PNKY SWR/ Major Player music video

PNKY SWR /Major Player music video

MY CAST OF CREW:
Erik Wong: I have known for a while and we hang with the same group of friends, however, we have never had the pleasure of working together.
David Dibble: Who I have worked recently with on the Going Green Film Festival 2012 trailer
Robert Pimentel: Gaffer I met and worked with on the GGFF 2012 trailer, he was AD on this project

David Dibble was once again shooting on his Super 8mm camera and recruited me for assistance. Erik Wong was directing this music video for PNKY SWR. This was shot in a small club/restaurant for this video. I was happy to see Robert there too as I really enjoyed working with him prior. We worked all through the night. There was a scene with balloons dropping from over the tables with party poppers and streamers basically a real mess. We had to clean it all up for the next shot but we were able to get rid of most of the extras that accumulated from word of mouth on the streets and grew bigger and bigger by the minute.

$400 Kiss

$400 Kiss (trailer to come)

This was brought to me by an old college friend over in Flint Michigan, Charles Shaver, who had this idea of three directors shooting three different films and showcasing them all together for Project Swan.

He sent me the script for $400 Kiss, a romantic and vulgar nior script. After reviewing it, I said "yes" and revised the script. We had to cut a lot of things down to make it more realistic. The contract was a challenge as were were to keep it as a low budget film and everything had to be donated including the actors and crews time. Luckily, I had the best people in LA to help me out.

We had a blast playing with all the "toys" we had. We have all this equipment around us for jobs, yet we rarely get a chance to play with them ourselves. We had access to any Wooden Nickel equipment and my friend Hillary had her own equipment and Claire had her Canon camera to shoot with. Everyone had such grand ideas, I directed and produced it but I really enjoyed everyone taking their own ideas and contributing on this project like it was their own. I did not want to take away from that. We had the natural dramas that creep on sets, but we over came them in the end.

ManDoula

ManDoula sizzler

This job was great to work on...
I walked on set and this girl was screaming while giving birth and some guy was in between her legs with a fireman and a police woman dancing around in the background while a porn was playing on the TV. The guy next to me put his finger up to his mouth in a "shhhhh" motion indicating they are filming. Oh good this is part of the movie, I thought. Whew.

I had no idea what was going on or what this film was about. Erik Forssell called me up and asked me to help him on this job. He also mentioned it may be the last time I'll get to work with 35MM film, which is true and so I said yes.

Erik is a teacher for OCC and has brought some of his students to the set to teach them hands on what it is like. This is what I enjoy about Erik, he had enough to do on this job, but also taught the kids what to do. I admire him for how he goes out of his way to teach.

The sizzler came out really good and once seeing everything in sequences it made a lot more sense to me. I was laughing out loud at some of the scenes. My favorite was at the strip club with the long moving take we did. After all the set up work to get the shot, totally worth it. They are in the process of taking the sizzler around for financial backing and we are all sure they will get it. The crew is all on stand by as we await for the "Go Ahead" to make the feature.

Going Green Film Trailer

Check out the Trailer  GGFF 2012

The Going Green Festival need a trailer to promote the Festival. Enter David Dibble. He had done the one for 2011 and now he was doing the 2012. He worked with Super8mm film, which is how I got involved. David Dibble and I met on set on Beautiful Damnation some time back. He was the DP and I was a Producer for it.
He called my office last year about doing the trailer for 2011, I talked my boss into donating film and HD telecine for his project. He called me again for the 2012 trailer and this time asked me to work with him on it.
We went to Hanford, Ca. to shoot. This was a small farm town and everyone seemed to want to be a part of the filming. I had kids constantly ask me if I needed any water or coffee that they can get for me.  We shot in this old run down mill, which was dirty and scary but was not a time to act like a helpless dame. The crew were people I mostly worked before with so it seemed to go by really easy. Super 8mm cameras are so easy to work with and to transport from one scene to the next the set up times were quick and painless. Running film, you do not have the options of 30 takes so we did a couple takes and it was on to the next shot.
Hanford is where David grew up in, so he gave us a grand tour of this town that looked straight from the 50's set of "Back to the Future" We ended up at the best place for ice cream, Superior Dairy and had ice cream that came in the size of a volleyball. I could not finish mine but the Sound guy David Hersey sure did.

David Dibble is like a local celebrity in this community he even made the papers there. Big Time

Vita Eternum DP

 Vita Eternum trailer

IMDB Link

This job I did moments after I graduated school, I remember I was so tired from the semester and wasn't sure if I had the energy to do it. But I did and I am happy with how it turned out. I am not sure how I got this job, but I showed up and didn't know anyone (which is normal) but it turned out this crew was all very sweet and friendly and went out of there way to make me feel welcomed. This film had sword action and fight choreography. The group had a lot of background with this and was something new to me. 

John-Paul (The Director) had talked to me about some of the framing and set ups he wanted to do. There was a long homemade track on the hill that I was nervous wouldn't be too stable to work with. It turned out pretty smooth. Then he pointed to a scaffolding that some people were building and I was to hang from the top to get the next shots (the overheads). I don't think I said anything but looking at the scaffolding I was certain I was going to die. But went up anyways. After seeing the footage, I think it was my favorite of the whole picture. [Note to self: Just go with it] The next shots I had fun with was the fighting scenes. All handheld and following the acton. It was a beautiful fight scene that was choreograph and it was my intention to justify it as such on camera. 

John-Paul had a lot of SFX composition and special effects to do (no I did not go to space to shoot the beginning) and I didn't hear from him a year after shooting. When he sent me the final work, I had almost forgot about it but I loved how it turned out.
I the end, I was an outsider to this project as it was for their church. I am assuming that is why they kept my name out of the IMDB credits, as their principle photographer,  but still got a DVD of it and my name is listed there.

Roleplaying

Roleplaying
IMDB LINK
When I got the call to work on this project, I was so excited. I have never met Jason Johnson (the director) before because he is from San Diego, but some of my old college colleagues knew him. He enlisted people that he was friends with and friends of those friends (me) to work on his short: "Roleplaying". roleplaying trailer About four guys with extremely different backgrounds getting together on a Saturday night to play a game.

This project was so much fun to work on because of the crew made up of mostly people I have gone to school and hadn't seen or worked with together in awhile, we worked really great together. We pulled the long hours but we made it fun. When we were finished I didn't even want to leave. 

In the end Jason and his now wife Elizabeth have continued to be my friends. I still wait for the time I can work with the group again...

944 Magazine Unscene Contest tour

My own photography work has been in different showcases but this one was a contest by 944 Magazine called Unscene Photography Tour and was all about showing different parts of the country in a unique way. My place was Orange County, Ca. and I did my series of Runaways. This is based on a re-enactment of true stories I remember from being a teenager growing up in Orange County. This is something most people don't associate with OC and instead of the usual homeless kids on the streets it was fun and free rather than sad, this is how I remembered the times and I wanted to recreate that feeling.
I made it to the finale and got some fans of my work (including Julie who put this event together and who I still keep in contact with). It was based on votes from the public. finalists website We had a fun night and Gallery showcasing our work and here are some fun pictures from the event Event Photos

Jane Oh's Fashion Shoot

Jane Oh Fashions Behind-The-Scenes Fall behind the scene 2010 *Make sure when you visit this link The one I shot is the second one "Fall behind the Scene 2010"

Jane Oh is this up and coming fashion designer who I met while she was doing her Fall Preview shoot. I was able to do the Behind-The-Scenes footage for her while the shoot was going on. We started on the roof of her building and ended up on the streets of Downtown LA's Fashion District with Models and racks of wardrobes on wheels maneuvering around the crowded streets.

The fun part as I remember was that the audio equipment did not work. I was suppose to get some audio and a interview and I spent most of the day trying to figure out the problem and once it was finally replaced with new equipment, Jane was too busy with her fashion shoot and she could not do her interview part that day. It was shot at another day. Everything worked out fine in the end but I still hate audio equipment, especially ones that don't like to work when you need them.

Black Sabbath Music Video

Black Sabbath Music Video: music video

Worked as a grip with get A Grip Company who hired me out. www.gagela.com

They have trucks equipment and crew all in one stop shop.

This was a great location, this house was amazing. It was one of those shoots that I had no idea what they were shooting until I got the link. They used Glass blocks and dangled crystals along the eyebrow in front of the lens for a special effect and it looked good. I overheard that this story idea was based on a Sci-Fi book.

The Get A Grip Crew

Layered Cake Films: Weddings

LAYERED CAKE FILMS WEBSITE

I am not a fan of wedding event shoots but the wedding shoots that Michelle made were different and that is why when she asked me to work with her, I couldn't resist. Michelle is an editor who worked with us at the Super 8mm film house that I worked at. Well...we got to talking and she needed some help. Surprisingly, they were a lot of fun. Weddings can be very boring to shoot but when you shoot on Super 8mm film or even 16mm film it bumps things up to a cooler category.  Take a look at some of the demo's that is on the website page and you would have to agree. I was able to get down and creative with some of the shots and got to visit some great locations like Santa Barbara and a private zoo in Irvine.

These wedding videos...sorry...films are short and sweet as a crazy montage of the event that is bearable to watch; Not some two hour wedding documentary video like the ones you were forced to watch of your cousin back in the day. It is an old fashion twist on the modern wedding.

The Best Of This is a sweet montage of all the highlights and to my surprise I am in this video too. (In a good way) and my favorite wedding cake.
Scotia & Juan This wedding was so much fun and the only one I shot 16mm along with Super 8mm. Very beautiful wedding and such nice people.

Yeah cake!!!

Star 98.7

Star 98.7 commercial
This commercial was for a contest. Samson Jebai came up with the concept and we shot in our friends garage. 98.7 had hundreds of entries but of course we thought our was the best. It was a cute idea and my friend's daughter Bridgette co-starred in this commercial opposite of Samson's little brother (who was a natural ham). Neither one were actors and Bridgette was so nervous and it was hard for her to open up but once she did she was a natural. Our favorite part is her laugh.

Bear Essential Combat MMA Mini Documentary

Bear Essential Combat documentary
My colleague Samson Jebai had been working with some Mixed Martial Arts videos and met with Bear owner of Bear Essential Combat MMA training facility in Fountain Valley, Ca. He made this mini documentary, commercial of his studio and his teaching skills for his website. I worked as the gaffer for the piece and we shot in a TV studio for the actual sparring shots and to Bear's studio for the interview and some B Footage of the training practice.

Past Collections

Here are some things I have worked on in the past: 

This is with Jasmin Kuhn doing SKYY Vodka commercial SKYY Vodka We went to school together at Art Center College of Design. We travelled to the dessert to her secret location. The rest we shot in the soundstage. I was happy to see it when it was completed and it turned out great. I was working as 2nd camera assistant working with 35mm.

The next shoot was also with a Art Center Alumni Sally Levi who worked with the city of Altadena, Ca. and was commissioned to do a drama documentary about how the water was brought to the town. This film was called Eaton's Water. We shot on location at the Botanical Garden in Altadena, Ca. This film was shot on 35mm and as a camera assistant. Eaton's water trailer 

Dimples by Dusty DePree was a horror movie that was mostly already shot but need a Unit B person for some pick up shots so I stepped in. It was only a couple of days of shooting but shooting on film is always good times. Dimples Trailer 
IMDB Link- not credited

I was also able to work on Roleplaying Roleplaying trailer Jason Johnson's film in San Diego. I was able to work with some long time colleagues from Orange Coast College and met some new friends too.
Then worked with Hillary Hanak who became my Best Friend over the years we started on this film, she was DP I helped in the Art Department. Dead and Floating in 3 Rivers. D&F3R IMDB LINK