EmpyreanMedia

Sewanee undergraduate research video

stephen — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:43:08 +0000

This video was produced for The University of the South and focuses on undergraduate research opportunities.

Sewanee EMS video

stephen — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:37:56 +0000

This video was produced for the Sewanee student volunteer EMS department.

February’s RN: Real Nurses

stephen — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:26:56 +0000

I’m excited to share this video about UNC pediatric oncology nurse Jeanne Gartner. Nathan Clendenin and I traveled to Las Cruces, New Mexico to film her in January during the Mesilla Valley Hor Air Balloon Rally. This video is our second episode of the Real Nurses series. It was a wonderful trip. We had a blast filming. Have a look and leave some comments if you like it!

Real Doctors Real People – Sara Wobker

stephen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:12:13 +0000

This week is exciting because I have several videos that I worked on that are going live. Today, UNC launched February’s Real Doctors, Real People video about pathologist Sara Wobker. Sara practices the equestrian sport of “dressage.” Nathan Clendenin and I were able to spend some time with her and her horse Brew recently and the video below is the result. Special thanks again to Ross Nelson of Brown Hound Music and Sound for the great music and audio mix.

Sewanee Fire Department video

stephen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:55:20 +0000

Last November, I got to visit my alma mater, The University of the South, for my 10 year reunion. I stayed afterward for a week to produce three videos for the Office of Marketing and Communications. I’m excited to report that they released the first video on YouTube today – about the Sewanee Fire Department. It’s a unique fire department that is staffed largely by college students. The video profiles the student director of the department.

I shot it by myself on my Canon 5d Mark II and was able to ride along in a fire truck and film a fire drill. As a camera operator, I tried to put myself in the heart of the action so that the viewer could share in the intensity of fighting a fire.

I collaborated with Ross Nelson on the music and sound mix. I really love how his custom compositions add an extra layer of quality to my work.

Enjoy the video, and please leave feedback so I can continue to improve my work!

Real Nurses launch!

stephen — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:42:22 +0000

This video is the first episode of the Real Nurses series, produced in collaboration with Nathan Clendenin. Special thanks to Ellen Ciompi for letting us film her!

We’re excited to see where this series takes us. Next month, look for a colorful new episode that’s sure to lift your spirits.

White Sands, New Mexico

stephen — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:23:50 +0000

Here’s some shots from a quick visit to White Sands, New Mexico. Nathan Clendenin and I were in the area to film the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally this weekend. It was a beautiful day, and filming in a balloon is incredible. I head to Uganda on Tuesday so I hope to post some pictures from across the pond soon. Enjoy the shots!

real doctors, real people: Dr. Paul Godley

stephen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:29:16 +0000

This video was shot in collaboration with Nathan Clendenin for the Real Doctors Real People Series, which is sponsored by UNC Hospitals. Edited by Stephen L. Garrett. Special thanks to Brown Hound Music and Sound for the audio mix.

real doctors, real people is back!

stephen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:52:46 +0000

I’m excited to share the January episode of real doctors, real people featuring Dr. Paul Godley.

The real doctors, real people series is produced for the UNC Medical Center News Office by Nathan Clendenin.

I’ve been collaborating with Nathan Clendenin as co-producer and editor for the series since 2011. I generally help Nathan shoot and conduct interviews and then we work together on the edit. This is the 15th episode! We shoot the series on Canon 5d Mark IIs.

This episode was fun because I got to try a motion tracking technique that you can do with Apple’s Motion program. You can see this technique in the section of the video when Dr. Godley is looking at the pictures on the back of his camera. I shot over his shoulder with a 50mm 1.4 lens with a wide-open aperture to really isolate the back of the camera. Then I used Motion to lock the images to the camera screen. It’s fun because it attaches points where you ask it to (in this case the edge of the camera LCD screen) and then tracks them for each “keyframe” of the shot. Then, it uses that info to track the edges of the overlaid photos, so it looks like the photos are moving along with the camera screen. It’s not perfect, but I think it works for this video. What do you think?

Flammable Evergreens: Post Holiday Catharsis

stephen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:42:34 +0000

Tonight I took my new 16-35mm lens out for a test drive. What a fun lens! The only challenge I ran into was forgetting how close I was to things like people running away from exploding Christmas trees. The lens allows you to be a few feet from your subject, but it looks like you’re shooting from much further away. It should come with a warning: objects in viewfinder much closer than they appear! Enjoy the shots.
*Click on any image to view larger versions.

Under a clouded-over full moon we drove through rural Orange County near Chapel Hill, NC.

Nathan, our evening's chauffeur, invited me to his church's annual Christmas tree burn.

After loading up on hotdogs, many attendees bring their own trees and drag them toward the fire.

As the crowd looks on, the real pyromaniacs brave the heat to throw trees on the fire.

Sometimes they experiment with several trees at once!

The event organizer stokes the fire in a very manly way.

Embers filled with Christmas spirit past race toward the moon.

The event organizer calls on the pyromaniacs to fetch more trees.

Nathan is entranced by the scene.

We watch one more burst of tree-fueled fury before heading home. I'm already looking forward to next year!