Videography

Samples ➠

I really shoot all types of videos, here are a few that are online that you can check out.

Event footage

I had shot some good video of the Wellington Hotel implosion, but I wasn't the only one with the idea. People had shots from all angles, so I synchronized nine of my favorite videos into one explosive awe-inspiring masterpiece. I left the sound for all nine clips on, so I recommend watching with your computer's speakers set to full-volume for the best experience.

Ultimate frisbee videos

Over the years I've videotaped (sometimes with friends' help behind the camera) and edited dozens, maybe even over 100, ultimate frisbee events. This is a link where you can see a handful of them.

Reporting videos

A lot of my videos are news-related. This is a video report I put together for The Daily Gazette about the clean-up after the flooding in Rotterdam Junction after Hurricane Irene in 2011. I also shoot videos of anything else I find interesting like this car fire or this house fire or Bill Nye coming to town.

Concert footage

I shoot so much concert video, I don't even know where to begin. This is one of the most recent videos where I just happened to be shooting video at the Schenectady Battle of the Bands. The winners, The Stockade Kids, asked to use my footage to make their own video. I think it came out pretty well.

Vacation footage

Is there really anything more fun to document on film than a vacation? Here's my family (as we were in 2012) on vacation in Vermont.

I got my start with digital video with Quicktime 1.0 in 1994. Most computers at the time couldn't even handle playing video, so it was just novelty until 1999, when Final Cut Pro 1.0 came out and I was hooked. I immediately bought a digital camcorder and started shooting and editing video, teaching myself the artistic sides to it, how scenes should flow, how the FCP's non-linear editing works, advantages and disadvantages to the various codecs, etc etc. Since the 1990s, I've shot and edited over a thousand videos.

Shooting

Canon Vixia HF G30 I love how ubiquitous video is becoming. We're now seeing video that we'd never plan to catch on tape every day (like a meteor on a dash cam), and memories which would have never been able to be recorded before if we didn't happen to have a video camera on the cell phones in our pocket, and the videos that are planned - today's professional and prosumer video cameras make them look better than ever. Most often I shoot concerts, weddings, ultimate frisbee games and tournaments, and other events planned and unplanned that are great to catch on camera. Perhaps it's the nostalgic soul in me, but I love how it's a form of time travel to see an old video, or to document something in a journalistic sense.

Editing

As I said before, I've been a big fan of Final Cut Pro since 1999, using it regularly for over 15 years. After upgrading to FCPX in 2014, my workflow has really sped up. And while I wouldn't consider myself an "expert" user compared to some, I am very familiar with the application and the best workflow, and my years of experience editing videos really help in making the best videos possible. If you're interested, I edit with 1080p 60fps ProRes 422 LT, I do color correction, audio editing and filtering, multicam editing, and too many other little things to mention.

Compressing

Compreesing video In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was the go-to guy in the capital district (or anywhere really, second only to the legendary Ben Waggoner) for video compression. Video files require a lot of data, a lot of people were still on 56K modems, good video compression was really difficult. I could often squeeze the videos down half the file size with no noticeable visual or audio difference from what consumer compression software at the time could do. With today's modern codecs, faster internet speeds, and websites that can compress your videos for you, it doesn't really make much sense to hire someone to do it. But it comes down to... do you want to host the videos on a commercial site, or your own? I like hosting my own.

Coding for web

What good is video if you don't have the means to share it with others? One of my other video specialties is knowing how to place self-hosted videos on your website with the new(ish) HTML5 video tag. It goes well with my web developer background. It's good to know things about preloading, metadata, sizing the video responsively, the poster image, the JavaScript API, and browser and codec support. I know it all.

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Contact me!

If you would like to get in touch with me about a potential job, just shoot me an e-mail at email obscured.