Chinatown Day 2 and Vogue

This morning we had a super fun shoot with PTA, Anne Vincent, and the Vogue staff. They were promoting their shape issue. Shot came out pretty nice.

Continued posting of the Chinatown footage.



Chinatown 3 from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.



Chinatown 4 from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Chinatown Day 1

This week I am shooting around Chinatown so if you see a stunningly good looking dude holding a camera...I am the awkward short guy shooting behind him. This first stuff is all shot using my 80-200mm zoom lens. Stability with this camera is really rough. So I am tricking out my rig to stabilize it a bit.

Chinatown 1 from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.



Chinatown 2 from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Bedford Ave and Leftovers

So time to clean out the clip closet since from now on I am going to try to choose a Theme and shoot around that idea. But this week I was still trying to become comfortable with the camera.

Up first is a shot I took on Lexington Ave near 28th St. The focus pulling still leaves a great deal to be desired.

Indian Restuarant Taxi from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Next up I have two shots I took from the Bagelsmith on Bedford Ave in Hipstercentral Williamsburg Brooklyn.

Bedford Ave. #1 from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.


Bedford Ave. #2 from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Laundry and Dinosaurs

This morning we shot an interesting project for the History Channel Called Predator X. The Paleontologist Dr. Jorn Hurum that discovered the animal was in the studio with a fossil of the back of the skull.

Here is the actual clip on AM Northwest Live in Portland.

http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/41854962.html

Last night I was shooting a local laundromat. I felt a bit like a stalker but I came back with some really pretty stuff. It took me a week but I think I have finally figured out how to lock in the exposure so not flicker this time.

Laundry Night from Street from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

John Rich and Prime Lenses

So we spent this morning with country music star John Rich. Apparently he is in a group called Big & Rich I don’t listen to country music so I had no clue who this guy was. That being said he was pretty darn funny and relatively well informed.

Attached is a link to the actual shot on CNN.com. When comparing the actual CNN clip and the HD still you totally get an interesting before and after.

Also last night I was shooting around town with the D90 and some prime lenses. Nice Rack!!!

50th St Church from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Grand Central and Jerry Oconnell

So I have two shoots to post today. This morning I shot something for LIFETIME with Jerry Oconnell of Sliders and Stand By Me fame. He was super nice and we had a lot of fun.



I also have a random shot I took for some B-Roll outside Grand Central. I used my zoom lense on this 80-200mm Nikor. The camera needs a more substantial tripod when shooting with the big lens.


Grand Central from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Greek

So today we shot some promos and stuff for the ABC Family show Greek with Jesse McCartney. Easy standard setup. I know this kind of breaks the rules of a video shot a day but technical this is a shot...as always no photoshop just lights.

Taxi Guy

All right this is kind of half ass because this was actually discarded from another day but because I was actually shooting something today...I didn't have time to shoot anything new. This was shot with the D90 and a 80-200mm lens. When using the D90 as a video camera the center of gravity is a little weird so its going to take a while to get use to stabilizing the camera when zooming.

Taxi Guy from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Karate in Madison Square Park

So these folks were practicing karate in the middle of the park with what I thought were blindfolds on. This immediately reminded me of Bloodsport where the great Jean Claude Van Damm is forced to train with a blindfold on only to later use that very skill when Chong Li cheats and blinds him in a fight. But after further review I realized the Madison karate crews blindfolds are mostly "sleeping masks" so they are probably not quite read to battle Chong Li. I shot this with the D90 and the same 28-80 Nikkor lense I shot with yesterday. I feel the whites really came out really well.

Karate in Madison Square Garden from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Begining the shot a day

So my goal for this year is to try to shoot something different everyday. While the studio is a revolving door of various jobs I rarely get to shoot outside. This Rockefeller Center footage was shot on my new D90 with a 28-80 Nikkor lense. The HD comes out pretty decent.


Rockefeller Center from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.

Peidmont Financial

So I made this movie; Peidmont Financial....It was about bank tellers who become bank robbers. Like most films that are made for nothing it didn't turn out perfect. I wish it had turned out better, it would have been great to go to Sundance and win a lot of awards and direct Terminator 5 but that didn't happen. Luckily for me when some doors close, other doors open and now I manage an awesome TV studio in NYC. We shoot lots of weird fun stuff, some news, some tv, but nonsense.

I am hoping to speak throughout this blog about the technical/creative solutions I use to make things look decent.

Peidmont Financial was shot with a Sony Z1U and a Red Rock Micro 35. I had a couple of Nikon lenses that I worked through equally. My lighting for the film was a couple of Lowel Totas, Omnis, and most important a grid I built of Chinese lanterns on the ceiling with color corrected extra bright fluorescent lights.

Below is the Trailer for Peidmont Financial.

Peidmont Financial Trailer from Nick Castaneda on Vimeo.