Out in The Garage 4 is an official winner of 3 Telly Awards in:

Promotional - Automotive
Cinematography
Web Video - Cinematography

Spread the word!
https://vimeo.com/41668121

Mitchell Loper Houston based cinematographer with experience in 35mm, 16mm, RED, 4K imaging, Blackmagic CInema Camera, HD, HDSLRs, and co-owner/operator of Kahunas and Kahuna Films. Blackmagic Cinema Camera package. Extensive 5D MKII and matching pair of 60D packages. "Good work ain't cheap, cheap work ain't good." - Sailor Jerry

Out in The Garage 4

We're getting toward the end of the web series and are about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for a full length documentary on hot rodding! A very exciting venture!!
This episode was shot in Temple, TX at The Day at The Drag Race event hosted by the Austin car club The Kontinentals, a great event!

Shot on a RED One,

Mitchell Loper - Director
Craig Loper - Director of Photography
Scott Jones - Camera Operator

Music by: Ritchie Valens "Sleepwalk"

Special thanks to:
Dave Crowder
Matt Stevenson
Matt Vachon

Blackmagic Cinema Camera NAB 2012

More to come from NAB 2012, but I wanted to get this posted as soon as I could!

Busy, Busy! 4

Good golly! It just hasn't let up!

This particular blog is to catch y'all up to date from my last post till now. This has been a really incredible year, and its not over YET!

SAM, SAM, SAM:

We have had the privilege of working with some "top notch" folks up at Sam Houston University.
We are still in full swing with Studio A in the Dan Rather Communications Building, and are about to go into a full on blitz to get some major things accomplished while school is out.

In November we had a couple of days of shooting for the marketing department for commercials promoting the school. One of the days was at the Memorial Herman TIRR program center, showcasing the music therapy department. What an incredible bunch of people! We interviewed a couple of SHSU graduates and filmed them doing what they do best. It was quite obvious that these people are "called' to work in this field. The sincerity and enthusiasm of the people that work at TIRR is truly inspiring.

The second day of shooting were interviews with two first generation graduates and a history professor of SHSU. The interviews were very insightful of the fears and struggles of students going to college for the first time in their family. SHSU's student body is currently 50% first generation students, and they really have a system for helping these people out to make sure the students don't fall through the cracks!
The interview with the history professor shined some light on San Houston the man, which in turn educated me on a couple of points I didn't know about this interesting person.

So now that's all in the "can" we are off-lining footage currently to create a few commercials. We will also be creating some more insightful web pieces that will be able to be viewed on YouTube and the SHSU website.

We are shooting this series almost entirely on DSLRs. We also shot some greenscreen footage with 2 Canon XF305 cameras. The DSLRs we are using are 2 Canon 60Ds and a Nikon D7000. We will soon be picking up a 5D MarkII and are looking forward to the MarkIII!

It was fun also to shoot some of the interviews in SHSU's Studio C that we have lighted with all LED lighting!

Other News:

"Crash The Super Bowl" Doritos Commercial:

A Letter 3 Films Production, directed by Jack Updyke. Dad (Craig Loper) DPed it and I was an operator. We shot the commercial on our 60D and it turned out looking GREAT!

http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/?video=14223

It's a FLASH compression so you must be on a computer, it's also a bit "crunched" from it being FLASH also, I saw it on a 52" DLP monitor and it was beautiful straight out of the camera!

Here are a few BTS shots.

Classes, Workshops and Seminars:

This is something REALLY exciting for me, and a goal that I set earlier this year that we are achieving!

We are now executing one on one and group sessions for "all things" media. 

Recently Kahunas (Dad's and my new company) had Jack teach an Adobe Premiere class for a team at St. Lukes.

Most recent, Dad and I taught a two day DSLR one on one session to get someone up to speed to shoot and edit with DSLRs. This is a TON of fun to get people excited about what we love to do!

Discount Tire Shoot:

I was hired to Discount Tire's annual awards gala. I've been shooting this event for 5 or 6 years now, and it's fun every time!

Keesh's Wedding!:

My good friend and my wife's (Pauline) best friend just got married the beginning of last month!

I was asked to shoot Keesh and Omar's wedding, and I was honored to. 

We had a great time and got some wonderful shots with the help of Dad, Mom and Pauline.

Nostalgia Drags and Rod Run:

I'm in the home stretch of the t-shirt design for the event at Lonestar Motor Park in Sealy, TX March 3rd!

The photo shoot was a ton of fun and I'm really excited to see the shirts printed!

Click image to enlarge

Lone Star Pictures shoot:

I was hired as a DIT (Digital Imaging Technician) on a shoot with Scott Jones and Richard Lacy with Scott's RED. Since most cameras nowadays shoot on some form of solid state media, it is important to have someone on the crew that manages these files. As a DIT on set you are responsible to manage and download the files from the camera, back up the files, check quality of the image and files, and work as a  "safety net" for the DP incase of any anomalies that could come up shooting onto solid state media.

This was a fun shoot and always is enjoyable to work with stellar guys and phenomenal gear!

Well I guess that about wraps it up, except for a volleyball reel video I edited for a hot rod buddy's  daughter. I know nothing about volleyball, but us hot rodders gota' stick together ;)

Till next time...

Busy, Busy! 3

Man o man! This year is perpetually speeding up! I ended up skipping an October post mainly because of my show encompassing a tremendous amount of time.

My last post was September 24^th, so I have A LOT to catch everyone up on.

First off: Studio C of Sam Houston is complete! The first all LED University studio!

Dan Rather graced us with his presence in late September. Richard Lacy, Scott Jones, Dad (Craig Loper), and myself worked on getting the lighting and studios just right for Mr. Rather coming to visit his Alma Mater.

We all had the privilege of filming a “no holds barred” Q&A with about 100 MASSCOM students and Mr. Rather. This was an incredibly insightful event with Mr. Rather as he talked about his 56-year career in radio, newspapers, television and now the Internet. I have always had great respect for Dan Rather and now more than ever.

Much was discussed in the Q&A, but what I really got out of it was: work hard, and do what you love, reaffirming what I truly believe in.

Here is a shot BTS clip of Mr. Rather in Studio C.

Next up: Hot rods,

If you know me personally, you know I’m a gearhead. If it moves I’m interested. My passion apart from media/filmmaking is the traditional hot rod/custom scene; I can’t get enough of it!

In the month of October I experienced 2 major events, produced a hot rod art show and had a photo shoot for the Niftee 50ees nostalgic drag race t-shirts and posters.

The first weekend of October was Day of the Drag Races, put on by the Kontinentals of Austin, TX. The event was held at the Little River Raceway in Academy, TX, a literal rocks throw from Temple.

This is an event I look forward to year round! I was VERY lucky to have some great friends come along to experience the event and help document the event with stills, and GoPro/HDSLR/RED footage. What a fantastic event! Dad (Craig Loper) on stills, GoPro camera, HDSLR Camera, RED camera, and BTS stills and video, Scott Jones on the RED ONE camera and BTS footage and stills, Dave Crowder, Matt Vachon and Matt Stevenson, helped out along the way and at the event, and myself working with HDSLRs, GoPro camera, the RED and DIT.

We also had the privilege of pitting for a buddy of mine, along with documenting the event and having a GoPro camera mounted in his truck!

We will be back next year!

Second on the event list was Burnout Houston, noted as the “Best Little Car Show”. I love this event! It’s a great quality car show that’s nestled in the Heights.

It’s like going to a FUN family reunion to you see all of your favorite cousins, and you also get you meet your long lost 3^rd removed cousins that you have just as much in common as you favorite cousins!

Dad and I rolled down there to get more ”money” shots, and that’s just what we did!

The third event was “Bop, Boogie, Roll” my photo art show! I really should rename it “The Bop, Boogie, Roll Experience” because it wasn’t just an art show, it was an EVENT.

A TREMENDOUS amount of work went into this project that involved my entire family and many close friends. They say, “it takes a village” well it did for sure in my case!

HPI, and Bayside Printing did all of the printing. Mom, Dad and I did all of the framing. Mom, Dad, Doug Hamilton, Dave Crowder, and myself hung the show. Dad, Matt Stevenson and myself lit the show. Jack Updyke and dad edited the footage from the events we shot. Richard Hoggatt and Claude Smith of Stage Directions provided the AV equipment to show the video projected outside. Pauline handled the business side at the event. And Mom, dad, Pauline, Brody Yother, Amber Yeomans, Matt Stevenson, Rachel Petty, Cory Petty, Zoë Kindall, Michael Rodriguez, and Merv Jones stuck it out and helped wrap up the event!

Awesome event! Almost sold out, had 5 hot rods and customs come out to enjoy the event, and I’m having another show in the spring!

Here is the GREAT video that Dad and Jack edited.
Episode 2 of the award winning series "Out in the Garage"

The fourth event was the photo shoot for the Niftee 50ees nostalgia drags and rod run. This was a good time! The photo was shot to emulate the “golden age” of racing. My “brotha from anotha motha” Matthew “Flagman” Stevenson “manned” up and literally jumped all day as the flagman in the photo to get just the right shot!

The t-shirt design is just about wrapped up to send to the silk screener and the poster is going to be a photo of mine, drawn by Jeff Norwell!

The event will be March 3^rd, 2012 held at the Lone Star Raceway in Sealy, TX. You don’t want to miss this event, it’s going to be epic!

Well for right now this is the update, MUCH more to come, but my fingers grow weary.  The next post will be catching up for the month of November!