This weekend I attended the Image Mechanics Collision Conference here in Hollywood Just a few miles from the raging wildfires. You can read the schedule to see who presented. But the schedule only tells half the story.

Yes, some of Hollywood’s top talent showed up to share their experience with the latest game changing technology. By the way, many of you may already have that tech in your camera bag. The Canon 5D mII. It’s being used to shoot parts of Prime Time network TV shows and scenes in upcoming block buster major motion pictures. We got to see clips from one top secret project in particular, digitally projected on a huge movie screen, clips shot with a 5DmII. It was cut in with clips shot on 35mm movie film and even the most expert of experts in the crowd could not tell which shots were shot on which. And that’s projected onto the giant theater screen, not viewed on a netbook. Mind blowing stuff. They also brought toys for us to play with.

Here Rodney Charters (DP from Fox’s 24 and a bout a million other things) tries out a 5DmII set up with a sweet $35,000 Panavision lens.

I’m not going to go over every speaker, it is just too much great stuff. It’s not that I don’t want to share, it’s just that my head is swimming. I will say, acclaimed cinematographer Shane Hurlbut was the final speaker at the confrence. He held the audience in the palm of his hand as he danced around the stage talking about how he uses 15 different 5DmII’s, some as helmet cams, crash cams, mounting them to the wall with drywall screws and having Navy Seals fire thousands of live rounds at targets just an arm’s length away from the gear. He was incredibly informative, hyper-active in an entertaining way, and hilarious. It was captivating. What a perfect, powerful way to close out the show.

I can’t do justice to the experience in an article, so let me just say, if you were there, you know what I’m talking about, and if you missed out on what will likely be one of the most important meetings of the minds in our buisness in a very long time, too bad, so sad as my 11 year old neighbor likes to say.

But as I said, the lectures only tell half the story. Spin the camera around 180 degrees and look at the audience to get a better idea of how important this information is. The crowd was packed with game changing tallent, DP’s, directors, and photographers on the cutting edge. Top technitions and artists. Probably most telling is that the guys who came to lecture stayed to listen to all the other experts talk.

Syl Arena

Drew Gardner

Saturday, walking into the showroom, I saw a gentleman with crazy, curly red hair. It was the one and only Syl Arena from Pixsylated. He was hanging with his pal, and one of my favorite photographers in the whole world, Drew Gardner. They’ve got a workshop coming up this October in Paso Robles that I would give my eye teeth to attend. I think there are still a few spots open. So check it out.

Syl, Vu Bui, Zeke, and Drew enjoy a stimulating lunch.

We ended up hanging out all weekend like a weird little gang of artsy geeks talking about photography, film making, family, and the future of our business. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. On Sunday I introduced them to the notorious Bui Brothers and next thing you know iPhones were flying around the lunch table so everyone could watch eachothers latest top secret projects. F’n rad. That’s right. I said, “F’n.”

Even got to squeeze a little cuddle time in with Vincent Laforet – don’t tell our wives.

Zeke Kamm and Vincent Laforet (photo by Drew Gardner)

There is soooo much more, but I just need to soak it all up.

I do feel it would be weird for me not to mention it, now that the 7D is officially announced, but Canon is listening. They were at the conference. They want to make the cameras we want to buy. All the conspiracy people saying they’ll never make a 24 p camera because it will eat their video camera sales can all go get an ice cream and cool down. The 7D has it and much of the things I wish my 5DmII had, but feel confident the 5DmIII will have. At the conference it was unianimus, what cameras will do two years from now will make even the 7D’s features look like a joke. But you know what? It doesn’t really matter. They are just tools. And I’m laughing all the way to happy town.

I’m a storyteller. Yes, I photograph things. I make films about stuff. I put words together to make sentences. But what I am is a story teller. My mind is swimming with the potential these tools offer all of us storytellers. That’s why I care about technology, because it offers opportunities to communicate more powerfully than I might be able to just standing on the corner screaming in my underpants. But all the technology in the world don’t mean a poop if it ain’t got that whoop. What whoop is that? The talented people using it.

Thanks to Pip and the rest of the crew at Image Mechanics for making this happen. If they do it every three months, I’d be there every time. It was both mind expanding and entertaining and valuable beyond measure to me as an artist, photographer, film maker, and story teller.

Nice!

Now Shipping: The Nice Clip! - The lens cap clip and cord catcher Wired called, "A super handy little widget!"

Chase Jarvis Portrait Sessions - Inspiration from a Master of Photography
Strobist Lighting Diagrams Photo Tips & Tricks Vol. 1

| Del.icio.us | Technorati | Stumble it! | Digg