Ken Kelsch: Directors Frank & Abel

 

Ken chatting with two Directors Frank Rainone and Abel Ferrara on set.

Ken Kelsch: Damien Gonzales, Gaffer

Damien Gonzales shares his knowledge of electricity on the set.

Ken Kelsch: Sound with Anton Gold

 

Anton Gold shares some of his wisdom on location sound.

Ken Kelsch: “Key Grip” Keith Gordon

 

Ken discusses the responsibilities of a “Grip” on a film set with Key Grip, Keith Gordon.

Ken Kelsch: Focus Puller Corey Gegner

 

Working with Ken Series. Corey Gegner Focus Puller on “Welcome to New York” discusses working with the Arri Alexa.

 

 

Ken Kelsch: Adding Filtration on DSLRs

 

Ken Kelsch: DSLRs Part II

 

Ken Kelsch shares production values, and thoughts on focus assist accessories for DSLRs.

Ken Kelsch: Video Blog Intro

 

Ken on his career, influences, being a Director of Photography and his entrance into the world of no budget documentaries with his DSLR.

 

More of Kens Video blogs 

Ken Kelsch BIO

A Fashionable Benefit for Autism

New York, NY

MyGOAL Autism, whose Mission is to Support Families Facing Autism through education, marriage counseling, and advocacy as they navigate through the complex challenges associated with the journey of autism from diagnoses to recovery or a better quality of life, held an amazing Fashion Fundraiser at Sony Wonder Technology Lab in New York on Monday, April 8^th.  All to support the fashion and arts community of New York City in its goal to raise awareness for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).  What a great group (Family) for us at Ferro to lend a hand.

Marvel US management together with American Apothecary hosted the event, Heart A Cause: Autism and what an event it was!  On display was a gallery of art by children with autism and artists INSPIRED by autism.  A silent auction, trunk show, 2 runway shows (choreographed by Mexico’s Next Top Model judge and professional photographer, Jo Lance), featured emerging and established designers and so much more.

Marvel US Mgmt, a boutique business management company specializing in brand management, marketing, social media and event design, partnered with American Apothecary, an emerging socially conscious fashion brand, that has participated in many philanthropic opportunities and also boasts a plethora of marketing and event management experience, to establish an annual fundraising event series.

Ferro was there to capture it with All-Access and it was a fantastic effort covering A to Z.  From the dressing and makeup rooms to conducting interviews with models and designers, we were up-close-and-personal on the runway during the event, we were in the VIP booth with the event’s coordinators as they addressed the energetic New York crowd after the show; we were everywhere. It was truly one big “Family!”

Family being an operative word for MyGOAL who’s vision is to restore lives and families affected by Autism through Education and Empowerment.

“The foundation for the recovery of individuals affected by autism is a solid family”, MyGOAL writes. “It is based on the principle that the family unit has to sustain through the journey for recovery from Autism.”

Keep your eyes peeled on our Twitter and Facebook pages for updates on our footage from Monday’s event!  You are sure to get an inside look at what we at the Ferro Family experienced up close and personal through the Family and Community of such wonderful friends, at a great event, for an amazing cause.

To help Heart A Cause: Autism raise funds for Autism Awareness, visit www.heartacause.com for more info.

To learn more about the fine work of MyGoal Autism helping families affected through Education and Empowerment. Visit www.mygoalautism.org

 

Social Media:

 

facebook.com/heartcause

 

twitter.com/heartcause

 

@heartcause

 

#heartcause

 

#heartcauseautism

 

#giveheart

 

#autismawareness

 

#MyGOALAutism

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New Look for FerroProductions.com

The Featured Articles and Videos on FerroProductions.com, historically, have given you an in-depth look at the careers of the industry’s most seasoned veterans.  We decided to mix things up a bit and give you, our fans, an inside scoop on the up-and-coming members of the production world.  These new articles and videos will serve as both learning tools and building blocks for aspiring youth, as well as inspiring stories of dedication and triumph for all to enjoy!  The “Rising Stars” tab at the top our Homepage features the new video segments, while the “Articles” tab features the written segments.

In addition, you’ll notice that the design of our Homepage has been upgraded.  The slider at the top of the Homepage now includes three of our Featured Videos. In fact, you will find our first installment to the “Rising Stars” section there now, featuring Michael “Horse” Becton.

We would love to hear some feedback from our fans regarding the new look of our site so feel free to contact us by clicking on one of the following:

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

or E-MAIL us at contact@FerroProductions.com

AUDIO: SiriusXM Insider

Steve Cohen, the Grand Wizard of SiriusXm satellite radio, sat down with us to discuss the talk radio boom and the advancements in technology as they both molded modern day radio and his career. Some bonus footage from behind the scenes at the Hard Rock Café-Times Square at the annual SiriusXM Fantasy Football Celebrity Draft

Directing for Blackberry

When Blackberry introduced their brand new Blackberry10 operating system and new phones, the Z10 & the Q10, they had to get the word out, they needed to reach as many people and media outlets as possible. The company’s market share had been shrinking dramatically, in part due to the iPhone’s continuing dominance and the slew of Android and smart phones flooding the market.

 A simple press release or a flashy commercial wasn’t enough to raise the once dominating force in the cell phone industry from its slow demise. They needed a presentation that would wow the market and quiet the critics.  And they did that in a big way.

 Blackberry hired Hartman Studios to design and produce this multi-million dollar extravaganza and Creative Technology, an international audio/visual staging company, provided the tech and know-how to deliver the impact Blackberry was looking for.

 The event needed a home… a real big home. They chose the 70,000 square foot Basketball City on Pier 36, located on the lower East Side of Manhattan, as the venue to house this mega-event. The transformation turned the multi-court facility into an experience of rock concert proportions.

 The Blackberry10 visual presentation was made up of dozens of rear and front projections screens, ribbon screens, the narrow height and long length screens typically encircling stadiums and arenas. Each of the screens was being fed a variety of graphics, animations and live video originating from two video switchers and a bank of video and graphic servers.

Cinematography for TV and Film

Up-and-Coming: Long Shot Productions

The Featured Articles and Videos on FerroProductions.com, historically, have given you an in-depth look at the careers of the industry’s most seasoned veterans.  We decided to mix things up a bit and give you, our fans, an inside scoop on the up-and-coming members of the production world.  These new articles and videos will serve as both learning tools and building blocks for aspiring youth, as well as inspiring stories of dedication and triumph for all to enjoy!

            “Passion.  It just takes a little bit of talent and a whole lot of passion.” -LML

Lisa Marie Latino is the President and Executive Producer of Long Shot Productions.  Long Shot, founded in 2009, is based out of Northern New Jersey and is considered a full-service production company. Everything from corporate videos to documentaries, 30-second commercials to show development… They truly run the gamut.

It all started at an early age for Ms. Latino; her interest in production, that is.  She recalls watching Super Bowl XXV as a young first grader and telling her parents, “That’s what I want to be when I grow up!” No, she wasn’t aspiring to play Quarterback for the New York Giants.  Rather, she was talking about the woman on-camera, reporting from the sidelines.

After High School graduation in 2002, Lisa was enrolled at Seton Hall University in West Orange, NJ.  Seton Hall is well known for their very competitive radio-production program and sure enough Ms. Latino found herself as an on-air talk show host for WSOU, the school’s radio station. The Pro-Sports show that Lisa hosted was so successful that the Star Ledger (New Jersey’s Leading Newspaper) published a full-write up in the Sunday paper detailing Lisa and her show.  It seemed as though Ms. Latino was well on her way to a fulfilling career in radio…

That summer, however, there was a sudden change in heart for Lisa.  She was visiting the campus of Montclair State University and caught a glimpse of the immaculate TV Studio at the school’s broadcasting department.  “I immediately called my parents and told them I was transferring to Montclair.  It was the best decision I ever made in my life.” She shares.  Despite all the success at the coveted Radio Program at Seton Hall, an awfully prestigious University may I add, she could not deny the feeling in her gut that was telling her to move on to the more respected television program at Montclair.  And so she did…

While still enrolled in college, Lisa got involved in an internship program with wFAN.  She was doing Promotions and Marketing, which wasn’t what she had dreamed of, but it was a foot in the door.  “I took a lot of positions over the years that weren’t necasarilly the most fun or most glorified but they got my foot in the door.  I was learning all aspects of the industry and I was making a name for myself.”

In 2006 Ms. Latino had earned her Bachelors from Montclair and was now working directly for Steve Adubato and the Caucus Education Foundation.  Once again, she was not on-air talking about sports or producing her own segments, but she was in the door.  At Caucus Education Foundation Lisa learned all about the business side of production, which she credits a lot of her current success to.  Over the next three years Lisa continued working with Steve Adubato, as well as with wFAN, and even with the New York Giants Broadcasting Department.  It was in 2009, at the ripe age of 25, that the jaded Lisa decided she was going to make a change… and that was the start of Long Shot Productions.

Just like that- With a Mac Computer, a camera, a microphone, and a tripod- Long Shot was born. In a class of Ms. Latino’s at Montclair she had to create a production company and maintain it throughout the semester with a small group of peers.  It was those same two peers that Lisa asked to join on her new endeavor… this time in the real world.  So, what next?  How does a production company in its infancy grow into its adolescence?

“I created ‘In the Zone w/ Lisa Marie Latino.’  I just started showing up at Red Carpet events with my camera and interviewed celebrities.  You would be surprised how easy it is to get onto the red carpet, by the way.  Then I put together a few weekly shows, and the rest is history.  Word of mouth spread, people begin to ask me to do a small project here and there and I began finding myself up at 3 AM editing segments in the guest room of my home.  Me! Editing?!”

Ms. Latino learned, at a rapid pace, that in order to succeed she needed to perform at all levels of production.  Business, Producing, Post-Production… EVERYTHING.  All of her experiences from college, interning, working; they had all come full circle.

Throughout our interview with Lisa the young Producer kept delivering a reoccurring message.  She could not stress enough to the fact that this business is not a walk in the park.  It’s not your typical 9-5 job, and it is CERTAINLY not for the faint of heart. Long Shot is currently in the midst of a full schedule, and as Lisa says, “It’s only the beginning.”

——–

If you are interested in learning more about Long Shot Productions, click here to visit their website!

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LIGHTING: George Greczylo & Ray Charles

February @ Ferro

February was a busy month for Ferro Productions as we re-embarked on our path to seek out the industry’s most intriguing names for on-camera interviews. We were fortunate enough to sit down with three individuals, respectively, who represent very different spectrums of the production community. Each of our interviewees took us on a vivid ride from their humble (or not so humble) beginnings,to their unique behind the scenes experiences, all the way to providing insight and advice for people aspiring to enter the wild world that is production.

Our first interview featured award-winning cinematographer, Alex Aurichio. Mr Aurichio’s talents as a camera-operator and Director of Photography have brought him to the four corners of the world and back (literally). Whether it’s on-set with NFL superstars or on-set with the President of Egypt, the experiences that Alex has racked-up over the past thirty years surely made for an awesome interview! To learn a little bit more about Mr. Aurichio, check out his blog on our Insiders Tab or visit his personal website!

Next on the list was Lisa Marie Latino. Ms. Latino is the Executive Producer and Founder of Long Shot Productions. This interview took us from her early days as a radio host at

Seton Hall University to becoming an Executive Producer of her own production company; all-the-while detailing the excessive hours and dedication it took along the way. Even now, Lisa is striving for bigger and better things and we are sure that after you view our Featured Video from the interview, you will agree that she is well on her way!

Our final interview, to date, brought our crew to Central New York. Bill Diamond, founder of Bill Diamond Productions, has made a larger than life impact on the world of television and theatre. Mr. Diamond’s ideas and influences have been featured on Muppet Babies, Phantom of Opera, Fraggle Rock, Monster TV and much more. Now rather than attempting to explain the breathtaking day that we had at Mr. Diamonds “Dream Factory” , I stronlgy urge you to take a minute and view our newest Featured Video.

Over the next few weeks we will be sitting down with some more of the industry’s hottest behind the scenes names. Stay tuned for these interviews, plus our interviews with Mr. Aurichio and Ms. Latino, coming soon!

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The Radio Revolution: Steve Cohen

The radio communication service of the world has sure come a long way since it first burst upon the scene in the early 20th century.  From the original patents of “wireless” to current day satellite, radio has undoubtedly made a monumental contribution to humanity.  

 Steve Cohen is Vice President of Sports Programming at Sirius XM Radio. Steve amongst his many lifelong accomplishments is also the creator of Sirius NFL Radio.  Mr. Cohen’s many talents and ambitions have driven him to the pinnacle of a billion dollar industry…how did it all happen, you may ask?  We did just that! ASKED. Earlier this year Ferro Productions had the privilege of sitting down with Steve for a detailed, behind the scenes discussion about the talk radio boom and advancements in technology as each molded modern day radio and well as his career.

“Internships were very important for me in college.  I started at WARY Radio at Westchester Community College as a Heavy Metal Radio Jockey.  I was just a kid, hanging out and having a good time, all the while playing some Iron Maiden.  I spent a little time there but after I got my grades up at WCC, I decided to move on to finish my education at the University of Arizona” Steve shares.

As an upperclassmen at The University of Arizona, Steve got his first big break in the realm of internships, landing a gig at WNBC with the Joey Reynolds show in the summer of 1986.  He was now writing comedy, writing movie reviews, and surrounding himself with the right crowd.

After graduating college the following year in May of 1987, Steve landed a job at an ABC affiliate in Tuscon, KGUN radio.  Although excited about his first legit gig in the business, Mr. Cohen’s tenure at KGUN would be short-lived.  ”I took a 60 day leave of absence from KGUN, came back to New York, went over to WNBC, and woke up Mike Breene who had been doing the overnights in the office…. He caught me up on what was new around NYC and told me they were starting an all-sports radio station in Queens.  The program director was going to be John Pruder.  ’Here’s his number give him a call’ he said.  And I thought, OK, Sports Radio Station?  This will never work!”

Needless to say that Steve’s hunch about Sports Radio couldn’t have been further from the truth.  Mr. Cohen and a group of very talented men, read geniuses, were on the front lines of a “Sirius” revolution. Pun intended.

Back then there was no Internet and certainly no iPhones.  When Steve and the crew needed information about the latest score for a game, they literally picked up a phone and called the press box of the stadium in which the game was being held.  On top of that, there were no ISDN lines or any other sort of wireless technology that is used in this day and age.  When you fast forward to today, you have Satellite Radio, iPhones, ISDN, and all the other great wireless equipment used in and for broadcast…

Moving along with the progression of technology, sports radio must be accredited also to a new way of thinking.  One that swept through the minds of a few bright individuals in New York City. “These guys were talking Nebraska Cornhuskers and Iowa Hawkeyes Football… I mean, WHO CARES? No one in New York cared about college sports and they still don’t.  You need to play the hits: Giants, Yankees, Jets, Mets, you know.  This is a professional town with professional fans, and Mike Francessa and Chris Russo were a couple of New Yorkers who were able to come together and really blaze the trail for the entire future of sports talk radio” shares Mr. Cohen.

As Steve Cohen climbed the ladder of the radio world, from intern, to tape-operator to board operator, to producer, to executive producer… He always knew that he wanted more. After covering the Jets and Giants for FAN and spending valuable time as Mike Francessa and Bill Parcel’s personal NFL researcher, Steve was about to find that certain something that he was looking for.

“When I got to Sirius Satellite radio we only had 250,000 subscribers.  I did not know if this thing was going to work out, but I knew it was time for me to put my stamp on the industry.  When I created Sirius NFL Radio here, it was really the first time that legitimate experts were analyzing and reporting, not just some Joe Schmoe speculating on opinion and common knowledge.  We had former players, coaches, scouts… We had everyone who mattered.”  Steve’s philosophy was if they were going to comment on the game, they had to be connected to the game. That made it real and different while elevating the level of professionalism from speculation to facts.

Mr. Cohen has since moved on to the role of Vice President of Sports Programming for all of SiriusXM Satellite radio; A true honor, and a long way from spinning Iron Maiden records at the County College of Westchester.  Sirius currently has over 20 million subscribers and that number is always rising.  Mr. Cohen credits new technology such as the SiriusXM App. for smartphones with helping in the rapid expansion and value of the company.

Ferro Productions would like to give a special thanks to a true industry pioneer, Mr. Steve Cohen, for not only providing our crew with such an enlightening interview, but also for welcoming us with open arms at Sirius Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan and at the SiriusXM Celebrity Fantasy Football Draft in Times Square!

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Catapulting Your Broadcasting Career

With Super Bowl XLVII in the books,  it’s that time of the year again when Ferro Productions says goodbye to it’s NFL Programming responsibilities and hello to the world of endless entertainment and production possibilities. It is always around this time of the year when many of our friends and industry peers begin asking the same question, “What are you guys up to now?”  Well not to worry folks… we are undoubtably busier than ever and loving every minute of it.  That is not what this story is about, however.  This story is about taking time to reflect back on the New York Giants memorable run to Super Bowl XLVI last season, as told by Ferro Productions own, me.

It was a bone-chilling afternoon in East Rutherford, New Jersey and the New York Giants had just suffered a heartbreaking defeat to the rivaled Washington Redskins.  The date was December 18, 2011 and pardon the cliche, but,  I remember it like it was just yesterday.  Not only did it appear that Big Blue had just let another opportunity to return to the playoffs slip away; it appeared that within the next three weeks I would be looking for another job.  It was my second season working with the New York Giants Broadcasting Department via Ferro Productions and I was sad to face another offseason and the possibility of never working with the crew ever again.  In order for my job as production assistant to continue for a few more weeks the Giants needed to pull-off two big wins in week 16 & 17… and sure enough…

Next thing I knew I was witnessing the Giants steam-roll over the Atlanta Falcons as they christened MetLife Stadium with it’s first ever post-season victory.  After assisting with the audio set-up for the post game press conference, I remember sitting down and listening to Eli Manning address the media.  He spoke of comparisons to the 2007 post-season and how this team was looking as though they were following in the same footsteps.  This was legitimitely the first time I considered the possibility of the NYG and Ferro Productions making the trip to Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI, however, it wasn’t something that I was going to dwell on or get my hopes up for.  After all: I am an employee, not a fan.  That’s not to say that I don’t have a deep passion for the game of football, though.  On the contrary; I played football throughout my youth and high school days, all-the-while rooting for the New York Giants.

Going into work at the Timex Performance Center that following week was thrilling.  Ferro was busier than ever with extended playoff coverage, interviews, additional press conferences, etc. and I began finding myself getting thrown into different situations and taking on much larger production responsibilities than I had ever faced before; Needless to say I was loving every minute of it.   The energy around the facility was buzzing and  I started noticing more familiar faces from ESPN and NFL Network around that week. It truly was beginning to feel like something special was in the air. That feeling would be multiplied by 1000x within the next two weeks following absolutely exhilarating victories in Green Bay and San Francisco.

Monday, January 23rd is a day that I will never forget.  It was the morning after Big Blue attained the 2011 NFC Championship and my boss, my mentor, and my executive producer (who all happen to be the same person) called me aside for a meeting.  He informed me that I would be traveling with the crew on the NYG team plane and spending the week in Indianapolis working as a camera operator and production assistant.  We were going to be shooting fifteen shows that week and we needed all hands on deck.  “Your going to be recieving a crash course in a lot of subjects this week, but for some reason I have full confidence in you.” he told me.

HOLY $&@# !!! : I was ecstatic to say the least.  I felt like my whole life, especially everything I had been working so hard at for the past few years, had brought me to this one magical moment in time and I knew that I was going to rise to the occasion and seize the opportunity.

Now, instead of documenting my week in Indy for you here in this Article, I am going to provide you with a link to our very popular “Super Bowl Series“ which I worked on every night last year while in Super Bowl City.  I highly recommend you take the time to read the short series, as it will truly put you in my shoes and show you exactly how incredible Ferro’s week was.

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Michael Morrissey began his career at the age of 20, working as a production assistant with the New York Giants Broadcasting Department.  Since then Michael has endured numerous freelance positions in the New York City area including working with the 16-time Emmy Award winning crew of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as well as operating network camera for NYG Broadcast’s MSG and FOX daily programming, including on-location camera-1 operator during Super Bowl week in Indianapolis.  More recently Michael has expanded into the cyber-world acting as the Chief Staff writer and Content Manager for FerroProductions.com, all-the-while continuing his never ending passion for television production.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick & The Fighter

The “Holy Grail” and its attainment, to some in the archeological world is considered to be the epitome of success. Depending on your viewpoint, the Holy Grail can be mystical, mythological, ethereal and even intangible. Regardless of what it may be in other worlds, in the world of production, it’s clearly, a single, coveted and quite tangible gold figurine. A gift to the chosen few from on high, the Academy… the gilded dandy is presented yearly as “Oscar®”

A lot has to happen before Oscar shows up! As evidenced by the sea of names, mostly off screen talent, whose matrix like rapidly scrolling closing credit crawl has been the highly produced accompaniment to many an exiting theater goer. It may even be fair to say that closing credits have seen more backs than a cheap mattress at a day rate motel.

Here’s the point. Arguably if it weren’t for the likes of such highly trained, experienced and creative camera operators, I say nearly none of what’s out there for consumption would ever get done. Just like the role of bassist in a band, it’s not glamorous, it’s often times cumbersome, your work is primarily done in the background and goes mostly unnoticed, EXCEPT for the trained ear or eye in this story. And all the while an operators vision and scope can range from panoramic to close up, yet the people in the front always seem to be looking right through.

Meet Rick Cypher, a veteran Ferro Productions camera operator. Participating in the process of attaining “Holy Grailness” did NOT elude Rick as it has most. In fact, it was Mark Wahlberg himself who personally called upon Ricks talents and that of the HBO boxing crew, for a task most critical, which without, there was no movie. There would be no masterfully captured and recreated fight scenes. There would be a no more critical mechanism than that of Rick, a best in class camera operator and his lens to bring together the components of a recipe through raw ingredients to a fully produced entree to feast upon, a major motion picture. Like a rock solid bass player and the deep, rhythmic and steady line he lays down, Rick and camera are fundamental. The foundation upon which to build, and build they did.

The year 2009 (Principal Photography). The movie The Fighter (2010). The Cast, to include, Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. The story-line, a depiction of the life of up and coming fighter “Irish” Mickey Ward, following his dramatic road to boxing fame in and out of the arena.

Thanks to the Tsongas Center at UMASS Lowell, the arena became host to the big fight sequence for The Fighter, as well as home away from home for Cypher and the rest of the HBO boxing crew who were on location for 5 days, clocking more that 12 hours a day on set applying their craft. Having surprising parallels to professional sports, moviemaking from the perspective of a camera operator is often about dedication, flexibility and focus, using a highly trained eye and fluid motion to get/make the shot(s).

“My role consisted of doing what I do for HBO boxing, operating a hand held camera on the ring apron during a fight.” Cypher said.

With years of experience around the ring, there is no more perfect a match than Rick for this job. There aren’t that many movies made about a real person being portrayed by an actor where both, the real and portrayed, have been captured by the talents and lens of the very same camera operator. Rick shot the original Ward fights and it was truly the good fortune of the film that Cypher and the HBO boxing crew were there for the job. Having Cypher at the helm brought even greater authenticity to the production than that of the 1990’s era HBO camera’s used to film some of the segments.

The Results, in the 2011 83rd presentation of the Academy Awards®, Ricks work on this film either captured directly or contributed to The Fighter being recognized by 7 Academy Award nominations and it’s Winning of 2 Oscars.

“I have to admit, it was pretty amazing. In my wildest dreams I did not imagine just how much of our footage would actually wind up being used in the film. To see your work on the big screen like that, knowing that millions of people are watching it and having the film nominated for, and winning so many awards, is a very humbling

experience to say the least.” Cypher recalled. “I can’t wait ‘till my kids are old enough to see it, its rated “R” you know.”

Cypher’s further contributions to The Fighter helped provide audiences with a doubly deep personal experience of the captured action and emotion. Rick originally lived and filmed it LIVE and then re-lived and filmed it for the story.

Quoting Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender (Inventor and Founder of…) for the closest semi-religious reference I could find to wrap up a story I began with the “Holy Grail” may I close with Leo words “Let there be bass”! Ohhhh and from all of us at Ferro Productions who value all things Cypher, may we bellow from on high “LET THERE BERICK!”

 

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Teaching at William Paterson University

Sergio Geraldes is a freelancer who has decades of experience in television.  Aside from Directing for Ferro Productions, Sergio has written and produced for networks such as Fox, ESPN 2, FX, CNBC, and MTV.  In addition to his creative role in production, Sergio also serves as a Technology and Media Consultant for companies like Verizon, Citigroup, and Nintendo.

In the midst of a hectic, full-bodied schedule, Sergio has recently added a new chapter to his impressive resume.  Starting last year, he began teaching classes at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.   Acting as an Adjunct Professor, Geraldes teaches TV Studio Production and TV Production and Editing courses two days a week.  “When I was offered the position I accepted it without hesitation.  It brings me joy to give back to the kids and to share my experiences and knowledge with them.”

Sergio’s experience and knowledge certainly make him a well-qualified professor for Television Production.  His interaction with clients from all across the world, along with his ability to speak fluently in Spanish and Portuguese also help him deliver a truly unique method of education for a very diverse group of students from the New York City area.

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Billy Joel at Shea Stadium

 

Billy Joel’s keyboardist, Dave Rosenthal, takes you on stage of the last concert at Shea Stadium and shares how his quick thinking and past experiences aided him throughout the performance. Dave also shares how a very “special guest” made the concert even more memorable.

Lighting for YES Network Live at Montclair

Each year the YES Network conducts a remote shoot at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at New Jersey’s Montclair State University.  YES and Montclair have developed a great relationship with each other over the years due to this annual affair.  This year the crew was back to shoot Yankees Baseball Tonight, but this time the stakes were higher; this time we were going live!  In years past we taped our segments and shows from Montclair but not this year.  Live TV brings on a whole new plethora of responsibilities and leaves absolutely no room for error… and I was ready for the job.

Our lighting crew arrived on location at 8:30 AM to begin set up.  The location: a small lecture hall and learning center; not so adequate for TV lighting.  Although we weren’t rolling until 6:30 PM, we still needed to allot ourselves enough time to make sure everything was exactly in order, because like I said, live TV leaves absolutely no room for error.  Earlier this month myself and a few other crew members spent a day “scouting” the location and began brainstorming and noting things that needed to get done in order to make the set look as good as possible on our limited budget.  

Another reason we arrive on the scene so early is so we can get the majority of our work done before the rest of the crew shows up.  When the camera men are around and the director is on-set, things tend to get a little stressful.  This way, the basic lighting configuration is set and the camera-ops and directors can come in and block their shots and determine whether or not any changes need to be made.  If the director does call for a change in the configuration, it will be a minor fix since we are already set.

After a long day of work it was time to roll the cameras.  With a live studio audience and a live television audience tuning in, I can confidently say that it was a successful day of production.  The show ran smoothly and we received nothing but positive feedback about the set’s appearance on television.

This particular gig was fun for me for two reasons:

1.) I was able to get out of the studio and work on a remote location, all-the-while being a part of the growing relationship between the Yankees/YES and the local community.

2.)  I needed to be creative with the only items I had on hand.  “Doing the best with what you’ve got” was our phrase for the day, as we were working on a limited budget.

I would like to give a big shout out to The Lighting Design Group for brilliantly designing the rig and set up for this show.  Those guys are the absolute best in the biz and I’m fortunate to be able to collaborate with such talented people to get the job done.  Additional kudos the Metrovision for providing the satellite truck for the shoot, as well as Shadowstone for supplying the rental lighting package.

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Sesame Street and Beyond: Loretta Long

Loretta Long (born June 3, 1940) is an American actress, singer, and educator, best known for playing Susan Robinson on Sesame Street, having starred on the show since its debut in 1969.

Born in Paw Paw, Michigan, she earned her Ph.D. in Urban Education in 1973 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, while she was starring on Sesame Street. She has acted in musicals (such as Guys and Dolls) and appeared on the Flip Wilson Show with other Sesame Street cast members during its first season.

On Sesame Street, Dr. Long’s character Susan, along with Bob (Bob McGrath) and Big Bird / Oscar the Grouch (Caroll Spinney), is one of only three remaining cast members who were on the first show and have been played by the same actors since the show began. She has performed a couple of puppet voices on the show, including Suzetta and Roosevelt Franklin’s mother.

Dr. Long, in addition to starring on Sesame Street, is a consultant and public speaker on issues of multiculturalism and education.

Earlier Years

Dr. Loretta Long’s career as an entertainer was born on the roadside of her family farm some 60 years ago. At nine years, Loretta would stand on the side of the road with her basket of strawberries, singing and dancing to attract patrons. It was here she first learned the value of following your passion; A lesson that would serve her well for the rest of her life.

 During those early years in Paw Paw, Michigan, Loretta always knew she wanted to be a star.  Unfortunately, in those days there were not too many role models for a young African American female born on a farm in a small mid-western town, Loretta explains “You look around for affirmation. We had one movie (theater), which played cowboy movies. There were no cowgirls except for Dale Evans-and she was white.”

It wasn’t just the world at large that Loretta had to overcome.  Loretta’s loving parents were not thrilled with the thought of her pursuing a career in entertainment. “You don’t tell black parents that you’re going to be in the theater mommy’.” Loretta’s parents envisioned her becoming a teacher, a nurse, maybe even a doctor if civil rights continued to progress-but an actress? Loretta’s parents would have preferred just about anything else. It’s not that they wanted to hold her back from her dreams, Loretta’s parents were always loving and supporting, it’s simply that at a time when money was tight, they were looking for a more stable career choice for their daughter.  Loretta compromised and attended college at the University of Massachusetts, with a major in Education.

After graduating college, Loretta took a job as a substitute teacher in the rough and tumble Bronx public school system. Never one to lose sight of her dreams, Loretta still remained focused. “I was an actor and a singer who happened to be teaching. I wasn’t a teacher who wanted to be in show business.”

Her choice to be a substitute teacher and not a full time employee, speaks highly of both her drive and her integrity. “I would not take a permanent job and pretend that I would be there for a year. If I got the right phone call, I was history.”  When she wasn’t working as a teacher, Loretta was out and about every day looking for acting gigs. She never lost her focus. Her mind never faltered.

 Career

Despite facing tremendous adversity during a time when women (especially African-American women) were seldom given opportunities in the entertainment industry, Loretta would not be denied. Spend some time around Loretta, and you’re bound to hear these words: “You must occupy your dreams first…..” It was these words that helped Loretta overcome every form of adversity imaginable. Determined and driven, Loretta never allowed the outside world to interfere with the success she envisioned in her life.

“If you can’t see yourself doing it, forget it…That vision has to be so strong that you drown out all the people goin’, ‘You? Are you kidding? You’re too tall. You’re too old. You’re too fat. You’re too black. You’re too white.’…You have to hold onto it so tight that you don’t hear all that.”

 In 1969, Loretta’s vision began to come to fruition. At a time when African-American acts were never featured on mainstream television, Loretta landed a hosting gig on Sunday nights on Channel Thirteen’s Soul! It was through this work experience where she met Charlie Rosen, the man who would set her up on an audition for the marquee role of her career. Rosen, aware of Loretta’s credentials as a teacher, encouraged her to audition for a new educational children’s television show that he, along with Jim Henson and John Stone, were developing. Rosen was Sesame Street’s initial set designer, and failed to mention to Loretta that the audition was of a musical nature.

During her career on Sesame Street, Ms Long has preformed in musical theater, recorded original music, and appeared on Broadway and several TV shows.

Throughout her career, Loretta never gave up her dedication to education and helping today’s youth. She continues with this ongoing mission as a consultant and guest lecturer around the world.  An educator and innovator, Dr. Loretta Long’s 43-year career as Susan Robinson on Sesame Street has enabled her to reach out and impact the lives of children in ways few others can. If Loretta could pass along one piece of advice to children, it would be to follow your passion. Loretta Long was never one to chase after money or fame; those things came organically. From an early point in life, Loretta identified her passion and stuck with it despite facing adversity every which way she turned. “Passion is the clue to purpose.” She says. Loretta has long since found her passion. She has been fulfilling her purpose for the past 40 years. Her next purpose in life is to help others find theirs.

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NYG Video Capture

NEW YORK – What can you do with 2 cameras and a passion for your profession and for the game? Specifically, Video Production and Football that is. Well, you can be the “Fundamental” source that creates a nearly insurmountable amount of content, in nearly impossible time frames using state of the art technology. All to be filtered, http://viagra24-pharmacyonline.com/cialis-with-dapoxetine-20-mg-online.html sorted and batched for the purposes of “Technical Analysis.” Hours upon hours of clips broken down week after week over the ENTIRE SEASON including PRACTICES!

Dave…

The upcoming opposing teams last 5 games will be masterfully broken down into broad edits consisting of the 3 facets of football, Offense, Defense and Special Teams. Then edited down further into such minutia that prior to the cutting edge technology, it was a 0300 hrs start time to get the work done for the day.

Let’s continue. Each play then breaks down to anywhere from 60 to 70 sub categories such as distance, down, personnel, situation, yard gain and so forth and so on. Feel free to sketch out a chart for yourself if it’ll make it easier to follow. I know I charted it out for myself to make sure this story went in the right direction.

Dave Maltese…

Now, for the sake of space and sanity, let’s just isolate the “Defense” which in turn will then be further broken down into edits of ANOTHER 44 sub-sub categories; tendency, red zone, 1st down runs, 3rd down passes etc. etc. etc. not spoken lightly and in full recognition of the intentional deletion of “Offense and Special Teams” and their sub-sub categories!

Which in mentioning Special Teams, simply given the constraints of space may we dedicate this paragraph to the full recognition of the fact that Dave doesn’t do it alone! Dave works closely with a Special Team, which is second to none. Know that all the stuff GLOSSED over in this article is MASTERFULLY handled, in the real world by Assistant Video Directors, Carmen Pizzano, Ed Triggs, and Steve Venditti.

Dave Maltese, Video Director…

Keep this all in mind and for those in the business, you know exactly or perhaps not, what the above would entail in the old days of FILM!!! If your not sure, ask an Industry Veteran who’s lived the life of a “tape jockey” and watch their head immediately start shaking as http://zoloftonline-generic.com/catalog/Depression/Paxil.htm their eyes roll, shark like, signaling the YOU HAVE NO IDEA expression.

Dave Maltese, Video Director, NY Giants…

Ask HIM, we did and what an amazing interview it was. Self Analysis, Analytical, Line Movement, Criteria, Breakdowns, Find The Flaws, Instantaneous Access, all buzzwords Dave was using to answer and explain to me, exactly what his work consisted of and what exactly it does for the team. “Dave! Dave…Dave, if I were to ask you for a sentence that BEST would summarize what Dave Maltese, Video Director for the Giants and his Team is all about, what would it be?” Ready for genius folks, here’s Dave’s response “We’re hoping to find the flaws in our opponents so that (our camera work and production) abilify reviews will enable us to teach them to our players in hopes that we can get a victory on Sunday.”

A reply to which I took a moment to soak up and fully appreciate the profoundness of, before my follow up question “By shooting what specifically?” Dave said “well, according to the rules set down by the NFL Competition Committee we are required, as is every club, to shoot our games, home and away, from a sideline and an endzone perspective capturing the alignment and movement of all 22 players participating in every play.” Wow, was an appropriate response from me. “The stuff we shoot is also fed to the Officiating Crew for contested plays as well as to the “Color Guys” on the telestrator” Dave added. Unlike the 11 to 13 cameras used for broadcast, Dave, with 2 cameras, superior leadership skills and the rest of his key Team have a very critical and specific mission, providing content canadian family pharmacy to be uploaded to the CGE Network*.

With those 2 cameras and angles, Dave and his Team are able to nail down content that will eventually be used inGAME CRITICAL TECHNICAL ANALYSIS by the coaching staff. Bottom lining it, what’s shot can and will eventually be broken down and filtered into any of these categories, key words and/or Football terminology: advance – bounce – box – cadence – comeback – contain – contrarian – cycle – crash – decline– distance – fade – fakeout – flag – drop – flat – formation – gap – hook reversal – invert – isolation – tendencies – analysis – situational – motion – neckline – negative territory – option – opening – pattern – pivot – outside reversal – momentum – resistance – reverse – screen – secondary – signal – separation – settle – slant – spike – sticks – strong side – support – swing – switch – trailing – territory – variance – weak side – wedge – zig zag – zone of resistance.”

“Hang on” I said…”We talking Wall Street or Football here?” Actually, I answered my own question with the fact that it could literally be EITHER or BOTH! I had a really fascinating realization at that moment of just how close winning and loosing a game and season is to winning and loosing in business. Literally every single word in that list above can and is seamlessly and interchangeably uttered daily from the lips of Wall Street Technical Stock Analyst s andNFL Coaches or Commentators!

Technical analysis plays an equally big part when it comes to bringing home a win be it on the “Field” or on the “Street”.

If your a successful Video Director for the NY Giants with 21 years experience and a Super Bowl Ring to your name, the above jargon is your life and plays a vital part in obtaining a victory on Sunday. Grant it, a “Technical Analyst” on Wall Street clearly shares and verbalizes many of the same terms in addition to Fibonacci Sequence, Mandelbrot Pattern, Head and Shoulder Pattern and Dead Cat Bounce, NONE of which would help him analyze a winning team at any sportsbook in the world regardless of the spread (oh, spread is another mutually used term, for the record).

So what’s the difference between an HP12C and a XOS Digital? One helps you with Technical Analysis in theFINANCIAL WORLD and the other in the FOOTBALL WORLD..

That was a bad attempt at a “trade joke”, however what Dave and his Team do is anything but a joke. Wining IS everything. IN THE REAL WORLD that is, because if you win on Wall Street, you make money and bonuses. If you win WITH your team, you make money and bonuses and if one’s technical wizardry as Video Director and Assistant Directors contributed to anything beyond 0 and 16, there just may be another SUPERBOWL ring waiting!

Stevie Wonder concert in United Nations

This was a really fun shoot, just because of how many great musicians were on stage. The event was a Stevie Wonder concert for the 67th Anniversary of the United Nations, with multiple walk on artists and speakers. The venue is the General Assembly building, where full council meetings of the member nations usually take place. The concert was webcast live on UNTV and will be broadcast on BET in February. There were two days of set up and rehearsal before the concert on the evening of the second day.

 

A stage was built around the Secretary General’s Dais. The event would be shot with eight Sony HDC-2500L cameras, three of which were handheld. My position was camera 8, on stage, working both wings. The production was required to use four camera operators from UNTV. The director had no idea how they would do, so they hired four additional pro shooters to make sure the show was covered. Our cameras were feeding IMAG screens over the stage at times, as well as being switched live for the show, so keeping screens framed out was always a concern. The director put the UNTV shooters on long studio lenses in the back center, and wings up high. He placed the three handheld around the stage, front and back and the last one on a slash camera with a 33:1, up on a platform. I had a wide lens, and was able to walk behind the band from wing to wing. Stage right was horns, stage left was the choir and back up singers.

Rehearsals were very long and scattered, until Stevie arrives, then everyone gets serious. By the next day when we come in, we’re told to forget everything we rehearsed, because it’s all changed. No problem, we’re used to winging it. The show goes on a little late and begins with speakers. Then Stevie Wonder comes out and starts to play, and we go to work. Three and a half hours later, after Stevie, plus musical guests; Sting, Doug E Fresh, Wyclef Jean, Valerie Simpson and more, the director comes up and thanks us (the pro shooters) for saving his show, nice.

 

Security is often challenging at locations like this, but once we were inside with credentials, it really wasn’t an issue, as the area is closed to the public and not currently in use. Working within a large camera crew, for a director I’ve never worked with before, was a bigger challenge. I really had to sell my shots to get on the screen, but we were being recorded iso, so I always shot like I was live unless I was repositioning. Dragging a fiber optic cable behind me wasn’t always easy, but I had a decent cable puller. Still, being on stage for a show like that was the coolest place to be, without a doubt.

Shooting Camera for HBO Boxing

I was in Vegas a few weeks ago covering one of the most anticipated boxing matches of the year.  Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez met for the fourth time in their respective careers in what was an absolutely star-studded evening at the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel.   It’s always great to be back working with the HBO Boxing Crew, which I have been a proud member of for the better part of the past two decades.

For this match I was shooting the Sony 1850 Super Slow-Mo handheld camera.  I’m very familiar with this model, as I have been using it with HBO Boxing for some time now, although, it’s smooth operating and exceptional quality never cease to amaze me.   Although it is a Slow-mo camera that does not mean that everything I am capturing turns out in slow motion.  I am shooting in real time, however, the frame rate of these cameras is so high that it enables unbelievable slow motion for television replays.

Recently I have been covering a lot of college basketball games up and down the east coast.  It was nice to be back on the apron (the area of the boxing ring outside of the ropes) and up close and personal, capturing these athletes clash like titans.  Our camera crew consisted of nearly a dozen operators; handheld cameras covering the fight and covering crowd reactions, hard cameras (on tripods) covering the fight, a robotic camera covering the fight and crowd reactions, and finally the J.I.T.A. (Jib in the air) which captures the most artistic and attractive shots, in my opinion.

At the conclusion of the sixth round the heavily favored Manny Pacquiao was knocked out and the match was over.  Once the match is over, our camera crew has to deal with the mayhem of the celebration.  Dozens of people are storming the ring and giving hugs and kisses to the winner.  Here enlies the problem: I need to get to my assigned spot and get the necassary close-up shot of the fighters after the match.  I was literally shooting with one hand and politely moving people out of my way with the other hand.  To give you an even more detailed idea of how crazy the building gets at the conclusion of the fight… Governor Romney was in the front row with his wife for the fight.  There was so much pushing and shoving going on with people crowding the ring and trying to get to their assigned spots that someone actually got pushed into the boxers spit bucket (filled with bloody spit from the boxers in between rounds) and the bucket knocked over and spilled all over the Governor and his wife.  All in all, through all the mayhem, our crew pulled off another successful broadcast for HBO Boxing.

Check back periodically on my Insider Page to follow me and learn about the different gigs I’m working!

LED Lighting for YES Network

Throughout my career I have experienced all sorts of annoyances and mishaps in the world of television and stage production.  Whether it be lighting-fixtures burning out before show time, stressed-out directors screaming at crew members, or Video technicians nit-picking my every lighting decision; I’ve grown to understand that the show really does go on, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.  Even after ten years of working as the Lighting Director for the YES (Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network), I’ve found that the second you get too comfortable with your job is the same second that something will throw you for a loop.

A few weeks back the pioneers over at Lite Panels provided YES with a full LED lighting package to be used for evaluation on the set of Yankees Baseball Today.  The package consisted of both Inca 4’s and Inca 6’s, fueled by 5-pin to ethernet and DMX power.

-Inca, for incandescent.  

–6  for 6 inch Fresnel Lens, Draws 104 watts as bright as a 1000 Watt 6” Fresnels

–4  for 4 inch Fresnels Lens, Draws 39 watts substitute for an Arri 650 Fresnel

This was the first time in my lighting career that I would be using a lighting configuration as Talent Lights consisting of strictly LED.  I was feeling very excited, and very comfortable about our test run…

We had one day to integrate the Inca units into the existing lighting rig, set levels, and finally be ready for the premiere live shoot of Yankees Baseball Today.

Let me elaborate…

LED do not run on standard dimmers, they have internal electronics which are controlled by the standard DMX lighting control protocol.

This mean, we now have to run Data to each unit from the control board. And each unit must be addressed individually. Our only option was to daisy chain data from one unit to another. (Not the best way to distribute data for television, more on that in the future.)

We were completed in the time I allotted for a “standard” hang and just had time to focus. I noticed that we were rapidly approaching our PM airtime.  We were ready, and feeling comfortable.  Job well done…  Went to the control console and all of a sudden one of the key lights went out on us and was not responding to our control console.

My Gaffer and I now had all eyes on us, and we could feel it.  The director wanted to look at camera shots and we could not controlthe anchor Key light! Never had we missed an airtime because of being unprepared, and I was not about to let it happen on this day.  We began double checking everything; The power supply, the control console, the Opto box.  What we found… was…nothing.  There was nothing wrong.  Everything was set up properly and after an hour of trying to solve the problem, with only minutes left before show time I made one final attempt at getting the light back up and running.  I simply powered down the Key light locally and powered it back up again. And well, you guessed it.  The light was up and running like new.  We made our air time for that evening and all of the troubles of the day were fading quickly. We never did have time to add Neutral Density to the new light box, but we got on air.  No one realized we almost went to Air without lights! I received compliments for how good the first show looked! The Video Engineer was absolutely thrilled with the new lights;  “Loved the skin tone! Talent looked great on our HD cameras under the Incas.”  I have a punch list of add ons.  Tomorrow is another day to add yet another light to the set.  I always find it funny, how no one notices the lighting if it is done right. They always notice it when it is wrong… Now when there is no light… is there a show?  Glad I don’t have to answer that question.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I bring you more behind the scenes stories, as well as a professional evaluation of the Lite Panels Inca LED lighting kit!

 

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NJTV’s Hurricane Sandy Coverage

The wrath of Super Storm Sandy came and went, leaving in its wake a path of destruction of unthinkable proportions. Power transformers exploded, taking with it power lines and electric switching stations, leaving nearly four million homes in darkness. The Jersey shore was devastated, images of what was once the state’s playground was no more. Its geographical landscape was transformed, with backhoes and bulldozers barely making a dent in putting back the puzzle that before was so familiar.

Those who had electricity witnessed the devastation first-hand from the live images transmitted by hundreds of field-reporters, and from the round-the-clock coverage broadcast by major and regional networks. In anticipation of the predicted New Jersey devastation, the Montclair University-based NJTV, moved its storm coverage operations to WNET’s, PBS station’s Manhattan studios.

I was part of

the NJTV’s round-the-clock, studio and field coverage, working alongside a team of field reporters, producers, writers, technicians, and helmed by veteran news anchor, and NJTV’s managing editor, Mike Schneider. The goal was to deliver the latest information, in-depth analysis from the genesis of the storm to its destructive aftermath. Field reporters pumped out constant updates and heartbreaking visuals.

The reporters were located in some of the hardest-hit areas such as Cape May, Spring Lake and Hoboken. Images were captured and transmitted back via portable liveU units, the next generation of newsgathering via video-over-cellular transmitters. The compact units allowed our field reporters to be entrenched in situations and locations that would otherwise be inaccessible using the conventional truck satellite uplink or microwave transmissions.

In a nutshell, the liveU unit splits up the video signal into different spectrums and distributes the individual signals to several cell towers in the vicinity of the unit. Naturally, the more cell towers and less cell traffic, the clearer the image. But of course, good ol’ Sandy did her best to put the kibosh on the party. Heavy winds and rain knocked many cell towers out of commission thereby narrowing the spectrum. Heavier than usual cell phone traffic also added to the problem. But even with all these obstacles, the images rivaled those transmitted the traditional way.

The amount of power needed to push live images or pre-packaged pieces was intense. Inverters in the vehicles kept the liveU unit’s batteries at the ready, but they were still powering the units down until just before broadcast. Turning them on moments before the live hit was excruciatingly, nerve wrecking. On a couple of occasions we had to reshuffle the rundown to accommodate a delay in the liveU broadcast. We either saw them and couldn’t hear them, or heard them and couldn’t see them, or all of the above.

You should never go into a live situation without a backup plan. Whether it’s shuffling things around, making the best of a transmission problem or changing a live video hit to a phone interview, problems will arise and a plan is imperative. On one news update we were readying a remote location hit when suddenly we lost the image a minute before our anchor, Mike Schneider was about to speak to them. Due to the quick thinking of the audio engineer, we immediately had our correspondent on the phone. The live news hit suddenly and seamlessly became a phone interview.

A situation like that can have a cascading effect. Losing a correspondent this close to their live hit does not necessarily mean we would go on to the next item on our rundown. That next item could be a live hit with another correspondent who may or may not be ready to go, or the same connectivity issue may occur. And of course as luck would have it, it did occur, this time two of the live hits dropped out, but we had enough time to scramble and play a pre-taped 3-minute package that gave us some breathing room to regroup and strategize the rest of the program.

Another example of making the best of a situation was a live Skype interview with a meteorologist from his home. He still had WiFi capability, no electricity and his battery power was dwindling. The image was dark, jagged, and usually this kind of quality is unacceptable for broadcast. I believe a problem is only a problem if you don’t embrace it. So we took the only thing we had and made the image fit the mood and the situation by not just simply airing it, but actually have the anchor address and be playful with it. It worked. The substandard image paid off and was in line with the ominous feel of the coverage. Thinking outside the box and embracing a problem and not masking it is usually the best option.

No matter how many times I find myself in a breaking news environment, the atmosphere is always the same. There is so much information coming in that needs to be prioritized and categorized. The chatter between producers in the control room, the satellite and production coordinators trying hard to establish communication with the field crew, the director trying to sort and decipher the importance of the information and maintain order in a control room where too much information can overload the system, exists in a fine, delicate balance between control and chaos.

There are several analogies I can use to paint a picture of what it’s like in a breaking news control room environment. Juggling chainsaws, playing catch with a javelin is but a couple of them, but conducting a 100-piece orchestra describes it best. And at any given time one of those orchestra pieces could stop working, or go out of tune, and you need to scramble to find another instrument.

This chaotic control room environment is not for the faint of heart. Many things are going on at the same time, and they will most definitely go wrong and not to plan. Controlled chaos I like to call it. A spectator walking into a control room in the heat of the moment would think they were walking into a bar fight.

I’m an adrenalin junkie, but after several straight days of this intense environment, physical and mental exhaustion follows by a week of sleeping in…. or not.

Live from the Booth

Every Sunday thousands of fans tune in to the most listened to sports radio station in the nation, Sports Radio 66 WFAN. They are tuned in to hear a New York Giants radio broadcast masterfully portrayed by the enthusiastic play-by-play calls of Bob Papa, the expert analysis of Carl Banks and production of one very talented individual.  The Big Blue Nation gets their football delivered to them over the airwaves in a fashion second to none.  Ferro Productions went behind the scenes with John Schmeelk,  Managing Producer of Giants Radio to share with you , our readers,  the inside details of producing an eight hour live broadcast.

 

As a senior at New York University, John Schmeelk began his radio broadcasting career with an internship at the FAN.  And quite a career it’s been! John has since covered the Mets, Nets, Yankees, Devils, Knicks, Rangers, and Giants.  In 2006 John 1^st produced Giants Football for wFAN and has since been riding a crazy train of success.

 

Each week John produces a 90 minute pre-game show, a full in-game broadcast, and 90 minute post-game show.  ”I control everything in the broadcast, except for hiring talent, more or less” says John. “I don’t report to anyone on game day.  If a decision needs to be made, it goes through me.  This means I need to be prepared for anything and EVERYTHING.”

 

The Giants pre-game show on the FAN is the easiest to prepare for, according to Mr. Schmeelk. “You know what’s coming.  There are no surprises yet in the pre-game.”  A run down is prepared to the minute, for the entire hour and a half show.  There are some pre recorded segments such as head coach or player interviews, but the rest is live.  Everything needs to be executed perfectly as there are twenty seven minutes of commercials that need to be aired.  Peter Belloti is John’s pre game Producer, and it’s his job to make sure all the time slots are met.  Peter and his Production Assistant, Lisa Latino,  keep everything moving at the necessary pace, ”It’s all about people understanding their role.  When everyone does their job, the show gets done properly.”

The main objective of a radio announcer is making the listener appreciate the game as if they were watching it on television.  It’s Bob Papa and Carl Banks’ job to paint that picture for Giant fans during the game broadcast, and as John says, “they are absolutely the best in the business”!  Mr Schmeelk, accompanied by his audio engineer, is in the booth with Bob and Carl during the game.

It is the engineers job to make sure the correct lines and levels are up, and to assure that no one is over modulating.  He also routes the system in such a way that allows John to speak in his broadcasters ear without it going over the air, which is an essential element to making sure things happen in a well organized and timely manner.

Further enhancing the broadcast experience, Howard Cross is reporting live from the field. On-field Producer Dave Betancourt supporting Howard, together deliver the exclusive sideline updates.

The new stadium with it’s technological upgrades allow all of John’s production to be done wirelessly, a luxury he notes is something he does not take for granted.  In fact, John played a role in designing the Metlife Stadium audio infrastructure two years ago when the stadium was being built.  All of Johns reporters and producers are linked up wirelessly with Lectrisonic IFB’s and mic’s, making communication easy and efficient.

In terms of transmission, the entire feed gets fed directly from the radio booth at Metlife Stadium, to the wFAN studio via ISDN line.

 

At the commercial break at the end of the game broadcast, it’s time for John Schmeelk and Bob Papa to “literally run from the booth to the elevator, and down to the locker room.”  After the break, the broadcast picks up with Tom Coughlin’s press conference. A quick physical and mental transition is mandatory not to miss a mark.  Once that’s wrapped, Bob and John begin a series of player interviews.  At this point in the broadcast, communication between John, Papa and the audio engineer in the upstairs  booth, is essential.  ”If he (the engineer) has the wrong mic up, and Bob and I are trying to speak to each other, that will be going out over the air, live.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each player interview lasts only about two minutes supporting this entire segment which runs for about thirty minutes.  ”You have to be sharp, otherwise it is a complete disaster, and jobs will be lost” stresses John.

 

After a long day of eight live hours on the radio, it’s back to the drawing board to prepare for the next week’s broadcast.  John says he credits his success to hard work and his willingness to make sacrifices.  ”In order to produce a successful broadcast week after week I need to attain that insane attention to detail, and I’m thrilled to do it.”

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Learn To See – Ray Charles

 

Ferro Productions produced this music video for the song “Learn to See” which was written and produced by Joe Scacciaferro and performed by Ray Charles.

LIGHTING: NYG Home Opener

 

Ferro takes a closer look at the time and sweat put into lighting up the night for the New York Giants home opener at Metlife Stadium for the 2012 NFL season.

Other BTS video from the Home Opener:

STAGE: World Class Pyro 

America’s Got Behind the Scenes Coverage

For the last three months, four days a week, 10 plus hours a day, hand cramps from signing non-disclosure forms, NBC’s America’s Got Talent has kept me very, very busy.

The production takes place at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, NJ, and is produced by Marathon Productions.  In previous seasons, the show was shot on the west coast, but because new panel judge Howard Stern’s Sirius Radio show is east coast based, production was moved to accommodate him.

One thing about this gig was that I was working with amateur music acts, something very foreign to me. They were all very talented, but not the caliber of music acts and entertainers I was accustomed to. I’ve worked tons of concert venues, music shows for MTV, FUSE, SNL, too many to count, but never an amateur competition of this caliber.

Many of them were not familiar with the process of being miced up, sound checks or wearing monitor ear-pieces. Once the weeks progressed they got the hang of things, but I’ll have to admit that it was certainly a breath of fresh air working with performers who were chasing their dreams.

Now that my stint with America’s Got Talent is over, it’s back to Saturday Night Live for another season. Check in for more updates, and find out what’s happening over at 30 Rock. 

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Soccer in the Bronx

On July 22, 2012, the Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germaine match was the first soccer game ever played at the new Yankee Stadium. I’ve covered sports for a major portion of my career, and have covered events in many cities and countries, but this event was different. Watching the international pastime being played on the home turf of the biggest sports franchise in the world, as well as the Yankees’ role as being part of our country’s very own pastime, was one of the most memorable of my career.

I was working the mid-fifty, low tights camera, just one of the nine game cameras used in FOX SOCCER NETWORK’s game coverage.  The others are, the game camera, which has the wide shot of the game action, the right and left 18, responsible for off sides and the defensive and offensive end of the action coverage, the low end zone, covering goal-area action, and the mid-fifty high and low tights. The low-tight shots, which I was responsible for, are the ones frequently used in the slow motion playback of action on the field, such as players battling for control of the ball or reviewing any penalty or questionable play that, occur.

From a distance of 20 to 50 yards away, shooting action that fast relies on years of experience and instincts and of course having the right tools is vital. Having a high-powered lens and an exceptional camera is imperative.

For the Chelsea/Paris Saint-Germaine game, I used the SONY HDC-1500 Camera with a Canon HD 86X lens. I have used the SONY HDC-1500 on various occasions and think it is one of the finest and most versatile broadcast cameras out there. You can carry this well-balanced, low center of gravity camera comfortably on your shoulder all day or slip it in a camera cradle, where it functions quite comfortably in a studio configuration.

Of course lenses are important, and there are lenses out there that can give you the magnification you need, but Canon 86x HD lens’ variety of focal lengths allows you to capture the action, and the emotions on the player’s faces. Its wide field of view gets you close to the action, without losing the sharpness of the background’s colors and action.

Just like any profession, having the right tools and gear makes a world of difference. But the confidence and instinctual skills acquired  from years of experience, is what allowed me to immerse myself in the present moment, and soak in the atmosphere in these hallowed halls of Yankee Stadium. An experience I will not forget, unlike the final score, which I’ve completely forgot.

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The Graphics Wizard

Capturing 9/11 “Never Forget” a Production Company’s thoughts and memories

With the passing of yet another 911 anniversary I am always drawn to the day and the flood of emotions it created. For all of us there is “a” moment. The moment we heard, saw or felt the horror.  The moment we realized how fragile our lives are. The moment we realized how much we all meant to each other, how dependent we are on a stranger standing next to us, how unimportant most of our important STUFF wasn’t… At that moment the towers fell and world stood still.

I was trying to express in a simple blog all the emotions and “images” that still live vividly in my mind’s eye and in my heart.  11 years later, it’s still impossible.  What I can share is my impressions of how and why I am so proud to be in this profession and how working with with my colleagues inspires me each and everyday. To them I dedicate this writing.

Did you ever stop and think beyond the physical viewing of the thousands of images captured that Day?  How those images and stories have transformed our world? A day like any other day. A day without a pre-production meeting relating to the “event”. An event without a production call time. A day just beginning like any other day, yet a day when thousands of images where captured and shared in an instant. A day when our airwaves where cluttered with minute-by-minute accounts from the belly of beast. A day when the “Guardians of the Human Experience” rose from the thundering smoke covered earth and followed the brave and heroic first responders as they forfeited their lives to save the lives of perfect strangers.  A day when these “Guardians” stood on the dark and bleak edge of a possible holocaust and remained there to capture this moment for all to understand

its magnitude and mark its place in the human experience. A day when no one was directed or paid to capture.  A day when you just DID and didn’t think “SHOULD I ?”.

Who are these “Guardians”? They are the professionals that make up the “entertainment” / production industry. Camera operators, sound men and women, writers, satellite truck operators, utility and technicians, news men/ women, producers, editors andevery and all who knew their calling was to stand their ground for as long as possible to enlighten a terrified humanity with words and images that defined the status of our fragile world. They were not sent they just went.  Were they there by chance or by some supreme plan? It didn’t matter, they were there and instinctively did what had to be done.

The identity of this Order’s brave and talented souls usually get passed over by the enormity of the events they are capturing or recounting. They have been around since the beginnings of recorded history.  They are the cave engravers who felt it necessary to tell future generations of the trials and tribulations of their days. Possibly in an effort to have them avoid the woes of their time. As you flash through history they remain anonymous but their stories live forever.  Whether these images are written, spoken or visual, their importance is immeasurable.  Their efforts do not let time diminish the impact of the human events they witnessed.  Hopefully, we learn from their stories. We see what they saw and we understand.

I can tell you first hand that many do not choose to be in the center of a terrifying epicenter.  But when you find yourself there, you try and stay focused on your skills and do your part knowing the importance of your actions. There are always the select few who weight the risks against the need and voluntarily make the choice.  Both are valid each clearly remarkable.

So the next time you watch a WWII documentary series comprised of “actual” footage, read a journalistic account of a Civil War battle or the moment of liberation for a tortured nation remember some brave Guardian was there capturing the moment for all of us. And most importantly enabling generations of “all of us” to learn and grow towards a better tomorrow.

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Ferro Productions Reaches New Heights

Two TERABYTES of behind the scenes action was captured by Ferro Productions’ team upon finishing 14 hours of work at the NFL’s opening day rehearsal and setups at Metlife stadium.

At the crack of dawn, as the sun rose over the NY skyline on another jam packed day, Ferro’s crew was already preparing for phase two of their NFL responsibilities. On Wednesday Sept 5, 2012 they would take their place as one of the senior broadcast partners in presenting and capturing the opening day’s events and game for football fans worldwide.

Ferro Productions is the exclusive capture and production company for all of the NYG television broadcast and web production. As the Super Bowl Champion NY Giants prepared for opening day, Ferro Productions looked for opportunities that would provide their client with Super Bowl caliber shoots. And here is just one of our favorite moments of many…

With the cooperation of NY Giants , Metlife stadium security and  MAJ Mike LaPoint of the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion, Army National Guard, we were able to position our camera operator Frank Scacciaferro and designer / still photographer Matt Swensen on the stadium’s highest peak (above the stadium lights) to record the Major directing and calling the UH-Black Hawk’s fly over during the pregame ceremonies.

Remember to check back and watch our exclusive series of behind the scenes features, blogs, videos and stills, getting a “true crew” insiders look at the entire experience of all the NFL’s opening day behind the scenes activity.

EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE BELOW (Raw and Uncut):

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NFL Behind the Scenes: Producer Blog

STAGE: World Class Pyro

 

Ferro takes you backstage and behind the scenes at Metlife Stadium for the NFL’s opening day rehearsals. In this episode we take a look at the Pyrotechnics aspect and show how they get prepared for game day.

 

 

NFL Behind the Scenes

This Wednesday, September 5th, marks the beginning to another season of our country’s beloved NFL.  The defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants are hosting the Dallas Cowboys in what is guaranteed to be one of the biggest events of the year.  With tens of millions of anticipated viewers for this high-profile match between divisional rivals comes a lot of responsibilities for  NYG Production. NBC is covering and coordinating with NFL’s entertainment group, lead by the Giants elite stadium event production team. The pre-game and halftime festivities on Wednesday promise to be at a SUPER BOWL entertainment excitement level.

Ferro Productions has been invited to come to MetLife Stadium on Tuesday night , the 4th, to shoot behind-the-scenes action of the stadium and network crews preparing for Wednesday night’s production.  Exclusive footage from the control room, satellite trucks, camera stations, and even half-time show rehearsals will all be captured and featured here on FerroProductions.com, as well as other online media outlets.

Keep it locked on our Facebook and Twitter pages over the next 48 hours as we bring you exclusive info, photos and more!

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Lighting at Sea Part 4

I figured out why those lights were having the problems that they were, they dimmer and color wheels were dirty and so the sensors where stopping the wheels in the wrong places.  This is going to be a common problem, especially for my downstage fixtures, because they are right above pyrotechnics and get a fresh coating of pyro dust every show.   Just pulling out that module and cleaning the wheels can make a roughly 25% improvement in the brightness of the light.

We are working a new dancer into the shows, so there have been rehearsals all day, everyday.  This is making it very difficult to maintain the rig, because they times when I used to be able to set up the Genie lift are now being used to rehearsals.  I’ve started working at night, after shows and well into the morning in order to get work done.  Unfortunately, at night they don’t worry about the ship rocking as much because they figure people are sleeping anyway.

I had a cyberlight that was overheating.  I think I sunk about 8 man hours into that light without any improvement.  I changed out most of the parts in that light, the thermal switch, the fans, fuses and more.  Finally, during the last show the light stayed on the entire show, not sure if it was the parts I changed, or the fixture just taking pity on me.  Either way, I’ll take it.

Lighting at Sea Part 3

I had a VL2500 blow a lamp today, taking with it the UV Filter and dimmer wheel.  There is a policy to change the lamps every 10 weeks or so to try and avoid this type of damage, but this lamp was only about 6 weeks old.  I like the VL2500, it’s small, works well, has good gobos, but like a lot of moving lights, you have to take the whole thing apart to fix anything when it breaks.  The UV filter is right above the lamp, but you can’t get to it from the lamp side of the fixture, you have to go in through the side, and almost completely gut the fixture to get there.  It takes longer to get to the UV filter than it does to replace it.

I have two VL’s in the rig that I’ve noticed have an issue with dimming, they are brightest at about 30 percent and almost out between 40 and 80 percent and then get to around a 75 percent yield when they are at full, I haven’t had an opportunity to pull them down and look at them, but I am curious to see what is causing this to happen.  So, stay tuned!

 

Learn to See

EYES      

A few years ago I was on holiday in the Costa Rican cloud forest. (BTW one of the most beautiful places on earth).  While walking through the dense forest (jungle) I took a few minutes and applied my ear training to my vision.  I sat down and “looked”. For the first few minutes I extended my peripheral vision (the extreme left and right corners of ones vision while looking straight ahead) as wide as possible.  I used a Native American technique of ghost walking, defined by author Tom Brown.  This technique is used to minimize the body’s movement while tracking in the wilderness by widening the scope of your peripheral vision. To practice this, find a comfortable position either sitting or standing.  Hold your head in static position and find a visual focal point directly in front of you. While you keep that image in your focus, start widening your vision without moving you head or your eyes.  It’s more about your brain absorbing a broad scope of images than it is you increasing your actual eyesight.  Your eyes have always been capable of wide vision.  It’s your brain’s processing that presents the physical limitations. Try to identify items first on the left then on the right. Each time try to focus on extending those boundaries.  There is no right or wrong.  No better or worse.  It’s only meant to rewire your brain to allow for a broader focus.

The next exercise helps your macro / micro focus.  Let’s go back to the cloud forest because there is no limit to the images you can find as you move in either the macro or micro direction.  Standing on the forest path and using my “Common Composition Vision” (Common Composition Vision: Defined as per ME: The every day vision we use to compose the sights of our daily life.) I could see hundreds of trees, flowers, and ground growth. When I began narrowing my composition vision I began to realize how much was being missed in the wider framing.  Still, without moving I continued to narrow my vision and to my amazement I realized the level of detail in the composition was actually increasing.  It was identical to the hearing exercise.  The more focused on a narrow selection the more I saw / heard.  There was obviously a limit to my actual sight, so at one point I had to physically move forward. I was then able to to focus my visual composition into the amazing details of the micro world that is usually over looked by thousands of people passing through there every year.

The final focus is on colors, shading and lighting.  All the images we have been adding or deleting from our Composition Vision are all comprised of millions of variations in colors and shades of those colors.  By simply applying the same focal training we’ve been discussing for both auditory and visual, we can learn to see the enormous color pallet that nature provided us. This time instead of “looking at images” we will be “looking” only at the colors.  Use the same macro / micro focusing technique. See the color then narrow your focus and see how many additional colors are present. How many shades of colors are combined to create that original one? Once you have repeated this exercise for dozens of colors we will shift our focus onto lighting.  What is the source of the lighting?  Where is the light coming from?  What is defusing or breaking up the light?  How do all these elements affect your visional impression of the composition your eye is framing?

Since those early years, I have been using these vision / ear exercises wherever I go.  It never fails to amaze me how much we miss every day.  A perfect example is when you travel to a place you’ve never been before. If someone asked you to detail what you just saw or heard you’d go into great detail about the surrounding sites and sounds.  If that same person asked you to describe your neighborhood I bet you’d be hard pressed to describe even half as many details.

These exercises may not change your life or enhance your abilities immediately, although, they WILL absolutely alter how you see and hear the world everyday.  That alone will have an enormous affect on how you add textures to your art and enhance your ability to bring your imagination and your mind’s vision to life.

NOTE: These suggestions and exercises are not intended to represent medical or neurologic exercise.  They are presented purely as artist development techniques.

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Lighting at Sea Part 2

I’ve taken over as the only light technician on the ship, and several fixtures took the opportunity to see if I’m up to the task. A Cyberlight went completely out of control during a show, doing ballyhoos during blackouts and other mischievous things and would not shutdown from the console. The logic card had gone bad, and had to be replaced. Cybers are tanks, they are durable but a pain to fix when they do break. A million hexbolts later I get to the logic card and go to replace it, and the ship starts rocking; now a cyberlight weighs about 80 pounds so unless it’s absolutely necessary, I will work on them while they are still in the air. As I’m working, the Genie Lift is swaying back and forth so much that my flashlight can’t stay pointed at the fixture, it’s like I’m using a strobe light to see what I’m doing.

My rig has 30 some-odd color scrollers and every so often we change all the gel strings. In between, there’s the occasional scroller where the gel shrinks a little faster in the heat, or the sensor gets dirty and suddenly you have an orange in your blue wash. As a short term solution I put a piece of Gaffe on the gel where the sensor reads so that the sensor can see it.

This is and probably will be the most frustrating part of maintain the rig: we can only store so many spare parts, often when something breaks, we have to submit an order for a part and wait anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months to receive the parts. I’m used to being able to go out and buy whatever I needed, or get 2 day delivery. Case and point, I’ve had a VL2500 out of the rig for over a month because the connector for the magenta motor broke, so the whole wire harness has to be replaced, 3 weeks after

the request was made, I got a wire harness for a VL2500 Wash fixture, we use Spot fixtures (the difference being gobos and an iris) so it will be another couple weeks before we get the right part in.

Lighting at Sea

 

-Mr. Ben Lynford is a Lighting Technician working on different productions on-board a cruise ship.  Stay tuned over the next few weeks as he blogs about his experiences at sea.

I’ve now been on board the ship for a week and have begun taking over the day to day responsibilities from the outgoing Lighting Technician.  This is the biggest light rig I have ever worked with, there are 36 VL 2500’s and 16 Cybercolors and around 40 conventional fixtures, many with color scrollers in the main lounge.  Controlling this rig is a Grand MA Light desk.

The biggest part of my job will be maintenance, cleaning and repairing the fixtures when the lounge is not being used.  There are large production shows in the lounge that are performed every cruise, but these are all pre-programed and all run on time code so there is not much that I have to do for the lights during the show once the time code starts.  The biggest job I have during the run of two of the Production Shows is loading and firing the pyrotechnics, I have taken and passed the certification test and once I get my official card I can begin loading and firing.  Because of the inherent danger with pyro, safety and safety procedures are very important.  The pyro is also run by time code, but there is a “dead man pickle” with two triggers that have to be held down when the time code tells the pyro to fire.  This is to ensure that the area is clear when the pyro goes off, and nobody gets hurt.  One of the biggest challenges with the pyro in the cruise setting is on this cruise the shows are performed twice in one evening at 7 and 8:45.  The shows last about an hour, so before the first show there is an hour to load the pyro on stage but for the second show there is only 45 minutes, and by the time more of the audience leaves that 45 minutes is cut down further.

The hardest thing I have done so far is taking down a VL 2500 cleaning it and replacing a logic card and putting the light back up in the air.  Normally, this is not all that difficult but on a ship, the shakiness of the Genie Lift is made worse when the ship is rocking back and forth.  In the past outriggers where sometimes not so important, but here they are crucial.  In addition, things are all secured in case of bumpy weather and not convenience, so the jumpers for a fixture is not necessarily in a position that is easy to reach, and it’s not moving!

JVC PRESS RELEASE

During the past year Ferro Productions has developed a genuine relationship with JVC USA.  Our crew has been using the JVC GY-HM790 ProHD Camera at many high-profile events including Super Bowl XLVI, The Van Halen / Kool & the Gang Tour, Sirius XM’s Celebrity Fantasy Football Draft, and NYG Training Camp.  The results have been amazing.  Recently JVC shared a press release, detailing Ferro Productions and our use of the JVC ProHD.  This release will be featured in numerous media outlets including magazines and websites.

Below is the official PRESS Release:

High Res Photos (Caption listed below)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FERRO PRODUCTIONS ADDS JVC GY-HM790
PROHD CAMERA FOR HIGH-END VIDEO PROJECTS

WAYNE, NJ (August 23, 2012) – JVC Professional Products Company, a division of JVC Americas Corp., today announced that Ferro Productions in New York is using the JVC GY-HM790 ProHD camcorder to record high-profile live events and reality programming. The production company purchased the camera in December, and plans are in place to purchase two additional units before the end of 2012.

Primarily, Ferro Productions handles production duties for networks and production houses. Until recently, it had been a Sony house almost exclusively, but new developments in digital technology prompted Joseph Scacciaferro, executive producer for Ferro Productions, to consider new options.

While producing some reality programming and a series of celebrity interviews, he decided it was time to improve the company’s overall workflow. “The complexity had gotten ridiculous. We figured there had to be a better way,” Scacciaferro said. “But we still needed to be budget conscious.”

Last fall, Ferro Productions began to research new HD cameras, and the staff literally filled a whiteboard with requirements. After they saw a GY-HM790 in action on the sideline during an NFL game, Scacciaferro decided to test it on location while covering the New York Giants during the playoffs and Super Bowl victory festivities. “We gave it to our ‘B’ and ‘C’ camera operators to experiment,” he recalled, “and everyone said, ‘This is it.’”

Recently, Ferro was hired to produce behind the scenes footage of the Van Halen / Kool & the Gang tour, which was produced exclusively with GY-HM790 cameras. “We were so impressed with the image, ease of operation, and all around superior engineering quality that we opted to leave our Sonys home,” Scacciaferro said.

The shoulder-mount GY-HM790 provides Ferro’s shooters with professional features in a light, compact package. “We’re in a lot of high-profile areas,” Scacciaferro explained, “and when you’re walking around with bigger broadcast cameras, you get more attention than you need. The JVC cameras have a perfect balance between size and functionality. Our camera operators love the gear and the images are great.”

The production team quickly adjusted to capturing footage on inexpensive, non-proprietary SDHC cards. However, to manage the admittedly “chaotic” environment of live production, Ferro Productions developed its own system to keep track of the cards using color-coded Beta tape cases with cut-out foam inserts.

JVC’s native Final Cut Pro recording has been a big hit with Ferro’s post-production team, which maintains four edit stations. “Our post guys love it,” Scacciaferro said. “They take the SDHC card and drag and drop footage right into Final Cut Pro. It has saved us umpteenth hours.”

ABOUT FERRO PRODUCTIONS

Established in 1993, Ferro Productions has received nine Emmy nominations and five Emmy Awards for video and music production. The company has produced programming for many major broadcast and cable networks – including NBC, HBO, MTV, VH1, and Lifetime – and is the exclusive provider of broadcast programming for the New York Giants on MSG and My9 Network. Visit www.ferroproductions.com for more information.

ABOUT JVC PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTS COMPANY

Headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, JVC Professional Products Company is a division of JVC Americas Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of JVC Kenwood Corporation. JVC is a leading manufacturer and distributor of broadcast and professional video and audio equipment. For further product information, visit JVC’s Web site at http://pro.jvc.com or call (800) 582-5825.

# # #

Caption: Ferro Productions is using a JVC GY-HM790 ProHD camcorder to record a variety of high-profile projects.

http://pro.jvc.com/pro/pr/2012/releases/ferro.html

 

 

The Art of Video Capture

Our job as TV / Broadcast Producers is to tell a story, optimally with as much visual content as possible. To capture that content, a Producer must rely on the talents and experience of his Camera Operators and Director of Photography (DP). However, all the talent in the world will not help

if the operator is not positioned correctly (Camera Blocking). Imagine you’re a seasoned veteran camera operator and your assignment is to capture the President of the United States as he walks from the Oval Office to the podium. What happens if the Producer positions your camera all the way on the right side of the pressroom? That’s an easy one … IT WILL SUCK! No matter how talented that operator is, his or her shot will, in fact, SUCK.

Now let’s amp up the stakes. A production company is hired to follow a group of disabled vets as they attempt to climb Mt. Everest. As a Producer your visuals must include the drama and personal struggle as these brave men risk their lives as they battle the elements while documenting their will to carry on. WOW GREAT STORY… I’d watch that (key WORD “watch” that). In order to “WATCH THAT” a camera operator has to shoot THAT. And before you can shoot THAT, someone has to figure out what shots are needed, what shots will best convey the drama and struggle of these men. Once the shots are “Story Boarded” then someone has to figure out where the cameras need to be positioned. Then and only then will the operators have a 70/30 chance of capturing the MONEY shot, the shot of the lead climber’s determined face as his frost covered fingers cling to the side of the frozen mountain as he pulls himself up to the summit. Which, by the way, a Camera Operator with all his equipment has already made that climb, battled the elements and taken a position at the summit to capture that MONEY shot.

That someone who is responsible for lives of the dedicated shooters and safely positioning them is the Producer. Producers are tasked with difficult responsibility of balancing their allegiance between story, and crew safety. Every time you are sitting home watching a boxing match and feel like your so close to the action that the punches seem to be coming right through your TV, well, there is a Camera Operator positioned less then a foot away from those punches, well within the hazard zone. Or when you are watching a football game and you feel like you’re standing on the field with a 280 lb line backer coming straight at you like a freight train. Once again, always remember there IS a Camera Operator holding his ground to give you that shot and there IS a Producer hoping he made the right call and didn’t put his guy in harms way.

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Unsung but not Unheard: Audio Sweetening

The next time you watch TV, go to the movies, or view any professionally produced video close your eyes and “watch” it. If you are able to appreciate and “see” the story you rest assured the Wizards of audio sweetening had their hand in that production.

As a producer and a former audio engineer / producer one of the most fascinating phases of visual production is the Sweetening phase. The term Sweetening to a baker means the ingredients added to give their goods that “yummm

yummm” flavor that brings their creation to life. It’s the ingredients that make you close your eyes and smile after taking your first bite. In video production it’s the same process, except this time it’s a team of audio engineers and produces adding their secret ingredients to the audio portion of the video project. These are the artists / engineers responsible for adding the “sweetening” to the final video and bringing the project to life.

Without revealing the treasured secrets for these audio Wizards, let me walk you through the production process from my vantage point. For the sake of discussion let’s say we have been contracted to produce a segment for the Science Channel’s “Through the Worm Hole” series. After the storyboards are drafted and the basic script is accepted we begin the capture process. Several small crews are dispatched globally to capture key on-camera interviews (usually: a basic camera operators; a camera operator / DP (Director of Photography) who doubles as LD (lighting director); audio engineer; and producer.) In a local recording studio our narrator records the “voice over” or narration, which will be used to guide the viewer through our story. Simultaneously, an animation team gets to work on creating a visual reproduction of the universe scenes needed throughout our story. Once all these elements are completed they are loaded into the final editing system and then cut together in accordance with the script. VOILA ! We are done!

AT THIS MOMENT THE AUDIO WIZARDS WOULD HAVE ADDED A “SCREECHING TIRE” SOUND. That would alert you to SUDDENLY STOP whatever is being said and regroup.

The reason they would have added that sound and halted my writing is because at this point the project is far from done. In fact at this point the segment would be unwatchable by a entertainment networks’ standards (yes, I said the Science Channel is an entertainment network. More on that at another time.) Lets review what our segment looks like at this point:

1. A bunch of interviews recorded at dozens of acoustically varied environments all with a wide range of sound properties.
2. A narration that was recorded in a pristine sound booth, which usually creates very a sterile and flat recording.
3. Then we add a track of music the producer selected during the edit that was just dropped in for reference.
4. Finally, we have dozens of animations and visual transitions that go past us in silence or with loops of music placed as reference.

Obviously, this would be unacceptable by anyone’s standards. So this cacophony (cool word huh!) of multi tracked audio sources is then blended, mixed, colored and nudged into a beautifully sweetened 2 track final master mix. The result should be something the viewer will never notice YET always FEEL. It should create and support the producer’s vision of the story’s flowing emotions. It should be the secret ingredients that create a masterful desert and never let the viewer identify a single taste.

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Producer Blog

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Training Camp ’12

 

 

Albany, NY

Football is back! The New York Giants began Training Camp on July 26th at SUNY Albany with aspirations for yet another successful NFL season. Ferro Productions also began Training Camp on July 26th at SUNY Albany with aspirations for another successful NFL season. One working towards perfection on the grid-iron and the other working towards perfection in television production, but nevertheless; two business partners striving for continued success.

Training Camp includes a rather demanding schedule for our crew. Each morning we gather for a 9:30 production meeting, which entails a complete run-down and list of assignments for each member of the crew. At the conclusion of the morning meeting everybody hits the ground running and although everyday is subject to minor changes, a typical day at camp goes a little something like this…

11 AM: Media Avails– Everyday there is a group of players and coaches that are available to address the media outside of the team cafeteria. Our crew has a Sony EX3 with a Lectrosonics UH400 wireless pack and stick mic on location each and every day to capture these media avails. This footage then gets cut by our Editors and immediately uploaded to Giants.com.

12 PM: Coach and Rookie interviews– With

a small ENG crew of Producer, Camera-Op, and Audio Engineer on location at various spots around campus, we capture unique interviews with a different group of Position Coach’s and Rookie’s each day. These interviews will all be featured on episodes of Giants Access Blue on FOX/My9 during the season.

1 PM: Practice– The team practices from 1-3:30 daily. Ferro has 3 Sony 700’s and 1 JVC ProHD on the field for every practice. Whether it’s position drills, team scrimmages, head shots, etc… our crew is capturing it all.

3:30 PM: Coach Coughlin Press Conference– NYG Head Coach Tom Coughlin holds his Press Conference everyday immediately after practice. Our crew has a Sony EX3, along with a Lectrosonics UH400 wireless pack and stick mic on location for each and every Press Conference. This footage then gets cut by our Editors and immediately uploaded to Giants.com.

ALL THE WHILE: Our Editors have been working non-stop through out the day, cutting footage (Media Avails, Coach/Rookie Interviews, Practice, Coughlin Presser) on Final Cut Pro to prepare packages for our live Web Show that airs every night at 5:30 PM on Giants.com. In addition to the Editors, our Graphics Designer is building unique elements and graphics for the Web Show.

5:30 PM: Big Blue Kickoff Live– After a long day of capturing and editing footage, it’s time to put our product on the shelf. Using 2 Sony 700’s, Ferro’s audio configuration, and NewTek TriCaster technology, we are able to produce Big Blue Kickoff Live for Giants.com everyday, live from the University at Albany.

Keep it locked right here on FerroProductions.com over the next few weeks as we bring you even more behind the scenes stories and photos from Albany.

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Connecticut Interviews

Ferro Productions was in Connecticut last week conducting three enlightening interviews with some of the entertainment industry’s most intriguing behind-the-scenes characters.  Our production crew consisted of four members; Producer,  Lighting Director/Set Designer, and Two Camera Operators.  Our core production package included:

JVC ProHD 790 cameras (2)

Lectrosonics UM400 Wireless packs (2)

Tram TR50 Mic’s (2)

Shure FP33 three-channel stereo mixer (1)

ARRI Fresnel Lighting Kit (1)

Kino Flo Diva Light Kit (1)

Our first two interviews brought us to Chesire, CT, home of Creative Dimensions.  As mentioned on their website, Creative Dimensions is “a state-of-the-art facility… with dozens of skilled, specialized employees and a national reputation as a top broadcast, exhibit and signage design and manufacturing company.”   In other words: These guys design and create Broadcast desks and sets for some of the most reputable names in the industry. Ferro’s Executive Producer and President, Joe Scacciaferro, had the privilege of sitting down for an interview with both Joel Roy and Bill Violette, the Co-Founders of Creative Dimensions.

Mr. Roy and Mr. Violette discussed their humble beginnings making it into the industry and then moved on to an in-depth look at how Creative Dimensions worked from the ground up and has now elevated itself to one of the most preeminent companies in its field.  Along with the in-depth timeline of how the company got started, these two pioneers shared their very unique opinions and methods for success in business.  Upon the conclusion of these interviews we toured the awe-inspiring 73,000 Square foot,  state-of-the-art facility.  Mr. Roy and Mr. Violette took us behind the scenes into the Employees Only Warehouse, where they explained, in full detail, every different aspect of their facility.  From the supply stocks, to the work stations, and much more.

After a quick lunch break we traveled to our second location…

Ferro’s final interview of the day brought us to the Warner Theatre in Torrington, CT.  Who would have thought that this small-town-USA theatre in Northwest Connecticut could have brought yet another look of awe on the faces of our crew.  We knew that if Mr. John Bonanni was the Executive Director of the theatre that it had to be legit, but we were absolutely blown away by the beauty and high-tech capabilities of the Warner Theatre.

During Mr. Scacciaferro’s interview with Mr. Bonanni, we were privy to a look at the life and career of a theatrical legend.  They discussed John’s childhood in Brooklyn, his introduction to the arts in High School, all the way to his years as a Stage Manager on dozens of Broadway hits, to 12 years with Madison Square Garden Entertainment where Mr. Bonanni was the Production Executive for over ONE THOUSAND concerts and events.  Furthermore: Mr. Bonanni shared exclusive backstage stories from his years spent as the Stage Manager then Executive Producer for the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” and he even concluded the interview with words of wisdom for the future generation of Theatre.

Ferro Productions would like to give a monumental “THANKS” to everyone at Creative Dimensions and the Warner Theatre for granting our crew access to their facilities and for their upmost hospitality and professionalism. 

STAY TUNED for our footage from Connecticut, which will be appearing under the video section on our website within the coming weeks.

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SiriusXM Event

 

 

Lange and DiPaolo will kick off event with special edition of “The Nick & Artie Show” live from the Hard Rock Café; marks debut of show on SiriusXM

 

Event airs nationwide on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio channel

MUSIC: Those Who Can, Teach and Act. Those Who Can’t Just ACT…

 

Learn the difference between being an Educator who “Acts” and

an Actor who
“Teaches”… Amazing insights into and by a brilliant mind…

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XLVI Ring

Eli’s Legacy Shoot

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!  

Ferro Productions was “Back in the New York state of mind”  yesterday at the Timex Performance Center in East Rutherford, NJ to shoot a segment for the MSG show Giants Chronicles.  Bob Papa was joined on-set by recent Saturday Night Live host and reigning Super Bowl MVP, Eli Manning.  During the profound interview Mr. Papa took a trip down memory lane with Eli, recapping the New York Giants roller coaster ride that was the 2011 season:  From training camp, to the heart breaking loss against Seattle, to Victor Cruz’s 99 yard TD against the Jets, to the confetti dropping in Indy… and everything in between.  This interview is sure to bring chills down the spines of all of Big Blue Nation.  Keep an eye out for this edition of Giants Chronicles at 10:30 AM on MSG once the NFL season gets underway.

During the off season, Ferro kept very busy with its event packed schedule that ranged across the worlds of Rock and Roll to Sesame Street.  With that said and the Giants glorious victory at XLVI, our guys were particularly eager to be back in the saddle at the NYG facility, working alongside the defending Super Bowl Champs.

The production crew, for this shoot, consisted of three Camera Operators (two pedestal, one jib), one Audio Engineer, one Technical Director, and two Producers.  At the conclusion of another successful video shoot, our guys enjoyed lunch together and reminisced about last seasons amazing post-season run.   I think it is safe to say that we at Ferro Productions are DEFINITELY. READY. FOR. SOME. FOOTBALL!

 

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AUDIO: Enhancing the way you listen to sports

 

Learn how industry pioneer and YES Network Director of Technical Operations, Jack Kestenbaum, used his innovative thinking and audio engineering brilliance to forever enhance the way that you experience television.

CAMERA: Understanding New Technology

“Cameras were a lot more

fragile back then to what they are now” Cameraman Rick Cypher discusses new technology from back in the day and compares how much it has changed over the years.

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CAMERA: Rewind the tape

“My first gig ever I didn’t even realize that this would be the rest of my life”
Watch as a seasoned vet reminisces about his high school days when he first started to see the

world through a new lens.

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AUDIO: Never Stop Learning

Think you know the “formula of a pop song”? Listen to Dave break down the songwriting process of Pop legend Billy Joel.

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LIGHTING: Learn how to set the mood

“It was 50 bucks a night and it was fun” Listen in as George shares wisdom on getting your foot in the door of the industry and knowing your role as a new comer.

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MUSIC: “I was a senior in high school when we had our first Top 40 hit”

They started playing at age 14 at local talent shows and on street corners. By 1969 at age 17 they roll out their first album, Kool and the Gang, which blasted them into Pop Stardom.

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MUSIC: Be yourself to be successful.

Every audition is different. What I’ve learned is you just have to be yourself” Learn what its like to audition for some of the biggest

names in music in recent decades.

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Ferro’s New Look

A MESSAGE TO OUR MANY FANS, FOLLOWERS AND ASSOCIATES:

COMING REAL SOON!!! FerroProductions.com will be taking on a whole new look.  Get yourself ready for THE new and different layout, which has been exclusively designed to allow smoother navigation to all the amazing content in our extensive archives.  Our new-look site will also feature new categories that we have been getting request after request after request for, such as a video section that we’re really pumped up about (and we DO VIDEO for a living) called “Reel Ferro.”  During the past few months Executive Producer and President, Joe Scacciaferro, has conducted the most brilliantly interesting on camera interviews with some of the entertainment industries biggest names.  Which we are going to share every minute of as features in the newly created “Reel Ferro” section.  We heard all of your fantastic comments and thank you all for your kind words and shared enthusiasm for our work as we continually cut new ground toward getting top shelf industry content out to each and everyone.  We know and have already been told by our multinational audience who previewed the new site, that this is going to be something they can’t get enough of.  Especially given the diversity of subject matter, along with all of our exclusive behind the scenes access across the entertainment industry and politics and sports and national news and as our friend Yul Brynner used to say “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera”… Speaking of which, wait until your eyes get a load of the exclusive behind the scenes footage from our coverage of the Van Halen and Kool and The Gang Tour, and even a special documentary of Ferro’s Super Bowl Production Week in Indianapolis. Go Giants!!!! ALL IN!!!!!  All of this and more is coming your way.  So, stay tuned, keep the emails and comments coming and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter AND like us on Facebook for even more behind the scenes photo’s and industry information!

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NYG @ The Pilot Studio

BOONTON, NJ-

Last night, Ferro Productions conducted a video shoot featuring New York Giants Offensive Lineman and Super Bowl XLVI Champion, Mitch Petrus.  This time rather than shooting footage of Mr. Petrus performing on the grid-iron or as a guest on one of our “sports talks”, we were gathering footage of Mitch attending to his other passion…MUSIC.  Mitch and his rock band, Vikings of the North Atlantic, were at The Pilot Studio in Boonton, NJ recording tracks for their upcoming album.

Ferro Production’s own, David Ryan, was generous enough to grant our camera crew access to the recording session.  Dave is one of Ferro’s first call A1 Audio Engineers and also an engineer/music producer  at The Pilot Studio producing and editing tracks for musicians.

While working with the Giants every season, the Ferro crew naturally becomes intertwined with members of the organization, players and front-office alike.  During this past season Dave and Mitch shared with each other their passion for music, and began planning a music project during Mitch’s offseason.  After a few months of celebration following the Super Bowl, Vikings of the North Atlantic flew to New Jersey from Arkansas and began recording.  The release date for the album is unknown at this point, but stay tuned because it sounded great!

While spending time at the studio, our camera crew captured footage of the band hanging out and recording drums and bass tracks, as well as a few synthesizer tracks…  And of course, we used the JVC Pro HD 790 to capture it all.

Next week our website will be changing up it’s look a little bit…one of those changes being the addition of a video section.  You will be able to check out our footage from The Pilot Studio on the site once these upgrades have been made, so stay tuned!!!

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*I would like to give a special thanks to the owner of The Pilot Studio, Rob Freeman, as well as The Vikings of the North Atlantic, for allowing Ferro shoot some awesome footage last night!

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Cablecam: The Oddity of Our Paths

Don Canfield – Part II

THE CHALLENGE: From IMDb I’ve selected either the First, Second or Third cast member, first billed only, from Don’s Filmography of 30 titles and challenged myself to a game of 6 Degrees to Kevin Bacon.

The # at the end, seen after Kevin Bacon’s name, represents the number of degrees of separation there are from one of the three top billed actors in a movie Don Canfields’ amazing talent contributed to.

THE GRAND FINALE: I will illustrate the complex network connections that join Don Canfields’ years of masterful work with the two most influential films in the history of motion control. 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars as mentioned by Don in Part 1 of this story.

Let’s begin.

Here are the net results of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon;

Out of the 30 Films, Dons’ degree of separation:

• 5 times (17%) is just 1 Degree from Kevin Bacon
• 25 times (83%) a mere 2 Degrees from Kevin Bacon

It was a real chore, yet oh so poetically done, to come up with a reasonable connection and find someone who would be greater than 2 Degrees from Don to Bacon. My bonus round was to find a 3rd Degree from Kevin Bacon (as it relates to Don Canfield).  2 x 3 = 6 and that is just what I did. That someone was Nancy Spungen (Punk Rock aficionado’s may wish to venture a guess as to how).  Lets take a look:

2011 Limitless

Robert De Niro was in Sleepers (1996) with Kevin Bacon #1

2011 The Adjustment Bureau

Matt Damon was in School Ties (1992) with Will Lyman was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon#2

2009 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Michael Douglas was in The Sentinel (2006) with Jackie Burroughs was in Cavedweller (2004) with Kevin Bacon #2

2008 Synecdoche, New York

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was in Montana (1998) with Kyra Sedgwick was in Cavedweller (2004) with Kevin Bacon #2

2007 Across the Universe

Evan Rachel Wood was in Diggin to China (1998) with Kevin Bacon #1

2007 Evan Almighty

Morgan Freeman was in Thick as Thieves (2009) with Rade Serbedzija was in X-Men: First Class (2011) with Kevin Bacon  #2

2006 The Hoax

David Aaron Baker was in Edge of Darkness (2010) with Tom Kemp was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon #2

2005 Stay

Ewan McGregor was in Stay (2005) with Jose Ramon Rosario was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon #2

2004 Spider-Man 2

Tobey Maguire was in Beyond All Boundaries (2009) with Kevin Bacon #1

2002 Minority Report

Tom Cruise was in A Few Good Men (1992) with Kevin Bacon #1

2002 Spider-Man

Willem Dafoe was in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) with Beau Starr was in Where the Truth Lies (2005) with Kevin Bacon #2

2001 Storytelling

Selma Blair was in The Fog (2005) with Sonja Bennett was in Where the Truth Lies (2005) with Kevin Bacon #2

2001 Down to Earth

Chris Rock was in Doctor Dolittle (1998) with Oliver Platt was in Loverboy (2005) with Kevin Bacon #2

2000 Little Nicky

Adam Sandler was in Reign Over Me (2007) with Liv Tyler was in Sper (2010) with Kevin Bacon #2

2000 Bless the Child

Kim Basinger was in The Sentinel (2006) with K irk Lambert was in My One and Only (2009) with Kevin Bacon #2

2000 Shaft

Samuel L. Jackson was in Coming to America (1988) with Louie Anderson was in Quicksilver (1986) with Kevin Bacon #2

1999 Fantasia/2000

Kathleen Battle was in Fantasia/2000 (1999) with Steve Martin was in Novocaine (2001) with Kevin Bacon #2

1999 Bringing Out the Dead

Nicolas Cage was in Astro Boy (2009) with David Alan Grier was in The Woodsman (2004) with Kevin Bacon #2

1999 The Rage: Carrie 2

Emily Bergl was in Grassroots (2011) with Tom Arnold was in We Married Margo (2000) with Kevin Bacon #2

1998 The Tempest (TV movie)

Peter Fonda was in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) with Kennet Tobey was in Hero at Large (1980) with Kevin Bacon #2

1998 Practical Magic

Sandra Bullock was in Loverboy (2005) with Kevin Bacon #1

1998 Godzilla

Matthew Broderick was in Godzilla (1998) with Glenn Morshower was in X-Men: First Class (2011) with Kevin Bacon #2

1996 Marvin’s Room

Meryl Streep was in The Rive Wild (1994) with Kevin Bacon #1

1996 The First Wives Club

Bette Midler was in Then She Found Me (2007) with Tim Robbins was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon #2

1995 Die Hard: With a Vengeance

Bruce Willis was in The Siege (1998) with Sean Patrick Doherty was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon #2

1992 Malcolm X

Denzel Washington was in The Siege (1998) with Sean Patrick Doherty was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon #2

1990 Alice

Mia Farrow was in Alice (1990) with Joe Mantegna was in Queens Logic (1991) with Kevin Bacon #2

1990 Mo’ Better Blues

Spike Lee was in Summer of Sam (1999) with Peter Maloney was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon #2

1990 Ghost

Patrick Swayze was in Grandview, U.S.A. (1984) with Jamie Lee Curtis was in Queens Logic (1991) with Kevin Bacon #2

1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

William Shatner was in The Wild (2006) with Richard Kind was in Queens Logic (1991) with Kevin Bacon #2

 

Satisfying my own curiosity, I ran the top 3 billed actors in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars to gleefully find they were unanimously 2 Degrees away as well!

 

2001: A Space Odyssey

Keir Dullea was in The Good Shepherd (2006) with Laila Robins was in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) #2

Gary Lockwood was in Tall Story (1960) with Alex Rodine was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon #2

William Sylvester was in Heaven Can Wait (1978) with Allison Caine was in Diner (1982) with Kevin Bacon #2

Douglas Rain  (Not a Top 3 Billing yet I had to include him as the Voice of HAL 9000 Voice) was in 2010 (1984) with Vladimir Skomarovsky was in The Big Picture (1989) with Kevin Bacon #2

 

Star Wars

Mark Hamill was in Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (2010) with Chris Pine was in Beyond All Boundries (2009) with Kevin Bacon #2

Harrison Ford was in The Devil’s Own (1997) with Brad Pitt was in Beyond All Boundaries (2009) with Kevin Bacon #2

Carrie Fisher was in White Lightnin’ (2009) with Clay Steakley was in My One and Only (2009) with Kevin Bacon #2

 

Don being a New York based motion control specialist surely is familiar with the legendary Chelsea Hotel, or simply to us New Yorkers, the Chelsea.  A historic landmark property know for it history of notable, quotable, and infamous residents. A home to many a musician, writer, artist and actor including Bob Dylan (room #2011), Virgil Thomson, Janis Joplin (room #411), Leonard Cohen (room #424), Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Jackson Pollock, Thomas Wolfe (room #829) Jobriath, and Larry Rivers.

As a matter of fact (Monty Python style – nudge nudge wink wink) Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey during his stay at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso had many a philosophical and intellectual exchange there. Writer Dylan Thomas (also room #205) was staying at the Chelsea when he died of pneumonia on November 9, 1953 and it’s where Nancy Spungen (nudge nudge wink wink), girlfriend of Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols (room #100), was found stabbed to death on October 12, 1978. The list goes on and on and on and in the interest of “SPACE” pun intended, Stanley Kubrick also lived there.

So let’s wrap this up!

According to IMDb, George Lucas planned to score the film (Star Wars) with existing classical music like Stanley Kubrick had in 2001: A Space Odyssey, before Steven Spielberg introduced him to composer John Williams. Lucas and Williams agreed on a classical 19th-century Romantic music style with liberal use of leitmotif for the score. Since the movie would show worlds never seen before, the music had to serve as an “emotional anchor” for the audience to relate.

That takes care of connecting Don Canfield with his words “The first movie to use motion control to any extent was 2001: A Space Odyssey, however it was Star Wars that catapulted motion control off as an industry”

Now for the spectacular bonus complex connection link of all links! Don recently had the opportunity to work on a commercial with a Legend in the world of Motion Control, Mr. Douglas Huntley Trumbull, an American film director, special effects supervisor, and inventor. Doug Trumbull created the special photographic effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, he also arguably is the Father of Motion Control.

Aaaaaaand drum roll please………..Douglas is the son of Donald Trumbull who created visual effects for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz as well as later movies including Silent Running and Star Wars.

 

Cut, Print, That’s a Wrap!!!!!!

 

Well almost…finally, for those who may be wondering what the breakdown was for Sid Vicious at 2 Degrees and Nancy Spungen at 3 Degrees, feast your eyes on this:

Sid Vicious was in Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video (1979) with Joan Hackett was in Only When I Laugh (1981) with Kevin Bacon #2

Nancy Spungen was in The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1980) with Jean Warren was in I Capture the Castle (2003) with James Faulkner was in X-Men: First Class (2011) with Kevin Bacon #3

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Setting The Mood: Lighting

NEW YORK – You would think that “Mood Lighting” was always around, right? Perhaps in nature through sunrises, sunsets, lightening storms, or the wash out of a fog rolling in. Well, astonishingly enough it was HARDLY as prevalent just 50 years and barely used as recently as 30 years ago, when we speak of concert lighting!

It’s amazing how much history you’re not aware of regarding what you do professionally, least of all the history of the jobs and technology of the crew around you.

We, at Ferro, are very pleased to have had the opportunity to sit with a consummate professional and a good friend and associate of Ferro Productions for one extremely enlightening interview.

George Greczylo, “LD”, sheds light on what really happens at the Illuminati level of “LD”. How his mastermind fused and jelled colors, temperature, patterns and timing to become the unsung and unseen 5th member of the Quartet, so to speak, playing his version of the 21st Century color organ.

“LD”. Is it “LD” for Lighting Director or Lighting Designer? Which one falls into the technical category vs creative? Who is George? What does he actually do?

Here’s how he put it “Generally… Lighting Designer creates the look or the environment for the production. Lighting Director generally is who maintains that continuity for television and maintains the right levels of lighting to make sure that talent looks right.” “I function more as a Lighting Designer…coming up with the total look and environment for the setting…creating much more of the emotional environment, setting the mood, making an environment that supports what is being presented on stage.” It was on that very stage in Queens where lighting began to change.

Itzhak Perlman and the audience could well have had 2 very different performance experiences at Colden Center for the Performing Arts, Queens College (awarded one of the Best Venues in NY) under King Georges’ reign. “When I started there, generally any performer who came in like Itzhak Perlman, all we had was white light. You lit the show white, you lit him white, everything was lit up full levels so everybody could see, there was no mood other than just his performance.” That was SOP for the times. The second time Itzhak came to Colden, George knew there was more and took a shot by NOT lighting the whole set, adding color to the backdrop, bringing lighting down to just an area so the focus was more intimate and on him. George broke with tradition established by institutions like Carnegie Hall “at Carnegie Hall we just turn white lights on, we’re not going to do anything crazy, people are there for the purity of listening to the music.”

And the results… in George’s own words “He (Itzhak) even enjoyed it more, because he just felt it was more intimate. He wasn’t standing there in this big white stage like he would do at Carnegie Hall.”

So maintaining natural progression, just as sunrise follows sunset, if it’s good for a soloist, it’s gonna be even better for an ORCHESTRA!!!

And for that particular orchestra, the Benny Goodman Orchestra, George threw out the idea of doing something different “how about if I give you music stand lights and through the performance I’m going to try enhance and support the mood of the music for you.” Not knowing just how huge an impact this will have on their performance, the Orchestra was more concerned with being able to read their music in the dark. “At the end of the concert, they all came up to me and said this was really great, we were all ENERGIZED by what you were doing with the lights…we never knew that just these little subtleties can energize our entire concert that way!” George continues, “The way they made it sound, it was the first time that any venue almost had the balls to say let’s do something different with you, let’s kinda break from the norm.”

And logically, if your talent is having such a positive visceral experience wouldn’t it translate to a better show for all. Keeping the musicians “naturally” pumped only keeps motivation and creativity high, no pun intended and that will translate straight through to the audiences experience.

Today a concert goer almost doesn’t notice the lighting effects, as they are practically taken for granted, unless they are truly exceptional, lighting has become that silent yet extremely visual additional member of the band. Play on George…

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Sean Cox – Coming Soon

Rising Production Star Sean Cox shares some of his early experiences and impressions of the television industry in this segment. Sean Cox has been working in the biz for a few years now moving from PA to Camera Operator on some high profile reality shows like “Cake Boss” and “Pawn Stars”. Follow Sean daily on Twitter @coxmccloud25

Audio 101

“I see Six Drunken Scottish dudes, who smell because they haven’t taken a bath in a week. All of a sudden, I’m their best friend.”

Sound like a line from a Tarantino movie or perhaps an excerpt from one of Hunter S. Thompson’s psychotropic-induced novels?

Neither.

It’s but one experience taken from the pages of Mike Fortunato’s 20-years as a Music A2.

We sat down with Mike and discussed his career in the music can zoloft get you high industry as an Audio Assist to the Audio Engineer, more commonly known in the industry as A2. He shared his knowledge, experiences, some memorable, some not so memorable and even a few unmentionable.

So what exactly is an A2?

“Well, an A2 in general is the A1’s (broadcast audio engineer’s) assistant. And a music A2, would be the broadcast music mixer’s assistant” Mike explains.

The music A1 mixes the vocals, instruments and any other elements associated with a music performance, very much like a recording engineer mixes an album.

A broadcast A1’s responsibility is to mix all the elements associated with the show, including the band’s mixed music track coming from the music A1.

“I don’t know how I did the music thing, it kind of just happened… “

His humble and easy-going approach is but one ingredient in the formula that has led to his career’s longevity, and to the demand that keeps him constantly working.

His very first broadcast industry gig was as an A2 as part of an Electronic Field Production team, aka EFP, covering local sports teams. He picked up more freelance work with various New York City media outlets, made some phone calls, found connections and then recommendations got his name out there.

And then along came MTV and its popular daily music show TRL, Total Request Live. Mike’s duties were, to mic-up the show hosts as well as the daily, steady stream of who’s-who in the music and entertainment world. TRL kept him busy with steady “permalance” work. It’s an abbreviation for “permanent freelancer”, an unofficially delegated, oxymoronic title that would only make sense to those working in this crazy industry. Mike fit right in. His work ethic and attention to detail opened doors where none existed before. He was given the opportunity to be a music A2.

“I guess since I could play the guitar, I figured out how to mic up a band, and I just got better at it.”

On the job training, baptism by fire, or call it by whatever you’d like, his skills and laid-back style led him to assisting in the set up of the music Lexapro performances. It smelled of opportunity. He followed his senses, and by osmosis, learned the trade, his skill-set grew. Perseverance and hard work rarely go unnoticed and neither did his reputation.

“Hey, use that Mike guy, he knows his thing. It’s all about who you know” Mike quotes the masses as he offers his own pearl of wisdom.

Bigger names, major concerts, different types of music, word got around.

One day he is micing the Italian Tenor, Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, next day he’s at the generic viagra Live Earth Concert making sure performances from names like Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, Dave Mathews, The Police, all go off without a hitch.

“Twenty bands. Two-day concert. I was quarterbacking that whole thing. Crazy. (It was like a) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert“.

Whether it’s a 100’ x 100’ concert stage, or a 10’ x 10’ TV studio band area, Mike’s comfort level and experience kept him busy. His talent, experience and connections in the live and the TV world landed him steady work on Saturday Night Live.

SNL first aired in 1975, and is still one of NBC’s most successful and longest running programs. A show of this caliber has very little room for error. Technical and production aspects have to be flawless. The high benchmark for perfection was the reason for the recent multi-million dollar upgrade. A Studer Vista 8 and Lavo music mixing consoles were important parts of the studio’s recent makeover.

This high demand for perfection is what makes the relationship between the music A1 and A2 so crucial. Communication and being in synch has to exist. Knowing their roles and executing them are vital.

“I get the input list, band, stage plot, the mic list, and I’m given instructions by the Audio engineer to use specific mics, on specific instruments.”

Micing a band is not as simple as he makes it sound. Each individual instrument and vocals have their own mics, and there are various mics to chose from. The drums will actually have several dedicated mics. The snare drum, kick, cymbals, and cowbells will all have their own.

Choosing which mic for which instrument can be both, a specific science and a music mixer and performer’s personal preference. Regardless of the types of mics, the principals are the same.

The hard-wired and wireless mics, the 18 channels of Pro-Tools, which is quickly becoming part of most band’s equipment repertoire, and any other sound sources that output a signal get plugged into individual inputs on a stage box. The number of inputs can vary based on need.

“The Barbara Streisand show, I think was 127 channels. Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, I think it was 160 something channels! Huge f#cking orchestra.”

From the stage box the signal hits a splitter where 3 mirror images of the inputted signals are created. One leg of the split goes to the monitor mixer, one to the house mixer and the other to the music A1.

“The mixer guy sends whatever the band is hearing on stage, the audience hears the house mix, the music A1 mixes the music, and sends it to the show’s (broadcast) A1 who sends it to air”.

SNL rehearses the comedy sketches all week, and dedicates two days for the music performances. During those two days a lot happens, and can happen. On paper it may all seem very straightforward, but sometimes the tech setup has to take a back seat to conflict resolution.

“The band will come in and they’ll tell me “ here’s our inputs, we don’t use your mics we have our own”, then I’ll go to the show music director, and he’ll say “no, those mics suck,” and then I go back and fight with them and say, “oh no he wants to use these, blah, blah, blah, so that’s an hour right there!”

Mike walks that fine-line between technical necessities and careful handling of the bands and their crews. So what is the secret of starting a working relationship on the right foot?

“Make nice with all the roadies.”

If any issues arise before or during the sound check, the band and the crew need to have full confidence in the A2’s ability. They need to know that if any issues arise, they’ll find the problem, and fix it.

Even if setup, and sound check go well, Murphy’s Law still applies, because what can go wrong, will go wrong.

“They decided, for some reason, that they needed two bands on one night. Foo Fighters and Bon Jovi ,on the same show, which is a recipe for disaster. Foo Fighters come out, they play, then Bon Jovi comes out and they try to save his settings on the monitor mix, it all went away. So on a live show, he (Bon Jovi) had no monitors, he played on live TV with no monitors. Big Problem.”

Mike explains that regardless of the fact that there may be problems during the setup, problems are quickly, cooperatively addressed or that one of the mics craps out , but is replaced seconds before air, or that one of the “Six drunken Scottish dudes” hightailed back to his hotel room to take a bubble bath, and someone picked up the slack, hence cooperation and communication are vital in these situations. There’s great satisfaction knowing that your efforts and actions were part of yet another successful episode in a piece of TV Americana history.

One hour and thirty minutes after hearing “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”, what is it that gives Mike Fortunato the greatest satisfaction?

“When everyone hugs at cvs pharmacy online application the end. When they say this is the best TV experience I’ve ever had… I just heard that. When the bands and roadies and me can all hug after a show… that’s it., there’s nothing better”.

And that’s what it’s like to be Oh So Fortunato…

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Hanging on the Tour Bus

Atlantic City, NJ

Ferro Productions had a crew travel to America’s Playground yesterday gathering content for the upcoming reality show “Making It Kool.” We joined Robert “Kool” Bell and a few members of his Gang on their state-of-the-art tour bus at The Golden Nugget Resort and Casino to compose two different interviews.

During the first interview we were hanging out with the gang and capturing footage of them sharing old war stories about their impressive careers. From banging on paint cans in Jersey City to their current nationwide tour with Van Halen, and EVERYTHING in between… the guys were not holding anything back from our camera crew.

After an hour of kicking it with the Gang, it was time for our one-on-one interview with Mr. Kool himself, AKA Robert Bell. Ferro President and Executive Producer, Joe Scacciaferro, sat down with Kool to take an in-depth look at the life of a true musical genius. Mr. Bell enlightened our crew with numerous accounts of personal triumph and glory, as he went into great, fascinating and an honest detailed look at his career.

These interviews will be featured on “Making it Kool”, which is set to air in the Fall of 2012. In the meantime, stay tuned for some sneak peak video clips from our interviews on the tour bus! AND… If you are interested in finding out what type of equipment we had with us in Atlantic City, take a look at “Our Kool Production Package.”

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Our Kool Production Package

We have been asked over and over to share whats in Ferro’s production package.  Below is a complete list of the major equipment we are using to capture all the behind the scenes footage of the Van Halen and Kool & The Gang Tour!

Camera

JVC ProHD 790 (2)

Our cameras had to be light enough to carry for hours because shooting Documentary/Reality requires our operators to be rolling almost none stop.  This stuff is all UNSCRIPTED... Content can happen anywhere.

Capture protocol / parameters:

-A format that would ingest / transfer directly easily into Final Cut Pro (system being used in post).

-The ability to shoot in all lighting extremes (backstage, on-stage dark lights, on-stage bright lights).

-Time code to sink all cameras for ease of post production alignment of footage.

-Operator friendly access to controls: Since we might be hiring shooters locally we needed cameras that each operator would understand intuitively.

We ultimately chose the JVC ProHD 790 because it met all of the parameters we were looking for…Plus the 790 is simply an awesome camera that our operators fell in love with during the NFL Post-Season and Super Bowl production weeks.

 

 Audio

All of our audio captured was based on a typical ENG Package.

Lectrosonics UM400 Wireless packs (4)

Tram TR50 Mic’s (4)

Shure FP33 three-channel stereo mixer  (1 )

K-Tek K81CC Boom Pole with Sony ECM678 Shotgun Mic: only for large crowds (1)

Our main audio concern was over coming loud background noise and soft spoken subjects…  The solution was wireless lavs for mic’ing marque talent.  Aside from beating the background noise, the use of wireless lavs also allows talent to go about their daily routine without the imposing boom pole hanging on top of them.

 

Lighting

Litepanels Hilio lighting fixture (1)

We opted to leave our typical “just in case” lighting package in the warehouse for several reasons.  Knowing that our primary shooting locations would be in close quarters or on stage nothing we could use would accommodate those environments.  Secondly, most venues are union houses with restrictions for using house power. Finally, bulk and weight were a consideration because of the limited crew size and the flexibility to shift location quickly.

The only light we did carry was a battery powered LED flat box by Litepanels, which we had in case supplemental light was needed for sit down interviews.

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Backstage @ The Garden

NEW YORK, NY

ON THE ROAD AGAIN! Last week Ferro Productions took it to the streets, this time not in pursuit of the “pigskin” rather on a mission to document the “FUNK! The journey begins exactly with the formula they love the most. Another one of the world’s legendary stages of both Sport and Concert, Madison Square Garden, with two premier talents. I’m seeing a formulaic theme here. A major event, a duo of major talents enhanced by a world-class venue. Instead of the New York Giants and New England Patriots, the legends for this round of action are Van Halen and Kool & the Gang.

Ferro, in development on an upcoming reality show, Making It Kool (going into network production early fall 2012), will be traveling to numerous sold out arenas up and down the Northeast while chronicling ROBERT “KOOL” BELL AND HIS GANG ON THE ROAD DURING the Van Halen / Kool and The Gang tour. Behind the scenes, all the way from life on the tour bus to the backstage antics of legendary musicians, tour production meetings, sound checks, and on stage performance footage…FERRO will be capturing it all.

“Working behind the scenes (BTS) is nothing new for our crew, given each BTS project tends to come with a new set of inevitable challenges”, said long time veteran of the road and president of Ferro Productions, Joe Scacciaferro. Sure enough, last weeks’ shows at “The Garden” presented challenges of all different shapes and sizes, nothing that the Ferro team couldn’t handle, having been down that road successfully many times before.

Credentials just AINT what they used to be!!!!!

In the age of instant posting (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc) validating who is “real” and who is just looking to exploit the moment takes time. Add to that, much tighter security and scrutiny to building access, Ferro faced a full day of clearance meetings and paper work. “Contrary to myths about working at The Garden and its related Unions, I have never found them to be unreasonable or concerned about issues that were unnecessary. Security and access in today’s world is a real issue especially in NY and even more so at a high profile venue like The Garden. So if it takes a few extra steps to keep everyone safe and the jobs secure, I’m all for it” stated Joe Scacciaferro who was responsible for navigating through all those logistics.

For anyone on the inside of “the biz”, you already know this. For those who are new to or have an interest in pursing a career, it’s worth mentioning another perspective beyond the traditional meaning of “Security and Credentials”. Specifically with The Garden being such a high profile arena, playing the best acts in the world sometimes back to back or concurrently in both venues, a certain level of expertise and professionalism is expected. You can’t have a bunch of neophytes going around questioning things they should already know about the who, what, where, when and how’s of production, acting like tourists rather than experienced professionals.

Hence the importance of our Union friends requiring an equal playing field of experience and professionalism when working with associates insuring that ALL shows must go on. In summary everyone wants both the personal and business “Security” of knowing everyone here is fully vetted and “Credentialed” NOT only to be IN the build, more importantly credentialed to WORK the building.

Along with gaining clearance, there are a few challenging production aspects of shooting reality/documentary style BTS footage. For starters, the cameras have to be light enough to carry for hours upon end (Thanks JVC). Content can happen anywhere at any time, and Ferro’s camera operators need to remain on top of their

game at all times to capture this content. Secondly, with such a wide variety of content options, and the amounts of media being CAPTURED, we decided to go “tapeless” for the tour.

Tapeless? Let me explain. We are using 32GB SanDisk digital cards to get all of our footage. Nightly we INJEST the cards to our MacBook Pro’s, giving us clean cards for a fresh start at the next mornings call. Although going tapeless adds more work to the list, it greatly reduces costs because we don’t need to go out and purchase expensive XD tapes for every shoot.

We also needed a camera that had the raw ability to shoot in all lighting extremes. For example: shooting backstage, then quickly moving to shoot an interview, and then going on stage for the performance. The JVC ProHD 790 addressed all of those concerns for Ferro, and much more. This is why we chose to exclusively use the ProHD as our camera of choice on tour.

In addition to camera considerations, there are a few audio concerns. Our solution to a very loud constant background noise and very soft-spoken subjects was to use wireless lavaliere microphones. For this job we used Lectrosonics UM400 Wireless packs with Tram TR50 Mic’s rather than booms, granting us better audio quality and also allowing the on-camera talent to go about their normal routine without having a giant boom pole hanging around on top of them at all times.

Next we will be sharing exactly what our “GO BAG” looks like for this job and others with the same basic needs. Stay tuned for a very specific list of what we’re carrying and details of the who, what, where, why, when and how for each component.

Reality TV: Maingear Computers

Q:What happens when two private companies with a BURNING desire to shape the future link up?  I’ll tell ya…

So, what happens when two private companies with a burning desire to shape the future link up?

A: A whole new level of unique and edgy reality programming!

STAY TUNED for much more on our upcoming project with Maingear!

All Too Kool Ferro Tour

CORPORATE AMERICA vs. ROCK n ROLL:

After 29 weeks of a strict NFL production schedule the Ferro crew is preparing for a more relaxed and undefined working environment for their next project.  Although more undefined, the standards for the end product remain as high, if not higher for this client.  So you may be wondering…”What is this next project?”

Ferro Productions will be going on the road to bring you, our audience, behind the scenes coverage of the most monumental rock/funk tour in decades, the Van-Halen 2012 nationwide tour featuring Kool & the Gang!  The crew will be on location from hotel to venue, from load out to tour bus, and from the bus to the next city’s show.  All of the capture from this tour will be used in a special rockumentary for Robert “Kool” Bell, and will also be incorporated into a very kool new show…

Ferro Executive Producer Joe Scacciaferro began co-producing a reality show with Mr. Bell and his Artist Development Team a few months ago.   The show goes into full production later this year with a tenative air date of Fall 2012.   Joe’s outstanding involvement in that project is what ultimately lead to Ferro’s invitation to come on tour and produce this rockumentary for Mr. Bell.

With the tour already underway, Ferro is excited to be jumping on board at the world renowned Madison Square Garden on February 28th and then traveling the Northeast for roughly a month.  Some of the other key show dates will be at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, the TD Garden in Boston, and at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.  The crew will be traveling lightly, but efficiently with 2 JVC ProHD cameras, 2 full audio ENG packages, and Final Cut Pro for capture and rough cuts on location.

*Stay tuned for more about the upcoming tour!*

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Ferro Hooks Up with JVC

Upon our return from Super Bowl XLVI, our “Industry” friends asked “So now what?”  HINT it’s KOOL and … Expecting to hear something from us along the lines of “we’re gonna rest”, or perhaps even a “who knows, after the Super Bowl, what could you do to keep that high going!”

Little did they know in Ferro’s carefully scripted 2012 production schedule, it was back from Indy, reset and off again to take the Ferro Crew on the Van Halen/ Kool & the Gang tour.

Key word(s) in the prior paragraph, as it pertains to Ferro getting the job done are “RESET and TOUR”.  Why? Simple. Unlike the major event we just wrapped, touring in the Rock World requires agility, nimbleness, and mobility. Those key drivers allow us to fit into tight places (Tour Buses),  move and fax almost invisibly (back stage and on stage) and follow (Hotels, Clubs, Arenas) using the right camera for miles and hours at a clip.

Now to use a key word from the 70’s as homage to Kool & the Gang, let me give you the SKINNEY on why Ferro’s exclusive choice was JVC for this tour project.  It was and is critical to be properly armed on tour and it was while we were spec’n out the camera complement for the project, it became clear to all of us at Ferro that the right choice was to carry JVC’s. Here’s why we chose them.

There’s nothing better than the right tools for the right job(s). Where award winning production (Ferro), meets cutting edge technology (JVC), thats the exact place, space, time and partnership necessary to bring forth quality content to the world, especially at these levels.

Last month Ferro purchased a JVC ProHD GY-HM790U camera to use for some upcoming projects.  The crew couldn’t have been more excited than to have a chance to test the camera’s capabilities on location in several cities while covering the New York Giants road to the Super Bowl! Talk about running gear through it’s paces on the biggest stages and event of the world including a New York Ticker Tape Parade down the Canyon of Heroes…

Well, EVERYONE at Ferro was blown away with the results,  given everything we’ve asked the JVC to do.   “We originally purchased the JVC ProHD as a back up to our more expensive Sony 700’s.  We were so impressed with the image, ease of operation, and all around superior engineering quality, that we opted to leave our Sony’s home and hit the road EXCLUSIVELY with our new JVC’s” said Joe Scacciaferro, President and Executive Producer of Ferro Productions who is NOW sporting an new AKA – J oe-VC…

If we had to wish a perfect piece of equipment out of thin air  into existence that would make our coverage during our upcoming project a dream, this JVC would have been it.  Adding additional JVCs to the existing arsenal, Ferro will now be hitting the road with a full compliment of JVC’s ProHD GY-HM790U cameras with Canon lens’ to shoot all of the behind the scenes of the Van Halen/ Kool & the Gang tour.

The demands of shooting in such an uncontrolled environment with the probability of hours of hand held use, makes the JVC ProHD a dream come true for the seasoned veterans on the crew, and as one of our camera op’s shared, “The JVC’s light weight and comfortable shoulder mount, make it so much nicer to shoot, especially for extended periods of time.”

Listen, if your in the biz and want to add an amazing camera to your list, treat yourself to a more in depth look at the JVC ProHD by clicking here, and stay close to FerroProductions.com for daily coverage from the Van Halen/ Kool & the Gang tour and video postings from our new JVC’s!

Feel free to leave us a comment below about your experience with the JVC ProHD GY-HM790U or any Pro JVC product

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Super Bowl Series

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Take a look back at our “Road to the Super Bowl Series” and go behind the scenes of the NYG Production Department.  The exclusive series features sixteen stories from Ferro that showcase all of the production and planning that we went through to produce 15 shows from Indianapolis.

Below you will find each story, with links to the full article.

XLVI: The Aftermath

Now that the confetti has fallen, the after party has ended, the plane has touched down in NJ, and the Super Bowl Parade is finished…It is time to reflect back on the magic that transpired on February 5th at Lucas Oil Stadium. The boys at Ferro Productions had an absolutely historical run during Super Bowl week- Shooting fourteen shows in six days at four different locations, and it was all capped off by one GIANT victory….

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TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE…

Today the crew built the set for Giants Opening Drive Live: Super Bowl Edition in the main lobby here at the Downtown Marriott.  With hundreds of excited fans crowding around the area and a live band performing just across the lobby, it certainly made for a fascinating two hours of set up.  The show will be airing……

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THAT’S A WRAP

“STOP TAPE” says Technical Director Jamie Kiley at the conclusion of Giants Road to the Super Bowl… and just like that, it’s a wrap.  Ferro has just completed a colossal week of production here in Indianapolis and now the studio will be black until Sunday. With over ten full broadcasts in the books…..

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#NYGSOCIAL LIVE WEB STREAM

The New York Giants Web Master with Ferro Productions are producing a “social media live stream” event this evening.  Below is a copy of the NYG Press Release explaining the details.  Esentially for an hour tomight, fans can use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to interact with players on set with Anita Marks simultaneously, other players will be live SKYPEing in the room next to our studio.  We will be intercutting our twitter show with shoots of SKYPEing…

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WEDNESDAY IN INDY

Team Ferro had quite the day here in Indianapolis on this Super Bowl Wednesday.   The morning consisted of two shoots: an ENG at the team practice facility with NYG Equipment Manager Joe Skiba, and a fully produced sit-down discussion at the team hotel with Howard Cross and the Giants Tight Ends.  The crew stopped…

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DAY 2 #SB46

Production was in full swing on Tuesday for the Ferro crew here in Indianapolis.  After the guys worked into the late hours of Monday night building their set  at the stadium (control center, audio configuration, lighting, stage settings, and cameras) it was time for a brief slumber back at the hotel, followed by an early wake up call.Subsequently the crew made their way back over to the site of Super Bowl XLVI….

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FOLLOW MEDIA DAY SCHEDULE 4 BTS EXCLUSIVES

Twitter is our tool of choice on Media Day feel free to follow @FerroProduction. We’re moving fast and will be Tweeting pics every chance we get. Media Day is ALWAYS a crazy fun day as things are moving at breakneck speed. As the Ferro Crew is completely engrossed in doing the work of the work…

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TOUCHDOWN GIANTS

The day has finally come.  The New York Giants and Ferro Productions have landed in Indianapolis and are ready for the business trip of a lifetime.  The crew was equipped with two Sony EX 3 cameras for the flight, which were used to capture the highly exclusive player arrivals on board the plane for Indy.  That footage will be used for the teams web coverage, as well as this week’s broadcast programming.

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ONE SMALL STEP FOR MANNING, ONE GIANT GAME FOR FAN-KIND

Fast approaching and already fully scheduled out for Ferro Productions, this Super Bowl rematch of 2008, between the New York Football Giants and The New England Patriots may just be an “air show” of events both on and off the field.  Specifically for opposing quarterbacks, Eli Manning and Tom Brady and an “air show” of a different kind, behind the scenes, for the Ferro Production crew as they bring you exclusive NY Giants coverage for this Super Bowl XLVI…

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NFL, SNL, BALDWIN, EISEN

We at Ferro have always appreciated the talent and chops Alec Baldwin has as an actor and after listening to last weeks Rich Eisen Podcast: Alec Baldwin and Mike Mayock, may we take a moment for an ATTABOY! slap on the back for BOTH Alec and his brother Daniel who we’ve learned each can talk football with the best of ‘em!!!!! It was quite obvious just how high a level of sports talk was taking….

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DAY OF REST

He said on This day I Rest .. With the playoff madness behind them and a “Super” week of madness in front of them the Ferro crew takes some well-earned down time. Make sure you stop back tomorrow as the advance crew heads out to Indy to scout locations and prep equipment for the crews arrival. Shadowing their flight out is a 27’ box truck filled with…

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FINAL CUT FOR INDY

Preparation and execution make a great recipe for success in television.  Producing a brilliant idea, Directing a smooth circulating show, and capturing it all on camera… BUT, there is still one very important piece of the puzzle missing.  Let us not forget about the designers and editors that are the de facto finishing pieces to the puzzle…

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ELI SPEAKS: YOU LISTEN

When Eli Manning speaks, the Giants listen.  That led us here at Ferro Productions to think about exactly how we make sure  when Eli talks at the podium during press conferences, the whole world is able to listen. TECHNICALLY: The world listens to Eli via Ferro Productions audio configuration.  His words travel through the 12” Gooseneck microphones to the Rolls MX54S pre-amp at the podium. The amp then feeds that to our VLZ PRO Mixer, which sends it to our custom made Mult Box. Ultimately, the Mult Box’s 24 Mic outputs send Eli’s voice out to the world in crystal clear fashion…

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PREPPING FOR INDIANAPOLIS

In case you haven’t heard, the New York Giants are headed to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis for a rematch with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.  Ferro Productions will be shipping out to Indy on Monday for a monumental week of production, therefore the crew will need this entire week to be spent in preparation.  There has been a detailed strategy laid out by Executive Producer, Joe Scacciaferro, for the crew to abide by during the next two weeks.  This will be Joe’s third time working the Super Bowl…

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CANDLESTICK MADNESS

Game day was finally upon us yesterday in the Bay Area.  It was an early morning for the Ferro crew, who made the bus ride from the hotel to “the stick” hours before kick off.  Although they say it never rains in California, the Niners welcomed the Giants and nation’s media with a watery hello.Once the crew arrived on location at the stadium it was time for business.  After changing out of their suits into game gear, Ferro unpacks all of the equipment and scouts out the field…

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WELCOME TO THE BAY

The New York Football Giants and Ferro Productions crew shipped off to the west coast yesterday for the long awaited NFC Championship game.  For this trip Ferro has increased the crew’s size to cover the anticipated increase in player interviews, behind the scenes coverage, field level game action, and (hopefully) the championship post-game celebration.   After the crew settled in at the hotel last night there was a brief production meeting held to reiterate everyones jobs and responsibilities for the game at Candlestick Park this evening…

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NEXT STOP: SAN FRANCISCO

Although the NFL Playoffs officially began on January 7th, the New York Giants have been in playoff mode since week 16 of the regular season.  The Giants were able to overcome Rex Ryan and the Jets in that week 16 matchup on Christmas Eve and Big Blue hasn’t looked back.Since then they have steam rolled over the Cowboys, Falcons, and Packers.  With each Giants victory comes more madness.  Although the team is accustomed…

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XLVI: The Aftermath

Now that the confetti has fallen, the after party has ended, the plane has touched down in NJ, and the Super Bowl Parade is finished…It is time to reflect back on the magic that transpired on February 5th at Lucas Oil Stadium.  The boys at Ferro Productions had an absolutely historical run during Super Bowl week- Shooting fifteen shows in six days at four different locations, and it was all capped off by one GIANT victory.

After the close of their live MSG pre-game show on Sunday morning the crew needed to strike their entire set in the hotel lobby.  Next they needed to pack all of their equipment for game day, change into their travel suits and then make it on to the team bus, all in just an hour!  To say that the guys were running off of pure adrenaline at this point would be an understatement.

Once Ferro arrived on location at the stadium it was time to get changed in the locker room and unpack all of the gear.  The crew was equipped with three Sony 700’s (with sticks for post game pressers), three Sony EX 3’s(one set of sticks), two boom audio packages, and three still cameras.

Next, there was a production meeting held on the field.  The meeting reviewed detailed assignments for every member of the crew, including an alternate plan for the end of the game pending the outcome.  If the Giants were to lose than the crew would exit the field immediately and move right in for the press conference.  If Big Blue were to win the game, than the post-game celebration would be covered on the field, followed by locker room celebrations and finally the press conference.  Although the latter of the two plans involved much more chaos and difficult work, it is safe to say that team Ferro was hoping for déjà blue…

At the conclusion of the production meeting a small group went over to the press conference area to position the camera sticks (tripods) for the post game.  Also, at each podium in the presser there was a multiple box for audio output.  At this time Ferro Audio Engineer, Nick Giangrande, set up an XLR at each of the 14 multiple box’s for the cameramen to have quick access to audio during the mayhem that post-game would entail.  Once the set up was complete, it was time to chow down.

The pre-game dinner was held in the press box area at the top of the stadium.  Staff from the Giants and Patriots, as well as members of the press, were granted access.  During dinner the crew relaxed and reminisced about the insane week that had just transpired.  Moments later after a hot cup of coffee it was time to work…

Pre-game on the field included celebrity spottings and insane crowd activity.  Historically the Super Bowl crowd is known to be a bit dull compared to a normal home town crowd, but that was simply not the case on Sunday.  The arena was packed with Giants and Patriots fans alike and they were letting it be known to all that they came to cheer their team on.

After Kerry Underwood honored America with her beautiful rendition of the National Anthem it was time for the fans in the stadium and the 111.3 million fans at home to enjoy the highest viewed telecast in American history, Super Bowl XLVI!

During the game our crew had three Sony 700’s covering game action, one in each end zone, and one on the sideline following the ball.  Also in use were the two Sony EX 3’s, which were being used with the audio packages to cover behind the bench player action.  The game was being covered by Ferro just like any other game, although it certainly did not feel like any normal game…and as the first half came to a conclusion it was clear that the world was in for another nail biter between the Pats and the G-Men.

Halftime was a spectacular event to witness in person.  Watching the dozens of stadium crew members haul out the giant stage and speakers, followed by a circus of a show by Madonna.. Simply insane.

The second half, much like the first, was a back and forth battle.  As the clock kept ticking the hearts of the Ferro crew began beating a little harder.  First, because their business partner was on the brink of a world championship, and also because their post game assignments depended on the outcome of the game.  It was not until the final play of the game, Tom Brady’s hail mary attempt to the end zone, that the guys knew what they would be doing.  Once the ball hit the floor and the clock read :00, the field was stormed.  All hands were on deck with cameras and audio to capture the once in a life time experience.

The next hour would seem like a short second.  The confetti had dropped and Eli Manning was named Super Bowl MVP for the second time in his career.  At this moment Ferro had four cameras break off to capture the historical press conferences, and one camera go into the locker room to shoot the emotional celebration of players, coaches, and owners alike.  All of this footage will be featured on Ferro’s programming this week and will certainly be kept in the archives forever.

After a successful day for Ferro and the NYG at Super Bowl XLVI, it was time for the exclusive post-game party at the hotel, and you can only imagine…

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Eli Super Bowl Ring Sizing

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Twas the Night Before…

Today the crew built the set for Giants Opening Drive Live: Super Bowl Edition in the main lobby here at the Downtown Marriott. With hundreds pet pharmacy online of excited fans crowding around the area and a live band performing just across the lobby, it certainly made for a fascinating two hours of set up. The show will be airing live tomorrow on MSG at 11 a.m. via the satellite truck that is parked just outside the hotel, so don’t forget to tune in and watch our final broadcast from Indy.

After the set was built the crew sat down for their final production meeting before Super Bowl Sunday. “You guys have just accomplished more in five days than most professionals in our industry will accomplish in their whole career,” encouraged Executive Producer Joe Scacciaferro. Chilling words, indeed. And yes, Ferro Productions has in fact soared above the clouds this week here in Indianapolis but the truth of the matter is that the pinnacle has yet to come…

Later on in the viagra24-pharmacyonline.com evening a few members of the crew took a stroll over to Lucas Oil Stadium, site of Super Bowl XLVI, to scout out the field, as well as the post-game press conference area. Ferro is facing a 19 hour work day tomorrow, therefore it is essential to be geared up and ready for any scenario. After the final game plan active pack had been laid down it was finally time to rest at the hotel.

If you are too excited to sleep in tomorrow you can catch a full morning of Ferro on MSG starting with Nizagara “Giants Online: Super Bowl Edition” at 10 a.m. followed by “NY Giants Chronicles: Giants Super Bowls of the Past” at 10:30, and of course “Giants Opening Drive Live: Super Bowl Edition” at 11. We will see you tomorrow everybody!

 

***Follow our Twitter all day tomorrow for exclusive behind the scenes photos that you will not find ANYWHERE else**

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zoloft

That’s a Wrap

“STOP TAPE” says Technical Director Jamie Kiley at the conclusion of Giants Road to the Super Bowl… and just like that, it’s a wrap.  Ferro has just completed a colossal week of production here in Indianapolis and now the studio will be black until Sunday. With over ten full broadcasts in the books, along with countless press conferences and interviews,  it is now time for a well deserved celebration at the Giants Family and Friends Banquet here in the hotel.

Tomorrow the crew will be building their set in the main lobby at the Downtown Marriott for Sunday morning’s Giants Opening Drive Live: Super Bowl Edition on MSG which will be airing at 11 a.m.  The show will be coming to you live from both the Timex Performance Center in NJ, as well as from the hotel here in Indy.  You can tune in to MSG all day Saturday and Sunday to view numerous Ferro-produced shows and to get excited for the big game!

Check back on the site tomorrow for pictures from our new set in the hotel… and don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter @FerroProduction for behind the scenes updates and photos all day.

*I would also like to give a special shout out to Ferro Camera Operator, Chris Petraccoro, for providing us with a ton of amazing pictures for the site this week.  Thanks Chris!

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Madonna XLVI

Super Bowl Halftime Show XLVI – “My stage gets built in 8 minutes and it’s an elaborate stage and we do a lot of crazy stuff on the stage and so for me the hoping and the praying that’s going to go on to make sure that it’s all put together right…” Madonna shares on the Rich Eisen show today. Words and emotions certainly NOT unfamiliar to Joe over a career in the “Biz” building groundbreaking innovative companies.

Ferro Productions is far more than just “Sports”. Joe Scacciaferro, President and Founder of “Ferro” enjoys a career in the entertainment industry that is as diverse as the industry itself. Spanning from the New York Football Giants to Madonna to published author and performer.

As Madonna put it, entertaining at the Super Bowl is “the holy grail of entertainment in America”. At this Super Bowl all things Ferro take place behind the scene to bring to the Billion-person crowd, broadcast quality content in all mediums.

This isn’t the first event that Mr. Scacciaferro and Madonna have one degree of separation. In the 1980’s through one of Joe’s companies the long reaching arms of Ferro Productions supported a Madonna’s tour.

Joe founded the music industry’s first high tech engineering/service company. By combining his

extensive background in music performance along with his education in computer sciences, Triple S Electronics quickly became a leader in the entertainment industry for the creative use of cutting edge technology in creative performance.

In 1980 Joe created a new consulting division specializing in the creative application of digital technologies for the electronic musical instrument manufacturers, world touring acts and Broadway shows. Artists such as Billy Joel, The Police, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson and more all became return clients. As Broadway made the shift to incorporating new technology into their creative production, Mr. Scacciaferro and his companies became a regular on the stages of Cats, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express and A Chorus Line.

In 1993 he again expanded his creative interest and founded Ferro Productions. By 2002 Ferro Productions had risen to the highest level recognized in the Broadcast Industry with 9 Emmy nominations and 5 Emmy awards for his efforts in both video and music production. He has since written and produced programming for many major broadcast and cable networks. i.e HBO, MTV, VH1, Lifetime, NBC, A&E. Ferro Productions is also the exclusive provider of Broadcast Programming for the New York Giants on MSG and My9 Network.

One of Mr. Scacciaferro’s proudest accomplishments is a documentary exploring the life of people with Down Syndrome featuring a music video written by Mr. Scacciaferro and performed by his long time friend Ray Charles.

With the ever expanding boom in digital technology, Mr. Scacciaferro looks to continue developing his talents in multi-media production with an eye on tomorrow’s technology.

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