Nevele Grand Hotel in the Catskills catches fire again
Another fire guts the abandoned Nevele Grand Hotel.
This morning, a portion of the iconic and historic Nevele Hotel caught fire in a two-alarm blaze. The past few years have been hard on this abandoned property with at least one other major blaze happening last year.
Located in what is known as the Borscht Belt, a collection of Jewish resorts located in upstate NY, The Nevele Grand Hotel was once a popular destination for family retreats but since the early 2000s has seen steep decline and abandonment. While the Nevele property is heavily guarded at times, it has more or less been open to the elements and crafty individuals can easily find a way in if they don’t mind hiking through a bit of forest on the backside (that’s how I’ve seen it up close).
There’s no word yet on how extensive the fire damage is this morning, but with heavy neglect already prominent on the structure I wouldn’t be surprised if a large part of it collapsed. I’ll update when news comes out.
Here are some photos from just a few years ago.
Virtual production with Steve Giralt
Steve Giralt shows off how virtual productions are done.
I’ve been running into these types of virtual productions and virtual screens at work more and more lately. The nerdy part of me is always so interested in how these are done, often staying around as they demo the production or set it up, and seeing just how much tech is behind it all.
Photographer Steve Giralt’s quick intro video below is on the smaller scale of what I’ve seen but it seems to still have all the parts of a larger production that I’ve been on, including camera tracking, master clock sync, and Unreal real-time rendering rather than just a static image displayed on the LED screen. The biggest difference his setup seems to have that adds a level of complexity to his specific needs is the BOLT camera robot (similar to what I’ve seen in MKBHD’s video work).
All of this tech comes together in a perfect blend of cost-savings realistic detail for recreating a location in-studio. Even though my heart still longs for and prefers the joys and challenges of a location shoot, I can’t ignore the future of how my work will change as these virtual productions become cheaper and easier to manage and maintain.