Award-winning filmmaker Nickolas Duarte is not new to film. As owner/operator and and full time filmmaker at Crown Chimp Productions, Nick has seen his share of projects. As he comments on his Crown Chimp Productions website, "...at any given moment, we were working on five different projects. This went on for years. Soon enough though, our hard work paid off and those little films began earning awards and accolades..."
To be certain, Crown Chimp Productions just won 2 Gold Addy Awards for their Brute-Adidas ad entitled 6 Minutes and a Silver Addy Award for We Need To Talk for non-profit Project Dor Habah.
Duarte and Crown Chimp Productions have not been waiting for work to arrive, either. With a few short films and music videos under their belts, they began making commercials. "I just started cold calling businesses," comments Nick. From there, it was a matter of finding similarities in current work that would apply to new business and commercials.
For new or budding filmmakers, Duarte suggests "making as many movies as you can. You can learn from books, but you will learn more by just doing." For his latest projects, he has been using the Canon 5D MK II DSLR camera and a Zoom H4n audio recorder. These represent relatively new and inexpensive equipment for filmmakers in general. Duarte suggests "avoiding verticals, extending shutter speed," to avoid the "rolling shutter" issue seen with many DSLR cameras. DSLR cameras are SLR photo cameras with an electronic sensor instead of film. Manufacturers have recently added full HD video capabilities to these normally still camera models, opening them up to filmmakers and videographers who want to have a "film" look to their work.
Nickolas wouldn't be where he is today were it not for his team: Adam Ray and Matt King. "Adam is a great writer who doesn't hold back...," notes Duarte, "...and Matt is the crown in Crown Chimp." They've recently wrapped shooting on two music videos for The Country Boys and are prepping to do another music video, edit a recent commercial, shoot a new web series, and Nickolas is preparing to do a feature film entitled Cauliflower. The name refers to his experiences as a wrestler. "I'm shooting for a late 70's Neo-Realism," comments Nick, referring to the grittier style of independent films from the early 70s with a documentary, nonprofessional feel.
Among Duarte's influences are films like Aviator. In that film, Scorsese depicts Howard Hughes' attempts at film called Hell's Angels which cost millions of dollars to produce and 3 pilots died during the making of the elaborate dogfights. Hughes ability to make a film and have people "get it" are what attracts Nickolas to movies. He advises filmmakers to be certain of how you are going to capitalize on a film once you are finished with it - know what you plan to do with it once you're done.
Nickolas Duarte can be reached via his website at Crown Chimp Productions.
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