Thanks to Nautilus Explorer I had the wonderful opportunity to spend New Years on a boat in the middle of nowhere with my photographer friend and colleague Noel Hendrickson. The one week live aboard trip left Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and journeyed south into the open sea to the small islands of Socorro, San Benedicto and Roca Partida for some world class diving. The marine oasis is famous for its intimate interactions with the Giant Manta Ray, a truly mesmerizing underwater experience with the overwhelmingly curious and friendly aquatic aliens.

The beautiful dive sites were also teeming with a variety of sharks and other marine life. Schools of Hammerheads, Galapagos, Reef and Silver Tips patrolled the underwater shelves as well as regular appearances from playful dolphins taunting divers with their speed and agility. Although special appearances from whale sharks and even migrating grey whales are occasionally experienced we were left only imaging the emergence of such mammoth shadows from the depths.

The diving lived up to and surpassed all expectations as did the on board experience of the boat. The crew were informative, passionate and fun to be with as were the twenty, diverse, international guests we shared the trip with including a large contingent of patriotic Brazilians.

For us, the dive trip was a recci, an opportunity to experience the trip first hand and plan a future promotional shoot for the company. I’m pretty sure I know what Nautilus Explorer is all about – a unique and awe-inspiring escape into a divine below and above water sanctuary.

Nautilus Explorer

Noel Hendrickson Photo

Not that there were really any specific deadlines for us to shoot and edit to, aside from those that were internally self imposed, we are happy to announce the completion of our short film STAG. Time can be an ally and and an enemy of the creative process. This is especially true of projects without a client or a specific target event. Plans and schedules can be pushed, delayed and postponed for all kinds of valid reasons so without the friendly confines of a deadline an idea can drift forever in the perpetual state of development.

With Stag, we had set a company goal in the Fall to complete a short film before 2012. We didn’t necessarily have to do this, we wanted to do this and we felt it was important to hold ourselves accountable and meet the challenge. With the help of a truncated Kickstarter campaign, the commitment of our creative team, crew and of course our external supporters we in fact realized our goal. As a further healthy pressure, we preset our launch date and public screening for the film only 12 days after our final day of our 2 and a half days of shooting.

Would we do this again? Maybe. Do we need to do it again? Not likely. But it was a valuable experience and sometimes a necessary approach to get things done. We certainly have an added respect for time and the creative process.

Thanks again to all those who were involved and helped make this happen!

Enjoy the film:
Password: brudderstag
STAG

The original Kickstarter campaign:
Stag on Kickstarter

We are very excited about our latest project, a short film called Stag. This is our first time using the crowd-sourcing platform of Kickstarter to help fund the project. Kickstarter is an exciting and incredible tool for artists, inventors and creators to gain financial support from the public. Their website is well constructed. It is easy to search for projects and navigate through what they are about and what they have on offer. What Kickstarter does is allow the creators to offer rewards in return for fan pledges, creating a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Getting art projects made is no easy task and Kickstarter is one of the best resources to bring projects to life. We are grateful to be apart of it. Please check out the Kickstarter website and our short film project Stag. Who knows, maybe you will have a project you can get funded through Kickstarter some day.

Stag – Kickstarter

Thanks to Shaun Kingerlee for the great Stag logo design featured in this blog!

Sometimes it’s better to be behind the camera. Over two cold, rainy nights, players of BC Rugby and the Canadian national program beat the hell out of themselves and each other in the name of promotion. I suppose this is what they do on a regular basis but we thank them just the same. BC Rugby approached Brüdder on the heels of our production for the UVIC Vikes video we produced this past summer and wanted a campaign of their own that reached out to young rugby players considering the next step in their development. With that in mind, we developed a concept that focused on the legacy of the sport and the union of all its players. The video features men and woman of all ages and levels working together to carry the ball down the field, a physical symbol of their camaraderie.

The commercial presented many logistical difficulties. With a modest budget and limitations on where we could film, we were forced to light an entire section of playing field at the Stanley Park oval in Vancouver. This required hours of cabling and pre-lighting prior to the shoot which ultimately ate into our shoot time. We also were working with unpaid, non-actors which is sometimes tricky, especially in unpleasant conditions to keep morale high and everyone focused with what to an outsider always feels like a very bizarre process. “Non Film People” are usually surprised at what goes on behind the scenes and just how long things can take. Tackling, sliding, jumping, thrashing and running over and over again for the same shot in cold, wet mud is fun when you’re competing in a game but repeating endlessly for a camera and a bunch filmmakers can be understandably annoying. All that being said, rugby players are a tough lot and the BC Rugby group were incredible. Even when a hair and make up person was artistically slathering mud on their face and body.

The first day, went well. We managed to move efficiently through our series of shots and scenarios and were only moderately distracted by game 7 of the opening NHL playoff series between the Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks. We knew the game had gone into overtime and just before midnight we heard a collective roar echo over the city and it swept over us like a wave of desperate relief. It was a surreal and fantastic way to experience such an important moment in sport for the city, especially given we were all here celebrating sport in our own creative way.

The only problem was only fully realized the next day when we woke from our daytime slumber to find out we would need to switch fields. Sort of a big problem. It turns out that our multiple scrum takes had done a real number on the playing field and the parks people were not too happy. They informed us we would not be able to shoot in the oval the second night. With little alternative, we quickly regrouped and rescheduled our night and re-cabled and moved all of our lights to an adjacent practice field next door. This cost us another 2-3 hours of production time and left us already behind before we had even started. But, not to bested, we pushed forward and worked our way through the shot list and made the concession of shooting the profile shots and dialogue at a later date, in studio. All in all a reasonable compromise all though it was an additional hit to the budget. Another day, another dollar(s).

A month or more after production, the completed BC Rugby “Carry The Ball” promotion was screened at a gala event before delegates, staff, players and fans alike and we were proud of the overwhelmingly positive and excited response from everyone. It is always fulfilling when the subjects of your work endorse it wholeheartedly. Since its screening, Brüdder has been approached by BC Canada and the National program to create a commercial of their own. We are currently in concept for that work.

Thanks to all the players and crew who braved the uncomfortable shooting conditions and gave so much and a big thanks to our client Jeff Sauve and Andrew Smith from BC Rugby for the commitment, faith and constant support for the project.

Watch the commercial
See behind the scenes on Flickr

Anirniq on Vimeo

This summer Brüdder Productions teamed up with two great photographers Noel Hendrickson and Steven Errico to form a Collective called Assembly that produces cross-media content and campaigns (HD video and photography). We have been collaborating for years but we really wanted to focus and formalize our creative partnership as we believe that we offer an effective and efficient service.

Just this past month we completed a 7 day shoot for the West Vancouver Community Center. It was an ambitious and exciting project, as always shooting video and stills at the same time and more importantly as a team we pushed and challenged each other to simply be better.

The WVCC shoot was a great success covering all kinds of content through lifestyle, sport, business and medical. We look forward to the post production process and already have a list of new projects on the horizon.
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We are very excited to announce the completion and launch of our short film fable Anirniq produced as an entry for the Parallel Lines competition hosted by Philips Cinema and RSA Films (Ridley Scott).

Filmed on the northern tip of Baffin Island, Anirniq – the Inuit word for breath – is a 3 minute film about an Inuit man confronting the loss of his father when a young boy on his first, narwhal hunt.
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This summer I had an incredible journey. I am yet unsure of the destination but I feel I am here at the summit, surrounded by talented and brave individuals who either believed or learned to believe in this project. That is a special and incredible feeling. I just wanted to remind all of us who have ideas, crazy ideas, even silly ideas that it is absolutely critical that we don’t sit idle and wonder ‘should I?’. ‘Can I?’. Can you really afford not to? That is the real question.

Whether you like or dislike what you make, please love the passion and efforts you invested to make it happen. That is what makes us our process wondrous.

We have returned from Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and we will be updating our short film blog daily, reflecting back on the trip and looking forward at post production. We have also uploaded behind-the-scenes images from the project on our flickr page:

Baffin Island Flickr Page
Anirniq Short Film Blog

We are extremely excited that Tanya Tagaq has enthusiastically joined the creative team for our short film Anirniq. Tanya’s mesmerizing music was an immediate choice for me to be the voice for this film. Not only did it make sense from a cultural perspective given Tanya’s style is rooted in Inuit throat signing but the visceral tones of the music provided the tension and beauty that we needed to juxtapose in the story.

I first heard Tanya perform live with the Kronos Quartet at the Chan Center in Vancouver several months ago. How would I know this was an unanticipated audition for a film we were about to conceive for the upcoming Parallel Lines competition.

Read more about Tanya and our short film at our production blog:

Anirniq Blog

We have officially launched our production blog for the short film Anirniq, our entry for the Philips Parallel Lines competition. The blog will feature all behind the scenes and project progress as we prepare to depart in 3 weeks for the northern tip of Baffin Island, north of the Arctic Circle. Please take a look and continue to follow our updates. It should be an exciting adventure and a mighty challenge to pull everything together, we hope you share in the journey:

Anirniq Blog

We at Brüdder are very excited at the challenge we have set before us. What is life without some adventure? Our current trial of choice is a global, short film competition which will have us produce a 3 minute film by August 8th based on a predetermined script. And that’s not truly the challenge. We feel we have an exciting and relevant concept, the tricky part is that we need to film it in a specific part of the Arctic and it needs to happen within a month.

Needless-to-say, a quick jaunt to the Arctic on the rapidly melting sea ice patrolled by hungry polar bears isn’t just a walk in the park and isn’t cheap. But we will not let this stop us. That is why we have created our Brüdder Baffin Bound Promotion. We are offering highly subsidized video productions and photo shoots for 5 potential clients in order to quickly raise capital for this expedition. We love the idea of this because it is a win-win scenario. Our potential clients and partners get professional marketing materials and we get to make an exciting short film.

If this sort of collaboration sounds exciting to you or you know an individual or organization who could benefit from this then please pass it on. If you simply want to follow our adventure then keep in touch as we will be posting an ongoing website dedicated to the project, including behind-the-scenes vignettes and stories. Can Brüdder do it? Of course we can (cheer & shake pom poms now).

Baffin Bound Promotion

This is a great program set up in the United States to help support creative endeavors of all sizes. I love the model of the artistic and business community sharing their ideas and concepts and people supporting them financially in varied donations. I think this model goes beyond just the financial support, it empowers people to initiate projects that might fly under the radar of traditional or governmental funding and allows the public to feel inspired and connected to exciting enterprise.

Firstly, and most important, the iPhone is not resistant to prolonged bathing in a hot tub.

Secondly, we are on the right track.

As invitees, I attended the private, conference attended by some high profile industry insiders with my photography colleagues Noel Hendrickson and Steven Errico. The theme was the evolution of motion for still photographers. As one of the few, sole Video Producers there I could have waved my fist in fury, defending my pixelated turf but instead it was a reminder of the digital renaissance that my colleagues and I had already been preparing for.

Several months earlier, Noel, Steven and my production company Brüdder had made preparations for our new Collective which focused on collaborative team of digital artists producing content simultaneously in multiple formats, namely video and photography. It was a process we were already thoroughly engaged in whether as part of our regular, collaborative stock shoots for Getty Images or for clients who were both aware (and unaware – an education process was required) that they would benefit from shooting video and still content simultaneously – an approach that is not only cost effective in the long term, but more consistent and inspired in creativity. The more experienced minds collaborating and working together to achieve a single goal, the more succinct and ultimately the higher the quality of the final product.

The Pott’s Photo-Marketing Blog has a good article on this here which an industry friend Sarah Tesla had tweeted about as well:
Content Convergence

In the spirit of that collaboration Noel, Steven and Brüdder organized a stock shoot in and around Palm Springs taking advantage of the proximity of the wind farms and Joshua Tree National Park. Some samples here:

Getty Images – Couple Sunset Shot from Brüdder on Vimeo.

Time Lapse Motion Control Rig Test #1 from Brüdder on Vimeo.

Timelapse photography is one of those mesmerizing but evasive techniques. It takes dedication, skill and a mix of fortuitous timing and being in just the right position to pull off a truly engaging and effective timelapse shot.

Here at Brüdder we have been experimenting with timelapse photography for some time, and as great as the shots are there is a level of commitment that few put in to take their shots to the next level.

Over the past few months, we have engaged in the challenge of building our own motion control timelapse rig. Inspired by the great culture of sharing found on the internet and websites and forums such as Timescapes where people share their amazing work, often constructing devices with regular consumer products, adapting them in such a way to pull of epic and stunning motion controlled timelapse imagery.

Timescapes

The project begun by getting our hands on a MEADE telescope head, as used by MiLapse:

MiLapse

This is a fantastic bit of technology used to pan & tilt the camera over several hours, we got ours for $150 second hand (with a tripod and telescope). This is a fraction of the cost of any professional dedicated pan & tilt solution. On its own this head can create some amazing imagery, just work out your start and end shot, the degrees between them and away you go.

There is a calculator online for you here:

Online Calculator

The next order of business was how to make a robust and portable timelapse dolly system. This took some planning, but once the parts were ordered it came together extremely well.

We opted for the device aptly dubbed the “TIME MACHINE” from B.Mumford Microsystems:

Time Machine

This is a simple timelapse controller that interfaces with our Canon 5DmkII or the Canon 7D and utilizes a highly precise rotary table. We used the rotary table to drive the crank on the Pocket Dolly from Kessler Crane:

Kessler Crane

The Pocket Dolly was literally the only HD-DSLR slider system we could find at the time with a built in crank system. They literally made the majority of the rig for us. I have since found out they are in the process of releasing a motor driven unit for the Pocket Dolly and Cine Slider to do motion controlled timelapse. This is great as it will give everyone the opportunity to be able to buy and try moco timelapse if building their own isn’t something they want to do.

Motion Control Timelapse

With the Time Machine, Pocket Dolly and MEADE telescope head we had the basis for our motion control rig. A great, local machine shop here in Vancouver and only a few blocks from our studio http://www.smithindustriesltd.com/ helped us weld, cut and form all the fixings required.

We did our first preliminary, field test using an emergency powerpacks to power the whole system. In theory, we should be able to run a motion control timelapse for over 24 hours…we will let you know once we have tested it out and we will be sure to share the results.

So here it is, our Motion Control Timelapse rig. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Hangar 18 Creative asked Brüdder to produce a series of looped videos featuring each of their staff in a generic location or scenario of their choice. Each video bares the iconic Hangar 18 reference to a “cheesy UFO caught on tape”. The videos are a playful way of introducing the unique personalities of each H18 team member. Frames from the videos have also been used as landing pages throughout the website.

All of the videos were shot on the Canon 5D MKII in and around Vancouver.

Thanks to the H18 team for being so much fun!

Hangar18 Website

Thanks to everyone who contributed so much to this project. This was truly a hands on affair and we couldn’t have done it without your blood (mainly thanks to all the mosquitos), sweat (as evidenced by the final days of my walking cast) and tears (generally when we had to say good-bye to such amazing people). A special thanks to those who donated their time and expertise and the community of Squamish for being so committed and incredibly welcoming. We already miss our home away from home (AKA: the Executive Suites and all the wonderful staff).

Working with Tourism Squamish, lead by Lesley Weeks, was a treat as they trusted us with their little baby (and even had one along the way – congrats Katherine) and supported us without question (well, sort of). They literally joined us out in the field when called for and Lesley even broke the same leg/foot as I did during the production as not to make me feel left out.

I especially want to acknowledge my dedicated team: Amy Jones, the backbone and most patient and unflappable co-producer. Jon, the “Atlas” of all editors bearing the weight of so much footage. DPs Vince and Naim for their great talents. Taylor for his sense of humor and all around skill set. Craig the jackest-of-all-tradesman and unlimited cameos. Cheekeye for his patience and star power. And everyone else who joined the team along the way.

Thanks again, we look forward to seeing you all soon and collaborating once more.

Visit the Brüdder Tourism Squamish page here.
Visit the behind-the-scenes Flickr page here.

Brüdder will once again be collaborating with photographer Pete Webb as we travel to Morocco for Neilson, the International Adventure Tour Company operating out of the UK. This should prove to be a challenging and exciting project taking us through the markets of Marrakech to the deserts of the Sahara, from the High Atlas Mountains to the surf towns of the western coast.

Brüdder will be producing a commercial marketing video for Neilson as well as library of high definition stock video content.

Follow the Brüdder Blog and Flickr pages for regular updates on the adventure and workflow.

The Nivea video shoot is successfully complete. The production, shot on RED was a series of short vignettes to populate Nivea’s global website, highlighting a series of exercises and “On The Go” workouts to contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

The production was a collaboration with the digital agency Blast Radius Amsterdam for the client Nivea based in Hamburg, Germany. The challenge was integrating the new video content into the website design while maintaining consistency with pre-determined graphic design and a photo shoot completed several months earlier.

Brüdder is currently in post production with an aim for a fairly quick turn around of the final product given the pending launch of the new website.

Check out more behind the scenes shots at our production Flickr page: Brüdder Flickr

Winters in Vancouver can be pretty wet, dark and gloomy so the prospect of shooting a series of videos for Nivea that must look and feel like summer had its obstacles. But with some quick planning and a truck load of sod and foliage, we felt confident we could make the transformation. A full day of shooting was required outside on a residential patio and with relentless rainfall leading up to the shoot day we opted for a couple of white, 20×30 tarps to string over the backyard and essentially create a massive tent. With 3M wrapping so many structures around the city for the upcoming Winter Olympics, we should have perhaps just given them a call. Lucky for us, our weather karma proved high as we found the skies open and the sun pour down on us instead. This created some new issues but we were able to quickly adapt by using the same tarps to essentially track the suns path and control the hard light splashing throughout our set.

We used a blow torch to dry all the patio stones and your basic propane heater to keep our scantily clad Nivea model Jocette Coote from having what she called “chicken skin” in the cold weather.

We look forward to completing the edit and posting our results – stay tuned.

Well, I think we have shot our last image for Tourism Squamish. Needless-to-say it has been an epic production this Summer and Fall. We thought sharing a few, notable numbers might put the whole thing into perspective:

50 days on location
750 working hours
16 sports filmed
3 seasons passed
7 months in production
61 hours of footage filmed
129 talent filmed
30 Interviews
52 unique locations
40 Return trips on the Sea To Sky Highway
53 Miles hiked With gear:
15,912 feet elevation gained:
2 air casts worn
126 coffees consumed
15 Howe Sound Nut Browns consumed
11 lunches at Zephyr Cafe
26 interviews
32 change of plans
12 weather days
8000 GB of hard drive space filled
3 filters broken
5 canisters of insect repellent
8 Sunrises watched
12 Coop cars rented
4 nights camping
10 vignettes
1 feature video

Once again we had the pleasure of working with Hangar 18 Creative to shoot a video promo for their client Boston Pizza. The short, 15 second spot is to feature on their website as well as broadcast during hockey games in Alberta. Playing off the typical hockey room interview, Brüdder shot the Hangar 18 concept and delivered the final project for their client within a very tight turnaround.

We are certainly seeing the production of more and more quick, video concepts to compliment larger video campaigns, especially on the web. I think more and more clients and digital agencies are seeing the opportunity to produce small campaigns in response to short term needs. The distribution channels for these videos have really opened up so companies are feeling less inhibited recognizing they can feature their video content not only on their website but through obvious channels such as YouTube and other online partners.

We are excited about the challenge and creativity in meeting these new demands.