Secret Project Revealed!

So...remember in March when I posted about a secret project?  Well - the secret is out!  I got to operate camera for the Russell Wilson workout that was released on the Xbox Fitness channel last Friday!  The company I work for has other workouts through Xbox Fitness already but this one was, by far, the BIGGEST!
All the stress aside, it was a fun two days.  I mean, watching the set being built, the lighting rig go up, wardrobe...everything production-wise still excites me, no matter how many times I've seen it before.  There's just something so fun about watching crews make it happen because sometimes we all forget how many people it actually takes to complete the illusion that we know as "movie magic".

If you've got an Xbox One, try out the Athlete Fit with Russell Wilson workout and let me know how you like it!  During the R+D phase for it, I took it as many times as possible here at the office, and let me tell you - it's NOT easy but it IS fun!  And believe me, it goes by really fast and you'll feel so much better for it :)

Happy Tuesday!

**SPOILER ALERT: Russell Wilson is extremely nice :)

Behind the scenes: Work and home

I had been writing about some work-related anxiety on ye olde Tumblr and I think the two photos above are the only two that can legally be shared.  I say "legally" because you can't really see anything concerning the actual shoot - except for two silly camera operators!
Yes, that shoot was fun and super stressful and I'm kinda really glad it's over now.  Geez.  I'm hoping the end product turns out as well as we'd hoped!  More on that as it gets closer to release time...



On to less stressful things!  My old man has decided on a photo series for his blog.  That's right - he has a blog!  You should check it out!  On Saturday night, it stopped raining long enough for us to go on a little nighttime adventure in our neck of the woods.  The downside?  It was FREEZING cold and the wind was blowing majorly crazy!!  I got to stay in the comfort of my warm car while the old man got out and took some photos in the cold.  While he was shooting, I decided to join in and experiment with my Hipstamatic app.
I don't know if it's my old 4S or the lack of space on my phone for photos but I'm starting to get more and more disappointed with the performance of the app because it keeps crashing!  It doesn't work as well as it did before, which makes me sad because the Hipstamatic app was my go-to app for all things photo but because it crashes so much, I end up using the default camera instead.  Saturday night, I threw caution into the gale force winds and shot with the Hipstamatic - specifically, the Hongdae Hipstapak.  I even played around with the double exposure feature I keep forgetting about!  I think it turned out nice!

It was fun watching my old man getting all creative this weekend!  He did some new things and I'm so proud of him!  He even had a cup of coffee from Dulce Vegan.  WHAT?!  I'm kinda hoping to win the Currently List Starter Pack Giveaway at Campfire Chic because I would love to keep lists of all the new things my old man has been doing!  I've started him on a self-improvement journey so that he can see what it's like to live a happy and grateful life and after all the fun things we were able to do this weekend, I think he'll keep the momentum going!  Unfortunately, we had to miss out on a few things but I'm hoping we can make those up.  I mean, I have a kind of important birthday gift to deliver, after all!

How was your weekend?

Weekend Experiment: Water drops

I took my obsession with The Borgias opening and shot some footage that I *hopefully* can use for my freelance project I'm working on.  Check it out!







I know it's not quite the same but I love how the colored water glides in so sweetly.  Hopefully my client will like it and I can incorporate some of it in the final piece.  If not, I'll be sad but not all is lost!  I'm sure I can find other ways to use it!

How was your weekend?

Going (chroma key) green

Work is getting all kinds of hectic lately and it's everything all at once.  So - I have to find new ways to entertain myself or else I'll go crazy.





Tuesday was a VERY LONG day since we shot only half of our education pieces for our OCT12 release and there was some fun on-set like keeping the studio so hot that the wasp that had flown in fainted. And we experimented with lighting/shooting on chroma key green. What better guinea pig than Tiago, right? He's always up for anything!





Had my second day of physical therapy and icing my knee is always the best part. I'm moving along pretty well since my injury isn't that bad. I have my final therapy session next week and I see the sports doctor after that. He will determine if I can get back to working out in the near future...



After releasing Cherry Pop into the wild, I started another Hatchi - Cherry Fizz. I obviously thought it was going to be a girl but I got another boy. Oh well! Either way, it's growing up wicked fast! I thought the sun-looking one was the teenage phase but the actually the squid-looking one is the teenage phase! Now I know he's going to grow up to be a cute little octopus! Hooray!

Filming shenanigans and experimentations

During the craziness that was OCT12 filming, Jeremiah, Brad and I did some experiments based on photographer Natsumi Hayashi.


I had never seen these photos before so it was really fun trying out this levitating technique. Since I couldn't partake in all the jumping (because of my knee injury), I got behind Jeremiah's lens and yelled a bunch of jumping cues to Brad and Jeremiah.


Why they were wearing their jackets, I have NO idea because it was freakin' hot outside!

I couldn't begin to tell you what was happening in this photo but here it is anyways:





Once were were all nice and sweaty, we moved the party indoors and I had this great idea to shoot for a gif.  While I'm having technical difficulties uploading the Photoshop gif (of course I am), here are two Gif Shop gifs we made on my phone:





And when everyone was tired with me yelling at them to jump at just the right time, we switched over to fashion / silly / muse mode - which was basically me laying all over the stage and take extreme closeups of Jeremiah and Brad.

I especially enjoy this photo of Brad


And I got Jeremiah to channel his inner Josh Hutcherson via this pose:


I also got Jeremiah to channel his inner director by testing out his "Director's Point".


Hopefully I'll get my other gifs to cooperate and in the mean time, I'll think of more shenanigans to try out. Heck - we might even take it on the road! Like, say, to a certain skate park since it's warm enough. We'll see...

Work inspiration

I'm doing my favourite part of my job - research.  Why is it my favourite?  Because I get to watch lots and lots of videos!  Normally I would get pretty bored very early but I'm enjoying this.
Here are some gems from on of my inspiration sources: Nylon TV

Once you watch the first 15 seconds of this video, you'll know why Elijah Wood and I are meant to be together

Still the dreamboat...

I can't get enough of these videos of Josh Hutcherson.  I swoon EVERY.  SINGLE.  TIME.




This was a GREAT making of for the "Do Ya Thing" video by Gorillaz on the Converse page


(Here's the finished video)


I LOVE this video for "My Drive Thru" for Converse that Pharrell and friends put together


Let's not forget Nathan Williams...

I remember buying this issue (with Drew Barrymore on the cover, I think) and I was hoping for a video to accompany his photos at Coney Island.  Good thing it exists!  Yowza!

Here's one that my boss sent to me and I love it

I think it's very stylish and I think it could definitely lighten up our current looks.

All I need to do now is run around with a camera and see what comes from it.  Nothing like some good ol' experimentation - which is what I love to do!

Body Politik's Super Secret Video Project

Onisha asked me to help her shoot a video for Body Politik over the weekend and while I was capturing the footage this morning, I was really pleased with the results!
I can't say much about it except we were lucky to have the two performers we had:

The lovely Martina


And the very talented Adam


Both were total champs during the shoot and gave me some great material to work with! And as a bonus - we found out that, with a little moving around, we can turn Onisha's bedroom into a makeshift studio space.

I also found out I need more lights but I'll cross that bridge the next time I come to it...

We tried to take some behind the scenes shots but amidst all the chaos, we were only able to take a couple
















Thanks to everyone that helped and I hope to have something ready to post soon!

Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.

Body Politik's fashion shoot

Lots of stuff happening over the weekend!
I forgot to mention that Body Politik had a photo shoot at B&W's house on Saturday and let me tell you, it was...a photo shoot.
Okay, okay...it was most definitely a photo shoot but with many a hilarious (and painful) happenings. Let's just say that I documented it with behind the scenes stills AND video (5 tapes worth!).
The make up was beautiful - it complemented the clothing nicely and it really helped to pull the story together.
Lala was kicking ass as the Director of the shoot. She was very hands-on with everyone and knew exactly what photos she wanted out of it. That's always good to have on-set: a Director who knows what they want. Although it was a very stressful, busy and eventful day, Lala was graceful with everyone, including little ole me.
I was stationed upstairs on the landing with a bird's eye view of the set (and a stealth camera on the floor next to the backdrop - which made for interesting tape changes for B). The models didn't really notice me upstairs in their field of view but I got some nice shots of them waving for me before they turned the "fierce-ness" on for the camera.
I would like to mention that I hand-dyed the red and yellow skirt myself.

It was actually more of a happy accident, really. I was trying to dye the same style of the neck wrap (that I knit just for the collection)

but the colours came out all wrong...for the neck wrap but they came out so right for the skirt! I'd like to say that I am the Queen of Happy Accidents - they seem to happen with me and I LOVE it!
I probably can't share anymore until the photos are properly released here but I can share a photo of the set:


That's all for now! Stay tuned for the behind-the-scenes shots AND video coming for you soon!!

Kisses,
Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.