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ContentsJULY/AUGUST 2009 VOL 24 NO 4

In the next Issue of markeeEQUIPMENT • SOUND STUDIOS • ATLANTA • HD PORTFOLIO • LIGHTING PORTFOLIO

28

ON THE COVER

FEATURES8 High Def

Myriad usesBy Christine Bunish

12 SoundstagesIn the Northwestby Mark R. Smith

23 Mobile ProductionMeeting the challenges by Mark R. Smith and

Christine Bunish

28 The EastRoad Trip by Christine Bunish

SPECIAL SECTIONS15 Music & Sound Guide

34 Locations Gallery

DEPARTMENTS4 Biz Tips

5 Making A Scene

6 Broadcast TV

32 Inside View

33 Classified

8

online extrasAcross America

World Business

4 JULY/AUGUST 2009

Your competitors do. So do your customers, freelancers,

suppliers and employees. Do you know what they are

saying about you?

BIZ TIPS

ocial media fits right into business-es like those run by film and videodirectors, producers, animators,graphic artists, visual effects artists

and musicians – businesses that thrive inrelationships and communities.

“Inherent in the label social media isthe idea of building communities and usingthem to build your social life or your busi-ness,” says Jessie Nagel, a special agentwith Los Angeles-based Hype, a communi-cations agency specializing in entertain-ment. “Either way, the communicationsstyle is conversational instead of market-ing oriented.”

Are you building communities?Blogging? Tweeting? Making friends onFacebook and connections on LinkedIn?

If you’re not, you’re falling behind.Facebook alone reports having attractedmore than 200 million members. Nagelsays she meets a lot of people onFacebook in the advertising industry. Oneof the key strategies that social mediaexperts recommend is joining the mediathat your customers join.

What brands have you worked onlately? Without being commercial, find away to work those product categories intoyour tweets on Twitter.

“I can give you a silly example why,”Nagel says. “I put a cocktail recipe on myTwitter feed. In less than two hours, JimBeam was following me. The brands setup their systems to find people usingwords that describe their brands.”

What would you say on Facebook orTwitter? Your news. If you finish a spot,upload it to YouTube and put a messageabout it on the wall on your Facebookpage and send out a Tweet. Include theYouTube link in your messages.

Before sending out messages will doyou any good, however, you will have tobuild an audience.

Connect with your customers, col-leagues and employees to build up thenumbers. Nagel suggests making up con-tests and posting top ten lists – related insome way to you and the industry. “Listyour top 10 favorite shooting locations andwhy,” suggests Nagel. “Make up a contest

and give tickets to the best special effectsmovie running now. Post articles that willinterest people interested in your craft.”

Are you looking for an animator or aneffects artist? Post it. Social media sitescan serve at least as supplemental recruit-ment tools.

Do interesting things on your socialmedia sites and build an audience. Thenwhen you complete a noteworthy project,tell your audience about it. Don’t overdo it,though, cautions Nagel. “Don’t updateyour Facebook page too often,” she says.“You’ll burn people out.”

Do you keep a blog? That’s a socialmedia tool that you can update regularly.The more you update it the better. Peoplewho find it interesting will check back reg-ularly to see what you’ve been up to. Keepthe blog right on your website.

According to Daniel Boyle, owner ofLightPress.net, a Boston-based webdesign business, web sites and blogs aremerging. As a result, the web sites thatBoyle creates often contain a blog alongwith a button for it on the home page.

“Blogs are becoming important,” hesays. “The search engines today are beingset to favor the most current content. If yourweb site has a blog page that you updateregularly, it will help optimize your chanceswith the search engines. In fact, I’ve start-ed recommending that you set your blogpage to open first when someone clicks into your site. That will enable the searchengines to find you even more often.”

What’s more, a blog button on yourweb site will attract readers. Make it inter-esting and it will attract repeat visitorschecking for updates. Make it interactive –that is, allow readers to post comments –and you might generate even more traffic.

A lot of film and video people spice uptheir web sites in line with the personalitiesof the people working for the company.Sometimes that makes it difficult to get thepoint of crucial parts of the site. A bloggives you a place to show off your firm’spersonalities and the freedom to edit the“wise guy” copy on the marketing part ofthe web site so it will spread the wordabout your brand instead of confusion. n

Do You Use Social Media?

s

by Michael Fickes

5

by Michael Fickes

JULY/AUGUST 2009

makInGAsCene

Shooting For EffectsWhen Night Elf and Orc break out of the

World of Warcraft game box, they tear a

Los Angeles grocery store apart.

n a Los Angeles stage built out like a grocery store, afive-foot, four-inch tall stunt man dressed in a green-screen suit covered with tracking sensors races down anaisle, leaps into the air, comes down on a small trampo-

line and catapults himself into the air toward a tall stack of bever-age cartons labeled Mountain Dew Game Fuel. Hundreds of cam-eras shoot the scene from all angles.

The stunt man tucks his legs into his chest and wraps hisarms around his legs. Resembling a small, green cannonball, heplunges through a display of stacked cartons, slams into the floorand writhes in agony as the boxes fall onto him. The writhing wasan adlib that turned out to be a prescient.

Director Tarsem Singh of Santa Monica-based Radical Mediaand Creative Director and Visual Effects Supervisor Leslie Ekkerof L.A.’s Zoic Studios are collaborating on the practical shots for acommercial that will include a huge complement of visual effects.

In the spot, a cross promotion for Mountain Dew Game Fueland Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.’s World of Warcraft hit videogame, two pleasant looking moms in side-by-side grocery check-out aisles are buying Game Fuel. Each has selected a differentflavor. They hate each other for that. One mom turns away, andthe other seizes a sword and attacks the other mom from behind.The other mom blocks the sword with a staff.

The moms morph into the seven-foot, four-inch tall Orc andthe seven-foot, six-inch tall Night Elf, both major World of Warcraftcharacters. The ensuing battle tears the store apart.

Two examples from the fight illustrate the complexity of theeffects work. In one scene, Night Elf smashes a milk bottle. Inanother, an energy blast from Night Elf’s wand sends the Orc hur-dling through a stack of Game Fuel cartons.

Except for the animated Night Elf and Orc, everything thathappens in the spot is real. A stunt man did plunge through thecartons. Another stunt man did smash a milk bottle. The stuntmen caused the rest of the carnage as well.

“I believe that if it can be shot, it should be,” says Ekker.“There’s nothing like photography. Tarsem, the director, feelsthe same way.”

To shoot the practicals, Singh and Ekker choreographedtwo stunt men, each five-foot, four-inches tall, and eachdressed in green-screen suits covered with tracking sensors.

“The technique is first to shoot the stunt man affecting theenvironment, smashing the milk bottle or flying into the car-tons,” Ekker says. “Then we paint the stunt men out and insertthe characters.”

With the live scenes in hand, Zoic inserted the animatedcharacters, a difficult chore. For instance, when the stunt man

smashed the bottle, the action sent up a spray of milk dropletsbetween the camera and the character. To paint out the stuntman, artists had to work around tiny droplets of milk. “We used theframes before and after the smash to get pieces of the frame thatwere clear of the stunt man,” Ekker says. “Then we reappliedthem to the parts of the frame where he was revealed.”

Then the Zoic artists made mattes of the spray, added thecharacters and composited the spray back in on top of the char-acters. Adding the characters was complicated. For instance,when the five-foot, four inch stunt man swung his wand andsmashed the milk bottle, he did so from a level lower than theseven-foot, six-inch Night Elf. “We had to compensate for theheight difference by about 20 percent to make it look natural,”Ekker says. “We did that by lowering the height of the shelf themilk bottle stood on for the stunt man and by globally scaling upthe tracking points when inserting Night Elf into the scene.”

The same technique painted out the stunt man cannonballing into the cartons and to insert Orc. Ekker also added amagic power blast that emanated from Night Elf’s staff, shotacross the screen and blasted Orc into the cartons. Blizzard sentreferences for a blast visual, but they didn’t work in the resolutionof the television format.

Early in the process, Mountain Dew had asked for a halo effectto highlight the bottles in the product shot that closes the commer-cial. Ekker came up with a blue and red electrical cloud. Blizzardsuggested manipulating the cloud effect to create the blast.

In the spot, Night Elf blasts Orc with an electrical cloudbeamed from her staff. The beam knocks Orc into the cartons.While Orc writhes on the floor – an action made possible by thestunt man’s adlib – small balls of left over energy from the blastdance over Orc’s body and appear to cause the writhing.

Night Elf raises her arms and howls in victory. But Orc leapsup and charges. As the scene dissolves to the product shot, thecharacters wreck the rest of the store. n

o

6 JULY/AUGUST 2009

fter the car accident, DanHumford lies in a coma in a hospi-tal in Bakersfield, California.Whatever comas are usually like,

Dan’s coma is not a blank, dark night ofnothing. Dan’s psyche has begun tellingcomical stories, which Los Angeles-basedLead Balloon is recording in HighDefinition. The company plans to distributethe stories as a serial webisode sitcom.

Webisodes have matured dramatical-ly in recent years. They have earned anannual awards program, called SXSW(South By Southwest, Inc.), YouTube andYahoo Web Series Awards. Equally, if notmore important, webisodes have begun todevelop a means of generating revenue.

Consider The Guild, a serial webisodeabout online gamers. Fans, mostly onlinegamers, supported the first season of theThe Guild through Paypal donations. Thatfirst season generated over 9 million webhits and won the SXSW, YouTube andYahoo Web Series Awards in 2008.Currently in its third season, the series isnow funded by Microsoft.

Lead Balloon, the producer of Coma,Period, hopes to support that seriesthrough viewer donations. A new company,Lead Balloon was formed by executives ofPsychic Bunny, a Los Angeles-basedmotion, graphics, animation and live pro-duction company. Four creative partners –directors, producers and writers – fromPsychic Bunny run Lead Balloon, which isalso based in L.A.

“Lead Balloon is our foray into originalcontent,” says Rick Castaneda, a creativepartner in the company and director ofComa, Period. “We want to make the seriesa jumping off point to sponsored shows.”

Coma, Period is set in Dan Humford’smind, a white void, which constantly cre-ates odd, funny dreams. Shot with onecamera on a tripod against green screen,each webisode requires about 70 shotsper day, 8 plus pages of script, over three12-hour days. To get the 210 shots thatcompose a webisode, Castaneda consid-

ers the result of about500 takes.

As the director,Castaneda sets up andselects shots in coopera-tion with Lead Balloon’svideo effects artist.

Castaneda directs acrew that includes thedirector of photography,three producers, produc-tion designer, make up artist, audio techni-cian, gaffer, a couple of production assis-tants and a still photographer.

To get the shots, DP Jeffrey Waldronwields a Panasonic HVX200 HighDefinition camera, which comes with awide-angle 13X Leica Dicomar® zoomlens. It offers a wide 30mm viewing angle,covering most shooting situations withoutthe need for a wide-angle conversion lens.

Waldron lights Coma, Period with stu-dio tungsten lights and Kino Flo fixturesfrom Ringleader, the L.A.-based produc-tion facility that provided the green screenstage for the shoot.

On the set, Waldron uses a ring oftungsten-balanced Kino Flos to form a ringaround the overhead lighting grid to keepthe green screen evenly lighted. “Our mainsource is a 5k studio light through thick dif-fusion to achieve a large, soft, wrappingkey,” he says. “Kino Flo fixtures on standsare walked around as edge lights wherenecessary and overhead 1k light throughdiffusion served as additional backlightsand hair-lights. The grid-rigged lights wereeasily manipulated by a dimmer board foreasy adjustments scene to scene.”

Castaneda describes the show as aseries of comic strips, each lasting two orthree minutes. In one webisode, Humford’scomatose mind creates a staring contestwith a fetus. In another, he searches for arestroom, unsuccessfully, because there isno restroom in his mind. “In still anotherwebisode, people from Humford’s past,buried in his subconscious, begin to haunthim,” says Castaneda. “Trying to find his

tormentors, Humford rips a hole in the whitefloor of his conscious mind.”

“To shoot that scene we pulled the‘ground’ up by creating a floor with whitepaper,” Waldron recalls. “From the cam-era’s perch high on a ladder, we could lookdown through a hole torn in the paper tosee the people below. We blacked out thegreen screen floor beneath them, and Ilighted the paper floor to match the rest ofthe footage, letting the shadows beneaththe people fall dark. It was a low-budget,practical in-camera solution that workedout really well.”

After a shoot, Castaneda, who alsoedits the webisodes, reviews the selectsand works with the visual effects artist todetermine the best way to compositegreen screen scenes, like the one with thecrowd of people in Humford’s subcon-scious. Finally, he organizes the selects ina way that tells the story of the video comicstrip and cuts a show together.

Castaneda also tapped The MaybeHappening, a Portland, Oregon-basedband run by his cousin, to create an origi-nal score for the show. It is a string-basedscore that reflects Humford’s alternatelyhigh and low moods.

Coma, Period is one of hundreds, ifnot thousands, of webisode serials com-peting for attention on the web today. Asare its competitors, Coma, Period is oddand quirky and tailored consciously to thetastes of a younger generation that may bere-making the way that talented directors,DPs and producers make a name forthemselves. n

Shooting A Coma

by Michael Fickes

a

BroadCast Tv

What visions are dancing around in

the mind of a coma patient?

http://www.canonhdec.com

8 JULY/AUGUST 2009

Weston gives HD northern exposure

In the Anchorage, Alaska area RussWeston of Weston Productions has been shoot-ing HD since it “hit the market.” Although it’sbeen “slow coming on as a sole [acquisition]source,” HD has become “more and moreprevalent” for the majority of his TV program-ming clients, he reports.

Weston’s “workhorse” HD camera is Sony’sPDW700; he also uses Panasonic HVX900 andHVX200 cameras along with Sony’s Z1, hismost- often requested small HD camera.

Known for putting together live broadcastsfrom remote areas, Weston has extensive experi-ence taking HD gear to inhospitable environ-ments. He has covered more than 20 Iditarodraces with “just about every format since ¾-inch,”tapping the Sony PDW700 last March to chroni-cle legally-blind entrant Rachael Scdoris for NBCfrom snow machine and sled. “I was very pleasedwith the way the camera performed,” he says. “Ittakes a tremendous beating exposed to the ele-ments with just an occasional jaunt indoors whileI shower and change the batteries.”

Weston also spent two weeks shootingwith the PDW700 for a National Geographicfishing show. He accompanied crabbers to theBering Sea where 50-foot waves buffeted their100-foot boat. “You can put raincoats on thecameras but when the waves crash down noth-ing is going to protect you and your equip-ment,” Weston points out. “That’s why I’mexcited about tapeless technology because lesscan go wrong. The PDW700 uses optical disks,so it takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.”

Weston has also shot HD at high altitudesduring the climbing season and hooked an HDcamera to a Tyler mount for aerials over gla-ciers. The only continuing drawback is the for-mat’s big power consumption. “We use AntonBauer’s new dionic batteries which are veryexpensive. We carry eight with us, but we haveto be very conscious of battery management.”

Streamwerx flies highfor HD aerials

“Everything looks beautiful when youshoot it in HD”, says Streamwerx President andDP, Decker Campbell. Campbell, and her busi-ness partner, Writer/Producer Ann WoodroofWilliams, capture HD content from the air forclients and for their own unique stock-footagedivision.

This spring Campbell used her Sony EX1

XDCAM to acquire aerials of a mock city usedfor target practice and training at Marine baseCamp LeJeune. Campbell recently rented hergyro-stabilized camera system to the JAARSaviation ministry to use with a PanasonicVariCam for air-to-air filming of their latestKodiak aircraft over Lake Wateree, SouthCarolina.

Campbell and Williams just returnedfrom gathering stock footage of the RockyMountains and the Great Sand Dunes NationalPark of Colorado. They also shot air-to-air stillsand HD footage of noted aerial photographerJim Wark flying his Aviat Husky Aircraft.Streamwerx has also added HD day and nightaerials of Tampa, Miami and Montgomery,Alabama to its stock-footage collection.

Campbell employs Aerial Exposures heli-copter mounts, including the KS12 gyrodesigned to accommodate larger cameras. She’sstill looking for a nose mount, though, and isworking with noted DP Jordan Klein of JordanKlein Productions on a mini Mako head tailoredto fit “whatever camera you want,” she reports.

Nevertheless, “the vibrations of the helicop-ter are definitely a challenge to overcome no mat-ter what remote control system you come upwith,” she explains. “Cameras with hard drivesdon’t do well with helicopter vibrations, and mediastorage is an issue. Solid-state media, like Flashcards or P2 cards, are best; I use Sony SxS cards.”

Wimberg chows downon buffet of HD formats

As a freelance videographer/cinematogra-pher in Bozeman, Montana, Randy Wimberg,of Wimberg Productions, LLC, is hired forbroadcast shoots and regional projects, oftenfor non-profit and conservation groups. He wasan early adopter of HD, even for programsbroadcast in Standard Definition, to extendtheir shelf life.

“I use a lot of different HD cameras in ayear to meet very specific client needs so I usual-ly rent cameras or the client supplies them,” henotes. “But I own a Sony PMW-EX1 XDCAM.”His wife, Kristin, is an editor who cuts on the lat-est version of Apple’s Final Cut Pro HD.

Recent for-hire work includes WarmSpring Productions’ Duck Commanders, a 13-episode reality series that debuted this summeron Outdoor Channel. Wimberg used PanasonicPX2000 and HVX200A HD cameras for theshoot in Louisiana. He has also been document-ing, for DYI Channel, the ground-up construc-tion of The Ultimate Sportsman’s Lodge, a pri-

HD:A Format For All SeasonsAs HD acquisition choices proliferate so do the uses of HD.

By Christine Bunish

Wimberg Productions, LLC

Weston Productions

Streamwerx

Wimberg Productions, LLC

vate residence in Melrose, Montana. Wimberg hastapped an array of cameras for the latter series:VariCam, Panasonic’s HDX900, JVC’s GYHD-110Ufor timelapse, plus his own PMW-EX1.

He’s deploying his Sony camera for WimbergProductions’ project for Keystone Conservation aboutthe non-lethal techniques used by the Range Riders tokeep wolves at bay during cattle drives. The video,edited by Kristin, will end up on DVD and the web.

“As a freelancer I have to be really flexible as HDtechnology evolves and changes,” Wimberg says. “Nocamera system is perfect, and you have to learn toadapt to using different cameras for different jobs.”While higher-end HD cameras tend to have operat-ing similarities, each of the smaller camcorders“seems to have their own way of doing things” whichcan mean mastering learning curves for every system.Nevertheless, Wimberg lauds small HD cameras fortheir increasing high quality and “flexibility in gettingthe shot whether from horseback or ATV.”

Karst takes HD high speedand underwater

DP Wes Skiles of High Springs, Florida’s KarstProductions, who’s best known for shooting science,adventure and exploration shows, has been shooting HDsince 2000. He owns two Sony CineAlta cameras and anXDCAM and partnered with Amphibico to design thefirst commercially-available HD underwater housing.

Over a seven-month period Skiles was DP forseasons one and two of Discovery Channel’s TimeWarp series which uses ultra high-speed photographyto examine the world beyond human vision. “I was incharge of six cameras: two Sony F900s shooting 29.97Progressive Scan, Photon S-1 and S-2 cameras, aPhantom V10 and a Fastec Cube,” he reports. TheHD high-speed footage – of a medieval catapult,kitchen utensils and culinary disasters, magic tricks,Olympic platform divers, airbags in cars, Cirque duSoleil performers – is “simply jaw dropping.”

Skiles began shooting the NationalGeographic/NOVA special, The Blue Holes of theBahamas, in July with his pair of CineAlta cameras, onededicated fulltime to underwater shooting in theAmphibico housing. The show will document theislands’ amazing underwater cave system with “new dis-coveries and revelations” promised. “The new sciencefrom this will be off the chart,” he vows. Skiles built largeaquariums to temporarily accommodate the marinespecies captured during the shoot for high-speed pho-tography “in a natural environment that’s also a con-trolled space.” He has also modified an Amphibicohousing to fit the Fastec camera for the project.

Skiles believes that “HD is in a very strong posi-tion” for his specialty niche. He sees two issuesemerging, however: camera optics and media man-agement. “I look forward to real versatility in thetypes of optics we’re able to use,” Skiles says. But as “avisually-oriented person,” he’s having to make bigadjustments in the move to tapeless acquisition.

“I still want to shove a tape in a tape deck, scanshots, capture them, log them and digitize individualclips,” he notes. “I worry about creating a media recordthat stays real and accountable, that’s easily recallable,that you can’t lose track of. How do you keep every-thing on a drive that has no personality or character?”

continued on next page

10 JULY/AUGUST 2009

Locke Bryan implementsnew tools for spot markets

Locke Bryan, a director with Houston’s LockeBryan Productions, finds his largely commercialclients turning “more and more to HD” especiallywith cameras such as RED, Panavision’s Genesis andthe Phantom, all of which he rents through the localPanavision office. He’s a longtime owner of a SonyF900 HDCAM package, too.

“What I like about Genesis is that you get a fullPanavision system with lenses and accessories; it’s robustand well thought out and easily available,” Bryan reports.He’s done Military One Source spots in studio and a

Reliant Energy campaign on location with Genesis.Phantom’s high-speed capabilities came into

play last year with a national spot for the Silestonecountertop surface which combined regular andultra slow-motion footage (1000 fps) for a uniquelook. This spring he lensed an Academy Sports &Outdoors retail chain spot at 1000-1500 fps on a golfcourse and in June he shot gymnasts and dancers at500-600 fps for an American Total Orthopedics spot.

In the year between his first two Phantom jobs“the camera had really grown,” Bryan reports. “Itbecame more of a production tool. When you shoot1000 fps at full 1080i, it’s pretty impressive. Withfilm, you shoot a bunch of slo-mo takes and hope

you’ve got them; with Phantom playback it’s immedi-ate and assured.”

Since Phantom is a file-based camera, LockeBryan Productions, which boasts four Avid editsuites, had to develop a post workflow for the formatwith a realistic timeline. “Bringing back Phantomfiles to load into Avid Unity shared storage takes acouple of days,” Bryan recalls. “You have to knowthings like that going into a project.” Media manage-ment and archiving are other areas that need to betackled with tapeless workflows.

“We’re at the cusp of changing over higher-levelproduction to some of these newer tools,” he notes. “Withcameras like RED, Genesis and others there are enoughoptions to make really good choices for any project.”

Tacoma tackles HD andHDV challenges

In Tacoma, Washington Craig Kelly wears twohats: He’s a freelance director shooting high-end, multi-camera HD nationwide for live events via Vantage RoadMedia Services and the owner of Tacoma VideoWorkswhich caters to the South Puget Sound corporate worldwith HDV production.

Typical of his Vantage Road work is the multi-camera live switched show, Peter Gabriel Live inConcert in Seattle, which he directed. He also servedas camera operator on a new DVD for Jack Black’sband, Tenacious D, and provided directing servicesfor an HD flight pack used in a Microsoft web proj-ect shot on campus in Redmond, Washington.

For Tacoma VideoWorks he recently producedand directed an HDV international recruiting piecefor Tacoma Community College that was authoredon DVD and compressed for the web.

On the high-profile live shows HD camera focusis the biggest challenge, Kelly reports. “The cameraoperators’ focus chops have to be real good.Experience, familiarity and a natural ability all make agood camera operator.” Apart from meeting that criti-cal challenge, “HD doesn’t add more concerns butoffers more luxuries,” he says. “When you raise thestakes you pay more attention to details and enhancethe creativity of the product.”

HDV production has its own issues, however.“DPs have to figure out how to light and shoot withthat small a camera,” says Kelly who uses a Sony EX3with prime lenses recording to SxS cards which deliv-ers “gorgeous” pictures. “With a 30-year career shoot-ing tape it’s been hard for me not to walk away witha tape and know I have the show. I’m trying to adaptthe best I can.” But Kelly and his crews are still devis-ing media management and archiving procedures asnew post workflows are established.

“There are no real rules yet,” he points out.“That makes it difficult – not hard, but difficult.”

HD settles in at TeakMotion Visuals

A full-service production company in SanFrancisco, Teak Motion Visuals has been shooting HDfor the last few years starting with Panasonic’sHVX200 camera and increasingly with RED DigitalCinema’s RED ONE. About 60 percent of the compa-ny’s work goes to the web often after Teak Motion editscontent and adds motion graphics and 3D elements.

“HD is a big part of our lives here,” notesowner/Executive Producer Greg Martinez. “And

HD: A Format For All Seasons

among those of us who worked with film, we findthat HD does hold a candle to film while being lessexpensive and with a faster workflow.”

Staff Director Greg Rowan shot a 14-minutedocumentary with Panasonic’s HVX200 for JanSportbackpacks that followed the life of founder SkipYowell. Lensed in Seattle, Kansas and the Bay Area, itpremiered at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride,Colorado and will be submitted to other festivals. Thecompany’s DJ Joo edited.

Rowan tapped the Sony F900 to capture live-action and bluescreen footage for Van, a JanSportbrand marketing piece which debuted at the SXSWFilm Festival. “It’s an effects piece with heavy com-positing,” Martinez explains. “The HD content madeit easy to do tracking, rotoscoping and compositingwith After Effects and Smoke that wouldn’t have beenpossible with SD footage.”

DP Doug Chamberlain shot a pair of PizzaWhisperer spots for Round Table Pizza with RED.“The original campaign was shot on 35mm butRound Table challenged Y&R to produce the remain-der of the campaign for a more resourceful budget,”

Martinez notes. Spy Post’s Chris Martin color cor-rected. “The RED footage had such great informationthat the coloring process was very easy. There aresome tricky things to remember when shooting withRED, but the color space is pretty amazing.”

HD is good sport atHeadsouth

Headsouth Productions in Tampa andOrlando, where Stephen Grandoff is DP, primarilyworks with the sports market shooting programmingfor networks and independent clients as well as eventpromos and highlight reels. HD predominates, saysGrandoff, with Headsouth completing an estimated100 HD shoots in the first half of this year with thecompany’s VariCam and CineAlta cameras.

“In sports you only get one shot at it – whetherit’s the US Open, NBA Finals or the Super Bowl – andit’s a learned technique,” he notes. “HD’s detail anddefinition is so crisp that the focus is more critical. Itdoesn’t matter where you are in the focal point, youhave to be right on or it will show. But I wouldn’t

want to shoot anything else for sports.”This spring Grandoff and cameraman Marten

Kaufman shot the NBA Playoffs and Finals and com-piled a US Open highlight reel and promos, the latterfor a European customer. Earlier he shot Tampa sce-nics for the Super Bowl’s global show. “They wereused throughout the five-hour pregame broadcastand in live game coverage as bumpers,” he explains. Ashot of the city and its waterways which dissolved tothe Super Bowl trophy was also deployed in the gameopen. Grandoff, with Samson Chan and Ken Woo,also shot several three-camera interviews with BobCostas, including one with Bruce Springsteen.

Headsouth recently added a Sony 700 XDCAMto its arsenal. “Networks generally want the VariCamor CineAlta F900, and Panasonic’s 900 HD camera isalso in rotation,” Grandoff points out.

“There hasn’t been a big demand for smaller-for-mat HD” from sports producers, he reports. “The larg-er cameras are much easier to handle. The challenge, asan operator, with the smaller cameras is the feeling of alack of control. You need the bigger element and largerlenses so the camera can do what it needs to do.” n

12 JULY/AUGUST 2009

Fir Street reinvents packingplant

Some soundstages are built for produc-tion, others have had previous lives: Fir StreetStudios in Medford, Oregon, was once a pear-packing plant.

The 70,000-square-foot facility hasevolved nicely and made effective use of its vastspace. It now comprises a 5,000-square-footstage with a two-wall, pre-lit hard cyc; an18x22-foot projection theater for dailies; a17,000-square-foot scene-building shop; a10,000-square-foot production support areaand a 10,000-square-foot prop house.

The latter came in handy for three featuresFir Street hosted in recent years. “You won’tfind anything like that,” in the northwest, saysowner John Foote. “You’d have to go to WarnerBros. in Hollywood” to find similar offerings.

Oregon just passed a substantial film-incentive package, he notes, which is crucial toa business that’s been quiet lately. During thelast six months of 2008 and the first six monthsof this year, “we had nothing,” says Foote. So FirStreet self-produced a pilot and two webisodesof a new media sitcom, The Dickweeds, basedon the alt-rock band Chesterfield. Fir Streetalso created stand-alone music videos to use ascontent enhancers for The Dickweeds and todrive the show. “We’re shopping them now,”Foote reports.

The good news is that business is lookingup lately. The Lanphier agency rented the stagefor a regional spot and segments for an internaleducational resource video for client AsanteHealth System and its Road Valley MedicalCenter; Clear Compass Media, an environmen-tal company that explores the effects of globalwarming, has booked the stage for an Octobercorporate shoot.

The nearby Ashland Independent FilmFestival is gaining momentum, too. “Plus,”Foote says, the Medford environs are “a beauti-ful place to do business.”

PG&L sees seasonal spike

Pacific Grip & Lighting (PG&L) is locatedabout nine miles south of Seattle, just off of I-5between downtown and the airport. It, too,offers 5,000 square feet (50x100) of stage space,making it “among the larger stages in the mar-ket,” according to Production Manager RayHammond.

A bottom-line boost usually occurs atPG&L during the fall and winter. “In the sum-mer people want to work outside, but in thewinter we tend to get more work [business] dueto the colder and often rainy weather,” hereports. Most stage shoots come via corporateprojects and local agencies.

As an equipment rental house the compa-ny also supports location shoots. During theeconomic downturn PG&L has been doingmore work outside the studio than on the stageit turns out. Still, the stage’s chief client isMicrosoft, for training videos as well as otherprojects; PG&L has been working with themsince they opened for business.

Hammond and crew worked on a big cor-porate project with Boeing recently filming thethird installment of an IMAX movie about the787 Dreamliner aircraft. PG&L has also hostedshoots for four different area churches in 2009as well as car spots for Toyota and Chevroletwithin the last year. While the automakers typ-ically lens commercials on the road, producersalways need a stage for close ups and interiorshots, he points out. PG&L teamed with localcompanies like J.H. Productions and PiranhaProductions on spot projects, too.

Also noteworthy last year was the RobinWilliams black comedy World’s Greatest Dadwhich shot interiors at PG&L and premiered atthe Sundance Film Festival and the Seattle FilmFestival. It’s due for widespread release laterthis year.

Portland has stage @Large

Juliana Lukasik, principal and directorwith @Large Films, a film and video commer-cial production company based in Portland,says the company’s 4,500-square-foot facility isthe first stop “for a large percentage of our jobsfilmed here” especially when “there’s a chill inthe air” and the Northwest’s famous precipita-tion is imminent.

“During the winter, approximately 75 per-cent of our projects are shot on the stage,” shenotes. During warmer weather that numberdeclines but @Large “does stay quite busy in thespecial-events market” which today frequentlyincludes video components. The stage featuresa 36 by 28-foot cyc wall that includes an elevat-ed client viewing area, a full green room and ashower.

Shooting game cinematics for video gamedevelopers is another important business sec-tor. The company has hosted shoots forNintendo’s Wii and DS products and for gam-ing firm Ubisoft, which markets the RaymanRaving Rabbids game. “For these clients webuild large sets, sometimes as many as three ata time,” Lukasik reports.

@Large also shoots an array of projects onthe cyc wall, ranging from high-end commercialsfor Nintendo, Ubisoft and Performance DesignedProducts to educational projects for the OregonCenter for Applied Science (ORCAS).

In addition, the space works well as “aninsert stage for car spots, product shots and

Northwest Soundstages – By Mark R. Smith

The Pacific Northwest offers a bounty of stages for producers requiring studio space ina region whose matchless natural beauty already lures many for location work.

13JULY/AUGUST 2009

larger set builds,” she notes. Product shots forJeld-Wen Windows & Doors and local Dodge,Honda and Toyota dealerships are amongrecent credits.

Multiple stage offerings atChambers

The offerings at Eugene, Oregon’sChambers Productions, vary from those ofsome others in the region due to their extensivenature. The company boasts five studios thatrange in size from a 600-square-foot insertstage with blue screen to two matching 14,000-square-foot studios on its back lot.

Also under the facility’s roof are 2,300-

square-foot and 5,400-square-foot studios,with the latter featuring a two-wall coveredhard cyc. All told, a total of 87,000 square feetof shooting space spans eight acres. JeannaMinshall, Chambers’ production manager,reports that the “script-to-screen HD produc-tion facility” rounds out its capabilities withmultiple Avid bays and three Apple Final CutPro suites, a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio mixingsuite, duplication facilities and other amenitiesthat “have helped to keep us busy during thedown economy.”

Noteworthy projects at Chambers includean independent film, Something Wicked, that

wrapped in early June. Produced by MerchantFilms and Executive Producers Scott Chambersand Dan Giustina, the crew used Stages Four(14,000 square feet) and Three (5,400 squarefeet), plus Eugene-area locations for 29 days.

Chambers is also very active in the corpo-rate arena, with clients like Samaritan HealthSystems, Harvest House Publishing andStahlbush Island Farms, which grows and sellsorganic food nationally. Educational institu-tions, like the University of Oregon, OregonState University and Lane Community College,also tap the stages.

continued on next page

opposite (l to r) – Pacific Grip & Lighting; Cine Rent West; Chambers Productions; @Large Films

14 JULY/AUGUST 2009

A healthy amount of spots, direct and viaad agencies, are booked for the insert stage,including commercials for Keifer Kia, via long-time client Prevedello & Associates, andWestern Oregon University and Lane ForestProducts, a local landscaping supplier, direct.

Cine Rent West turnkeysproductions

Today’s economic environment, saysChris Crever, the owner of Portland’s CineRent West, “is forcing all of us all to think out-

side the box to keep the stage occupied.”Billed as the city’s “only turnkey stage,”

Cine Rent West’s studio recently “wrapped anuntitled Hollywood feature [known as theCrowley project] that stars Harrison Ford,”Crever says. Since the producers converted alarge warehouse across town into a soundstage,Cine Rent West’s 6,000-square foot space wasdedicated to hair, makeup and camera tests aswell as casting late last winter.

For years, the stage’s bread and butter hasbeen spot and corporate work, Crever reports.That’s “still coming along pretty well,” hereports. Recent shoots include a direct-

response spot for Brookstone from Respond 2,an Adidas campaign from Sockeye Creative andHP spots from CMD. Also, Food Chain Filmslensed spots for Microsoft and Legacy HealthCare on site.

In the corporate arena, Owen Creative justproduced content for Pacific Northwest Golf ’scompany web site and Graystone Media pro-duced clips and interstitials for ComcastSportsNet’s coverage of the PortlandLumberjacks lacrosse team. Infomercials forBowFlex and Gold’s Gym were also in the mix.

Crever owns the 14,000-square-footbuilding housing Cine Rent West. He notes thatthe stage space, which would comprise “aninsert stage in LA,” is “a big deal” in thePortland market. The company’s turnkey serv-ices have launched a program called MovieCamp, which is geared to introducing teens tofundamental aspects of commercial produc-tion. The next-generation of stage customers isin the making.

SG&L serves diverse mix

Variety has been the name of the game atSeattle Grip & Lighting (SG&L), whose recentprojects range from spots to music videos toinfomercials. That’s the good news in a yearthat has included the company’s “largestdecline in business in 15 years,” says co-ownerMick Lane.

While SG&L has seen a drop-off in localand national shoots in particular (as well aslocation production), the company is makingadjustments to boost its bottom line, mostnotably adding what Lane terms, “a new, to-be-named tenant” that will make liberal use of itsstages. To enhance the arrival of the new ten-ant, SG&L is set to embark on a major renova-tion that will “touch every room of the build-ing,” says Lane, with a focus on faster Internetservice to expedite film and video playback.

Despite this year’s downward trend, SG&Lhas a healthy number of projects to its credit asit looks to the future. They include XBOX spotsshot by local production company, WorldFamous, plus commercials for Amazon’s Kindleelectronic reading device and Taco Time, alocal restaurant chain in the Emerald City, thelatter from Leonard Creative.

In addition, SG&L worked on its 100thspot over a 15-year period for the SeattleMariners Major League Baseball team withBlue Goose Productions. It also set the stage foran infomercial for Space Bags Storage Systemswith a local production company, Envision.

On a musical note, the company hasworked with two industry titans hosting ashoot to capture video content for Pearl Jam’snew album, Backspacer, and a music video forthe Dave Matthews Band’s Funny the Way It Is.

Productions tap both of SG&L’s stages: thelarger is 5,300 square feet with a two-wall hardcyc, the other 2,100 square feet. Both are usedfor a mix of projects and have picture caraccess, Lane notes. n

Northwest Soundstages

16 JULY/AUGUST 2009 MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

5 ALARM MUSIC 626-304-1698F:626-795-2058 cassie@5alarmmusic.com

5TH FLOOR RECORDING CO 414-276-1919F:414-221-6621 ray@5thfloorrecording.com

615 MUSIC 615-244-6515F:615-242-2455 info@615music.com

www.615music.com

615 MUSIC 818-846-1615F:615-242-2455 info@615music.com

www.615music.com

7-OUT-MUSIC 323-650-0767F:323-650-2906 mark@7outmusic.com

AARON/STOKES MUSIC + SOUND 612-373-2220F:612-373-5826 info@aaronstokes.com

ABSOLUTE MUSIC 612-339-6758absolute@absolutemusicinc.com

AIRCRAFT MUSIC LIBRARY 800-343-2514F:617-303-7666

ALAZIA ENTERTAINMENT 401-737-4410music@alazia.com

ALTIER MUSIC 561-427-3414info@composerguy.com

AMBER MUSIC 212-352-1888F:212-352-1208 michelle@ambermusic.com

AMBER MUSIC 310-582-8288F:310-582-8288 carol@ambermusic.com

AMERICAN MUSIC COMPANY INC 516-764-1466F:516-764-2648 info@americanmusicco.com

www.americanmusicco.com

ANOTHER COUNTRY 312-706-5800F:312-706-5801 tim.konn@anothercountry.net

APM MUSIC 323-461-3211F:323-461-9102 accountservices@apmmusic.com

APM MUSIC 212-856-9800F:212-856-9807 accountservices@apmmusic.com

ARU INC 312-527-7000F:312-527-3360 katie@aruchicago.com

ASCHE & SPENCER 612-338-0032F:612-338-4319 info@ascheandspencer.com

ASCHE & SPENCER 310-396-2344F:310-396-7387 info@ascheandspencer.com

AUDACITY RECORDING 954-920-4418F:954-923-9274 linda@audacityrecording.com

AUDIO ENGINE-NY 212-473-2700info@audioengine.net

AUDIO ENGINE-WEST 602-250-8605F:602-250-8606 info-west@audioengine.net

AUDIO LAB SOUND RECORDINGS 208-344-9551steve@audiolab.org

AUDIOIMAGE RECORDING 804-644-7700F:804-644-8801 info@audioimagerecording.com

AUDISEE 206-283-4733audisee@audisee.com

AZ LOS ANGELES 310-581-8081F:310-581-8091 alonso@azlosangeles.com

BAD ANIMALS 206-443-1500F:206-441-2910 info@badanimals.com

BAKER SOUND STUDIO 215-567-0400F:215-567-0350 info@bakersound.com

BAM STUDIO 312-255-8862F:312-255-8842 info@bamstudio.com

BEACON STREET STUDIOS 310-392-9535adrea@beaconstreetstudios.com

BEAR CREEK STUDIO 425-481-4100F:425-486-2718 bearcreek@seanet.com

BENNETT STUDIOS 201-227-0200F:201-227-7133 dae@bennettstudios.com

BIG U MUSIC.SOUND DESIGN 602-253-2448F:602-254-6596 info@bigumusic.com

BLAZING MUSIC + SOUND 919-645-6622eric@blazingmusicsound.com

BLUE MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN 310-568-3355F:310-568-0033 blue@bluemusicla.com

BOUTWELL STUDIOS 205-870-1180greg@boutwellstudios.com

BROCK MUSIC INC 615-298-2200info@brockmusic.com

BWN 612-252-3990info@bwnoise.com

BWN 323-462-1873info@outlawsound.com

CAKEMIX RECORDING 972-818-1649F:972-818-2686 record@cakemixrecording.com

CANARY COLLECTION 888-422-6279info@canarymusic.com

CATAMOUNT RECORDING INC 319-235-6517catamount@cfu.net

CHAPMAN RECORDING STUDIO 913-894-6854F:913-894-6857 chuck@chapmanrecording.com

CHARLES ELLER STUDIOS 802-425-3508chas@charlesellerstudios.com

CHICAGO RECORDING CO 312-822-9333F:312-822-9189 chrisshepard@chicagorecording.com

CINETRAX 323-874-9590F:323-874-9592 info@cinetrax.com

CLATTER & DIN 206-464-0520F:206-464-0702 info@clatterdin.com

CLEAN CUTS MUSIC 202-237-8884F:202-237-5455 christina@cleancuts.com

COLORADO SOUND RECORDING STUDIO 303-430-8811colosnd@coloradosound.com

CONCENTRIX MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN 704-372-3448F:704-372-3581 fred@concentrixmusic.com

COUPE STUDIOS MUSIC 303-447-0551info@coupestudios.com

CREATIVE SOUND CONCEPTS 404-873-6628F:404-367-9599 creativesound@mindspring.com

CSS MUSIC 800-468-6874F:323-660-2070 info@cssmusic.com

MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

CURTIS BRYANT MUSIC 770-964-3063F:770-969-4013 cbmusic@bellsouth.net

DAVENPORT MUSIC LIBRARY 866-698-7983F:704-749-2566 nd@davenportmusic.com

DAVID BERNSTEIN MUSIC 503-396-5294db@davidbernsteinmusic.com

DEAF MULE 214-849-5505F:214-849-5507 info@deafmule.com

DERRYBERRY AUDIO INC 303-456-8216F:303-254-6304 info@derryberryaudio.com

DEWOLFE MUSIC LIBRARY 212-382-0220F:212-382-0278 info@dewolfemusic.com

DIGITAL DOMAIN OF AUSTIN 512-328-9058F:512-328-9056 kelly@digdom.com

DIGITAL ONE 503-228-3441F:503-224-7413 dano@digone.com

DL MUSIC 323-878-0400F:323-878-0444 derek@dl-music.com

DOPPLER STUDIOS 404-873-6941F:404-249-7148 info@dopplerstudios.com

DREAMSCAPE MUSIC 310-857-8599len@dreamscapemusic.com

DRM PRODUCTIONS INC 214-752-5000F:972-539-1129 service@drmprod.com

EARHOLE 312-527-1775F:312-527-4884 info@earholestudios.com

ECHO BOYS 612-338-7947F:612-338-4601 info@echoboys.com

ELIAS ARTS 212-807-6500F:212-645-0874 dpiacenza@eliasarts.com

ELIAS ARTS 310-581-6500F:310-581-4800 ahaugen@eliasarts.com

EMOTO MUSIC 310-399-6900la@emotomusic.com

EMOTO MUSIC 312-640-1878chicago@emotomusic.com

ENDLESS NOISE 310-566-1463F:310-566-1469 dayna@endlessnoise.com

EXTREME PRODUCTION MUSIC 310-395-0408F:310-395-0409 la@extrememusic.com

FIRSTCOM MUSIC 972-446-8742 F:972-389-4301 info@firstcom.com

www.firstcom.com

FRESH MUSIC LIBRARY 413-786-1450F:416-786-1783 bob@freshmusic.com

GAMEBEAT STUDIOS 708-283-8860F:708-283-8870 info@gamebeatstudios.com

GE MUSIC 212-673-9274F:212-673-9140 info@gemusic.com

GLENN SOUND 206-583-8112F:206-583-0930 info@glennsound.com

GMP MUSIC 800-955-0619F:269-687-9200 info@gmpmusic.com

GOPLAYMUSIC.COM 206-363-9270geoff@goplaymusic.com

GRATIS MUSIC LIBRARY 800-864-1467F:800-514-8354 jlambert@gratismusiclibrary.com

GROOVE ADDICTS 310-572-4646F:310-572-4647 info@grooveaddicts.com

HANDSOME BROTHERS MUSIC 617-666-1200F:617-666-3918 president@handsomebrothers.com

HEST & KRAMER VAN HOUSE & WEBER 310-573-8484F:310-573-8488 jim@hestkramer.com

HI FI PROJECT 310-319-1100F:310-395-5868 info@hifiproject.com

HORRIBLE MUSIC 310-260-9939F:818-995-6110 jud@horriblemusic.net

HUM MUSIC AND SOUND 310-260-4949F:310-260-4944 debbi@humit.com

HUMMINGBIRD PRODUCTIONS 615-385-3729F:615-385-3446 info@hummingbirdproductions.com

HUNTER GIBSON MUSIC INC 601-853-1778F:601-853-1169 huntergibson1@comcast.net

I DIG MUSIC 312-988-9072ron@idigmusic.com

ID MUSIC 312-587-0133john@idmusicchicago.com

IMAGESCORE MUSIC 623-376-7049contact@imagescore.com

INTIMITA MUSIC 323-573-2896jmassari@intimitamusic.com

IV INC 615-320-1444F:615-256-6037 skeller@ivgroup.cc

JAMES NEEL MUSIC HOUSE 800-325-9877james@jamesneelmusichouse.com

JAMIE DEFRATES MUSIC 904-399-2929F:904-399-2981 defrates@bellsouth.net

JAY HOWARD PRODUCTION AUDIO 704-525-7864F:704-523-5473 info@jayhowardaudio.com

JDK MUSIC PRODUCTION 804-272-6777F:804-761-6955 info@jdkmusic.com

JECO MUSIC 310-315-3626F:310-315-9585 gus@jecomusic.com

JECO MUSIC 212-768-8501F:212-768-8505 gus@jecomusic.com

18 JULY/AUGUST 2009 MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

M u s i c & S ou n d G a l l e r y

American Music CompanyHigh quality, great production music and variety.Every selection of music is posted to our web sitefor immediate review and instant downloading.Inexpensive music licensing and no bull@#$%!

P: 516-764-1466 • F: 516-764-2648www.americanmusicco.cominfo@americanmusicco.com

615 Music615 Music is a world leader in News MusicPackages and Production Music, original music/sound design, scoring services, Radio ID Pack-ages, and Library Music. 615 Music Library hasover 30,000 tracks across 18 catalogs. Over 200TV stations & networks worldwide use 615 Music.

P: 615-244-6515 • F: 615-242-2455www.615music.cominfo@615music.com

FirstCom MusicFirstCom Music offers 140,000 tracks, with over6,000 new tracks released every year from someof the world’s best composers. You can expectinnovative solutions, real customer service andmusic that changes everything.

P: 800-858-8880 • F: 972-242-6520www.firstcom.cominfo@firstcom.com

Killer Tracks21 unique music libraries plus thousands of qual-ity sound effects and production elements, fast &easy one-stop licensing, friendly and knowledge-able music supervisors and account reps, andconvenient music access online, on hard driveand on interactive DVD!

P: 800-454-5537 • F: 800-787-2257www.killertracks.cominfo@killertracks.com

MasterSource Music CatalogThe industry leader in cutting edge one-stop vocaland instrumental contemporary music. With oureasy-to-use search engine, MASTERSEARCH, weare sure you will find the perfect piece of musicfor your production needs.

P: 818-706-9000www.mastersource.cominfo@mastersource.com

OmnimusicThe place to go for exceptional production music,with over 14,000 tracks of “must have music” ...great service, just a phone call away ... easysearch and download on the web 24/7. Omni. thecolor of music.

P: 800-828-6664www.omnimusic.cominfo@omnimusic.com

Stephen Arnold MusicAll needles, no haystack. Just high quality trackswritten & produced by us. You’ll find the goodstuff fast. Save time, save face. Get in. Get thegood music. Get out.

P: 214-726-1010 • F: 214-726-1717www.stephenarnoldmusic.comsales@stephenarnoldmusic.com

The Music BakeryRoyalty-free music downloads.• Easiest music search.• Full-length demos online.• Download WAV, MP3 or AIF.• All royalty-free.

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markeemag.comLog on for additional music and sound informa-tion. Also online are sound clips from advertisers.Get a preview of their offerings in the online Music& Sound Guide.

P: 386-774-8881www.markeemag.cominfo@markeemag.com

JULY/AUGUST 2009 19MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

JRT MUSIC 888-578-6874F:212-353-9317 info@jrtmusic.com

JSM 212-627-2200F:212-645-0484 info@jsmmusic.com

KALEIDOSOUND 925-283-9901F:925-283-9902 forrest@k-sound.com

KILLER TRACKS 800-454-2257F:310-865-4470 info@killertracks.com

www.killertracks.com

LAMBCHOPS STUDIOS 602-279-0900F:602-279-0980 susan@lambchops.com

LEONARD WOLF MUSIC 615-254-4828leonard@wolfmusic.com

LION & FOX RECORDING 301-982-4431mail@lionfox.com

LOS ANGELES POST MUSIC INC 818-501-8329F:818-990-7661 info@lapostmusic.com

LUMINOUS SOUND STUDIOS 972-331-7040F:972-331-7041 info@luminoussound.com

M-CUTS MUSIC LIBRARY 706-333-0787pat@m-cuts.com

MANCHESTER MUSIC LIBRARY 413-369-4331information@manchestermusic.com

MANHATTAN PRODUCTION MUSIC 212-333-5766F:212-262-0814 info@mpmmusic.com

MARSHALL SOUND DESIGN 972-484-1535johnny@marshallsounddesign.com

MASTERSOURCE MUSIC CATALOG 212-841-8700info@mastersource.comwww.mastersource.com

MAYFAIR WORKSHOP 773-426-3073mark@mayfairrecordings.com

MEGATRAX 818-255-7100F:818-255-7199 info@megatrax.com

MENTEN MUSIC INC 612-940-6177info@mentenmusic.com

MENZA MUSIC 214-574-6874info@menzamusic.com

MODERN MUSIC 612-332-6299F:612-332-4910 info@modern-music.com

MULTI-MEDIAMUSIC INC 219-662-8857F:432-224-9124 joey@multi-mediamusic.com

MUSIC 2 HUES 888-821-7515F:860-745-1312 info@music2hues.com

MUSIC A LA CARTE 305-854-1810F:305-854-1925 info@musicalacarte.com

MUSICBOX 818-224-4318F:818-224-4043 info@musicboxmx.com

MUSIKVERGNUEGEN 323-856-5900F:323-856-5917 info@musikv.com

NARRATOR TRACKS 800-448-6467info@ntracks.com

NON-STOP MUSIC LIBRARY 801-531-0060F:801-531-0346 info@nonstopmusic.com

NUANCE MUSIC 512-989-3042bmsatter@nuancemusic.com

OGM PRODUCTION MUSIC 323-461-2701F:323-461-1543 ogmmusic@gmail.com

OMNIMUSIC 800-828-6664F:516-883-0271 info@omnimusic.com

www.omnimusic.com

OPUS1 MUSIC LIBRARY 818-508-2040F:818-508-2044 mitch@opus1musiclibrary.com

20 JULY/AUGUST 2009 MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

OUTPOST AUDIO INC 305-250-9988F:305-250-9922 debbie@outpostaudio.com

OZONE MUSIC 248-298-2858F:248-786-6248 ozone@ozonesound.com

PBTM ROYALTY FREE MUSIC 541-345-8117support@instantdownloadmusic.com

PERSONAL MUSIC INC 305-854-7014F:305-854-7045 info@personalmusic.com

PLUG’D MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN 310-287-1876getreel@plugdmusic.com

POINT CLASSICS LLC 866-368-9603F:818-985-5811 tanvi@pointclassics.com

PRODUCTION GARDEN MUSIC 210-530-5200F:210-530-5230 info@productiongarden.com

PROMIDI INT’L CORP 305-956-9116F:305-947-8220 info@promidi.biz

RCB MUSIC LIBRARY 813-689-6066F:813-655-0575 info@rcbmusiclibrary.com

REN MUSIC LIBRARY 732-382-6815F:732-382-5329 renmedia@aol.com

RHYTHM CAFE 312-787-8010F:312-787-8122 jim@rhythymcafe.com

RIOT MUSIC 305-891-3508F:305-891-4407 steve@riotmusic.com

RIPE SOUND 707-782-9099F:707-782-9529 andy1@ripesound.com

RIPTIDE MUSIC 310-437-4380F:310-437-4384 contact@riptidemusic.com

RIVER CITY SOUND PRODUCTION 901-274-7277F:901-274-8494 info@rivercitysound.com

RK MUSIC 212-229-2279F:212-229-2082 rob@rkmusic.com

RON ROSE PRODUCTIONS 813-873-7700F:813-875-6633 info@ronroseproductions.com

RON ROSE PRODUCTIONS 800-662-6638F:248-424-8622 anything@ronrose.com

ROYALTY FREE MUSIC 770-441-9161F:770-453-9187 info@royaltyfreemusic.com

SCIENCE FRICTION 856-810-1448info@scifrimusic.com

SCM PRODUCTIONS 303-422-6333F:303-422-6334 scm@scmpro.com

SCOOTMAN MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN 615-319-9556scootmanmusic@bellsouth.net

SHORELINE STUDIOS 310-394-4932F:310-458-7802 info@shorelinestudios.com

SIGNATURE MUSIC LIBRARY 219-921-0205F:419-844-2891 info@sigmusic.com

SINGING SERPENT 619-235-6040F:619-235-6506 music@singingserpent.com

SINGING SERPENT 310-882-5439F:310-882-5517 music@singingserpent.com

SINGING SERPENT 212-486-9816F:212-486-9820 dennis@singingserpent.com

SINGLETON PRODUCTIONS 972-226-7118F:972-226-9413 bobs@singletonproductions.com

SMARTSOUND SOFTWARE INC 800-454-1900F:818-920-9152 info@smartsound.com

SONY CREATIVE SOFTWARE 800-577-6642F:608-204-8804

SOPERSOUND MUSIC LIBRARY 800-227-9980sopersound@aol.com

SOUND IMAGES 513-241-7475F:513-241-4719 charlie@soundimages.com

SOUND LOUNGE 212-388-1212F:212-388-1214 kathyg@soundlounge.com

SOUNDDOGS.COM 877-315-3647F:310-496-3135 customersupport@sounddogs.com

SOUNDMINE 512-291-0214512-291-0214 peterb@soundmine.com

SOUNDMINE 818-767-4226512-291-0214 patrickm@soundmine.com

MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

SOUNDS BIG PRODUCTIONS 212-920-4639andrew@soundsbigproductions.com

SOUNDSCAPES 501-661-1765F:501-661-0323 brent@soundscapes.com

SOUNDVIEW RECORDING 877-295-6435dave@soundview-recording.com

SPANK! MUSIC 312-329-1310F:312-329-1339 ken@spankmusic.com

SPROCKETS MUSIC 305-860-6960F:305-860-5916 info@sprockets.com

STARTRACKER RECORDING STUDIO INC 402-466-7623F:402-466-7501 bholihan@startrackerstudios.com

STEPHEN ARNOLD MUSIC 800-537-5829F:214-726-1717 sales@stephenarnoldmusic.com

www.stephenarnoldmusic.com

STEVE FORD MUSIC 888-828-0556F:312-828-0576 sf@stevefordmusic.com

STIMMUNG 310-460-0123F:310-460-0122 contact@stimmung.tv

STUDIO BARD LLC 503-273-2273audiospa@studiobard.com

SZABO SOUND & MUSIC 713-956-7451F:713-956-2244 admin@szabosoundandmusic.com

TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD 512-499-8655F:512-499-8057 info@tequilamockingbird.com

THE HIT HOUSE 310-378-8633music@thehithouse.com

THE HOLLYWOOD EDGE 323-603-3252F:323-603-3298 jmoran@hollywoodedge.com

THE LISTENING CHAIR 214-748-8846F:214-741-3530 brian@listeningchair.com

THE LODGE 310-581-8363F:310-581-8104 musicproduciton@thelodge.com

THE LODGE 212-727-8000F:212-727-8005 musicproduciton@thelodge.com

THE MUSIC BAKERY 800-229-0313F:972-424-3680 info@musicbakery.com

www.musicbakery.com

THE MUSIC FACTORY 404-688-1667F:404-624-5374 brian@themusicfactory.com

THE MUSIC KITCHEN 661-338-4749F:661-338-2514 michael@themusickitchen.com

THE PROCESS RECORDING STUDIOS 336-855-1941F:336-855-0819 office@theprocess.com

THE PRODUCTION BLOCK STUDIOS INC 512-472-8975F:512-476-5635 joel@productionblock.com

THE SOUND ADVISOR 203-373-1847dennis@thesoundadvisor.com

THIRD COAST MUSIC 901-274-7277F:901-274-8494 bob@rivercitysound.com

TIM CISSELL MUSIC 972-680-0817tcissell@wt.net

TONAL 212-255-4369F:212-255-4729 michelleb@tonalsound.com

TRF PRODUCTION MUSIC LIBRARIES 201-335-0005F:201-335-0004 info@trfmusic.com

TRIVERS MYERS MUSIC 310-640-9166F:310-647-5869 liz@triversmyersmusic.com

TUNEDGE MUSIC 800-279-0014F:877-886-3343 rw@tunedge.com

TWISTEDTRACKS.COM 773-856-6586music@twistedtracks.com

UNIQUE TRACKS 718-965-2318F:718-965-1215 info@uniquetracks.com

VAGABOND AUDIO 312-321-0828F:312-321-0829 rise@vagabondaudio.com

VALENTINE PRO 720-898-9171laurie@valentinepro.com

VALENTINO 800-223-6278F:323-969-0968 info@tvmusic.com

VIDEOHELPER 212-633-7009F:212-633-9014 info@videohelper.com

WALTER BRYANT MUSIC 816-741-3750walter@walterbryantmusic.com

YESSIAN MUSIC 248-553-4044gerard@yessian.com

YESSIAN MUSIC 212-533-3443marlene@yessian.com

MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

22 JULY/AUGUST 2009 MUSIC AND SOUND GUIDE

23JULY/AUGUST 2009

Sweetwater shifts gearsWhen ABC News called Van Nuys, California-based

Sweetwater Digital Productions for assistance,General Manager Kimberly Scholter supplied the com-pany’s biggest truck, the 53-foot multi-format double-Expando, Cobalt.

The truck’s crew worked round-the-clock splitshifts of 12 hours each at the Staples Center from thesecond Sunday following Jackson’s death throughWednesday morning, the day after the memorial serv-ice. They acquired and delivered live content for ABCprograms like Good Morning, America, ABC News andNightline.

To illustrate the demand for mobile companies inLA to handle Jackson coverage, Scholter points out thatSweetwater doesn’t take news assignments very often.“We usually work on entertainment,” she says, althoughABC News called on Sweetwater last year for theDemocratic National Convention in Denver.

As “one of the only TV mobile companies thatoffers a full complement of fiber services in-house,”Sweetwater proved a huge asset to ABC for the Jackson

“short-notice production,” Scholter says.According to Cobalt’s engineer-in-charge, Scott

Heames, “One major technical challenge was the com-plexity of transmission paths connecting to ABC – wehad eight paths at any given time. But Cobalt has thecapability to manage multiple transmission paths evenwhen they are all different formats.”

“The incredible amount of communications cir-cuitry kept adding up as we went [along], and [we]quickly outgrew the ability of our Telecast Adder tohandle all the audio inputs and 18 Telos channels,”explains Dan Young, Cobalt’s audio engineer. “But wewere able to accommodate by using our new Multi-Mode Madi fiber stage boxes, which handle 64 micpres, 32 line in/32 line out, with full control from theStuder console.”

Big Vision goes behind the scenesJackson’s Santa Barbara-county Neverland ranch

served as the temporary address for an estimated 40percent of mobile production and uplink trucks, includ-

Dubbed, with tongue in cheek, an economic stimulus package for broadcasters, themassive deployment of mobile facilities covering the death of Michael Jacksonhelped boost company balance sheets with weeks of on-site “breaking news.”

continued on next page

By

Mark R. Smith

and

Christine Bunish

Sweetwater Digital

Productions – mobile produc-

tion and uplink vehicles jam

the roadway at the Staples

Center during the memorial

service for Michael Jackson

Cover Story

24 JULY/AUGUST 2009

ing the TBJ production unitfrom Las Vegas-based BigVision.

Big Vision worked witha host of TV programs, lens-ing behind-the-scenes con-tent for the likes of CNN’sLarry King Live! which fea-tured King’s interview withJackson’s brother, Jermaine,NBC’s the Today show andABC’s Nightline. Other “talk-ing head” material will gointo Big Vision’s stockarchive.

Like Scholter, Big Visionowner Chuck Haifley reportsthat the scale of the cover-age proved challenging: Thesheer enormity of the eventmay have turned a few hairsgray prematurely.

But Big Vision’s ownwork “was made easier bythe use of our TBJ produc-tion unit, a 53-foot Expandomotor home” whose built-ingarage was commandeeredas a production office, heexplains. The TBJ is typicallyused to house extra equipment or serve as aprep area, control room or edit bay. For theJackson coverage the TBJ acted as Big Vision’s“command center,” according to Haifley, prep-ping and monitoring shots. The unit’s moni-toring and preview decks combined with fourPanasonic HDX900 cameras to create a con-trolled production environment that helpedmake the assignment easier.

UniSat goes multi venuefor CBS

UniSat’s two LA-based satellite produc-tion units “leapfrogged” from Jackson’s rent-ed house in Holmby Hills and the family com-pound in Encino to Neverland, the StaplesCenter and Forest Lawn cemetery to serve

the CBS Network which brought Katie Couricwest to anchor her evening newscast for twodays and produced a live 48 Hours special, allin High Definition. The CBS Early Show alsoproduced several remotes from LA andanchored its entire show with Harry Smithand Maggie Rodriguez from the StaplesCenter on the day of the memorial service.

“One of the biggest challenges was sim-ply being available,” declares Executive VicePresident George Edwardz. “You don’t sitaround waiting for these events. We had torearrange our schedule to make sure therewere other ways to cover clients’ events anddevote our two satellite production units toCBS.” UniSat’s trucks were covering the pre-miere of Bruno and involved with a movieshoot when Jackson died.

CBS had worked with UniSat before on

scheduled events and “felt comfortable withthe trucks,” says Edwardz. UniSat’s units arebelieved to be “two of the most capable KUtrucks on the West Coast.” Completely self-contained they “can be dropped in anywherein North America to provide live coverage.

“CBS made good use of the units” for allof their Jackson-related coverage, he notes.The TES 2 HD truck did duty at the StaplesCenter where Edwardz estimates that “half ofthe available KU trucks in the nation” weremassed. TES 2 was required to “uplink multi-ple paths of HD to CBS in New York wherethey integrated the evening newscasts, livecoverage of the memorial service and the 48Hours special,” he explains. To handle all theHD routing and extended cable runs, UniSatbolstered its fiber optic gear with equipmentsourced from Bexel in Dallas. “Our TandbergHigh Definition satellite encoders workedvery well; they really made a difference in theshows,” he reports.

At Forest Lawn, where a private servicewas held out of range of cameras, UniSat wasprohibited from running cable across thedriveway and had to resort to microwavingsignals about 1,500 feet. “We had to go backto the way things were done in the past utiliz-ing microwave links. Our TES 1’s microwavereceiver and transmitter ended up saving theday for the client,” he says. Due to the remotelocation of Neverland, truck parking at thatvenue and access to facilities proved to bequite a challenge.

“Having worked in the business for over27 years, this will go down as one of thelargest mobilizations of satellite productionunits ever,” Edwardz says. n

UniSat – TES 2 HD unit on locaton at the Staples Center for CBS

Cover Story

Scoring with mobile sportssolutions

You’ll often find Jim Moriarty of New Orleans’sYES Productions covering the Professional BullRiders for Versus from coast to coast, with an occa-sional trip to Canada and Mexico.

Production for the sport includes close-up, “in-your-face action with a damn brave cowboy and amean 2,000 pound bull,” Moriarty says, with theanimals sometimes directing their anger at theshooters. “We’ve had bulls decide to throw therider into the stands and get so close to the railsthat they put their hoof in the gap to give the cam-era [and lens] a good, swift kick.

“Fortunately, the Fujinon repair guys are veryfamiliar with our lenses,” he says, though that’s notthe bulls’ only revenge: “They get so [angry] thatthey blow stuff out of both ends – so the lensneeds cleaning as well as repairs.”

A challenge of a different kind arose when thevideotape stock for a bull-riding competition was-n’t ordered until the Thursday afternoon before theJuly 4 weekend – and just three of the 15 cases thatwere requested showed up.

After many frantic phone calls, Moriarty founda company on the West Coast, EVS, that “gatheredas much tape as they could” and delivered by thedeadline. “I found the rest at a [TV] station in BatonRouge,” he reports, noting that “it pays to order inadvance and have contacts on both coasts.”

While the gang at TL Mobile Television inSpringfield, Missouri has not pushed the HD but-

Meeting the Challenge of Sports, News andEntertainment Production on the RoadBy Mark R. Smith

continued on next page

Token Creek Mobile Television – Jamie Bath setting up at mid-1st base position at Miller Park in

Milwaukee, WI

Mobile Production

Turning a Loss to a Gain By Mark R. Smith

This spring, the power belly bay of one of the mobile units at CapeCanaveral, Florida-based Communications Concepts Inc. (CCI) caughtfire, leaving its insurance carrier deeming the truck a total loss.

That may sound like the end of a story. Actually, it’s just the start. Although The Hartford, CCI’s insurance company, made that

assessment of the 36-foot SD analog straight truck, the equipment thatwas housed within it – and insured under a separate policy – wasundamaged.

That allowed Jim Lewis, CCI’s president, to turn a lemon intolemonade so to speak: Not only did he save the truck’s SD guts, hestepped into the burgeoning HD market while doing so.

“If you were going to build a new truck, you wouldn’t do it withseven-year-old equipment,” he says. “We also had customers asking forHD production, which is expensive. So we were at a crossroads anyway.”

With a job for International Launch Services set to begin less thana month after the fire, Lewis and company had about three weeks to geta new truck back on the road.

So CCI hired additional freelance engineers to help disassemble the$500,000 worth of SD equipment before buying a used, rack-ready 40-foot straight truck that was “already somewhat wired for HD,” Lewis says.

All of the digital SD gear migrated to the truck, including an EVS,Chyron Duet LEX graphics system, and Sony Digital Betacam andPanasonic D5 decks.

Next to be installed was the Ross Vision Free HD/SD switcher,which has a smart converter, 24/7 support and free software upgradesfor the life of the product. “That’s unusual in the business,” Lewis notes.Ross Vision “is a vendor that really ‘gets it.’ The switcher simply convertsto the appropriate signal, and we get about our business.”

He also gives kudos to Interface Technologies Group’s monitorsthat “also switch between SD and HD, are hi-res and come in durablemetal frames. Their setup allows us to reconfigure the truck’s monitorwall at the punch of a button.”

The result of Lewis’s nimble thinking? “We can take care of existingclients for rocket launches at the Kennedy Space Center here in Floridaand medium-sized sporting events like Division II basketball and soccer,”he reports. “But we also have expanded to do some side-by-side workwhere we park next to a bigger truck so we can distribute an HD broad-cast in SD or vice versa.” n

ton yet, management “will during the next year,” says Vice PresidentNicholas Appleton.

The changeover will require something of a balancing act:Although TL is still having “a very good year, thus far” working inStandard Definition on events like ESPN’s spring football scrimmagesand Pay-Per-View college football for Fox Sports, “we’ve lost somework this year because we have not [migrated to HD] yet,” he reports.

While the upgrades will be easy, simply taking TL’s sole 50-footdigital Expando truck off the road to make the transition is the hardpart. Owner “Troy Fain and I know how to make the upgrades,”Appleton says. “That will not only save us money but result in a betterfinished product because we will be operating what we built.”

That helps alleviate issues like a producer not being able to hearthe intercom in his head set, for example. “When you do your checks,you catch things like that,” he notes.

One challenge that’s hard to overcome, though, is travel issueslike overnighters. “When you’ve worked four jobs in a week and driv-en 500 miles overnight, you’re grouchy,” he observes. “The battle isgetting on the air. Then everything seems to flatten out.”

“Challenges? We deal with all kinds of them,” says a laughingJohn Salzwedel, president of Token Creek Mobile Television inMadison, Wisconsin. For starters, how about when your unit happensto be the second or third truck to roll in to a smallish NCAA Division IIarena or a high school facility designed for one truck?

“These arenas were only built to accommodate so much coaxand triax and have just enough cable and power to accommodate onetruck. Some of them aren’t cabled at all,” Salzwedel says, recalling aDivision II game in the Deep South for ESPNU.

What to do? Usually, Salzwedel and company end up spendingan extra half-day in preparation, laying extra cable and setting up alarge enough generator to power a three-phase production truck. “Ifwe have three trucks, we’ll need two generators because they onlyhave power for one.”

Smaller venues actually represent “a burgeoning market for TV

26 JULY/AUGUST 2009

Cover Story

and especially the web,” that’s hungry forcontent, he explains. Producers want theirInternet connection “almost before [they] seecameras,” he says. “They may be streamingthe production instead of using satellite orfiber, or they need it to get score feeds andcheck in with the network.”

George Williams makes no qualms aboutwhat can happen on a given day in the crazi-ness that is the mobile television business.

The vice president with New CenturyProductions in Allentown, Pennsylvania,notes a range of issues from the need for spe-cialty equipment, like robotic cameras andgraphics machines, to last-minute changeson site and dealing with equipment failure.

Take the Chyron Duet HyperX, for exam-ple. “It can malfunction because it’s comput-er-based,” he says. “An operator will load itfrom their laptop and a virus may get in; thenwe have to find someone to diagnose andrepair it over the phone with our engineers –or find someone local in a hurry. That hap-pened a couple of times during our NBA cov-erage for various regional carriers.

“Depending on how time-sensitive thechallenge is, there are different steps we taketo tackle it,” Williams reports. For the leasttime-sensitive equipment needs, NewCentury can source internally or locally forreplacement gear. But when it absolutely pos-itively has to be there fast shipping in newgear may be the only option.

“It’s become more difficult in the lastyear” to ship replacement equipment, howev-er, “due in part to airlines reducing the num-ber of flights, as well as the size of theirplanes,” he says. “The best way to tackle theproblems is simply to pre-plan – and have avery thick address book” of reliable names toturn to in times of need.

Any network that broadcasts more than1,700 events a year, from the NFL and MLB tothe NBA, NASCAR and the XGames, couldhave someone write a book on this subject.

The biggest hurdle at ESPN, says PaulDiPietro, coordinating director for event oper-ations, “is simply coping with the number ofevents we cover, [dealing with] several hun-dred [of our] people at many events and pre-venting unforeseen circumstances that couldimpede our ability to present the best event.”

He explains that “when you are moving allof those people [or two mobile units and a crewof about 50 for a smaller event], Monday NightFootball or a NASCAR event can take onOlympic-sized proportions. For instance, someNASCAR events [where the crew has hearingtests and uses customized ear protection]involve 12 mobile units and a crew of 250 that gofrom track to track every week. That’s logistics.”

A peak example was the Winter XGameswith about 500 people in the mix. “That’s notonly a large event, but it takes a week to setup at 8,000 feet,” DiPietro reports. Even aminor snow melt in Aspen a few years agoposed challenges for an ESPN truck. It wasparked level, then the snow melted and the

truck came off level ever so slightly. “So thediesel fuel was not as evenly distributed as ithad been,” he recall, “and that led to the gen-erator shutting down. We got burned onceand have made sure that it doesn’t happenagain: Now we just top off the tank.”

Entertaining power andtransport needs

Every entertainment and event venuehas its challenges, says veteran Produc-er/Director Carey Goin of Jacksonville,Florida-based HMTV. Take LP Stadium inNashville. HMTV was covering The Call, an all-day Christian music and speaking event fromthe venue, with more than 90,000 in atten-dance, when the power source proved to betoo far away from the trucks.

It was time to get a generator. “When wedid, terrible ground hum loops developedbetween us and the PA system vendor,” whowas on house power, Goin explains. “We allhad to be tied to the same generator, with thelighting on house power.”

That situation is not unusual during con-certs “where we tie into a split from houseaudio to a recording truck to the video truck,”he notes. “We always request an isolated trans-formed split with ground lifts to prevent thisproblem, and a crystal lock generator so thetimecode won’t drift between recording videoin our truck and audio in the audio trucks.”

The crew then sends the audio trucks’timecode drop frame with black burst toensure, after the re-mix, that it can sync backup to broadcast DVDs.

In addition to crucial power concerns,HMTV is also dealing with the effects of next-generation lighting. On music shoots, it hasstarted to white balance cameras to 5600K

(instead of the traditional 3200K), because somuch more intelligent, and higher-intensity,moving lights are in play today.

It’s Goin’s intention to resolve theseissues and to post venue schematics and con-tact info on the Internet so “all video, audioand lighting vendors can [check their param-eters] before a shoot – instead of putting outfires on site.”

Mike Skehan, vice president and generalmanager of East Coast Television (ECT) and avet of the Washington, D.C. production market,keeps his service relatively local, usually within“about 100 miles or 250 miles” at most doinglive remote broadcasts for associations andcorporations and a few government agencies.

His reasons for limiting the geographicrange are myriad. “I’ve been running into fuelpermit issues,” he says. “If I take a truck to NewYork, for instance, there is a state fuel tax issueand you may have to pay at the weigh sta-tion. If you go long haul you are basically inthe trucking business.”

He also notes restrictions on CommercialDrivers Licenses since ECT’s trucks exceed 26,000pounds, and “buying diesel used to be less expen-sive than buying gas, but not at the moment.”

On the tech side, Skehan’s concernsinclude maintaining the power supply andhaving backup equipment when coveringbreaking news and there’s no second chanceto get the shot. Power failures are not anoption so he always brings a second genera-tor; access to spare/rental cameras assurethat the shoot continues.

He also knows whom he can call on intimes of need. “This is TV,” he says, “and youhave no control over blown fuses, cut cable ortransmitter problems. That’s why 95 percentof the people in this business know theimportance of helping each other.” n

JULY/AUGUST 2009 27

28 JULY/AUGUST 2009

R E G I O N A L P R O D U C T I O N R E P O R T

Stretching from Maine to Virginia and encompassing New England, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, the

Eastern slice of America features a strong roster of production companies making creative contributions to every

facet of business and every media platform. >BY CHRISTINE BUNISH

East

Kickstand LaunchesBROOKLYN, NY – KickstandLLC, a character animationand research developmentstudio, opened its doors inJune. Founded by expertswith backgrounds in featureanimation, video game devel-opment, television, and com-mercial production, the com-pany intends to bring sophisti-cated tools and charactertechnology to the industry.Kickstand specializes in com-mercial and custom softwaredevelopment for 3D modelingand animation programs.

news

& Updates> by Jon T. Hutchinson

CT, DC, DE,

MA, ME, MD,

NH, NJ, NY,

PA, RI, VA,

VT

Strong Base in the East

Tecate Light spotsNEW YORK, NY – Advertisingagency Adrenalina/NY tappedDirector Steve Ramser andOutside Editor Jeff Ferruzzo tocomplete the latest commer-cial campaign for TecateLight. The fully-loaded spots (two 30-second versions) illus-trate Tecate’s take on“change,” highlighting theirbold twist on marketing“cerveza.”

Guerilla FX and GoPhoneNEW YORK, NY – Guerilla FXshot, created the visual effectsand posted a 15-second richmedia banner ad for AT&TGoPhone. GFX shot the banneron the streets of Manhattan’sUpper Westside with the REDONE camera, did compositingand effects in After Effects andedited in Final Cut. In the spotan actor who is engaged in ananimated cell phone conver-sation walks into an invisiblePlexiglass wall, built by GFX,and falls backward to theground.

roaD triP

ull-service production companyEnergy Films in Portland, Mainedoes a wide range of work from itsbase in the city’s Old Port district. Itshoots in the region for crewingagencies representing AmericanExpress, Bank of America and

Prudential; handles ENG for national news net-works like CNN, ABC, NBC and FOX; covers seg-ments for The History Channel’s ModernMarvels; lensed a music video for the bandAssembly of Dust; and shot a PSA campaign forEfficiency Maine, part of the public utility.

Energy’s owner Tom Pakulski, who is a pro-ducer/director/cameraman, doesn’t always stayclose to home. He traveled to India to capturefootage for the feature documentary, Dirt: TheMovie, which premiered at Sundance; he alsoheaded to Arizona to collect DVD and webfootage for Hussey Seating, the world’s foremoststadium seating company.

His workhorse Beta SP package is giving wayto increased HD acquisition this year. “I’ve rent-

ed Panasonic VariCam as needed and Panasonic’sHDX900 seems to be my new workhorse cam-era,” Pakulski reports.

The Troupe scouts outdiverse client base

At The Troupe in Windham, New Hampshiremodern media design and production is the orderof the day along with corporate projects and com-mercials, the majority of the latter in NewEngland.

The company has witnessed several econom-ic recessions in its three decades of operation.While “nothing is recession-proof,” notes COOJohn Connors, The Troupe’s “diversity of clientshas helped” it withstand the vagaries of the mar-ket and achieve a longevity that’s rare in theindustry.

Recent credits include animation and live-action sequences for a Philips medical imagingtrade show piece and a new product video for anarthroscopic devicemaker; customer testimonialsshot worldwide for TAC, a division of SchneiderElectric; a corporate DVD for ProCon construc-tion; a marketing video on Hypertherm’s latest

FEnergy generates businessworldwide

Crystal Pix – Director/owner Ray Manardshooting the company’s own feature docu-mentary Signs of the Times

29

plasma cutting devices; and spots for longtime clients TheChristmas Tree Shops and Canobie Lake Park plus the NewHampshire Lottery, Centrix Bank, Courville Communities, andAndersen’s Renewal windows.

The Troupe is housed in a 12,000-square-foot facility with apair of Final Cut Pro on-line suites, a Steinberg Nuendo 4 audiorecording and mixing studio and two graphics suites runningCinema 4D, Modo and Adobe software. Over the past year the com-pany’s commercial and corporate work “has transitioned to HD,”Connors reports, with rental Panasonic VariCams and HVX200s“our go-to cameras.”

Verde reaches out from picturesque locale

Verde Group Films, where Denis O’Brien is executive pro-ducer and director and Isela Marin producer and owner, makesits home in Burlington, Vermont, “the best little city in America,”according to O’Brien. Located on Lake Champlain, just 45 min-utes by air from New York City, Verde hopes that Big Apple agen-cies will discover how practical it can be to work in beautifulVermont.

The company owns a Panasonic HVX200 HD camera andrents film cameras when needed as they were for a recent KinneyDrugs campaign; Kinney is a longtime client and Verde netted a2007 Gold Addy for one of the retailer’s spots. Verde also has anApple Final Cut Pro HD editing system.

O’Brien directed Awaken, a national spot for The NaturalDentist, which won the Vermont Association of Broadcasters’ FirstPlace award recently. Verde shot and edited a four-hour DVD seriesfor ParentingOnTrack.com and an ongoing campaign for NewEngland Vision Correction that has webisodes and on-air spot com-ponents.

The company is also participating in The Death of Socrates, acollaborative feature for which 23 directors around the world willshoot four-minute segments depicting the philosopher in all sortsof guises both human and animal. “We’re also being considered foranother collaborative feature,” O’Brien reveals.

Moody Street has prime address

In Waltham, Massachusetts Moody Street Pictures does a widearray of work although “we’re known in the TV market primarilyfor our sports programming,” says President John MacNeil.

Moody Street is regularly hired by ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN360; New England Sports Network; Comcast Sportsnet in NewEngland; and TV38 and WBZ. With the latter two broadcasters thecompany co-produced Celtic TV, a 10-episode series on the BostonNBA team which ran from the All Star Game to the end of the 2008season then was extended through the championship to capturethe Celtics’ win.

Moody Street produced the indie film The Shuttle inMassachusetts; it’s now on DVD following a limited theatricalrelease. “Massachusetts probably has the most attractive [produc-tion] tax credits in the country now,” McNeil notes. He’s one of thefounders of the Massachusetts Production Coalition while MoodyStreet’s head of marketing, Tim Egan, is president of the NewEngland chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts &Sciences.

Additionally, the company has done web videos for MIT andthe Massachusetts Biotech Council; corporate projects for PitneyBowes and Blue Cross; holiday spots for Hasbro featuring Star Warstoys; branded entertainment spots for New Balance and MajorLeague Lacrosse; and WBUR radio’s first-ever TV campaign.

“Our diversity has helped keep us really strong,” MacNeilpoints out. Moody Street shoots film, HD and RED formats andboasts a greenscreen studio and six Avid and Final Cut suites forHD and SD editing.

A&M does big business Last year and this year have been the “biggest ever” for

Providence, Rhode Island’s A&M Productions, an internal/externalcommunications company which also does commercials, docu-mentaries and web content. “Business has been unbelieveable,”reports President and Executive Producer Michelle Ahlborg, “tothe point where we’ve had to hire more people.”

The company offers Avid Adrenaline and Final Cut Pro editsuites, owns a Sony HD camera and rents other format cameras asneeded. Production is largely on location.

A&M recently shot an HD documentary, including aerials,about the Naragansett Bay Commission’s new sewage tunnel; it willbe used for marketing and is expected to air on PBS. The companyalso created extensive web content about Rhode Island activitiesfor a guest channel available in hotels across the state.

A&M has expanded its services for non-profit clients toinclude event planning, web site construction and webstreaming.Ahlborg designed and planned the annual Pell Awards, one of thebiggest events in Rhode Island, which honored actor Kevin Spaceyin an exciting evening at the Pell Estate last June.

EVTV makes a success of corporateconsultation

In the last half-dozen years Stamford, Connecticut’s EVTV hasfocused on “the consultative side of corporate communicationsand information,” says Michael Macari, president and supervisingproducer at the 25-year-old company.

EVTV’s corporate clients include Nestle Waters NorthAmerica, Bayer Healthcare and the Knights of Columbus nationalfraternal organization. Pitney Bowes has been a customer from dayone. “In a recession, companies only used to do video to generate

JULY/AUGUST 2009

continued on next page

30 JULY/AUGUST 2009

business,” notes Macari. “Now they have to keep employeesinformed and motivated with internal videos, webcasts and otherweb-delivered content” as well as meet their needs for material forconference and live events.

The company also does some regional commercials shootingthe higher-end spots on S16mm. It also captures documentaryfootage for A&E and The History Channel and has done concertpledge specials for PBS.

EVTV has its own complement of Final Cut Pro systems andpartners with a number of local vendors for equipment rentals andadditional post services.

“2009 to date has been the best year we’ve had in 10 years,”Macari reports. “Nobody is throwing money around, but new andexisting clients are saying, ‘we’ve got to communicate’ in order tolead and survive.”

Crystal Pix sees big picture

Crystal Pix in suburban Rochester, New York is a project-based “big picture company” which crafts “every kind of visual forfilm, video and multimedia,” says Ray Manard. A director and edi-tor, he co-owns the company with wife Caroline, a 3D animatorand graphic designer.

Crystal Pix has worked with Mason Selkowitz Marketing onprojects for Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Sylvan Learning and the stateof Florida, the latter a series of hurricane preparedness PSAs fea-turing pro sports coaches. The company also works direct withlongtime client Paychex on internal corporate communicationsand events and Constellation Brands beverage and alcohol compa-ny on employee communications. It teamed with Orange County,California’s Avery Marketing to create simultaneous HD video dis-plays for a Toshiba Medical trade show booth.

In January Crystal Pix completed its own feature documen-

tary on the origins of hand signals in baseball. Signs of the Time,narrated by Richard Dreyfus, is now on the film-festival circuit;Manard hopes for broadcast and DVD distribution as well. Heserved as cinematographer on the doc which was directed by DonCasper with Eric McMaster DP.

The company boasts Avid Media Composer and DS HD suitesalong with a Final Cut Pro; Caroline Manard uses Softimage XSIand After Effects.

“Last year was one of our best ever,” says Manard, “and thisyear is pretty much on track. If you’re passionate about your work,it will be there.”

Get-Kinetic delivers for clients nearand far

Philadelphia’s Get-Kinetic, a commercial and emerging videoproduction company, follows a largely tapeless workflow, shootingwith RED Digital Cinema’s RED ONE camera and PanasonicHVX200 P2 cameras and editing on a Final Cut Pro system.

Get-Kinetic deployed RED on a music video for Peruviansinger Periko, for which Director/DP Kevin Hackenberg partneredwith Director Wilfredo Manzano, and on a series of broadcast andweb commercials for Valley Forge Christian College directed byHackenberg and lensed by Ed Buffman.

The company also completed three music videos for ThurstonCounty, Washington on the subject of recycling. Destined for ele-mentary/middle school and high school students as well as thebusiness community, the music videos were conceived by Get-Kinetic and shot primarily on greenscreen in Philadelphia. Get-Kinetic’s Dan Gautier designed colorful graphic backgrounds, andMilk Boy Recording crafted an “old school hip hop” score to thecompany’s lyrics, Hackenberg reports.

Last year Get-Kinetic shot an HD feature documentary for the

THE EAST

JULY/AUGUST 2009 31

Pennsylvania Department of Health and Brown Partners which fol-lowed the trials and tribulations of four urban youths attempting togive up smoking. The film has been distributed to urban communi-ties and recut as webisodes for YouTube.

“Our first quarter 2009 was well over last year,” Hackenbergnotes, “and we’ve been pretty busy in June.”

STVP enjoys waves of success

Ocean City, New Jersey’s Seriously Total Video Productions(STVP) was founded by Steven Trauger eight years ago when hewas a college freshman. Today he is a TV/AV facility engineer forthe Ocean City school district, an on-line graduate student inmotion graphics and broadcast design at the Savannah College ofArt & Design, and creative director of the thriving STVP.

At STVP Trauger keeps busy with a diverse array of work cre-ating the in-show video and marketing content for comedian DenaBlizzard’s show One Funny Mother: I’m Not Crazy; crafting amotion graphics package for River Force Financial; updating theOcean City Tourism Commission TV campaign which he producedbefore; redesigning the station ID for York College Television at hisalma mater; providing all the pre-recorded content and show pro-duction for the Miss New Jersey pageant; and supplying a new logoand web site design for the Miss New Jersey EducationalFoundation. He just completed a spec HD news package for KSN-TV/Kansas City which he hopes will go to air.

STVP boasts Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects software,Final Cut Pro and Avid edit systems, and mini DV and PanasonicDVCPRO cameras. “I’m eyeing P2 and other HD-format cameras,”says Trauger. “But no clients are demanding [HD] yet.”

Watermark makes its mark in corporate and spot projects

At Watermark Productions in Milford, Delaware owner BillSammons and son Josh handle script-to-screen duties for corporatemarketing and spot clients. Coming off its best year ever last year,the company “just went to HDV this year” with a new PanasonicHMC150 camera, says Bill; editing is done on Final Cut Pro.

“We do all the TV spots for Ad Strategies in Easton, Maryland whichspecializes in events and trade shows,” such as various boat shows andthe Market Pro Computer Show, Bill reports. Watermark shoots footageat the events, posts the spots and traffics them to stations.

The company shot and posted its first network spot intercut-ting kids racing on Big Wheels with audio and video of real racefootage; it aired nationally on FOX and ABC. Still in the racingmode, Watermark crafted an award-winning marketing video forMonster Racing, a fantasy NASCAR driving program based at DoverInternational Speedway. “It was one of the most fun things I’vedone,” Bill reports.

Watermark also finished a marketing video for Sun Pile

Driving, which distributes a revolutionary Finnish-made pile driv-er. It’s currently working on a new-product video for cargo controlspecialists Kinedyne which will take Bill to China this summer.

Interface Meets Market’s DiverseDemands

A creative media company operating in a 360-degree produc-tion environment, 32-year-old Interface Media Group serves thediverse marketplace of metro Washington, D.C. (where it makes itshome) and environs.

The company offers two soundstages and Sony F900 andPanasonic P2 cameras for the studio and field production; satellite,fibre optic, microwave and streaming media transmission; nineFinal Cut Pro suites; three Autodesk Discreet Smokes and a Flame;three Pro Tools sound design suites; and seven design, graphics andanimation suites. The Interactive Digital Media Department han-dles web site authoring, content and management.

Interface recently upgraded its soundstages’ control rooms for anall-HD signal path, reports Vice President Adam Hurst. It also added aBaselight color grading system and a new Sony MVS6000 HD switcherand Harris Inscriber character generator to one of the control rooms.

Recent credits include on-air promos for PBS, NationalGeographic Television and the Discovery Networks; spots for SiriusXM Radio; a host of political advertising; an informational video forthe Corporate Executive Board; and media support for the FritzScholder exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian.Interface’s Interactive Digital Media Department created amicrosite and furnished location crews and satellite transmissionfor the World Wildlife Fund’s international Earth Hour event.

“The beauty of being in Washington is the wide array of workgoing on,” notes Hurst. “We’re lucky to have a variety of clients inthe marketplace and a variety of services to offer.” n

BUsiness CarD

JULY/AUGUST 2009

BY CHRISTINE BUNISH VIEWTeri Rogers, CEOT2, Kansas City, MO

INSIDE

Markee: T2 has emerged on the national –and international – scene little more than adecade after its founding. Can you trace itshistory for us?Rogers: I bought the video division I wasrunning for a Fortune 500 company about 11years ago and named it Take 2 since we startedto do business with outside corporate clients.The name evolved to T2 and we began doingpost, design and VFX for advertising agencies.Michael Ong, our amazing creative director,joined us and has been a heavyweight in shap-ing our national reputation for motion design,3D and VFX.

Markee: T2 now has a sister production com-pany?Rogers: We launched Back Alley Films in June2008 and have really cultivated directors who

can work on multiple platforms like the WadeBrothers who have a wonderful reputation asconceptual photographers: Not a single one ofour directors has just a 30-second spot reel.Clients can work separately with T2 and BackAlley or we can work together. The strength ofour union becomes more and more obviouswith increased collaboration between produc-tion and post today and as budgets get morechallenging. When people go to our new website they can move a cursor to doors for T2and Back Alley but they’ll end up in the sameplace: a visual design and storytelling enter-prise.

Markee: Is Kansas City something of a best-kept secret for the production and postpro-duction industries?Rogers: In the last five years we’ve started to

see people recognizethat everything theywant for production ishere: talent, a real diver-sity of locations, cameraequipment, crews.When the WadeBrothers recently creat-ed an eight-minutevideo for British fashioncompany Fly53 theywere able to do every-thing from start to fin-ish in Kansas City –casting, set building,original music, post andVFX with T2. TheBritish clients flew inand were completelyblown away. They didn’texpect that level of pro-duction in the middleof the US.

Markee: Most of usforget that Kansas Cityhas always had a strongcreative community.Rogers: The city’s visu-al arts community has along history startingback with Hallmark,and we have a greatblues and jazz scene and

some very contemporary groups now, too. Butwhen we bring in directors from New York orLA or clients from larger markets they’re allrather surprised by Kansas City. We don’t wantto tell too many people or we’ll ruin it!

Markee: And T2 is located in the heart of thethriving Crossroads Art District.Rogers: We moved about three years ago to aformer popcorn factory. Two blocks from herearchitect Moshe Safdie is building a newPerforming Arts Center and the whole area isfilled with galleries, unique shops and restau-rants. Every first Friday of the month there’s ahuge celebration and thousands of peoplecome to Crossroads. We use First Friday as anopportunity to invite our best clients of theprevious month to a big private party.

Markee: What recent projects at Back Alleyand T2 are you most proud of?Rogers: We collaborated with SullivanHigdon & Sink/Kansas City on a pro bonoweb spot for Water Partners, an organizationwhich raises awareness about unsanitarydrinking water in developing nations. One ofBack Alley’s directors who’s also an editorhere, Pete Meyer, directed the spot for themock bottled water, L’Desh Fresh, and we’rereally happy that it’s getting a lot of attention.

We’re also in the final stages of editingThe Next American Dream, a documentary fea-ture that uses Kansas City as a petrie dish forurban revitalization. Editor Cara Myers hasbeen working on the film for four years andnow we’re trying to find distribution. Wealready have PBS networks interested in it andwant to see what other national exposure itmight get.

Markee: T2 is a certified Women’s BusinessEnterprise. How have you seen the role ofwomen change in this industry?Rogers: It used to be that my entire editorialand VFX staff was all men. That’s not truenow. Every day we get requests from amazingyoung women coming out of art institutionswho want to be interns. And we get lots ofcalls from freelance editors and interactivedesigners who are women. It’s nice to finallysee that. Women bring a different perspectiveto the work and are changing the face of theproducts we create. n

mong T2’s many credits are editorial for Cook’s Ham, Kansas CityPower & Light, Rival Crock Pot, McDonald’s, and Time WarnerCable; title design credits include Rigged for C47 Pictures, ABC’sDesperate Housewives, Relativity Media, and the Hallmark Channel.

32

a

EQUIPMENTEQUIPMENT

marketPLACE

JULY/AUGUST 2009 33

advertIser PaGe

WeB

ad Index

SERVICES

For classified advertising details, contact Lynne Bass, 386-774-8923,

lynne@markeemag.com

615 Music Productions, Inc............................................................................21www.615music.com

ABQ Production Outfitters .............................................................................33www.productionoutfitters.com

Alan Gordon Enterprise Inc............................................................................33www.alangordon.com

Amarillo Film Office .......................................................................................34www.visitamarillotx.com

American Music Company, Inc. .....................................................................16www.americanmusicco.com

Assignment Desk, Inc. ...................................................................................04www.assignmentdesk.com

Barbizon Light.................................................................................................09www.barbizon.com

Bron Kobold....................................................................................................10www.bron-kobold-usa.com

Camera Copters, Inc. .....................................................................................C4www.cameracopters.com

Cammate Systems .........................................................................................33www.cammate.com

Canon Professional Broadcast Equipment Division ......................................07www.canonhdec.com

Cine Rent West ..............................................................................................13www.cinerentwest.com

Communications Concepts Inc.......................................................................24www.cciflorida.com

Cornerstone Media Productions, Inc. ............................................................31www.cornerstonemedia.com

Crew Connection............................................................................................30www.payreel.com

dCranes ..........................................................................................................33www.dcranes.com

Dempsey Film Group......................................................................................11www.dempseyfilm.com

FirstCom .........................................................................................................17www.firstcom.com

Gerling & Associates .....................................................................................25www.gerlinggroup.com

Glidecam Industries Inc .................................................................................33www.glidecam.com

HB Group, Inc .................................................................................................29www.hbrentals.com

Killer Tracks....................................................................................................19www.killertracks.com

Kinescope Camera And Deck Service ...........................................................C2www.kinescope.tv

Locke Bryan Productions Inc ..........................................................................10www.lockebryan.com

Mastersource Music Catalog ........................................................................20www.mastersource.com

Media Plus Insurance Services......................................................................27www.mediaplus4ins.com

Mississippi Film Office ..................................................................................34www.mississippi.org

New Mexico Film Office ................................................................................34www.nmfilm.com

Northstar Studios...........................................................................................13www.northstarstudios.tv

Omnimusic......................................................................................................22www.omnimusic.com

Payreel............................................................................................................31www.payreel.com

Premier Studio Equipment .............................................................................33www.premierstudioequipment.com

ProductionHUB.com ......................................................................................33www.ProductionHUB.com

Raleigh Studios ..............................................................................................14www.raleighstudios.com

South Dakota Film Office...............................................................................C3www.filmsd.com

Specialty Cams...............................................................................................33www.specialtycams.com

Stephen Arnold Music ...................................................................................19www.stephenarnoldmusic.com

Streamwerx Digital Studio ............................................................................09www.streamwerx.com

The Music Bakery ..........................................................................................16www.musicbakery.com

The Pocono Mountain Workshops.................................................................33www.videolightingclass.com

TM Television.................................................................................................11www.tmtel.com

Tupelo Film Office ..........................................................................................C3www.tupelo.net

Virginia Film Office ........................................................................................C3www.film.virginia.org

Willy’s Widgets ..............................................................................................33www.willyswidgets.com

YES Productions .............................................................................................26www.yesproductions.com

34 JULY/AUGUST 2009

amarillo film Commission

1000 s. Polk • amarillo, tx 79101

Phone: 806-342-2012 • fax: 806-373-3909

www.visitamarillotx.com

new mexico state film office

418 montezuma avenue • santa fe, nm 87501

Phone: 505-476-5600 • fax: 505-476-5601

www.nmfilm.com

Contact:

Lisa Strout

Director

Jennifer Schwalenberg

Deputy Director

Plaza Blanca

In the Rio Chama Valley of Northern New

Mexico sits the natural wonder known as

Plaza Blanca, also immortalized as “The

White Place” in a 1940 painting by Georgia

O’Keeffe. This is an easily accessible loca-

tion with 360 degrees of unique views.

Contact:

Jutta Matalka

Director, Tourism/Film

Palo duro Canyon state Park

Considered the second largest canyon in

the U.S. and one of its most magnificent

scenic attractions. More than 30,000 acres

display extraordinary vistas of color and

beauty. Today’s visitors appreciate the fact

that they can drive 800 feet down to the

bottom of the canyon.

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

mississippi film office

P.o. Box 849 • Jackson, ms 39205

Phone: 601-359-3297 • fax: 601-359-5048

www.filmmississippi.org

Contact:

Ward Emling

Manager

Pascagoula river

The free-flowing Pascagoula River mean-

ders for 80 miles through bottomlands and

bayous rich with wildlife, slipping into

coastal cordgrass marshlands. More direct,

Mississippi’s Motion Picture Incentive

Program flows to you a 20-25% cash rebate

on spend and payroll for features, televi-

sion, documentaries, and commercials.

35JULY/AUGUST 2009

virginia film office

901 east Byrd street • richmond, va 23219

Phone: 800-854-6233 • fax: 804-545-5531

www.film.virginia.org

Contact:

Becky Beckstoffer

Marketing Manager

Andy Edmunds

Location Manager

Kathryn Stephens

Locations Assistant

Contact:

Pat Rasberry

Director

tupelo, mississippi

Located in the hills of Northeast Mississippi

and home to Elvis Presley, Tupelo offers a

unique blend of locations for film projects:

Natchez Trace Parkway Scenic Byway, his-

toric buildings and battlefields, railways,

and buildings that offer innovative alterna-

tives to sound stages plus a competitive

motion picture incentive package.

Colonial era Backlot, farm and Wharf

Virginia offers a unique 16-acre Colonial era

backlot, farm and wharf sets with 95 period

residential and commercial buildings, cob-

blestone streets, alleyways and a town

square. The Richmond area also has a

wealth of historic architecture, crew and

services. Photos at www.film.virginia.org.

tupelo film Commission

P.o. drawer 47 • tupelo, ms 38802

Phone: 662-841-6521 • fax: 662-841-6558

www.tupelofilmcommission.net

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Contact:

Emily Currey

Film Commissioner

mount rushmore national memorial

South Dakota is a state of many startling and

beautiful contrasts, emphasizing the geo-

graphic division of the agricultural Midwest

and the mountains of the rugged West. The

majestic mountains, rolling prairies, thunder-

ing buffalo, and the endless wide-open spaces,

make South Dakota a prime film location.

south dakota film office

711 east Wells avenue • Pierre, sd 57501

Phone: 605-773-3301 • fax: 605-773-3256

www.filmsd.com

http://www.cameracopters.com