If you’re a photographer interested in marketing your motion work, check out the May issue of PDN. For the feature “How Creatives Hire Photographers for Video Assignments,” PDN editor Holly Hughes and executive editor David Walker interviewed art directors and photo editors about what they look for when considering someone for a stills-and-motion gig.
Among the insights in the article: Many photographers either get caught up in the technology of shooting motion or assume that filmmaking is as simple as switching their camera to HD-video mode. “You can tell when they have a passion for film, as opposed to someone who has a camera that shoots video,” Melissa McFarlin, senior art director at Lavidge, tells PDN.
Meanwhile, Kathy Ryan, director of photography at The New York Times Magazine, says she “rarely” looks at the video clips at photographers‘ websites, turning instead to commercials and music videos for inspiration because they have to communicate in a short period of time. “Conciseness, brevity, clarity seem to work online,” says Ryan.
The article includes stills from a variety of commissioned videos, including one by John Midgley for the February issue of Wired that offers a splashy take on the magazine’s issue number. John served as director of photography on the the 1-minute segment, which was directed by his wife, filmmaker Eva Midgley.
I wrote John and Eva to ask them about the video. “The theme of the issue was the underworld,” John explains. “Eva and I both worked on the concept for the video. The idea was to create an abstract ‘underworld’ that is serenely beautiful. The serenity is destroyed by the explosive impact of the issue number in metal, breaking the surface at high speed. We shot the surface of the water from underneath and played around with different things happening to the surface for two days.”
“We hit the water surface with ink, food dye, paint, oil, air, water,” adds Eva. “And, as always, we agreed unanimously that ‘we should have left the glitter till last.’”
The result, notes PDN, “is a slightly mysterious, ominous sequence until the number emerges through the surface of the water.”
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The Midgleys shot the video at their home studio in Brooklyn, using a Phantom Flex from Vision Research. “It shoots 2,700 frames a second at full HD 1920×1080,” says John. “We thought 1,000 frames a second was mind-blowing, but this took slow motion to a new level!”
Vision Research donated the camera to John and Eva for the project, in conjunction with AbelCine, who donated a lens, sticks, head, etc. The music/soundscape was created by Pamela Chen. And the editing and grading and flame work was done by Alex Arce at D-Touch. Adds John, “They did an amazing job.”
“These shoots turn into massive science experiments, as we are on ultra-macro and ultra-high speed,” notes Eva. “We try to create beauty that is not normally visible by the eye. But it is there, all around you—you just never get to see it.”
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