Tom Antos, a film director, cinematographer, and visual effects artist with over 17 years of experience, has worked on a number of big feature films including “Bait,” starring Jamie Foxx, and “Everyone’s Hero,” starring the late Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. He has also created countless short films and music videos, and his work has been honored with awards including a Telly, Promax BDA, and Worldfest Gold Remi. He shares his filmmaking experience and knowledge through a series of compelling online YouTube videos that have attracted a loyal following of over 200,000 subscribers and average over 2 million views per month.
“I always wanted to do something with Adorama,” says Antos, “because they’re a real presence in the filmmaking community and have an awesome Rental Department. I finally had the opportunity to propose a collaborative video project when I found out that Anna Cyzon, an attractive young Canadian singer and rock band musician, was coming to New York. She’s very big in Europe and I’d already done a music video with her over there. The idea I came up with was inspired by the song, Never Broken used in the sound track, and I decided to create a visual first-person narrative that expresses the theme, ‘I’ve traveled to all these countries around the world, but it’s nothing without you.’ The unique first-person twist is that the video is presented from her perspective; the boyfriend is never shown, except for his hands as he guides her on a whirlwind tour of New York City and its landmarks—Times Square at night, Coney Island beach, riding the subway. It’s all about the relationship, that nothing is as exciting unless you’re there with me.”
“Once Adorama signed on to the project, I was able to tap into the incredible resources of Adorama’s Rental Department,” recalls Antos. “Practically anything on the planet related to high-end video production, including cameras and image-stabilization gimbals was made available to me, and the first step was assembling a shooting outfit that offered the performance and flexibility I needed to document what was essentially an impromptu unguided tour of New York City.”
Video 1 in his 3-part series of Adorama videos documenting the project offers a detailed visualand narrative account of the challenging process of deciding which video gear to use, a process that’s always entertaining, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. Tom Antos is a great natural presenter with an engaging presence, and he describes his tribulations with deadpan humor and unfailing good cheer. Scenes showing what happens when you try to press bulky, ungainly shooting outfits into service are particularly amusing, and give you a a real sense of what pro videographers have to go through before even going out on a shoot. “The Red Epic camera on a big, complex gimbal can capture even better image quality than the Sony a7 S II and small gimbal we wound up using,” observes Antos,“ but you’ve got to pick the equipment that works best for the specific shooting conditions. Without the Sony’s spectacular low-light capability, it would have been impossible to shoot it without lights, and the small gimbal allowed us much greater mobility in following the subject. Another big advantage when shooting in New York City: we didn’t stand out from the crowd or look like pros.”
The second Adorama video in the series documents the actual shoot and, if anything, it’s even more entertaining because it exemplifies Murphy’s Law, ”If anything can possibly go wrong it will,” and shows that the two greatest assets a videographer can have are phenomenal resourcefulness, and the ability to maintain a positive can-do attitude even in the face of unforeseen circumstances.
“To begin with, we were supposed to shoot this video in late August to capture a summer feel, and we wound up shooting it in late October,” notes Antos with a touch of irony. “Then we ran into bad weather—a light drizzle that soon became torrential rain and gusty winds. Then there was the little matter of the Coney Island beach sequence—this iconic location doesn’t look quite the same in early fall, and the water is frigid. When facing challenges like this I always tell myself that in filmmaking there are no problems, just a lack of solutions. It also helps to keep things in perspective—after all you’re not saving the world, you’re just creating a piece of entertainment. It’s always challenging, but you’re having fun and that’s why you have a great attitude. As it turned out my non-weatherproof camera and lenses continued to function without a hitch despite being well drenched (I did have to dry the lens out with a hair dryer!), the lights reflected off the pavement in the rain looked awesome, and the weather turned fair and milder when we shot the beach sequence, though my feet did get frozen when I ventured into the water.”
Regrettably I didn’t get a chance to see the third Adorama installment in the series, the final cut and edited version of Tom Antos’ video Never Broken, because he was still working on it. But experiencingthe real behind-the-scenes experience of creating a pro-caliber video was truly an entertaining and enlightening experience. It’s great fun to watch and anyone who has even a passing interest in shooting video at any level is sure to get a lot out of it.
To see more of Tom Antos work visit his website:http://tomantosfilms.com/
