Holiday House - A Short Doc About That House

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 5 years since my friend Steve Stuart and I made this short documentary in one weekend for the 2006 International Documentary Challenge.

It seemed seasonally appropriate to put it online now. If you live on the North Shore of Boston it's likely you know the house in question.

I shot this with my venerable old Panasonic DVX100A (not so old then). The timelapses were done with a consumer Nikon camera with crappy compression--and show a lot of artifacting. I'd never shoot them that way these days!

As usual, scratching the surface of ordinary people reveals unexpected depths. Here's the blurb:

Holiday House tells the small town story of "That House" on Rt. 62 in Danvers, MA. You know the one you drive by as you head into or out of Beverly, that is usually overflowing with decorations for every conceivable holiday?

Who does that?!? Well, now you know! For Karen McCarthy and friends, it's a labor of love and a celebration of freedom, family and community.

This film was created by Brad Kelly and Steven Stuart in Danvers and Beverly, MA between Thursday, March 23, 2006 and Monday, March 27, 2006 for the International Documentary Challenge.

Floating Pool Footage and Photos Air on CBS

I've blogged about this interesting project before:

Now, CBS Ch2 in New York has featured a short interview with Floating Pool Lady architect Jonathan Kirschenfeld. The piece uses some of the B-roll footage and photos I shot in Louisiana of the pool/barge under construction, as well as upon its arrival in New York City, after the long journey up the East Coast by tugboat.

The Floating Pool Lady passes under the Verrazano-Narrows on its way to NYC

Sadly, the link seems to be broken on CBS2, but you can still see a rather low-res YouTube version of the "CBS Eye on NY" piece here:

photos: ©Brad Kelly Productions

The iPhone Crack'd

iPhone 4 meet concrete:

Well, it happened...

The iPhone 4 is definitely a slipperier creature than my old iPhone 3.

I was still getting used to that fact, and hadn't gotten a case or bumpers, yet, despite Apple's offer of a free one in light of the antenna/reception issue. This was an issue for me, but, after a few days of dropped calls I used a discrete piece of gaff tape over the antenna gap and that solved that problem.

But, alas, gaff tape doesn't provide any shock protection.

So when I dropped it four feet or so, onto a concrete sidewalk, this was the result. I'd dropped once already, with out major effect, but something about the angle of impact this time must have been unfortunate.

Now I'm wondering what to do. It still works, but the back is now a web of iShards and was shedding little chips for a time. I'm worried that the web will spread or a big chunk will fall out initiating a domino effect or leaving sharp shards in my pocket or in my hand.

One person told me to use super glue and wick it into the cracks to stop them from spreading. This sounds reasonable, but I'm worried it'll make the back an ugly mess. Not to mention making further servicing of the innards by Apple or anyone else difficult, if not impossible.

I found a company online called DirectFix that sells a replacement back for $99, but they're currently sold out.

And you have to do the repair yourself.

They provide an instructional video on how to replace the screen that gives a fascinating glimpse inside the engineering marvel that is the iPhone 4.

Let's just say that I'm really glad it's the back cover that broke and not the front, if I have to do this repair myself.

Here's the teardown video if you're interested in what's inside an iPhone:

At least my front screen is still fine and everything seems perfectly functional.

Even the camera still works perfectly, just don't cut yourself framing up a picture!

All photos: ©Brad Kelly 2010

"Inexhaustibly For Anya" World Premier Screening tonight at the Marblehead Festival of the Arts

Just a quick note to let you know that, "Inexhaustibly For Anya," the short documentary I shot and produced (in one crazy weekend for the International Doc Challenge) with Steve Stuart has its World Premier screening tonight on the outdoor screen at the Marblehead Festival of the Arts in beautiful Crocker Park on Front St. in Marblehead, MA.

The screening is scheduled to begin at 9pm. Keri Cahill, Nastia and other supporters will likely be on hand, as well.

Hope you can join us. The weather is supposed to be fantastic. A great way to start the Fourth of July weekend!

"Pie Heist" Selected for Best of Boston Screening

Something has come between Winston (Erik Rodenhiser) and the strawberry rhubarb pie.

I'm pleased to report that our latest short film "Pie Heist," has been selected to screen at the Best of the Boston 48 Hour Film Project screening at the Kendall Sq. Theatre on June 14th.

We shot on a beautiful spring day at the Salem Willows Park. It was an HD shoot (DVCPro HD) on a Panasonic HVX200 using a Brevis35 lens adapter and Nikon primes. It all worked like butter with only one 16GB P2 card. Post was on a MacBook Pro running Final Cut Studio. All done, from conception to delivery, in 48 hours. A real tribute to the spirit and patience of our cast and crew!

In between set-ups, I took a few moments to shoot some stills with my infrared camera:

Ever vigilant, Wilma (Leigh Deacon) can both read and defend a pie.

A reflective Kim Pederson.

Jeremy keeps things running on script.

The Baldwin girls take five.

Winston and Wilma in happier times.

A classic stand-off.

Winston is undeterred.

Get a Free MIT Education Online

Believe it or not, MIT has placed virtually all their courses online and made them available to anyone. Approximately 1900 different classes on MIT Open CourseWare (OCW). Many even have steaming video of the full lectures.

I discovered this when I was contacted by MIT about using a portrait I had taken of MIT President Emeritus Paul Gray to illustrate a feature article on the MIT OCW website.



The portrait in question was actually an HD video still from an interview I had shot, with some Photoshop post-processing--a phenomenon further illustrating the ongoing convergence of the still photography and filmmaking fields. Certainly, a subject worthy of another blog post (or maybe a new MIT course).

Of course, the OCW website cautions that it "is not an MIT education." And that it does not grant degrees or certificates, but it's a stunning educational resource nonetheless.

"Untied" Big Screen Debut at the Brattle Theatre Today

"Untied," a short film I shot this summer, is having its big screen debut today at noon at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge. Many of the cast and crew will be there, as well. Looking forward to seeing it in all its wide-screen glory!


DJ Hazard and Laura Bianca Cipolla shooting the hospital scene.

My previous blog post has a few more details about the shoot.

Scarlet Fever: The RED Scarlet "Debut"

RED Digital Cinema and their RED ONE camera have been shaking up the traditional world of film production for the last few years. And one of their long anticipated products, the RED Scarlet, has been something of a holy grail for indie filmmakers for nearly a year, with rumors of impending release dates circulating online, only to see hopes dashed as it was pushed back and the product features reformulated, time and again.

But, now things are really heating up as a full scale prototype was recently unveiled:

With a 2/3" sensor able to shoot full frame 1080P at variable frame rates up to 30fps and 3K video up to 120fps (in full RAW) it boggles the mind for the price point.

Highly configurable by design, it also shoots stills and is representative of the convergence of photography and video/film that is ongoing in the media professions today. Cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II and the Panasonic Lumix GH1 are offering HD video capabilities along with the vaunted digital stills they were primarily built to provide. And, at a price point far below that of standard high quality video cameras.

RED Scarlet and Nikon D3s size comparison

The Scarlets promise of a relatively affordable camera able to shoot super-high resolution cinema images (and stills) in a very compact package will no doubt move a lot of units -- if it ever truly gets released.

Configured for cinema

RED's innovative modular design concept is also potentially game changing.

More on the RED Scarlet website.