Testing Cinestill 800Tungsten in Chinatown, Manhattan

I was gifted a roll of Cinestill 800Tungsten 35mm film for letting a friend borrow some of my lighting equipment. After doing some research online, I learned that this film is great when used at night, and for taking photos of brightly lit signs and lights. I thought New York City’s Chinatown would be a great option to experiment. The film sat on my shelf for a few months. One early evening, I decided to go out and take photos of New York City’s Chinatown.

One of the nice features about this film stock is the ‘blooming’ or ‘halo’ effect around the highlights. If you look closely the lights have a reddish glow around it. This is due to a special technical process used during the manufacturing of the film. The fact that the native ISO is 800 makes it a great film stock to use at lower light levels. I personally love shooting video / photography at twilight, when the sky still has a little bit of blue left in it. Cinestill 800Tungsten is originally made from modified Kodak motion picture cinema film stock, which gives it a unique cinema-like quality.

Cinestill 800Tungsten 35mm film is slightly more expensive than most other film stocks, but the unique look it provides makes it totally worth it! Overall, it’s a pretty cool film stock. 

Shooting a branded video during a pandemic

Branded video during a pandemic: I shot a few different things during the pandemic, but this particular shoot with Hannah Nieves stands out the most. The high-key lighting and stylish SoHo backdrop gave me ample opportunity to get nothing but great footage.

Hannah chose the location for her shoot herself: Blank Studios, located in the fashionable SoHo neighborhood in downtown Manhattan. On the day of the shoot, the skeleton crew arrived; unfortunately due to the pandemic we had to have a crew of three people including myself. Hannah has been in the studio for a while at this point already - enjoying a photoshoot with super talented photographer Nicole. Hannah and Nicole were just taking a few last photographs when our team arrived. While the ladies were finishing up, we set up the lighting and the camera equipment. Once Hannah was ready, we started shooting the B-roll. The shot list consisted of ideas such as: Hannah working on her laptop, Hannah talking to a client during an in-person meeting. Hannah walking down some of the picturesque cobblestoned streets of SoHo, or Hannah hailing the classic yellow NYC taxi cab. These shots would be later used to help tell the story of what the Hannah Nieves brand is all about.

Later in the afternoon, we set up to film the interview. We had a colorful list of questions ready at hand; these were co-created with Hannah beforehand, so she could make sure her glowing personality and brand message got across in the video. Hannah went over these questions multiple times herself, and knew exactly what she wanted to say during the interview. This made the whole interview a much smoother and faster process. This practice also helped Hannah feel prepared and confident. She is an expert in what she does, and we must say it was an easy and very enjoyable job capturing Hannah’s personality and the exciting business she has built. In the end everyone was happy.

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