Radical Media was hired to produce a long form Internet spot for American Express, written by and starring Jerry Seinfeld with Barry Levinson directing. My good friend and associate Shane Hurlbut (Drumline, Crazy/Beautiful) was hired to DP the spot, and when he was told that the intention was to shoot on DV, he brought me on to operate and advise him on the approach to shooting a high-end DV project.

The second film in the series features Jerry and Superman taking a road trip somewhere in the desert in a 1965 Porsche. Our first day was to be spent shooting the scenes within the car, so we spent the morning rigging onto the process trailer which was to be towed by a camera car for Monday’s photography. Shane wanted to find the camera angles and lenses to avoid having to do that work on Monday morning.

These images accompany an article by Charles describing how he helped shoot an American Express internet spot starring Jerry Seinfeld and directed by Barry Levinson. The copyright on the images shown here is held exclusively by by Charles Papert, Jason Wawro and Gary Hatfield; all rights are reserved accordingly.

These images accompany an article by Charles describing how he helped shoot an American Express internet spot starring Jerry Seinfeld and directed by Barry Levinson. The copyright on the images shown here is held exclusively by Charles Papert, Jason Wawro and Gary Hatfield; all rights are reserved accordingly.

This section offers some operating tips gleaned from savvy XL shooters for the benefit of others. The idea here is to have a place to point everyone who asks, “how do I do that again?” without having to keep reposting the same information on usenet. I got the idea from watching how many times people have asked how to generate color bars on the Sony VX1000.

Although color LCD viewfinder screens have begun appearing on professional cameras they are offered as secondary, and often multifunctional, viewing aids. When professional camera operators put their eyes to a viewfinder cup you can be sure that they’re looking at beautiful black and white.

Shooters who bemoaned difficulties with the standard-issue 16x IS II Automatic lens’ focus control quickly began proclaiming this lens to be their savior, often recommending that new XL1S buyers forego the IS II lens altogether.

If we exclude the neccessary items such as batteries and tripod from this consideration, then here’s what I would call the “Top Five” must-haves for the Canon GL2.