The album artwork for “Just Give It Up”, released by the Vagabond Collective, features a collection of my photography and shot that I took of the band.  I’ve been taking photos of these guys for quite some time so they asked me to cover their album art.  It was quite a privilege to be part of such an awesome album.

I once again got to work with the fabulous 1st Assistant Director Melissa Dalley, who got the crew to keep making progress while the department heads were off creatively masterminding for the next scene.

Andrew Droz Palermo did cinematography for this shoot with a RED One MX and a set of RED Primes. The aesthetic was frenetic, all handheld, with lots of bokeh. The iris of the lenses was wide open the entire time, making my job as focus puller difficult by reducing the depth of field for the focus. This handheld style seems to be very popular with young, digital-native DPs.

On this shoot I met Sean McCormick, the sound mixer you may know from Blacktino and Natural Selection. He has more sound gear than I’ve seen any one sound mixer operate by himself. His cart is tricked out with an accessory for every possible shooting contingency for sound, and he had no trouble keeping up. A true professional and a very nice, funny guy.

Sean McCormick's super one-man sound cart

One interesting location for the shoot was the exotic Krause Springs in Spicewood, Texas. The terrain made moving equipment difficult, but it was quite beautiful.

The Road to Krause Springs

While we were in Spicewood, we took some time to do a few driving scenes. Coincidentally, it rained while we were shooting. The footage actually looked really great as a literal gathering squall was happening while the film’s characters moved along in a montage sequence.

Andrew Droz Palermo operating camera in the rain for a driving montage