The Extortionist (Short Film)

A few different bases were covered by me for this short film by my buddy Logan Williams, serving as the 1st AD, Gaffer/Key Grip and Assistant Editor.  I also acted as the production’s Visual Effects Artist/Compositor.  All lighting equipment was supplied by one studios, my lil production company.  The effects were done in Adobe After Effects and Photoshop CS5/6.

Logan is an up and coming filmmaker currently finishing his final year at Loyola Marymount University in the L.A. area.  He’s been a colleague of mine since 2011 and I always enjoy working with him.  Look out for his future work, as well as more projects on this site with his involvement as he and I continue to work together within the one studios Universe of productions.  Of course, be keen to projects we work together on of his creation and those of others too.

 

– B

 

 
 

Film Description:

When a depressed and introverted man comes home to his happy son, he has to deal with the horrific events of his past in which an extortionist controlled his life. Official selection Hollywood Black Film Festival 2012.

 

 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Thoughts on an Interesting Article Regarding White Viewers’ Racial Imagination

The following thoughts are in response to the Huffington Post article directly below, which was posted by a friend of mine on Facebook.  Thanks Dan.  It made me think.  And I couldn’t help but to write a few words [um, yeah, a few…. 🙂 ] in response to it.  This is stuff I actually find myself observing and thinking about often.  So, this was a perfect opportunity to finally get a few thoughts out.  Read the Huffington Post article first, then my thoughts, and let me know what you think.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-cole/catching-fire-beetee-race_b_4334585.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=3619638b=facebook

Interesting how much white guilt some peeps have.  Articles like this, although they do strike valid points, mass group peoples too much.  Not every white person thinks like this.  Just as not every black person, or brown person or whatever person thinks a certain way, etc., etc., etc.  However, the author does bring up a certain topic that is truly affecting a lot of the white population nowadays, and that’s the white guilt I mentioned above.  There is a lot of that embedded into the minds of the X and Y generations’ white populace.

White guilt tends to cause the “trying too hard” factor, which I find is when whites go out of their way to be overly nice or overly polite or overly sensitive when around people of a darker skin color than theirs.  It can be funny at times, especially because the peeps that are having it happen to them can obviously tell what is going on.  And it’s not to say that it isn’t a good thing that many whites are more conscious of racism and prejudice.  Of course, that’s great.  However comical it can be at times, who’s to say it’s not needed.  It often takes extremes to embed to be natural.

Nevertheless, this white guilt thing still doesn’t negate the prejudice and racism that is still quite embedded into our society, and around the world, for that matter.  The same white dudes that try to act all cool around black dudes tend to be the same white dudes who, when not around black dudes, use the “N” word and say racist ass remarks.  “Closet racism” when around only other members of one’s race seems to be very prevalent.  I know this first hand, as many of my friends throughout my life have been this way…despite my lack of approval and often vocal fights against it.

But there is no white guilt around when this type of behavior occurs in these more private atmospheres.  It’s so ridiculous and such bigotry.  And this isn’t to say this just exists in white society.  I’m fully confident in saying that it exists in all cultures, races and societies.  Until we rid ourselves from racism and prejudice in all aspects of our lives, no matter in public settings or in private social settings, these dark nuisances will continue to exist.

How can we act one way at home or around certain friends and then act another around other groups and say we aren’t prejudice or racist?  It’s a double standard we have to move past.  …..Easier said than done.  But here’s to moving forward.

 

– B

 

 

Tha Block – Character Graphics

As part of the process of creating the webisode series Tha Block, I decided to create motion graphics for each person’s intro.  In doing so, I also decided to create still graphics utilizing the motion graphic elements in still form before I put motion to them in After Effects.  What a great way to capture each moment, right?!

Each graphic started out in Photoshop before going to After Effects.  Personally, I really like how these graphics turned out.  Each one holds true to the personality and background of the person it reps.  And each one had a lot of love put into it.  I had a lot of fun doing these.  Check out Urijah Faber and the rest of the crew from Tha Block.

Thanks for viewing!

 

– B

 

 

 

 

Wedding Highlight – Matt & Ruchi

A beautiful day for a beautiful occasion, Matt and Ruchi’s wedding was a pure delight to work.  It was a mixture of a traditional Indian wedding and an All-American wedding.  The immense culture and learning I personally took from the event was well worth attending alone.  Truly, this Fremont, CA event was something I’ll always hold near.

I filmed for three days in accordance with the traditional ceremonies in Indian weddings.  These standard definition shoots included the Garba, the Mehndi and the wedding day events, including the wonderful reception, of course.  For the Garba and Mehndi I produced single camera shoots.  For the wedding day happenings I contracted a second shooter to produce a multi-camera shoot.  Later, I edited an extensive wedding video and created a four disc set for the bride and groom, which included the Garba, the Mehndi, the wedding, the cocktail hour, the reception, pictures, special traditions, outtakes, a short highlight, an extended highlight, the wedding music and one of the discs being a CD of the wedding music.

Energetic dancing, gorgeous scenery, spectacular garments, tasty food, horseback entrances, an excellent crowd and endless smiles made this wedding one to remember.  Good times.

Thanks for watching!

 

– B

 

 

 
 

Wedding Highlight – Eric & Tiffany

Tiffany was a gorgeous bride, and Eric calmed his nerves to make it through the vows!  🙂  It was a wonderful ceremony….and one of my first weddings!  I’m proud to have captured all of the joyful moments during this fairytale type of day.  Thank you to Eric and Tiffany for having me aboard for your very important event in lovely Northern California.

For this wedding I produced a single camera, standard definition shoot.  I then edited the video into a flowing style, later placing the edited wedding ceremony and reception onto DVD along with this highlight.

Thanks for watching!

 

– B

 

 

 
 

 

Tha Block w/ Urijah Faber – Promo Teaser

This is the promo teaser I created some years back for Tha Block, a webisode series I was working on with MMA/UFC superstar, and old friend of mine, Urijah Faber.  I followed Urijah and his Team Alpha Male crew around for a solid six months getting footage of fights, interviews, daily life, funny happenings, original scripted content and more.  We got a good amount of buzz from this video.  And everything was going well until an unfortunate turn of events.  Siiiiiigh…..

Although Urijah and I continue to work together, this project has been put on hold for the time being….I stress time being.  Too much work was put into it and I feel strongly about it’s quality and worth.  So, it’s all about adjusting to the circumstances and timing.  I have a lot of good stuff on these guys and the plan is to one day get it going again, either by turning the footage I gathered into a film of some sort, or, doing as originally was thought out and release webisodes.  Either way, I’ll have to gather new footage in addition to this older stuff in order to bring viewers up to date with this crazy bunch of S.O.B.’s!  You have to know when to let projects go.  But you also have to know how to see failure vs hiccups.  This project hasn’t failed.  Tha Block’s just marinating.  🙂

For more on Urijah and Team Alpha Male, and boy is there a lot out there on them, visit Urijah’s website at www.urijahfaber.com.  You can also just turn on the TV….

Thanks for watching!

 

– B

 

 
 

L.O.S. – The Dream (Part 1)

I have been tinkering with webisodes for a while now.  The first one I ever did was a six parter following a couple of dudes with dreams of making it big.  This is part 1 of that webisode series, entitled L.O.S.: The Dream.  I’ll be putting the rest of the webisodes from this mini-series up after their unveiling on the upcoming, brand spanking new one studios site, which will have first dibs.  So, keep your eyes peeled.  If they’re one here, then the new one studios site is up and running, and you should probably check that out too…..just sayin’.

This is a pretty simple video, but fun.  Sometimes, it’s all about having fun.  My peeps involved in the video with me came to me and we quickly threw this together.  I did all production.  And I plan on doing more webisodes in the future using higher quality equipment and putting more time into them overall.  They’ll most definitely be shot in high def, unlike this series.  All in all, good stuff.  Enjoy!

 

– B