Documonkey.TV

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.

16/11/2023

Spent 3 Days last week traveling to the various locations around downtown Vancouver Filming, Documenting, and interviewing the art and artists of the Lumiere festival 2023 - a festival of light and illuminated interactive art and performance. Ron Simmer showed off his latest incarnation of the Dragon with musical flame throwers and Ember Arts put on their fire show.
Footage and documentation in post behind other projects - I hope to release it by year end.

30/10/2023

Back in Richmond filming The Richmond Orchestra and Choir for Westcoast Recordings for their concert October 28th.

06/10/2023

Sept / Oct 2023 Update:
Sadly no video releases on September as all the projects scheduled to finish in September got log-jammed in the editing que - all four projects are waiting on client deliverables at the finish line so I didnt quite hit the release goal I had targeted.

Instead while in limbo I took a hiatus from filming projects to work for the local stage unions on some of the larger stadium rock-concerts getting my hands dirty building/teardown of LED video walls and stages. (Beyonce / Coldplay ) I would have loved to do the Camera Operation or video switching for the "Beyonce" show but they have their own touring crew for that

From the creative side I was able to do some video documentation and vlogging for the touring BANKSYLAND art show. but the Art show was a bit of a bust and I will release a video about the show as soon as I decide on a creative way to present it.

I still have a shoot for the Richmond Orchestra at the end of October but stay tuned - I might acutally get the logjam to release and finally get to release some of the summer projects. STAY TUNED

28/08/2023

Out in Steveston for the Richmond Maritime festival on the boardwalk docks filming a promotional video for Folk rocker John Michael Lind at the Chinese Bunker Stage. Managed to film his EPK and do a little vlogging -

Despite the forest fire smog it was still a good time and JML is a really good singer and puts on a decent stage show. I think more musicans need to smile and get into their music.

21/08/2023

NEW VIDEO
After a small Art Hiatus I am back editing a backlog of videos that I have had on my back burner for a while Last month I documented Ron Simmers "Nightblooms" art installation at Rutley Park in Langley and interviewed him about the creation and realization of the peice. LED light installation for the betterment of humanity - Here is my art vlog of that experience

In this video I document the building of a large peice of public art in Rutley Park in Langley BC "Nightblooms" created by Ron Simmer (and his crew) who shar...

13/08/2023

As part of my Vlog series - I went out to Vlog Bike Rave 2023 last night

Drone test worked well but it was close to sundown and I cant fly at night so I only got a couple of shots

GoPro Cameras performed admirably for vlogging and hyperlapse despite the low light conditions - it will need editing

Canon R6 got some good stills but the (zero) lighting conditions at the final location meant I needed a tripod for good video shots and the area was too dark with too many unsober people walking around to safely set one up

Good turnout good music and it looked amazing.

In the end I got a few good shots ( and quite a lot of sudden wtf video clips as some drunk cut in front of me mid shooting)

I will make a video of it as soon as I get ahold of the guy who made the soundtrack as it would be cool to use his (her?) music as part of it

17/07/2023

Are you an Entreprenuer or making a presentation , speach , talk or seminar and you want a multcamera video of the presentation - give me a shout - I have put together a few shooting package options for a very reasonable price.

17/07/2023

If you have an upcoming music performance you are putting on and are in need of a multcamera video of the gig. Let me know - I am putting on a summer promotion on live music video

16/07/2023

Got up at the crack of dawn to get out to a public park in the bustling metropolis that is the Township of Langley all to vlog the installation of a 18' ight up flower sculpture by Ron Simmer

Setup some cameras for timelapses and documented the construction. Tried to get a Drone off the ground but the software told me I was unauthorized to fly ( I actually was according to transport Canada map ). Sadly didnt get interviews as everyones brains were melting under the hot sun and there was no time for interviews as one of the key guys had a flight so there were really no breaks in the work. So that means Returning later for interviews and after dark on Monday to film it lit up at night.