The start of the new year at Simba Productions was highlighted by the completion of an incredibly successful collaboration with Local 802, the American Federation of Musicians located in New York. The Local 802 Associated Musicians of Greater New York group is one of the largest local unions of professional music in the world. Dedicated to the promotion of live musical performance and music education, Local 802 hired Simba Productions to highlight select bands and capture live, on-stage performances to promote their services on the Union’s website.

The shoot took place on Friday, December 14, 2012 and featured five separate musical acts: The Alva Nelson Soul Band, Kat Gang, Mixtape Rock, Rebecca Cherry, and Big Band Gerard Carelli. Artists performed covers of classic and contemporary songs ranging from Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” to Violent Femmes’ “Blister In The Sun” to a string quartet instrumental of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World.” During the marathon afternoon shoot, recorded the five bands performing five songs each with all individual performers having their own unique lighting and sound setups.

We ultimately produced twelve short videos for Local 802, each a highlight from the event, focusing on a particular song and artist. Editor Mike Cucinotta cut each piece together, emphasizing the moving camera footage shot by Brian McCann and Matt Firpo and lit by Tom Chaves and his crew. Each video is an example of how our talented production and post-production crew can not only capture an event effectively but also allow each of the subjects we’re capturing to shine.

Please feel free to check out our individual videos for Alva Nelson, Kat Gang, Mixtape, and Rebecca Cherry on our Video gallery to see the great work completed by our team at Simba Productions.

Stay tuned to upcoming emails and blog posts for more info on Extra Innings, the feature film that we are producing, written by Albert Dabah.  And, please visit our Facebook page and Like us at https://www.facebook.com/ExtraInningsMovie

Recently we produced a series of training videos for The Regional Logistics Program designed to prepare both logistics professionals and local/community leadership on how best to prepare for a disaster. This work gave many of us at Simba a unique perspective on the aftermath and emergency response during Hurricane Sandy. It’s easy for us as production professionals to watch a television show or movie and have an idea how it was made. However, to be home while a natural disaster unfolds,  having an understanding of what was going on “behind the scenes” by our local first responders and emergency management departments, was both a humbling and at the same time reassuring, experience.  Working on the Disaster Logistics gave us an insider look how local government prepares for and executes a response to a natural disaster.

We began pre-production on these two videos in late spring. Working with a team of logistics and disaster response experts who helped guide us in making sure our script was technically accurate. The next step was finding locations – and we knew that if these videos were to accurately portray a full-scale disaster response then authenticity was critical. We scouted several local and city Emergency Operations Centers, and decided to mount our production at Nassau County’s EOC. This provided us with access to a fully operational Command Center, situation room, press briefing facility, large scale storage warehouse as well as the surrounding grounds which we utilized to stage “field work”.

 Preview

Shooting with 2 Canon DSLR cameras, our lightning fast crew that got us from set-up to set-up smoothly, and a team of outstanding professional actors we were able to complete principal photography of both videos over the course of a single weekend. Of course, the weekend wasn’t without a minor bump in the road – during our Saturday shoot the Emergency Operations Center went into partial activation because of an off-shore squall that was approaching! We took advantage of this to get some real, live authentic b-roll. Following that weekend on set, we also sought out interviews with notable disaster response experts, landing interviews with New York City’s Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Bruno, FEMA’s Craig Fugate, and Texas’s Judge Edward Emmett.

After principal photography finished we began the post-production process. Our expert editors were able to turn around a rough cut within several days. Following the initial cut we brought in graphic designers and an animation specialist to create the titles and additional motion graphics work that the video need. We then worked a lot one-on-one with our client, the logistics team, as refined the cut so that each of the videos was an efficient, accurate but exciting to watch training tool.

The Disaster Logistics for Leaders/Professional Logistician videos will be exhibited at conventions, and distributed by The Regional Logistics Program in an effort to better prepare your local leaders and logisticians in your area in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. The recent events here in NY and NJ really brought home the importance of that, and we at Simba Productions are very proud of our work on these two videos, and we truly hope they will help make a difference in preparing our region and yours in the future.

The iPhone has become the new standard for an all-inclusive cell phone that is capable of doing more than just call and text. It can do just about anything the gadgets from Star Trek could do (except maybe teleportation). And although camera phones have been around for years, the iPhone has taken it to the next level. Along with the recent upgrade to full 1080 pixel resolution, there is a new addition that can turn your little iPhone into a quasi-professional grade DSLR video camera for your very own video productions. With an iPhone SLR Mount such as the one from Photojojo, you can take your dad’s old SLR lenses and mount them onto your phone and start making movies with whatever you can find like countless other indie filmmakers.

Often, clients will bring their own footage to Simba Productions to give us an idea of what kind of video they want and we will use our expertise and resources to produce a video that will not only achieve their goals but will also entertain anyone who watches it. Now it is easier than ever for someone to film something at home and be able to incorporate it into a professionally produced video production.

http://filmmakeriq.com/2011/07/turn-your-iphone-into-a-dslr/

Recent news from top camera manufactures has been shaking the ground of film making. From  4k cameras available for prosumers, to optical lenses with pin procesion sharpness that leaves zero detail to the imagination, we have hit a new period of technology in film. Working under extreme conditions like we do here in NYC, being up to date is always a must. It’s a very exciting time for us, but now, more than ever technical knowledge and creativity is key. We are really looking forward to trying some of these new products out to enhance our video production.
 

Here are a few tests and information on new products on the horizon:

Canon 5d Mark3 Review

Sony F3 vs. RED Scarlet

New Zeiss Lenses
 

At Simba we’ve been working up a sweat producing several new exercise and fitness videos. We just finished 3 days of shooting for Moseley Road to produce workout DVDs in Pilates, Core Training and Yoga. They will be paired with books and sold internationally. Check out some exclusive behind the scenes production stills:

In August we wrapped production on MegaYoga with Megan Garcia, a yoga DVD designed with the plus-size practitioner in mind. The DVD was released in November and has been a consistent bestseller for the client. Check out a preview of Megayoga:

We also produced a DVD called MommyShape, a pregnancy fitness program. Check it out and visit mommyshape.net when you have a chance

A recent production here at Simba took us inside the historic Villard Mansion, one of NYC’s most beautiful gilded age architectural masterpieces. The client hired us to produce a short video that could be used to sell retail space within the mansion. We spent a day inside the mansion and New York Palace Hotel (which sits at the base of the building) shooting footage on a Canon 7D DSLR camera. The final video, which also includes high-res stills provided by the client was edited on Final Cut Pro by our post-production team.

This is a fully animated motion graphic video we produced for a law
firm. We scripted the action based on the material they wanted to
present and conferenced with our client to be sure that the information
came across properly. Once we decided on a concept, the first step was
to create and composite images in adobe illustrator. Compositing is the
process of taking various digital images and combining them into one.
When we were ready to start designing, we created storyboards to
organize and pace each graphic element, then using Adobe After Effects,
would animate the graphics drawn in Adobe Illustrator, effectively bring
the project to life with sound effects and music.

Many of our clients are across the country and even overseas; we always
find a convenient method of communication, such as using Skype or
Instant Messenger or Google Chat. This time, our client was on the west
coast and we communicated via email and phone, tweeking each new cut to
our client’s specifications. Check out the video above and let us know
if we can edit your next video using motion graphic animation!

We soared high above all five boroughs of New York City for this website
promotional video for HeliNY, a company specializing in helicopter
tours. Using a mounted gyro-stabilizer to achieve smooth camera
movements, we navigated NYC numerous times, videotaping all of the
landmarks associated with the expansive city tour. We then edited it in
time with music to produce a promotional web video.

Aerial footage like this can be captured for documentaries, corporate
videos, short films, music videos and many other projects.

This is a promotional sales video that we produced for Sterling Silver
meats, a premium product in the restaurant industry. We videotaped on
location with three renowned chefs of Quattro Gastronomia Italiana in
the SoHo Trump Tower, Plataforma Restaurant and The Oak Room at the
Plaza.

Each chef was interviewed in their kitchen and created their favorite
dish, describing the benefits of working with the Sterling Silver
product. We shot close-ups of different foods, activity in the
restaurants and action in the kitchens, which combined with energetic
music, really enhanced the editing of the video.

The final video is a fast-paced and exciting representation of cooking
and dining at some of the most respected restaurants in New York City,
and a high quality sales pitch for an excellent product.

The above is a recent project that we completed as a
compliance tutorial video. When a project like this comes to us, we need
to determine how the content will best be conveyed to the audience.

For this, we went with green screen, so we could change
the background and show text in a clean and organzied way.

We had to cast an actor, so we went through hundreds of
headshots and resumes, selected 10-20 for auditions, and then sent video
samples to our client for final approval.

This took one day of shooting, in the client offices this
time, but sometimes in a rental studio or in our studio, depending on
the scope of the project.

Hair and makeup is important to get our actress’ look
just right, and she reads from a teleprompter, which takes a good amount
of skill.

After the shoot, we integrate graphics and effects,
select backgrounds and insert titles and logos. There are many file
delivery options; both physically and digitally. For this video, we made
a file that could be embeded into the clients website and streamed to
users.