Film #5: Coming by Sunday

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I realize that we are well into June (by 4 days even) and there’s still no sign of Film #5 from May.  My goal is to have it up by Sunday, but in the meantime let me fill you in on some of what’s been going on with the production.

Since I’m doing a music video this month, I decided to venture out of shooting a straight narrative and do some work with motion graphics and compositing, as well as (I hope) a fun approach to how we’ve incorporated it into the performance of the song itself. The song is performed by a friend of mine named Sherman Thomas. We got together a couple of weeks ago and did the first round of shooting entirely against a green screen. I then spent a good chunk of last week working with the green screen footage to do a bunch of compositing and motion graphic work for the verses and choruses of the song. Then this last Sunday, we got together again and did the second round of shooting to incorporate some of the motion graphics and pull together the final look of the video.

So now I’m working on a little more compositing work for the bridge of the song as well as syncing and color-correcting the footage to get the final music video.  I’m excited for how it’s coming together.

Favorite Videos of the Week

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This last week, I continued the music video theme with a selection of videos from director, Spike Jonze. He’s another great music video director featured in the Directors Label DVD collection. In fact, all five of these videos can be found on his Directors Label DVD. Enjoy.

Beastie Boys – Sabotage: Such a fun video. It’s a great take-off/homage to the old cop shows of the 70’s and 80’s.

Wax – California: A mesmerizing slow-motion single-shot of a man running through the streets on fire.

Weezer – Buddy Holly: The first single off of Weezer’s self-titled “blue” album, this clever video seamlessly combines footage of the band and the TV show “Happy Days” to wonderful effect.

Bjork – It’s Oh So Quiet: I love the fun and whimsy in this video. There’s a wonderful play between the quiet, soft verses and the loud, musical dance-number chorus that only gets better when you add the video to it.

Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice: Who’s idea was it to feature Christopher Walken solo in a dance number for an entire music video? Brilliant.

Film #5: Quick Update

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I just finished my second day of shooting for Film #5. The first shoot day was last Sunday and primarily consisted of shooting against a green screen. I was able to get a hold of some green screen fabric and some good lights, and so we spent around three hours shooting different scenes against green in my living room. Since then, I’ve spent what time I’ve had this last week doing all sorts of compositing and motion graphic work to get ready for the shoot today. Everything is turning out really good. I’m excited for this one. It’s definitely different then the other films I’ve produced this year in that it’s not a straight narrative and it’s involving a ton of post-production work.  But so far, so good.  I can’t wait to get it all finished.

Favorite Videos of the Week

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I’ve continued to feature music videos as my Favorite Video of the Day this week; and this time around I focused specifically on videos directed by Michel Gondry. Gondry is a French director with a wild, creative imagination and a love for playful, trick photography. He made a name for himself here in the States through his music videos and commercials, most of which have been collected on DVD as part of the Directors Label series (an incredible series of DVD’s, I own them all). In recent years, he’s directed films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind, Rewind. I hope you enjoy this small selection of his music videos.

The White Stripes – Fell In Love With A Girl: How can you not love a music video animated in Lego?

Kylie Minogue – Come Into My World: A delightfully surreal single shot. The direction and choreography taken to pull it off is impressive.

Chemical Brothers – Let Forever Be: A trippy video filled with mind-twisting visuals and choreography.

The White Stripes – The Hardest Button To Button: A great stop-motion-y kind of video that plays wonderfully with the pacing and construction of the song.

Bjork – Bachelorette: This video is not only filled with cool storytelling, it also tells an interestingly provocative story.

May Is For Music

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For the month of May, I’ve decided to break from the straight narrative to produce a music video. As much as it makes me nervous to think of producing a music video (which can be very easy to mess up or make cheesy if it isn’t done right) it also makes me excited.

Music videos have always been one of my favorite mediums because there tends to be a lot more creative freedom and risks taken in conceptualizing and producing them. Directors and artists create wonderful visuals, stories, and art to in some way compliment and enhance the music. Good music videos engage and affect the viewer emotionally and creatively. Of course, that’s when it’s done right. When it’s done poorly, you end up with bland, quickly cut shots of a band or artist performing for three and a half minutes.

Since this month is all about music videos, I’m going to be featuring some of my favorite music videos and directors all month long as my daily Favorite videos in my Twitter feed. I’ll also wrap up each week by posting them all here on the blog.

Favorite Videos of the Week

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For most of May, I’m going to be featuring music videos in my Favorite Videos of the Day. I love music videos and there is so much diverse and remarkable work out there that it’s been really fun to start digging around online to find some good videos to feature. Here’s a round-up of this week’s videos:

Radiohead: “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” – A hauntingly beautiful song mixed with incredible black and white footage that plays with variable speed shooting and high contrast lighting to wonderful effect. Directed by Jonathan Glazer.

Gnarls Barkley: “Going On” – This video just came out in the last couple of weeks and I loved it right away for the energy and movement, art direction, and the great use of text all throughout. Directed by Wendy Morgan.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Can’t Stop” – Inspired by the “One Minute Sculptures” of Erwin Wurm, this video is fun, whimsical, colorful, and creative. Directed by Mark Romanek.

The Shins: “Pink Bullets” – A wonderfully animated stop motion story of love found and lost. Directed by Adam Bizanski.

Johnny Cash: “Hurt” – What can I say about this video. It’s brilliant. Johnny Cash covers the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt” and adds a deep poignancy and gravity to the lyrics as the song and video wrestle with the ideas of legacy and mortality. Directed by Mark Romanek.

Amazing Animation: Blu – MUTO

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The street artist Blu consistently turns out incredible work that is all at once creative, unique, detailed, and often painted in a fairly large scale (with some paintings spanning multiple stories). Lately, he’s been experimenting with creating animation by painting the “frames” of an animation directly onto walls. He just released a video that uses this technique and takes it to a whole different level. I am in awe of the time and effort he undoubtedly put in over several months to create this.

ht to Wooster Collective

All The Films In One Place

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As this project continues and as I post more here on the site, I realize that it’s not always easy to find all of the completed films and watch them without doing some digging around.  So, in the interest of an easy viewing experience, I’ve added a new page to house all of the completed films in one place.

Favorite Videos of the Week

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Here’s a round-up of this week’s favorite videos (as posted on my Twitter feed). Enjoy.

Snickers – Red vs. Green – A brawl breaks out between the light-up red and green figures at crosswalks.

Adidas – Whole World – I really like the Adidas “Impossible Is Nothing” ad campaign and this particular ad ranks as one of my favorites.

Talk Talk Ad – Wonderfully creative and fun.

Young@Heart sing “Fix You” – Besides the fact that “Fix You” is already one of my favorite Coldplay songs, this performance of it by the English chorus Young@Heart is made all the more poignant and beautiful by the story behind it: (from the YouTube description) “The performer here is Fred Knittle, who suffers from congestive heart failure. This song was intended to be a duet between Fred and another chorus member, Bob Salvini. Sadly, Bob died of a heart attack and it was left to Fred to carry the song on his own.” The clip is from a film also titled Young@Heart that’s in theaters right now.

Stevie Wonder – Superstition live on Sesame Street – Stevie gives a fantastic performance of “Superstition” while visiting Sesame Street. It just makes me smile when I watch it.

Pangea Day

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Pangea Day is a remarkable idea. It’s happening this Saturday, May 10th all around the world. The goal is to have a global film festival over the course of one day. There are eight official Pangea Day sites along with thousands of user-organized screenings.

From the Pangea Day website:

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.

On May 10, 2008 – Pangea Day – sites in Cairo, Dharamsala, Kigali, London, New York City, Ramallah, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv will be videoconferenced live to produce a program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.

The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

I’m excited to see which films they choose and to how the festival turns out. Here’s a great promotional video that they released a little while back.