HMC 150 used for piece on New York Times website

[thomas_atl]

Here's a link to a piece I just produced for The New York Times. I used a Letus 35mm adapter with Nikon 50mm prime lens for the interviews (and the shot of the preacher standing in front of church). The only shots not from HMC150 were archival aerial shots of coal-ash spill. - Thomas

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/08/29/us/1247464177611/development-or-economic-discrimination.html?scp=1&sq="thomas nybo"&st=cse

[modus]

Beautiful shots. Great interviews. Well done.

[MadHMC150]

Boo, none of the videos play in my browsers - I have the latest IE, Firefox and flash... doh!

[DPStewart]

Yeah...what kind of video stream format are they using?
I get ZERO playback and no messages about installing codecs or players.

UPDATE:

It worked when I hit the PLAY link button ten times rapidly.

Outstanding.
Perfect. Really good.
When the technology cannot be seen - just the realism of the subjects - then you have mastered your job.

~DPS

[thomas_atl]

It's flash, so you might want to double check that you have latest player (version 10?). I updated flash plug-in and it plays fine on my Macbook Pro (Safari and Firefox).

[Superfresa66]

Boo, none of the videos play in my browsers - I have the latest IE, Firefox and flash... doh!

It played just fine the first time around... then again i'm on a Mac :grin: things just work.

just messing with you :beer:

[Superfresa66]

Oh yeah... Good piece!

[MadHMC150]

It played just fine the first time around... then again i'm on a Mac :grin: things just work.

just messing with you :beer:

No one is cross browser/os checking, boo. Need to put in on a multi-platform compatible video website that knows how to play the video to the majority of the population.

Tom, I have the latest flash, like I said.

This website was built by a mac probably only works on a mac.

[ChrisPrine]

Works in Win XP / Firefox.

Nice work. How about that fox shot? Good shot made even better with some luck! I love it when that happens.

[thomas_atl]

Thanks for the positive feedback. Lucked out with the fox shot ("holy #@$!! – there's a fox staring at me... where's my camera?").
Next week I'll try to post a version on vimeo for those encountering problems playing back on nytimes.com.

[Z1Scottie]

very well done, great piece. my only gripe are the interview shots with the letus. in the first one, that narrow DOF has the farmers hands out of focus. most wont see that though. I would love to get into producing that kind of freelance work. just driving and shooting, one mand band style. I miss it.

[MadHMC150]

I'll try to post a version on vimeo for those encountering problems playing back on nytimes.com.


Thanks man!

[Superfresa66]

This website was built by a mac probably only works on a mac

It also works on a hackintosh =)

[Cranky]

Well, compared to Love Canal or Hinkley or Endicott this coal ash dump is an ecological preserve.

Video looks great.

[Jon Casey]

That was great, man. I really liked the outside interviews, those were the most natural and true feeling to the piece. I hate spotting the lighting on inside interviews for news story pieces, I just like the look that natural lighting can give you. Especially the one with "Johnny Flowers," I really liked how that looked, with his framing, and the contrast of his complexion to the white sand mounds behind him. I wish you woulda gotten that professor outside to do the interview. She had the dartiest of eyes, haha, she looked uncomfortable, and I really found it hard to concentrate on what she was saying. I think her message flew right past me because I was too busy looking at her eyes and the dramatic fill light on the right side of her face, haha.

Oh yeah, and the narrator amped up the quality of the production by a lot, needless to say. Haha. Who is that guy and how'd you get around to using him for the story?

Good work, though. Keep at it!

[thomas_atl]

Thanks, Jon. I narrated the piece myself.

[davidpula]

Bravo that looked fabulous. Did you shoot 24 or 30p?

[Jon Casey]

Thanks, Jon. I narrated the piece myself.

Dang, you have a very professional narrator voice! haha... straight up.

[thomas_atl]

30p

[ATL Media Group]

Loved it also... Only one issue. The sound levels seem to vary quite a bit from one person to another making it hard to hear some of them. Maybe put a normalize on the whole deal next time to keep it all level?

Other than that.. awesome man!

[pharpsied]

very well done, great piece. my only gripe are the interview shots with the letus. in the first one, that narrow DOF has the farmers hands out of focus. most wont see that though.

Really?!?!?

C'mon, dude.

[davidpula]

Really?!?!?

C'mon, dude.

I know WTF?

[modus]

I'm curious about how you get a certain shot.
When you're introductin Rev. Murdoch, for example, you have him staring straight into the camera. Did you tell him to stare into the camera and not smile? I like this approach to introductions but I would feel that it would just get most people too uncomfortable staring into a lens. What did you tell him to do?

[thomas_atl]

I treated the shot with Rev. Murdoch in front of the church like I was taking a still photograph. I tried it a couple different ways -- him looking into the camera, and looking away. People are generally pretty open to different approaches.

[Danny1280]

Hi Thomas,

Really impressed with the piece. Did you find/conceptualize/write the voice-over and do the whole thing yourself? Also, love the photography. Did you use the letus on all of the shots or only the interviews? I'm wondering how it is to mix and match shots with and without in one piece.

Thanks for sharing this.