Sunday, November 21, 2010

Gamecocks Win SEC East!


Wha, wha, WHAAAAT? It's true. Spurrier and the Gamecocks go for a stomp in the swamp, beating Florida 36 to 14. Unfortunately, high definition camera operator, Joe Schmitt watched the game at home in Charleston. But that's okay, the USC victory was still great to see.

Schmitt worked the home games for the Fox re-play show and took command of the low-end zone position. Co-owner of At Will Productions says, "It's always a compliment to be one of the few that are asked to work all the home games, but it feels really great when Gary McCullough (Director / Producer) tells me how incredible some of my re-plays looked. The best though was when the technical director (Rich Chalmers) pulled me off to the side to mention that my consistency as a worker, and camera operator really added to the show. He continued to say that he really wished the budget was in place to travel me to the away games too." Now that's a compliment!

Schmitt begged off of the big Clemson game to spend Thanksgiving with his family, but you can bet that the game will be on at the home office. Even though football season is over for Schmitt, he'll stay busy with basketball and independent projects that continue to come in. Stay tuned for more posts.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Food(ography) in Charleston

Jay Schlossberg, President of Media Central, an international crew and production booking agency based near Washington, DC called At Will Productions for another gig in the Lowcountry. The Cooking Channel, the spin off of the Food Network decided to shoot four segments in the Charleston, SC area. Media Central requested Joe Schmitt to provide lighting, sound and a grip for the two day shoot.

Schmitt says "I love shooting food, so I knew my Kino Flo package would be perfect for this job. Since I was running sound, this was a great opportunity to see how others light food. It made me feel good that my techniques weren't much different than the big boys."

Director / Producer John Bedolis and DP Peter Rievischl knew exactly what they needed to make the segments a success. Of course shooting with a Panasonic HDX-900 didn't hurt either. Even though both shoot days were long, John and Peter were laid back and easy to work with. Local crew, Joe Schmitt and Chris Simmons had to be on their toes to keep up, adjusting lighting, switching kino bulbs, and moving bounce cards and flags.

Special thanks to Jay Schlossberg of Media Central for another great gig!

Lighting used:
-Kino Flo Parabeam 400
-Kino Flo Diva 400
-Kino Flo Barfly 200's
-Arri 650's
-Litepanel 1 x 1