In my career, I have been lucky to lead many shoots to collect content for companies and these 5 are the most memorable to me. They each have a story and each of these experiences taught me something new and also were part of crucial parts of my career.

5. TED Talks Headquarters – New York

Starting with my experience going to TED Talks office in New York to film TED Talks speaker, Lisa Bu. It was my first shoot after Zildjian and starting with National Geographic Learning. After 10 years of experience, it was like moving from Middle School to High School. You go from the most experienced to a rookie. I was very nervous and knew that I needed to set the tone and make an impression on my boss. I wanted to show my experience from the shoots that I had done previously. I had done much bigger shoots but this was with different equipment, an unknown location, and a person that I had never met before. To add to the nervousness, my bosses, the boss showed up. Also, TED headquarters where many great speakers had graced the space with talks and some even work for TED. I had learned that no matter the variables, I was confident that I could use the equipment and get a great interview. Throughout my career, I always hope and strive to make the most of my experiences and opportunities. 

See the video here:

4. Avedis and S Family Cymbal Launch – Burbank

The next shoot was special as it was working with a new band’s drummer and a legendary drummer that was the most recorded drummer of all time. Every year at Zildjian I would work the NAMM show that is a trade show for musical instruments. Two days before the event, I flew out to Burbank and went to Zildjian’s Burbank office and was part of the shoot for our upcoming Avedis cymbals that we a retro-looking cymbal and we wanted to use the legends of the 60s. That is where I met Hal Blaine. If you don’t know, look him up, watch the Wrecking Crew documentary, he was a studio legend and did everything from Beach Boys to TV Commercial jingles. Had more gold records than I had regular records and was amazing to meet him. A true gentleman and a great person. When you meet someone like that, you get inspired. How can you not?!

You can see the video here:

The next day was a shoot for our newest innovation the S cymbal that was budget-friendly and we wanted a new popular drummer and that was Josh Dun of Twenty-One Pilots. This was my second time meeting him so I had some history and he played a song that was not even out yet at the time and we captured video and photography and created a great deal of promotional material.

You can see the video here:

3. Kerope Cymbal Launch – New York – Centerstaging

The third shoot was a jazz drummer shoot in New York in a legendary studio. The two-day filming event started with a car rental, loading gear into a car at 3 am and picking up Emily who was the artist relations person, and driving to New York. We had made it to the studio and got in at 7-8 am. This shoot was just me setting up equipment, setting up lights, and cameras. We requested the place to provide a studio person to do the audio and mics that we didn’t have someone and luckily Emily was also an audio engineer. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you do not. We also brought a bunch of bags of cymbals that were for the promotion of Kerope cymbals. It was a list of very talented drummers that included Ulysses Owens Jr., Kendrick Scott, Mark Colenburg, and Eric Harland. Mark ended up going for dinner with us and we walked around in the cold trying to find a place to eat that ended up being more than the cost of the car rental and parking.

You can see the video here:

You can see some photos from the shoot below

2. Cover to Cover Series – Matt Greiner – Haverill,MA

The fourth and almost most memorable for the drive more than the actual filming but I worked with one of my favorite drummers Matt Greiner of August Burns Red. I had the idea of doing the Zildjian Cover to Cover series where a drummer covers a song from a different genre. Matt being a heavy metal drummer, wanted to play Caught Up by Usher as his favorite drummer being Aaron Spears. Dean Fisher who was working with me on this shoot loaded up his girlfriend Ford Edge and drove from our area up to Haverhill, Ma in a snow storm. The SUV was an all-wheel-drive but we ran into some ice. The moment we started sliding the light was red and an 18-wheeler was in front of us. We went through the light sliding around the 18-wheeler and did not hit a car but boy did it make the heart skip a beat. We filmed in Haverill at a house studio in the basement of Jason Maas who was the vocals, guitar for Defeater. He provided solid audio tracks and we did the filming. It was great to see this video and idea come to life.

You can see the video here:

1. K Custom Special Dry – New York – The Cutting Room

The final shoot to talk about here was one of the last shoots from Zildjian and was great to work with Emily Smith who was Artist Relations and Dean Fisher who did the video and we all combined to take a train down and spend a day at the Cutting Room in New York at an Artist Session that was used for the artist to hang out and try out new cymbals and connect with their reps. It was a great night before hanging out and getting a great dinner and being in downtown New York. The morning of the shoot we had a great deal of equipment but the elevators were really slow. We did the only thing we could think of, ask the cleaning lady and she after some pleading, allowed us to use the service elevator. And we navigated through the halls of the hotel and dropped out into the lobby. Loading in and out is always a challenge but we figured it out! We got amazing footage, caught up with some people, and got to meet some new people. It was probably the smoothest shoot that we had ever done. Which is rare to say as there is always something.

You can see the video here:

You can see the photos that I shot from this shoot