THE WHEAT AND THE CHAFF: NEW DOC AIRED ON TV RUSSIA

Our one hour long documentary about genetic engineering in agriculture has just been successfully broadcasted by the Russian State TV. You are very welcome to watch it, albeit with no English subtitles yet. Throughout these last six months we’ve changed our workflow completely. I hope I will have more time to talk about it in a more detailed way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFbg2HCu5K8

TRADITIONAL POTTERY IN DAGESTAN

A brief compilation from my December shoot in Dagestan for “Biochemistry Of Treason”. Locals told me this craft of pottery is 2000 years old (or even more), is practiced by women — young and old — and passed down from generation to generation. I spent in Balkhar roughly 3 hours as I had to get back to Makhachkala before dawn. Gear wise it was a combination of Sony FS700 and Nikon D800 which I adore for their dynamic range. Sadly, the once flourishing production is in decline now due to the lack of support from the state.

ГОНЧАРНОЕ ПРОИЗВОДСТВО В СЕЛЕ БАЛХАР (Р.ДАГЕСТАН) from GOOD EMPIRE on Vimeo.

APPROACHING THE FINAL STAGE OF WORK ON BIOCHEMISTRY OF TREASON

This was the most time consuming doc I’ve had a chance to work on so far. In the duration of past 3 weeks we’ve done quite a lot. Roughly 2 TB of footage logged, transcribed and imported into Premiere CC. 1.05 hrs on the timeline. 54 pages of script. More on that soon.
Some technical advancements need to be mentioned now. We’ve upgraded our tiny Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera to be able to shoot 10 bits RAW. First impressions are terrific. The image is mind blowing when you load it into Davinci. The following frame should give you an impression of what it’s like:

And here’s another innovative discovery.

My assistant Oleg Sergeev is holding a self made Movi replica (cervo controlled stabilization rig) comprised of the Chinese rig and Russian built operating board. It provides a pretty “hollywood look”for your pans and zoom ins when used with a camera like GH3 and a wide lens (12 mm SLRMagic). Once we are done with editing we’re going to get more experience in both directions and share it here.
The world of filmmaking is changing so rapidly the small teams like ours sometimes are getting unexpected advantages over TV and video giants.
Stay tuned!

PLANET OF BABEL

PLANET OF BABEL from GOOD EMPIRE on Vimeo.

Here’s my last film. Shot entirely with Nikon D800 and Lumix GH2.

NEW DOC 90% READY

It might be a little premature to announce that but my new film called “PLANET OF BABEL” is in the final stage of production. I’ve just showed the final cut to our channel’s executives and hopefully after some minor revisions it will be aired by RUSSIA-1. We keep our fingers crossed. The film (as it was mentioned in earlier posts) is telling the story of the Great Recession through the eyes of ordinary people all across the globe. It is raising questions of moral and ethical degradation caused by our today’s obsession with material wealth and institutionalized individualism.

We’ve been shooting this doc in collaboration with talented people from Europe, US and Asia. Everywhere we were met with open arms and people’s willingness to contribute. It would’ve been impossible to accomplish such a task traveling as a fully equipped tv-crew (given all the associated expenses), so this was the time when our DSLR techniques paid off well. I switched to Nikon D800 completely while my assistant Oleg Segeev was mostly operating the beautiful tiny (hacked) GH2. In my further posts I hope to share some experience as of how to produce a film comprising over 10 countries (from Greece and US to China and Syria) with only a lightweight bagpack and a tripod. 

 

OUR FILM FINALLY AVAILABLE ON PBS’ POV WEB SITE

Watch Sound of Vision on PBS. See more from POV.