Jan 1, 2010
2009 is a wrap… Happy New Year!!
What an incredible year 2009 was having the chance to work on some fantastic projects with both new and familiar faces around the world. A year ago January I climbed the highest mountain in South America, Aconcauga at 22,841′, where I was directing and shooting a branding campaign for Eddie Bauer and their new line of technical outer wear First Ascent. The same project took me to the Himalayas form March to June where I climbed and filmed on Mt. Everest reaching the summit on June 23rd. These two projects were really dreams come true not only because of the summits achieved but because nearly 20 years ago I set out to combine my passions for cinematography and climbing mountains and at that time I could only dream I would actually be doing what I am today professionally.
Fortuitously my experience shooting action in the mountains has translated well into shooting commercials and action on Hollywood features. Just when I thought things couldn’t get better after Everest I arrived home to begin working on the action unit for the upcoming sequel Iron Man 2 . Once again I was working under the helm of the masterful 2nd Unit Director /DP Jonathan Taylor and along side his incredible crew whom I have had the pleasure of working with on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Spiderman III, Iron man, and GI Joe and who are all very good friends of mine now. Following Iron Man 2 I was blessed to find myself working with another favorite of mine, action unit director of photography Paul Hugen. From September to November I was in Albany, NY and Manhattan shooting on the action unit of The Other Guys which was a great time thanks to Paul and our fantastic NY crew.
Come December as the days got shorter and the snow began to fly I wrapped up 2009 directing and shooting for the 6th year in a row Arctic Cat snowmobiles line up of sleds for the 2011 winter season. This has become an annual shoot which is a ton of fun in cold temps and deep snow with a really tremendous crew and agency folks.
You can read about all of these shoots below and always feel free to leave me a comment or contact me with any questions. I have much to be grateful for in 2009 with regards to work, family, and friends. I am very excited for 2010 as there are already several projects lining up that look to make this a great year. Happy New Year to you all and thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. All the best in 2010!!