https://youtu.be/QOEcdmLCo2g (vimeo) OK, so it’s been awhile. It’s been a weird year of ups and downs and I just don’t even know where to begin. So, let’s begin with the Aivascope Pro 1.5x single focus anamorphic adapter. After asking nicely, Valdas of Aivascope graciously lent me one of the test copies of his new lens. I was excited to give it a try and looking forward to shooting as much as I could with it. Well, first came the rainiest early summer I can ever remember. Then, I got sick. Really sick. I was in doctor’s offices and hospitals in…
Was asked to film with Sean of strangerskateboards.us while he was in Tokyo for his new drop. We did everything on the fly pretty quickly, but it was a lot of fun to do. We filmed in Shibuya for a few hours and I came back another day to do some pick-up shots. I used the same setup as this video with a few changes. It was super easy to just go out and shoot with such a compact setup, but I want to improve it more. It’s always fun to have actual content to make. Sometimes just having…
Vimeo I had been wanting an iPad Pro since the first generation, but I couldn’t really justify it. I have been using a Surface 3 for my daily basic computing and simple creative work. It played back stuff from my GH5 no problem. But when I saw the new basic iPad was editing GH5 video, I was very interested. The new iPad Pros were announced and I waited until I sold a few things to order one. So far, I am VERY impressed. Other capabilities aside, the fact that it handles my GH5 footage so flawlessly and QUICKLY made…
(vimeo) Finally getting around to filming some new videos. Hit a few snags with life but more content should be rolling in relatively quickly from here on out. I emailed Valdas of Aivascope to see if he’d let me try out his new and improved Aivascope. The video I did of the first one did well (a lot of people seemed to use it or stills from it to sell them…) and I’m still a fan. I only sold mine because I needed something I could use for anything and more often at night. Well, that’s where this new…
My first real music video in awhile, and my first music video as JSD. Pretty excited to get it out there and the reception has been great! Jerell wanted something quick and gritty, and he was thrilled with the result. After he told me what he wanted, I knew the perfect setting: Minato Mirai in Yokohama. We filmed half the video in Shinjuku and half at Minato Mirai. I had planned to try and film more in the Cosmo World amusement park, but they closed on days we needed to film and closed early the day we were there….
Since October, I have been working on and off with Luis Mora on a film he’s wanted to make since he came to Japan for the first time earlier this year. We had planned to try and shoot it in a few weekends, but that drastically changed into all weekends and many weekdays/weeknights. Even with a lot of planning, this was a challenge to get done by his deadline. We only got to see a small part of Tokyo but it still came out huge. Luis’s goal was to tell his story with Japan as a backdrop. I have…
(Vimeo) One thing that I learned since getting into anamorphic is that fast apertures and anamorphic adapters do not mix. Most adapters will rarely work faster than f/2.0, with a lot of them going around 2.8-4.0. The fastest full anamorphic lens ever made is the Panavision 50mm f/1.0. Well, I think my 17.5mm f/0.95 has it beat. My anamorphic is an unbranded 1.33x from the 90’s. While it may look like something from the Century Optics line, it’s more similar to the Sony VCL-W169. I have modded it a bit and it now has a filter ring, and have cleaned…