Red 5 Studios

If you’ve been a fan of the online reality TV series “The Longest Day”, you’ll love today’s episode of F-Stop Beyond. The series involved twenty-four of the top wedding and portrait wedding photographers from around North America. They were divided into two teams and given just twenty-four hours to write, shoot, and edit an original short film. The reality TV show involved the behind-the-scenes making of the two teams’ films. The drama. The antics. The mayhem. If you haven’t already seen it, you can check out the season recap (as well as the two final videos) at thelongestday.tv.

Today, we have three of the cast members from the show: Jules Bianchi from Team A, and the two team creative consultants, Loyd Calomay and David Robin. Jules, Loyd, and David share with us the inside scoop of what happened that day that we didn’t see in the show. We answer questions like: why did Jim Garner and Bambi Cantrell of Team B already have a film idea sorted out? What happened in Team A’s room that caused the horror story idea go south? How Loyd and David did the editing “magic” they did for the videos? What was it like for Loyd and David coming into a mix of such big names in the photo industry?

- Ron Dawson

Click here to read more and listen to the interview!

IT’S HERE!!! The big reveal! After all the drama, laughs and tears… our final short films are here! Thanks for watching and for all your support!

Twenty-four of the hottest photographers in North America converge on Universal City for a “secret mission.” All they know is that it will be a project that will last 24 hours. They’ve come as far as Vancouver and Chattanooga, without a clue as to why. When they arrive, they find out that they’re being split into two teams. Each team is given 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit an original short film. Each team is also playing for one of two charities: Thirst Relief and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Let the games begin!

I was brought in as creative consultant for the A Team to help shoot and edit the original short film and PSA video for our charity. Like many reality competitions, viewers will determine the winner, which will be announced at WPPI in February.

Here are the trailers for “The Longest Day” reality challenge!

Here’s the trailer for the A Team (my team)

Here’s the trailer for the B team

Click here to see the official website.

Ron Dawson, of Cinematic Studios, one of Event DV’s Top 25, asked me, along with David Robin (another Top 25er), if we would like to be part of a reality TV series that he was producing. Whatever it was… I was in! Here was the idea for the show: Take 24 of the top wedding photographers in the industry, invite them to get together at one location (without telling them why) and when they get there, reveal to them that they would be split in two teams and that each team would have to write, shoot, and edit a short film that has to be about photography… in just 24 hours! Wow!

Well, on Monday (and the early part of Tuesday), it all happened. David and I were brought on board as creative consultants (we were each assigned to one of the two teams), to help shoot and edit the films and act as field reporters to the reality TV cameras. Appropriately, the show will be called “The Longest Day” and it’s a buzz builder that will lead up to the WPPI convention in February. The teams played for two great causes, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and Thirst Relief International. And on top of shooting the short film, each team had to do a PSA for the charity that they were playing for. Double wow!

Here’s a list of who was there:

Dane Sanders
[b]ecker
David Jay
Bronson Pate
Brook & Alisha Todd
Steve & Jenn Bebb
Jules Bianchi
Kenny Kim
Kevin Kubota
Rob Evans
Chris & Katie Humphreys
Bambi Cantrell
Jim Garner
Jasmine Star
Gene Higa
Ann Hamilton
Amber Holritz
Catherine Hall
Michele Celentano
Joe Photo
Jessica Claire

Photos by Kenny Kim

The series will premiere very soon and you will get to see the drama and incredibly funny moments unfold. The short films will then be posted for the viewers to watch and vote for! After the votes are in, the winning team will be announced at the WPPI Convention.

It was one of the most rewarding and challenging projects I’ve ever been a part of (I was up and moving around for over 30 hours). Stay tuned for more updates!

Photos by Gustavo Fernandez

Photo by Joy Bianchi Brown. Courtesy of Jules Bianchi

With American Idol back on the air, it reminded me that I met a few “Idols” back while I was shooting on the set of a music video for Black Eyed Peas. The song was “Bebot”, rapper Apl De Ap’s love song to his home country of the Philippines and the last single off the Black Eyed Peas’ album Monkey Business. I was assigned by director Patricio Ginelsa and co-producer A.J. Calomay to create a music video that would have some of the featured extras singing the song. Amongst those who lip-synced the BEP song were former American Idol finalists Jasmine Trias, Camille Velasco, and Jose “Sway” Pinala, along with many Filipino-American musicians, DJs, and performers. It was a lot of fun being on the 2-day shoot and making the video. It was uploaded to YouTube as a teaser before the premiere of the music video. Check out Fergie speaking some Tagalog at the end of the video.

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Happy New Year everyone! We’ve been busy working over the winter break so stay tuned for plenty of new videos in the coming weeks. Check out this opening sequence from Peniel’s 18th birthday celebration!