Thinklablog

SF & SIFF

2008-05-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again... The Seattle International Film Festival is on now through June 22nd, which means a lot of skipping work and watching films an unhealthy number of films. I'm shooting stills for SIFF again this year. I'll be posting a few selects to my flickr site and a lot more will be up on siff.net.

In the last month, we spent 2 weekends in San Francisco. S.F. is one of my favorite cities. The first weekend was for a cinematography project for an upscale hotel chain and the second was a photography project. I can't wait to go back.

Sean has been in the studio working on a stop-motion music video for the Fleet Foxes. I've been shooting a bunch of behind the scenes "production diaries" in my free time. Some of that and the video coming soon.

"Lolita" for Throw Me The Statue is live on MTV.com and will be playing on their show, Subterranean!!!

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=235865

A couple of other fun links:

Polaroid Collection

Shipwreck Collection

Busier & Busier

2008-04-23T21:25:00.001-07:00

The last month has flown by! The Lolita video should be hitting the internet early next week. I'll post a link soon.

I just wrapped up 3 back to back projects (4 Pay). Two of the projects were in San Francisco, which happens to be one of my favorite places ever.

Adam McDaid visited earlier in the month. He was in town (from LA) shooting Megan Griffith's Fly Film. I'm excited to see their work premiere at SIFF this year. I shot some production stills here.

I helped Linas Phillips finish "Great Speeches" (2+ years in the making) with a couple more timelapse shots and the opening and closing credits. The film went through color correction at Modern Digital and is officially finished on the festival circuit. It too will be playing at SIFF this year.

I spent the last couple of days shooting stills all over Seattle with the new Nikon D3 and hope to land a couple of cool photography projects... also considering another music video and an interesting Blu-ray project.

Sean Porter is back home safe from Nigeria. He's shooting a music video for Linas and the band, "The Grand Archives". I spent the afternoon driving the van around while they film scenes. A couple of photos coming soon.

Here's a recent pic from a hike we took around Mt. Rainier:

mt. rainier cabin, originally uploaded by thinklab.

From 1 to 2

2008-03-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

We finished up the UW Commercials last week. The clients were all very pleased. Here's a look at one of them.

The Lolita music video is 90% edited and should be completed by the end of the week. We went back and grabbed a few more RED camera pickup shots with one of the actors early last week. We ended up with a lot more action and cake explosions.

Alex and I have been editing the video in 1k (1024 x 512), but we're finishing it at 2K. I did some of the conversion to 2k and the footage looks better than anything I've ever seen on my 30" monitor.

Between working on this music video and finding spots like this Ford commercial it's getting pretty easy to imagine a world without Kodak, or maybe a world with a lot less Kodak.

This week we're also putting together an estimate for a Dungeons and Dragons TV commercial. How awesome would that be? Mike and I are making plans to build a semi permanent green screen in the studio. Bad ass cinematographer, Adam McDaid is in town for the week working on Megan Griffith's Fly Film.

Links:

MTV Bloom - Winners announced

Sled - It's the simpler things

The Fleet Foxes - are on fire, and Robin's solo stuff is just too good

Isis, Holy Tears - this is cool and disgusting

Time Flies

2008-03-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

The past week has been filled with many, many, many hours behind the keyboard. The HL2 guys have been in the studio working on the UW TV commercials. All 3 spots have been edited now. I'm just putting the final After Effects touches on them.

We celebrated daylight savings last Sunday and it's officially starting to feel like spring in Seattle. Thad was even out weeding the courtyard just outside the studio window. Eventually we're going to build a miniature city skyline to go where the weeds grow.

Rob Dalton came by for lunch yesterday and we talked about a new idea he had a for a short visual piece that sounded pretty sweet.

One of my iPhone photos was selected for the Flickr photo of the day on the Stranger's Blog: Slog. I also put up a few stills from the TMTS music video footage this week.

It's a Wrap!

2008-03-04T19:59:00.001-08:00

The UW TV Commercials and the TMTS Music Video shoots went off without a hitch. These were a couple of the biggest jobs I've directed and were done back to back. More like a sandwich really. We shot long days on the music video last Sunday, Saturday, Sunday and shot the commercials on Tuesday and Wednesday. It felt like a marathon of days running all over the city, but I couldn't be more pleased with how everything came together.

The RED camera held up well on both projects and I'm excited to be learning (inventing) a RED/FCP/AE workflow. I plan to be in the studio doing a lot of After Effects and Editing for the next couple of weeks. Working with these 4k video files, It might be time for a new workstation.

uw commercial, originally uploaded by thinklab.

I haven't been online much lately, but here are a couple of recent finds:

Scared Girl - Made me chuckle
Decoy.tv - Ryan (insanely talented freelancer) is also shooting a music video on the RED in Seattle right now
Justice Music Video - Sweet retro motion graphics heavy music video

Big Production Week

2008-02-25T22:03:00.001-08:00

So busy prepping for next weeks jobs that this was as much of a post as I could muster... We shot the first part of the TMTS music video on Sunday. I spent most of the day prepping for the UW commercials that we're shooting tomorrow and Wednesday.

l.a. landing, originally uploaded by thinklab.

Preproduction X3

2008-02-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

It's been an amazingly crazy-busy-fun week. I shot 2 TV commercials for World Famous in the Superfad studio on Tuesday. Sean Porter did a wonderful job with the lighting and it's always a blast to work with the World Famous crew. I want to start a company called 'The Best Around' and this would be our theme song.

I've been auditioning for the TMTS music video and have met a ton of great local actors.

Mike and I took the RED out on the town to test its low-light capabilities and then its daylight capabilities on some shots for Great Speeches. I'll be posting a RED reel soon.

If all goes according to plan by the end of next week I'll have completed 1 MS stills shoot, 3 UW commercials, and have shot the TMTS music video.

Here are the links:

Red Camera

2008-02-10T22:50:00.001-08:00

After a year-long wait, Mike finally received the RED camera. We spent the first half of the week testing it out in the studio and around the neighborhood. The RED software and UI could use some tweaking, but the image resolution and quality is everything I could've hoped for. I don't see any reason why it won't be the indie filmmakers camera of choice for the next 5+ years.

The TMTS music video, the first of the 6 shorts in 6 months project, is coming together quickly. The script is super fun and we've already got an amazing crew. All we have to do is cast it, find locations and shoot it in 2 weeks from today. It already feels like an insane pre-production schedule for a no-budget project.

Speaking of the opposite of paying jobs, the Puget Sound Energy project is winding down and the University of Washington commercial is ramping up. I was also hired to DP a shoot for World Famous later next week. I still can't believe how cool it is to get these jobs that require spending days or even weeks out of the office.

Here's a still from one of the RED tests:

mike-still, originally uploaded by thinklab.

I'm going to start posting a couple of favorite links each week:

Mystery Project

2008-02-04T11:42:00.001-08:00

The big news last week was the birth of a new, unnamed mystery project. It's approaching a year since making my last short film, Numb. I've done a ton of commercial work, and got married since then, but I'm itching to start directing on a regular basis. I can't keep it a secret.

The mystery project is this idea to do 6 short films, music videos, or whatevers and do 1 a month for the next 6 months. We already have 3 of the projects pretty well mapped out. I'll be working with a small team including: Mike Ragen-shooting, Rob Dalton-writing/co-writing, Joy Andrews-art direction, and a few more names coming soon. We'll post the projects online as they are completed.

In studio news, we have a new studio-mate, Thad. Thad's a web-designer, animator, and all around creative guy who I met years ago while working at Garrigan Lyman. The Puget Sound Energy AE project should wrap this week and I've been working with HL2 on the creative for the 3 UW commercials that we'll be shooting near the end of the month.

Here's a still from the footage I shot for a short experimental documentary about gentrification, directed by Adam Sekular:

sanctuary, originally uploaded by thinklab.

Smile, Man

2008-01-28T20:11:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-19T20:41:00.001-08:00

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:

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

2008-01-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-05T10:12:00.001-08:00

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.