This simple, “roller-skate” dolly will provide smooth, quiet dolly rolls that one person can set up and operate.  Sure, you can rent one but you don’t always know on which production day you will need the dolly. You can make the basic platform and wheel trucks for about $166.00, less if you use fewer wheels. This dolly rolls on sixteen 65mm roller-skate wheels with ABEC 3 or 5 bearings ($66). The metal V trucks, 8mm axles and welding it all together cost $100. I chose to bolt a high hat ($153.00) to the platform with a 75mm half-ball adapter ($40.00) to level the fluid head and camera.

It glides on speed rail. I made this one 6.5 feet long and 13 inches wide ($125). It would be simple to replace the 6.5 foot sections with 10 foot speed rail for a longer dolly roll outdoors. It mounts onto two low boy stands which you may already own for reflectors or lights (Matthews $265, or Modern Equipment $177, low boy with rocky mountain leg). You can set the speed rail on the ground or apple boxes for low-angle shooting. I keep 6 wedges with the dolly to level the legs.

So, as you see it here the dolly portion costs $359. The speed rail costs $125 for a total of $484 without the low-boy stands.

Weights can be added to the platform without affecting the smooth roll. Weights are used to balance a larger camera, longer lens or teleprompter. I attach a small 7” monitor to the platform to follow the action as the camera rolls.

With a little practice you will be panning as you roll.

Due to the large number of variables, your video could cost roughly from $500 to $3,000 per finished minute.

Well, that’s quite a range. How do you get closer to the lower number? There are 3 ways to save, they are: 1) plan, 2) organize and 3) plan some more.

Pre Production planning is the key to a successful video, both in accurately telling your story to achieve your goals, and to get the best price. A disorganized production day will increase both production and editing time.

A. What existing content can be used in the new video?

1) Old video footage

2) Photos

3) Graphics

B. Major cost factors

1) Script writing; $1200 – $1800

2) Talent, on-camera or voice; Starting at $350 for 2 hours

3) Music (if not royalty free); Starting at $50

4) Motion graphics; Starting at $250

5) Green screen; Starting at $350

6) Teleprompter; 1/2 day – $375, Full day – $550

7) Sound Mixer; Full day $450

The first step for most companies is to get a “No Frills” video on their web site. This could be a 1 – 2 minute video of the CEO speaking to clients or employees. The production would consist of one hour to setup lights and mics, and 30 – 60 minutes with the CEO for as many takes as is necessary. The edit session would be 2 -3 hours for logging, editing, adding a few graphics (supplied by client) and to output for the web. Total cost is around $975.

A basic video where the client (you) provides the script and on-camera talent would cost about $2,500 – $8,000. This would include a few of the “Major cost factors” from above. Most corporate videos with hired talent and motion graphics would cost $8,000 – $20,000. This may involve 2 or more days of production and 5 days of editing. The first client consultation is free. Subsequent meetings go into pre production costs.

You can view and print out my video production checklist here. I will be asking these questions in our first meeting to estimate the cost of your production.

Although I don’t promote myself as a product photographer, My knowledge of lighting and Photoshop enable me to produce high end product ads like this one for Alford & Hoff, cologne for men. The bottle was back lit on a white background, then stripped out and added to the brown background which is simply a photo of the product packaging that was enlarged and diffused. This way a customer can recognize the box in a store without showing the box in the ad. In Photoshop I created the reflection on the tabletop. The color, full-page ad is running in in the USA Today in New York, Chicago and LA. See more product photography.

I was honored to be a part of this evening with so much creative talent in one place at one time. I was also humbled by my peers.

I must thank those creatives who participated in the Speed Dating event on October 28th. Your attitude and energy made the evening a pleasure for everyone. Right to the very end you were friendly and smiling even after listening to 40 presentations and viewing hundreds of images from Valley photographers.

For those of you who were not able to attend, the Speed Dating event was set up to allow 40 local photographers to present their work to 20 companies representing the valley’s advertising, design and editorial community. The event was held at the Levine Machine on 7th Street in Phoenix. Several photographers contributed lighting equipment and labor to transform the warehouse environment into a cool, warmly lit, creative environment in which to view portfolios. First, of course, there was food, drink and chatting and time to view the 40 framed prints that were gifts to the creatives at the end of the evening. Then the photographers descended on the agencies like… well, you know, we’re all looking for work these days.

I must thank Jeff Noble for conceptualizing the event, and Steve Dreiseszun for all his hard work as the Phoenix chapter president of the ASMP, and all the board members. Thanks also go to Professor Penny Dolin and her students of the GIT Commercial Photography Studio at ASU’s Polytechnic Campus for helping during the event.

Exhibitors were: Tempe Camera Repair, MacMedia and Through Each Others’ Eyes.

Let’s do it again…maybe in two years.

I like talking to students. They are so eager to absorb everything about the craft and the business of photography. So I was pleased to be invited to speak to a class for Professor Penny Ann Dolin at the Graphic Information Technology (GIT) school at ASU. The class was learning about portraiture. I demonstrated a few of the technical issues such as white balancing and work flow but I stressed the importance of putting their client at ease to achieve a friendly, confident and relaxed portrait. To do this, I described different ways that I was able to “Connect” with my subjects and told a few stories about problems that may arise and how to work through them.

L.A. Spas wanted to show their new branding, “Adventures in Hydrotherapy”. The spas were filled in their warehouse in LA. Backgrounds were composited in Photoshop. Even the 16 foot long swim spa, fully equipped with pumps and plumbing, was tipped on end for the overhead product shots.

Each Herman Miller chair was shot separately on blue screen by remote control with a Panasonic HVX 200 camera in 720 P30, set to one-shot, single frame recording. More than 2,000 frames were recorded. The blue background was removed with chroma key filters in Final Cut Pro. Each chair had it’s own video track. The size and position of each chair (and logo) within the frame was controlled with motion parameters in the canvas window. The logo was altered in Photoshop to move independently. Music and whistle from SoundRangers.com. Output for web.      Length; 46 seconds.       Production time; 7 days Watch WorkSpaces video

Videotape is history. The two main methods of professional video acquisition are Sony’s HDCAM, which is a 23GB Blue-ray disk, and Panasonic’s P2 card, which comes in 16, 32, and 64 GB sizes. The Blue-ray disk is relatively inexpensive and is also a storage media whereas the P2 card is for acquisition only. Digital data is then backed up onto hard drives and the card is reused up to 100,000 times.

I chose the Panasonic HVX200 camcorder for it’s versatility and 4:2:2 color space so I will list the benefits of P2 (DVCPRO HD).

RELIABLE: P2 cards/cameras are solid state so there are no moving parts in the camera to break down or wear out and the card can withstand shock and record at temperatures from -4 to 140 degrees. You cannot record over your previous clips. There is no drop-out like we had with tape.

FASTER, MORE EFFICIENT WORK FLOW: Recording starts instantly. All clips are immediately accessible as thumbnails just as your photos are on your digital camera; no need to search. If your production requires interval recording (time lapse), fast/slow motion or one-shot recording (animation) the clips will playback in-camera with the intended effect. There is no need for a frame rate converter to see your effects. If you don’t like the clip you can delete it and free-up space for more recordings. If you like it you digitally mark it as “good” which can save time logging. P2 records in a universally interchangeable MXF data file so it’s compatible with Mac and Windows. On location I can unload the data to my Windows laptop through the PCMCIA card slot using the free P2 Viewer software just as I would unload a CF card with photos. Back at the edit suite the camera connects directly to my non-linear editing system where the digitized data files are quickly “copied” to my Mac hard drive or logged directly into Final Cut Pro where they are readily dropped into the timeline. There is no need to digitize the clips as there was with videotape.

The P2 card enables a more efficient work flow in that it allows me to record in the “Native” mode which fits a full 85 minutes of HD recording onto 32GB of card space. I prefer to record in 720P/24PN. The native mode only writes the”native” 24 frames per second to the P2 card. No pull-down frames are recorded. (Animation [one-shot] and time lapse [interval] must be recorded at 30 fps.)

VARIABLE FRAME RATES: Over-cranking and under-cranking were only available with film or expensive video cameras. Now I can record frame rates from 12 – 60 fps for fast/slow motion playback. The effects can be reviewed instantly in-camera. Footage recorded at 60fps and played back at 24 fps shows a very smooth, slow motion.

I had the pleasure of working with the video production crew for Cox Communications to create dozens of images for their FSI print advertising campaign. The lifestyle photos show people enoying digital TV, internet and phone services. I worked closely with the lighting crew from AZGrip and director Ron Bruce to create an ad campaign to reinforce the TV spots. The makeup was done by Giselle Fox.