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On Thursday, January 5th, Axios Productions once again teamed up with IFC to shoot, produce, and edit the premiere event for Season 2 of IFC's latest hit series, Portlandia. It'a a sketch comedy show created and writtern by Fred Armiston of Saturday Night Live and actress Carrie Brownstein, formerly of the band Sleater-Kinney, both of who were on the red carpet to talk about the latest season and whats in store moving forward. Also making an appearance on the carpet and at the after party were a slew of guest stars and celebrity friends including Jeff Goldblum, Seth Meyers, Andy Samberg, and Jack McBrayer (Kenneth from 30 Rock).
Portlandia premiers a new episode every Friday night at 9pm and is filled with some of the quirkiest characters on TV (most played by Brownsten and Armiston) and a variety of unexpected guest stars such as Eddie Vedder and Edward James Olmos. When you get Edward James Olmos in a skit, you know you've got something good!
To get a quick idea, check out this skit with Jeff Goldblum, it cracks me up everytime...I mean, long has Jeff traveled from the days of Brendel Fly!
Special thanks to Senior Producer Tom Kettells for working his red carpet magic as always!
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So production, headed by Axios Director of Photography Matt Matossian, consisted of a four camera Sony EX3 camera set and included a swinging jib arm, one host camera complete with an Ipad telemprompter, and two roaming broll cameras all on the sidewalk and in the middle of 5th Avenue. With the help of our ;)
Tricaster 450 Extreme, director Jon Johnnidis was able to cut each camera in real time as it was streaming live through our host site, Livestream, with an embed on Lord & Taylor's website. The entire event lasted a total of one hour and included a variety of interviews including Kathy lee Gifford who also performed with the Young Peoples Chorus of NYC.
The actual building of the windows took more than 8 months from conception to completion and Axios stopped in periodically to document the progress as is seen in the Making of the Holiday Windows video.
Once the shoot ended, it was then our job to break the 20 person crew and all of our equipment down and head back to our Brooklyn home base to begin the edit. As is customary with media friendly events such as these, turnaround time is essential to ensure news coverage the following day, both broadcast and online, while the story is still hot. Under the direction of Axios lead editor Mark Johnnidis, we began the overnight edit for the creation of a standard Broll Package for media distribution, and an event Recap Sizzle Reel for online distribution as can be seen below.
As always, teaming up with Lord & Taylor for the unveiling of their Holiday Windows is one of our favorite projects of the year as it not only fills us all with some holiday cheer early in the season, but their entire team is a pleasure to work with! We look forward to more events with Lord & Taylor in the near future while continuing to expand our Axios Live productions!
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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No joke, you can win $1000 just for shooting a quick video of a Sweet or Savory experience you had while dining out. Last week, Axios Productions shot a video for a contest restaurant.com is running until October 21st. Basically, all you have to do is tell of a "sweet" moment that happened while you were dining out, like a marriage proposal, or, tell about something “saucy” that took place…like a guy dressed in a superman costume kissing a waitress. Anyway, Im sure you have tons of these moments, so why not try to win some $$?? Check out the contest details here!
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n a production note, it was a very quick turnaround project that was shot on Monday, September 26th, and delivered on Friday, September 30th! The main challenge we had for this shoot in particular, besides the tight turnaround, was shooting the entire video in one continuous shot, without any cuts, while keeping a high level of production value. We ended up using what has become our “Go To” camera, the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR, with a 24-70mm Canon L Series lens set at 35mm, on a homemade 12 foot PVC sliding track, which we were building, bolting, sanding and finessing right up until the camera started rolling…it’s just how these things go. The actual shoot lasted about 5 full hours, with another 5 hours added on for load in, setup, break down and load out, and as I’m sure all of our wonderful extras would tell you, it certainly was not a one take and done situation! Between nailing all of the lines, precisely timing everyone’s entrance, getting a smooth camera slide, making sure the subject was in focus throughout, and various other detail oriented components that presented themselves, we’re pretty happy with only 5 hours of shooting! Regardless, the final product came out looking great and the client was very pleased so, mission accomplished.
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Special thanks to our lead, Tracy Pendergast, who as always was incredibly patient and professional through the entire day, Ed Steltz, who endured a less than perfectly fitting superman costume, our friends at Likeable Media for their stellar performances and support, all of our extras, and of course the entire crew.
Additionally, we would like to thank our close friends over at Huntington Social for allowing us to use their incredible restaurant for an entire day to capture what we needed. As always, the on site staff was amazing, the food was beyond anything a Hollywood craft service setup could provide, and of course, the location was perfect. Looking forward to more food and drink soon at The Social!
Axios Productions Credits:
Director: Jon Johnnidis
Director of Photography: Matt Matossian
Editor and Motion Graphics: Mark Johnnidis
]]>There were seven separate sessions over the course of the day including discussions on the positive and negative effects of the “open internet,“ America’s standing worldwide in internet connectivity (surprisingly we’re down to 25th), the use of technology for social good, and a live demo showing how social activists were able to circumvent the blocked internet in Egypt and post their videos for the world to see. The industry ;)
leaders present for the sessions included Spike Lee, Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee, venture capitalist and prominent blogger Fred Wilson, and a last minute surprise visit by none other than Bubba himself, President William Jefferson Clinton! President Clinton showed up a bit late but spoke very eloquently and candidly for almost an hour on subjects such as tech spending, the ;)
media’s inability to stand behind facts and ask the right questions, and discussed the growth of the tech industry in recent years by revealing that he only sent two emails while president and that “when I took office in ’93, there were 50 sites on the internet…and cell phones weighed 5 pounds and were better for building your biceps as opposed to social change." (Click here for another bite from Clinton)
We'll post some more clips as we finish editing them down but check out this debate between Damian Kulash from rock band OK GO! (they bursted onto the web spotlight with their treadmill video) and comedian John Hodgman.
Wired for Change: May the Best Band Win from Ford Foundation on Vimeo.
Of course, special thanks to the amazing 15 person Axios crew and everyone at the Ford Foundation who helped seamlessly pull off a 3 camera HD shoot complete with a tricaster, implementation of motion graphics, lighting, music, and a giant brass band marching the crowd to lunch! Looking forward to teaming up with the Ford Foundation again in the near future to help raise awareness and promote social change!
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On Monday, November 15th, Axios Productions will be working with Lord and Taylor to host a live streaming event right on 5th avenue between 38th and 39th streets, in front of their flagship store, in celebration of their annual holiday windows. The live stream will begin at 5pm and can be seen on the Lord and Taylor website. The event will be hosted by television personality Allison Hagendorf and there will be live performances from the Young Peoples Chorus of New York City and Tony award-winner Kristin Chenoweth. ;)
This event marks the first time ever for a store to live stream it’s annual unveiling of their holiday windows. For anyone in the city, come check it out! We’ll start at 5pm and go until about 6pm and the windows will be unveiled at 530pm. Its gonna be a really fun event to ring in the Christmas season and for those cannot make it in person, definitely check it out online right here live! For added incentive to watch, if we hit the 5000 viewer mark online, Lord and Taylor will donate an additional $1000 to the American Red Cross in Greater New York on top of the $10,000 they’ve already pledged! Charity, holiday windows, music, special guest stars, an incredible host…what more can you ask for on a mid November Monday?!]]>;)
Last spring, I traveled down to the remote region of Panama known as Bocas Del Toro, a tiny archipelago with a laid-back vibe, a charming town, exciting nightlife, and incredibly friendly people. The purpose of the trip was to create a marketing video for Philip Albrecht, the owner and operator of Bocas Villas, a series of over the water houses in the middle of the Caribbean. The trip was truly a unique experience and we were not only able to explore the entire region while capturing beautiful footage, but we also had an amazing time just relaxing on our porch or enjoying the various restaurants and bars in town. Check out the Bocas Villas video here.
About a month ago, Dateline NBC approached us to license some of the footage shot in Boca;)
s in order to tell the unfortunate story of the ruthless murder of, to date, seven innocent victims at the hands of serial killers William Nathan Holbert, aka “Wild Bill Cortez” (pictured here), and his wife Laura Michelle Reese. This story is so incredibly sinister and the facts surrounding the case, as revealed in Datelines “Paradise Stolen” episode which premiered on Friday, October 22nd, truly portray real life Natural Born Killers Mickey and Malory. Not only would Holbert murder his victims in cold blood by shooting then unsuspectingly in the back of the head but also bury them in the yard of the house he would then steal and claim as his own!
You can watch the full episode here and even explore the case as it unfolds, and in more depth, at Don Winner’s panama-guide.com. Thanks to the efforts of victims Cher Lynn Hughes and Bo Icelar's friends such as Don Winner, and various other ex-pats on the ground in Bocas Del Toro, the Panamanian authorities were eventually convinced to investigate and reveal this gruesome story.
While it’s certainly a blemish on this otherwise magical destination, I think it's important we were able to help raise awareness regarding these maniacs and more importantly, to honor the victims lives and tell their stories. Unfortunately in the world we live in there is truly no escaping evil, but that will never dissuade me from exploring and enjoying remote and beautiful locations such as Bocas Del Toro, Panama.
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