Behind-the-Scenes with Big Pictures

A slow-moving bullet pierces a pane of glass, sending tiny shards in a million directions. A fist breaks through a piece of wood, and then turns into a car. A bird flies in slow motion, revealing every detail of its wings in action. This is the domain of high speed digital photography. Shooting moving objects [...]

Production is often filled with adventure. I’ve shot from helicopters, caves, underwater, and ice chambers. I’ve hunted sharks, explored communist training camps in Russia, and soared through the Alaska Range. But even after 22 years in the business, there are still plenty of firsts. Shooting in a wind tunnel was one of them. So when [...]

In the Academy Award-winning documentary film Fog of War, Robert McNamara looks directly into the lens as he talks about the trials and tribulations of the Vietnam War. The effect is unnerving and powerful. He’s speaking directly to us – the audience – without the filter of the interviewer. It feels incredibly intimate, and almost [...]

There often comes a point in a shoot day, or week, when the value of the footage we’ve shot exceeds that of the equipment we’re using to shoot it! You look at the tapes and start to think of the work that was done to capture the footage, the lighting, the heartfelt storytelling by the [...]

Back in the Mesozoic Era of the internet (three years ago), production value was rare for videos produced for the web. A frequently heard phrase was “Don’t worry, it’s just for the internet.” This was often used to rationalize using lower-end cameras, crews, talent, bad editing and clunky compression. This was the domain of Mini [...]

Quick turnaround on a project? No more waiting for VHS window dubs! Imagine being able to leave a shoot with a DVD that contains the interview footage and sound, with a window-burn of the matching time code. You could then screen and log the interview on your laptop in your hotel, at your office, or [...]

Most of us understand the basics of shooting a chroma key scene: set up a green or blue screen behind the subject, light it brightly and evenly, move the subject far enough in front of the screen so that the subject’s lighting won’t throw shadows on the background, light the subject, and away you go. [...]