ORPHANS

This behind the scenes video was created with the talented team....


Photography by Scott A Woodward 


Video by Persistent Productions 


Produced by Ugly Duckling Projects


Hair and Make-Up Styling by Andrea Claire


All of this for the launch of Ian Hinden's GarbAge, a surreal and glamorous fashion line and web show.
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Sea Nomads

I have an article this month's in Silkwinds Magazine on the Baju Laut community in Torosiaje, Indonesia.  This was an adventure Mike and I embarked on with photographer James Morgan and writer Johnny Langenheim. 
The area we visited, on the island of Sulawesi, was rumored to be home to some of the last nomadic members of the Baju community. We were curious to see what martine nomadism looks like in the 21st century: Did it still exist? Was it thriving?  Was it all as romantic as it sounded? This article answers some of these questions and recounts that exploration.  

Photos by James Morgan

LAXMI TAKES ON OCTOBER

This was a good month for our little leopard, as the film In the Spirit of Laxmi screened five times. P2 set sail for the US in early Oct. to attend some these screenings and landed back in Asia to bring them to a close.

During the first week of October Laxmi opened The South Asian Film Festival in Florida. We are happy to report that The Orlando Weekly gave the film 4/5 stars, and you can find their review here.

The film then traveled to the esteemed Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival where it played as part of National Geographic’s Big Cat Day. The backdrop of the festival is the stunning Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Jackhole was great opportunity to connect with old friends from DC and beyond. The photos below were captured by the talented DOP Mark Emery whose informal tour of  Yellowstone was my festival highlight.

From WY the film headed west for one of favorite US festivals The Bend Film Festival, set in a groovy little town in Central Oregon where the Laxmi enjoyed Friday and Saturday screenings. A highlight of the weekend was meeting fellow filmmakers: Sara Terry of Fambol Tuk, Alex Dawson of Wild Horses Wild Ride, and Jen and Grant of The Clean Bin Project on a panel where we discussed documentary films and social change.

At the end of the month Laxmi had her first screenings in Asia as main character Gerhard Weihahn was asked to speak in Singapore at the CondeNast Savers Conference World Savers Conference: 2011

Our last and final screening was hosted by American Express in Singapore. Following a cocktail reception and live Rajasthani music we screened the film at the LIDO cinema on Orchard Road.

Thanks to all those who came and supported at our screenings this month!

First Film exposed....

Four weeks ago I received the type of call you hope to get as a cameraman, a call about going to Mongolia on a shoot for National Geographic with Market Road Films, we’d be shooting recreations for show on the last days of Ghenkis Ghan. In the weeks leading up to the shoot, I traveled to NYC to meet with the crew; Tony Gerber, Innbo Shin and Stuart Dryburgh. During these pre-productions meetings, I learned that we would be shooting film. Film I say! In today’s documentary and commercial world this is a luxury afforded to few, and amazing opportunity to learn from one of the best DoP in the industry, Stuart Dryburgh.

A month later on the Steppes of Mongolia and I am loading film for Mr. Dryburgh, setting up a focus / frame chart. We’re in a Ger tent camp 70km outside of Ulaanbatar with four assistants and the Arri 416. The wheels of the shoot are in motion, and after the weeks of pre-production we finally had a chance to shoot, and use the equipment that we’d been discussing.

For many the idea of doing a chart test isn't that exciting, (Note: Chart Test is typically done on the first roll of the first day of the shoot so that the post production facility has a reference of how the camera is calibrated. Also - the chart usually has the project name and the DoP that is shooting...in other words, the chart is for calibration purposes for the post facility) for others - it means nothing. Well, I must say, I am in a third category, that being the category of complete excitement about rolling film on a white piece of A4 paper with frame marks on it!!


In conclusion - the first day ended with me staring at the stars through the top of my ger, waiting and wondering what the first day of our Mongol adventure would hold!

Street Scenes in Ulaanbaatar

Finally I am starting to feel like I am getting stuff done. After an impromptu gear check through yesterday afternoon, I got myself in order and started to really hone in on the technicals of this shoot. With two very different sets of camera equipment at play here, it's been a bit of a mental rubix cube to sort through all the various connectors and cables and screws and ....(blah, blah, blah) that each camera needs in order to work together.

The most frustrating moment so far has been retrofitting the 25 - 250 Angenieu Lens onto the Sony F3 as the rods on the F3 don't match the support arm for the Anegnieu...I know, crazy right!

Anyway - it was another good day of pre-production; tracking down two generators to power our lighting needs while shooting on the steppes of Mongolia, coordinating a viewing of the ATV we will use to schlep gear to and from base camp, scouting camera stores for various adaptors for our cameras, and last but not least - sitting in traffic!!!

MR

UB Traffic Cam...

This is my second installment of the Ulaanbatar Traffic Camera. Well, it's what I am calling it anyway; You see, I decided during my four hour, less than 5mile journey yesterday, that I would take some photos of what I was seeing out the window - as a way to pass the time but also as a way to capture a bit of what Mongolia looks like on any normal rainy Tuesday afternoon.

I want to say that I have officially never been in such a bad traffic jam for such an extended period of time. Our driver turned the engine off twice for an extended period of time - and that's always a bad sign. In fact, the traffic was so bad, that myself and Darya got out of the car and walked the remaining mile to our destination. Not only did we beat our driver, but we were able to conplete our task at the location before the car even showed up. I know that reading about traffic is almost as bad as having a conversation about the weather with a complete stranger, but I feel compelled to discuss how incredibly bad the traffic is in UB because it doesn't make sense that there is this amount of it.

Here's a statistic that astonished me yesterday; more than 300 hundred new cars are put on the road in Ulaanbatar every day. So, what is happening in UB is that the country is finding itself in a strange position as it is progressing at a rate faster than their infrastructure can handle. The roads are so bad, filled with pot holes, overflowing with puddles with the slightest of precipitation. The pedestrians don't respect the power of the vehicle which creates a bottleneck of cars at every intersection as they try and weave around the pedestrians that have jumped in front of them. It's horrible and unfortunately, unless they invest a lot of money in fixing the infrastructure, these problems and others will continue to happen in the city.

MR

UB Day 3...and lots of traffic

On day 3, I ventured into the unknown side streets of Ulaanbaatar  only to be greeted by unrelenting traffic...traffic that rivals downtown Mumbai or heading west on I-495 at rush hour in New York City. The difference between the traffic in UB is that you have to add a layer of thick dust to the environment and the aroma of diesel engines as most of the vehicles are older imports.

All in all - it's a part of Mongolia I would stay away from. With that said, it's currently the only part of Mongolia that I have been to so I am hoping that when I do get to another part (ie. the steppes) I will be pleasantly surprised by it's grandeur and beauty. We will see - but from the reports from the team that went and scouted the locations yesterday, there is going to be no lack of 'big sky' wonder.

Below are some images I shot while riding, more like sitting, in traffic in UB. 

On Set in Mongolia with National Geographic

When I left New York, I knew this shoot was going to be different; it started with United canceling my flight and rebooking me on a flight out of a different airport - that's always fun. It ended up being one of the longest journeys yet for me. Almost 48 hours from door to door. However, the excitement of arriving in a foreign country at 4am gave me the needed jolt of adrenaline to keep me from being too disgruntled about the 10 hour lay over in Beijing or the lost bag courtesy of China Airlines.

Mongolia is going to be very fun. It's a different place; slower. But I am very excited to get out into the openness and see what the 'steppes' have to offer. From the looks of them, from UB, it appears it's going to be a very colorful and picturesque location. The city will prove to either enchant me with what its' gritty side streets hold or disappoint me by revealing the shallowness and short sightedness of the city planning. In either case, I look forward to exploring the dusty town of 1million people to see what lies beneath the thick layer of caked dust that engulfs the city.

Below is the Chinggis Khan airport at 4am.

In the Spirit of Laxmi Wins Best Short Documentary !

We are delighted to announce that In the Spirit of Laxmi has won Best Short Documentary at The Gold Coast Film Festival. 


Selected by the jury: 
Luke Geissbuhler – DP of Helvetica, Objectified & Borat
Jeremiah Newton - producer of Beautiful Darling
Mark Romeo – producer of Blue Gold
Craig Teper – director of Vidal Sassoon: The Movie

It's a very exciting time for the film and we would like to thank all of our collaborators! 

Mike's Director's Bio

Check out Mike's Video Bio on the Tribeca's Youtube Channel.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

We are pleased to announce that our film 'In the Spirit of Laxmi' will screen at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who made this film possible, namely; Trina Dingler Ebert, Gerhard Wiehahn, Delanie Vos, Justin Matley, Michael MacAllister, Aaron Kotler & Dan Venne.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to screen four times during the Tribeca Film Festival.

In the Spirit of Laxmi will screen at the following dates and times:

Fri, Apr 22, 6:30PM
At: Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 6

Wed, Apr 27, 3:45PM
At: Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 8

Fri, Apr 29, 3:30PM
At: Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 6

Sun, May 01, 4:00PM
At: Tribeca Cinemas Theater 1

If you are interested in joining us for the screening, please see the Tribeca website for details on how to purchase tickets.

Elephants! Baby Elephants!

Here's a quick video from our most recent shoot in Indonesia. We are putting together a short video for some clients in Singapore over the course of the next few days. All will be revealed soon enough. Watch a quick clip that includes baby elephants, trumpeting and daily bath time.

Elephants... from Mike Rogers on Vimeo.

Our Time

We recently completed a video for the Our Time Theatre Company, Our Time is non-profit organization that uses the arts and unparalleled amounts of positive energy to create an affirming and supportive environment for young people who stutter. They are a truly inspirational group and we had the good fortune of spending a week with them at their summer camp in August shooting for this film.  

During the one week shoot at Camp Our Time, we met incredibly talented and thoughtful young people, many of whom feature in the film and many who do not. We want to thank the Our Time community; campers, staff, and artists for welcoming in and sharing your experiences with us.

You can check out the piece we, along with the talents of: Justin Matley, Michael MacAllister, Aaron Kotler, and Dan Venne put together. 

Thanks to Oscar nominated film The King's Speech, Our Time has been receiving much deserved national coverage on their programming. They have recently been featured on The Today Show and CBS Morning News. Our hat is off to you guys - Congratulations!

DiNapoli is In

This fall, we worked on a series of doc style political ads for the campaign of NY State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.  We want to send a big congratulations over to him and his team as yesterday marked his inauguration.  

Click here to check out the spots. 

2010

I’ve wrestled with doing a year in review entry as the possibility of it coming dangerously close to a family Christmas card frightens me; however there is something alluring about  the new year providing an opportunity for reflection and recognition…so here goes: 

In 2010 we continued to divide our time between the US and Singapore, finding adventures in both hemispheres. We premiered two of our films, Shooting For Democracy and In the Spirit of Laxmi and were able to dip our toes in the pond of film festivals and the general whoopla that surrounds the screening circuit.  Bend Film Festival, set in idyllic central Oregon, was the highlight of our tour.  Bend had a fantastic line-up of films, awesome parties, great directors, and we were proud to be a part of it.

We had fun working with friends and creative minds such as Owen Palmquist on the film ‘Bad Air’, a short doc on the air quality in the San Joaquin Valley, Justin Matley on Going With the Flow, a film featuring speech therapist Phil Schnieder as he follows the journeys of three patients who stutter, and photographer  Scott A Woodward on our Singapore bird singing shoot.

Mike celebrated his long running working relationship with producer Chris Billing as their film, 'Lost Sparrow' had it's Television premier on PBS's Independent Lens in November.

We had some great video collaborations this year with non-profits including; The Chain Reaction Project in East Timor, the Our Time group in NYC (film soon to be released), and Mike worked with Run Riot Films on their doc for DC Central Kitchen.  

The biggest change for our films themselves this year was the incorporation of the DSLR system into the core of our production work. The quality of video images these cameras produce combined with their small-ness and portability have made them indispensable and tremendously fun to use. The Cannon 5D and 7D are now staples in our production kit. 

Below is one example of our work from the last year which was shot using the Cannon 7D. The clip is from our ‘Sea Nomads’ shoot on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The focus of our shoot was the Baju, a fishing community that has lived in close connection with the ocean.   Mounting ecological and economic pressures challenge their traditional way of fishing and way of life. This piece is our first pass at a portrait of this community.  

For this shoot we teamed up with the writer Johny Langenheim and photographer James Morgan; the two are incorporating content and research from this shoot, and are working on a year long project for the WWF on the coral triangle region. 

In closing we wanted to say that one of the best parts about our semi nomadic existence is getting to see (and stay) with friends when we travel. We really appreciate being supported by and getting to see so many awesome people. Thanks to all you who were there with coffee dates, extra bedrooms, film screening support and inspiring ideas!