The Godfather Exhibit at the Academy Museum

A few visuals and artifacts from the production of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, a new exhibit on display at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, California. 

 

8mm Bell & Howell Model 256 Film Projector

The latest film projector to find its way into my collection is this vintage 8mm Bell & Howell Model 256 movie projector. Made in the 1950s, this projector was made for screening home movies filmed on cameras like this other Bell & Howell I picked up earlier this year. I've yet to screen anything with this 8mm projector yet, but after a thorough clean she looks as good as new.

 

16mm Revere Model 48 Film Projector

Aside from being nice to look at, the initial reason I purchased this 1952 16mm Revere silent film projector was because of some of the 16mm reels I shot while in film school. Even though most of the work we shot was digital, we did play around with various film stocks to get a feel for the medium, and it hit me one day that I had no way to watch these past projects.

Still in excellent working condition, admittedly this Revere Model 48 film projector does not get switched on often, but because it's a beautiful piece of vintage equipment I do display it proudly. These 16mm projectors can be acquired relatively cheaply today, but they are expensive to ship because of their weight and bulb replacements can be tricky to come by. As we move further away from analog photography, vintage projectors like this one will only become more interesting.    

 

1950s Bell & Howell Movie Camera

Believing this vintage movie camera to be from the 1950s going by the undated paperwork it came with, this Bell & Howell is a double 8mm cine camera. What "double 8mm" means is that it filmed on one side of a 16mm film strip (essentially 8mm) and could then be flipped over to expose the other half (another 8mm). The 16mm film was then split when developed and would give you 50 ft. of exposed 8mm film to play in your projector. 

Unlike some of my other vintage finds, I have no intention of filming anything with this one. I was really impressed because this camera was in practically brand new condition and included the original manual for only $20. For now this vintage Bell & Howell will make a nice prop. 

 

1960s Kodak Instamatic 300 Camera

Released between 1963 to 1966, the Kodak Eastman Instamatic 300 was a simple camera intended for casual snapshots. Manufactured in England, the Instamatic 300 had an automatic light cell to help with the camera's exposure system, a pop up flash holder, and an exposure warning flag that would appear in the viewfinder in low light situations. 

Although not a particularly rare piece of equipment, this small Kodak Instamatic 300 camera was a great find and one that I was excited to add to my vintage camera collection.

Aerial Views of Red Rock Coulee

The incredible Mars-like surface of Red Rock Coulee in Alberta is only made more dramatic when seen from above with the help of a drone. After filming some material for another project in the area earlier this year, I stopped off at Red Rock Coulee to shoot some aerial photography and footage of this amazing landscape. Here is a short highlight reel.

Edit Suite 3.0

With each new version of edit suite I build the options get a bit more varied, the equipment gets a bit better, and the experience gets unnecessarily more complicated. After this latest round of upgrades the Editing Luke edit suite is pretty much everything I would've dreamed of and more as a film student - however, now a decade into growing my production company and brand, I've accepted the reality that the upgrades are constant, never-ending, and essential.

Some of my favourite changes this time around have been largely cosmetic. New monitors, including a 40" wall mounted preview screen, are welcome additions as the campaigns, documentaries, and projects I've taken on this year have become more in-depth. Technically speaking, without giving much away, I'm feeling well equipped to tackle the multiple video projects I'm working on into the fall. For those who have asked about it, this is just a quick behind the scenes glimpse at the new Editing Luke setup. Explore more of what I've been up to and some of my latest projects here.

 

Retired After Shooting Nearly 200K Images

I've added a number of cameras to my collection over the last 10 years, but this is the first time that I can say I've actually worn one out. I bought this Canon T3i about 3.5 years ago as a backup camera for shoots on the go. In reality, I ended up using it almost exclusively as the travel camera that I packed on road trips. Even I'm amazed that in just a few years I clocked nearly 200K shots on a secondary camera that I thought I was using part-time.

What happens to a camera after that much shooting? Well, the shutter is noticeably slower than it used to be. The sensor has a minor, but workable glitch. The viewfinder guard has fallen off. The back screen is cracking again after I replaced the glass once a year ago. The kit lenses both have a grit to them, likely from the sand collected on repeat shoots in the California desert. The telephoto has a rattle and no longer focuses properly when fully zoomed. There are also a smattering of to-be-expected scratches and scuffs. 

All things considered, this camera has held up remarkably well for how many miles it's traveled and for how much abuse it's took. As someone who shoots a lot of travel content in the moment and on the go, this camera was constantly getting tossed around in my backpack. I'm not the least bit disappointed about how its held up or performed. This Canon has been a workhorse and its earned its spot on the shelf next to my other retired cameras. 

Replacing and upgrading equipment is par for the course with any media business - and in this case I bought a brand new camera and series of lenses specifically for future travel shoots. What makes it bittersweet is that I captured so many incredible adventures with this T3i. It was far from the most expensive camera, but I certainly got my moneys worth over and over again. Curious to see some of what I shot with it? Explore these travel collections for more:

• Aloha Hawaii
• Around Alberta
• Roadside California
• Pacific Northwest
• Middle America
• Motor City
• Shambhala    

Building a New Edit Suite

Upgrades are par for the course when you work in a creative field, and true to form after three years my computer was telling me it needed to be replaced. You may think that that timing sounds oddly specific, but since I bought my first personal PC to edit after graduating high school in 2002, I upgraded my system in the fall of 2005, 2008, 2011, and now 2014. Perhaps not surprisingly, given my corporate video and photography work, it's always the video or graphics card that fail on me first - kicking off a new round of improvements.


This time I really went all out. Seeing as I'm now making a go of being a full-time freelancer, I decided to put together my dream system. This meant upgrading everything from my monitors, speakers, and computer, to my editing software and even how I laid out all of my external hard drives. The cables under my desk have never been so organized.

Many people always assume I use a Mac because it's such a standard for creatives. To be honest, while I do have quite a few Apple products, my money just goes dramatically further with a PC. That alone makes it easy to justify. And more so, I love having a system that's unique to me - and far more custom in terms of what I can control. It's just a personal choice.

In the end, the new edit suite is amazing and I can't wait to put it to use on some new projects I have lined up. When I compare this to what I was editing on back in film school it's a pretty blatant reminder of just how much I've improved, and just how affordable (relatively speaking) the equipment has become. I'm a pretty happy guy these days.

Here are some of my main edit suite upgrades:

• 22" HP monitor (vertically mounted) and a 32" 1080p LG TV as my main desktop. 
• New Intel Core i7, 12GB Ram, and additional Bluray drive for video authoring.
• 2 wood Hi-Fi speaker towers (more than enough power for my space).
• High-end Sennheiser wireless headphones. 
• Over 5TB of workable project space.