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Keith Hopkin from the video Jump - a timeslice experiment featuring music by M83

Apr

29

Savour Every Moment

Posted by Keith on April 29th, 2013 at 12:42 am

I spent the last few months on a project that I’m really proud of. Thanks to an artistic grant from Petcurean Pet Nutrition [ www.petcurean.com/savoureverymoment ]I had the opportunity to create something really special for myself and the pet owners of the world. It’s called “Savour Every Moment” and is a short film that tries to capture what we love about our pets.

Link to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0iRYycmlOI

The original score is written by my friend Carly Comando who is an amazing musician and I am really happy she had the chance to work on this with me. I had a great time shooting with C.J. Gardella (Producer) and Dave McGrath (Director of Photography) and look forward to future projects together.

I was really excited to pull in pet photographer Seth Casteel for the pool shoot portion of this project. He’s an awesome guy and great photographer. We had a blast working together that day. He has a stunning book out called “Underwater Dogs“. If you haven’t seen his work online you should check it out!

Follow me on facebook and twitter for more updates!

You can buy the beautiful score in “Savour Every Moment” written by Carly Comando on iTunes!

This project wouldn’t have been possible without all of the amazing friends, pet owners and of course animals! There wasn’t enough room in the film to thank everyone so at the end of this post is a complete list. But first, here are some stills!

Mia - White German Shepherd from "Savour Every Moment" by Keith Hopkin

Cat and Jupiter from "Savour Every Moment" by Keith Hopkin

Bonkers from "Savour Every Moment" by Keith Hopkin

Mark, Kona and Bree from "Savour Every Moment" by Keith Hopkin

Post color grade by Gavin Rosenberg at Merge Creative Media

And now the thank you list!

Shar and Owen, Jeff and Lisa at the Red Robin Song Guest House, Brian Applegate, Paul Bajerczak, Scott Barber, Mitch Bergsma, Cat Black, Doug Bresler, Jeff Campbell, Angie Carlson, Seth Casteel, Jared Cicon, Matthew C., Drew Dewitt, Chris Edwards, Jesse Garcia, Alexis Gardella, Marilyn Hopkin, Justin at Nocturnal Lights, Alexa Kadish, Noah Kalina, Peter Keane, Ferraby Lionheart, Neil Lucey, Mark Martin, Chris Mauch, Heather McCandless, Bree Melanson, Regina Melzer, Jane Park Mohr, Pete P., Jeremy and Vanessa Perman, Production Junction, Rachel Postman, Aaron and Jessica Rathbun, Mary S., Lawrence Scaduto, Antonio Simonini, Jason Stare, Elka Stern, Kim and Adrian Sultana, Jamie Surenkamp.

“Savour Every Moment” Film Premiere

Posted by Keith on April 22nd, 2013 at 12:58 pm

I’m excited to show everyone what I’ve been working on for the past few months. It is a short film featuring some really adorable dogs and cats doing what they do best. Thanks to an artistic grant from Petcurean I was able to pool together some really talented friends.

I spent a few weeks in New York and California shooting cats and dogs with C.J. Gardella and Dave McGrath. I also had a great opportunity to spend a day with “Underwater Dogs” photographer Seth Casteel who helped make some of the underwater shots a reality. It was a blast. My friend Carly Comando wrote an amazing piano piece for this as well. I’m really excited to share the end result!

The project will premiere at the Petcurean tent during the Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair which will take place on Greenwich Street between Chambers and Hubert St on Saturday April 27, 2013. We will be showing the film all day in their tent so come on by! Some of the stars will be available for pawtographs as well.

If you can’t make it to the event it will be online soon enough! I hope to see you there!

Click here for the facebook event

Mar

14

GoPro Hero3 WiFi iPad App is Great!

Posted by Keith on March 14th, 2013 at 1:53 pm

GoPro Hero3 Black iPad App on Petcurean video shoot by Keith Hopkin

I’m currently working on a really fun film project for Canadian based pet food company Petcurean. We wrapped a few days of shooting in Amenia, New York and West Lebanon, New York (at the Red Robin Song Guest House). Dave is mainly shooting high speed on a Sony FS700 while C.J. is shooting on a Canon 5D MKII. I’m handling GoPro shots.

This is the first time I’ve really taken the GoPro iPad app out for a spin and I gotta say I am really impressed.

Ease of Use:
First and foremost is the ease of flipping through settings. Even if I wasn’t using this to record and preview this would be a valuable asset to quickly change my record settings or quickly go from video to photo mode. Kudos to GoPro for building such a great interface.

Range:
It seems that the iPad’s range is more consistent and greater than the iPhone app but I haven’t really done any side by side controlled tests to verify this. As you can see in the above live preview image Mia is all the way out in the yard in the the red vest. The signal does drop when she runs to the side or back of the house but when she’s back in plain site the signal eventually returns. It’s not perfect but I am impressed. Although there are a few seconds of delay it is good enough since I can just run out and make corrections to the camera angle if necessary.

Note: You do not need an existing Wi-Fi access point. The GoPro itself becomes an available Wi-Fi access point that you can connect to in your settings.

ProTune:
Currently the app does not support preview in ProTune mode. I find this a bit disappointing because I was planning on taking advantage of the increased quality level for these shoots. It’s more valuable to me to get the correct framing so for now I will be shooting 1080p @ 60fps with ProTune off.

Extras:
I definitely made sure to get a protective case for my iPad while in the field. The Gumdrop case seen in the photo is holding up well. Ports are all accessible and touch screen still works great with the cover.

Dave posted some fun behind the scenes photos here:
“SNOW DOGS 2: PART II, CHICKENS RIDE GOATS”

“SNOW DOGS 2: SNOW MORE MR. NICE GUY”

Be sure to follow me on facebook and twitter for more updates!

https://www.facebook.com/keith.a.hopkin

@KeithHopkin

Keith Hopkin and C.J. Gardella

Feb

26

What is this thing called?

Posted by Keith on February 26th, 2013 at 2:43 pm

1/4" - 20 Camera Bolt, Nut, Whatever it's called Check Nut, Knurled, 1/4-20, Steel

I recently had the problem of trying to find one of these things that screws on to a camera shoe-mount. I went into numerous camera stores, pointed to the part and asked what it was called and if I could just buy that part. Nobody could tell me what it was called and in all cases I would have to buy a $10 to $20 shoe so I can just get one or two of these pieces. I needed at least 5 of these. I couldn’t even figure out what to google.The only thing I knew for sure was that the thread 1/4″ – 20 (this refers to 1/4″ diameter and 20 threads per inch).

Shoe Adapter with 1/4"-20 Stud Connector

Why does this thing cost $18.95 at B&H???

I found that searching with google images helped narrow down the search. I finally found a company called Drillspot that sells a “Check Nut, Knurled, 1/4-20, Steel“. Bingo. I would prefer them to be a bit wider but this will do. I also found another company that sells plastic versions in bulk. They are cheap but too small to really use in this context. I ordered a few of the steel nuts for my project. Yeah, shipping on these adds up but that’s how it goes. Buy them from Drillspot.com here. I’m sure you can find these elsewhere. Good luck!

Feb

08

What’s in a thumbnail?

Posted by Keith on February 8th, 2013 at 1:36 pm

I recently wrote an article for a company called Neon who is working on the science behind thumbnails.

Neon builds on the perceptions and brain responses of everyday people watching video. We model how the brain perceives images and can predict which ones people will prefer.

This is something I’ve been thinking a lot more about as I post my own videos to different sites including my own.

Read the full article and learn more about Neon

Feb

05

Miami Dogs – ft. The Bark4Green Dogs

Posted by Keith on February 5th, 2013 at 12:18 pm

I was down in Miami testing out the new GoPro Hero3′s 120fps setting. Here’s a video I put together featuring the Bark4Green family Benji, Nina and Rocky. Enjoy!

Benji – Whippet Jack Russell Mix
Rocky – Chinook Labrador Mix
Nina – Bichon Frisé

Shot on GoPro Hero3 Black at 120fps

Beat by Saliva Slingers.

As seen on
Dogster: http://bit.ly/12soGQe
To Dog With Love: http://bit.ly/WYudxm

Feb

03

Doritos Crash The Super Bowl 2013

Posted by Keith on February 3rd, 2013 at 8:59 pm

I’ve been entering the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest every year since its beginning. This year I teamed up with Harvard Sailing Team‘s Clayton Early and Sara Talyor. Once again Dave McGrath at Production Junction took charge of the production on and we came up with the following two spots.

“Puppies!”

“Puppy Pen”

Watch my submission from last year which was a nod to Nickelodeon’s YCDTOT.
“Secret Word”

Jan

16

Tricking

Posted by Keith on January 16th, 2013 at 12:17 pm

Here’s a short video I made from footage I shot during my first GoPro NY Meetup event “Extreme Tourism“. It features Michael, Jason and Nelson tricking for the camera. I never knew about tricking until I met these guys. It’s a combination of martial arts and gymnastics and seems to have some close relationship to modern breakdancing. Music by Ethan Frederick Greene.

Jan

08

BarkBox – Play

Posted by Keith on January 8th, 2013 at 11:38 am

Here is the second clip I created for BarkBox. You can watch the first one here. Enjoy!

BarkBox.com