I was recently asked to create album artwork for the latest album by RecordBreaker, a band from Toronto, Canada. Clicking on the image above will reveal a brief animation showcasing the details of the image. We started with some sketches and concepts based on their music, history and symbolic nature of the bands third album. This is the main image from our shoot and we’re all very happy with the unique and character look we managed to achieve. The album is due to be released very soon so check out their website for more info. Click through for a little more information and pictures on the process we took to create this image. Great work guys and can’t wait to hear the finished record!
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It all started with this: based on some drawings and discussion with the band we decided on the feel of a “movie theatre performance venue” for the whole album package. This main image was to be the main character piece. I began with a scale drawing of it to demonstrate a realistic direction to the band and to figure out perspectives for myself. It soon became apparent that this was going to be a very elaborate composite project in order to get in every idea we all got excited about. The sketching stage is a crucial one to make sure the minds eye actually matches reality.

It was then onto the process of scouting a location. This was surprisingly difficult. None of the several places I went to had the exact character or features I was looking for, so it turned out to be a combination of two: the beautiful marquee from the Royal Cinema, and the vintage looking entrance of the Allenby. Part of the trouble of finding an appropriate space was due to fitting features into the square aspect ratio required and none of the scouting tests I did could get exactly what I was after. Things that had to be fit into the image frame were things like: marquee lettering, previous album covers as posters on the sides, secondary character placements, instruments, etc. Another example of the importance of pre-production.


Finally, we could book the shoot: in these behind the scenes snapshots we were getting everyone’s character poses including the three iterations of each band member (an aspect that ties into an underlying trio theme for their 3rd release) and the instruments. Lighting setups varied significantly (despite the two similar shots above) depending on what we were doing, but the general setup can be seen in here. The setups were adjusted to match (and more importantly stylize) the lighting that would have been present at the actual location. Special thanks goes to my amazing assistants of the day that helped the process go as smoothly as possible.


The final composite: after some necessary blending and manual painting and colouring to give it the illustrated look. Click the image above to see a little animation showcasing the various elements of the image in a more detailed way.
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Here’s a little event trailer I did for the GWN Dragonboat Challenge after spending the day shooting some of the event last week. It’s a very short but dramatic segment that shows some of the intensity and really great sportsmanship of the day.

This is an animation I made for Herbal Infusions, a great tea shop in downtown Toronto. It’s intended to be a video bumper for the companies upcoming videoblog and is based on the logo design by the talented Kevin Matheson. Click on the image above to see the 10-second bumper.

After my trip to Montreal (that I posted about below), I realized I had actually spent a lot more time than I expected shooting motion. It was a really great experience and Montreal is now one of my favourite places. I put together a quick 3 minute edit of the trip that plays out four different excursions during my time there. Among other places, the video highlights the trip to Old Montreal, the Biodome, the view from the Olympic tower, and the beautiful evening experience of Mont-Royal. Click here or on the image above to play it in a new window.

I’ve recently been working with Catalyst Design in creating short spots for Loote.com, a company that provides weekly deals on promotional business ware. The video posted above is just a test reel of the footage I shot and lit from the day. I’m involved as the Director of Photography on the small crew of people creating the funny and quirky videos developed and produced by Catalyst Design. These short shoot days have been a lot of fun; combining the talents of various people in spontaneous and sometimes improvised scenarios. Can’t wait to see what the final product will look like after their post production schedule! I’m sure they will be posted shortly over at the official Loote website, so feel free to check that out too.

While not a normal entry in my SnapBlog, I thought I’d post a quick video anyways. I’ve been working on few motion image projects and this is likely the first of several things of this nature I’ll be sharing. This was just a casual capture of a set by Reed Holland at the Hard Rock Cafe that I happened to stumble across. I thought I’d edit together a quick cut of some of the shots as a creative thanks for an entertaining evening. Keep up the fun live shows guys! Click here or on the image above to see the video.

This is the first test for a series of time lapse projects I’m in the process of developing. Currently, I’m working on building the motion control system that will be required to achieve some of the ideas I have in mind. It’s a simple test, but I’m really excited about the next stages.

I did a quick one-light baking tutorial shoot a little while ago and thought I’d mention that it was just posted by Cupcakes and Sundry. It can be found here on youtube. Turned out to be a great day of shooting and editing. It’s not a very stylized look but it was a great way to put some new camera rig designs of mine to the test. Not to mention a tasty end product!