I have a HPX500 and a HVX200. I live in Alaska. How to shoot for the big boys?

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dotconnproductions

Well-known member
So, I own a smallish production company in Alaska and we just picked up the HPX-500 a while back. I've been shooting the DSR-500 for years and am very comfortable with large format cameras and I've been using the HVX200 for about 1.5 years and am very comfortable with HD.

I also live in Palmer, Alaska, one of the most beautiful regions in the world. Every year I see Discovery, History and others pass through on their way to McKinley, Iditarod and other stuff. Always wanted to do some shooting for them, or even independently produce something for them but didn't know who to contact.

So, how do I start to get in the door with some of the big boys? I know several local shooters who do periodic work for Discovery, but they probably won't share any contact info. So, to my daily electronic water cooler I go.

We just shot a tourism video for a local community (Wasilla Alaska) that really shows off some of the cool exteriors and good stock we've shot. Check it out in the "Featured" section of our website.
www.stage2studios.com

Thanks in advance.

John
 
Hey John I like your flash site its layed out well and I like the narrator voice and the quality of audio is very good. the third and fifth clips furnaceailla and wasilla don't play correctly. They play choppy like there 12 fames a second or something. I have cable and the other 3 play fine. It might be the data rate on these are a little high or something with flash. Just thought I'd mention it to you since you are directing people there to your site.

If no one will give you advice on how to reach the bigger companies then do a google search for the companies that you want to contact and find out who you should be talking to to get some contract work and bug them. I have done this in the past until I found out who I should be sending stuff to or directing to my website. Usually the receptionist will know who you should talk to to send work to and who lets contract work out to independent contractors and if your polite to her you can get a lot of info on whether they have a site with there specs up so you can see what there requirements are going to be.

I'm jealous, HPX-500 I want one. I would love to have a red thats loaded and would love to have a HPX-500 also. The footage that I have seen is wonderful form the 500. It seems like a great camera. Any regrets on getting the HPX500?

I have a HVX-200 and love it so far. I got sick just after getting it and haven't used it nearly as much as I thought I would. I have a couple of jobs coming up this month for it and can't wait to put it in action. One is a introduction dvd for a hospital and the other is an event that will pay pretty good and I'm excited. I have been doing a lot of editing and building and new site for a certain type of video work that I can do from home while I recuperate from a couple of operations that I need to have performed. My current site that will work in conjunction my new site is www.studioqmedia.com. This is my first flash site so I like it but it will be revamped pretty soon.

Good Luck!
 
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Don't get you hopes up, although teh HPX500 is nice camera, but its not in the same league as what the "big boys" at Discovery use. They use Varicam or HDX900 or HPX2000 or HPX3000. Bear in mind the HPX500 has 30% fewer megapixles than the Varicam family. Moreover, the lenses they use tend to cost between 30k to 100k. The reason you wonder how they got so close to animals is because they didn't, they were using a big 100k lens.

They're a very tight knit group and its almost impossible to get work with them unless you have a very long track record working exterior documentary type stuff with an amazing reel. They're gigs aren't for the faint of heart, mostly in remote areas for long periods of time. Sometimes thay'll spend a month trying to get one shot.

You never know though. You can shoot a ton of stuff and select the very best, mostly slow-mo stuff which they love, and send them a DVD, NOT a link to poor web stuff, and maybe they'll buy some footage for B-roll stuff and that might be a way of getting your foot in the door.

there are some segments of Discovery that is always looking for cameramen, such as Dirty Jobs. But God help you if you get a job with them.
 
If you figure it out, let me know.

My Steadicam sits underused in similar circumstances down here in Juneau.


- Mikko
 
My advice John, is make a close relationship with your local rental house. I own the 500 but Im offering Red and the higher end XD cams, but I dont own them. I just know I can get them if needed. Ive shot on XDcam a lot and know it well, and the Red comes with a DIT. If people want me to shoot on these theres a price to pay.

All Im saying is dont limit yourself to what you own, and if you want to shoot for Discovery, I mean really want to, you can do it.
 
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