2011 Film Reel
My reel for 2011. Some incredible images captured, as well as soon incredible memories. I wonder what 2012′s reel will look like?
Jan 15
Welcome to the Jungle
- D-Rock
About 6 months ago, I shot a remake music video for “Welcome to the Jungle” by the wonderful Nina Martinez. The re-recording of the song was also rerecorded by my good friend and producer/composer Jonas Friedman at Emerging Music Group, who also helped write the score and edit foley with me on the film as well. An extremely talented man that Mr. Friedman is.
This was by far one of the most all-encompassing music videos I have worked on thus far. Nina and her team came to me with a tour-de-force comic book concept for the video; Nina to be a superhero saving young souls from the underworld of which they descend into. The video was shot at 5 different locations over the period of 4 days, primarily in Bridgeport, CT. Locations were meticulously scouted and dressed as well by our art director, Chris Hancock. We were fortunate to get permits for some locations from the city of Bridgeport with as little as 5 days before the shoot in some cases. We lucked out.
This video features several skit scenes. I have done opening skits on the majority of the videos that I have worked on, however this one is far more ambitious in that respect. This required tedious sound dubbing in post, and also the presence of proper sound capture and a gaffer on set for dialogue capture on set. I had never actually worked with a sound crew or boom operator before, and Aaron Miller, who is pictured below, was a pleasure to work with.
- Our boom operator on set, Aaron Miller
This was the first major project that I used a Canon 5D2 to shoot on. I have to say I very much enjoyed using it. The size is liberating. You can shoulder the camera easily and get it into plenty of tight spaces as well. Of course there were the usual image artifacts, however every camera has its work-arounds. All in all, the low light performance and shallow DOF was great. Shooting in high light was difficult at times due to the sensitivity of the large sensors, so ND’s had to be used. Again, a slight work around.
A very special thanks to all of our cast and crew on this video. It was a moderately large endeavor and everyone came together to create a fantastic piece of work. You know who you are.
“The Spielberg Affair”
I was very fortunate enough to have been given a pass to a private screening of Steven Spielberg’s new film, “War Horse” back in November. The screening also included a private Q&A with Mr. Spielberg at the end of the film, which featured discussion on the film but also his career as a whole. I brought my good friend Tyler with me who is also a huge Spielberg fan like me.
When the film ended, and the crew were setting up cameras to shoot the Q&A (which would be simulcast around the world to live audiences) we were trying to come up with serious questions to ask Steven. We were incredibly giddy to see Mr. Spielberg as one could imagine – we were also very very close. I then [jokingly] proposed the idea of making the “Auto-Erotica” joke from Jurassic Park to Steven, with regard to asking if any of the horses in War Horse were ANIMATRONIC robots produced by Stan Winston studios, whom has produced many of the famous beasts on the silver screen. (Gennaro’s character in Jurassic Park asks John Hammond if any of the scientists are “Auto, auto-EROTICA?” What he means to ask, is, are they animatronic; robotic) I thought it was clever, yet an informed question. Read more
Dec 19
Have Your Life Story Go Viral
Do you have an inspiring story that can be told in 2-3 minutes? Have you overcome obstacles in your life? Do you have a unique job or perspective on society?
I am seeking to shoot a short film on someone who fulfills these criterium. This film will be featured on a new internet startup seeking to display stories of individuals who have an inspiring or unique life story. The shoot for this would like be one day for a few hours, not much of a time commitment by any means!
Potentially millions of people will see this story and is a great way to gain exposure, and/or have your message communicated to the world! The company that approached is seeking stories that are colorful and are hoping to push these short films viral. I am very excited about this project and am now looking for that perfect backstory! Email me here if interested: nickaforte@gmail.com
An amazing film by Eliot Rausch + Phos Pictures that loosely illustrates the format for this:
My latest 25-minute veterans documentary: “Eleven”
“Eleven” is my latest 25-minute documentary that explores the lives of eleven veterans who have served from World War II up until today. This film was a project of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at The University of Connecticut.
Interesting backstory; Dr. Brian Chapman, Director of Outreach and the OLLI program, is my former employer. I worked for the OLLI program during college and continued to work there after I had graduated. During my time there, I helped promote the program through shooting promotional films and the like. I have since moved on to shooting and directing full time, however Dr. Chapman and I have remained in contact, and he thus approached me to produce a film for OLLI’s annual Special Veterans Day ceremony at the campus. Last year, Dr. Chapman and Lucien Lafreniere (producer on Eleven) were able to screen James Gandolfini’s WarTorn for the event before it was even released. This year, they approached me to collaborate on a film of our own for the event. For anyone who has seen WarTorn, this is a very high watermark. It is an incredibly powerful film.
Ours would be slightly smaller in scope production-wise, however the stories are just as tremendously moving. Eleven features military veterans that have served in conflicts ranging from over 70 years, starting from World War II. This film also captures a breadth of experience that is very unique – you will hear experiences from men and women from all different branches, deployments, and training specialties. The film aims to capture what their service meant to them, how it impacted them, and how their lives were changed after they served. The film serves to commemorate these individuals and preserve their legacy, and also the rich first-hand isight into the conflicts during which they served.
One of the featured veterans, Wilfred Cabana, speaks with UConn Waterbury campus director Dr. William Pizzuto
“Night Dweller” Shot on Canon 5DmkII
A short little film I put together for the sake of doing some low light tests on 5Dmk2. The downtown Waterbury area is beautiful at night and full of historical landmarks.
Dylan Taylor EPK Promo & Drum Covers
Dylan Taylor is a professional touring drummer and producer who recently approached me to shoot a series of drum cover and promo videos. Dylan is an incredibly talented musician who I had met in passing a few times in the past, however was given a formal introduction as of recent through his manager Adam Lopez at New Age Management. As a drummer myself, I appreciated the range of songs that Dylan chose to cover for these pieces, running the gauntlet from pop, hip hop and rock. Mentored by John Miceli of Meatloaf, he has solid chops and a captivating visual style. I tried to capture this and work off of it during the shoot with a multiple camera setup, and using a high shutter speed and a good deal of closeups to make it filmic.
setting up a shot on the T2i
The Brass City – Timelapse Experiment shot on 5DmkII & Sony NXCAM
I was recently going through some old drives when I discovered some footage that I shot in the downtown Waterbury area a few months ago. I shot this when I rented a Canon 5D for the first time and wanted to see what it was all about. Aside from absolutely falling in love with the camera, like so many already have, I made this brief timelapse whilst staying in a hotel that overlooks part of downtown and I-84. I completely forgot this footage.
It shames me to say I wasn’t even using this camera on the manual setting when I shot this, if I had, I would have had better control over the images. However they came back fairly well all things considered. Also note that the settings I used to import this were not optimal, hence the slight degradation in quality, however I will be sure to correct this when I do another timelapse with this camera.
David Joseph’s “Get Down” to be featured on globalgrind.com
Congrats to David Joseph on having his latest music video featured in conjunction with an article on globalgrind.com. Myself and fellow filmmaker Paul Blood directed a video for artist David in his hometown of New Haven, CT. The song we filmed for was “Get Down” off his new EP entitled “Broken Record.”
