Nashville Crew Shoots For The Big Ten Network at Northwestern University

One of the best parts about my job is the traveling.  I never know where my next shoot will be.  Maybe it’s in St. Louis, Little Rock, New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis or even home in Nashville.  I love visiting these great cities but one of my favorite places has to be Chicago.  When I work in Chicago it feels like home.  That’s because I’m from the Midwest, Cleveland to be exact.

Dhani Jones at Northwestern University.

Anyways, enough about me, I have to tell you about this awesome shoot I did in Chicago recently.  I headed up to the Windy City for the Big Ten Network to shoot stand-ups and two interviews with former football player, Dhani Jones.  I was shooting on the Panasonic HDX-900.  A second cameraman was shooting on the Canon 5D.

Our day started at Northwestern University’s campus.  We shot tosses with Dhani Jones.  I had a whole grip truck at my disposal.  Unfortunately we spent most of the day battling the weather.  Our initial setup was more tuned for a cloudy day.  Then the rain came down and we hustled to get the camera and lights covered.   Then the sun came out and we had to adapt.  However, we got the job done and moved on to another set up close by.

Dhani Jones interviews MSU graduate, John Shinsky.

I had a blast working on this shoot.  I must admit a big part of that was due to the fact that I got pushed around on a dolly all day.  Utilizing the dolly for the tosses and as the second camera on the first interview really added to the quality of the shoot.  The trick to making the most of the dolly is to play off of objects in the foreground.  I definitely made this happen with the setup we did at the steps.  By playing off of the railing the movement of the shot is better defined.

Thanks to the rain we spend most of the day trying to play catch up.  Our day ended with an interview with Northwestern football coach, Pat Fitzgerald.  It was a blast working with The Big Ten Network.  I can’t wait to shoot for them again!

Dhani Jones doing some tosses on the steps.