Hog Wild

I have now uploaded a full version of Hog Wild.
We shot this documentary in August of 2008 with a group of friends as an “extra-curricular activity.” This meant we had 4 different cameras with 3 different settings so getting the color to match was a bear. Plus since the event was in the height of the afternoon, the light stunk. I ended up just pulling out a lot of the saturation to help standardize the shots and then used Magic Bullet Looks to give a little color interest. I added a grad filter or vignette to some of the shots – particularly those that included a lot of sky.

Enjoy – and if you want to watch it in HD, watch it on vimeo. Here is a previous entry about shooting “Hog Wild.”

Guatemala Production Stills

We were in Guatemala for about a week, shooting a variety of material for at least 3 different documentary shorts. I was there with Jeff Pohorski from Skunkfilms and Matt Kirk from twentyonehundred productions.

Here are some production stills that Matt took of our trip.

Jeff films “behind the scenes”

Jeff in downtown Guatemala City

Nate and Jeff

Matt

Jeff sets up a shot

Why I hate Wide Angle Lenses

Jeff in prison

Jeff in prison

Guatemala Shoot

Last week I returned from a shoot in Guatemala. We were shooting pieces for several documentary shorts as part of the upcoming Global Conversation which will be published by Christianity Today.
We spent 2 days in a Guatemala prison interviewing incarcerated gang members, we captured the story of a former gang member now doing ministry in the prisons and we travelled out to the country side to document how Mayan Indians were beginning to use their heart language in church worship. Pretty interesting stuff.

Here is a teaser from the material with the gang members.

The Moon

Last night I ran out to the grocery store to get some late night groceries. When I returned home, I noticed a low layer of clouds breezing by the moon. It was like watching a time lapse video. So after putting everything away, I grabbed my Canon and shot a little video. Fortunately it was rather warm outside. By no means is this award winning – just a nice twenty minutes standing outside in Wisconsin on a February evening. (Don’t worry, the video’s not 20 minutes.)

Hog Wild – A Glimpse

The opening graphic sequence for Hog Wild, a documentary short I am finishing up. It’s about an event in rural Wisconsin where teams of three people attempt to wrestle a pig into a barrel.

Created in After Effects

Watch it embedded below or go to Vimeo to watch it in HD for a much more pleasurable viewing experience.

Fourth Line on NC Public Television

I meant to post this awhile ago…

A group of friends in North Carolina have started an organization called Africa Rising (to learn about what Africa Rising is, check out the linked video). They were being profiled on NC public television so they asked if they could use some footage I had for the project. In the end, other than the interviews, my footage ended up being pretty much the entire piece, including actual edits from something I had done for Lenovo (which you can see here).

You can see the piece here at UNC-TV

Updating My Reel

The end of the year is a good time to update my reel (plus someone asked me for it.) This year I decided to focus on documentary film making, or perhaps more generally, non-fiction production. While I enjoy doing motion graphics, I see that as the icing on the cake that I can offer clients. This past year has been more about developing as a story teller. I have honed my story telling skills through projects as long as two years with over 150 hours of footage and with projects as short as 5 hours for shoot and edit. But this post is not about reflecting on this past year, I will perhaps do that later.
Here is the reel (which includes previously unseen footage of hog wrassling.)

FedEx Has Two Years of My Life

Two years ago at Urbana, Andy Crouch and I began talking about an idea that would eventually turn into Round Trip. Through many bumps and turns we have seen that initial idea become something we are excited to see finally released on January 15th.

It’s kind of an anticlimatic experience.  When doing work for conferences or other audiences you see all your hard work culminate in an actual visual experience that people have.  With this, the last 2 years culminate in an indifferent interaction with a guy from FedEx Kinkos.  Maybe I’ll have a viewing party when it’s released on Jan 15th.

Wrestling For Jesus

I finally decided to post this.  It is basically a pitch video for the Wrestling for Jesus project for which we are looking for funding.  I may begin posting little vignettes from our current footage and turn it into a “choose your own scene” documentary.

Round Trip Missions Channel

As I have worked on this Round Trip Missions project I have come across a lot of questionable videos made by short term mission teams.

There are many varieties of said videos

The slide show set to sappy music video

The “Look mom, I’m in another country” video

The “Let’s save all the helpless children” video

The “We’re going to change the world” video

Watching these videos is frustrating because they give a glimpse into where we are as the church in the US and maybe where we need to go.  Instead of dwelling on these frustrations which only lead to cynicism (which is already my mistress) I thought it would be cool to honor those videos that, at least in my opinion, seem to “get it.”  So I started this channel on Vimeo (my new favorite site.)  The idea is to add videos to the channel that capture and connect to the values of Round Trip.  Hopefully this channel will grow as short term teams create content that does a little more than show grannie that indeed I was knee deep in mud in Guatemala.