DISCLAIMER: This video was shot by Los Angeles-based cinematographer Kevin Richey, a close friend of mine. I was the cinematographer only for the time lapse portions of the commercial.
Sarah and I were exploring Governor's Island with a picnic lunch of homemade pulled pork when my phone rang. It was Kevin Richey, a friend of long standing and talented cinematographer who taught me much of what I know.
"Wanna come shoot some time lapse in Dallas next week?" he asked.
"I've never done time lapse," I responded, confused.
"Yeah, but I know you'll figure it out."
And figure it out I did. For four straight days I ran time lapse experiments, pointing my Nikon D700 out of every window in my apartment. One of my tests captured, entirely by accident, the setup, shoot, and wrap of a scene for an NYU Graduate film across the street. Sure enough, by the time I landed in Dallas, I was confident in my abilities.
As luck had it, we started off with the Bank of America building in downtown Dallas, a tall and highly reflective structure, at a time when cloud movement was ideal for time lapse. From there we were off to the races, shooting all day and post processing all night. I slept on the flight back to New York.
While I was up late processing, Jen Kwok's video "Take You Home," which I shot, played on Comedy Central. And bookending the whole experience, I saw the national version of this spot, with a number of my time lapse shots intact, on a JetBlue flight to Ft. Lauderdale for a corporate video shoot. It was an exciting time.