Nashville Crew Shoots Political Ad in Florida

I was going to head back to Nashville after a nice vacation with my family on Edisto Island, SC.  Instead, the office sent me to Orlando to shoot a political ad in Florida.  I was like, “Cool!  It looks like my vacation got extended a day or two.”  Armed with the HDX 900 and a Nano Flash, I headed to Orlando, FL.

I’m just checking out the shot and looking good while doing it.

While I can’t go into a bunch of detail since the ad has yet to be released, we shot a total of four interviews with residents of Florida.   Our first set up was in Orlando.  We shot it outside to save time considering the other three interviews were three hours away in West Palm Beach, FL.  I used a 400w HMI and 200w HMI to light my subject.  A scrim was used to eliminate the harsh shadows of the sun.  We knocked out this interview and headed south for West Palm Beach.

We did our second interview outside as well.  Afterwards we went inside to finish the day.  Shifting from an outdoor set up to an indoor set up was certainly a challenge.  Especially given the fact that time was not on our side.  I suppose it rarely is.  While I was setting up for the second interview I had my grip focus on staging gear for the two indoor interviews.   I think that helped make the transition smoother.

On top of all of this, I was transferring footage from the Nano Flash to the producer’s hard drive when time permitted.  I used the Nexto as a “middle-man.”  This way not only did the producer have a digital copy of the footage but so did I.  The producer was able to start editing on his flight back to DC.  I just love it when you combined the Nano Flash with an awesome camera like the HDX-900.

A screen grab from our Orlando setup.