I got a call from a well-known jazz drummer and producer in New York, Joe DeRenzo, he was going to be in Los Angeles and made the request that he wanted me to shoot an image of him under the Hollywood sign and then at a drum store, Were I would film him drumming to promote his new book. This would be like a mini commercial. So, we set off to the Hollywood sign and set some drum skin’s up to reflect in his glasses keeping the sign in the background of the shot.
Next we headed out to the Guitar Center were we I had the permission to shot the mini commercial there. We picked out a drum set and Joe started to play. As I shot some images a crowd become more aware that this was a moment to be seen. Once I got the still images I switched out to shoot the video. I use a Canon G15 to make all my shots and the movie. We got all the image’s and footage we needed so we were done with the first part. Back at my office/studio we set about cutting the movie.
This shoot was the time I had a MacGyver moment so that I could work my shoot with using the lighting the way I wanted it. Flash to be my main light and the sun to be a background light or just fill light. I found a bag of things in the boot/trunk of my car which had a cord that one end would plug into the camera and the other end I needed to cut and striped to expose the 2 wires so that they would be able to make contact with the input socket of the strobe.
Written and compiled by Joe DeRenzo