The Rock & Roll Chef®

The future host of "Rock & Roll Kitchen, Jr." (Chef Hannah) happened to be in town during the Brendan's Cross photo shoot (July 2008, Chicago). As Hannah's mother tried to decide whether to be disturbed or amused, James (on the butcher block) directed this shot. After making sure a 9 year-old kid had enough sense NOT to follow through with the downstroke stabby stabby, that is. For my money, James (and the rest of the band) are just not right in the head. See cooking videos of Hannah at RRKJR.com

Labels: Brendan's Cross, chef hannah, Chicago band, photo shoot

A quickie bumper from Brendan's Cross photo shoot, outside the production studio. Features a 75 black Cadillac pop-top.


Brendan's Cross | Rock & Roll Kitchen Bumper from Rocknrollchef on Vimeo.

Labels: Brendan's Cross, cadillac, Rock n roll kitchen bumper

Have a look at something that was shot & edited in under a week. This was actually a 1-take green screen test with only the singer, taped at the end of a long, hot photo shoot for Brendan's Cross. BC is a 5-piece Chicago-based band with a new record coming out called "Vs. The World," produced by (sir) Chip Znuff. Regardless of the production value, the singer asked me to put it online anyway (better than nothing, I guess). In my opinion, the piece:

1. Features a very strong song & production

2. Features a very engaging/talented singer/songwriter with a cool vibe (and great pipes).

To me, the singer Rich almost has a rockabilly/Elvis thing going on, although I can't imagine there's any way that was intentional.

RESOLUTION. Here's what's funny about this video: When it's reformatted with an online sharing site (I use Vimeo.com for the sharper picture, YouTube.com to spike search engine ranking), the video seems to even out into a softer, film-ish look. However, when it's rendered in the highest resolution available to me (NTSC, 30-ish frames per second, .avi format), it looks like a cheesy public access production. Go figure. And so the question: Maybe there should be a strategy for content produced (for the time being) with that low-resolution softening effect in the plan?

CAMERAS. I used a Canon GL1, shot at 30 p. I was REALLY wishing we'd shot this in the "film-look" 24 p, but that camera wasn't available at the time.

Labels: Brendan's Cross, Chicago band, chip znuff, Green screen, music video, rock n roll chef, Shine