Back To Africa

April 1st, 2010

Our team is heading back to Kenya in the end of April to work on another documentary for Life In Abundance. We will be spending 10 days working in the slums of Mathare and Kibera. We were there two years ago shooting a book project, Urban And Rural Hope. Our short film that we shot last year in Ethiopia has been well received. We just got word that the former president of Kenya and members of their parliament watched the film at a special viewing. It received a great response. The fund raising efforts that have gone along with the film have just passed $300,000. It has blown our expectations out of the water.

Our next project will focus on some micro-loan projects happening in the slums and the way they are effecting the lives of those individuals struggling to survive day to day. We are raising funds again to make this a reality. People can donate at LIA’s website. One team member is taking an interesting approach. Check out what Kelsey Timmerman is doing at his Held Hostage by Apathy site.

Brian MacDonald

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Kelsey Timmerman: Touron At Large

March 23rd, 2010

We recently shot a video project for Wiley Publishing about one of their authors, Kelsey Timmerman. He has a great book out, Where Am I wearing? Kelsey was great to work with. He was a good sport with all the crazy things we had him do for the shoot. We had a photo session in addition to the video project. Kelsey is also traveling with us to Africa this year to work on the crew of our next documentary project in Kenya for Life In Abundance. I guess he is a glutton for punishment.

Brian MacDonald

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CineSlider Tests

March 15th, 2010

We just got an exciting new piece of gear in at the studio. It is the CineSlider by Kessler Crane. It is one of the many products we are using by them. This new mini dolly allows us to achieve shots that used to take setting up track and a large dolly. We are able to easily bring this on location. It has an eighty pound capacity so we can easily use it with our full HD camera set up with depth of field adapter and accessories. It is also a great addition to our HD DSLR systems we are using now.

Brian MacDonald

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Back From Ethiopia

June 8th, 2009

I am back from Ethiopia having spent ten days shooting a documentary for Life In Abundance International. I have actually been back for a week now and processing the experience I had there has been an interesting challenge. The culture shock has been more dramatic than previous international projects I have worked on. Last year when photographing a book, Urban & Rural Hope, in Kenya and Ethiopia, we were working in slums with the poorest of the poor. It was challenging and eye opening shooting for the book, but this year shooting the documentary was different. I think that it was the depth of extreme pain I heard in the stories of the people we interviewed that made such an impact on me. The toughest interviews for me were when we went out until 3AM in the morning two nights in a row interviewing street kids and teenage prostitutes. It was heartbreaking to talk with little kids with nothing but torn pants and a shirt to fight off the night time cold, sleeping on the streets. We wanted to give our jackets to two little boys we met shivering in the wind but were told that they would simply be beat up and robbed by older boys as soon as we left. The desperation in the voices of the young prostitutes and the how they are trapped in a life of few options was almost too painful to hear. The fact is, that despite my inconsequential uneasiness of filming these stories, we were there with a purpose to bring light to these dark images. Our team was there to give voices to the unseen. Mixed with the despair we also found stories of hope and transformation from the work that LIA is doing. I can only hope that once this documentary is finished it will make people a little uncomfortable and challenge them to find ways to make changes for these lost kids.

Brian MacDonald

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Our New Film Production Website is Launched!

March 25th, 2009

We are happy to announce that our new film production website is now up at www.macpix.com. We have completed projects for the American Red Cross and Rand McNally, to name a few. Please take a look at our reel to see some of our work. It is exciting that we are now using video in our visual story telling in addition to our traditional photography. As we all move towards a world of “New Media”, with the constantly changing landscape of how visuals are presented, it is exciting to be part of that scene. Please check it out and let us know your thoughts.

Brian MacDonald

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Stop Frame Animation: It Only Took a Week!

March 19th, 2009

It was supposed to be a quick animation shoot for one of our design firm clients. They wanted to showcase their work in a unique way. We came up with the concept of shooting their printed material in traditional stop frame animation. The idea was to march their printed pieces around on a cork-board.  Easy stuff right? Well the animation got more and more complicated and one day turned into two, and before we knew it….five days of shooting!! The footage is incredible. It is currently in post, but should be finished soon. We even decided to have original music scored for it. We will link it to the blog as soon as it is done.

Brian MacDonald

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Another kind of Chicago baseball

July 18th, 2008

It’s great to get caught up in the summertime fun of the all-star break and first place(ish) Chicago baseball teams, but we’re also interested to see people who are using baseball to make a difference in some young people’s lives. Recently we had the opportunity to meet and photograph Bob Muzikowski who founded what has become the Near West Little League in the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects more than 15 years ago. The project is for Christianity Today. He remains committed to making a difference in the lives of young people, and improving the communities in which they live. We were fortunate to be able to photograph him with some of his players and watch him in action as a coach. Stay tuned for the portrait images from the shoot.

Brian MacDonald

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