Image Promos Shot With Panasonic AF-100

Main Anchor Image Promo

I had about four hours total to shoot this promo. Wish I had a couple more. We shot in two different areas in Balboa Park and two locations around downtown San Diego. The first was at Balboa Park. I found a nice shaded area for most of the shots. Wanted to make the background less identifiable so shot mostly wide open. I used a set of Zeiss ZF2 primes with Nikon mounts. Love Zeiss glass. Great contrast/color and image quality. We had a Kessler Crane CineSlider with us. I only used it once for the push into Mark. I used the Zeiss 50 and 85 the most. I used a Lumix 14mm on the slider shot. Needed a wider view as well as the silhouette with the blue sky. The Lumix is a nice lens. It looks ridiculous on the AF-100 but works native with the camera’s electronics so no adapters are necessary to control it.

Shallow depth of field helps clean up the backgrounds so the focus is on the subject, this was what I wanted. The pictures that would be edited into the spot are Mark’s that he took when he was a network corespondent reporting from around the world. Mark likes to photography people and faces, and he’s pretty good at it. I felt if you see where he was at the locations then it would be distracting when you see the images. In all this was a basic shooting setup. Minimal support gear and only a flex fill was used.

Military Reporter Image Promo

Video starts at 0:30

This shoot had a few challenges. The biggest was the sun. Man was it bright. I have a 40X40 silk Scrim Jim and a 40X40 Matthboards – Expendable Reflectors
reflector for fill. If you’ve never used a reflector like this you need to get one. They are fairly inexpensive compared to HMI lights that require power and heavy support. Heck I wish I had two of them. They just do the job easily and make talent pop on camera. To see more images from this shoot see a article I wrote on Zeiss CP.2 lenses

Weather Anchor Image Promo

Starts at 1:00

I added another spot to the comp. This one is for a new weather anchor. This was a challenge to shoot. When you watch it you’ll think, its just a interview with some B-roll.
We wanted to shoot at golden hour from Coronado. It’s a great location with the bay and downtown in the background. I had a bunch of editing to do before the shoot and didn’t leave as early as I wanted. Talent was having a few issues as well. We left the station around 1:30 to get to Coronado. That usually only takes fifteen minutes from downtown, but not today. A jumper was on the Coronado bridge so it was shut down. I had to drive south to Imperial Beach and take the Silver Strand too Coronado.
Its now 2:15pm and we’re getting off the freeway with unusually bad traffic for that of time day. Palm Ave. was backed up. Then the sound of sirens are coming from behind. A fire truck is going the wrong way down Palm Ave.! Then an ambulance follows. Seriously? Its now 2:30. One hour has past. I’m so screwed! We finally get to the Silver Strand to head north and see a rollover accident. Ugh. After we get passed it it was all clear.
We arrived on location an hour and a half late. Talent was ten minutes behind us. We had to get setup fast. My assistant and I found a spot. He put up a silk and support while I set up the camera and framed up the shot. I felt like we where doing a breaking news live shot not a promo shoot. The wind was pretty strong and I was worried about talents hair flying in her face and also a little thing called audio. I put a mini dead cat on the lav mic. That thing has saved me so many times. Its a must have in every audio kit. We did all the interviews right up to the sun going down behind buildings and shading the ares. I got so lucky its not even funny. So yes its just an interview and some b-roll.