Smile, Man

I spent barely any time in the studio and a whole lot of time out shooting last week.  On Tuesday, we did the Puget Sound Energy "video" shoot.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we hit 4 different locations between West Seattle and Capitol Hill.  I slept well.

The day I was in the studio, Sean Pecknold and I set up a green screen and we shot our hands for his animated short, "A Strange Hunger".  It was one of my first hand modeling gigs and I now have a huge appreciation for those who do it professionally.  Apparently drinking 2 cups of coffee before trying to hold your hands perfectly still in very strange positions is not how it's done. Sean's adding the shaky live-action hands to animated characters.  It'll look cool.

On Sunday, Linus Phillips and I drove and walked all over Seattle, shooting time lapse and B-Roll for his soon to be finished documentary.  We had a great time roaming around Pioneer Square and hanging out with Smile Man, one of the stars in the film:

smile man, originally uploaded by thinklab.

Blast Off

I can't believe it's already January 19th.  It's going to be spring soon.  Isn't it!?  I mentioned submitting "Numb" to a couple of blogs last week.  Here are a few of the places it showed up:

• FecalFace
• Ticklebooth
• Spike
  
• Milk and Cookies
  
• Devil Ducky
• Shortsville
  
• Dekku
• Transbuddah

In less than a week it has received well over 1000 views (update: nearly 4000 views the following week).  I'm amazed how quickly this no cost approach can result in immediate views.  It's certainly quicker, cheaper and easier than submitting to film festivals.  David Lynch has this to say.

Here's another photo from last weekend's trip to Rockaway Beach:

blast off, originally uploaded by thinklab.

Back in the studio, The Puget Sound Energy animations are coming along. I've been prepping for their stills shoot happening next Tuesday. The UW commercials are moving forward and they'll be fun to shoot.

I finished a rough treatment for the Red October/Andi Russi Project X collaboration and have scheduled some time to work with Linus on some timelapse photography for his documentary.

Rockaway Beach Weekend

We just got home from a weekend trip to the Oregon Coast.  7 of us, "Seattle Types" (inside joke) made the trip to Rockaway Beach and stayed in a huge house right on the water.

Here's a photo of Brad high above the Pacific Ocean:

I took Friday off after a short week filled with accounting and housekeeping. I posted "Numb" on YouTube and submitted it to a couple of blogs.

The upcoming weeks will be especially busy.  In addition to shooting the 2 University of Washington TV commercials and the Puget Sound Energy videos, I'm hoping to shuffle stuff around so I can do a one day shoot in Los Angeles for World Famous and Nordstroms.

Andi Russi, and I made progress on the motion graphics project and I'm going to be shooting for Linus Phillip's next feature documentary.  I also worked on a music video script for Linus.  

I found out the hand-cranked 16mm short that I shot for director Todd Rohal is going to be on the Guatamalen Handshake DVD.

On Thursday, I met Rob Dalton for happy hour at the Library Bistro in Pioneer Square.  We talked about shooting a comedy short about advertising (maybe submit it to channel101.com) and we're also working on a feature length script. 

BACON!

The First Post

2008 has just begun.  Could there be a better time to start a blog?  I'm going to use this as a place to post news about the creative projects I'm working on.

So it begins...

This week I met with Andi Russi of IF/THEN and Red October.  He's one of the best designers in Seattle and he's looking to learn more about narrative filmmaking and motion graphics.  We discussed the possibility of collaborating on a festival trailer or a short based on a story written by Dishwasher Pete.

Linus Phillips (Walking to Werner) has been hanging out at the studio.  I'm helping him key out green screen footage shot for his documentary about a group of Poets that travel the country on a bus.  We've been discussing ideas for a music video that he hopes to shoot for an amazing new Seattle band called The Grand Archives (Sub Pop!).

Travis Metcalf and I just wrapped up 3 short animations for Russell Investments.  Next week, I'm starting on a series of short animated web commercials for Puget Sound Energy.  I'll also be DP'ing 2 TV commercials for the University of Washington later this month.

I've been talking to producer, Fred Northup and "Throw Me The Statue" about some music video collaborations.  Writer, Rob Dalton and I are starting work on a feature length script.