HD Matters

Africa 2009: Chasing the Sun

In Africa, there's a multitude of creatures that can kill you in a heartbeat. In fact, I think the list of animals that can't kill you is significantly smaller than the list that can. In order to enforce their no feeding the wildlife policy in Kruger, they lock you inside camp at night and let you out again in the morning. It's a little unnerving and feels like you're in a Jurassic Park movie with the tall fences topped with strand after strand of electrified wire. But watch a hyena crack the femur bone of a zebra ...

Filmmaking Naturally

Coming soon is a new and exciting venture from award winning cinematographer Kevin J Railsback and Silver Phoenix LLC. We're in the home stretch of dusting off the shelves and tidying up the site. Hopefully we'll open things up in the next few weeks.

Africa 2009: The Safari Begins

I had done a lot of research on Safari companies in preparation for the trip. A lot of web surfing, a lot of emails. One company really stood out of the crowd to me and that was Craig Berger's Oasis Africa. Craig is Oasis Africa. So you're not dealing with a company that has a lot of overhead which keeps prices reasonable. You really can't compare Oasis Africa's prices with other companies because, most often, you get more by hiring Craig. Not only will Craig help you plan your Safari, he's also your guide while you're there. So there's no ...

Africa 2009: Filming Woes

Once we had our destination locked, I started bombarding Craig Berger from Oasis Africa about filming in Kruger. The problem I quickly learned was that you can't shoot from the roof like you can in so many other parts of Africa. Getting out of the vehicle is also strictly prohibited except in a few very isolated spots. Normally you lay a beanbag or some other support on top of the roof and you have a 360-degree panorama of the surrounding area. So, I'm going to Africa, I'm taking a brand new camera from Panasonic to get them some good footage ...

“The River” Wins 2009 Gold Eddy

I was thrilled to learn that my short film "The River" took first place in its category at the 2009 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival! CRIFF for short is one of the few in only festival I enter my films. Why? Because even if your film isn't named an official selection, you can still schedule a meeting with the judges to critique your film. I'm not sure there are any festivals that will give the winners feedback let alone films that weren't selected to screen at the festival. I've won two gold Eddy's and one silver Eddy at this festival and the ...

Earthbeats – Quotations to Inspire

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. ~Henry David Thoreau, "Chesuncook," The Maine Woods, 1848

Silent No More

A lot of times when I'm out in the field, I like to just sit and listen to the sounds of nature. I enjoy this so much that I invested in a Zoom H4n digital audio recorder to take out with me and capture some of the natural sounds I encounter. The Zoom H4n by the way is a remarkable recorder. It can record fantastic audio with it's built in stereo mics but also allows you to plug in 1/4 inch and XLR mics as well. My first experience recording with it was in Monterey, California. My hotel was right on the ...

Silent Kingdom

Another film for the Underwater Over Land Film Challenge. The theme for this challenge was "Animal Kingdom." Unfortunately this film had to be put together in just a few hours. Family matters kept me home for most of the time period we had to complete the film. So, on the last day I headed out and spent most of the day driving around trying to find anything to film. I knew I didn't have enough wildlife footage to even come close to doing a film that really addressed the theme. So, I came up with the idea of doing a film about ...