I’ve been shooting all the commercials and video production needs for Curtis Lumber for close to 15 years now. They are a wonderful company to work for! We do 70 to 80 commercials a year. With 23 stores in two states (NY and VT), they cover a lot of ground. Their headquarters is in Ballston Spa, NY. We also make a half hour infomercial each year to promote their kitchen and deck design services. This is our most recent one for 2025. Shot on my SONY A7SIII in 4K and utilizing a 3′ motorized GVM silent slider. We mostly use a 17-28 F2.8 Tamron lens to capture as much of the environments as possible for this type of production. They sell cabinets and decks, not shallow depth-of-field cinematic production shots, so it pays to know the clients needs!
Latest
Town of Champlain: Summer and Winter fun!
I was contacted by my friend Jason Borie of the Town of Champlain. They wanted a couple videos to put on their new website. A summer and a winter one to show all the events and activities their town offered. There’s the standard way to do it. Have a narrator tell you all about them with shots of each thing mentioned.
We wanted to do something different!
We wanted it to be more like a tour with a tour guide. Being comfortable on camera isn’t easy. You need someone who is calm, confident and comfortable “in the spotlight”. Jason is part of an improv comedy troupe and fellow comedienne Tiana Saroj would be perfect for the job. We had an absolute blast making this. Both start off pretty standard but then they take a turn! Check these out when you get a few minutes to spare.
St. Lawrence Hockey: Playoffs 2024
I shoot and edit a lot of projects for St. Lawrence University. Especially a lot of sports! In March of 2024, the Men’s Hockey team made an incredible run. They got into the ECAC Championship tournament in Lake Placid, NY. I shot the game and all the excitement. Luckily I’ve shot hockey for decades in that arena for CanAm hockey and have learned quite a few tricks. The main thing is you have to tell a story visually. With just shots and no narration. Show the setting, the crowd arriving, the team about to come out, then action and celebration. Don’t stay in any one spot for long. If you get a shot you know is good, move somewhere else! That way it looks like 5-6 people are filming all over the place. The big risk is you miss a goal while getting all these angles. Just moving from place to place takes some time. You need to time it when the game play is paused for whatever reason. The Saints ended up upsetting the #1 seed that night and it was fun to be a part of it!
Go Hard: A Culture of Winning
I graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh back in 1990. Over the last 30 years I’ve had the pleasure to work with my Alma matter creating videos. Mostly to recruit students or athletes. This was a blast to work on. It requires many, many hours of shooting games in all seasons and weather. Some games are losses, or low scoring, so a repeat visit is needed. But when it all comes together with the perfect music, its sooooo worth it! This video is actually 2 videos put together for their website. A hard recruitment video to start then at around 2:30 into it, the second video starts. That one is a music up, action packed sports highlight video! The music is everything, find the right song and the rest is magic. I get goosebumps watching it, do you? (And that celebration at the end by the men’s lacrosse team is the single greatest celebration I’ve ever shot. They went CRAZY, I love it!!)
The Gibson Brothers: The North Country’s Favorite Sons
Another mini-documentary on The Gibson Brothers. They are from far upstate NY, fairly close to where I live. Chris Harris from Rain Maker Music Management contacted me about helping put together a short video on the guys. It would run on the RFD Network to help promote them. He said the budget was tight, and his vision was ambitious, perfect…when do we start! It was just the two of us and the band. Chris had done some camera work in the past and helped when we recorded the live performances. I also recorded the audio live into a portable 8 track recorder and synced up all the cameras. We shot at Dick’s Country Store and Music Oasis in Churubusco, NY! Trust me, this place is not to be missed!
Working with the guys was so much fun. Real down to earth and super talented singer and songwriters. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking their story would make a great hour long PBS documentary. That requires large amounts of funding, or it becomes a passion project. Stay tuned. It could happen!
Behind the Scenes at a Local Movie Theater
I’ve been making little videos for our locally owned movie theater (Cumberland 12)for years. Some are about not being annoying, others about cell phone use etc. All have featured my good friend Todd Brunner. He’s done some acting in NYC in the past and is an absolute creative blast to work with! This video shows before the movies start. You know, during that pre-show block of ads and quiz questions that play while people arrive for their movie. It was meant to show what “Behind the Scenes” is like in a modern movie theater. Of course, we had WAAAAY too much fun with it! Manager Colin Quakenbush was more than eager to play along. Crowd response has been fantastic for this one!
Documentary Insights: Olympic Venues in Mini Format
I love history! It’s part of being a documentary producer. Nothing beats digging into a story and finding the right images to tell it in a compelling way. Usually it’s long form documentaries that people think about for historical subjects. This past year I was fortunate to work with the Olympic Regional Development Authority and Ona Kwiatkowski (their media asset coordinator) to produce mini documentaries on their venues. Mostly for their website and social media use. They’ve been well received and I thought I’d share them!
“…and the Emmy goes to…”
I know it’s been a long time since I updated this site, been just flat out busy, however I wanted to share the exciting news of June 10th. We won an Emmy for “Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Valdimir Munk” with the Boston New England Chapter!
After so much work it sure was gratifying to receive this award with my colleagues Bruce Carlin and Julie Canepa. We have also won the Indifest Award of Excellence and placed in Montreal and Berlin Film Festivals. It’s been quite a run. The documentary has also aired on 97% of all the PBS stations in the country and is now available on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, VUDU and VIMEO on demand. Check out our webpage for more information on those: https://returntoauschwitz.com/
The biggest thrill was handing Vladimir his award at a special encore screening at his retirement home on June 28th, 2023!
I hope you find the time to watch this documentary. It’s so important to never forget the past. It’s also a great way to honor those who lived through it all like Vladimir!
Thanks to the entire community on social media who supported us on this journey!
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Check any of the videos on my site from the past few years and you will hear the quality of their music in them. I wouldn’t recommend just any company unless I REALLY believe in their product.
JUST DO IT!!! (well, after you check it out of course :))
Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk
This. Now THIS is a special project. Only once in a career does a project like this present itself. A story so special you feel compelled to work on it. There is no funding in place so this is representing the first time I’m a part of crowd funding a project. Here is our trailer:
Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk (Trailer) from Paul Frederick on Vimeo.Vladimir is a special man. So full of life and charm. He smiles with his eyes. I can’t help and wonder what horrors those eyes have witnessed. He had never been back to Auschwitz since 1945. This year marked the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp and he was asked to go back on January 27th, 2020.
To learn more about the story and to support out project please visit: Returntoauschwitz.com
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