Documonkey.TV

14/11/2024

Last Long Weekend at THE PEARL nightclub ( formerly the PLAZA ) on Granville filming THE LEADING LADIES LITTLE BIG BAND and their "Gal Pal" show. Another Big Band Jazz experience put on by The Infidels Jazz promoter.

Its like if the Hard Rubber Orchestra collectively had a daughter band who is destined to grow up to rise up and take control of all Jazz everywhere - Watch out John - these dames are trouble. - they're coming fer ya!

Of course the placement of stadium Line Arrays in a small club and the ketamine the architect was on when he designed the balcony made it a challenge to get sitelines and camera placement Also the lighting technicial was a minimalist --I guess he was going for a dimly lit smoky speakeasy stage - which is the bane to my existence. But that just means more time in post to fix it.

Good show , I recommend - Now I just have to get to editing.

22/10/2024

A night of experimentation and revisitation filming John Korsruds ABSOLUTE UNIT show at the Woodwards Atrium

This is the first field test of my New Sony 4k Cameras (and their rigs) also a return to an old classic form of filming that I havent done for live concerts in a long time - Roaming / Mobile.

Also a night of using the mirrorless cameras instead of the standard video cameras due to the low-light nature of the performance. Sadly I wasnt able to get the super tight stable shots I am used to because of the zoom limitations of the glass and the stability of the monopod ( though about using a gimbal but you cant zoom with a gimbal ) But the at least the mobile nature of shooting gave me more shot variety. Going forward if I do this again I will use a longer zoom lens and re-think my stabilization

20 years of doing this job and I am still learning.

22/09/2024

Update Sept 2024 - we are still alive

After an HD camera gear failure at one of our last gigs (lucky we had backup cameras ) the writing was on the wall - so the summer was spent in persuit of equipment aquisition and building a series of new 4K camera rigs to film live events. Starting with Sony Mirroless vlogging cameras as the body , adding mics, lenses, batteries and matte boxes and re-rigging them for live multicamera filming purposes. (events, performances livestreams) - its like lego but way more expensive.

As such we haven't had much recent time or funding to produce video content on arts vlogs and cultural events as these resources were diverted to building and upgrading equipment for future projects. Also with the recent morally dubious changes to Adobes terms of service we may looking to transition our Video Editing workstation to a Davinci NLE to protect our clients from Adobe claiming ownership over their content to train their AI. We will have to see on that.

But we are ready to get back at it and we should be able to get back to ramping up production soon

13/06/2024

Filming a Woodwind Orchestra at the Evergreen Theatre in Coquitlam last week. Mounted a new 4K camera on the old camera to test 4K live shooting options. Kinda reminded me of Master-Blaster from the 80s Mad Max movie though if I was being more accurate it would be more like Space Rocketships mounted on jumbo jets.

Filming live orchestras is like a game of audio wheres-waldo-wack-a-mole. Hear the flute solo, find the flute amoung the 20+ musicians , frame her up and try to get a few seconds of her before her solo ends and the Tennor sax or the Trombones kick in. Or - find her and realize that someone ELSE is playing the flute somewhere and she was a damn decoy flutist.
Though I have to admit I am getting better at picking out the instruments by sound than I once was. Coming from indie music videography background which was a guitar , a drum (and a base if they were fancy) then progressing into big-band where you have 5 different types of woodwinds alone

27/05/2024

A special thanks to John Korsrud for inviting me out to the Milton Wong SFU Theatre to film the final HRO concert of the season this past weekend. The Concert opened with a mini Film festival featuring the works of Jenn Strom , Melissa Hubert and surprisingly myself (well a small edit I did on a memorial peice over COV lockdown in 2020).

14/05/2024

At Capilano college this past weekend filming behind the scenes interviews and clips of the music composers finalizing their peices with the band for an upcoming Hard Rubber Orchestra concert.

One of the first projects filming exclusively in vertical video mode for an Instagram promotion. Old dog gotta learn new tricks

11/05/2024

Edited a video Montage of all the Art documentary and vlog work I produced for the artist Ron Simmer in the last 10+ years for a looping video installation as a part of his recent FIRE STEEL FLOWER Art show the Beaumont Studios in Vancouver Last week.

20/04/2024

Art Documentary film making and shooting at the ART VANCOUVER event last weekend interviewing Artist Ron Simmer from ReVision - presenting his latest sculpture MOTHER ROBOT.

20/04/2024

Setting up a wideshot camera at the Front of house up in a secret alcove over the pipe organ at St Johns SHaunnesy church in Vancouver Last weekend - FIlming a multicamera Documentation of the Choir recital concert which is the final step of conductor Will Da Souzas Master degree program.

Special thanks to Westcoast Recording for bringing me in on this one.

07/04/2024

Filming the Richmond Orchestra and Choir Association Choir recital at the Fraserview Church in Richmond this past weekend for Chris Haas and Westcoast Recording. Standard 3 Camera shoot on this one. Keeping it simple on this one

07/04/2024

Outfitting a new Camera Rig for 4K filmmaking and Vlogging

It started out as an innocent Small R6 Mirrorless camera , and it grew , and it fed and it hungered.

Now its got cages, handles, monitor mounts, light mounts, an extended battery pack ( for extended life and overheating) , a follow focus. and a matte box (not pictured ) Probably going to order a fan soon to take care of potential overheating issues

I can just see it now though - all this work and I will end up just removing it from the rig and mounting it in a gimbal anyway

11/03/2024

On location in New Westminster with Westcoast Recording - Filming the "Celebration" concert for the Coast Music Academy Childrens and youth Choir. Learned from my mistake last time and arrived an hour early to setup 3 camera stations before the performers got in to do sound check. Then at the end of the night had to wait until the crowd cleared out so I could access my gear to strike it. First to arrive last to leave

05/02/2024

New Video release Vlog 017 Where Fire Meets Ice - In this video Finnabair Faighinn-Cnaimhean (Lori Bonefinder) pulls me out of my warm bed , drags me across town in the subzero temperatures of Vancovuers recent deep freeze to film her taking advantage of the extremely rare opportunity to engage in a new art form she invented combining fire spinning and figure skating.

In this vlog I turn the camera on our friend Lori Bonefinder who had a unique idea, the sub zero conditions were perfect , but we had to move on it quickly S...

30/01/2024

New Video Release
Let there be Light Vlog 016 - Lumiere Festival 2023

Vancouvers Festival of Light Art, Sculpture nteractive art , and Performances. Filmed on location across downtown Vancouver over 4 days last November ) Featuring appearances by our renoun artist friends Ronald Victor Simmer Nathyn Sanche, Deb Beaudreau and the fire performances of Ember Arts plus a plethroa of other artists. Interviews of artists and a tour of the art.

Art Adventure LOG 016 Let There Be Light - Lumiere Vancouver Light Art Festival 2023 In this Vlog we document the art and interview the Artists of the Lumie...

27/01/2024

NEW VIDEO RELEASE
VLOG 014 - BIKE RAVE INTO THE HEART OF DARKNESS

A large scale mobile community bicycle ride and dance party that traveled across Vancouver. I took inspiration from how Hunter Thompson Covered the Motorcycle Race in FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS- and sprinkled in a few of his quotes to give this vlog that true Gonzo feeling.

youtube link below -
and if you want like-share-sub-bell for the Algorithm to share it.

Vlog of the Vancouver Bike Rave 2024 -a mobile dance party / rave traveling across the city of Vancouver. Taking inspiration from FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VE...

15/01/2024

Had a rare window to go out tonight to document and film something new , different, artistic experimental unique, and interesting

A rare set of temporary circumstances came into alignment
The uncommon and temporary deep freeze of Vancouver causing Trout Lake to freeze over turning into a temporary skating rink. and a window of opportunity Later at night it was empty and dark -

Thats when a friend and performer Lori who is both a Fire-spinner and a ice skater had the brilliant idea ( all her idea ) of experimenting and combining the two. Fire Spinning and figure skating - Fire and Ice Dancing - doing her usual fire performances while gliding across the ice

and I came out in the subzero temperature to film some clips for her.

I thought we were shooting something completley different so I accudently brought the wrong style of camera gear. Keeping manual focus and framing on a moving target in extreme low light without a proper zoom or panning tripod was next to impossible but I managed to capture enough short clips edit a vlog video montage which may release soon.

27/12/2023

Filming Coastal Sound Music Adademy and Choirs "A Winters Night" Christmas concert in Burnaby on Dec 15th. Working beside Chris Haas of Westcoast recording. (this image captured during sound check)

18/11/2023

On the streets of Vancouver to shoots some time lapse video and Vlog the Eastside Culture Crawl 2023- My Vlogging project this crawl was to visit many of the artists who had took the time to give interviews in the past- and give back to them one (of the many) Stencil Vinyl pieces

Also took some time to get a couple of street time-lapses exterior establishing shots at the Arts Factory , the Arc , 1000 Parker , and Maker Labs , and test nighttime vlogging with the GoPro11 kit at the same time - Looks like I may have to go back to Night-Vlogging with DSLR.