Archive | January, 2010

Live Broadcast of Our Photoshoot Tomorrow (Friday!)

By on January 28, 2010

Yep. You read that headline correctly. We’re broadcasting our upcoming photo gig LIVE from our Seattle studio via the ol’ internet on Friday, January 29 from 10am to 6pm (PST, which is GMT -8). This is tomorrow for most of you, but today for some! This is a total experiment, but we need your help. Please read on.

The nuts and bolts: we’re shooting the album cover and promo materials for a great alt country/punk band called Brent Amaker and the Rodeo. Expect 5 men in all black; 3 beautiful, scantily/sex-ily dressed ladies; in a country-punk meets modern studio set. Very free form. Very experimental. There is no “client”. This is a collaboration.

How do you tune in to this new Chase Jarvis LIVE thingie? It’s easy. Just go to this url: www.chasejarvis.com/live at any time during the hours specified above.

From there, you’ll be able to watch the live stream from the studio. You’ll be able to see and hear the entire thing, soup to nuts. Watch the set building, the styling, the shooting, the digital asset management, the gear, you’ll even get to join us for lunch and some afternoon cocktails. And it’s totally interactive. You’ll be able to ask questions of anybody and everybody on set–all 20 of us–via twitter (@chasejarvis) and a live chat embedded in the url above. And please use hashtag #cjlive.

There’s even — you guessed it — a… Continue Reading →

Creativity and Social Media at Sundance [Video]

By on January 27, 2010

Whoa! Just back from the Sundance Film Festival where I was fortunate enough to sit on a panel as a part of the Twitter 140TC Conference. The panel was called Filmmaking in the Age of Twitter: How Affordable, Innovative Tools are Transforming Hollywood . On the panel was yours truly, along with Joeseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer and Hesher–new film with, gulp, Natalie Portman), Levar Burton (Star Trek, Roots), and Marcin Teodoru (Circle Films). The panel was moderated by Steve Broback.

The place was packed – standing room only – with lots of good discussion. Thanks to G-Tech and videographer Rob for sending this my way for posting! It’s all their hard work that made this recording possible.
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Boom! Marko Slavnik Wins $100,000 From Nikon Festival

By on January 26, 2010

Boom! Huge congrats to Marko Slavnik for taking home the $100,000 Nikon Festival prize for his short film “Chicken vs. Penguin”. I was lucky enough to speak with him by phone from the Sundance Film Festival yesterday to congratulate him–what a great guy. Humble, hardworking and knows how to tell a good story on film. When I asked him what he planned to do with the mooolah, his response was exactly what I’d hoped to hear. First and foremost, he plans to repay all the people who volunteered and supported his efforts to make the short. Second, he plans to stuff the rest of the dough right where you’d want a talented filmmaker like himself to put it: into his next movie. The balance of his winnings should allow him to create what he wants to do on his terms. Everybody, please give it up for Marko. Mad respect.

Boom Boom!! Much respect to the winner of YOUR choosing too. Audience choice–leading in votes and views–was Josh Friedberg for his film “New York State of Mind”, a series of gorgeous visuals of his favorite city in the world. As a former owner and founder of 411 video magazine, a video skate zine based out of southern California that he sold and subsequently folded. I learned from Josh that he intends to put most of his winnings back into the skateboarding community that has given him so much as an artist by using the money to revive the 411 video mag as a platform for himself and others to explore video and skateboarding. So cool.

It was an honor and a treat working with my two newest pals and co-judges @ijustine and @rainnwilson. Our task was not an easy one, weeding over 1000 films down to 1 winner. Mad respect to Nikon for allowing this to be open to all formats, for providing expressly meaningful prizes (ie, not just gear, but CASH and gear), and for encourage filmmaking in general, not just their brand. AND here’s to hoping Nikon believes in this enough to give us the Nikon Festival 2.0 next year. Thanks again to everyone who participated. Thanks to B&H; for the D3s hookup for the festival. And overall, it was truly an inspiration to watch all this come together. Both Winner’s vids after the jump – click ‘continue reading’. Check them out. Love to hear your thoughts.

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Chicken Vs. Penguin by Marko Slavnik. $100,000 Winner

and the audience award worth $25,000 goes to….
New York State of Mind by Josh Friedberg

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$10,000 For 2 Images

By on January 25, 2010

Wanna make $5000 for an image? Check it.

Hopefully you remember the campaign I shot for SanDisk down in New Zealand last autumn. The images were a blast to create and–if you recall–SanDisk was cool enough to let me blog/tweet/facebook about shooting the ads in real time, which made it the first global campaign of its kind.

We made a whole lotta videos and did a several follow up posts, and I received a ton of great feedback from this community about how beneficial this was. If that was true for you, then this might just be the gift that keeps on giving…

SanDisk has decided to give back to our community in the form of pure cash money. They partnered with the kickass crew at Freeskier and Snowboard magazines to bring you The Best Photo Sequence contest. Simple idea: the best skiing and the best snowboard photo sequence selected from a panel of judges that include the photo editors from both magazines and yours truly, will EACH win $5000 bucks cash and have their image run in the mags. Contest just started and runs thru April 1. So get your gear and some gloves and go make some magic.

[update: possible good news for international readers. we're hearin' ya about the US only thing. That said, SanDisk is being SUPER cool, there's a bunch of legal hoops to jump thru here in the US to make contests avail in other countries, but they're working on it. If the legal team can get it pulled together this week, we'll let you know. Stay tuned!]

As an aside, this is sorta cool. We had this crazy idea to create a TV show outta our trip down under making this campaign. We pitched it to The Ski Channel and Resort Sports Network and they BOTH went for it. So if you find yourselves… [click the 'continue reading' link below]
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…with on-demand cable or you’re in areas where RSN is a featured program (detail forthcoming), check it out and send us your feedback. It will also be available as another episode in a forthcoming podcast, later this week.

Lots more info at www.bestphotosequence.com.

Related videos + posts from the SanDisk job to further whet your palette for $5-$10,000 bucks:

[Now You Know, Sandisk Extreme Pro]
[Photo Gear Mania]
[Chase Jarvis CURRENT: SanDisk Q&A; Follow-up]
[Behind The Curtain: Guts of a Commercial Shoot Video]
[Video Report From the Heliworks Barn]
[Video: Packing Quick 'n' Dirty]
[Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Basecamp]
[UPDATED behind-the-scenes snapshot gallery]

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Sundance, The 140TC, and Nikon Festival Cash-ola

By on January 23, 2010

Howdy friends, quick note here…scribbling this one in remote-style from the cold and snowy streets of Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. (Check out my hat and my sweet blue steel.) If you happen to be in the neighborhood (or if you’re following a lot of Twitter streams) there’s a ton of cool stuff going on. I wanted to share with you a few things in particular:

1. I’ll be sitting on a panel as a part of the superdope 140 Twitter Conference called Filmmaking in the Age of Twitter: How Affordable, Innovative Tools are Transforming Hollywood Also on the panel will be Lavar Burton (Star Trek, Roots), Marcin Teodoru (Circle Films), Mark L. Pederson (producer). This panel is at 4pm Sunday (tomorrow). If you are interested in attending, I have 3 seats I can give away. First 3 people to tweet @ me via @chasejarvis with the request will get put on the list. I”ll confirm you with a response, so you’ll know who you are. Schedule is here if you’re interested. Big ups to my friends at G-Tech for making it possible.

2. If you are at Sundance and don’t give a rats arse about hearing me yap on the panel, but instead want to meetup, do a shot, put faces with names, etc, I’d love it. I’m just going to be tweeting my locale pretty regularly over the next few days. And it’s a small town. If we cross paths, please introduce yourself. It’ll be brief, but I love meeting people from this here virtual world in real life. [fwiw, I wanted to do a Chase Jarvis SOCIAL, but the crazy schedule and general mayhem of Sundance made it impossible. Hence the alternative here.}

3. Lastly, but not least-ly, some huge news. Rainn Wilson, iJustine and yours truly HAVE PICKED OUR $100,000 WINNER for the Nikon Festival. We will be announcing that winner from here at Sundance on Tuesday morning. Stay tuned here and at the Nikon Festival Facebook page and Twitter stream for the announcement.

Hope to cross paths with lots of y’all in person and lots more of you in the innernets over the next couple of days.
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When You Least Expect It, Expect it.

By on January 21, 2010

Creative ideas don’t gently glide across the artist’s desk, darkroom tray, or easel comfortably between the hours of 9 and 5. Occasionally they do, but by and large they usually smash us in the side of the head at 10:56pm when the movie is over, at 12:10am after the argument with your brother or, in my case this morning at 3:56am after awaking from a startling, but amazing, dream.

To be clear, I’m not advocating not sleeping. I’m simply advocating a readiness to respond when those ideas percolate into your consciousness. In my experience–when I’m just living my life, minding my own business, but ready…no, not ready…WILLING to commit to ideas is when they come to me. It could be different for you, of course, but this is when I’m best.

The idea to put some of the first “behind the scenes” videos of photoshoots online came to me in the middle of the night.
The idea for Seattle 100 came to me at 5am after a restless night of sleep.
The aesthetics for Songs for Eating and Drinking presented themselves to me at 2am, after a long night of eating and drinking.
The aesthetic for the campaign I’m about to shoot came on a red-eye flight when I got up to pee.
The idea for uniting my iphone app, book and online sharing site came at 3am.
And so on, ad nauseum.

None of those were ideal times to motivate, but I’ve learned that creative ideas are wonderful, beautiful, and often rare and fleeting things–wispy as all hell, they are…[click 'continued reading' link below]
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…and so I beg you not to resist their timing. On the contrary, cherish it. Get up. Write it down. Be alone, or call your friend. Grab your notebook for a sketch or your iphone to mutter some words into its microphone. Start to scribble, type, record that video, go for a walk and develop those ideas.

At all costs, be willing to embrace them when they tap you on the shoulder. You’ll be thankful you did.
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Respect.

By on January 18, 2010

Whether you’re in the USA observing the holiday from home or the office, or you’re abroad and perhaps not, I recommend that you take 17 minutes and watch this video. Pausing to refresh and reflect on this history plays an important role in our present and our future approach to civil rights worldwide.

Much respect. Have a great day.

RSS readers can catch the video here.
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Chase Jarvis RAW: Innerspace Photo Roundup

By on January 13, 2010

I really dig that we’re in a new era of photography where like minded shooters enjoy gathering to learn. I prefer to shoot photos rather than give classes or seminars, but I DO like to create these environments that allow photographers to experiment, socialize, and learn together.

That’s what this little evening was all about. Our hardworking crew rounded up an InnerSpace indoor skate part, handful of semi-pro skateboarders (mad respect!), a whole truckload of Broncolor lighting gear, and a keg of tasty Pyramid beer–and then we stayed up way too late shooting pictures and talking shop with photographers who had flown in on their own dime from NYC, LA, Toronto, and elsewhere. It was a real treat getting to meet a bunch of new people and rally around self-learning.

We’ll keep doing these sorts of things when I can muster a free day or two. These are usually short notice based on my schedule, so following me on Twitter and becoming a fan on Facebook are the best ways to find out the where, when, how. I’m on the road more than I’m home, so if you’d be interested in me pulling together resources for one of these little underground meetups in your home town, let me know. [click continue reading link below]

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There Are No Excuses

By on January 10, 2010

I’ve heard you say that there’s nothing to take a picture of. I’ve heard you say you don’t know what to make, when to make it, how to make it, what to do. I’ve heard you say that you don’t know how to get your work “out there”. I’ve heard you say that you don’t know what to put on your blog. I’ve heard. I’ve heard. I’ve heard. And I promise you, I too have said all these things.

But there really are no excuses. Just make something and share it. You could make something in a day, just like these guys made this video. Or that thing, or that other thing. No excuses. These 2 guys had a wonderful, simple curiosity about a street in their home city of Toronto. So they explored it. They took a day and they made something.

Now. By itself, this isn’t going to land them in a museum. Or get them an editorial job shooting for a magazine. Or a campaign. But they’re not sitting in their dark basements doing nothing. They’re making something. They’re living the Create-Share-Sustain paradigm. They’ll make this cool thing. And then another cool thing. And then another cool thing. And then, you know what? They…[click 'continue reading' link below]
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…they will get contacted to shoot an editorial job, or a campaign, or to hang in the Tate.

It’s not any ONE thing we do. We might make a splash with something, but that is short lived. Just like I don’t get to know you through a first introduction at a party. Or via a single tweet, for example. I get to know about you through lots of interactions or the sum of your twitter stream. It’s the collection of our work–the repeat cycle of making things and sending them out into the word–that helps us illustrate who we are, what we stand for, where we’re going and why.

Go make something and share it.

(thx for the tip @jacoblied)
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You Decide Who Wins $25,000

By on January 8, 2010

I dunno what you’ve got planned for today and over the weekend, but if you’ve got a spare 140 seconds, head over to www.NikonFestival.com and watch the 50 best 140-second video submissions that we’ve whittled down from more than 1,000 entries. There are some stunning shorts in there.

I’ll be gathering virtually with fellow judges Rainn Wilson (The Office) and Jusine Ezarik (iJustine) to try to nail down who we’re giving the grand prize of $100,000 bucks to, but…

In the meantime, I’d love to know that YOU’RE watching this weekend as well. As a reminder, there’s a $25,000 audience award where YOU decide who wins. It’s based on number of views AND number of votes each video gets. I’d love for you to weigh in. There really are some brilliant pieces that deserve the 140-second watch. Hell, you could watch all 50 vids in less than the time it takes you to watch The Hangover for the 4th time, 2 episodes of Dexter, or 3 re-runs of The Simpsons. Hope to see your comments.

Enjoy and have a great weekend.
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Hamburger Eyes

By on January 4, 2010

First real day back in the saddle after the holidays? Steal a few minutes and watch this vid.

It’s not a requirement to love photography as much as the next person, but I love seeing people who love it as much me, my friends, and these guys do. It’ll probably remind you why you love photography too. Viva Hamburger Eyes.

(via lensculture)

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