During the week of Thanksgiving I headed to Nagoya, Japan to work with director Tony Gilmore on a short documentary. The film, tentatively titled "Life As Dad," is about Craig Morrey, an American father stuck in an extremely difficult position. His son Spencer has an extreme case of CB, which requires 24 hour medical care. Due to a custody battle and international child abduction laws, Craig is stranded raising his disable son alone in a foreign country. We spent 4 days (it was suppose to be 5 but I got stuck in Detroit for 24 hours after missing my connecting flight by 2 minutes) following Craig and Spencer around the town of Okazaki and the city of Nagoya. We shot in various hospitals, on trains, in restaurants and at his home. The entire project was shot cinéma vérité style and will be told mostly through audio interviews.
We decided to shoot the project on the Canon 7d (and some with my Canon 5d mkII). We used a zoom H4 for sound and luckily had the privilege of a sound guy (thanks Dave!). We didn't record sound on every take, but when we did we employed the old school "double" system…. aka Camera speed, sound speed, action!… although since its a doc, we never really called action.
In order to keep all the material organized, we continuously dump files to a laptop, being careful to make sure the correct audio and video files went into the same folder. Our producer Tammy Chu handled all the media and did an amazing job in the field (She lives in Seoul so if you ever need a producer there, let me know!)
Gear wise we used the 7d with a number of lenses including the 17-35mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4, 200 f2.8 and two image stabilizing lenses, the 17-55 IS f2.8 and the 70-200 IS f2.8. The IS really helped when it came to shooting handheld, especially due to the rolling shutter issues with the camera. I also used a Zacuto Z-Finder. I had mixed reactions about the viewfinder, but I did find it impossible to film outside in daylight without it.
Another piece of gear I had was a small "Suitcase" dolly that I built. Its the typical skater dolly design, the only real difference is I built it to fit perfectly into my suitcase. That way all we had to do was find some PVC pipes and we were good to go.
Over the course of 4 days we shot about 300gigs of raw footage, that when converted to ProRes comes close to 1TB of data! I brought a little bit of the footage home with me, I'm hoping to cut together a short montage when I have a second.
The shoot went about as smooth as possible. Whenever dealing with sensitive subjects, I always feel weird saying we had a "great shoot" but I think we were able to capture some really powerful moments that in the long run will hopefully help Craig and Spencer. Keep an eye out some updates and footage!
Craig and Spencer.
First day of shooting.
I have had to wear some funny press passes in the past, but nothing compared to this! Its a terrible picture of me, but I just had to share. Next to me was our local producer Satimo.
Right as I was shooting here, I actually had someone come over to read my sign and make sure I had permission, like they couldn't see it across the room.
Sunset outside the hospital.
"Downtown" Okazaki.
The crew, from left to right (Satomi, David, Tammy and Tony).
Okazaki Train Station
When i decided to sit on the floor to shoot of a moving train, I think people really started to wonder about me.
I love trains! and I love shooting trains!
Working the 7d and the 70-200 IS f2.8
Okazaki train station at night.
And here are just a few snap shoots of downtown Nagoya....
...and another one.
...and one last final shot.
The Gold Farm / Real Farm.
This is the main computer room.
Like any business or office, a clock hangs on the front wall.
Most workers are in their 20s and are hardcore gamers themselves.
Office Phone.
Boxing and cards are two ways the workers spend time when not playing video games. A large boxing bag hangs in the middle of the yard.
The workers outside a the main building.
Liang, 25. The Boss.
Liang works from another room with a view into the main computer room. Liang takes his employees out to a KTV or a nice dinner once a month as a way to get a break from the farm. They often make the hour+ drive into Beijing.
A wedding photo of his grandmother hangs by Liang's computer.
Yuan, Liang's wife in their bedroom. In addition to household chores, she also assist Liang with any business related task he needs help with. She is also a avid gamer herself.
Liang's mother returns from the fields. She picks fresh veggies daily and cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner for the family and all the workers.
In a room adjacent to the computer building, Liang's mother prepares lunch. They often cook lunch over a large open wok outside.
Zhendua, 90. Liang's grandfather. The past two generations of Liang's family worked the farm. He works the virtual markets.
Another shot of Zhendua.
Farm tools.
Workers at work.
Clothes.
With 15+ computer, the hot Beijing summer heat and no AC, the workers use multiple fans to try and stay cool.
To find out more about the film Play Money and the world of real money trade and virtual economies, check out 
A few bamboo rafts wait to take passengers on a ride at dusk.
A women wasting clothes in Yangshuo.
One of the many walking streets in Yangshuo.
The hostel I stayed at in Yangshuo. Note the pool table outside... awesome!
This is Crane (who worked at the above hostel and ended up being showing me around). We went out to dinner at a very non-tourist restaurant. When the bill came it was seriously less then $5 for all that food. I like China, I can totally be a baller there!
I thought the river was beautiful during the day, well at night it has a totally deferent but equally (if not more) awesome vibe! A man looks for valuable rocks with a head light.
It happen to be the "Ghost Festival" while i was in Yangshuo. I would have had no idea what was going on if it wasn't for Crane explaining it to me. During Ghost Festival people burn money (or most cases fake money) and wish for good luck from their dead relatives.
We stopped and talked to these guys for a bit. They gave us some fake money to burn with them.
Another shot of locals burning money to honor the dead.
The view from the top of the hostel.
Riding some dirt roads outside the village of Xing Ping.
This was my best friend for the day! I gotta say it held up very well.
Another shot from Xing Ping.
After hanging out in Xing Ping for a while (I was trying to avoid the extreme afternoon heat) I took a ferry across the river and started my ride home.
This was the last village i saw before starting my massive climb into the hills!
This view made the hellish climb a bit more worth it!!!
I was so happy to see the sun setting, not because of the nice glow of light, but because it was so extremely hot!
I definitely rode through some parts that most foreigners don't see! and i definitely got some looked when i flew by people!
The last photo i took before decided to mount my camera to my bike! See video below!!!