When Cristina first approached me to do a reel inspiration post, I thought, “Oh great, you want me to pick…THREE films that inspire me.” The first thing that went through my head was, what should I base these three films on? Their cinematography? Story? Editing? Should I not pick old classics in the fear of sounding art school, pretentious? What if they are so weird and far removed from anything relatable? Like everyone else, I have a plethora of favorite films, picking three, let alone the ones that inspire me the most is quite daunting, because it is somewhat a representation of my preference of films.

Something that I’ve noticed since my new transition into the freelance world is that people have been asking to hire me because of a certain “style” that they seem to think I have. It’s more difficult to see what “style” that is, being on the inside, but I thought a lot about why I create the films that I do and why I choose to tell the [personal] stories that I do…and it all comes down to childlike whimsey and imagination. [This is not to be confused with nostalgia.]



As a child, I experienced several life altering events that have shaped my character and how I see things. That seems so matter of factly, but grasping to imagination in adolescent cognition, mixed with some form of human tragedy, is something that I see recurring in the type of visual images I like to create (on a personal level). Several films and television shows, have helped in influencing the type of visual style and storytelling I [hope to] tell. The three that I will talk about are Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows), Pushing Daisies, and Me and You and Everyone We Know.
Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows) [1959] – The first film in The Adventures of Antoine Doinel – Directed by François Truffaut

A lot of you may know that The 400 Blows was the film that made me want to be a cinematographer. Looking back, this film, or series, didn’t particularly have the most mind blowing cinematography in it, but it was the character development and dynamism that made me take a greater interest in pursuing any sort of avenue into filmmaking. I watched this film for one of my undergrad Intro to World Cinema courses and I felt really weird after class was over. Something stuck but I wasn’t sure what; I was invested in the character of Antoine Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud. I empathized with the character in a far greater way than I had with other films I had watched. As soon as I got back to my dorm room, I did some research and found out that the film was part of a series. One hour and $80 later, I had ordered the Criterion box set for The Adventures of Antoine Doinel. Once it arrived, I sat down in my room and watched through the entire series beginning to end. I watched Antoine go through angsty teenage years, get married, have children, go through a divorce, and become an adult. I felt like his character was important, someone that needed to be understood by me, the viewer, more than the characters he interacted in. But more importantly, I wanted to understand him. After watching the films, I thought about the effects the film had on me, and the investment that it had created. That in itself was powerful enough for me to want to create films that touched on human emotion, as much as this series had on me. I wanted to create realistic drama that found hopefulness through the terrible things we go through in life. This film made me want to create films of hopeful realism.

Pushing Daisies [2007-2009] Directed by Bryan Fuller

This TV show is one of my favorites; it has great writing, fantastic actors, great cinematography, and absolutely phenomenal production design, all in a mix bag of whimsey. The series follows a pie maker, Ned, played by Lee Pace, who has the ability to bring people back from the dead, as he and a private investigator solve murder mysteries. Ned is only able to bring living things or people back from the dead (by touch) for sixty seconds and must touch them again (to make them dead forever), or else someone else in close proximity will die in his or her place. The writing and world that the characters live in is so colorful and whimsical. The production design is very Amelie-esque, and compositions almost 2046esque at times. As a cinematographer, production design is absolutely crucial in telling vibrant stories and can be very reflexive of the characters. I am a fan of careful mind to detail in production design as a form of exposition for the characters rather than blatant expositional dialogue. Oddly enough, this series does a good job of doing both with its costumes and set design and voice over narration. The shot compositions and hyper realistic camera movements are both entertaining and effective in telling the story. And of course, there’s something so beautifully tragic about being in love with someone that you can’t touch or else they’ll die.

Me and You and Everyone We Know [2005] Directed by Miranda July

Last but not least, a film that has been of great inspiration to me is Me and You and Everyone We Know. Miranda July is one of my favorite female filmmakers; she is also my type of quirky, whimsical, strange, but also hopeful character. In the film, July stars as performance artist who connects with a lonely shoe salesman. The film is a network narrative about how different people find and deal with love. Each of the respective interactions the characters have in pursuing love or human understanding is poignant and real. The characters go through their own emotional pain and hopefulness. Me and You and Everyone We Know also has some of my favorite, subtle, cinematography in it that enhances not only the story, but the character’s perspectives. This film reminds me that the world can be fucked up and weird, but there’s a place for all of us in it. And that’s okay.

These films and tv show are amongst those who have helped cultivate my style of filmmaking and have been inspirational in finding and reflecting on the whimsical imagination of realism. They help me to grow as a filmmaker, and push me to learn about myself, and how I create, every day.

I made this video for fun, 4 years ago, and it’s something that still rings true for me. We never really know what happens when we grow up, but the childlike sense of whimsey and desire to reach for things that are seemingly unattainable (at the time) hopefully, won’t go away…unless we let it.

Let’s start off in the beginning, for me the ability to utilize sound was really what got me into video to begin with. With a background in photography, I felt limited in how much depth I could go into with my story through one image. Discovering the ability to utilize sound and motion through video was pretty amazing. Yeah, I know, it’s been around since before the invention of “talkies” but for me to have control over the emotion my audience felt by combining picture and sound was, and continues to be, immensely inspiring.

So hello video and hello to all the challenges that come with learning a new medium. My first investment in sound was a shotgun mic and a wireless pack. Now fast forward a bit and here comes the 5d and all of a sudden I have to start recording sound externally because prior to this I always relied on my XL2 and XHA1′s inputs. We purchased two Zoom H4N’s and continued on happily until we started to run into some severe issues – corrupt files. I was absolutely terrified after this and vowed that from there on out, I would find a sound guy/gal that I could call a friend. Well, like all great plans, it didn’t work out that easily. The budget wasn’t always there so we’d find ourselves setting up multiple backups just in case one of the Zooms decided to get moody again. It did and luckily we had backups but we had had enough. We wanted to step up our game with our audio capabilities and start to teach ourselves more. I will gladly admit that if I had the time I would go back to school and study sound engineering. However, for those of you who know me, you know I say that about pretty much any specialty that has anything to do with running a business and creating films. Right around the time I was seriously considering applying to different schools, we attended a workshop hosted by Adam Forgione. He was focusing on post but he really impressed me with his wealth of knowledge and just how energetic and passionate he was for sound. I immediately wanted to learn more so eventually when we finally had our chance to host a multi-day educational workshop, Masters In Motion, we brought Adam out to teach people the art of sound. We learned so much that day. Adam has a way of breaking down extremely complex topics into simple concepts. He really blew my mind.

After Masters In Motion we had a long, almost never ending list of equipment we wanted to buy and we made the decision that we would invest in our work by the end of the year. What a great decision. We’ve had so much fun learning how to use all our new gear and we wanted to share what we got and why so here you go:

Edirol / Roland R-44 Solid-State Four-Channel Portable Field Recorder – $1095.00

This thing is a beast yet it weighs under three pounds. With the R-44 you can record up to four channels of  audio at several different bit rates and sampling frequencies – up to 24-bit/192kHz. Another great feature is the quality of the pre-amp. We’ve used it a few times and haven’t run into any problems at all. It came highly recommended by our good friends Adam Forgione and John Hyland so I’m sure we made the right choice. In case you’re wondering how to use it exactly, check out Adam’s video at the bottom of this post.

Roland R-05 Portable 24-bit Digital Audio Recorder – $199.00

We were fed up with wireless mics so this was the solution. The unit is super small so it’s easy to hide in a pocket. We also have a wired pack that we use occasionally but this is great for mobility and if you don’t have a dedicated boom operator. Honestly, I’m not crazy about not being able to monitor sound during the entire shoot but as I mentioned before I always setup multiple options especially in a one take environment.





Rode NTG-3 Basic Shotgun Microphone Kit – $999.95

One of the coolest things about this mic is that it’s very close in quality to the sennheiser 416 but this one is cheaper. Also, the line-gradient supercardioid polar pattern is much more forgiving. So, if you don’t have the shotgun aimed 100% correctly it’ll still pick it up. Regardless of whether or not you get the kit, make sure you get the boom pole with the XLR running through the actual pole. It makes life a lot easier. We’ve used it a few times so far and the setup is simple: boom pole on a stand with this mic up top. What a difference from our previous lavalier mic setup. To get all the technical specs, check out this great write up on B&H.

Tram TR50 – Omnidirectional Lavalier Condenser Microphone (Black) – $239.99

This lavalier microphone is super small which is great because you can hide it very easily. What’s even better is if you place it right you can eliminate all that nasty fabric sound you used to get. We got this to specifically use with the Roland R-05. If you think this is really expensive for a lav mic, keep in mind that your audio is only going to be as good as the weakest link so we considered this a worthy investment.

Shure SM58-LC – Cardioid Handheld Dynamic Microphone – $99.00

What a great, reasonably priced, microphone. For years, this has been an industry standard, go to work horse, so it was really a no-brainer. It’s a durable and well built mic. You can tell just by picking it up. We got this for live events so that if we can’t plug into a board, then we can mic the actual speaker by putting this mic on our mic stand and running the XLR into the R-44.




We purchased all of the products for our sound setup because they came highly recommended by Adam. He’s a great teacher and is always willing to share a wealth of information, so if you have the opportunity to check him out, definitely do it. To find out about his upcoming workshops, click here.
If you’re thinking of buying the R-44 or even if you have it, Adam put together this great video on how to use it:

Another thing that I really love about Joe is his constant drive for education. He believes in continuing his own education and sharing his knowledge to others. Him and Kevin Shahinian will be doing a workshop on the C300 in Vegas. It’s going to be a hands-on workshop using the camera, leaning the menus and workflow. They will also be teaching about producing commercial work with small crews, directing, cinematography, budgeting etc. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s limited to 15 people so everyone will get a lot of hands on time with both Kevin and Joe and the camera. You can find out more here -http://www.eventcinemaworkshop.com

So, back to the topic at hand: We had the chance to spend some time with Joe this week at In:Focus Event in Charleston. When I heard that our friend Daniel Bérubé of Boston Creative Pro User Group would be there representing Canon with the c300, I immediately wanted to get my hands on it. Luckily we got permission play with the camera for about an one hour around Charleston. Now, let me just say that Joe Simon is a machine… This maniac was flying the c300 on the Glidecam with an 85mm lens. I tried using it a bit but, much to my chagrin, I have to admit that the rig was a bit too heavy for me. I’m sure Joe will laugh when he reads that because I constantly tell him that I am just as strong and would run circles around him if given the chance. I don’t really think that but it’s good to have goals in life. So anyways, we also got to use the brand new Kessler Crane Stealth and it was oh so nice. Since neither Joe or I were planning on shooting anything during the trip to Charleston, we barely had any gear. Joe brought a Manfrotto 755 carbon fiber tripod with the 701 head and we were actually just able to use that with the Stealth and the c300. We were also fortunate enough to have the good folks from Lens Pro To Go provide us with some extra primes, a lite panel, and the glidecam.

Alright so let’s get past what everyone is talking about, the specs. Unfortunately, I’m barely gonna touch on that. There are multiple comparisons, discussions, and technical tests on almost every single filmmaking blog and, honestly, I will not be buying any of the recent camera releases because it’s not right for ME (another post on that topic to come soon).

Here’s the low down ~ It’s $15,999 for the body only and it has a 35mm CMOS sensor capable of up to 4k resolution. It’s beautiful and I’m hoping that some wonderful person buys it for me but I don’t really need it. Regardless, I loved getting to play with the camera and was so impressed by the low light capabilities and how light and easy it was to use. Yes, I want it really, really badly but sadly, it’s not in the cards right now. Of course, I get to live vicariously through Joe Simon since he has made the investment in this bad ass camera so let’s find out why…

Q+A

- prior to our shoot, what has been your experience been with the c300?

Before this shoot I had touched a C300 in Austin at the Canon event, I looked through the menus and played with it for about 10 mins. Not much time but it was nice to have a little experience before this shoot.

- with all the new cameras being released, what made you chose to purchase the c300?

I’ve been wanting a new camera that will solve the current issues that I have with the 5D (alaising, Jello, moire), but that could still use Canon lenses and can be used for broadcast productions. As I’m moving into the commercial production market I want something I can use to create the content as efficiently as I have been doing with the 5D. A camera that I can use with my current support gear and can still fly on the Glidecam. I like to run my crew pretty small and this camera will allow me to do this. I need something that I can use with minimal lighting, by minimal I mean lower wattage battery powered LEDs to light scenes. The dynamic range and highlight rolloff is great with the C300 and it’s such a big difference from the 5D. The 5D has been a great camera but the C300 will allow me to push things to the next level. I thought about getting the scarlet, but what kept me from going that route was the weight, post workflow and poor low light capability. If I do need something better for a shoot I will be renting a Epic or Alexa.

- how does it compare to other’s that you’ve shot with or owned?

Having shot on the 5D/7D for the past few years it was a bit different finding what button did what on the C300. Once I did find my way around it was great. I do love the way the C300 feels in my hands, the grip is nice. It’s a bit heavier then the 5D but feels super solid. It’s amazing to have all those “Video” features back like peaking , XLR, headphone jack etc. Technically the image looks beautiful, the highlight rolloff is great and coming from the 5D where the highlights blowout, this is awesome. I know everyone keeps say the grain looks nice, but it really does. It looks more organic then the digital noise you get from the 5Ds. I’m looking forward to getting more time with the camera so I can push it and see what I can create. I’m really looking forward to grading in DaVinci and pushing the codec.

* There was a question on Vimeo about seeing no difference from the 5d and Joe Simon gave a great answer that I thought I’d share on here:

“Here are a few shots that the 5D would have failed –

- Wide shot of the road would have had Moire on the bricks in both he slider and glidecam shots
- Close up of girl world have had alaising on her eyelashes and hair
- Final shot would not have been possible as the C300 was at f5.6 and iso 12,400, you would not have been able to have stopped the 5D down enough to create this shot.

In reality this was not the best use of the camera, this is when the camera was available and I wanted to test it on the Glidecam. But what I love is that I did not have to worry about the above issues because this camera just works and gives you more options. ”

Here is the c300 piece I had the pleasure of working with Joe on.
* We used Canon L lenses – 14mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm on the Glidecam.
* Special thanks to Canon, Daniel Bérubé, Lens Pro To Go, Kessler Crane, The Music Bed, In:Focus, and our lovely model, Therese Farrow.

We’re looking forward to having all of you join us!
Watch it here: www.shooteditlearn.com/podcasts

Arri Compact Fresnel Three-Light Kit $1799.00

Why did I buy them? Well, I had seen these in action a few times when I’ve shot with Kevin Ritchie and I loved how much throw they had. I also wanted one kit that I could pretty much take anywhere and setup for an interview. A lot of people have questioned my decision on getting Arri lights when I could buy something cheaper but I really wanted a name I knew I could trust and hey, this is no cheap investment…. I want these bad boys to last for years!


Lowel Rifa eX 88 Kit $806.00

Why did I buy this? Well to be honest, this was no where on my list before my phone call to Khalid Mohtaseb. I was planning on just getting a 5 light kit from Arri instead but I’m glad I didn’t. The Rifa sets up in not time… One of the selling points is the “60-second set-up time” I’m a bit slower than that but it’s definitely fast. It gives off super soft and very flattering light but what I really like about it is the softbox is already attached so you can just unfold it super quick. So, needless to say, Khalid convinced me to add this to the arsenal.


Fancier 1000 LED Light Panel Dimmable Light Panel $299.99

Why did I buy this random LED? I was getting ready to click buy when I spoke to John Hyland and he started telling me about his experience with hot lights and how he had just gotten these great lights. Since he was so happy with them and was planning to buy more, I figured I’d pick one up and try it. I loved the fact that it had a dimmer on it and figured it would be easy to put a CTB on my Arri and incorporate this LED. I didn read a ton of great reviews on this light but I also heard a lot of people complaining on twitter about how green the light is. I bought a 1/2 minus green just in case but as you’ll see below, I did not have this issue.

So those are all the lights I got. There are way too many accessories to list but here’s a few of my favorites thus far:

Matthews RoadRags Kit $192.80 ~ I love these. Really quick and easy to use.

CineBags CB-06 Gel Roll $28.95 ~ Perfect for storing all my gels.

Rosco CTB Color Conversion Gel Filters (full, 1/2, & 14/) $4.99 – $5.79 per gel








Rosco Diffusion Kit $89.95

Rosco Cinegel Sampler Kit $33.99 – This is a great mix… It has some great gels that I can quickly throw on my Arri lights.

So I had everything I needed and the main test was going to be actually putting all of these to the work. We had been planning on shooting the first episode of our new cooking show for editors for a while now but I wanted to wait till we had all our new gear. What I didn’t think about was just how small our kitchen is and how challenging lighting my first scene ever would me. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy but I didn’t really think how hard it would be to deal with space limitations, glass everywhere, and way too many stainless steel appliances. Part of me wanted to call someone or tweet out messages for help but I really wanted to try to challenge myself so I could learn as I went on and let me tell you, I learned a TON and also realized that I have so much more to learn. Ok, so on to the nitty gritty…

Scene 1:

The first scene we shot was at night so it was perfect because there was barely any natural light coming in through the giant windows in the kitchen. I setup the Rifa in the right corner of the kitchen and if I could have gone back further I would have but hey, space was tight so I did what I could. Next up I setup the Arri 650 in the left corner of the kitchen as far back as I could and put a double scrim on it along with another double scrim from my road rag kit. No, not ideal but I already have a dimmer in my shopping cart for tight situations. I also kicked myself later and said why didn’t I just bounce the light off the ceiling. Oh well! So next up I setup an Arri 150 in the corner for a hair light. That light is perfect for that and the distance was great as well. I was pretty happy with this setup but as with all the setups, I was really frustrated with the shadows and reflections and I tried to block light to get rid of it but I couldn’t. I plan on experimenting with this MUCH more. Below are a few pictures of our setup and a frame grab from the video:

Scene 2:

So for the next scene we wanted to replicate exactly how Jon cooks his pulled pork so we had to shoot this in the morning. As I mentioned before, the kitchen has two large windows so I tried to block all the light coming in but ultimately I decided to use the window light. My main light was the Arri 650 with a full blue CTB on it. I set it up to the right of my camera. The hair light was the Arri 150 again but this time with a full CTB as well and I changed the position of it to the back right instead of the back left because as it was I already had a ton of light coming in from the window. I put the 150 on the actual counter since space was so limited. I really wanted to use the LED light so I set that up on the other side of Jon and dimmed it half way down. Overall I was the happiest with this setup except for the reflections of course.

Scene 3:

Now this was by far my least favorite setup. This was another shot taken at night and I wanted to make sure that you could see the actual counter in the shot this time around. I couldn’t use the Rifa because with the softbox it was way too large to put it anywhere in my tiny kitchen and avoid really nasty reflections. So I went with the Arri 650, 300, and 150. Eliminating the reflections on the 650 was tough but I was able to get rid of the worst ones by simply opening some cabinet doors and blocking the light a bit. I did have to use some diffusion on this light but the 300 was perfect and so was the 150. So why was I so annoyed with this shot? Human error of course… I should have bumped my exposure a bit more and tweaked my color balance but hey, I learned a valuable lesson. I rushed through this setup and paid the price.

It’s been a great experience trying to essentially teach myself about lighting. I’m hoping that I continue to learn more and more about this because it’s definitely challenging but I enjoyed the process. If you read through this whole post and got nothing out of it, I apologize. Most people in the field probably know way more than I do about lighting but I figure I’ll share my experience learning. Hopefully I’ll share more about this soon along with what we decided to get for our new audio setup.

Don’t forget to check out the actual cooking show too: Bringing Home The Bacon

The timing really couldn’t be anymore prefect for our surprise guest to be announced. Yesterday was the end of a long journey for him. Over a hundred days of filming towards his first feature length documentary have come to an end and in ten days it will premiere on Showtime. What’s most unique about him is his background. 3 years ago, when I first met him, he was leading the wedding industry with his completely different approach to wedding films. Looking back I would have never guessed that in less than 3 years he’d be filming the Super Bowl but all his success is well deserved.

Without further ado, we’re so excited to announce that Patrick Moreau from StillMotion will be joining us for our first live video podcast this Thursday at 8:30 pm eastern. In case you haven’t had a chance to watch the trailer for A Game of Honor, check it out below. I encourage everyone to check out StillMotion’s website as well. The’ve done so much for the industry including hosting numerous educational events and even developing a music licensing site. Also, make sure to bring your questions because at the end of our podcast we’ll have live q+a with Patrick. You’ll be able to watch it here on ShootEditLearn.com under the podcast tab. We’re both super excited about this & hope that you can join us!

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Karen, make sure to check out her site and twitter. I first met Karen over two years ago in San Francisco during an educational filmmaking workshop, Re:Frame, and we hit it off immediately. We’re both super excited about this and hope that you can join us on the 15th!

Topics include:

Composition and Imagination with Tom Guilmette

Applying Movement to Enhance Your Story with Joe Simon

Documentary Filmmaking with Philip Bloom

Opposite Sides of the Spectrum with Vincent Laforet

Production Workflow with Khalid, Jonathan, and Tyler

Lighting Theory with Khalid, Jonathan, and Tyler

Color + Story with Philip Bloom

Advanced Audio with Adam Forgione

On Wednesday we’ll head out for some hands on learning… We’re breaking into small groups and get to rotate between stations: Shooting with the Phantom Flex with Khalid and Jonathan, Shooting with the Red Epic with Vincent and Philip, and Advanced Timelapse with Tyler, Joe, and Eric Kessler from Kessler Crane. Of course, at the end of everything on Wednesday night we’re having a huge closing party for all the attendees.

We are so excited about this and can’t wait to meet all the new faces and hang out with some of the great folks we met during the Canon Filmmakers Live U.S. tour. If you haven’t signed up for the event, don’t miss out! The caliber of speakers alone is amazing but the knowledge and relationships you’ll develop from this 3 day event will be invaluable. Trust us, we’ve been to several workshops around the world and they’ve all been so beneficial in our growth as filmmakers.

We want to thank everyone who has helped us make this event a success including all the presenters and our amazing sponsors for Masters In Motion: Kessler Crane, Rule Boston, Red Giant, Rode, Manfrotto, Kata, Zeiss, Zacuto, and Marshall Monitors. Their support is a huge testament to their belief in how important education is. Believe me, without them this event would not be possible. Continuing education is so important to us and we are so lucky to have found so many great companies that are willing to help us.

Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped us spread the word about the event. Every single tweet has helped and we appreciate it greatly.