Roscoe the lion, his spirits buoyed by those around him, looks to a better 2021 and cannot wait for his pride’s return to campus.
Happy Holidays from TCNJ (2020) on YouTube and Vimeo.
A holiday video I had the pleasure of creating for TCNJ, The College of New Jersey.
- Roscoe the lion: Caitlyn
- Special Guest: Dr. Kathryn A. Foster, President of TCNJ
- Ideation and Script: Dave Muha, Associate Vice President TCNJ
- Directed, Produced, and Filmed: RoemerFilm/Jon Roemer
- Assistants: Elijah Ellis and Chris Flanegan
- Thanks to everyone at TCNJ who participated!
Production
This was such a fun project to work on! Dave Muha brought a well developed concept/script which came to life in part because our Roscoe, Caitlyn, was so very good.
I shot this on a Canon C500 Mark II shoulder-mounted and handheld to foster a documentary feel. I filmed in full-frame with a Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L Mark II and I used the camera’s internal Electronic Image Stablization (EIS) to help smooth out the movement. A Litepanels Astra 6x was used on a few occasions to help highlight Roscoe.
A note about the C500 Mark II – one of the big surprises is just how good the EIS is on it. It does a great job in smoothing out the camera movement, taking the edge off it while still retaining a handheld feel. It’s not for every situation and I have found that you definitely want to turn it off if you switch to tripod based work.
Audio was recorded with a Sennheiser MKH 416 on a boom connected wirelessly to the camera via a RØDELink kit. This captured Roscoe’s interaction with those he ran into as well as natural sound when needed. The small dead cat/fuzzy on the camera is a Sennheiser MKE 200 to get backup audio. I also used an additional backup mic, a second RØDELink kit but with a lav mic, for Dr. Foster’s interaction with Roscoe and for her message to camera.
Postproduction was in FCP X and Frame.io aided greatly with the client review process. Music was licensed through Envato Elements.
