CISCO - National Security Technology Piece

I shot this video for CISCO Systems and Ironbound Films in September in Tampa and St Petersburg, Florida, at the launch of the Republican National Convention and the encroaching Tropical Storm Isaac.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City from Richard Patterson on Vimeo.

I had the pleasure of working with Amy Lawday Productions of NYC in creating these intimate portrait films for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. The video series provides a look into the stories of some of the Big & Little “matches” that Big Brothers Big Sisters brings together in America’s oldest and most cherished mentoring program.

It was a day well spent.

ARTE News - Gas Fracking Story

In September, ARTE's NYC news correspondent Renaud Dumesnil asked me to shoot a piece on gas fracking in Dimick, PA, a town at the center of this controversial topic.  Our story began with an interview of Josh Fox, the film director whose award winning documentary Gasland shed a new light on this topic.  The following day we traveled to  Pennsylvania to see the process for ourselves and interview some of the people effected by the process.  It was an educational and compelling story of money verses nature.  The methods used to extract these natural gases submerged miles within the ground are potentially invasive to the land and use millions of gallons of water and toxins.  Gas fracking is being strongly considered for the Hudson River Valley of New York State.  This could be a pivotal moment for the ecosystem of the area and the watershed (supplying 90% of drinking water to over half the state's population).  I'm grateful for learning about this important topic through the lens and motivating my civic responsibility.

The video can also been seen here on ARTE's website: http://www.arte.tv/fr/etats-unis-victimes-du-gaz-de-schiste/6925594.html

1,000,000 and Counting

This past weekend, Fat Joe's PRIDE AND JOY - BEHIND THE SCENES video broke 1,000,000 views on YouTube / Vevo.

This is a milestone for me and although a laughing baby can giggle out one million impressions in less than a day, I'm still happy to break the mark in six weeks!

Fat Joe - PRIDE AND JOY - Behind the Scenes

I've enjoyed Fat Joe's music before doing the Roc-Away on the floor in 2004, so when I found myself prepping my cameras next to the accomplished Hype Williams, the director of Mr. Joe Crack's newest video "Pride and Joy," I thought the day couldn't get better.

The mood was very relaxed on set as Hype, Joe, and Kanye West caught-up and told stories from year's past.  Suddenly, the calm was thrown into full throttle as Busta Rhymes stormed onto the sound stage on his way to the airport.  Paying his respect to the song, he jumped in front of the A-camera (Sony F65 - such a beautiful camera) for his cameo appearance, nailed the performance, and flew out the stage door with the same intensity as his intro five minutes earlier.  As the day progressed, Hype and his crew easily moved through the shot list for the day... a line-up that included Ashanti, DJ Khaled, Jadakiss, Miguel, and Roscoe Dash.

I used my Canon DSLRs, a Glidecam x-22, and a Sony EX3 to capture the behind the scenes footage for the video.  The sunset intro shots of NYC were captured with a GoPro Hero mounted to a taxi on my way home to Brooklyn.  My post-production was done entirely on Final Cut and I used Magic Bullet for my color correction.

I hope you enjoy the video.

The First Lady and an Ambassador

May and July lead me to Washington, D.C. for two inspiring shoots.

The first was at the Lincoln Memorial where I was introduced to a true gentleman, Mr. George Haley.  I shot the video and interviews of Mr. Haley for Reader's Digest along side my friend, Jeffrey Salter, who made a series of compelling photography portraits of the 86 year old lawyer, diplomat, and younger brother of the Pulitzer prize winner Alex Haley.  The weather was nearly perfect and despite a long shoot day, Mr. Haley's biggest concern was our well being.  It was a real treat to meet him and hear his stories of the seven Presidential administrations he served.

Later in July, I was commissioned by the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum to photograph the winners of the 13th Annual National Design Awards and a group of select high school students at The White House with Michelle Obama.  Dining on the Presidential chinaware was pretty cool (a definite step-up from the Ray's Pizza I ate the night before), but I'd have to say meeting the First Lady was the most memorable part of the afternoon.

Summer in NYC screams live music. This season I'm happy to announce I've been commissioned to produce, shoot and edit the LACOSTE L!VE concert video series in Williamsburg Park for the brand. The line-up is pretty awesome and I hope to see you at one of the shows. Watch out for the crocodiles! http://WWW.LIVELOVESMUSIC.COM/


Coming this month:
Jane's Addiction - August 17th
Antibalas, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - August 18th  
My Morning Jacket - August 19th 


See you upfront by the stage.

Aloha!

It was nice to return to the Island of Oahu once again for work.  Here are some images from my recent project which was shot at the Disney Aulani Resort and Spa, and the Ihilani JW Marriot Hawaii.  I haven't been back to Hawaii since shooting B Camera / Steadicam on the Jamie O'Brian surfing video with Vincent Laforet in 2008.  The weather was beautiful and my daily post shoot brain freeze from the icy cold beverages (sidecar included of course) were memorable.

Oak Street Bootmakers - Made in the USA

Oak Street Bootmakers from Common Machine Prod. on Vimeo.

The craftsmanship is excellent and the smell of the small factory is an amazing collection of genuine leather including Horween Chromexel. A very cold wind blows outside of the cinderblock walls where empty fields dot the landscape of a small town called Bangor, Maine. This is where Oak Street Boots are assembled by hand. It was a great experience to meet the workers on the line; to document their pricked fingers and rough hands.

Shooting this piece with Common Machine proved to be an education into the importance of domestic manufacturing, but also a rewarding peek into the lives of the talented cobblers found on the factory floor.

Hope you enjoy.

"Not Over You" - Gavin DeGraw music video

The stars of a show can be such pigs sometimes, especially when they're about 100lbs and hungry all the time.

When Director David Fishal told me that he'd like to shoot a music video for Gavin Degraw around New York City, I said "sure!" When he told me that the day of the shoot revolved around the availability of the animal wranglers, I said, "interesting."

I've heard working with animals can be tedious or tough, but Buddy the pig brought his A-game and was often a one take wonder.

Note to self...I'm bringing fresh carrots to all my shoots for now on...it seems to get the job done!

I had the pleasure of working with aerial specialist Tabb Firchau on a Vincent Laforet surfing piece "J.O.B. First Look" in Hawaii in 2009.

To see this technology in action and the focus required to fly one of these awesome machines is very impressive. But what's even more incredible is to review the dailies it produces.

Check out the video. The visuals are stunning. Congrats Tabb.

Travel Channel "Hidden City NYC"

The cold hands of winter have firmly wrapped themselves around NYC tonight, but I'm excited to stay in this evening to watch the premiere of "Hidden City New York," hosted by Marcus Sakey at 9PM EST on the Travel Channel.

"Hidden City" explores the history of several cities throughout the U.S. through the crime stories of the late 1970s and early 1980s. God knows NYC has a couple of noteworthy tales to throw into the mix. It was cool to work on the show and I had the pleasure of creating all of the time lapse footage.

All of the time lapse for this episode was created using a Canon 5D Mk II, Sachtler CF 100 M tripod, intervalometer, and a motion control head for the tilt and pan moves. Over the course of three days I created 25 various shots from the Financial District to Harlem, and in most situations I travelled by bike. In post production I managed all of the files using Adobe Bridge and FinalCut Pro in order to deliver the production house a .mov file as reference.

I can't wait to see how the show was edited.

Stay warm my friends.

Time Lapse Reel

I've been sitting on some of my recent time lapse footage and decided to edit together a short reel of my favorite shots. Many of these clips have been used in work for the Travel Channel and several corporate shoots for Cisco Systems. Time lapse photography often presents challenges - early mornings after a 14 hour day or tough weather conditions (cold or hot). However they are often my favorite images from a shoot and I look forward to capturing more complex shots using rail systems and more advanced rigs in the future. I hope you enjoy.

EMMY Win! PBS Documentary "Hecho A Mano"

"Hehco A Mano" won an Emmy on Saturday night in Ft. Lauderdale for Historical and Cultural Programing from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, Suncoast Chapter.

This is my first PBS documentary as the Director of Photography for Common Machine Production and I'm proud to be part of such a great short film. "Hecho A Mano," was the culmination of many hours of sweat equity on everyone's behalf and the beautifully candid stories of the main characters.

"Hecho A Mano" is now the winner of :

*EMMY, Historical & Cultural Programming National Academy of Arts & Sciences 2011

*Best Florida Documentary, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival 2010

*Best Local Film, Miami Short Film Festival 2010

*Best Documentary, Miami Short Film Festival 2010

Producers: Brett O'Bourke and Gaspar González

Director: Brett O'Bourke

Writer: Gaspar González

Director of Photography: Richard Patterson

Editor: Christina Burchard

Assistant Editor: Jorge Rubiera

Assoc. Producer: Christine Sylvain

Art Basel Miami 2011 - Hit Record and Don't Look Back!

Tomorrow I hit the record button for two weeks of work in Miami centered around the annual art show, Art Basel Miami. It's great to be in the old neighborhood and this is without a doubt my favorite time of year in the 305. I am shooting a variety of projects focussing on the artists and exhibitions that will be taking place here, and tomorrow is the kickoff with a video piece on RETNA, a well known visual artist from Los Angeles that is producing a large scale piece in the design district.

While preparing for my shoot tomorrow I watched the following trailer for "Here Comes The Neighborhood" documentary project which highlights the stunning and abundant murals that have flourished in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami. It's really well done and my hat goes off to the film makers and shooters. Constructed in 2009 for Art Basel Miami, The walls now feature work from over 30 artists including Futura, Shepard Fairey, RETNA, and Kenny Scharf.

Let the fun begin!

Commercial Reel

Video reels and portfolios are always a work in progress, but at a certain point you have to let your them leave the house and find their own way in the world. Here is my most recent edit and over the next few weeks I'll be re-editing my documentary, music, time lapse and steadicam reels as well.

Cut, copy, paste...

A GILT ridden Portrait Shoot

A few weeks ago the style makers and party planners of the national lifestyle collective, GILT Groupe, met at the Hudson Hotel in New York City for their annual sales meeting. GILT asked me to make a series of 80 stylized portraits of executives and reps throughout the day.

This sounded easy enough except for the fact that I had four hours to make the shots. This meant I had 6-10 minutes per person, which is not exactly the type of time you want under normal circumstances, but I accepted the challenge.

My camera of choice for this shoot was the HASSELBLAD H4D-31. I could have selected a Canon 5D or 1Ds MK IV, but I prefer the depth, tones, and most importantly sharpness of the Hasselblad lenses and camera system. 35mm DSLRs are great, but they still don't have the punch of a medium format system. And for me, creating portraits with a medium format camera just feels more natural.

Going this route would not have been possible without an awesome digital tech manning the work station and watching my back. I was lucky enough to grab Mike Isler for the day, which was a good thing considering we ran into a number of technical problems with the camera and Hasselblad software. Shooting with a tight schedule means you have to cover all your bases, have a back-up, and spending the money where it counts to make your life easier.

Organizing hair by and make-up was the key to getting the shoot off to a strong start and staggering the reps. We managed to capture a selection of great shots of each person. Having the client on-site to approve the images for each person was also helpful to keep our momentum.

However, my favorite part of the shoot came the following morning when I took the Hasselblad out for some street shooting. I really enjoy the functionality and ergonomics of the Hasselblad H4D-31. It's controls and autofocus are really quick and I like the positions of the shutter / aperture dials.

All in all... a great day of shooting.

Phantom Camera Shoot - Life at 2000 FPS

Sunday was a definitely a fun day. Yesterday, I had the good fortune to work along side a talented group of professionals that included Director, David Fishel, and Director of Photography, Ian Bloom on a short film born from David's imagination and captured using the Phantom v640.

Pulling focus at a T-Stop of 1.4 and watching the Phantom capture life at 2000 FPS was amazing. Learning the software was equally intriguing from Ian. Shooting at such a high frame rate using an approximate ISO of 200 demanded a large amount of lighting and definitely added to the already toasty temperature of the studio.

The camera was mounted on a Caroni Lambda head via a Z-Jib (also know as a Zero Gravity Boom Arm) that offered DP a number of options to maneuver the camera around the set.

It's always great to work with a talented and able crew that share a passion for a illustrating a good concept especially with such a fun set of toys.

Time Lapse NYC

Like most of the U.S., New York City is currently experiencing a heat wave and for the past three days I've documented this tropical spell while shooting time lapse for a new show to be aired on the Travel Channel.

The production company and crew were great to work with and provided me a enormous amount of freedom to get the shots. I had an opportunity to use the Meade Coronado mount and 497 controller as well as the Orion teletracker.

Both worked extremely well. I am partial to the Orion since I have more experience with this model and can navigate the controller easier.

The rig was mounted on top of a Sachtler ENG 2 D HD tripod with a Video 20 S1 fluid head. I definitely got a workout from carrying this monster set of sticks around NYC, but they provided me a very stable platform to mount the motion controlled head and 5D camera package.

Here are some pics I shot with my iPhone during my shoot:

I look forward to sharing the results with you from my three days of urban trekking when the show airs in the fall.

Frankencamera

Tonight I'm gearing up to film a performance for my friend and long time collaborator, Jorge Rubiera and his band, Animal Tropical. They are making their NYC appearance tonight at The Cake Shop in the Lower East Side. Balancing a Paps Blue Ribbon budget and a desire not to spend any more money, I decided to pool together a bunch of loose parts lying around my apartment.

Tonight I created my first Frankencamera (insert thunderbolt and a screaming damsel sound effect here).

The core of the rig is a Zacuto Universal Baseplate, V3, and 12-inch rods ($530). Yep, it's an expensive baseplate, but it comes in very handy for my steadicam operating because it allows you to manipulate the side-side adjustments to help stabilize various cameras and setups. The camera is a Canon 7D ($1400), Canon 24-70mm lens ($1400) with a Zacuto Z-Finder Pro 2 ($375) and the follow focus is the IKAN Follow-Focus Cine-kit ($400). The light is a Bescor LED-70 ($70) and I'm using a small offset bracket from RedRock Micro as a handgrip.

Finally, after realizing that the rig was going to be too heavy for me to handhold the entire performance I decided to use a Manfrotto 244 Magic Arm ($100) and a standard super clamp as a shoulder brace and counter weight.

Sound will be recorded with a Zoom H4N mounted in the back of the room. A line will be either plugged directly into to the Zoom from the sound board or we will have to settle with capturing the ambient sound.

Pros: Perfectly fine to be used as a blunt weapon in the Lower East Side and it didn't cost a thing since I owned the stuff.

Cons: At $4275 Not cheap by any stretch of the imagine and definitely not appropriate for a paying client.

However, it good to know all those episodes of MacGyver didn't go to waste.

I look forward to posting the results of the shoot.