Piehl Pictures

24/05/2024

Here’s some stills from Tristan Baumgardner’s The Tells of the Telling Dead which we shot a few months ago!
This was a fun but challenging little short that we did on pretty short notice with a very small crew due to various circumstances. One of the biggest challenges was transforming a small screening room at our production studio into an underwater research bunker which was handled brilliantly with our production design team! Tristan and I went through multiple different looks while in prep and during the prerig we ultimately decided on a low key, hard light, high contrast environment to really amplify the drama and intense, conflicting emotions of the characters. With a skeleton crew I was kept very much on my toes and had very little sleep but we got it done!

🎥 Shot on ARRI Alexa EV with Zeiss CP.2 lenses

Writer/Director/Producer/Editor: Tristan Baumgardner
Starring: Scott Patrick Erwin and Henry Mark
1st AD: Lauren Anderson
DP/Gaffer/Colorist:😅
Production Designers: Tawny Greene and Abigail McMahan
Costumes: Victoria Gruen and Natalie Fassnacht
Scripty: Audrey Schnell
On Set Mixer: Tina Montague
Boom Op: Drew Magro
PAs: Diego Becera and Mason Cheek (who also cam operated for a shot 💪)

14/05/2024

Stills for a promo video I shot, edited, and colored for .dune.productions at the beginning of the year where the two directors for Rising Dune’s next two films (Matthew Esteban and Eliana Henry) discussed the details of the shorts! These films will be released very soon on YouTube! It was a fun little simple shoot with a bare-bones crew and it was good to shoot some corporate related content again. I had a variety of lights to play with on set. I ended up using a mixture of a Skypanel through a full silk as the key and lit the background using prerigged Kino Flo fluorescent fixtures and 4’ Quasar tubes.

Shot on the RED Dragon-X and the Canon 24-105 f4.0L lens

Talent: Matthew Esteban () and Eliana Henry (.eliana)
Sound Mixer: Natalie-Jo Hahn

05/01/2024

Here is my cinematography reel for 2023!
I want to thank everyone for this amazing past year of shooting. I’d like to especially thank my directors for entrusting me with their vision, my amazing gaffers, key grips, technicians, grips, and everyone in between for bringing these visions to life, and thank you to my incredible colorists who brought so much life into the image. And of course, thank you to the producers who made it all happen! I don’t take the responsibility of bringing a story to life lightly, so I hope I was able to be an effective storyteller this past year and I look forward to continuing to improve my skills in 2024!

31/12/2023

Happy New Year! Here’s some (but certainly not all) of my favorite shots from films I directed photography for over the past year. This year was a wild one for my career, as I was creatively involved in around 40 films, ranging from short films, music videos, and social media content. I took my first internship, completed my first short films at my college, and bought my first cinema camera. Thank you to everyone who created with me. We made some awesome stuff in 2023! Here’s to many more amazing things to come!
Have a wonderful 2024!

26/12/2023

NEW WORK: Tea & Honey
I recently directed photography, executive produced, was the post supervisor, and co-colorist for Rising Dune’s 2nd short film Tea & Honey which was written and directed by Natalie-jo Hahn. For the look of the film there was an interesting challenge of balancing a warmer, softer look with the serious and dramatic undertones of the scene. My G&E team and I played around a bit with bounced light and negative fill to try to achieve this.
I had a really amazing time working on this one! It was a challenging overnight shoot in downtown LA but luckily we had an awesome crew to back us up!

Writer and Director: Natalie-jo Hahn
Producer: Eliana Henry
Executive Producers: Tony Krupski, 🙋‍♂️, Brendan Piehl, and Michael and Laura Hahn
1st AD: Tony Krupski
DP: 🙋‍♂️
Editor: Faith Fuller
And numerous other amazing crew members!

🎥 Shot on RED Dragon-X with Angenieux EZ zoom lenses.
Paired with TrueColor Red to Alexa look LUT for improved skin tones and highlight rolloff.

16/12/2023

Tea & Honey is now live on YouTube!
This is Rising Dune’s second film. Written and directed by the amazing Natalie-jo Hahn. I was the director of photography, an executive producer, and co-colorist on the film. Hope you enjoy!

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES.A late night conversation about a couple's dreams, smoking habits and their relationship.Cast:Kaylin Kenders as CharlotteLuis Antoniu...

15/12/2023

NEW WORK: Game Behind the Game

I recently directed photography for this class assignment written and directed by Perrin Mullinax starring Connor Klebs. It was a challenging shoot to say the least! The entire short was shot in just four hours, with two hours in a very tight office (which made diffusion frames and lights difficult to fit) and a basketball gym. However, with a great vision and an amazing team we got it done!

Written and directed by: Perrin Mullinax
DP: 🙋‍♂️
Sound Mixer: Zach Siewert
Grips: Ben Hensen & Diego Becerra

🎥 Shot on RED Dragon - X with Zeiss CP.2 lenses.