I recently shot a short film for director Keegan Uhl for Canon’s Beyond the Still contest and our film “The Beach” won first place. We had a lot of fantastic support getting the film done, and I’m really glad to see people liked what we put together. Keegan put in a ton of work and it’s always rewarding to win something like this, especially when the film was done all out-of-pocket. My Gaffer on the film, Matt Irwin was awesome as well. He provided a lot of his own equipment, and even provide...
Update: New Trailer (7/9/10) In July of 2008, Fawaz Al-Matrouk, director of "To Rest In Peace", brought me on to shoot his USC graduate thesis film. Two years, 3 cameras, and over 15,000 miles later, the film is in its last week of post, having completed our final color correction at Light Iron Digital in Culver City yesterday.
The five most important things you should think about before starting your store: 1. Name: Make sure you pick a name that is memorable and not too long. You want people to know how to find your shop, easily. http://www.everythingetsy.com/2009/03/how-to-pick-a-name-for-your-etsy-shop/
Check out the winner from Beyond the Still's Chapter Two: Job Security. "Job Security" written & directed by Josh Thacker.
There's an old joke that shooting with available light meant using every light available on the truck. Fortunately, with Canon's new generation of HD capable DSLR's, the term "available light" means what it ought to. Vince LaForet's work with HDDSLR cameras is a great example of using both ambient and specular light present at locations in order to not only expose an image but effectively telling a very visually compelling story. Check out "The Cabbie", the first in the installment of Canon...
The Recipe A quick search online will show you that there's no shortage of homemade laundry soap recipes: Here's one from The Simple Dollar. And we've got 10 more at Money Talks News. But below is one that seems to work pretty well. You'll need:
Artist Giles Walker's robot peep show/DJ installation piece gives us a little glimpse of what strip clubs could look like in the future (well, let's really hope not, guys). Walker also teams up with Frank Barnes and his robot drummers (second video in the gallery below, check it out - pretty sweet). Previously, Sexxxy Roxxy: World's First Sex Bot (NSFW).
Word of mouth is that Zynga is preparing to harvest the world. Is this a horror movie? No, but FarmVille has already invaded millions of homes, and now it wishes to conquer our pockets. They're gearing up for a mobile platform, one that will reach millions more via the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android.
Jedijawa is a self-described "sci-fi geek" and public interest attorney who enjoys SCRABBLE, maybe more than he should. Over time, he wrote one too many posts on SCRABBLE, which prompted him to consolidate them into one webpage on his site.
QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things
Looking for a cheap & easy stylus (but not interested in using processed pork?) Adam Kumpf of design firm Teague demonstrates how to make a DIY soft conductive stylus for the iPhone, iPad, or any device with a capacitive touch screen. All it takes is a pencil and sock. Yes, it's that easy. "We've been experimenting with conductive foams and fabrics in search of a middle ground. Fortunately, it's quite easy to make a soft, conductive writing tool using some pretty basic materials. All you need...
Cult Ritual are one of my favorite hardcore bands of the last few years. Hailing from Florida, their sound is a cross between 'Damaged-era' Black Flag, Bl'ast, and Poison Idea. Mean, dissonent, chaotic, and noisy. Everything i love about hardcore wrapped up in one. I don't think they are still together and I believe members are now in Neon Blud, Nazi Dust, and Slavescene. Also be sure to check Merchandise and Body Rot (both feature members of Cult Ritual). Most, if not all of their releases a...
Burger Records, a vinyl/cassette label based in Fullerton, Ca. and run by members of Audacity and Thee Makeout Party, have reissued 3 cassette tapes from Cleaners From Venus. "Midnight Cleaners" (1982), "In The Golden Autumn" (1983), and "Under Wartime Conditions" (1984). These cassettes have been loooong out of print and nearly impossible to find. If not for blogspots, some of these tracks would never be heard again. Martin Newell (Mr. Cleaners or Mr. Venus???) started recording and releasin...
Fantastic reissue of this all female punk group from Switzerland. Formed in the early 80's, this was their first single released on their own label Farmer Records. Now Portland's Mississippi Records has finally released this obscure classic. Their sound is a cross between punk and twee pop. Catchy melodies with sing along choruses, upbeat tempos, thumping bass lines and noisy post punk guitars. Very much in the same vein as bands like the Shop Assistants (whom they toured with), Kleenex/Lilip...
Take some tips from the masters themselves. Kotaku interviews game developer Zynga, "who has generously offered to help, by sharing FarmVille strategy tips on how to make the most of your land, your crops, and your livestock".
One of the best fanzines ever!!!
Three Haitian brothers, with no training of any kind, have constructed a working, flying helicopter. Total cost? 45,000 Haitian dollars, which comes out to approximately 1100 American bucks. Their chopper is the first helicopter to every be produced in Haiti.
The first in a four-part very slick min-series which follows a select group of surfers on a boat trip through Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands.
Oh, LifeHacker, we love you. You've brought us so many handy HowTo's: Hack Wireless Internet, Bypass Blocked Websites, Convert a Laptop Into a Projector, Watch TV & Movies on the Web For Free, 10 Must-Know Google Privacy Settings, and more.
Bikini vs. The Wave I have always been a fan of the bikini, but it hasn't always loved me back.
I’m terrified of you. Yes, you- Director of Photography (DP). Your framing is beautiful, but your lighting could kill me, and my career. I am the Makeup Artist, and I don’t believe we’ve met.
‘EARTH MADE OF GLASS‘ is a documentary that follows the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and genocide survivor Jean-Pierre Sagahutu
This one smells like a fish story. It is not. Tuesday April 13, Dave and I got up to surf westward at 7 in the morning. First rate waves. Headache cold water....sun blocked by the cliffs. Fast, clean, beach break. 3-4 foot sets, mostly lefts. About 15 dolphins swam by. Blase blase. We always see dolphins. But then some bigass whale with barnacles breaches. We are speechless. It is about 20 feet from us. We follow it for about thirty seconds and pinch ourselves. Have-you-ever? No...
Panasonic's new video camcorders, 3D and one with removable lenses and a larger sensor but it shoots to an awful codec.
Food & Flowers Freedom Act in Los Angeles
Ah, the art of applying eyeliner. Bad habit of going just a weee bit too heavy? Having a hard time keeping your line nice and steady? Is it really supposed to go INSIDE the outer edge of your eye? Jezebel received a flood of woes such as these, and therefore asked their readers to send in all of their best eyeliner tips.
Available at on the Brass Tacks Press website: www.lifeasapoet.com
Dirty SCRABBLE. Everybody likes to play dirty, but we're not talking bluffing with fake words or closing up the board—we're talking actual "dirty" and offensive words.
So, you've made your first zine. Now what? That depends on a couple things:
The Job Board is a weekly entry of the most ridiculous Cinematography related jobs posted online. DP
London based company CrystalRoc was commissioned by Microsoft Australia to fully Swarovski crystal-ize an XBOX console for a PR campaign. The console took more than 11,520 individual Swarovski crystals and over 70 hours to produce. That sure makes one expensive console...
Curious about how to make a zine that only uses one sheet of paper? Elizabeth Genco has provided a step-by-step, picture-by-picture tutorial via Flickr for all of us wondering.
American magician and master of endurance David Blaine delivers a TED talk on the challenge of holding one's breath for as long as humanly possible. Blaine currently holds the Guinness World Record for longest breath held, at 17 minutes. His journey to achieve this feat (described below) is quite interesting, don't miss it.
For those of you unfamiliar with Cometbus, I urge you to check out one of the many issues released since 1981 by Mr. Aaron Elliott... better known to his friends (and foes) as "Aaron Cometbus".
Most of you know Thurston Moore as one-fifth of Sonic Youth, but did you know he runs his own record label Ecstatic Peace? Ecstatic Peace not only releases music in tape, vinyl and CD formats, but also releases ace poetry journals edited by Thurston Moore himself. Contributors include Ira Cohen, Byron Coley, Mike Watt (of the Minutemen!), Loren Connors, and tons more. This is a video filmed by Last Exit Magazine of Moore reading a few of his own poems at White Columns in New York City as part...
A bunch of magazine "pros" make big time Photoshop mistakes. Hongkiat posts 52 pretty terrible ones, my favorites featured below. What's their excuse?
The Job Board is a weekly entry of the most ridiculous Cinematography related jobs posted online. Note: This posting was from a year ago.
In the far away land of China, cotton candy is made with bicycles. According to Make, the sugar is heated with propane, and the cotton candy is spun using the bike pedals. I've gotta get myself one of these (or next best thing, travel to China so I can sample it myself). Previously, Chinese Dropout Builds Submarine.
Rumor has it that James Cameron is going to remake this one, in full AVATAR inner body 3D beauty.
