California Home+Design Advertising Promo
November 7th, 2012Through SmartShoot, I won a bid to shoot a project with California Home+Design Magazine. They were looking to create a promotional video to attract advertisers.
The publisher had set up professionals in the design industry to talk about what makes California unique and the place for innovation and style. It took half a day to shoot all of the interviews. They were all very passionate about the leaps and bounds that California has been making in the industry. And as I browsed through the various magazine layouts that were provided to me, I became thoroughly impressed by the living spaces that are being created here in my home state.
The video can also be found on their website at http://www.californiahomedesign.com/advertise.
Tough Mudder Norcal 2012 Highlights Video
September 26th, 2012
Last Sunday, we came back to the mountain to tackle Tough Mudder again. This time, we brought more of the family!
There was a total of 12 members on Team Pants Noodle (cleverly named by my nephews): 6 guys and 6 girls. It was another awesome experience tackling 11+ miles and 20+ obstacles on the mountain. Real proud of the first timers who grit their teeth through the whole course. And we did set a record that NO ONE else on the mountain can brag about: the first AND last team on the mountain! We didn’t even realize it until the MC ran through the final obstacle with us. #GetYourMoneysWorth
We captured the day on three separate waterproof cameras. With a much larger team than last year and 3x as many cameras, you can imagine the amount of footage I had to go through. I was able to slice down all of that footage into a short highlight reel that encompasses our whole experience.
Congrats, fellow mudders.
Tough Mudder Norcal 2011 Highlights Video
September 22nd, 2012
One day in May of 2011, while listening to the “Braveheart” station on Pandora (i love my epic movie soundtracks), an ad was displayed that showed a silhouette of people marching through a blazing fire with the words “Tough Mudder – Probably The Toughest Event On The Planet”. With the height of the music playing, envisioning William Wallace’s march into the battlefield, I clicked on the ad and found myself totally intrigued with this event.
Four months later, I found myself staring at the mountain at Squaw Valley with 5 other brave souls on my team, ready to tackle 11+ miles, +2300′ elevation, and a flurry of military-style obstacles that included 12 foot walls, crawling in the mud through barbed wire, swimming through freezing cold lakes, and getting shocked by 10,000 volts of electricity.
I brought with me an Olympus Tough camera (waterproof, shockproof, dustproof) that proved to be a soldier itself. I played around with the footage we shot and here is the result!
Overall it was an amazing experience and ultimate challenge. It also forced me to get healthy and back in shape, which has benefited me in my daily life (even my blood pressure is now at a normal level).
We are back for Tough Mudder Norcal 2012 with a bigger team and new, anxiety-filled faces. I missed documenting a few opportunities last year because of battery life, but we are bringing plenty of cameras and power to document the whole experience. Plus, this mountain looks to be much meaner: more ICE obstacles, more ELECTRICITY, more MUD!
There’s no greater motivation than the fear of failing yourself or your team on that mountain. Somebody give Pandora’s marketing director a raise! And thank you James Horner for inspiring the epic.
Empower – Master of the Three Rings Commercial
September 11th, 2012Here is a commercial that I co-shot and edited for the local non-profit organization Soulciety. It is to promote their upcoming theater production, Empower – Master of the Three Rings.
I was brought on board with Bing Lim, who is producing the show and I didn’t know too much about the shoot, but it sounded a lot of fun to do. I was impressed by the high-level of wardrobe, make-up, hair and talent that each cast member had.
The commercial will air in the San Francisco Bay Area through Comcast on several channels. Be sure to support your local arts and community!
HOOP – Helping Overcome Obstacles Peru
August 31st, 2012While traveling through Peru, I stumbled upon a volunteer organization in Arequipa. I had always been looking for opportunities to give back while using my skills. The enthusiastic staff happily invited me to document a day in the life of the volunteers at the Flora Tristan English School. These volunteers are doing awesome things for these children and their families who don’t have very much. It was humbling to see how much time and effort has already gone into the school and the all the projects they have lined up for the future.
If you ever find yourself traveling through Peru (say, on the way to Machu Picchu?), and have time to volunteer, take a look at www.HoopPeru.org and see what opportunities they have to offer you!
Claremont Rug Company – the Bostonian Collection
July 28th, 2012The Claremont Rug Company, located in Rockridge, CA, was in need of a video to promote their latest acquisition: a substantial collection of antique rugs collected by 3 generations of a New England family.
Working with Jan and Christine was great. They have three beautiful showrooms with gorgeous rugs, most of which I was just beginning to learn how to pronounce! I learned a great deal about antique rugs and have a new found respect for them as exquisite art pieces.
Wayra River Hostel – Arequipa, Peru
June 27th, 2012
Anyone who has spent some time traveling will tell you that the people you meet along the way is probably the biggest influence on the type of trip you have. We were fortunate enough to choose Wayra River Hostel during our stay in Arequipa and met Guillermo and Alejandra, very friendly and gracious hosts who helped make our time very rich and memorable.
After hearing about how business had been slow at the hostal, I thought they could use a short promotional video to help bring in more guests. Most of the footage I would use was existing already, so we just had to shoot a quick interview and I would edit a piece together for them.
Puerto Vallarta and the Festival of the Virgin Guadalupe
June 15th, 2012Last year, we took a last-minute vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a great chance to step away from the cutting room and strap on the old traveling shoes again, even if only for a short while. The days we left weren’t planned at all; lucky enough, our dates coincided with the final days of the Festival of the Virgin Guadalupe.
It’s a religious ceremony that happens every year in December. For twelve nights, there are huge processions through the city that end at the Church of the Virgin Guadalupe (the main church in Puerto Vallarta). It’s a huge event for the locals. The procession includes floats made by local businesses, dancers dressed as Aztec warriors, drummers, bands, and singers making their way down the street. Our favorite part of the festivities? Plenty of street food all-around! We seriously lucked out to be able to experience this local festival in it’s final days.
Here’s a short highlights video to give you a sense of the experience.
Borat Storytime! – the PB&J story – Behind the Scenes Featurette and Outtakes
May 28th, 2012As if it wasn’t already evident, the experience of creating this concept film was too epic to contain into a few “extra features”. I think the latest Pop-Up version does a wonderful job at presenting plenty of interesting fun facts about the production, but now you get to see and hear from the people behind the camera about what it was like to accomplish this feat, which is personally my most ambitious wedding concept production to date.
This is the story behind the “story”. Please enjoy.
Now that you’ve seen that, let’s have a little more fun with the outtakes!
Happy 1-Year Anniversary, PB & J!
HoldOnto.org – “together we can help everybody keep family memories”
May 7th, 2012I had been looking for an opportunity to “give back” in some way to the community utilizing my skills. Word got around and photographer Thai Chu approached me about a non-profit startup he was bringing together. When I heard about the objective of the organization, I was convinced to create a short video for it.
The mission of HoldOnto.org is to provide everybody with a chance to have family portraits, regardless of their socio-economic background. I hadn’t really thought about it before, this is something that can be all too easily taken for granted, especially this day in age when pocket smart phones are cranking out some serious megapixels and DSLRs are becoming more and more accessible. Still, there are those who don’t have access nor the means to acquire something that can be very enriching to their lives: the family portrait.
Thai enlisted the help of his close friends and supporters and threw a little BBQ at a local park. It was an event that had been all planned out; including the families that were to show up to have their pictures taken. Unfortunately, there was some kind of mixup and the invitation had not been sent. A near-disaster, but we lucked out when we realized there was a community holiday party happening around the corner. Thai is also a teacher and some of his volunteers were his students. He sent them out to spread the word that free family portraits and food were being offered. It didn’t take too long to start seeing families line up!
I was able to document each of the families getting their pictures taken by Thai and captured many smiles and precious moments. I think HoldOnto.org has a promising future and I’m glad to be a part of an organization that gives back to the community in a unique and relatable way.
