Tennis Update

At Will goes international...Again. Now that we can let the cat out of the bag. This was the biggest year for tennis for At Will Productions yet. Although Joe Schmitt didn't get to take his usual place on camera 4 for the Family Circle Tournament (four years running) he stayed busy organizing two matching HD Cameras to cover interviews and challenges with some of this years biggest tennis stars including Venus Williams. These challenges were used for a series on the web called Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Hero Challenges.Big Kid Productions of London hired Schmitt to operate the B-Cam to gather wide shots from a 15 foot ladder and other b-roll of players and challengers. At Will was also in charge of coordinating P2 file transfers to a bank of Mac laptops.

Who would be crazy enough to challenge Venus Williams? It took an entire football team, and it wasn't pretty. Venus, who has the fastest serve in female tennis, systematically picked off these football players like shooting fish in a barrel.

Other challenges include Caroline Wozniacki taking on two tennis coaches with noooo problem. You can also watchElena Dementieva test the accuracy of her deadly serve.

You can watch the videos here: http://www.atwillproductions.com/web_08/eng.html

At Will Is For The Birds

That's right, At Will Productions worked a shoot for the Audubon Society in the Charleston heat. Who knew that the rare Prothonotary Warbler migrated to South Carolina? Project Protho is a great summer camp located outside of Ridgeville on an Audubon reserve. Not to be confused with the Birds of Prey reserve, this summer camp gets children directly involved by assisting experts in spotting, tagging and releasing warbler's in the wild. Children help gather information from previously tagged birds that help experts determine nesting, and migratory habits. Kids of all ages continue to come for the cool crafts and of course the animals. What other animals? Rattlesnakes, owls, alligators and much more.

DP, Joe Schmitt says that shooting (with a video camera) the birds of prey was a lot easier due to their size, and more predictable flight patterns. "Once you get a bead on a larger bird, you have a pretty good idea where he's going to go because they glide more. Of course these birds are trained to land or grab food on command. It makes it easier because you know where they'll land. Those darn Warbler's can easily fit in the palm of your hand, their flight patterns are much more sporadic, and they don't hold still for very long. Holding that ten second shot is near impossible."