A Rainy Day Photo Shoot

P1050018.JPG, originally uploaded by Ian Savage.

Lindsay and I went to an Abandoned Lot next to the East River in Williamsburg today. Photographing junk is fun, until it starts raining.

Stay dry today.

Chili-Cook off

This past Saturday we went to a Chili Cook-Off, held by The Debate Society. I had 12 different kinds of Chili. The event was well done, and from what I could tell, a great success. You should give them more money. Also, click on the photo below to see the rest of the photos.

P1040914.JPG, originally uploaded by Ian Savage.

In other news, I filmed a woman who is a hundred years old yesterday. Hoping to shoot again so I can grab a photo with here and tell a bit of that story.

300 review

300 was spectacular. Spectacularly violent, intense and beautiful.

I am already going to see it again at the I-MAX, it was that great.
I did want to share a couple of my favorite shots from the film:

Zack Snyder previously directed the remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The guy comes from a visual background, he studied painitng in school, and it shows in his shots. He also operates his own camera, which is totally a bad-ass move on his part. This guy lives by the rule of thirds.



This dynamic shot of ships sinking in a storm was so quick but effective. I like the positioning of the diamond of guys on the bottom left and the lightning striking on the top right. Extremely balanced.



These Persians riding into Sparta, extreme frame left, with the city rolling into view off in the distance to the right was crazy. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how they did this one. I'm guessing, real riders, and the ground was added in post, and the riders were moved accordingly. Background (of the enitre film of course) put in during post.



This Asymetrical shot is well done. The lighting from behind was gorgeous, it was a tracking back shot, this being the view at it's widest point. It went by so fast, but this held a sense of discovery for me in the theatre, as I realized that the tree I had saw in the preview, wasn't just ANY tree. Take a closer look, it's made from PEOPLE!



Very similar in composition to the one above, asymetrical, row of "immortal"s on the lower third line, I especially like the position of Xerxes on top, where he could have easily fallen into a symetrical pose, but he is off kinter a bit, which makes me look beyond the bad guys directly to him.



I'm so glad this photo (not pulled from the preview) was online. This was my absolute favorite, single shot. The composition here is beautiful, the lower third line of foreground wheat, Leonides and family extreme frame left, man and wife seperated with the line of that third cutting right down their middle. The golden wheat in the center, capped by a dark sky, top third of the image, balancing well against the darkened bottom. The receding line of Spartan soldiers, and the glowing rays of the sun on the upper right. This frame becomes just picture perfect with a few more seconds passing, letting the Spartans seperate even more from the characters in the foreground.

I would LOVE to discuss what about the actual style of filmmaking I really enjoyed the most here, but you should just go and see it for yourself. I don't want to spoil it for you.

Aruban Vacation

Have you ever been to Aruba? No? Well now you can relive OUR vacation through 390 Photos taken by yours truly



Enjoy!

How to watch Internet Television

Adam Silverman, Joe Vena and myself have just officially finished and submitted our entry to an amazing contest over at Network2.tv. I couldn't be more pleased with the end result. Joe Beaudin did an outstanding job on camera, Joe V. wrote some great narration (and voiced it), and Adam floored us all with his musical madness. Here it is, our guide on "How to watch Internet Television."



Keep your fingers crossed for us!