The Litewave Media team recently had the chance to work with the Bic/Koozie brand. We helped them to create a national branding video commercial for their new line of Koozie products. Our production company produced and filmed this Tampa commercial video over the course of two days. The first day took place at Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, Florida to provide a camping and barbecue setting. The second day the video crew filmed at a luxurious house in Tampa for a pool hangout scene with waterfall and grotto on site!
Director Christian Cashmir films on the ARRI Alexa Mini setup on the Dana Dolly
Tampa Commercial Video for Koozie Filmed on ARRI Alexa Mini
Since we love the techy film details, here’s the scoop…this Tampa commercial video was shot on the ARRI Alexa Mini camera at 48fps (slow motion) using Canon CN-E Cinema Primes lenses. It was primarily filmed on a Dana Dolly and the Freefly Movi Pro gimbal to give the shots movement and a cinematic look to the footage.
Sean Keller was one of the DPs for the Koozie commercial
Koozie is known for their beverages sleeves that keep drinks cold (or hot). They reached out to Litewave Media to make a new commercial video to showcase their new products. Their new line of outdoor products launches in 2019 and will include coolers, backpacks, and camping gear. The commercial was filmed completely in Tarpon Springs, FL and Tampa, Florida.
Director Christian Cashmir from Litewave Media with the Koozie creative team
Christian Cashmir directed and produced the spot, while Sean Keller and Scott Sullivan worked as the cinematographers. Lucas Schatzberg edited. We also had many other members of our Litewave Media team on board including Maggie Hudak on production design, Nikki Stefansic on Makeup, and Andrew Ortoski as gaffer. The Litewave Media lighting and grip truck was working on this shoot as well.
The Litewave Media video crew watches on a SmallHD 702 Monitor as the footage is filmed
The video incorporates slow motion footage with shots of friends camping and hanging out at the pool to create a nostalgic outdoorsy feel for Koozie’s new products.
Scott Sullivan, DP for the second day of filming, captures the scene on the Movi Pro Gimbal.
“This fantastic cast and crew who helped behind the scenes really brought this video to life. Definitely one of the most fun shoots we’ve done in the last year!” Cashmir said about the shoot.
Our Tampa production crew and cast at the wrap of filming
Check out the extended cut of Koozie’s commercial below, produced right here in St. Petersburg, FL.
Looking to turn your Tampa commercial video into a reality? Contact us today to see how our video production company, Litewave Media, can assist in the process. Find us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the Litewave Media blog as well as our Film Jams YouTube page where we offer tutorials and film equipment reviews to stay up to date on all of our Tampa video production company’s news!
This summer, our Tampa film production company, Litewave Media, participated in the annual 48 Hour Film Project which ran from July 13-15th. After a grueling 48 hours of no sleep, during which our team wrote a script, filmed the movie, created visual effects, and edited the footage (including all post-production: sound design, music, and color correction), our Tampa film production company came out victorious with top honors at the awards ceremony including Best Film! You can check out our film called “Love Hurts” >> HERE.
Director of Photography, Sean Keller, frames a shot of actor/director, Christian Cashmir, in our 48 Hour Film “Love Hurts”
Along with Best Film honors, our team ended up winning Best Directing, Best Actor (Christian Cashmir), Best Actress (Brielle Carter), Best Editing, Best Musical Score, Best Writing, Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography, Best Graphic Design, and Audience Choice! Not too shabby!
The Litewave Media/Film Jams team at the awards ceremony for the 48 Hour Film Project
The 48 Hour Film Project, a nation-wide challenge, asks local filmmakers to completely make a short film in only 48 hours. It comes with specific required elements so that judges know the film was made within the allotted time. This year, the required elements were a character named Sam or Sally Turnbucket (a city employee), the line of dialogue “Who wants to know?”, and a prop, a lamp. In addition to this, each team also gets a randomly assigned genre, ours was Disaster Film.
Co-Directors Josh Noftz and Christian Cashmir review some green screen footage during the 48 Hour Film Project
Our film was made in collaboration with our YouTube Webseries: Film Jams, which is a weekly show on filmmaking. The webseries teaches general tips and advice on filmmaking. Our team was proud and honoreds to win the 48 Hour Film Project, and from here, our film competes at the national level at Filmapalooza in March 2019. We have uploaded our film online as well as a behind-the-scenes look into making a 48 hour film. Give us a like and subscribe if you like our content on YouTube and want to see more filmmaking fun!
Our crew had a blast, and we can’t wait to make another film.
Check out our award-winning film “LOVE HURTS” below:
If you’d like to take a behind-the-scenes look at how we made this film in 48 hours, check out the video below: How to Make a 48 Hour FIlm!
Looking to turn your Tampa film production into a reality? Contact us today to see how our Tampa film production company, Litewave Media, can assist in the process. Find us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the Litewave Media blog as well as our Film Jams YouTube page to stay up to date on all of our Tampa video production company’s news!
The Litewave Media team has had some great opportunities to work with musicians over the years– from filming with Grammy-Award-Winning jazz musician Chick Corea in our studio, to classic rock legends Foreigner, and the country chart-topping Band Perry, we’ve worked with a great variety of talent. We recently finished a pre-concert publicity video with No Limits, a dance video with hip-hop artist Isis Sonatra, and even our very own 60’s zombie-themed Tampa music video production.
But one band our Florida production company has partnered with on numerous occasions is Tampa Bay’s own Come Back Alice… and this week we got to do a photoshoot with them!
Tony Tyler and Dani Jaye of Come Back Alice in our Florida production studio.
Come Back Alice formed in 2011 and have been performing live ever since. They love to be on stage and bring their funky rock style to every city they tour in. They’ve also been called “Tampa Bay’s Hottest Rock N Roll Band” by Advisor Magazine.
Tony Tyler, lead singer of Come Back Alice, rocks out in our Florida photography studio.
With the popularity of the band growing, they plan to expand into new markets this year. They enlisted Litewave Media for our photography and creative services. We photographed the rock band for their upcoming publicity and music releases and captured their unique, eclectic style right here in our Tampa photography studio.
Our Tampa photography crew captured this enigmatic photo of Dani Jaye of Come Back Alice.
Photographer and photo shoot director Christian Cashmir and our Tampa video production crew captured the photos using a variety of different lighting set-ups. Our team photographed the band with gear from our Tampa photography equipment rental package, including our Canon 5D MkIII, Canon L-Series Lenses (24mm L f/1.4 II, 50mm L f/1.2), and Profoto D2 photo strobes.
Our photography team used practical lighting in this shot for a more evocative effect.
After the shoot, our team processed and re-touched the photos back in our Florida post production suite to match the band’s stylistic vision.
Our Florida production company captured this photo of the alluring Dani Jaye.
This photo had a little inspiration from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours‘ album cover.
To see more of Come Back Alice, check out the video for their song “Coraline” that we produced, or this live music video we filmed with them in 2014.
A behind the scenes picture of our photo shoot with Come Back Alice in our studio. Photo courtesy of: Jimmy Rector
Over the course of the last few years our Tampa production company has enjoyed participating in the 48 Hour Film Project, a world-wide competition that challenges filmmakers to write, shoot, and edit their own short films in only 48 hours. It’s become a bit of a tradition for the Litewave Media crew and we’ve met some amazing people along the way. This year, our team once again dove head first into the challenge and produced a short film called “Magazine Issues.”
DP Eric Coughlin gets set up for one of the first shots of the day filming our short “Magazine Issues”
The 48 Hour competition supplies only minimal guidelines for filmmakers, providing a genre, character, prop, and a line of dialogue that must be used in every film. Each team receives their guidelines on Friday night and must turn in their fully finished film Sunday night, only 48 hours later. Our team pulled the genre of “romance,” and writers Jason Henne and Michael Garland went to work forming a cinematic story that also captured the essence of romance. With our writers working through the night on the the script, our Florida video production crew began preparing to film at dawn’s first light.
Lighting the scene with portable LED lights from our St Petersburg video equipment rental package, lead actor Chris Cavalier gets ready to film
Next, we loaded up our Tampa grip truck and drove to our first location in Clearwater, Florida to begin filming. Using gear from our St Petersburg video equipment rental package like our Canon C300 MkII and Canon cinema lenses, we hit the ground running (literally) and began production! Filming took place at various locations all over Tampa Bay, including our very own Tampa green screen studio for multiple special effects-driven scenes and a wrestling ring almost an hour from the studio.
Award-winning actress Alissa Schneider plays the melodious sounds of the key-tar in our Tampa green screen studio.
With the clock ticking down, we rushed all of our footage back to our Florida post-production suite for editing. Once our special effects team hustled to compose the visuals needed for the green screen portion of the film, director and editor Christian Cashmir brought the film together with his skill and expertise, cuttin’ up footage and taking names! With the editing finished on literally zero sleep (not even a wink!), finally it was time for submitting the finished film.
Director Christian Cashmir, steadicam operator Eric Coughlin, and lead actor Chris Cavalier review footage before sending it off to our Florida post-production suite for editing.
After waiting for what seemed like the longest 2 weeks ever, it was time for the 48 Hour Film Project ‘Best Of’ screening! With so many great films to compete against, the awards ceremony was a nail biter, but all of our hard work paid off! Our team was nominated in 9 categories and were honored to win the following awards:
Best use of the line “You’re Next!” – Team Prairie Dogs featuring Uncle Henry’s Bowling Club (Us!!)
Audience Favorite – “Magazine Issues” Team Prairie Dogs featuring Uncle Henry’s Bowling Club (Us again!!)
Best Screenplay – Jason Henne and Michael Garland (Our devilishly handsome writers)
Best Supporting Actress – Alissa Schneider (Our drop dead gorgeous actress)
Best Song – “Salesperson of the Year” Music and Lyrics by Chuck Fonshell Jr, Christian Cashmir, and Chris Cavalier (Our extraordinarily talented musicians)
And, drumroll please… BEST FILM!!! – “Magazine Issues” Directed by Christian Cashmir (Our fearless director)
We won Best Film out of 34 competitors! Ignite the fireworks! Wookie yell! Rejoice!
Our Tampa production company on the red carpet before the premier of our film, “Magazine Issues”
Now that our film “Magazine Issues” has won Best Film – Tampa, we move on to the next round where we’ll compete against the winners from over 100 cities worldwide at Film-a-Palooza in Seattle, Washington next March!
As with every year, we had an amazing time working on the 48 Hour Film Project, and we look forward to competing again next year. Check out our finished film “Magazine Issues” below (Made in just 48 hours)!
The Litewave Media team celebrates after the 48 Hour Awards Screening
The one take! The scene in Goodfellas when Ray Liotta’s character walks into the club and the whole the camera never cuts… Or the opening scene in Touch of Evil? And most recently the Oscar-Winning Birdman – an entire movie filmed in a one-take style. Our Tampa video production company was excited to produce a film using the same technique for the 2016 Single-Take Challenge, with our short, Kiss Tape!
The cast and crew of “Kiss Tape” after a great night of filming.
The Single-Take Film Challenge, sponsored by ManaSota Films, challenges filmmakers to create a new and original short film. The catch is, there can be absolutely no cuts, meaning the entire film has to be one long take! To pull it off, writers Christian Cashmir and Eric Coughlin began planning a month in advance at our Florida video production studio so that every tiny detail would be ready on the day of filming.
Co-DP and Steadicam operator Eric Coughlin rehearses blocking with the talent Lexi and Chris
We gathered a cast of over 20 extremely talented actors and a crew to match in order to pull off one of the most fun and challenging films we’ve ever made: a one-shot film that weaves in and out of our video studio during an elaborate movie being made. That’s right, it’s a movie within a movie!
Our crew took about 8 takes to get the film completed. We tweaked the timing as we progressed through the night. Almost every take was usable, but the very last take was the one we used. Even though we had over 20 actors they never missed a line!
For the shoot, Christian Cashmir and Eric Coughlin directed and Co-DP’d, bringing both their skill and expertise to the project. For the shoot the Litewave Media team brought gear from our Tampa video equipment rental packages, filming on a Canon C300 MkII with the Canon 15.5-47 Cinema zoom lens. Because it was a film within a film, our St Petersburg video production crew were able to “hide” by pretending to be actors crewing the behind-the-scenes film, but actually acting as crew on the real film. It was film crew Inception: crew within crew within crew!
Director Christian Cashmir gives the cast final notes before filming the first take of “Kiss Tape” while actor Chuck preps the pooch.
Once we finished principal photography, it was time to head back to our Tampa post production studio, where Christian Cashmir mixed sound and colored the film, bringing it to it’s final form so it could be submitted to the competition. It was accepted a week later and…..
Just last week, our film Kiss Tape premiered at the 2016 Single-Take Challenge in beautiful Sarasota, where it competed against many other excellent filmmakers from all around the country. There, we took home two awards, including Best Film and Most Entertaining Film! Congratulations to all of our extraordinarily talented cast and crew for helping bring Kiss Tape to life!
Our Tampa video production company took home the Best Film and Most Entertaining awards!
Check out the finished film below:
Do you have a Tampa independent film or Florida short film you’d like to produce? To view our previous Tampa video production work click here. Contact us today for a free consultation. Be sure to like us on Facebook to check out all of the work we’re doing and head on over to the Litewave Media blog to stay up to date on all Tampa video production company news!
