if you would rather view on flickr

]]> http://tkmckamy.com/blog/2010/03/08/camera-test-golden-girls/feed/ 0 http://tkmckamy.com/blog/2010/02/27/light-writing-test/ http://tkmckamy.com/blog/2010/02/27/light-writing-test/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:53:26 +0000 TK http://tkmckamy.com/blog/?p=1164 after a long day of work, and a free night ahead, i stayed downtown for some camera tests. thought i would try out some light writing.

shot, colored, edited = 4 hrs

for the shots you will see in this test video my camera was set to take 25 second exposures at f22, iso 320. being that i was shooting alone, i would have lost my mind without my intervalometer. using the canon tc-80n3, i set the delay at 5 seconds, making a complete 30 second interval takes. then, using my iPhone stop watch, i kept track of the takes without having to return to the camera.

gear used

- litepanel LED micro pro

- cheep-o LED flashlight

- 7D – tripod/fluid head

- 16-35mm 2.8

- Intervalometer : Canon TC-80N3

- iPhone stop watch

as of today i am now represented by revolution pictures as one of their new young directors.

what does that mean?… (asks the parents)

well, a rep is a company that represents directors to clients. and in my case, record labels/commercial.

boiled down :: the client contacts the rep, rep relays to its directors the job, budget, yadda yadda, the director writes a killer treatment (in hopes of landing the gig), client picks the director/treatment they like… then on to production…

revolution also represents some amazing directors including my good friends, the erwin brothers, and someone i don’t know but is a killer in the industry, roman white. the dude books gigs like jesus, everybody wants him to be apart of what their doing.

bts photo by logan burkhart

i am going to be bloging for the next 7 days, even if it kills me. so to start things off i wanted to share some work that i had no part in but wish i did. i coped this off my good buddy tyler torti’s blog. great guy, bad smelling, but on average he equals out to be a + 9.8.

the video comes from the youtube digital shot giants “rhett and link”

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my ever talented buddy, ben rector, is releasing his new album “into the morning” on FEB 16th, 2010. in light of this, i shot the following videos to help with promotion.

the song he wanted to highlight is “moving backwards” and the basic concept that comes to everyones mind is a reverse music video. its been done… and over done… so, being that i love making complex concepts i thought “although, the reverse concept has been done, i have NEVER seen a one take shot with forward/backward/& back to forward. Yes, thats right. I make life difficult.

concept #1 :: normal play back speed, normal first verse, chorus jumps into reverse, second verse back to normal.

concept #2 :: 2x play back speed, first verse forward, chorus jumps into reverse, second verse back to forward. this one was a bit harder to pull off

primary tips and tricks… READ MORE.

- in order for this to be a clean one take look, the first and last frame of the reverse sequence has to be drastically similar. So to pull this off I first interjected two BEEPs within the playback track. one at the start of the chorus and one at the end to give myself indication of the first and last frames of the chorus.
- i also gave ben a mark where to stand at the beep.
- most importantly, I traced the outline of his face on my LCD screen. this gave me a very precise frame of reference.
- for version #2 i used 2x playback. which PROPS TO BEN, is really hard to sing to, let alone sing to backwards. this was shot in 60fps so that it could be brought down in post to give it that floaty, dreamy look.
- if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

BIG thanks goes out to my friends/extras :: erica mckamy, hilary rector, parker welling, steve moakler, paul steele, jason burkey, chrissy harmas, chad till, phill and my harry buddy, tucky.

i wanted to design a classy card that forces the holder to give more than a glance. One that causes a double take and that “okay” head nod. the design i came up with required a high end printer with spot gloss. so, after a great recommendation from a brazilian friend, i discovered “taste of ink” printing. i highly recommend em.

i built the design in photoshop and turned it over to amber for the hard work. its WP powered with heavy light box module features (thanks again to amber!). the backgrounds are all frames pulled from my films and your scenery can be changed using the next arrow on the bottom right.

some of you might have caught that there isn’t a “.com” at the end of my url… since day one, i have gone by the initials “TK”. which stands for Thomas Knox. and as of last year .tk domains became available for sale within the US. .tk stands for TiKi net. a coded birthed out of New Zealand in ‘97. after getting sick of lame name based urls… (like “tkmckamy.com”) i thought something a bit more creative would be fitting. thus, i go by dot tk.

a cool about page concept is coming soon!

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100% real free-stylings. live recorded. true joy. authentic street hip-hop.

the story ::

a few months ago i was in downtown nashville shooting some b-roll for a project when i heard a faint beat coming from a few blocks away. drawn to the beat like moth to a flame i came across a crowd of tourist, clubers, honky tonkers and homeless all gathering around Kyhil and his band “2nd & Commerce”. with a key board, amp and a mic these guys had every passerby in the palm of their hand. With a lightning quick tongue and whit, freestyle lyrics filled the street corner with joy and excitement. rapping about the audience including anything from outfits to attitudes, lifestyles to love life. all while keeping it PG 13 to boot!  their tip bucket was filling for a reason, these guys were different, you could feel the passion in the air and see the joy in their eyes.

i was blown away. in fact, i couldn’t stop thinking about how cool it would be to shoot these guys a free music video. one they could use to sell on the street along side their cd, use for online marketing and, most importantly, i wanted to do something for them that could enrich their lives. upon that dream i recalled hearing about a local nashville group putting together something called the “help-portrait“. “HP” is a community of fotogs, coming together across the world, to use their skills to give back to their local community. their dream to “give photos” inspired me to make this music video a reality for the band.

so, the next night i drove downtown with 2 hopes

1. that they would be on that some corner

2. that they would love the idea

to make a long story a little shorter i told them, they loved it, got their contact info, met a few days later, made a treatment (aka concept), gathered a volunteer crew (see below), rented gear, scheduled, called off due to rain, rescheduled, shot, edited, colored, finalized and now delivering. with joy!

just want to say a huge thanks again to all the people that donated their time, money, and talents to make this thing happen.

Steadicam Op. – John Perry

Camera Trux – Brian Murie

CGI – Tim Oliphant

AD – Chris Adams

Gaff – Logan Burkhart

Audio Engineer – Chad Ray

PA – Drew Workman

PA – Adam Drake

PA – Jamie Clayton

Restaurant Manager – Toni

Girl #1 – Beth Hughes (London based makeup artist that needs to move to nashville)

Director – TK McKamy

shot on panasonic HDX900, black pro mist, boom/lapel 2 channel digital recorder… yodda yodda yodda. blah blah blah