Posts tagged ‘canon’
“Betrayed” – The Trailer
I’m very excited to announce the launch of “Betrayed“, a short thriller co-written and directed by Joshua Grossberg and starring Seth Gilliam (The Wire), PJ Sosko, and Cara Buono (The Sopranos). Betrayed, one of the first narrative works to be shot on the Canon 5D Mark II, follows husband and reporter James Vance (PJ Sosko) who mysteriously disappears, but not before leaving a cryptic video diary leading law enforcement to unravel the crime of his demise.
The making of Betrayed begins about a year ago when I shot my first video (a music video of my younger sister, Etana) with the 5DII. As I was sifting through the raw footage, my friend/filmmaker Josh Grossberg happened to be in my neighborhood and stopped by for a visit. Excited that I’d just finished shooting my first video, I showed Josh some of the footage and he was blown away with the quality produced by the inexpensive DSLR. It was at that point we began to discuss the idea of collaborating to create a film.
Together we reached out to our friends and suddenly we had dozens of talented and eager crew members willing to volunteer their time to make this film. It should be noted that the overall cost was kept quite low, especially for film standards.
As a still-photographer, I certainly learned a great deal from this experience. Making a film is far more complicated than taking a still image and requires far more time, patience, and persistence to get to the end. The ambitious 4-day shoot involved numerous company moves which meant dozens of crew members had to work together to move all gear, props, etc. to multiple sites to shoot additional scenes….at times moving everything/everyone to different Burroughs throughout NYC all in the same day. Needless to say, after four 16-hour days with little sleep and nonstop work, everyone was exhausted by the end.
After the principle photography was wrapped in the Fall of 2009, there were numerous pick-up shots and scenes that still needed recorded. I also led visuals as part of a smaller crew working with the cast to record the remainder of the film over the next few months.
As if shooting the film wasn’t enough, then came another hurdle, post-production. After many revisions, editing of the short was finished in late fall; subsequently the trailer was recently completed. The short itself is being submitted to film festivals worldwide with the goal of raising the financing needed to shoot the feature-length version.
The past year has been full of adventure, learning – and much stress. I’m glad to finally be able to give you all a peek!
Hope you enjoy the trailer!
Here are some production stills I took while working on the project:
Betrayed Behind-The-Scenes for Blog – Images by Robert Caplin
Canon vs. Nikon Shootout – Results are in!
A few weeks ago I was approached by Josh Lehrer of Unique Photo asking if I’d be interested in taking part in a Nikon D3S vs. Canon 1D Mark IV shootout with my Nikon-shooting pal, David Bergman. Josh took us to a very dimly-lit sporting venue in Long Island where David and I shot side-by-side at the various ISO settings so he could later create a write-up.
Both cameras proved to be great tools and improvements on their predecessors….Click here to see the results on Josh’s blog post to see the side-by-side comparisons and download the RAW files!
What are your thoughts? Who won? Canon or Nikon?
The shootout banner he made cracks me up!
Justin Bieber: All-Access
Normally, following around a 15-year-old boy for an evening wouldn’t be that exciting – unless the young man is the newest overnight pop sensation, Justin Bieber, playing his first concert at the “World’s Most Famous Arena”, Madison Square Garden.
When I got the call to photograph Bieber, I didn’t have a clue who the young man was. My editor told me that he was a star born and discovered through the magic of YouTube and subsequently R&B artist Usher took Bieber under his wing – so began his transformation into a star.
Check out the NY Times Article here.
The concert at The Garden was actually a music festival put on by the NYC radio station Z100 called “Jingle Ball 2009” in which numerous artists, mostly those with the fan base of 12-16 year old girls, performed. Artists included Taylor Swift, John Mayer, Usher, Justin Bieber, Pitbull, Kris Allen, Jay Sean, The Frey, and Ke$ha.
I was tasked to follow along and document the evening with Bieber and his entourage, which consisted of managers, his mother, another young friend, myself, Usher, and a bodyguard. To my astonishment Justin was one of the biggest stars at the venue, with young girls screaming and squealing at any glimpse they were able to steal.
Because of the number of performers at this concert, there were numerous dressing rooms for the artists. As I walked down the hallway and passed the other artists’ rooms, it was obvious that Justin’s was the one that all the backstage pass holders wanted to be around, clogging the hallway around the door. I even ran into Harvey Weinstein who brought about 5 young girls backstage to meet Bieber and Usher.
I also ran into Trey Anastasio backstage, lead singer and guitarist for Phish. Though he’s played the venue a number of times, this time he was here with his young daughters in order for them to meet their teen idols. Since I’ve been to nearly a dozen Phish shows, I couldn’t help but strike up a conversation with Trey and snap a photo of us together. (Trey actually lives in my neighborhood and I see him walking his big, white dog from time to time.)
As Justin’s set neared, his management cleared the dressing room so that he and Usher could start warming their voices. I, too, was kicked out, but managed to talk my way back inside because he and Usher’s relationship is exactly what I wanted to share with NY Times readers. They first started dueting Usher’s song “U Got It Bad”, which they were going to perform together later on stage.
Afterward they started warming their voices using traditional vocal exercises, which was also pretty fun to witness. I’d never realized the extent in which pro artists had to warm their voices prior to performing. Being there shooting stills, I wanted to capture what I was witnessing, so I took some video mainly as a way to listen back to the audio. But after watching all the clips I took, my editors at the NY Times thought it’d be fun to share the video with readers.
The walk from the dressing room to the stage was a significant trek that had us passing numerous other artists’ dressing rooms, crew, and fans with backstage passes in the hall trying to steal a glimpse of the stars. Moving quickly and flanked by his entourage and security escorts, it was hard to even notice Justin in the middle as we swooped through the winding hallways. But as we passed, everyone – especially the young girls – took notice and swooned for him calling his name and asking for autographs.
Once truly backstage on the floor of The Garden, Justin and his crew met up for a quick pow-wow and before I knew it John Mayer was coming off the main stage and was shaking hands with Bieber.
As Justin went onstage, I ran to the front and shot from the pit (the area between the stage and the first row). With young girls screaming in my ear and clawing at my back to get to Justin, I continued shooting as Usher came out and performed his song, “You Got It Bad”, together with Bieber.
Before I knew it his set was over and I rushed back around and caught my favorite moment of the evening – when Justin and Usher came off stage together. There was a true moment happening in front of me as Justin looked up at his mentor while walking off stage at his first show in Madison Square Garden.
After Justin’s set, I broke off from his crew and decided to watch and photograph Taylor Swift who closed the festival.
It was an unlikely concert for me to attend, but it proved to be quite an experience!
Congrats Justin on your accomplishments!
Click HERE to see all 141 photos from the concert!
Here are some select stills from the show:
Justin Bieber Blog – Images by Robert Caplin
High Flyin’ with Vincent Laforet
Last week I received a fun instant message from my pal Vincent Laforet (who until 6 months ago was my neighbor on the UWS of Manhattan) letting me know he was on a plane cross-country back to JFK for one of his infamous helicopter shoots over NYC. He asked if I wanted to fly along. I accepted….it was a no-brainer.
I met Vincent and his right-hand man, Mike Isler, at the 30th St. Heliport on the West side of Manhattan after being told only to dress warm. I had nothing to do other than observe, so I brought along my cameras and documented the fly-along taking mostly video of the shoot with my 5D2‘s.
The photo shoot was to take a portrait – while hovering from the helicopter – of a couple in the crow’s nest of a NYFD fireboat with the Manhattan skyline lingering in the background for New York Magazine’s year-end issue. (This couple met on the flight that crashed into the Hudson River last year.)
I really had no idea the planning and preparation that went into one of these shoots. Vincent and Mike have the aerial photo-shoot down to a science. They work with only a handful of first-class pilots and have all the proper safety and photo gear necessary to get the best possible shot.
Click here to see NY Mag’s video!
I was to the left of the pilot strapped-in with a four-point seatbelt (waist and both shoulders) into the front seat of the AStar AS350 B2 facing forward, which, due to my restraints, made it a bit difficult for me to see all the action that was happening in the backseat behind me.
Vince and Mike worked as a team in the customized rear of the cabin in which the door and backseat was removed in order for Vincent to sit, ass-on-floor, with his hands and legs hanging out the side. Harnessed in with a full body harness, Vince would shoot out the side of the aircraft while behind him Mike would pass forward requested gear and swap lenses. Mike worked out of a secured Think Tank roller bag containing the equipment. Vincent also had an assistant on a chartered NYC Water Taxi vessel with ProFoto strobes firing remotely with Pocket Wizards, so as dusk came he could light the subjects.
On top of that, they had to tune out Air Traffic Control and helicopter-to-helicopter chatter, while communicating not only with each other and BOTH vessels, but also directing the talent in the crow’s nest freezing their butts off!
God knows I certainly enjoyed myself!
Big thanks, as always, to Laia Prats for her help editing the video!
Some snapshots I took while flying:
High Flyin’ With Vincent Laforet – Blog – Images by Robert Caplin
