Drama – Full Version Now Online

So I had been pushing Timeca to do a short for some time, an incredible actress with a million great story ideas. “Drama” was one she had mentioned and one that I fell immediately in love with. Maybe it’s because when I was a kid when I told my Dad I was getting picked on he said “What do ya want me to do about it? Ya gotta stand up for yourself”. The next day I did, got my ass kicked. Anyway, as I was saying, we had bounced around a lot of ideas and this was actually part of an longer story she had thought of doing. From the first time I heard this particular part of the storyline I thought it would work really well as a short, picking up from when Drama gets out of bed and walks by her Auntie who’s passed out, ending with Drama’s moment of self-realization in the mirror, perhaps not exactly Norman Rockwell but a slice of life nonetheless.

Took me five months to convince Timeca to go for it and once we decided to do this it was cast, found locations, shot and edited within a week and I really couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. We got incredibly lucky with the casting, only auditioned 6 girls for the parts of Drama and the bully and don’t think we could have found anyone better had we auditioned 100. Huge props to Ann Woodward (Drama) and Gianna Redeemer (the bully). Both just amazing and incredible to work with, I know we will be seeing a whole lot more of you two!

Of course Timeca rocked it, never had any doubts about that, and never had any doubts about her screen love interest of the moment played by Aaron Spivey-Sorrells. For those of you who watch “Friday Night Lights” you’re probably familiar with his work, he’s appeared in every episode except the pilot as Coach Spivey. We were all nothing but flattered that he was interested in being a part of our humble little short.

As for the making of stuff that I like to babble about, we shot this over one verrrrrry long day and picked up a few shots over a couple hours a few days later. Because of the nature of this one I wanted to keep it with a more real/doc type feel and opted for a handheld look. A little ironic that two of our actors were from Friday Night Lights (Timeca has also made an appearance on the show) and I went with the swishy sway cam but what can I say? When it works it works. My favorite shot of the whole piece is the shot coming off the roof. Took us awhile to find a location and when we did winded up with one that didn’t have rooftop access.

Thankfully, Austin Habitat for Humanity did have a trusty old lift truck that hoisted us up two at a time with our equipment so we could get the shot I wanted.

Side note, the song playing in the background while Drama is running from the other kids was a song called “Get Low“ by First Class Fresh who Timeca’s son, Elgyn A. Chandler Jr. is a member of. The group makes a guest appearance as the boys who tease Drama as she’s walking by. You can see the music video I did for their song “Wobble House” here:

First Class Fresh – Wobble House

This was shot on a Sony EX1 with a Letus35 extreme, edited in Sony Vegas.

First Class Fresh – Wobble House

Artist : First Class Fresh
Song : Wobble House
Album: JetLag
Director: Raymond J. Schlogel
Production Company : Underground Planet

This was a quick and dirty little music vid shot on a pair of Canon 2Ti’s for the hip-hop group First Class Fresh. Not a lot to say about the concept, just wanted something fun and a little quirky. The guys from First Class Fresh were totally charismatic and the actor who became affectionately known as “Angry Waffle Guy” played by Kenneth C. Liverman, had us all cracking up. He was originally there to just be a background extra but for so many obvious reasons hadta give him a bigger role. So glad he showed up!

Another bonus extra is “Chad Happens” who some may recognize from his parody video’s on YouTube. He showed up, put on sunglasses and spanked the girls with waffles. God bless his little heart.

As with just about everything else of mine this was edited in Sony Vegas and CC’d with Magic Bullet.

You can download the song FREE here:
tinyurl.com/2d38yun

myspace.com/firstclassfresh

Threads of Hope Fashion Event

After casting Stacy Zeiler Kenyon as the lead for Rex Robards “Whiskey Wrote This Song” music video, Stacy invited me to a fashion show for her Siren Swimwear line as a fundraiser for Threads of Hope, a nonprofit whose goal is to stop the abuse and trafficking of children in the Philippines. I offered to make a little montage of the event, originally thinking I would just drop my EX1 at the end of the runway and pick some shots with my T2i and make a little 3-5 minute vid.

I had totally planned on keeping it simple. By the time the date rolled around I had had the idea of opening with black and white stills of the pre-show after seeing some of the pics of the makeup Stacy planned on using. I also added another EX1, another T2i, and just for grins a GY-HM100U because a friend had one. And by the time I got to editing the 3-5 minute montage was out the window and I ended up with this nearly 15 minute version of the show.

The hair and makeup and Stacy’s vision for the show was just breathtaking, the models (who by the way are not professional models but friends of Stacy’s) did such an amazing job, well, I really couldn’t have made this any shorter could I?

threadsofhope.com.ph/

sirenswimwear.com/

Dog Park – Canon T2i Test Footage

My first little DSLR vid.

After much himming and hawing over getting a 5D or 7D for quite sometime now I finally got lured into the world of DSLRs with the release of the new Canon T2i.

Had my first chance yesterday to go out with my friend Matthew Iha to do a little testing. I can’t pretend that I had any clue what the hell I was doing as the footage will show. It was all pretty reckless, just grabbed the camera and headed to the dog park on Town Lake here in Austin. The profile was the default and we were only using the kit’s EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens. Most of it was shot 1080 24p but did manage to work in a couple 720 shots to try slomo in post.

Would have had this online last night except that due to my noobishness ran into major headaches trying to edit the native footage. Today after downloading CineForm’s Neo Scene, transcoded the files to avi and re-editing it from scatch in Sony Vegas all is right with the world.

Hope you’ll forgive the not so great footage and hasty edit. Overall I loved it. Defiantly not the right camera for all situations but loads of fun. I think the main thing I didn’t like was the lens but today I got the Fotodiox Pro Adapter Philip Bloom mentioned in one of his blogs that’ll allow me to use some of my old Nikon lenses. think that will make a big difference. Will post some more when I get a chance to play now that I know how to edit this stuff. =)

Music : The Cult – Peace Dog

Larissa Ness – Thoughts of You

Artist : Larissa Ness
Song : Thoughts of You
Album: Hello
Director: Raymond J. Schlogel
Producer: Ruben Cantu
Production Company : Underground Planet
See Extended Credits Here : Extended Credits Page

My first music video for a pop song! Not to mention my first with choreography! Whoot! I think I had watched too much “So You Think You Can Dance”, just enough to want to do this and just enough to drive our Choreographer Carly Bell crazy by asking her for all sorts of dance move things as if I knew what I was talking about. Can’t even begin to say what a blast this one was.

This would be more or less a dream sequence theme part of which was inspired by two pictures of Larissa that were taken by the award winning photographer Maria Bernal. One was of Larissa in which she was wearing a black bra, another was of her feet wearing high heel shoes resting on the keyboard. Those two elements became the first building blocks of the concept.

So, the concept, in case you missed it, is that Larissa is missing her guy. In her dream she wakes up and is living in this amazing mansion, she goes down stairs wearing only the bra and slip that she woke up in and finds that there is a party going on. Everyone at the party is formal, cordial if not a bit pretentious and putting on airs as they exchange frivolous banter. No one really notices her nor her lack of appropriate attire.

Her love interest is one of the hired help, a waiter who she makes eyes at after she makes her way to the piano and begins performing. The guests begin to dance, but even in their dance they are stiff, formal, lackluster. The waiter is seen, essentially going to her level, as Larissa is only wearing her undergarments he removes his uniform just before the breakdown in the song. He climbs atop the piano and extends his hand, she accepts and joins him. Whether its the music or in response to Larissa and the waiters chemistry or just because its a dream the rest of the guests follow suit and disrobe, shedding the formality, we see them more as individuals, they smile more, and the dance changes from the formal ballroom-esque style that they had been doing earlier to something more fun, sensual and free flowing. Larissa and the Waiter make their way back to the piano, they lay down and he covers her with his red jacket. We see a close up of Larissa singing the last few lines as the camera pulls back and we notice that the jacket is actually a blanket and she is in bed, alone, and thinking of him.

Didn’t get all that from watching it? No worries, I’m a fan of abstract and not being to literal and at the end of the day hopefully even those that don’t necessarily understand the concept will enjoy the visuals nonetheless.

This one truly was a blast, from Larissa’s willingness to learn to play the piano with her toes to the two months of practice and choreography not to mention shooting at one of the most amazing homes I’ve ever seen making this one was an incredible experience on every level.