Blog

Quatro Casas Surf Trip

A few months ago I went on a trip with my friend Chris. I’ve always wanted to try and tell a story with still photos while shooting a “behind the scenes” style video angle and cutting the two together.
I shot the trip with my GoPro and homemade mouth mount along with a 1930’s Argus A2B 35mm camera.
Although it’s not in the video, this trip has special meaning for me because Chris and I had talked about this trip during my six weeks of chemo and radiation treatments. Treatments that didn’t allow me to travel and eventually made it impossible for me to surf, or venture far from my house at all.

The Fourth Phase Premiere in Denver

Lately, I’ve been getting back into shooting film, but when I left for Colorado to attend The Fourth Phase Premiere in Denver, I looked at the cameras on my desk and decided they wouldn’t come with me. Most of the evening would be in low light situations and none of my old cameras have very reliable flashes. Once I arrived at the hotel I started feeling the itch to shoot 35mm, so I went to the drug store and got a Kodak disposable Funsaver.
I didn’t realize until I was shooting it that it’s the perfect party camera. Unlike shooting with your iPhone, the flash is instant and the shutter is quick. Not to mention, people seem a little more comfortable around a camera that won’t instantly upload to the internet.

Street Studios – NAMM PSA

Last year Death Cookie was contracted to create, produce, shoot, and edit a Public Service Announcement for The NAMM Foundation. We teamed up with Found Sound Nation which was hosting 12 Street Studios during Make Music New York on International Make Music Day (June 21st).
We’d decided to focus on three of the locations and setup a Cinematographer (Tate MacDowell, Ora Dekornfeld and Jesse Brown) at each Street Studio. Each team of Music Producers was tasked with making an original track by the end of the day to be presented at an afterparty. However for the final PSA, we hand selected Lorna Dune and Keith Sweaty to create and original score using the samples that were created from the general public at those three locations to create one piece. The challenge was to make a final piece that allowed the audio to meld with the video. It was a team effort between Keith and Lorna and DCE Producer/Editor Tate MacDowell and took over 8 months to complete.
We hope that it inspires people to #JustPlay !

Ryan Burch and Bryce Young surfing Seaside Reef 4K

Went down to Seaside Reef in Cardiff CA on December 1st 2015 to shoot my new Panasonic Lumix GH4 and try out the 4K settings.
The talent was there and the footage ended up looking pretty good so I put together this edit to test out the youtube 4k upload settings. Enjoy!
Shot, Edited and Music by Tate MacDowell