This page was last updated October 11th, 2008.
Placerville, Idaho is a small mining town located North and West of Boise. It is also the location that owyheesound and False Clour are working on their current collaboration. This endevour has been made easier by the fact that Buck Snyder has made his new weekend retreat, in Placerville, available for filming. Here is an anamorphic video of Bucky Building a sauna at his new place:
Here is another video that was shot last winter in Placerville:
A new piano has given the inspiration for Nathan and Stephen to work on some new music. This you tube video has a small sample of that music:
Lens rails provide the ability to hold a sunshade and filters in front of a cameras lens. Nathan has been working to learn good machining techique to build custom rail support for CP-16R, Arri II, and mini-DV cameras.
Micro-cinema has varied meanings but owyheesound uses it this way: "micro-cinema is characterized by small groups of people who love to make movies and don't know any better not to do so. they do not let lack of funds, skill, equipments, or formal education stand in their way. micro cinema makers make movies with what they have and make no excuses for doing so. even with the lack of resource there still is something great about micro-cinema!" Check out the Boise Micro-Cinema web site: http://boisemicrocinema.com
Nathan, Kim and Stephen all worked on a short written by Alex Hansen and directed/produced by Thomas Lewis. Annie Cosho and Andrew Ellis also produced, and Mathew Henry, Chris Vanderschaaf, Matt Wade, Blair Whiting, Tyler Neisinger, and Ray Chako all filled crew positions. The 2 page script was shot in a single location, Bar Gernika in the Basque block of Boise, and shot in a signle day. Many of the actors where from the Craze Talent Agency. Travis Schwarts played the lead role and kept the product atmosphere lite with some funny joking around.
Kim recently worked on a film by Thomas Lewis, co written by Will Schmeckpeper, called "I am Henry." Nathan helped out one day to fill in for Tyler Neisinger as AC. Other people working on the film are Erin VanEnglen, Tate McCullough, Drew Wattles, Lana Roberts, Eric Sandmeyer, Marlo Huffman, Kate Bowen, Brad Smith, Robert Barnes, and others. The film was shot primarily at a residence on Warm Springs and other locations around Boise. It was shot on a Panasonic HD camera with a Redrock lens adapter using Canon primes.
The Moog synthesizer is fundamental in the thorough understanding of owyheesound. Nathan has a youtube profile with assorted junk videos with sound tracks composed in part or entirely with a moog synthesizer.
Nathan taught the second half of a two part grip class at NNU on The 22nd of September. The class was a one day "hands on" seminar for about 15 students in NNU's Mass Comm Dept. The first half of the class was taught by Rex Morris of Rex Morris Productions. That part of the day covered general details about the item found in a grip truck and ended with Grip Olympics that clearly demonstrated that the students learned a considerable amount in a short time. The second half involved the theory and operation of a Tulip Crane. Students were again "hands-on" to assemble, operate, and tear down a Tulip crane.
owyheesound has teamed up with long time friend Doug Barrett to shoot four 30 second commercial spots for Boise State University's Bronco Shop, which is part of the BSU BookStore. Two of these commercials are already airing on KTVB, South West Idaho's largest television broadcaster. The third spot has been shot and is in post production, and the fourth spot will be shot soon. This Bronco Shop project represents the first one in a while that all of the owyheesound officials have worked on together, and of course there where many regular and some relatively new contributors to the production of these spots: Ray Chacko, Blair Whiting, Matt Wade, Clarke Howell, Levi Bettweiser, Ron Torres, Jacob Brumsfield, Jake Kinch, Darren Sand, and Andrew Ellis.
Idaho City 100 is a motorcycle race hosted by the Boise Ridge Riders club http://www.boiseridgeri ders.org/ Nathan'sbrother Bucky Snyder rode in the sportsman class of this years 2007 race. Nathan and Tyler Neisinger went up to shoot parts of the race. Click here for more details.
Nathan is working on electric remote control devices to control camera pan and tilt as well as focus. This system is being developed primarily for use with crane mounted remote camera operation. Specifically the system will employ selsyn motors, a modified worrall geared head, and a custom follow focus system. photo by Nathan Smyth
Nathan is currently enrolled at BSU's Instructional Performance Technology (IPT) masters program. He hopes that he will be able to design better instruction for multi-media and do so through E-learning (employing the internet). Watch owyheesound.com for instruction courses in audio recording and cinematographic related technologies.
Nathan has recently taught the CO 228 Production audio for Film and Televsion at NNU for the Spring 2008 and earlier the Fall 2006 term, and a weekend seminar in Sound Design in the Spring of 2007. He will be teaching again in the fall of 2008 and continues to develop lesson plans for sound and film production classes.