I have only been back from my trip a few weeks, but I’m missing Japan already. So I broke out some Matcha Green Tea-flavored Kit Kat candies to take me back.

Candy is all over the place in Japan. Perhaps that is because omiyage are available in shops in every train station. Omiyage is a type of gift that you give someone — a souvenir from far-away lands — that you bring after you have been traveling. Omiyage oftentimes (I believe) has the connotation of being bought at the last minute, or even once you got home. But the sentiment is important, so they are bought often. And candy from different regions of the world is a popular gift. The variety of candy in Japan is much greater than that in the States — lots of different flavors, and some more (or much less) sweet than candy that I am used to. Really fun.

I really enjoyed visiting with pastors, missionaries, and community leaders who are working hard to bring hope and healing to some pretty devastated communities.

Late last week we had our first translating session — it’s going to take a while to translate all of the interviews. I’ll post links as they go live.

Back before Fuller Theological Seminary had even hired any staff for this new venture, the Lloyd Ogilivie Institute of Preaching needed a multichannel piece that would bring in relevant candidates for the new chair of the program. So it needed to be high-end, concise, fast, and under-budget. We designed three pieces: a magazine ad, a direct-mail piece, and a (mini) website. In addition, we filmed several people on campus, all talking about what the Institute was going to do.

All design and filming (and subsequent printing and DVD replication) was turned around within one month, and perfectly on budget. The campaign was successful: Mark Labberton is now the chair of the academic program, and has successfully moved it from infancy to relevancy across the campus.

Click here to view the embedded video.

But back to the musical, Jasper in Deadland. I filmed a bunch of the shows and rehearsals, and mixed the live sound off-the-board for this recording. It gives a good glimpse of what the students got to experience over the summer: originating roles in a fantastic new musical, and getting to work with musical theatre professionals — directors, choreographers, lighting and sound and costume and set designers, etc.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We had a great time. Check out Tribute for more information. Maybe you want to book us for your next event!

ASIAN ACCESS

First up was a quick web video post for the president of Asian Access. He wanted to say “thank you” to the many people who have already donated money to the relief efforts going on in northern Japan after the Sendai earthquake in March 2011. So I raced out to his office and filmed him:

Click here to view the embedded video.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: This was filmed with the Canon EOS 7D, using the “kit lens” — an 28-135mm. Sound was handled using a Zoom H4n with an Audio Technica AT897 microphone. Footage was transcoded to ProRes LT using the wonderful 5DtoRGB app with a command-line batch processor provided by French video production company NoSide. The whole thing was sync’d and edited in Final Cut Pro, and exported to H.264 via Compressor.

NIMBUS ENSEMBLE

I did a 12-part videolog series with Nimbus and this same composer back in 2008, and they are back with a new composition that Nimbus will premiere. We’re in a rush, so there’s only one video, and I shot a rehearsal for a few hours this week, followed by a very brief interview. But the piece will be instrumental in advertising the concert:

Click here to view the embedded video.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: Much the same as the previous piece, except I used a host of lenses: a 50mm f1.4 prime (I used this a lot because the room was pretty dark, but I didn’t want to raise my ISO too much and get grainy footage), a Canon EF-S 18-55mm, and a Canon EF-S 55-250mm. Sound was captured 4-channel using the Zoom’s onboard mics plus the AT897 and a Sennheiser lav (but the interview was done with the AT897 — I love the sound of that mic compared to a lav).

All-in-all, a pretty busy but fun week of budget-conscious filmmaking. Every project that we do gets easier, more fun, and give us invaluable experience for the next one.

Today I’ll be taking my equipment and doing an outdoor photoshoot for a band I’m in (stills, not video). Can’t wait to share those…

Once again, HCS was able to come through with a fast and quick solution. The president of the organization had a busy schedule, and they wanted the video quickly; I ran out to the corporate headquarters to shoot this little clip. But we didn’t skimp on quality: the lighting was there, the Canon 7D was there, and we used a really nice Audio Technica shotgun microphone to capture audio. Brought it back to the office that evening, and had the footage delivered to the client the next day.

We want to continue to do fun stuff like this for our clients. Do you need some top-notch web video? Let us come and make your next project shine.

Finally!

Hearken Creative now is shooting in HD on a Canon 7d camera. We have several lenses and filters, and can make your next project shine, whether for the big screen, the small screen, or even a web screen.

Additionally, not only can we do full-blown ProTools audio for location sound, but we now have a small Zoom H4N 4-channel audio recorder for interviews, small cast shoots, and field recording. Put the two pieces together, and you have a wonderfully small setup for mobile filming!

Call us to discuss your next video/film project.

The Canon 5D and 7D are all over the place now. This is nothing new or groundbreaking, but it clearly shows that, when used well, these HDSLR cameras can be used for newsgathering and documentaries as well as scripted/planned shoots. Very nicely done.

This is incredible. Just announced at NAB: A Da Vinci Resolve system will now run on a Mac for $995. You still need a control surface, and it’s probably a somewhat stripped-down version — simply because you can only run one processer with it, but here’s the thing: incredibly powerful color correction is now possible for smaller and smaller boutique houses. If Hearken Creative grows a bit, I could foresee starting out with a Mac-based system and then move quickly to the Linux GPU cards via high speed InfiniBand connections.

The Da Vinci system is an industry-leading high-end color correction system for film and digital post production work. Da Vinci was purchased by BlackMagic Design in September 2009, and has been working to re-frame the playing field for color correction software. This will affect Apple’s Color as well as Avid’s built-in color correction (such as in Adrenaline).

The price of all of this stuff just keeps coming down further and further…

This, along with the firmware update that was released recently, brings us closer to truly being able to use the Canon DSLRs in a professional environment, which is what I want to do. I’m considering skipping the 7D entirely and simply saving up for a 5D — which will fit my business much better than the 7D anyways.