A Filmmaker's Paradise.

There's always that location that we as filmmakers dream about shooting at. For me, it was always an old run-down building of some sort. About two weeks ago I found this location with the help of a few peers.

This past weekend, a few friends and I went down south for a good ol' fashioned photo/video adventure. Our destination was Fort Ord, an old abandoned military base located in Marina, California. This was only my second time here, but after the first trip, I really wanted to go back and make a short film.



This place is just eerie. From the random baby strollers, to the "666" graffiti on the walls, to the stray shoes that line the street, this place just reeks of creepiness. We started out filming in the pool area. The what once was an olympic sized pool was now just an emptied garbage pit filled with empty spray cans and broken furniture. The vastness of this location led for some really great shots on the Canon 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Next, we started exploring the many barracks on the property. Every time I would open a door or walk up a flight of stairs, I was almost certain something was going to pop out. It's not like this place was home to thousands of murderers, but one can't help but feeling like you're not quite alone.



For the short I made, I brought along my Canon 5D Mark II, Indifocus Indislider, and ProAM Crane. With the exception of three or four shots, almost every camera angle was on the slider. I'm a camera movement fanatic, so I try and implement the use of a slider or dolly wherever I can. I also wanted to attempt an epic crane shot that would track upwards as my lovely subject Jenny walked down the deserted street. The wind was not very kind to my crane, so you may notice some camera shake in the final product.

We were losing light fast, so I tried to work as quickly as I could. Ideally, I would've loved to shoot a few more timelapses here, but that will have to wait until another day. A special thanks to goes out to my friends Jennifer Kehl, Ben Bunch, Andrew Cichowski, and Ally Bobus for being patient with me while I got my shots. Also, a big thank you to Ben Bunch for taking the photographs you see above. Without further adieu, please enjoy my short entitled "Ghost Town."

I Hate Pictures of Me.

Yet this still doesn't stop me from taking self portraits. At least I have photoshop to help in the beautification process. Went a little overboard with these, but I think they turned out cool!

New Old Things.

Jenny and I cleaned up the garage the other day because we'll be shooting a scene for my film this coming Sunday. It was actually very therapeutic. Every time we park our cars in the garage we promise ourselves that we'll clean up the ever increasing mess, but for some reason or another it never ends up happening. So this past Monday (President's Day) we spent a good majority of the day cleaning up and organizing everything. I'm pretty sure this is how the Presidents of the past would want us to celebrate their special day.

Upon cleaning up some old junk I've been holding onto in the garage, I came across a cool little gem I had forgotten about. It was an old 2006 Lego Exo-Force set. Sadly, this is the last Lego I own because I sold all of my other Legos on craigslist. I should have held on to them in case I could have passed them down to my kids one day. Oh well.



I no longer had the instructions so I found them online. Lego actually has an online database with instructions for every Lego created. I pieced the robot together in no more than five minutes. I forgot what a cool set this was. My new but old lego robot now has a home on my already over-cluttered desk. There's no way I'm going to sell this awesome guy like I did with my other sets. THis one is here to stay.

On a related note, here are some simply amazing Lego creations I favorited over on Flickr.







































That's all for now. Have a nice day!

My Wallet Isn't Going to be too Happy.

I feel kind of weird making a blog post about a new toy release, but this is a big deal.

So as of recent, my new goal in vinyl collecting is to snag a coveted KAWS piece. For those that don't know, Brooklyn based artist, KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) is a huge figure in the contemporary art and urban grafitti scene. He creates his art through several different mediums, spanning from canvas, to ads, to toys, and even to lightbulbs. The problem with my quest for a KAWS piece is the ridiculous prices that these toys are sold for in the secondary market (i.e. eBay, forums, etc.). The only way to really avoid spending an arm and a leg for a toy is buy it on the release day.


So, the word going around right now is that KAWS is set to release his next Bape collaboration toy on February 26th, 2011. In lieu of his popular "dissected companion" toy, KAWS has adapted the same concept to the iconic Bape character "Milo." This piece is half monkey, and half anatomical sculpt of the innards of the monkey, split right down the middle.


Even if I can manage to purchase one on release day from KAWS's site kawsone.com, the price still verges on the level of expensive. At 15,540 Yen, the toy will cost approximately $186.00 USD. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would even contemplate dropping this much cash on a piece of plastic, I would've called them crazy. After doing much research, the initial cost of this piece does not turn me off as much. Even though the figure is close to $200 with shipping, other KAWS pieces with the same initial price point go for upwards of $650 on the secondary market. I do not plan to sell the piece, but if times get rough, at least I can make my money back, plus more.

The only dilemma I'm facing right now is if I can live with getting only one, or if I should shoot for the whole set. Unfortunately for me, getting the whole set would probably mean eating Ramen and bread for the rest of the month. Because I have tax refunds coming to me in the next few weeks as well as some overdue payments for past work I've done, I may pull the trigger on all three. Only time will tell. I am honestly just stoked to get my first ever KAWS piece!

Here's a few more views of the figure.

I ♥ Tea

A few weeks back, Gizmodo had a "bokeh" photo challenge in which the assignment was to take a creative picture of out of focus light. Jenny and I had an awesome idea for a photo, but because of school and midterms, we were unable to put our idea into motion. Fast forward a few weeks, and we finally found the time to take our bokeh photo!

Jenny and I are both avid tea drinkers. We both have at least two cups of tea a day. Nothing beats that feeling of a nice hot cup of tea in the morning to warm the soul. With this idea in mind, we decided to take a photo that highlighted our love for tea.



To capture this image, we set up our Bodum mug and mini muffin on a dark wooden stool. A small desk lamp was used to spotlight the cup of tea from above. About three feet back, we hung up some old xmas lights in order to get our "bokeh effect". We strategically placed the lights, so that it looked as if the bokeh was coming out of the cup like steam. Finally, we poured the tea into the cup and began snapping away. As seen in the image above, we also played with paper cut-outs. If you cut a shape out of paper and hold it over your lens, you can manipulate the form of the bokeh. This proved to be a very cool effect in making the lights look like little mini hearts.

Because Jenny was ultimately the mastermind behind the initial idea, I acted as an assistant, and kind of let her do her thing. I tend to be a backseat photographer, so I really tried hard to just offer advice when called upon. Jenny also shot an exposure on her Mamiya RB67 MF film camera. Hopefully, when we get that back in a few weeks, it'll look just as good as the digital captures from that night.

When Jenny uploaded the picture to her Flickr, she wrote a sweet little poem to accompany the image.

"Every morning I wake up,
go to the kitchen,
make him tea,
wake him with a kiss,
and a nice warm mug
to start his day

this one's for you Doug
xoxoxo"

I don't know how I ever got so lucky. Thank you so much Jenny. The best part of my day is waking up next to you xoxo.

The Room.

Haven't seen it? Do yourself a favor and get on it. This is quite possibly the best worst film ever. Between unnecessary characters, discontinuities, terrible acting, ridiculous dialogue, etc., this film is just bad in every way possible. The ironic thing is, it's so horrible, that it is in fact entertaining. So entertaining that the film has amassed a huge cult following, much like that of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

When I heard The Room was coming to the Del Mar Theater as part of their midnight movie, I was stoked. I've always wanted to see this film in all it's horrendous glory up on the silver screen. So anyways, I just got back from the film about an hour and a half ago, and, wow! What an awesome experience. People were quoting the movie left and right and adding in their own wit and commentary to the mix.

Seeing it with a large audience was great because it was almost like a live-action performance. Viewers would use certain cues within the film to interact (via actions and speech) to what was happening on screen. Below are some of the common actions that I picked up on.

+ Every time a spoon was on screen, people began pelting the film with plastic spoons.
+ Every time the film cut to a scene of San Francisco, the audience would blurt out "Meanwhile, back in San Francisco"
+ Every time two characters were kissing on screen, the audience wouldsay, "NOM NOM NOM"
+ Every time the mother was on screen, viewers would yell, "Cancer"
+ Every time a camera would do a long slow pan (i.e. the Golden Gate Bridge), everyone would say, "GO, GO, GO, GO, GO!"
+ Every time a nipple was seen on screen, everyone would scream out "NIPPLE"
+ Every time a football was seen onscreen, viewers would begin passing around a football in the auditorium

These are jut a few of the things that I can recall from tonight. Even though I had seen the film before, I could not stop laughing. I love this film on so many levels. It's just something you can't stand to watch, but at the same time, cannot look away from.

Simply put, The Room is awesome. Tommy Wiseau is my hero.

Marks in the Water.

I'm not to keen on those eyesore watermarks that are scattered across an otherwise beautiful image. I completely understand the need for securing one's work, but there are clever ways to go about protecting your photos.

I've always meant to try and design a semi-unique watermark that I could use appropriately on a photos I upload to Flickr. After fuddling around with some ideas, I came up with a solid design I'm pretty happy with. My goal isn't to put the watermark on every photo, but try and include it when it looks right.



Nothing too crazy, just a sketch of a 35mm film camera and the font "Die Die Die" which gives the look of text being scribbled on something.

Thus far, I've gone through and added the watermark to a few of my photos with borders. For the most part, I think they really give a sense of balance to the overall composition. Before, the black borders were too empty and distracting. Obviously, I liked the look, but I always felt like it was missing something. I think a watermark was just that thing.

Here are a few of my past photos that I re-edited to include my new watermark.