Big Pictures Media, Inc.

08/22/2024

Congrats Bo Nix for earning the starting QB spot for the Denver Broncos. Looking forward to working with you more!

08/15/2024

🎥 Scenes from a super fun shoot for On Tap Credit Union right here in Golden, Colorado!

07/31/2024

🎥 to the day our entire crew got to touch Missy Franklin's gold medal (oh yeah, and work with her too!) What blast!

07/30/2024

There's nothing like capturing a POV shot with an expensive camera when an Olympic level boxer is sparring with you! We've had the pleasure of working on all kinds of Olympic feature stories over the years - here's one of them...

On the day Muhammad Ali passed away, we happened to be in the boxing gym of the Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs. Our mission was to capture footage of two young boxers heading for the Olympics - Shakur Stevenson, and Carlos Balderas.

The news of Ali’s passing spread quickly, but the boxers went about their business as Ali’s poster hung in inspiration on the wall outside their gym.

Shakur, a 19-year old bantamweight fighter, had secured his bid to the Rio Olympics in December 2015. By the time we met up with him in early June, his energy and excitement exploded out of him with every punch - as we filmed him working out and sparring in the ring.

Special thanks to USA Boxing for allowing us access, Carlos and Shakur for their tremendous patience (can you hit that again please? Okay just one more time...), our client Bleacher Report for the opportunity to work on this feature, and Cameron Lowder who came out to put it all together.

07/29/2024

Did you catch Stephen Spielberg's "Land of Stories" open for the Olympics?

What a beautiful tribute to storytelling, and a perfect way to set the Olympic table!

"I'm drawn to stories about everyday characters who you wouldn't even notice passing them on the street. But, when they encounter a huge obstacle, it can change them into the kind of people you like to call heroes."

Most of the work we get to do is about "ordinary people" who are somehow thrust into the extraordinary. Whether it's a man's battle with addiction a, dairy farmer carving out a living by going organic on her farm, or a young lady trying to find a career with purpose, every video we make is deeply steeped in story.

This is done with intention. Why? So people will watch them! And feel them, and remember them later.

No one cares about the cameras we used, the drones we flew, the size of the crew, or what the video costs.

They care about what happens to the characters the video allows them to meet.

And believe me, no matter what kind of video you need to make for your brand or organization, there is a way to enrich it with story so that your target audience will want to watch it again and again!

You can watch "Land of Stories" here - https://buff.ly/4frCo2n

07/25/2024

to when we found ourselves in a pool with eleven-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte and still photographer Matthias Clamer re-creating that iconic Nevermind album cover for ESPN Magazine’s – the Music Issue.

The first time I heard Nirvana’s Nevermind album from start to finish, I was driving to a location scout in Southern California for an Isuzu Rodeo commercial. You may remember the campaign – directed by Barry Sonnenfeld – where the kids refuse to stay between the lines in class, and later on the road in their mud-eating Rodeos. Ryan Lochte was about eight years old at that time, and probably already wreaking havoc between the lines of every swimming pool he entered.

For this issue, they convinced fourteen athletes to recreate some of the most memorable album covers ever – including Allyson Felix as Beyonce, Josh Freeman as Michael Jackson, and Ryan Lochte as the now famous baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind album.

Instead of the baby, now it’s Lochte reaching for that dollar bill.

And unlike the baby, Lochte is sporting a Speedo.

07/24/2024

🎬 3 Tricks to Perfect 2-Camera Interviews

Two matching cameras can add a lot of value to single person interviews, but are absolutely vital for interviewing 2 (or more) people at once. Here are some basics:

1) Both cameras need to be on the same side as the interviewer, otherwise the shots won't cut together. So the order is usually KEY LIGHT - INTERVIEWER - CAMERA A - CAMERA B, or in reverse. The cameras can be close together of far apart for different angles, but must be on the same side.

2) For two or more people being interviewed, once camera can be a fixed wide shot, and the other camera can be chasing singles depending on who is talking. If one only person is being interviewed, the second camera can be a side angle to provide another shot to edit with. These two shots should look different enough - wide/tight, or different angles - so that when you edit them together it doesn't look like a jump cut.

3) The cameras must match. And the best way to make this happen is to shoot in LOG. We have a Sony FX9 and an FX6 that match perfectly, when we shoot in SLOG 3 and grade them in post.

Reach out if you need help making your interviews look great. We've shot like a million of them, so got it pretty much figured out!



Hope you like my fabulous sketch below. DM me if you want a signed print 😜

07/19/2024

Where do different types of videos fit into the customer journey? I just attended a fantastic webinar put on by Vimeo and LinkedIn that explored just that.

🔼 Top of the Funnel - Brand stories, brand awareness videos, branded content. These videos should anchor to a universal truth. Apple does a great job of this with it's Apple at Work series. In this case, the universal truth is that we are all busy. Everybody understands and appreciates that, so you begin with that common ground.

We recently created a series of brand films for Rocky Mountain Health Plans that celebrates their collaboration with community partner organizations throughout the state. Each one is anchored in a universal truth - something we all can relate to - like loving your children, struggling to take care of our aging parents, healthcare security, and even feeling outcast from society, You can check them out in the link below.

🔼 Middle of the funnel - These are centered more around problem statements. My problem is ______, and I need _________ to solve it. Here videos and commercials can get much more specific. I need to find a way to make my work more portable. The Apple iPad is the solution.

🔼 Bottom of the funnel - Now you are asking your customers to take action. These have more CTA's, and fit well into the buying journey because at this point the customer knows the brand, knows it will help them solve their problem, but just needs to decide if it's time to buy.

The point is the creators of videos for businesses and brands should know the exact purpose of these video for their clients, and know how they will fit into the lifecycle of their target audience's sales journey.

Our members are our neighbors, friends, and fellow Coloradans – real people overcoming real challenges.  At Rocky Mountain Health Plans, we are right here with you, rolling up our sleeves to do what it takes to reach better outcomes.  We work closely with local doctors, non-profits, county and s...

07/16/2024

when we took over the courts at the Denver Athletic Club to shoot this branded content series for Under Armour many years ago. These were the early days of the Phantom camera, and we had one on set to capture the shoes hitting the court at 300 frames per second, which was a huge deal back then!

I wrote in our blog at the time: "When Phantom Camera Tech Kevin Zanit first revealed the high-speed camera, we all gathered around - many seeing it for the first time. It’s essentially a cool looking box with a lens on one end and a cable wrap on the other end leading to a computer. The 8 gigabyte version captures twelve or so seconds of footage at 300 frames per second into its internal high-speed dynamic ram. It then takes twelve minutes or so to download the footage from the camera into the computer’s hard drive, thus freeing the camera up for another take."

Of course the Phantom workflow has improved greatly since then, but it was sure fun to be on the cutting edge!



Phantom High-Speed from Vision Research
Under Armour

07/15/2024

Have you ever watched your dog smell things, and wondered what they are getting from it? I mean our dog Tasha can spend forever in one area, smelling each blade of grass, or little berry on a bush. It's like she's reading a book or watching a movie.

A quick Google search gave me some fascinating facts:

🦮 Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors, or smell receptors, in their noses, which is 10,000 times more than humans.

🐶 Dogs' sense of smell is so powerful that they can detect a single teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a million gallons of water, which is the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools.

🧠 Dogs also have a part of their brain that's about 40 times larger than a human's that's dedicated to analyzing smells.They can use their sense of smell to detect cancer, predict seizures, identify people with low blood sugar, and sense fear and anxiety.

I think dogs actually smell in "color" and can not only tell who or what was there, but how long ago and maybe even what they were doing and why.

Honesty I'm a little jealous - like she's in on something I'll never be privy to!

But why did they evolve these gifts? It all comes down to story (you knew I'd get there!)

The information a canine gathers through smell tells them stories that help them survive, and has for centuries. Same with people. Our stories are not just entertainment, they are about survival. I

'm reading an excellent book called "Sapiens" that proposes the very evolution of humanity evolved around our ability to tell stories.

🎥 So what does all this have to do with filmmaking? (You knew I'd get there!) Every film we make - from the simplest corporate video to the most complex feature film - is loaded with elements of story (or at least should be.)

A well done video should hit the audience deep in our story-loving soul, and make us stick around like a dog sniffing a fire hydrant!

[Tasha is a member of DAG (the Dog Actor's Guild) and gave us permission to use her nose for this story 🙌 ]

07/11/2024

It's Wimbledon time! 🎾 I love tennis. I love playing it, and I love watching it. And I'm much better at the latter than the former.

So in honor of the Wimbledon finals coming up this weekend, here are some pretty cool moments when my career has aligned with my love for tennis.

In the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning short film (below) that I shot for ESPN a hundred years ago, we feature tennis phenom Andrea Jaeger, and her journey from becoming world #2 at the age of 15, to ultimately giving up tennis and becoming an Anglican Dominican nun in order to continue her work to help children with cancer. This inspirational film was narrated by the great Tom Rinaldi. Note that it's over 10 minutes long - a HUGE amount of time for an ESPN feature.

Below is a sample clip. You can watch the entire film on our Big Pictures YouTube channel - https://buff.ly/3RT9yOg

I've also gotten to work with Martina Navratilova (on a feature for Oprah), Andy Roddick, and Chris Evert. And very early in my career, I shot a commercial in San Diego for Pro Kennex with the legendary Rod Laver.

So if you are a tennis fan like me, I hope you enjoy the upcoming finals. Our family tradition for Breakfast at Wimbledon is bagels and lox, and of course berries and cream.

07/10/2024

Sometimes you gotta improvise a sound studio out of couches, like today with Darius Rucker, AKA Hootie of Hootie and the Blowfish. Backstage before his show today. Listen for his work tomorrow night on the ESPY’s.

07/10/2024

🎬 Makeup artists are the unsung heroes on any set. They not only make everyone look great, but they help calm actors down, and give them the chance to focus before and between takes.

🥂 So here's to all you wonderful HMU and vanities folk out there. Keep up the great work!

07/09/2024

Last fall my wife Teri and I visited Delft, a beautiful city in the Netherlands. We wandered the canal-lined streets, visited charming cafes, and stumbled upon the amazing Vermeer Centrum Delft museum. It's a testament to how the masters used light in their works, and Vermeer was one of the best.

In film school, we all learned lighting in the style of Rembrandt. But I contend the works of Vermeer better portrays the kind of lighting we strive to emulate in our interviews.

Notice the soft "key light" on the faces, often motivated by a seen or unseen window. Also, the subject's heads are turned towards this light source, revealing the slightly darker "fill" side to us - the observer. This helps create a 3-D feel from a 2-D medium.

While there are lots of ways to light interviews, at Big Pictures we generally go by this formula - which is designed to make the interview subject look their very best, and simultaneously creates depth and texture in the shot.

Here are some of the basics:

1. Place the key light on the other side of interviewer from the camera, so that the subject is looking towards the light.

2.

07/08/2024

Rube Goldberg could have invented this voting machine! It was absolutely mesmerizing. As was the interview we filmed with Amanda Gonzalez, Jefferson County's recently elected county clerk.

Ms. Gonzalez represents a lot of firsts - first Latina, first q***r person, and the youngest clerk ever elected in the county.

It's a difficult position lately, as election officials and poll workers across the country are facing unprecedented scrutiny and harassment, and likely will again in the upcoming election.

This shoot took us deep into the basements of the Jefferson County Center, where we got to see see how ballets are sorted and counted - by both people and machines. It's a complex operation. While this work may not seem too important on the surface, I see better how vital it is for our democracy to thrive.

You can watch the finished piece here: https://buff.ly/4cx73JI

07/04/2024

Happy 4th of July everyone!

According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, fireworks originally were developed in the second century B.C. in ancient Liuyang, China. Early U.S. settlers brought their love of fireworks with them to the New World and fireworks were part of the very first Independence Day – a tradition that continues every 4th of July when we celebrate as John Adams had hoped “with pomp, parade….bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”

Now you know!

07/03/2024

🎥 Every video/film/commercial we produce has a specific audience. And we find it's absolutely vital to define this audience as early as possible with our clients because every creative decision we make from then on stems from that.

In discovery the very first questions we ask are - who is your audience, how will they be watching, and what do you want them to do?

Then you as the creator/director/producer needs to not only understand that audience, but become a member of it in a way. It’s your duty to honor and represent your audience as you sit in that chair across from the person you're interviewing, for example.

Be curious, and even naive. If you don’t understand something, your audience won’t. So ask again. Get it shorter, better, simpler.

If it’s emotional content from a patient, bring the audience into that patient’s world, and help them FEEL what the patient is feeling.

Whether your audience is millions, or 6 investors in a boardroom, your ability to communicate to them through this incredible medium of motion pictures will be greatly enhanced if you take the time to understand them. And then take it a step further, and become them.

Healthcare

07/02/2024

Thank you, Pat Vacanti, for this wonderful review! One of the most rewarding aspects of our work is the opportunity to connect with amazing people like yourself, and help amplify your brand narratives with the power of video storytelling.

🎥 We really appreciate the opportunity!

"We worked with Big Pictures Media on two separate videos. On both projects, Tom Miller went above and beyond our expectations and took the extra time to get to know us as people and really learn our story. This extra effort paid off in many aspects of each project. We were much more comfortable in front of the camera with Tom directing us, and he made sure our performance brought out our raw feelings about our company and product. Tom runs a fantastic team of people who work tirelessly to ensure smooth set-up, ex*****on and wrap-up of the shoot. The final product was excellent, and Tom made sure we were happy with each and every part of it." - Pat Vacanti

07/01/2024

I love the energy before a first take. Each person doing their part, all for that magic between action and cut!

06/28/2024

Great schmoozer last night Colorado Film and Video Association (CFVA) at LSI - Lighting Services Inc.! It's been a long time since I've been to one, and I really appreciate the efforts the new iteration of this group is making to bring in our great Colorado film and video community with fun and useful gatherings. Also advocation for better incentives. I encourage all of my friends in the Colorado film community to give CFVA another chance. I'm really glad I did!

The Colorado Film and Video Association serves the professional media industry by offering educational opportunities, promoting its members, and growing connection and community to build a stronger industry in our state.

06/27/2024

"Over the Edge" shoot for Dateline. Can't believe this was allmost ten years ago!

As longtime Colorado residents, we’ve had the pleasure of visiting Rocky Mountain National Park dozens of times. We’ve hiked there, fished there, camped there, and my wife and I even got married there - at the historic Stanley Hotel, overlooking those iconic snow-capped peaks.

So when Trevor, Conner and I were asked to venture several hours into a remote part of the park with our camera and sound gear, head way off trail, traverse a treacherous scree field, and shoot stand-ups while hanging off a cliff where a man (allegedly) pushed his wife 130 feet to her death, well… how could we resist?

I mean really, who could say no to that?

And so it was, that on a beautiful fall day last October (2015) we followed the path of Harold and Toni Henthorn from the trailhead to the infamous cliff. We stopped at the places they stopped, captured their photos in the scenes they actually shot them in, and filmed beautiful scenics and stand-ups along the way with Dateline reporter Andrea Canning.

The whole thing was pretty creepy. I mean what kind of a man does this? And why did she follow him? We felt the pulse of this horrific story in every step we took and every scene we shot, especially when we finally made it to the cliff that she dropped from.

Just looking over the edge knowing what went on there was scary. And the high winds didn't help!

The challenge was to imbue our footage with this uneasiness. For example, how do you capture a drop from such heights? Let's just say we had fun with climbing ropes and GoPros, and left our vertigo at home!

In addition to the footage in the park, we also filmed several interviews and some fun stuff at the Stanley Hotel itself – where they stayed the night before the hike.

As with many Dateline episodes, this one involved the hard work of many talented crews over months/years, but it was great to have a big part in helping to tell this story.

06/26/2024

🎥 of our inspiring shoot interviewing the inventors of the Help 'Em Up Harness for dogs, for Paw Prosper. The Help ‘Em Up Harness is a unique full-body lifting device that assists owners with aging dogs to remain active when arthritis, hip dysplasia, muscle loss, or surgical repair impairs a pet’s mobility and physical strength for everyday functions – from getting up off the floor, up and down the stairs, or in and out of cars.

06/25/2024

Patient Stories are like testimonials for healthcare organizations

Testimonials and Client Profiles are among the most powerfully effective kinds of videos we make for businesses and brands.

And for healthcare providers such as hospitals, mental health clinics, and even insurance companies, patient stories serve as the best kind of testimonial.

A well-made patient journey story humanizes the brand by showcasing real life experiences and outcomes.

Why are they so effective?

• They build trust and empathy with patients and their families
• Enhance patient engagement and education
• Highlight successful treatments and care quality
• Foster a strong emotional connection with viewers
• Drive awareness and inspire action through relatable narratives

It’s important to be authentic when creating these short films, and show that most healthcare is an ongoing journey. This is particularly true with mental health stories, like the one we creating below about Byron working through his drug addiction with the help of Fort Collins based The Willow Collective.

06/18/2024

Patient Stories are a powerful way for healthcare organizations to illuminate the humanity behind the services they provide. In this video we produced for Rocky Mountain Health Plans / United Healthcare, Natalie describes her incredible journey with a severe bout of meningitis that nearly took her life. This became a story within a story that we created about Mobile Integrated Health, an organization that RMHP helps support.

At Big Pictures Media, one of our specialties is transforming healthcare narratives into powerful video content. Our passion is to create visually stunning, emotionally resonant videos that not only tell a story but also make a lasting impact on audiences. We believe in the power of video to humanize, educate, and inspire, and we're dedicated to bringing this power to the healthcare industry.







UnitedHealth Group
Rocky Mountain Health Plans
Parallel Path

06/10/2024

Ready for some football?

05/22/2024

🎥 Spent a great shoot day yesterday at Jimmy John's and Burger king for a brand new client - Front Range Holdings - talking with leadership and employees about what it means to foster successful working environments. We're honored to be their new video production partner!

05/14/2024

If you make it out to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, be sure to check out our work in the Heroes and Legends exhibit. We interviewed astronauts all across the country about their life work for this inspirational exhibit. Some notable men and women we got to interview include Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, Al Bean, and dozens of other apollo-era and current astronauts. It was amazing to be able to help capture their stories before they passed.

Check out this blog post we wrote about visiting Al Bean's art studio - https://lnkd.in/gH8wc7td

04/11/2024

This was one of the funniest shoots I've even been involved in! Will Farrell as the Anchorman interviewing Peyton Manning. Will is a funny guy of course, but the big surprise to me was how funny Peyton is. Lots of improv going on here!