsis, full crew and other details view the IMDB page here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266034/

Full Body shots. Three separate talent in costume performing version-ed copy relating to pharmaceutical product. 2.5 day shoot with 1/2 day pre-light. Video was composite into interactive flash website.

Post 9/11 NY. A state of heightened alert. A mysterious old man prowls around one of the city’s most amazing architectural marvels. Is he friend or foe? Two overzealous security guards make it their mission to bring him to justice. Here are behind the scenes photos of the short film. The film is distributed through Indiepix Films.

Medium shots. Shooting two separate talent performing extensive copy related to pharmaceutical product.
1/2 Day pre-light, full day shoot. Video was composite into interactive flash website.

Story to come.

Here’s one of my favorite stories that go back to the idea of producers being problem solvers.

In October 2006, Marble and Clay was approached by ad-agency TBWA to produce an SPRINT / NFL commercial that was scheduled to air nationally on stadium jumbotrons.

TBWA wanted us to use authentic NFL footage to capture a running football player from directly overhead as if he was running up a digital field that would pull out to reveal the runner had been charging up the battery of the phone with his explosive dash.  Even the revolutionary spider-cam used for overhead angles in today’s game does not maintain a direct overhead angle nor can it maintain that angle on a single player. So I decided in order to complete the project, I would have to use either computer animation or a live action shoot. (cont…)

Considering we were given a limited budget and no more than a week to complete the project, Marble and Clay solved the dilemma by preparing a live action shoot that would be composited within a digital world. In order to obtain naturalistic running movement yet place the runner in this animated realm we had to either find a treadmill or a studio with enough space to paint the floor and plan to track a runner as he sprinted down a chroma green field. Due to availability, time and budget we went with a studio large enough to paint the floor.

We knew we were turning the model of chroma production on it’s side, literally. To get the overhead shot we mounted a jib arm on the dolly so we could shoot at 90 degrees to the floor. The dolly was on skate wheels and a track so that the grips could keep up with a speeding running back.

Another principal I began to understand on this project is that no matter how much experience, no matter how much planning, production by it’s very nature does not go off with out presenting unforeseen challenges. Since every shoot is a unique plan and every variable is pulled together for only this one time, there is always something new to deal with. That is what makes it so fun!

There were a couple memorable obstacles my team and I overcame the day of the shoot.  The actor we originally cast was scheduled to arrive in the studio by 9:30 am.  After spending nearly an hour trying to find him, we finally got a hold of him.  He explained that he simply wasn’t in the mood to commute into the city from his girlfriend’s home in New Jersey!  Hearing this excuse was quite unbelievable and I still can’t get over his lack of professionalism.

My team acted quickly and started calling agencies, casting directors, and fitness centers, seeing if an actor who fit what we were looking for was available.  By 10:30, we found our new actor and we were ready to start shooting.  Or at least we thought.

When TBWA producers arrived at the shoot, they weren’t pleased with some aspects of the uniform. Understandably a series of approvals through email and photos do little justice to the actual uniform under the actual lights, on the actual person. One such issue was the color of the NFL helmet we had rented from a prop shop.  The original color of the helmet was navy blue and the client needed it to be a shade of red.  Finding an original NFL helmet was no easy task.  For a city that supposedly has everything, you think there would be more than one available for rent! Ordering a brand new official helmet from NFL would take days.

Because we signed an agreement stating that the rental property would be just as it was when we received it, we were stuck. A prop that is only a few hundred dollars to buy new, would have cost us thousands by breaking the contract. After an unsuccessful phone call offering the prop shop to purchase the helmet, I relied on my college art school background to rectify the problem.  We took red acrylic paint that would be easy to remove and non-damaging and proceeded to paint the helmet a bright shade of red.

The clients were pleased and we were able to continue our shoot for the day achieving spectacular takes of just the shot the boards called for. Since the unique shot was the main challenge on this project we were able to gracefully edit the footage, create and animate the digital world including a 3D model of the Motorola RAZR phone. We composited, and added the voice over tweaking where necessary.The project successfully debuted in time for Sprint’s CEO to see it displayed at the following Chief’s game in Kansas City.