What would it take to get you out of the house the day after Christmas, fight the crowds at the airports and fly to Los Angeles? Would a chance to attend a three-day HD-SLR workshop do it? It probably would if the instructor was Gayle Tattersall, director of photography for the TV show "House MD" and the first person to use all HD-SLRs to film an entire episode of a major network show.
The week after Christmas isn't normally an optimum time for holding workshops, but all 15 spots for the second running of Tattersall's HD-SLR workshops at the end of last year were almost instantly sold out, at $1,200 a pop.
When I first heard about the workshop, I was skeptical — especially since I would be a Nikon shooter attending a Canon-sponsored class. However, I was convinced after seeing the ambitious schedule on the first day, with Gayle initiating some frank, unemotional comparisons of each camera's relative merits. After a morning of familiarization with the Canon 5Ds, there was a short practice session, followed by the splitting of the class into teams for familiarization with different filmmaking tools, such as dollies, lighting equipment, jibs, sliders, Steadicams and shoulder rigs.
Day two included more technical sessions on lighting equipment, demos from gear reps, techniques and clips from Gayle's various projects. One of the morning's highlights was watching and working with Vinnie Minton, an amazing Steadicam operator who had been a pro rollerblader for 10 years. (See video)
The rest of the day was an opportunity for the class to practice skills they had learned the day before, shooting video with live models that would be shown on the big screen and critiqued at the end of the day. Sets had been built that showcased the abilities and need for each piece of equipment discussed earlier and that were manned by the appropriate specialist from the crew.
The entire final day was focused on applying all of the learned skills on a music video for a popular L.A. artist named Andrée Belle. The crew had worked long after the students left the night before and had built and lit a number of new sets in the studio. The song we were to create a music video for was "Variety Pack," in which cereals are a metaphor for undiscovered/explored physical attributes. See cut no. 7
No matter what your current experience level is, if you're embarking on a voyage to master this new "convergence" medium and want to add to your overall skill set, Gayle Tattersall's HD-SLR workshop is one of the best ways to learn the basics and beyond. You get to see, touch and experience all of the tools needed to optimize these new cameras while learning from a group of friendly working pros. Best of all, you get to peek into the mind of a master photographer and innovator who loves to teach and share.
I've already added my name to the lists for the advanced-technique classes planned for later this year.
