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Detroit to Detroit
The World to Detroit
Detroit to the World
Collaborated with Fuji MK Lenses
Freefly Wave Test: First Month
Freefly wave thoughts
Slow. Very slow. That’s one way to describe Velvia 50, considered one of the most magical daylight film stocks for still photography ever made. You needed a lot of light to use Velvia 50. At one frame per second, you needed to respect the film, the low iso, 1/2 stop latitude of change, the light. Nail it and your image is gold. My first photograph on slide film, the kind you place in a projector, was of the Warm light from the California Ocean sun off the coast of Ventura. It was 2003 during a time when digital photography was just in the beginning stages. With this film your exposure had to be spot on, and my camera back then only shot at one frame per second. With this There was no photoshop, no fix it in post. If the image was too dark, it was too dark. But when it was perfect, it was a thing of beauty. No one argued about velvia.
In Sept, In a seemingly Hail Mary of a message I asked if they could send me one of the prototypes of their first camera. My eyebrows raised, heart double thumped and iris opened a bit when I saw a dm response from the ceo of Freefly Cinema, a company that brought the world the first gimbal, based in Washington. “We’d love to see what you can do with the Wave”. This camera, the Wave, boasts 1461 FPS at 2k and 422 FPS at 4K. That’s slow. Very Slow.
Upon unboxing I instantly notice this camera was not like my new A7r4 which holds insanely high megapixel count, but is housed in the cheapest plastics. The wave is Machined like a Ducati motorcycle part. Metal, perfect, the Wave is lite, compact, and built to push every limit of high speed filmmography. It might as well be a flex capacitor: it can record limitless high speed when plugged into an external source. Use it on its own, it kills with Internal ssd in 1 or 2tb and internal battery that can worked be plugged in while shooting.
I am not much for the technology detials, the very proteins that fuel the nerdsphere. I am very much for what the technology can do and how that equips me to shoot past my vision.
I was looking at high speed cameras for a long time. But the price point was always above 100k. Wave comes in around 10k. And this Sony E mount game changer has already sold out of the first 3 batches.
Mount it to a golf club, under a skateboard, fpv drone, kids spoon. This camera definitely can be In the studio, but bringing it out to the wild is one of its greatest strengths.
It’s literally a camera the entire industry needs to respond to. Most cameras can only do 60 or 120 FPS at 4K. Many leading cameras shoot in raw, a format that allows for a lot of post production change. The Wave is, well, like Velvia. You have to be spot on. I see that as something to master instead of complain about.
In 2013 when Freefly’s movi m10 gimbal first came out, it changed the industry and took me a few months to get into understanding how to incorporate a gimbal into my production. When I started to think about what I could shoot at 1461 FPS it took me a minute. There is already a lot of high speed cinematography out there so there already a lot of low hanging fruit: water pouring, bubbles popping, a bullet. Etc. Because of how this camera is built, it opens opportunity to get a high speed camera into places to see the unnoticed world in never before ways. Still photographers would make great high speed photographers. You could be flying over a fire with a 70-200 lens, shoot for 1/6 of a second and make 10 seconds of footage. A new lens to the world is a powerful tool.
I filmed my dog. My drone. My dog barking at my drone, my kids. Bubbles. My kids and bubbles. My wife on her Bmx bike. Then tactfully risked my life filming the illegal driving called TSNLS in Detroit. I shot bees. Rain. It became a visual element, style, language I looked for in the day to day. I then bought a bunch of fireworks and had some awesome skateboarders do one trick over an abandoned plane. It’s the opposite of Timelapse photography but somehow using the same part of my framing brain.
I failed math. A bunch. So I’ll break down what editing footage has taught me. There are 24 frames in a second of normal footage. That’s like 24 still Photographs every single second. When you shoot 1461 frames per second and place it in the timeline of your editing software, it turns one second of footage into one minute of footage. 1/6 of a second is about 10 seconds. That is powerful. So driving by a running cheetah all you would need to do is click the shutter button as fast as you can twice to make 10 seconds of very stable, very new, very slow, Footage.
I have filmed Detroit for 14 years, and now entering my 15th I’m trying to put that footage into a documentary feature film, and now with this type of technology I can see everything in a new way. That is very fulfilling. This camera has made me think more as a Filmmaker, Has equipped me to shoot like I never have before and now after using it for a month I am so stoked. My small bag now has a killer trio; song alpha a7r4, red Komodo and the wave. Think about how much power that is.
As these cameras ship, 2021 will dawn new imagery that will blow our minds. I’m so stoked to see what you make with this. If you are one of the lucky ones to be receiving the camera, well that is something worth waiting for. So in the mean time. Open your mind and find something fast, something unnoticed. Find the light. Feed the sensor.
Interviewed by Local News Channel..So stoked!
Southfield (CW50) – Stephen McGee may not originally be from Detroit, but when he arrived in the city, he immediately saw the possibilities for stories to tell across the city. McGee is a two-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who works with commercial clients, nonprofit groups, journalism outlets, and foundations. He has travelled to over 30 countries to shoot those films but has found a home in the city of Detroit.
Over the last several years, McGee has produced, shot, directed, edited over 115 short films for The Kresge Foundation in Detroit. In 2014, he produced One Day in Detroit, which was the largest documentation of Detroit in a single day. Over 350 people participated and 103 organizations partnered to contribute footage.
McGee has spent over a decade in Detroit telling the stories of its locals through the lens of his camera. He has stated that its important to tell the stories of not only what’s going on now, but also what has happened in Detroit’s history and its impact on the city today. He believes that we should not be afraid to examine the city’s past in order to push triumphantly into the future.
In 2015, McGee hosted a TEDxTalk about drones and imagination. In his talk, he explained his thoughts on storytelling using a camera and how newer technology has elevated how stories can be told.
“With a camera you can tell any story, you just have to have drive, vision and imagination.”
Even though he if from California, McGee expressed in the TEDxTalk why he has called Detroit home since the day he stepped foot into the city saying, “Not only did I feel like I adopted Detroit, but that Detroit was adopting me.”
Move Here. Move the World
It was Monday and Stephen McGee had one pressing thing on his mind: How would he finish Detroit's splashy video in time for Thursday's pitch to Amazon?
"We hadn't done any of the aerials yet," the video's producer and director told me Friday, the day after the 3-minute, 35-second video was released. As of 6 p.m. Friday, it had garnered more than 52,000 views on YouTube.
About 70 percent of the video's work — ranging from filming and editing to receiving Curt Morgan's and Cyrus Reynold's score and recording Jessica Care Moore's compelling voiceover poem/homage to the city — had yet to be done.
Not for lack of effort but instead good lighting, McGee said.
"The video launched at 10 a.m. Thursday and we had worked until 5 a.m. Thursday. The entire almost week and a half before this Monday was cloudy, and I had a ton of outdoor visuals I needed to film. We didn't have music. We didn't have voiceover. Up until Monday, I researched and connected to people that I respect across the state (for footage)."
Three hours after it was finished, the father of two was up again.
"How many hours are in two weeks," McGee, who also directed the popular "Anthem of Us" video featuring Detroit rapper Big Sean, tiredly replied when I asked him how many hours he had put into the video.
It was in that timeframe that McGee said he was tapped by the Detroit Amazon bid committee to produce what became "Move the World." He said Dan Gilbert and the 60-person Detroit bid committee gave him "100 percent" creative freedom for the video, which required renting a helicopter and expensive camera lenses, culling video content from photographers and videographers around the state and splicing everything together into the final product.
(Note: Gilbert on Friday clapped back on Twitter at a Metro Times article suggesting that a dramatic sunrise shot from the helicopter showing wind turbines in the distance was digitally altered. McGee told me that a high-powered lens was able to capture the turbines across the Detroit River in Windsor and that the 13-second shot was not modified.)
Care Moore, in a Friday interview, said the first draft of the poem took only about an hour to write, but through editing and revision, ended up being about a day or two of work. It was recorded Monday in about two hours.
She said the outpouring of compliments has been overwhelming, and she was happy McGee, with whom she has been friends for years, chose her — a black woman — to participate. She will be paid, although said she doesn't know how much yet.
Approximately 25 percent of the video is content provided by others including General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, plus other photographers from around the state. Another 25 percent of it is material from McGee's archives, while the remaining 50 percent was shot over the course of three days by McGee and Nadir Ali.
McGee said Gilbert, the billionaire founder and chairman of Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC who headed up the Amazon HQ2 committee, saw a rough cut around 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Twelve hours later, it was done.
McGee expects the "Move the World" narrative to become the focus of a broader campaign.
"So much energy is put toward filming beautiful cities like New York and Los Angeles, and in order for us to move forward visually and our visually narrative to the world, we need to start seeing ourselves in the most beautiful light possible," McGee said.
"No other city has to come into the conversation saying sorry about our past. I'm not saying wash over them; I'm saying approach them, figure it out and film our city beautifully."
SMF Detroit:City of Design video contributes to UNESCO: City of Design Award for City of Detroit
Original link here...http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/detroit-unesco-city-of-design
ARCHITECUAL DIGEST REPORT
Detroit Named First American City of Design by UNESCO
The Michigan metropolis becomes the first in America to receive the honor
TEXT BY
Posted December 16, 2015
Woodward Avenue in Detroit. The historic city is the first in the U.S. to be named a UNESCO City of Design.
This week Detroit became the first American city to be named a UNESCO City of Design, an honor that recognizes a city's design legacy and commitment to promote cultural and creative industries, joining a total of 116 cities in UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network.
The application to UNESCO was put forth by DC3, a five-year-old network founded by Business Leaders for Michigan and committed to fostering creative fields in the state. It included a video by Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Stephen McGee that highlighted the city’s historic and present-day relationship with design.
“Detroit’s legacy of design is rich and includes Eames, Knoll, Bertoia, Diffrient, Rapson, Weese, Saarinen, Libeskind, Yamasaki, Kahn, Dow, Earle, and scores of others,” DC3 interim executive director Ellie Schneider told AD. “Design continues to play a significant role in our economy, and it was important that our application reflect our city’s contributions to the global design community, both historically and today.”
The city has been lauded as of late for its cultural renaissance (including by Architectural Digest), with companies like Shinola and a slew of new hotels, restaurants, and galleries returning focus to a city that was once the epicenter of American industrialism. A pride of place and a dedication to upholding this reputation make the future bright for Detroit—no doubt it will more than live up to UNESCO’s standards.
TEDxDetroit Speech/Notes
I was asked to talk at TedxDetroit about Detroit:City of Design, Imagination, current projects and the use of technology, specifically Drones, in my workflow. Below are my notes and general direction. My speech went different directions at times but I wanted to make this available. The below picture is a drone selfie of my speech and the beautiful audience taken by @aerialimagery. Please forgive any typos as this was written in a stream of consciousness. (To have the chance to talk at such an event is one that humbles me even now).
We are living in one of the most powerful stories in America: Detroit's rebirth.
The film you've just seen was a combination of over 25000 images and video clips and is a representation of diverse technologies being used in a single production seamlessly to create visual impact but it all starts with a camera and a vision. With a camera you are capable of documenting any story anywhere. It takes imagination to tell it well.
In 2003 my film career started with the limitations of a single camera and a drive to tell stories about people. In the first few years I worked for non profit groups in Africa and Southeast Asia and since then have worked in over 30 countries for companies that could afford a plane ticket and a small stipend. I wanted to offer high end production to ngos who couldn't normally afford it so i had to be creative with what high end production was to me: by focusing on great story and a great frame. I always wanted the best film possible for the companies I worked for but couldn't afford any of the really great gear.
High end production tools were too expensive at the time so i began to pursue mastery of the power contained in an image from the fixed position of a tripod.
Three years ago that all began to change as more sophisticated technology began to be more affordable.
Now film tools like the freefly movi are opening up endless possibilities for filmmakers of all levels to create cinematic level experiences in a new ways but it took an extensive new flight path through drone cinematography. Tools like this help filmmakers dream dreams and cinematic shots they can quickly achieve.
Lenses have opened new worlds for us all. From the far reaches of deep space through the Hubble telescope, through looking at the smallest forms of matter and particle physics through electron microscopes, aided by the power of theoretical inquiry, and the scientific imagination.
Scalable, mass-market availability of technology leads to new possibilities and probabilities by the sheer mathematical scope of human engagement with it. New insights, new marvels, and new opportunities appear and like so many things in life it takes patience and persistence to find the hidden gems.
Drones have given filmmakers an opportunity to explore what we already know, or think we know, what we've seen, or think we've seen, from new vantage points. Drones are taking us to new places visually with a level of ease, economy, and accessibility that weren’t possible just 3 years ago.
We now have the opportunity to see the world differently.
I've seen estimates that as many as 1 million drones will be in the marketplace by the beginning of next year. Drone technology is becoming so accessible that the most valuable, the most impressive thing will not be what flying lenses reveal about the world around us, but what we do with our understanding as our imaginations are awakened to the beauty and complexity of our surroundings.
As a filmmaker i'm constantly reminded that imagination ignites the power of storytelling.
For the past 9 years I have lived in the city of Detroit and have been engaged in telling independent local stories with many extraordinary opportunities that of been afforded me by a variety of clients, institutions, news media, including two years as staff at The Detroit Free Press, 56 assignments from The New York Times, TIME Magazine, 115 short films by Kresge Foundation as well as the daily persistence of telling the stories for non profits and in my own pursuit of the life in the city. I have 33 TB of hard drives full of Detroit content; of daily life, of weddings, soccer games, pinnacle moments and challenging ones.
With all that documentation of momentum and pinnacle moments of Detroit, none of that could have prepared me for bankruptcy of our city and on the same day the Emergency Manager was announced, my daughter was born. That new life in my arms brought me to a more elevated vision than any drone could take me that view put into focus that everything i have documented was part of a larger story of not what it to survive in Detroit, but to live. was to Her story, my wife's story, the story of friends, neighbors, city enthusiasts, dreamers, makers, urban planners, community leaders of those with hope, and those who need help. The collection of the content was a portrait of the journey our city.
With the birth of my daughter here in the city, I became identified with the rebirth of Detroit in a brand-new way. So I decided to begin editing all the content into a film about Detroit and document life for another year.
My motivation is more than just personal, through the resilience in the stories of the people I have filmed, I wanted her to know the story and city that she was born into. (The project has no name yet but will soon)
It is clear that the visual momentum of Detroit is changing from showing the challenges to what is changing here for the better. But it will take all of us, our vision and our visuals to further educate the global narrative of our city. Together, we are redefining what #Detroit looks like to the rest of the world.
Lenses, whether they're mounted on a tripod or elevated on drones, can only tell us so much about our circumstances in life. Ultimately, we are the storytellers who must make good use of the technology at our disposal to assure more hopeful future, working together for the generous, humane, industrious and creatively compassionate Detroit.
(After the speech was one of the most amazing few conversations of my life as people came up to me to talk about their hopes and dreams for Detroit, some to the point of tears. Those stories will be in Part 2 of this blog post) Part 2 to this will be out next Tuesday.
(Throw) Back in Vietnam - 2007
I was one year into my freelance career post Detroit Free Press and was asked to lead a production crew to an epic/intense trip to Vietnam. All of Vietnam. It was my second trip to the mysterious country and was shooting for the largest non profit ngo in vietnam. The mission: 35 day shoot across all 42 provinces to document the effects of 55 million dollars of investment.
