January 2015

Well friends, there’s a lot going on with your boy at the moment.  Not a lot of time, but I promise to start making more regular updates for peeps to keep up on things with me.

What I’ll let you know for the time being is that I’m kicking 2015 off hard!  Thing is 2014 carried right over into 2015.  So, I never have really had a break from the grind.  But no complaining here!  Nothing worth anything comes easy.  It takes focus, dedication and intelligent perseverance to make your goals happen.  Let’s all remember that going into this brand spanking new year!  …..by the way, it’s 2015!  HOLY CRAP!  You can’t tell me that doesn’t at all feel weird, especially if you were born last century like me.  We’re in the freaking future!

Anyway, big updates coming.  Working hard on my feature film Fight 4 Your Life and everything with it.  Finishing up several shorts in post.  In pre-production for another feature my boy Alonzo Chism wrote call Hood Damnation.  STILL working on the new one studios site.  TRYING to keep up on all the social media stuff.  ….Hmmmm….what else??  Video projects for clients….yep.  Looking for more work….always….holler at me.  New reels, media posts on sites and an overall expanded portfolio….gotta stay fresh.  Working on a comic…check.  Getting back on my music shiz…..uh huh.  Still getting my new pad and office together….sure.   Planning for the coming months’ events and happenings….mandatory.  Networking….pushing hard.  Having a life….NOPE!

Updates soon amigos.  Believe it.  Do it.

 

– B

 

 

United Long Term Care Workers Promo Video

I was contracted to shoot a couple interviews for this project by Spectrum Productions out of L.A.  The client was United Long Term Care Workers.  Always looking to further my networking and this was the first time working with Spectrum. Here’s to more projects together!

The video turned out well by Spectrum. You can find segments of the two interviews I shot at the following minute markers above the video. I shot these interviews on a Canon 5D Mark II using 50mm and 85mm prime lenses. Recorded the audio into the camera through a Zoom H6 and my Sennheiser wireless lav. Lightly lit with my Lowel kit.  My segments were shot at the U.L.T.C.W. offices in Oakland, CA.

Check out more of my commercial and industrial type work here.  Thanks for viewing!

 

– B

 

(My clips are the gentleman at the 0:14 second mark and the nice lady at the 0:49 sec & 2:53 min marks)

 

 

Al Hendrix – 3 Song Highlight Video

Al Hendrix is a cool dude. One of the originals during the age of Rockabilly, Al needed some new media to get the word out that he’s back. He approached me and my company one studios and, after some talking and a bunch of laughing (Al’s a funny guy), it was agreed that I would organize and execute a multi-cam shoot for one of Al’s upcoming performances.  (more info below video)

 

 

We shot the intimate concert in Nevada City, CA at Stone House bar and restaurant. Al and his band rocked the house….pun intended. And we enjoyed every minute of his music, as well as his neverending stories. He met Elvis!

The shoot consisted of three cameras, a Canon 5D Mark III, a 7D and a 6D. The lenses were a mixture of Carl Zeiss and Canon….shout out to one studios colleague and co-founder of Plaid Zebra films, Joel Dockendorf, for aiding in supplying further equipment and serving as a camera op!  In addition to shooting, I also recorded audio via mics and a direct line from Al’s band’s board. I then took all the footage and audio and edited, colored and mixed in Premiere, creating the motion graphics for the intro and outro in After Effects.

Although we shot the entire concert, the three songs highlighted in this video are Al’s three favorites that he is best known for, aside from his old hit ‘Monkey Bite’. The three songs showcased in this vid are ‘Young and Wild’, ‘My Perfect Love’ and ‘Laraine’…..who he’s still happily married to.

I can’t say enough how good of a guy Al is.  I’ve literally spent hours on the phone with him just talking about life.  I’m honored to have him now as a friend and as part of the one studios Family!

 

– B

 

 

Bang Bang! – Feature Film Official Teaser Trailer…and a Great Experience

I didn’t create this awesome trailer for the upcoming Bollywood action flick, Bang Bang!, but I had the pleasure of working on the film in July 0f 2014 as the camera department media manager, as well as a crew recruiter, while the project was on location in northern Cali.   My job as media manager / data wrangler, or DIT (Digitial Imaging Technician), entailed logging, transcoding, properly organizing and backing up the precious footage of this shoot, all shot on two RED Epics with all the fixings and four GoPro Hero 3+s (Black Editions).  Basically, if anything happened to the footage it was my fault!  🙂

This shoot was for a HUGE stunt performed on Clear Lake in Lakeport, CA.  The stunt called for a 14x National Barefoot Water Skiing Champion named Keith St. Onge and an Albatross plane.  The rest, I’ll leave for you to see when the film comes out.  I know I can’t wait to see it!  And I’m positive some of this stunt shoot’s footage will surely be used in the official theatrical trailer to come.  Having dealt with it first hand, I can honestly say it looks fantastic.  And I’ll be sure to post as soon as the trailer is released.  The full film is due out October 2nd.

For now, check out this awesome teaser!  Feel free to read below for further info on this shoot and my further responsibilities.

*****UPDATE******

The final theatrical trailer was released a while back (and the movie is now out).  So, here it is for your viewing pleasure.  The big scene I worked on has clips at markers 0:06-0:07 and 2:16-2:21.

 

 

This is the original teaser below.

 

 

The other job I took on as a crew recruiter entailed having to find certain crew positions for this gig.  Much of the crew were from L.A. and India.  But they still needed a few more talented crew members.  In the end, several of my dependable colleagues were brought on board with my strong recommendation, all accomplishing fantastic work in their respective positions as assistant camera, GoPro specialist and production assistant.  It always makes me feel good when not only do I successfully do my job, but my colleagues are successful as well.  After all, it’s a recruiter’s main task to ensure skilled and professional people are brought into the mix.  Otherwise….FAIL!!!

My colleagues’ success is extremely important to me not simply for the reason of my personal status as a recruiter for other people / companies, but more so because it is one of my goals to build a large network of true professionals to call upon for jobs like this, or, to rep my company one studios.  It’s all about who you surround yourself with, you know?  People I bring into jobs are essentially an extension of myself.  And if you want to produce quality you have to have quality people working with you.  For high grade jobs like this you have to have a certain level of experience within you and within the people you bring aboard.  And having successfully provided such people means I’m on the right track with my networking.  Got to keep pushing!

It was a great time with even greater people.  All were professional and truly cool!  Very thankful and blessed am I to have gotten on board for this project.  Already some lasting relationships have been made and I can’t wait to work with many of these fine peeps again in the near future.  One such person is stunt coordinator Andy Armstrong, of the recent The Amazing Spiderman 2 and many other films, who I’m set to work with again in October of 2014.  Even the visual effects artist on staff, Joshua Saeta, has proven to be an excellent dude in offering a kind hand to help in the daunting task of my visual effects for my current feature film project, Fight 4 Your Life.  The advice and any hands on help he will give is certainly a gigantic blessing, as he’s worked on films such as The Matrix and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

And these are just two of the many rad people I met on this project.  Heck, I was even able to work alongside a bit with the director of the film, Siddharth Anand.  You know I’m always looking to learn from my fellow directors!  Again, truly blessed.  Put in the work so you can back up your claims.  Then it’s all about the networking!  Good stuff!

Thanks again Gary and Kris of G and K Media, who got me on this one.  It was an especially good shoot for them…..Gary won $30K off a scratcher that was given to him, the lucky dog!  You guys rock and I’m lucky to have met you.

 

– B

 

 Believe it.  Do it.

 

 

Fight 4 Your Life – Feature Intro Teaser Trailer

Ahhh….it feels good to finally be showing some of the hard work my team and I at one studios are putting into our upcoming feature film Fight 4 Your Life.  This is the first official trailer using actual footage shot for the full length film version of this project.  For those of you who have kept up on F4YL, it began as a short film we shot for a 48 Hour film festival in Sacramento, CA.  I liked the idea so much that I decided to revamp the script after we finished the short, and transform F4YL into a full length feature film.  The one studios crew agreed, and a year and a half later, here we are…..nearly finished with production and releasing the first official teaser.  Happy happy, joy joy! ….thanks for the quote Ren and Stimpy.

You’ll find the teaser trailer I did for the short version of F4YL on this site too, if you’re interested.  That trailer was intended to demonstrate the look and style, in a way, we are going for with the full length version.  It also served as a way to help get people on board with the project.  So, compare and contrast.  Give constructive criticism.  Judge.  Hate.  Enjoy!

Lots more to come with this project amigos!  Keep up on Fight 4 Your Life at the film’s website, where you can also find links to its social media pages.  Anything to know about how I’m involved in this project is on there too…. me being the director, executive producer, etc.

 

F4YLMovie.com

 

– B

 

 
 

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.

 

 

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