Sundance Channel Big Idea Contest: CFL Light Bulbs for School Kids

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When Sundance Channel asked Big City to come up with a few example videos for their first annual “Big Ideas Contest,” TreeHugger Radio’s Jacob Gordon suggested that we get in touch with Kenny Luna the man behind Mr. Luna’s Bright Idea. Our fantastic cinematographer Marcus Burnett rolled in with the Panasonic HVX camera outfitted with the Brevis 35mm lens adapter as well as twenty feet of dolly track. Given our small crew, we were lucky that the kids in the class were eager to lend a hand setting up the gear. Also, we were racing the clock before the group of students were let out for their next class, so we shot all the footage of them first — much of which was overcranked for slo-motion at 48 frames-per-second. The whole spot was shot in 720p native HD to P2 cards.  Then George Spyros interviewed Kenny and we shot his dollying b-roll, again done in the native slo-mo frame rate rolling along on the skateboard dolly happily. We had talent hold a porcelain socket loaded with a CFL bulb and ran zip chord through his sleeve. Then, just at the perfect moment, we plugged in the bulb for the magical light-turning-on gag.  So other than that practical, the spot was lit entirely with 2 ft. 4 bank Kino Flo units articulated on c-stands. We shot the whole thing in about three hours. It was edited in about one-hour and twenty minutes — that is, after all the footage was ingested into the Final Cut Pro system and the up-side-down footage from theBrevis 35mm lens adapterwas flipped and exported to right-side-up Quicktime files. Given the beautiful images the rig generates, it was well worth the extra effort.

Sundance Channel's Big Ideas for a Small Planet Contest Shorts

Sundance Channel Big Idea Contest

CO2 Dry Cleaners

Patented High School Student Invention: Compost Hot Box

Global Warming Club

Sundance Channel Big Idea Contest Promos Team

George Spyros - Executive Producer, Director, Shooter, Editor

Marcus Burnett, Director of Photography

Gregg Guinta, Producer

Sundance Channel Big Idea Contest Promos Gear

Panasonic HVX200 Digital HD Camera

Century Pro Series HD Fisheye Lens

Panasonic P2 Card

Duel Adapter PCMCIA Card to ExpressCard Device

Skateboard Dolly

Panasonic DVX100 24p Camcorder

BCP Jargon Patrol: 24p

BCP Jargon Patrol: 35mm Lens Adapter