See the behind the scenes footage from the making of Gymboree's first ever network TV commercial #OneBigHappy. Using the Doggicam Super Slide system we moved a Phantom Flex4k running at 400fps and traveling at 25 feet per second through 8 vignettes in two days.
This video is a behind the scenes of a series of short films made in collaboration with Samsung and Vimeo. The over arching theme was to explore how technology has changed the world we live in. I shot the film Only the One of Us with my long time collaborator, director Paul Trillo. In it we explore the idea of meeting someone virtually and then seeking them out physically, someone who you would never have otherwise had the opportunity to meet. The tendency for expectations to to be set unachievably high set the stage for this quirky, awkward and heartfelt film.
Samsung Mobile USA partnered with Vimeo to explore a meaningful dialogue about the human relationship with technology and innovation. As a result, a series of ten compelling filmmaker perspectives offers a new point of view on a modern question. In this film we interviewed five makers about their creative process and collaborations. To view more of The Connected Series for Samsung visit: http://connected-series.tumblr.com Produced by Bas Berkhout Directed by Dylan Isbell Interviewees: Larry Cohen, Celia Rowlson – Hall, Jonathan Bregel, Paul Trillo and Bradley Munkowitz
Part of The Connected Series by Samsung. To view more of The Connected Series visit: http://connected-series.tumblr.com Bryon has nothing to do this weekend. Bored at work, he discovers his doppelgänger through a facial recognition search engine. When he tracks him down in person, things get weird. Written and Directed by Paul Trillo Director of Photography - Greg Wilson Produced by Brian Streem, Jake Wasserman and Greenhouse Collective Line Producer Milo Daemgen Original Score by John Steven Morgan (http://johnstevenmorgan.bandcamp.com/) In Order of Appearance: Jeff Pearson Josh Toups Adam Stephenson Nicole Cronley Sage Maklansky Michael Scott Tony Taplin Dallas Taylor Editing by Paul Trillo Jordan Taylor Fuller Chris Casey Art Direction by Sam Henson Casting by Rebecca Davis Wardrobe by Hannah Mary Gates Special thanks to the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective http://brooklynfilmmakerscollective.com/
June 20th, 2014
A frame grab of Genevieve Morton from a recent project with director/artist Meredith Danluck for a huge art installation in Manila. The installation will be a 45' tall, 45' in diameter conical video wall made up of 3 layers of clear 85" LCD panels that will be playing the content that we shot in and around Los Angeles last week. It should be amazing to see. Always excited to get to play with new technologies. We shot a day underwater (Phantom Flex4K), a day on location and two days at Siren Studios in Hollywood.
May 31st, 2014
One year ago today my three dear friends and fellow storm chasers, Tim Samaras, his son Paul and meteorlogist Carl Young were killed in the El Reno, OK tornado. They were traveling together tracking a massive storm when it violently changed directions and over took them. I deeply miss them. I was lucky enough to spend every July and August over the course of 6 years chasing lightning all over the western United States for the National Geographic Magazine with Tim, Paul and Carl. I was the camera operator filming high speed imagery with Photographer Carsten Peter. We were constantly getting as close to the most violent areas of the largest storms we could find, sometimes driving a thousand miles or more to make it to a single storm that was developing on our radar apps. Tim was a brilliant engineer and a true genius. He always put his and our safety first. I'm still shocked that it was these amazing guys who were the ones taken. During the time I spent with them we were trying to capture the birth of lightning. We had many cameras at our disposal but, by far, the most impressive was the one Tim build out of an old Beckman & Whitley 192 he bought at an auction for $600. Standing six feet high and weighing more than 1,600 pounds, the cold-war era camera was originally used to film aboveground nuclear tests. Tim retrofitted the camera, replacing the film technology with extremely sensitive digital sensors designed for deep-space exploration and adding specially tailored software and circuitry. The massive instrument was a marvel of analog meets digital technology. Light entering its main lens would strike a three-sided mirror, which sat at the center of a turbine driven by compressed air or, for really high speeds, helium. Rotating as fast as 6,000 revolutions per second, the mirror swept the light across the sensors resulting in an image sequence of more than 1.4 Million FPS. He called it the Kahuna. I will always miss those guys. RIP.
RIP Tim, Paul, Carl. You will be forever missed.
Here's a link to a video that recaps their lives: http://ow.ly/yhgnv and a link to the article that was published of the work we did together: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/chasing-lightning/johnson-text
January 29th, 2014
I recently shot the feature documentary FREE for VICE about Freeskiing, a new Olympic skiing event akin to snowboarding's halfpipe and slope-style courses and debuting at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. We followed 4 athletes, Tom Wallisch, Maddie Bowman, Aaron Blunck and Devin Logan, vying for a 5 highly competitive spots on the elite, U.S. freeskiing team. Unlike athletes from the rest of the world who secure a place on their country's team months before the Games, U.S. Olympians qualify only weeks before the opening ceremony. Consequently, the United States sends its most current masters from each sport to the Olympics and greatly contributes to its dominance on the medal podium. At the time of completion of filming, we didn't know whether our four athletes would make the team. Three of them did. Click HERE to watch the Trailer.
Jan. 9th 2014
Click the image above to see the behind the scenes videos of Let Me Know When You See Fire NOFILMSCHOOL.COM featured on their website. Director Brendan Bellomo and me detail how we took the project from beginning to end in 8 days with a 4k finish and how we ran our VFX and editorial pipelines.
Cheetahs on the Edge played at National Geographic Magazine's 125th Anniversary Gala held at the Building Museum in Washington, DC. on June,13th 2013
March 24th, 2013
LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU SEE FIRE - First Footage shot with the new Phantom Flex4K
Director Brendan Bellomo and I were asked by Vision Research and Abel CineTech to shoot the first test footage with the yet to be announced Phantom Flex4K Digital Cinema Camera. The camera was a little more than a week old and still in its Alpha Proto-type stage when we got our hands on it.
All the live action footage was shot on March 24th, 2013 with some additional fire elements shot on the 25th of March with the Hebron and Glastonbury Fire Depts. in Connecticut. We were thrilled with the camera's performance at this early stage of its development and are very much looking forward to this camera as it matures prior to it's release this fall. This is a true 4K RAW camera capable of at 1000fps at 4K resolution.Thanks to our great crew and to VRI and Abel for giving us the opportunity to shoot with this amazing new camera system.
At the National Magazine Awards on May 2nd, 2013 Cheetahs on the Edge won Best Multimedia Piece of 2013.
Cheetahs on the Edge - National Geographic Magazine - Behind the Scenes
The set of my first feature story for the November issue of National Geographic Magazine. We tracked the world's fastest runner, the Cheetah, with the world's fastest dolly shot ever done. Our high-speed camera system was capable of 70+ mph thanks to Doggicam System's enhanced Super Slider. Click here to see my interview on HD Video Pro. I'll be speaking at National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC on Dec. 12th, 2012.
This video is courtesy of Pat Story from the Cincinnati Zoo.
Chasing Lightning - National Geographic Magazine
After 6 years of chasing Lightning through the western United States, with photographer Carsten Peter and meteorologist Tim Samaras, the storms we witnessed are finally published in National Geographic Magazine. Click here to see the behind the scenes video.