Posts Tagged ‘california’
California Home+Design Advertising Promo
Wednesday, 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.
HoldOnto.org – “together we can help everybody keep family memories”
Monday, 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.
Flash Forward – Chris & Saki’s Concept Film – Behind The Scenes Interview
Friday, March 2nd, 2012The experience of shooting the interview for Chris and Saki’s behind the scenes video was as entertaining as making their concept video Flash Forward! Please enjoy.
Mr. & Mrs. Ballesteros – Rich & Cheryl’s Concept Video – Behind The Scenes Interview
Saturday, February 4th, 2012It has been almost 5 years since I shot Mr. and Mrs. Ballesteros, a concept video for Rich and Cheryl. So it was great to see them again and catch up on everything, as well as reminisce about our time on set.
Special shout out to @rickya for holding it down with the interview!
Flash Forward – Chris and Saki’s Concept Video
Monday, May 9th, 2011
Mr. & Mrs. Ngo
My cousin Chris was finally getting hitched so it was an absolute must that we create a concept video for himself and Saki. We grew up together and shared a love of films and filmmaking; in fact, we worked together on one of our biggest projects, our fan film entitled “Star Wars Episode Zero”. Since we went our separate ways in college, the time we had to work together on video projects was very limited (though, we did make time to spoof Fat Joe’s ‘Lean Back’ video with our family!).
Shenanigans before the wedding
Though we only had a day and night to shoot, we were able to brainstorm an idea that worked really well. It was fun getting back in the groove of shooting with Chris, but more so to witness Saki enjoying her time in front of the camera and the interaction between them! They are such a fun-loving, down-to-earth couple, which made for an awesome shoot.
And as you’ll see in the start of the video, I also make a cameo appearance of my own. My gf Jennay had a brilliant (and sly) idea of how to get people’s attention that would serve as an introduction to their video. It happened to be the same night as the Pacquiao/Mosley boxing match, which was always a huge topic of discussion (”how are we gonna watch it?!”) leading up to and during the day of the wedding!
After the cake cutting, people started to chat amongst themselves and we needed to pull them back in. We had the MC get on the mic and announce, “We have a special presentation for you tonight, please pay attention to the screen in front of you.” There was a lot of care taken into creating the setup of the prank so that it would totally sell; earlier that day when I tested the video with the projectionist and he saw the first frame, he was fooled himself!
Soaking up the screening!
Also included is Chris’ actual surprise proposal from a year earlier. He had just graduated with an MBA from Sacramento State, and I told Saki that we wanted to shoot a video interviewing Chris about his experience in college. We walked the campus to a couple of different departments and Chris casually talked, then we went to the building where they first met. And when Saki made that realization, that was my cue!
Overall, I’m very pleased with how the video came out. The crowd’s reaction to our intro prank was PRICELESS! And I remember as the video continued on to Chris and Saki’s “Love Story” and proposal, all eyes in the room were glued to the screen. It’s such a gratifying experience to see the bride and groom’s reactions to the videos I make for them. As Saki shared on my Facebook wall:
“Words cannot express how thankful I am for the work you’ve done for Chris and I. I watch the love story video time after time and it brings tears of joy to my eyes. I’m reliving it over and over, THANK YOU!!!”
It’s testimonials like these that make me love what I do even more. Please enjoy!
Congrats again to Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Ngo! And welcome to the family, Saki! Huzzah!!
Licked – “Smiling Down” Music Video
Sunday, February 7th, 2010I first met Marcus Araiza during the San Jose 48 Hour Film Project in 2009. He told me about a music video he was directing and wanted to bring me on as the editor.
When I learned about the details of the project, I was definitely on board. The name of the band is Licked, and the lead singers, Ben and Cera, share a personal bond in that they both lost siblings to cancer. Ben wrote the song “Smiling Down” as a testament to the struggles his little sister faced in the fight against the disease. The song and video were also meant to make people aware of the disease and the fact that children are diagnosed at an alarming rate.
It’s is a touching song and video and I am happy to be a part of it.
In my correspondence with Marcus, we were sending video clips back and forth to each other. I found a very useful way for him to suggest a change in shot selection by creating a picture-in-picture version that includes nearly every take for each part of the song. Along with timecode, this proved to be an extremely useful way for Marcus (and myself) to know what footage is available for which part of the song.
Even on it’s own it stands as an engaging video simply by witnessing all of the takes that occurred in one viewing. Enjoy.
Road Trip Americana: DAY 13 (Sunday, October 4th, 2009)
Saturday, October 10th, 2009in the morning, i had a warm plate of blueberry pancakes…
Then started the long drive to my next destination.. Weather was gloomy for the first several hours.
Hmmm… maybe i should’ve crashed here:
Drove through part of Oregon, found a bit of snow!
Then crossed the border into Nevada
Caught the Bears game through my iPhone
Found a very familiar highway
Was planning to make a night stop in Reno, but I was making good time and decided to push my way to the finish. Had one more chance to dive into a local eatery:
And when I saw the “Welcome to California” sign, I had to rock out to this!
then I was treated to a nice drive through a snow storm in the sierras.
Then the exhaustion started kickin in. Dizzy, feverish, spent. I felt like how this picture looks:
Finally, TOUCHDOWN!
BED Day 13 +!!!
Summary:
Cities: Boise, ID > Walnut Creek, CA
Odometer Begin: 211470
Odometer End: 212110
Day Miles: 640
Gas Prices: $2.70, $2.95, $2.90
TOTAL Miles Across America: 4,464
Next: Summary, FAQ, and tips learned from my road trip. Feel free to ask me any questions of your own!
Mr. & Mrs. Ballesteros – Rich and Cheryl’s Concept Video – Special Features
Sunday, July 15th, 2007Rich and Cheryl went all out for their concept video. It even affected the decor at their reception, in which they had a Hollywood movie premiere theme complete with velvet rope, a Mr. & Mrs. Ballesteros backdrop, and paparazzi snapping away as guests entered the reception hall. It set the stage for an amazing response to their concept video!
Take a look at the fun that Rich and Cheryl had on their concept video shoot!
Mr. & Mrs. Ballesteros – Rich and Cheryl’s Concept Video
Sunday, July 8th, 2007
watch out, Brangelina!
Rich and Cheryl were looking for something fun to shoot that they could present at their wedding. Being big fans of the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, they wanted to re-enact the therapist scenes from the film.
I’m always looking for ways to push a project to it’s full potential. How fun would it be to re-enact the action scenes of the film itself? Now, granted we don’t have a million-dollar budget to blow things up, I started thinking about the resources that we do have at hand. I also asked them to tell me their real story as a couple, and the one fact that stood out: they met at a comic book store.
I had recently been playing with the application Comic Life, which is a tool that allows you to take your pictures and turn them into comic strips of various layouts, complete with customized dialogue bubbles and onomatopoeia (as defined by Merriam-Webster: the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it; yes, I had to look this up!). I had also been familiar with Adobe After Effects from my epic lightsaber project (link) and came across a site that offered free explosion elements, Detonation Films.
I married those thoughts together and proposed to them that we create a video to build on those therapist scenes that will tell their story in a unique and entertaining way… something that their guests will definitely be surprised to see and be totally engaged in!
Rich and Cheryl were game for everything. They were such a pleasure to work with and so were their entourage, who were also able to make their own appearance in the film. Though they were new to it, they completely embraced the filmmaking process.
As they began to realize the magnitude of the video, it even affected the decor at their wedding reception. They had the whole red-carpet and “paparazzi” setup, as if their guests were attending a real Hollywood screening. They even had a “Mr. & Mrs. Ballesteros” backdrop created where people could take pictures!
The screening was a complete success and it was so much fun to see everybody’s reactions. Congrats again to Mr. and Mrs. Ballesteros!
*This production was overseen by Mellange Studio.
