We are very excited to announce the completion and launch of our short film fable Anirniq produced as an entry for the Parallel Lines competition hosted by Philips Cinema and RSA Films (Ridley Scott).

Filmed on the northern tip of Baffin Island, Anirniq – the Inuit word for breath – is a 3 minute film about an Inuit man confronting the loss of his father when a young boy on his first, narwhal hunt.

The story explores the Inuit belief that when someone dies their spirit goes into the living creatures around them and thus the Inuit saying: The great peril of our existence is that our diet consists entirely of souls.

The story and concept was crafted based on the rules of the Parallel Lines competition which challenged filmmakers from around the world to interpret a set six lines of dialogue. The film had to use all six lines and no others in the exact order they were presented. The project was an extremely rewarding challenge and we are proud of the final film that we created and the lengths we went to see it through!

When the time is right, please make sure to vote for our film! Check back with us here or subscribe to get updates. Below are some links to the project:

Film Blog
Film on Youtube
Behind The Scenes Photos
Film on Vimeo

I feel it is important to talk about this now. It is important to talk about it before there is any final product to scrutinize, criticize, love or hate. It is important because it is the most essential element and no matter where we arrive, no matter what we make, no matter if we feel we fail or succeed we must first take a chance and believe. That is the most vital commitment. We must have faith and be willing to be the fool, if perhaps for just a moment. We must be willing to fall on our face. Like children learning to walk, talk or ride a bike we need to except that it is an imperfect process full of bumps, bruises and broken sentences. But the shear act of trying and challenging ourselves is the only way we can possibly grow and learn and evolve what we do. As all travelers can appreciate, it is the journey, not the destination that truly matters.

This summer I had an incredible journey. I am yet unsure of the destination but I feel I am here at the summit, surrounded by talented and brave individuals who either believed or learned to believe in this project. That is a special and incredible feeling. I just wanted to remind all of us who have ideas, crazy ideas, even silly ideas that it is absolutely critical that we don’t sit idle and wonder ‘should I?’. ‘Can I?’. Can you really afford not to? That is the real question.

Whether you like or dislike what you make, please love the passion and efforts you invested to make it happen. That is what makes us our process wondrous.

We have returned from Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and we will be updating our short film blog daily, reflecting back on the trip and looking forward at post production. We have also uploaded behind-the-scenes images from the project on our flickr page:

Baffin Island Flickr Page
Anirniq Short Film Blog

We are extremely excited that Tanya Tagaq has enthusiastically joined the creative team for our short film Anirniq. Tanya's mesmerizing music was an immediate choice for me to be the voice for this film. Not only did it make sense from a cultural perspective given Tanya's style is rooted in Inuit throat signing but the visceral tones of the music provided the tension and beauty that we needed to juxtapose in the story.

I first heard Tanya perform live with the Kronos Quartet at the Chan Center in Vancouver several months ago. How would I know this was an unanticipated audition for a film we were about to conceive for the upcoming Parallel Lines competition.

Read more about Tanya and our short film at our production blog:

Anirniq Blog

We have officially launched our production blog for the short film Anirniq, our entry for the Philips Parallel Lines competition. The blog will feature all behind the scenes and project progress as we prepare to depart in 3 weeks for the northern tip of Baffin Island, north of the Arctic Circle. Please take a look and continue to follow our updates. It should be an exciting adventure and a mighty challenge to pull everything together, we hope you share in the journey:

Anirniq Blog

We at Brüdder are very excited at the challenge we have set before us. What is life without some adventure? Our current trial of choice is a global, short film competition which will have us produce a 3 minute film by August 8th based on a predetermined script. And that's not truly the challenge. We feel we have an exciting and relevant concept, the tricky part is that we need to film it in a specific part of the Arctic and it needs to happen within a month.

Needless-to-say, a quick jaunt to the Arctic on the rapidly melting sea ice patrolled by hungry polar bears isn't just a walk in the park and isn't cheap. But we will not let this stop us. That is why we have created our Brüdder Baffin Bound Promotion. We are offering highly subsidized video productions and photo shoots for 5 potential clients in order to quickly raise capital for this expedition. We love the idea of this because it is a win-win scenario. Our potential clients and partners get professional marketing materials and we get to make an exciting short film.

If this sort of collaboration sounds exciting to you or you know an individual or organization who could benefit from this then please pass it on. If you simply want to follow our adventure then keep in touch as we will be posting an ongoing website dedicated to the project, including behind-the-scenes vignettes and stories. Can Brüdder do it? Of course we can (cheer & shake pom poms now).

Baffin Bound Promotion

Kickstarter

This is a great program set up in the United States to help support creative endeavors of all sizes. I love the model of the artistic and business community sharing their ideas and concepts and people supporting them financially in varied donations. I think this model goes beyond just the financial support, it empowers people to initiate projects that might fly under the radar of traditional or governmental funding and allows the public to feel inspired and connected to exciting enterprise.

So what did we learn by attending the Blend Images Conference in Palm Springs?

Firstly, and most important, the iPhone is not resistant to prolonged bathing in a hot tub.

Secondly, we are on the right track.

As invitees, I attended the private, conference attended by some high profile industry insiders with my photography colleagues Noel Hendrickson and Steven Errico. The theme was the evolution of motion for still photographers. As one of the few, sole Video Producers there I could have waved my fist in fury, defending my pixelated turf but instead it was a reminder of the digital renaissance that my colleagues and I had already been preparing for.

Several months earlier, Noel, Steven and my production company Brüdder had made preparations for our new Collective which focused on collaborative team of digital artists producing content simultaneously in multiple formats, namely video and photography. It was a process we were already thoroughly engaged in whether as part of our regular, collaborative stock shoots for Getty Images or for clients who were both aware (and unaware - an education process was required) that they would benefit from shooting video and still content simultaneously - an approach that is not only cost effective in the long term, but more consistent and inspired in creativity. The more experienced minds collaborating and working together to achieve a single goal, the more succinct and ultimately the higher the quality of the final product.

The Pott’s Photo-Marketing Blog has a good article on this here which an industry friend Sarah Tesla had tweeted about as well:
Content Convergence

In the spirit of that collaboration Noel, Steven and Brüdder organized a stock shoot in and around Palm Springs taking advantage of the proximity of the wind farms and Joshua Tree National Park. Some samples here:

Getty Images - Couple Sunset Shot from Brüdder on Vimeo.

Time Lapse Motion Control Rig Test #1 from Brüdder on Vimeo.

Timelapse photography is one of those mesmerizing but evasive techniques. It takes dedication, skill and a mix of fortuitous timing and being in just the right position to pull off a truly engaging and effective timelapse shot.

Here at Brüdder we have been experimenting with timelapse photography for some time, and as great as the shots are there is a level of commitment that few put in to take their shots to the next level.

Over the past few months, we have engaged in the challenge of building our own motion control timelapse rig. Inspired by the great culture of sharing found on the internet and websites and forums such as Timescapes where people share their amazing work, often constructing devices with regular consumer products, adapting them in such a way to pull of epic and stunning motion controlled timelapse imagery.

Timescapes

The project begun by getting our hands on a MEADE telescope head, as used by MiLapse:

MiLapse

This is a fantastic bit of technology used to pan & tilt the camera over several hours, we got ours for $150 second hand (with a tripod and telescope). This is a fraction of the cost of any professional dedicated pan & tilt solution. On its own this head can create some amazing imagery, just work out your start and end shot, the degrees between them and away you go.

There is a calculator online for you here:

Online Calculator

The next order of business was how to make a robust and portable timelapse dolly system. This took some planning, but once the parts were ordered it came together extremely well.

We opted for the device aptly dubbed the “TIME MACHINE” from B.Mumford Microsystems:

Time Machine

This is a simple timelapse controller that interfaces with our Canon 5DmkII or the Canon 7D and utilizes a highly precise rotary table. We used the rotary table to drive the crank on the Pocket Dolly from Kessler Crane:

Kessler Crane

The Pocket Dolly was literally the only HD-DSLR slider system we could find at the time with a built in crank system. They literally made the majority of the rig for us. I have since found out they are in the process of releasing a motor driven unit for the Pocket Dolly and Cine Slider to do motion controlled timelapse. This is great as it will give everyone the opportunity to be able to buy and try moco timelapse if building their own isn’t something they want to do.

Motion Control Timelapse

With the Time Machine, Pocket Dolly and MEADE telescope head we had the basis for our motion control rig. A great, local machine shop here in Vancouver and only a few blocks from our studio http://www.smithindustriesltd.com/ helped us weld, cut and form all the fixings required.

We did our first preliminary, field test using an emergency powerpacks to power the whole system. In theory, we should be able to run a motion control timelapse for over 24 hours...we will let you know once we have tested it out and we will be sure to share the results.

So here it is, our Motion Control Timelapse rig. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Hangar 18 Creative Group, based in Vancouver, Canada launched their new site which included work produced by Brüdder.

Hangar 18 Creative asked Brüdder to produce a series of looped videos featuring each of their staff in a generic location or scenario of their choice. Each video bares the iconic Hangar 18 reference to a "cheesy UFO caught on tape". The videos are a playful way of introducing the unique personalities of each H18 team member. Frames from the videos have also been used as landing pages throughout the website.

All of the videos were shot on the Canon 5D MKII in and around Vancouver.

Thanks to the H18 team for being so much fun!

Hangar18 Website

Thanks to everyone who contributed so much to this project. This was truly a hands on affair and we couldn't have done it without your blood (mainly thanks to all the mosquitos), sweat (as evidenced by the final days of my walking cast) and tears (generally when we had to say good-bye to such amazing people). A special thanks to those who donated their time and expertise and the community of Squamish for being so committed and incredibly welcoming. We already miss our home away from home (AKA: the Executive Suites and all the wonderful staff).

Working with Tourism Squamish, lead by Lesley Weeks, was a treat as they trusted us with their little baby (and even had one along the way - congrats Katherine) and supported us without question (well, sort of). They literally joined us out in the field when called for and Lesley even broke the same leg/foot as I did during the production as not to make me feel left out.

I especially want to acknowledge my dedicated team: Amy Jones, the backbone and most patient and unflappable co-producer. Jon, the "Atlas" of all editors bearing the weight of so much footage. DPs Vince and Naim for their great talents. Taylor for his sense of humor and all around skill set. Craig the jackest-of-all-tradesman and unlimited cameos. Cheekeye for his patience and star power. And everyone else who joined the team along the way.

Thanks again, we look forward to seeing you all soon and collaborating once more.

Visit the Brüdder Tourism Squamish page here.
Visit the behind-the-scenes Flickr page here.

Flickr Photo Credit:chrisflyer



Brüdder will once again be collaborating with photographer Pete Webb as we travel to Morocco for Neilson, the International Adventure Tour Company operating out of the UK. This should prove to be a challenging and exciting project taking us through the markets of Marrakech to the deserts of the Sahara, from the High Atlas Mountains to the surf towns of the western coast.

Brüdder will be producing a commercial marketing video for Neilson as well as library of high definition stock video content.

Follow the Brüdder Blog and Flickr pages for regular updates on the adventure and workflow.

The Nivea video shoot is successfully complete. The production, shot on RED was a series of short vignettes to populate Nivea's global website, highlighting a series of exercises and "On The Go" workouts to contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

The production was a collaboration with the digital agency Blast Radius Amsterdam for the client Nivea based in Hamburg, Germany. The challenge was integrating the new video content into the website design while maintaining consistency with pre-determined graphic design and a photo shoot completed several months earlier.

Brüdder is currently in post production with an aim for a fairly quick turn around of the final product given the pending launch of the new website.

Check out more behind the scenes shots at our production Flickr page: Brüdder Flickr

Winters in Vancouver can be pretty wet, dark and gloomy so the prospect of shooting a series of videos for Nivea that must look and feel like summer had its obstacles. But with some quick planning and a truck load of sod and foliage, we felt confident we could make the transformation. A full day of shooting was required outside on a residential patio and with relentless rainfall leading up to the shoot day we opted for a couple of white, 20x30 tarps to string over the backyard and essentially create a massive tent. With 3M wrapping so many structures around the city for the upcoming Winter Olympics, we should have perhaps just given them a call. Lucky for us, our weather karma proved high as we found the skies open and the sun pour down on us instead. This created some new issues but we were able to quickly adapt by using the same tarps to essentially track the suns path and control the hard light splashing throughout our set.

We used a blow torch to dry all the patio stones and your basic propane heater to keep our scantily clad Nivea model Jocette Coote from having what she called "chicken skin" in the cold weather.

We look forward to completing the edit and posting our results - stay tuned.

I had the pleasure of attending the Grande Luxe Hall at the Western Front last night and an intriguing set of musical performances as part of the ongoing CLAMOUR series featuring artists Cris Derksen of Vancouver and and a mesmerizing, improvised electronic/sax duet performed by Chantale Laplante of Montreal & Jeremy Brown of Calgary. The series runs every Thursday from 5-7pm in the month of October and is a great apres work musical interlude for anyone looking for a relaxed, interactive sonic experience - highly recommended. Cost is $10 at the door which gets you a free drink at the bar. Check it out at www.sonicpresence.ca then don't miss the last show on October 29.