Behind the Scenes: Shooting the Burnside 35 Product Video

Behind the Scenes: Shooting the Burnside 35 Product Video

Curious as to what went into shooting our Burnside 35 launch video? Watch the video below, then read on for a peek behind the scenes.

https://lensbaby.wistia.com/medias/jyk0bkjcmk?embedType=iframe&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

I (Keri, I'm the Director of Marketing at Lensbaby) acted as producer. In determining our choice of videographer, I knew local Portland filmmaker Dustin Tolman would be excited to take on this project. He'd shot several compelling videos with our Twist 60 lens, so I knew that he would appreciate and be excited about Burnside's swirly bokeh. The crew was comprised of Dustin, AC Sean Conley, myself, Michael Anthony (a former professional photographer who manages Lensbaby's e-commerce and social media) as talent, and Elizabeth Nguyen as our environmental portrait model.

To show off the strengths of this lens, as a creative tool to craft environmental portraits, landscapes, and street photography, we needed to decide on a mix of locations. Plus, we knew we had to shoot some of the video on Burnside Street, namesake of the lens. We chose Powell Butte, one of the many close-in nature parks in Portland, rich in both old-growth forest and a big flat tree-strewn top to capture some landscape shots. Dustin had a friend on the management crew of one of the tallest buildings in downtown Portland and he finagled us about a half hour's time to shoot city scapes from the roof. Then we'd spend the rest of the afternoon shooting portraits of Elizabeth on or near Burnside, with more street photography along the way.

Our next challenge was playing roulette with the weather forecast. January in Portland is generally highs in the low 40s with rain and most of our shoot would be outside. I obsessed over the forecast and we picked a day that looked the "least worst." It ended up being chilly, damn and gray but dry - which we took as a win.

Gear List:

Powell Butte - landscape location

Dustin, Sean and Michael shooting our first scene

Reviewing Burnside footage on the Red camera.

Sean, wirelessly focusing and reviewing footage on the monitor as Dustin captured in real-time.

Dustin and Michael shooting Elizabeth with separation from the brick wall to illustrate maximum swirly bokeh

Shooting a portrait of Elizabeth with no background separation therefore no swirl. Shortly after this was shot we got kicked out of this (unoccupied) alley...

The crew working on a portrait of Elizabeth just off Burnside Street.

Working on setting up to capture b-roll of Burnside 35 on the Burnside Bridge

Burnside 35 goes totally meta

Wrapping things up back at Dustin's studio