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Tom Carleton headed up his first 48 hour film group with Jeff Dougherty as his DoP and a last minute crew. You are given a random genre, a line of dialog, a character name, a prop, and 48 hours to script, cast, shoot and edit your film. It’s a lot in very little time but us production geeks think it’s fun. Tom won the award of Best Directing beating out over 40+ other groups that participated. They also won Best Suspense/Thriller Genre and Best Graphics.

On-Set Production Stills

Tom and crew set up for the opening shots.

Jeff Dougherty shoots from a ladder for the opening scene.

Scene 114, take 2. Shooting at the Library Lofts in Detroit.

Dave Yuen working on creating an award for Janice Strawberry, the character given to all 48 hour groups.

Mike Dryden working his Magic on the opening titles for the film.

Before and After.

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Directed by Ryan Betzler, this short 48 hour film marks the third year in a row that Ryan and Scott have teamed up for the 48 Hour Film Project. DoP Scott Dodoro decided to follow the latest fad in shooting with DSLR cameras and shot on the Canon 7D. With a small crew and the actors committed from Craigslist ads they shot at Garden City Hospital for about six hours. Then it was off to Sean Emery’s house for the kitchen scene. The Canon DSLR workflow consists of matching up your HD footage with audio recorded separately on a Zoom4 recorder. To help figure out this mess, Tom Lietz headed up the post process and kept the team going. They won Best in genre for Sci-Fi and Best Special Effects.

On-Set Production Stills

Ryan Betzler directs the talent.

Craigslist cast, (left to right) Sansa Sanyika, Paul Lang and Courtney Zimmer.

(left to right) Ryan Betzler, Sansa Sanyika and Scott Dodoro pose for a photo.

Canon 7D and shoulder rig. The onboard monitor and camera run off an Anton Bauer brick.

Camera, monitor and a nice location.

Group discusses the kitchen scene, and Erika waits patiently.

Writer, and legal counsel, Bryant Osikowicz.

1000 watt light with chimera and the 7D on a doorway dolly.

(left to right) The core crew of Jeremy Maynard, Bryant Osikowicz and Scott Holme set up for the next scene.

While waiting for files to copy, editor Tom Lietz, Ryan and Katie go over the last scene in the script.

This poster was designed by Lindsey Yeo because she is awesome!

My favorite part of directing film projects is working closely with clients from completely different industries.  This also allows me to meet a variety of interesting people and share different experiences and knowledge bases.

This project for Garden City Hospital was a fun challenge.  This assignment was to produce a commercial that would reflect the improvements in the facilities at the Garden City Hospital.  The hospital was being viewed less favorably than similar hospitals in the area because they were not getting their true offerings to a broad audience.  Surveys had shown that the GCH image was suffering and they needed to communicate their strengths.  The fact is GCH is a national top 100 teaching hospital.

We met with Jim Jagger of Occham Razor and his client from the GCH.  We helped put together a plan that would (once again) confront the old adage:  “quick, cheap or good – pick two”.  We had no time, little money and it had to be strong to get the Garden City Hospital’s image up to the hospitals efforts.

With one day to shoot a :60 commercial, DP John Beavers and Mindfield Producer Scott Dodoro recommended the Sony EX3 and the Cannon 7d to keep the project fluid and on budget.  We had to shoot a lot of footage and the day went off without a hitch and stayed completely on schedule.  We were helped immensely as the entire hospital’s cooperation was spectacular.   Bingham Farms Production Plus talent agency was instrumental in getting a casting together on short notice and the talent really excelled.

For the Post production we stayed in-house with Sean Emery editing and doing color correction on the spot in 4 days.  Jim Vance simultaneously put together the graphic’s that graced the end tag.  The production was a complete team effort and a lot of fun to be a part of, from the feedback we have received the fun definitely paid off.

As we live at Mindfield:  have fun, make no enemies, have fun.

Making of the DIA – Through African Eyes commercial from Mindfield on Vimeo.

Mindfield followed the latest craze, shooting with a Digital SLR. We used a Canon 5D at 24fps and on specific shots used a Canon 7D as a second camera. (Partially shot with the iPhone)

Opening Day Fly Over from Mindfield on Vimeo.

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Every spring the United States Air Force executes a fly over to kick off the Detroit Tigers season. Every year the fighter jets, that represent all that is great in America, fly right over our office at 1250 Library Street. 2010 marks our second year of working for the Detroit Tigers in creating media and animations for the outfield scoreboard. Jim Vance and Cinema 4D were used to create the Opening Day graphic and 3D team logos.

You have got to love the creative freedom that a music video allows

I recently directed a two-day effort for friend and artist Mike Ellison to introduce his song titled Stamina.  In this genre as a director you can really have fun with creating images and storytelling.  This hip hop genre song is off of Mike’s second cd entitled Afroflow II.  His Afroflow movement is worthy of several blogs and is a very interesting look at our world.  We had been talking about the video as he was in the final mix of the cd about 6 weeks ago.  The cd was produced at Rust Belt Studios in Royal Oak by Mike Ellison, composed by Art B. Incredible and engineered by Eric Hoegemeyer.  As in most shoots the pre-production momentum builds up until it is finally time to shoot.  This shoot was a huge creative and logistical effort where contributions came from everywhere.

Detroit is a very unselfish artistic community and this project brought together some beautiful people

I encouraged an open creative process on this project where listening and soliciting input and discussions blooms into a great final product.  We had a fun and competent team in place to really develop and grow the music video’s creative.  Mike, DP Jeff Dougherty, Producer Scott Dodoro and Choreographer Aku Kadogo and I were the creative team that built the final concept and look.  Our Editor Sean Emery anxiously awaits his chance to contribute to the final look.  After a massive scout of great locations in Detroit and Pontiac we discovered the perfect location just two blocks from our downtown Detroit office.  Local photographer Michelle Andonian recommended that we take a look at the Virgil Carr Arts Center.  It was an immediate decision.  After several visits and countless hours of location study the reality of so many visual opportunities set in, this would be a job of what we didn’t have time to shoot.

We had help from several suppliers

Vision Bridge, Get-a-grip, Stratton Camera, DPL, Jeff Dougherty, Don Walker and Sean Kelly, all of whom helped to take the production to an elevated level.  We shot on the Red camera with Ryan Betzler managing the immense amount of data that format produces.  The highlights were executing the mix of living art and the performance of Mike in body paint against a cultural mud cloth and the color touches that Jeff’s suggestion brought to the band performance.  Please enjoy some of our pictures taken by Mindfield still photographer Lindsey Yeo who always throws a brilliant perspective through her lens.

Please look for the video release party to be held at our shoot location, and if you can’t make that be sure to look back to the Mindfieldusa.com website for the final cut.

Tom Carleton

Mindfield Director

Jobs with the new Apple iPad

Heard tons of buzz before the release of the Apple iPad this week.  So far mixed reviews coming from both sides.  My take is it’s basically an iPhone on steroids – or it soon will be.  We’ll have to see who comes up with what cool new ways to use it.  The iPad’s larger screen is better suited than the iPhone for the web, watching movies, reading books, newspapers, magazines, and it’s got iWorks.

You have to give it to the folks at Apple; first they invent the iPod and iTunes coolness, then they send the iPod back to the lab and throw it into a big pool of brains where it grows first into the iPhone and now the iPad.  Jobs hires people who drink his kool-aid; they get it, and continue to build on Apples success by keeping their products consistent and friendly.  Apple’s not continually grunting out a mishmash of different products with closed architecture and soon to be forgotten names.

And like the iPhone, wait and see how the iPad works it’s magic to convert non-believers.  I’m interested to see how it’s adopted by the creative community, what new apps will emerge that better enable the iPad as a tool for developing and sharing ideas.

So when you use an iPad, if you find yourself thinking “man, if it would only do this…”, unless your idea is to use it like a George Foreman Grill, you might just have a great idea.  Go for it.

Mindfield – Our Motto is “have fun, make no enemies, have fun”, and we mean it.

Best – Bill

2010 NAIAS Video Screen from Mindfield on Vimeo.

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Mindfield was tasked with repurposing some video and Prius commercials for Toyota’s big screen at the North American International Auto Show.