Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Saturday, June 22, 2013

short film WHO'S GOOD LOOKING? now published online

I have always been asked to publish my short film WHO'S GOOD LOOKING? in its full 7 minutes online rather than have just the clip online. So here it is:


Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tough edit for me in showing off BEND AND PEEL's first show cut to their song "Just Me":

The new rap fusion collective BEND AND PEEL performed their first show impromptu at Main on Main, Santa Monica on April 26th, 2013. I was commissioned, at the last minute, to shoot the show and the cut it to the CD version of their song "Just Me". 

Cutting a single venue live performance with vocalists to a non-live sound track is challenging because of the general lack of lip sync. It works for better for electronic music acts because there is no vocal performance but with live acts with vocals it is problematic. Even when you do create a lip sync it seems a bit off because the viewer expectation is live sound, not a music video CD track sound.

We did not have have properly recorded live audio, with the exception of bits here and there like the opening of this video. So I had to show less of the vocalists than I wanted to, and had to employ layered editorial techniques, show shots of the space, and show shots of people vibing to the music to make it all flow seamlessly while still exposing the very cool track which is is "Just Me":


Friday, April 5, 2013

Wall Street Journal film Profiling Spansion

For my latest job I was commissioned to direct a Wall Street Journal film profiling leading flash memory provider maker Spansion.

The standard format for this video is to interview the key executives in Silicon Valley and intercut with B Roll of their offices while delivering a corporate message. This format runs the risk of only an esoteric appeal so I proposed a compelling "actress sequence" to bookend the film to the client and they liked it. In essence I hired an actress to work with the end applications of flash memory before getting into the internal corporate and technical details.

If you would like to check it out, it is 6 minutes, and it is here:



Wednesday, December 26, 2012

My Top 10 films of 2012

My Top 10 films of 2012:
  1. DJANGO UNCHAINED -- Quentin Tarantino
  2. END OF WATCH -- David Ayer
  3. FLIGHT - Robert Zemeckis
  4. THE MASTER -- Paul Thomas Anderson
  5. ROCK OF AGES -- Adam Shankman
  6. THE SESSIONS -- Ben Lewin
  7. LINCOLN -- Steven Spielberg
  8. ARGO -- Ben Affleck
  9. LES MISERABLES -- Tom Hooper
  10. ZERO DARK THIRTY -- Kathryn Bigelow

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Hpnotiq LLDO

Hpnotiq commissioned me to make a film documenting a day in LA for the winners of their Live Louder Dance Off competition. The winning girls were flown into LAX and then had dance lessons with Maksim Chmerkovskiy from Dancing With The Stars followed by makeovers at Eden Salon off Sunset Blvd; after this Hpnotiq flew them to Vegas to stay in the Hpnotiq suite with spending money etc.

Here is the Los Angeles video I directed, shot and cut:


It was a quick one day shoot with limited time at each location and no second takes so I went hand held for most of it with 5D MK III and L Series Zooms. The only time I was on sticks was for the mini-interviews with the girls after their makeovers.  MK III image comes out a little soft so I played with contrast and sharpening in post. Overall it was a fun shoot and the winning girls and Hpnotiq people were great to work with.

More more information on Hpnotiq: https://www.hpnotiq.com/

To see all 5 of the edits I made for Hpnotiq go to their You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/hpnotiq


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Dillon Francis + Feed Me concert music video

Hello Everyone:

Wanted to share my latest project:




My role was Director, DP, Editor and Colorist. Aaron Levy from Todd-AO delivered another fine audio mix.

For maximum pleasure: HD and Headphones!

Thank you for watching!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Steve Aoki, Datsik, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike Concert Music Video

In March 2012 I shot my first electronic concert music video for OneEleven Productions in Eugene, OR at the historic McDonald Theater and The Rok Nighclub. The headliner was Steve Aoki on his Deadmeat Tour along with Datsik, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. The extreme light and color changes made exposure and white balance uncontrollable. But I enjoyed being on stage and going hand held 5D MKII allowed me to cut through crowd shots relatively easy. In post I played with mixing black and white with color and a few video filters amongst other cool cutting techniques and master re-recording mixer Aaron Levy delivered as usual with a superb audio mix. For maximum pleasure, please watch in HD and wear headphones:





Friday, June 22, 2012

The Hinglish Project wins the Gold Lion at Cannes Lions




“The Hinglish Project” by ad agency DDB Mudra Group, has won the Gold Lion prize at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

I was commissioned to make the agency film for the project to present and explain the new "Hinglish" font. 

“The Hinglish Project” is ambitious and novel as it introduces a unique typeface combining English and Hindi that makes Hindi more familiar to tourists visiting India. 

I am happy with final result of the film and played multiple roles -- Director, Cinematographer and Editor -- making it challenging, but also giving me a lot of creative control, and I like that control!