Y'all, Paula Dean is sooo sweet

Remote Audio Video teamed up with At Will Productions to shoot a satellite media tour to promote Paula Dean's new nut line. "I've gone NUTS y'all!" Dean exclaimed. Chris Simmons, owner of RAV, brought on Joe Schmitt to light the set and operate a Sony D-50. If you're not familiar, a Satellite Media Tour (SMT) is a series of 3-5 minute live hits with tv and radio stations across the country. In order to cover the morning shows in all time zones, a tough schedule is set with the first hit around 6:00 am, and finishing at around noon or 1:00 pm. Breaks are short, not to mention few and far between. As expected, Ms. Paula was a true pro. She put the same energy in the last hit as she did the first, and didn't miss a single interviewers name.

So how do you light a kitchen that America is used to seeing on tv without a grip truck? Schmitt used his Kino Flo package consisting of: 1 Parabeam 400 as a key, 1 Diva 400 for fill, 1 Barfly 200 as a back light, and another Barfly 200 to accent the brick oven. A silk was also used on the Parabeam to soften metalic reflections on the set. Two Sony D-50 ENG cameras were used and Schmitt was in charge of shooting a series of tight pans and tilts of the food and product.

Ms. Paula is a busy lil' lady. The day before the shoot, the SMT crew was setting up while another crew finished striking a still shoot for Dean's furniture line. While the SMT crew was striking, a third crew from Florida was prepping for her next shoot. Ms. Paula turned on her southern charm and was very sweet to everyone, not to mention extremely funny. Even at 5:00am. This gal's a hoot y'all!

At Will at Family Circle Cup '09

Generally, tennis time in Charleston means Joe Schmitt is on the court running camera 4 on a low boy for ESPN. It's a nice feeling having to choose between a Cannon 77 X lens or a 99. It also means running a lot of cables. This year was different. In a good way.

Big Kid Productions of London hired At Will to help coordinate a two day, HD shoot. Video would be acquired for a series of viral videos. These "Making of a Hero" videos will be all over the web in June. We can't tell you much about the content of the videos, but you can read the write-ups from Tennis Team USA, and Sony Ericsson.

Matching, Panasonic HPX-500 cameras were used. Big Kid brought in a small crew with a lot of experience. DP, Harvey Glenn was running the "A" camera going "handy" (hand-held) a lot, quickly switching between Cannon HJ-11 and HJ-22 lenses. On day one, the "B" camera was used on a Cam Mate, courtesy of Osprey HD. On day two "B" was all over the place, sometimes hand-held, on the tripod, or high-hat mounted atop a 15 foot ladder. Joe Schmitt of At Will Productions operated "B" camera on day two.

Big Kid owner Ed Pettit and Steve Cooney of Comet Multimedia (dubbed R2-P2) coordinated P-2 file transfers to laptop computers loaded with Final Cut Pro. The P-2 work flow was very efficient, and provided almost instant daily's.

How did Ed express his view on working with At Will Productions? "Chuffed to bits."

Play Ball!

Since most of the work we get is not in Charleston, SC, it only makes sense that At Will's DP, Joe Schmitt was crewed for the first televised baseball game in the new Gamecock baseball stadium in Columbia, SC. What's great about the stadiums in Columbia? They spend a lot of money to make it TV friendly. Triax, coax, and DT-12 running everywhere. Even the cables that weren't working yet at 6 am were functional with plenty of time to fax the cameras. Dave and Slice really know how to put a system together. Not only do they design (well) a video system for the internal scoreboard, but they know what a big broadcast would need, and accomodate accordingly. Needless to say, we had everything we needed, even a lift to the parking lot.

So how do you cover baseball with only four hard-cameras? Telly McCulough put low third up a tier and used a lock-off hand-held in the usual low third position. Worked like a charm. Thankfully, he scrapped the camera on top of the scoreboard. Special thanks to nice ladies at Raycom Sports.

SCANA is LIVE!

SCANA, the largest power provider in South Carolina, shot a live presentation for major substations that are located throughout the state. Not too bad for a "little, four camera shoot." Try a brand new Thomson / Grass Valley, HD Production and uplink truck. Don't forget to back that truck up about 35 feet from the door that's another 25 feet to the stage. These Grass Valley HD cameras put out beautiful pictures. The production truck has a small profile with a lot of punch. It even smelled new still. Let's see, easy going & professional clients, high end gear, short triax runs...what else? Throw in an Angenieux wide angle lens and it's a great day. Not to mention that I always enjoy seeing my friends in Columbia, SC. Rock on Christian for pulling off a great show!