The song is a super-catchy ditty in the style of the alternative rock from the ’90s — in other words, it comes straight from where Nada Surf is coming from. The tune’s author, singer-songwriter Bill Fox, is certainly no stranger to that scene either, having achieved cult status with alt-rock band the Mice in the ’80s, nearly a decade before the movement was going at full speed. (via Spinner)

Check out the video below:

The video was shot in Brooklyn on the Canon 7D. Steadicam operated by Jeff Melanson.

There’s nothing like healthy competition to incite creativity. Riding the recent wave of video dSLR filmmaking, Vincent Laforet’s Beyond the Still contest called filmmakers from all over the world to interpret a still image into 2-4 minute short films. We are proud to have submitted our entry, simply titled “Bruce”, alongside the many creative and impressive films.

Shot over the course of three days on location in Wellesley and Belmont, MA, writer and director David Kruta and Director of Photography/Steadicam Operator Jeff Melanson were joined by a talented and hardworking cast and crew. Thanks so much to everyone involved, and we wish the best of luck to everyone who entered.

Credits and stills after the jump.

Written and directed by David Kruta

Cast (in order of appearance)

Jules: Jonathan Thomson
Mia: Colleen Leary
Bruce: Mark Boyajian
Boss: Andrew Fitch

Crew

Director of Photography/Steadicam Operator: Jeff Melanson
Gaffer: Jordan Parrott
Key Grip: Teresa Rhinehart
1st AC: Sarah Tricker
2nd AC: Zachary Crosby
Sound: Kevin Land
Grip: Fritz Ceriales
Production Manager: Mami Akari
Hair/Makeup: Rachel Ayars
Editor: Jose Reyes

Post production and original music by Enki Studios

Special thanks to:

Monet Spells
Jedidiah Burdick
Claire Severance
Philip Kruta
Lauren Jalette
Ryan Klock
Salome Katwiwa
Kevin Barry
Evalena Marie

Shot on the Canon 7D.

The Sony Make.Believe campaign is live, and the spot on Dave Chaimson and the Goodman Community Center, directed by Eli Stonberg and shot by David Kruta and Jeff Melanson of Enki Studios, is now available. The spot features the song “Beach” by Mew. Check it out below.

You can also watch the spot on Sony.com. Just click “See it now” next to CES 2010. Then click “Make.Believe Stories” along the top.

You can read our previous writeup about this project here, with technical information and lighting breakdown.

Pond Hockey

Subaru STI Spec Commercial

You can always keep up with our latest work on our Vimeo page at vimeo.com/enkistudios.

The ambitious spot was shot over the course of one day. Director of Photography David Kruta created a minimal lighting plan that would limit the amount of setup time and utilize as much available light as possible. Since rigging the day before was not an option, all four setups had to be rigged on the day, prior to shooting. Below, David Kruta coordinates with Key Grip Travis Moody.

Outdoors, Dave Chaimson was backlit with a 1 1.2k HMI PAR, softened with light grid cloth and warmed up with a 1/4 CTO. Three 1k MolePARs softened with light grid cloth were used for a warm look on the children’s faces. Inside, the first room was lit with 3 tungsten-balanced Kinoflo 2’ 4-banks overhead. In the hallway, available light filtering in through large windows was accentuated with 3 daylight-balanced Kinoflo 4’ 4-banks for fill, and a 1.2k HMI PAR with light grid cloth down the hall for a subtle edge. The projection room was lit again with the original 2’ 4-banks, mounted overhead. The crowd being lit by the projector was accentuated with those same Kinos.

Steadicam Operator Jeff Melanson encountered his share of challenges as well. Much of the shots followed a twisted mass of cables on the ground, and thus involved an awkward positioning of his camera and sled. Doorways were the toughest, as the Steadicam rig had to fit through sideways. Jeff was more than happy to meet these challenges head on, and powered through a total of over 70 takes throughout the day.

Check back soon for the finished Sony spot, and be sure to check out Eli Stonberg’s work at elistonberg.com.

Shot on the Canon 7D with Canon 17-35mm f/2.8 L on Steadicam.

Be sure to head over to prospecthillmusic.com and get your copy of Prospect Hill’s CD today.

The song “Roller Coaster” is about the ups and downs of relationships, and we created a concept to tell that story in a one-shot Steadicam take using the new Canon 7D. The video follows the boyfriend in the relationship through a house party, while strategically placed flashbacks show the roller coaster that is his love life. Below, Jeff Melanson coordinates the timing of a keg-stand with band member Edgar.

Inspired by the videos of Michel Gondry, we chose to keep any effects and transitions in-camera. This one-day shoot was a great success, and we hope to work with Prospect Hill again. Be sure to visit their MySpace, check out the production photos on Flickr, and stay tuned for the final video, which will be coming in the next few days.

Special thanks to our great crew – Chris Bolarinho, Jordan T. Parrott, Walter Stone, Carolyn King, Fritz Ceriales, Sarah Tricker, Regina Dellea, Lucie Brabcova, Kylie Bradlee and Michael McGuire – we couldn’t have done it without you.

Our post workflow started with transcoding from Canon’s H.264 video into a Final Cut friendly ProRes422(HQ) format, using MPEG Streamclip, a free utility available here. It’s faster and has better results than transcoding through Compressor. Next we created a new timeline in Final Cut Pro 7, and sent to Color. On several clips, we were actually able to pull back detail in the highlights that we thought had been lost, and were able to create a much cleaner image with a higher dynamic range.

The Canon 7D is a fantastic, affordable alternative to shooting RED. For budgets too small to afford it, the 7D provides that shallow depth of field and film-like 24-frames-per-second, in what is effectively a 2k image. And for productions looking for more coverage, it holds its own next to the RED as a perfect B-cam.

As long as you have a proper post workflow in place, the results speak for themselves. Enki Studios will be offering 7D production and post-production services, alongside RED and Steadicam, so please contact us with your next project.

We highly recommend listening to RedCentre, a podcast by Jason Wingrove and Mike Seymour, featuring news about the RED One and digital filmmaking, featuring interviews with industry leaders, innovators, and straight from the source, RED themselves. This is overwhelmingly the most useful way of boiling down everything happening in the RED universe into one informative and fun show.

Get the latest and greatest on a wide spectrum of topics at RED’s forum, RedUser.net.  The first place for RED announcements, discussions between owners, professionals and enthusiasts, and any questions you may have. Just don’t ask when Scarlet is coming out.

On Twitter, you can follow @wingrove, @mikeseymour, @5tu and @Rocket_Scott. Oh, and don’t forget to follow us at @enkistudios.

And the best place to learn? Getting out there and shooting. Contact us for your next RED shoot today.

A long weekend of shooting took us all over Massachusetts, from a swamp to a horse farm near Worcestor and a overnight shoot at a shipyard in New Bedford. Much of the shoot was in cold, wet conditions outdoors, but the crew kept up a high morale and pulled off some fantastic shots. We shot on the RED One with Zeiss SuperSpeed lenses, and used Steadicam for horse-riding shots to be used for visual effects later. Fortunately, no horses were harmed in the making of the trailer.

Get all the details on the movie at the official Oak Swamp website.

Check out Jed’s website, see Brandon Lippard’s reel, and check back soon for more info.