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Congratulations to Art Ibewuike, February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Living Room or Family Room". Art Ibewuike - #895 Paul-Dan Dragoman - #898 Peter Wingfield - #900 Here's what Art has to say: Thank you so much for ...

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PFRE Videographer of the Month for April: Congratulations Patrick Kerwick!

In: 
Published: 01/05/2014

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PatrickKerwickApril2014And the winner is Patrick Kerwick of  Vantage Photography, in Santa Fe, NM. Allan MacKenzie, my video judge said:

I have to say mate was that was tough! Hawaii certainly is well represented with good talent and make the top 3 cut but just got taken at the finish line with the personal touch portrayed by the homeowners, they pulled it off excellently and sold the dream with all the right words in my opinion by some good clever editing and visual storytelling by the creative behind this video. Overall a great start and congratulations to everyone that submitted their videos.

Allan ranked the top 4 videos as follows:

  1. Patrick Kerwick, Santa Fe, NM: Grand Isle Resort and Spa
  2. Travis Rowan, Maui, Hi: 72-128 Hainoa Place I Haualalai Resort, Kailua-Kona.
  3. Anders Carlson, Kailua Kona: Kukio Phase 3 North 7.
  4. Heath Cowart, Asheville, NC: 10 Cliff Drive, Laurel Park NC

Here is Patrick's part of this post:

I am absolutely thrilled to have one of my videos chosen! I've been building my business (Vantage Photography, LLC) in Santa Fe, NM over the past 3 years since I graduated from college. For its size, Santa Fe has a remarkable real estate market, with everything from tiny 100 year old adobe casitas to 10,000 acre ranches. So, even in that short time, I've been fortunate to have plenty of challenges to work through when anticipating a shoot.

In the case of the series of videos I put together for Grand Isle Resort & Spa, the challenge was undertaking my first international shoot, with the owners to be giving their testimonials on-camera. At the time, I didn't typically shoot testimonial style videos, and this meant one thing which usually isn't the case for me: no pick-ups, and no re-shoots. I did my best to be as thorough as possible in planning the shoot with my client. Considering things such as when I needed to be where to get the right light, which owners needed to be present and prepared for each scene, and all the b-roll that would be necessary in anticipation of the things the owners might mention in their testimonials. I now have even more respect for those who work as production assistants!

Fortunately, I didn't fall into the sea, or forget to turn any mics on, so everything worked out great! That reminds me, in case anyone is interested in the kit I brought along, I used a GH3 as my A-cam (love it for the 1080/60p), two hacked GH2s, a variety of zooms and primes (mostly used the zooms), a Konova slider, a Glidecam HD2000, a shoulder rig, a shotgun mic setup (never used it), a few lavalier mics, a few tripods for simultaneous timelapses, a few collapsable reflectors, and 3 1x1 LED Litepanels, which definitely came in handy.

The quality of work from the PFRE crowd seems to always lead to stiff competition, so I'm very pleased to have been chosen, and I can't wait to see what else comes from the contest in the coming months!

Another development in the video contest since my last post on this subject is that Wes Moore of  iPlayerHD has offered to give each month PFRE videographer of the month one year of free hosting service (worth $360). This giveaway is void where prohibited by law, which is at least in RI and perhaps in some other countries. Thanks Wes for you generosity and support of the PFRE video contest!

I have posted all the video entrants names in the video contest forum. Also, I'll be adding Patrick's comments on his video to this post when I get them.

 

PFRE Videographer of the Month Winners:

Larry Lohrman

20 comments on “PFRE Videographer of the Month for April: Congratulations Patrick Kerwick!”

  1. Wow....I think that about covers it! Great job Patrick! I'm not a carribean resort type person, but I wouldn't mind visiting there after seeing that!

  2. This was my absolute favorite. It sucked me in and made me want to take my wife there. The video did it's job with absolute certainty.

  3. Congratulations, that is truly a beautiful video, well edited and a great job of story telling.

    How long did you have to produce this, from concept to final edit? Was your GH3 Hacked? Have you used the GH4? Just wondering how it compares?

  4. Thanks again for all the compliments and encouragement!

    Great Exuma really is a neat place, and I had a blast. I'm pretty sure if any of you were there for a week, you'd have a pretty compelling video to share as well.

    Oh, and Mr. Kelley, you must be the reason I never get any calls from Albuquerque! Glad to see I'm in good company here in NM, and if you're ever up here in Santa Fe on a job, I'd love to buy you a cup of coffee.

    Mr. Spaulding, that's a good question, I didn't have much notice really. I was notified of the project about two days before I had to leave for the Bahamas. Fortunately, I'd done a photo shoot at the resort a few months prior, so I knew the place and the clients. I spent almost a week on location, the first two days of which were rained out, but worked out great for a few of the interviews. After that, I spent about a week with the client (he used to have a production company in the 80's) doing the edit. If there is one side of the business I'd like to improve upon, it's my editing skills. Its amazing what an experienced editor can do with even the most disjointed footage.

    As for the gear, my GH3 is running the stock firmware (I don't think the guys at personal-view.com have come up with a hack yet, but it's been a while since I last checked), and I've definitely got my eye on the GH4, but I haven't had one in my hands yet. The higher flash sync, potential for 4:2:2, and 1080/96p is pretty enticing, but I don't see myself shooting much in 4K quite yet and I'm thinking I'd rather pick up one of those Defy gimbals first.

  5. I also want to thank Wes Moore at iPlayerHD for his very generous offer, I'm looking forward to taking him up on it (great timing too as I've been having some reliability/playback issues with vimeo lately...)

  6. Congratulations Patrick. Well done. You know your job is awesome when you have to fly to the Bahamas for a shoot. And with only 2 days notice, Im sure it didn't take you long to postpone everything already on the schedule.

  7. Thanks for the info, and its just Chuck...

    A note about the monthly video contest, I guess anonymity is important to some, not so much for me but I find the whole Flkr thing cumbersome. Sure its easy enough but I think if comments were made on the thread here rather than on Flkr there might be more dialog.

    I guess having this as a competition provides a great forum for us to view each others work, but its a bit tough to judge a property video shot in one day to one shot over several days. Please don't read anything into that, I find Patrick's work inspiring and his willingness to share his experience very valuable but if its going to be a competition you might want to give some thought to categories. I'm not sure I could have done as good a job as Patrick with an unlimited amount of time but I'm also fascinated with how creative people can be with a limited amount of time and budget.

    Anders, what schedule?

  8. Congratulations to everyone that entered, it was an honour and humbling to review all entries and also inspiring to witness so much talent from the America's in this exciting medium called motion or video, after all you Yanks invented filmmaking, that is also delivered through that well known institution called Hollywood which became a dream and inspiration for young creatives outside the U.S. the world over. I recall growing up in outback Queensland in the 60-70's when the travelling film festival troops travelled 700 klms West from Brisbane where I lived and beamed up on the side of our school wall the latest Western or Buck Rogers movie on a Saturday night and from that time I was hooked on motion (That sounds geeky) 2007 when I first got started in PFRE instantly I introduced video to my agents founded on producing wedding videos years before from 2005 much to dismay and criticism from photography peers who thought it was crazy to introduce video to RE marketing (It would never work) they said. But the potential for video not only in real estate but also online video for commercial and corporate clients I could see was potentially massive. Today, well the rest is history... What I say to the Yanks is that you don't need to look across the pond, you have all the talent right there, I for one am inspired and gain inspiration from the work that is delivered from you all. Lastly I like to share for inspiration a director friend of mine who is based in Brisbane that is a hero of mine, we all have hero's in our chosen craft right? Mark Toia is the guy for me that I follow. An inspiring story... Mark just a little over 10 years ago was a successful commercial photographer based in Brisbane who was coerced into directing TVCs by his clients. Their desires were to bring his exceptional photographic eye to the small screen - and he certainly has not disappointed them. My point is anything is possible, you just have to believe and trust in your vision. This is Mark's showreel, nothing is impossible - https://vimeo.com/70991056

  9. Sure hope he doesn't do property videos... That's some amazing work.

    I too remember watching the Gun's of Navarone on the side of a building in Ballarat thanks to a Traveling Film Troop.

  10. Larry - Thank you once again for the venue. It is a fantastic learning and growing tool for all of us at any level.

    Allan - Thank you so much for your time and well though out critiques of our videos. I have a hard time finding a moment to sit down and put comments on a few photos let alone 10 videos, some of which Im pretty sure you watched more than once.

    Chuck - This video was part of a contract to shoot a lot of videos over a short amount of time, so I had to keep it really simple. My entry video took a day to shoot and probably 4 hours to edit.

  11. Congratulations Patrick, great work and well deserved recognition. Allan thank you for your feedback. Your work is awesome. I've learned a lot of technique and post production tricks from your work and tutorials. Larry, thanks again for giving the community a place to inspire each other. I'm looking forward to the next one!

  12. @Patrick Kerwick, stunning video Patrick, a well deserved winner and great to see what the GH3 can produce in the hands of a pro.

    Would you mind if I ask what lenses you used for this particular production?

    We would like to add to our Pan 7-14mm wide - a great lens for capturing interiors but it can be a bit unflattering on people - unless you like putting on twenty pounds when you walk in to the edges of the frame 🙂

    Any advice on lens choice for the GH3 would be much appreciated.

  13. @ Sharon
    I'll chime in here on the GH3 for video. It's awesome. The GH3 replaced my D800 for video shooting. Shoot it flat. (as in picture profile) and tweak the contrast, saturation, sharpness in post. I use the 12-35mm 2.8 with an ND Fader for most shots. The Panasonic 7-14mm is really nice for interiors. You will not regret it. For the long shots, like the breaching whale, I use the Panasonic 100-300mm ( Same reach as 200mm-600mm with the 2x crop sensor) The footage out of the GH3 is super clean. It seems to have more dynamic range than other cameras but I'm sure there's a chart somewhere to dispute that. Overall, its compact, lightweight and well designed for video. AND affordable $1000. Everyone should have two. The only limits I've found with it are ISO above 1600 can get a little noisy but still manageable. I expect the GH4 will boost the high ISO performance even more. Pre-ordered it already.

  14. Patrick, Wow! This video is superbly shot and edited. Great story line and, music choice and very well put together. Bravo. It's a well done luxury life style video.

  15. @Travis
    Thanks Travis, we've been using the GH3 for nearly a year now with the 7-14mm and are very happy with it. About to put an order in for the 12-35mm so it's great to hear your vote of confidence in that lens. Thanks again.

  16. Anders - Thanks, I certainly do enjoy my work, especially when I get to visit new places, but I can't imagine working the Hawaii market on a daily basis! I'm guessing for you an exotic place would have to be something like lake como... And by the way, you really nailed that holy grail timelapse at the end of the Kukio video!

    Travis - Thanks for the compliment, and I've got to say, your editing and shooting technique are top notch, all the little extras like the perfectly executed cross-fade of the glass partition while sliding are remarkable. I think I might wait to hear what you think of the GH4, I have a feeling you'll have one long before I do!

    Marc - Thanks! I'm glad you liked the music, finding the right track can be one of the most difficult parts of the process, but I think it makes all the difference.

    Sharon - Thanks! As for the GH3, I'd say Travis is spot on. Personally, I bought the full range of Olympus and Panasonic primes (except the new nocticron, still saving for that one) rather than the f/2.8 Panasonic zooms. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best choice for property videos, as in lens stabilization makes a huge difference, even on slider shots, and it's just tedious to change lenses constantly. Lenses such as the 75 1.8 are pretty much impossible to use on moving shots. The 7-14 is a great lens, but it does have pretty bad ghosting at times when shooting interiors, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the Olympus 7-14 performs when it's released. After a year of working with the GH3, I'm sure you're quote familiar with the camera, but if you haven't yet tried the "High Dynamic" video mode, it's definitely worth playing with. You lose most of your manual controls, and it doesn't seem to work in dark interiors too well, but when it works, it's pretty amazing! Here's an example of a video I shot almost entirely (except the agent's bit) in the "High Dynamic" mode:

    https://vimeo.com/82160938

    Without the "High Dynamic" mode those windows would have been blown beyond belief.

    Oh, and for the Bahamas videos I used the Panasonic Leica 25mm, Olympus 45mm, and Olympus 75mm for the interviews, and the Panasonic 7-14mm, Panasonic 14-140mm for all of the activity shots. One of the other videos I did for them has more property shots with the primes (https://vimeo.com/85934139) but the 14-140 was definitely the workhorse, and performed remarkably when I had to shoot handheld from a boat.

  17. Patrick - Thank you for your detailed answer.

    The 14-140mm Pan keeps coming up as another option and we're wondering if that would be sufficient instead of going with the Pan 12-35mm and 35-70mm. But it's f3.5 against f2.8. Arghhh, Lenses!!!

    And thanks for the tip with regard to the 'High Dynamic' video mode. Will be exploring that for sure.

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