Kessler Party in Vegas with Laforet, Bloom, Rodney Charters, Dan Chung, Tyler Ginter, Khalid Mohtaseb, Tom Guilmette, Zacuto's Steve Weiss and Sue, etc. I'm standing between Laforet and Ginter

After years of wanting to attend NAB (National Association of Broadcasters conference) in Vegas, this year, I couldn’t resist any longer. My work was being featured in Canon’s “HD Theater” in the main convention hall, and there were just too many people I wanted to finally meet, and sponsors I wanted to thank. After a grueling 10-hour drive hauling the 30ft trailer from Lake Powell down to Coachella, I raced back to Vegas to NAB. Almost immediately, I was able to meet a lot of the major players from Canon USA, including (the real) Chuck Westfall and Amy Kawadler. The strangest part for me, was the fact that several times I was stopped in the hotel or on the convention floor with “Tom?? THE Tom Lowe from Timescapes??” *Blush* I am a guy who spends most of his time sitting on camping chairs under stars and trees in remote places. I was quite surprised that anyone even knew who the hell I was.

I got to meet some of the real luminaries of new digital cinema, including Dan Chung, Philip Bloom, Rodney Charters, Alex Buono, Khalid Mohtaseb, Jon Rawlinson, etc. I figured most of my time at NAB would be spent eye-balling new gear and cameras. But in fact, 95% of my time was spent just meeting people and saying hi.

Wednesday night, Eric Kessler of Kessler Cranes threw what was supposed to be a small dinner party for just a few of us, but quickly turned into a fairly epic little gathering (photo above). By night’s end, we were at Gustav’s bar at the Paris hotel having drinks with Laforet, Chung, Charters, etc.

NAB pics…

Crazy Cineflex Mad Max camera car from helicopter filming god Ron Chapple

Philip Bloom shows off his better side at Kessler party

Drinks with Vince, Dan, Matt Jeppsen and Rodney

Dan Chung, out for the count! That 60oz piña colada is no joke

From the frying pan of NAB, straight into the flames at Coachella! Dan Chung and Drew Walker joined me immediately after NAB for three days of filming at the Coachella music festival. Needless to say, this was a bit of a culture shock after the previous six weeks of filming cactus and joshua trees out in remote deserts. First of all there were gorgeous women everywhere. And the music.. wow!

Coachella pics…

The wristband

Dan rockin the Red One MX digital cinema camera

Crazy stuff at Do Lab stage

Trying to film people in various states of ecstasy


Dan was kind enough to bring me a highly prized Canon coffee mug!

Here are two frame grabs from the Red footage we shot… all of it was filmed at 3K RAW 50 frames per second…

Hula Hoop at 50 frames per second...

This girl was AMAZING. She had me mesmerized the whole time I was filming her

Next up, I am heading to Nevada soon to film for about a week to ten days, for a big new Nevada State Museum project. This will be a high-tech museum with video walls. I believe it will be built on the Vegas strip. I will use the earnings to supplement the modest “Southwest Light” budget, and will also be able to use the clips in my film.

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