This is the one-minute personal piece that I did for the film program I just completed. It was supposed to be non-fiction and represent some sort of idea or philosophy about who we are.
Archive for the 'Filmmaking' Category
Well, I’ve thought of a name for the spy movie that I made with Vance and Lulu. Mission Improbable: The Evil Spy. And here’s the poster that I made for it because I was bored. Obviously, a take-off of Mission Impossible. “Improbable” because you probably don’t expect little kids to be spies and save the world. I think the poster turned out pretty well.
I’ve been an avid user of YouTube for quite a while now. But recently I’ve been using another service, called Vimeo. Here’s 5 reasons why Vimeo is better than YouTube
1. Cleaner interface
The first thing you’ll notice when you visit Vimeo.com is it’s clean interface. YouTube isn’t exactly ugly, but Vimeo has a nice, colorful interface which is easy on the eyes and not nearly as cluttered as YouTube.
I am now in my second week in a film program that is the result of a partnership between the NYC Department of Education and the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a part of the “Summer Arts” program that encompasses programs focusing on all sorts of specialty arts (photography, dancing, film, etc.)
So every day for the past week and a half I’ve woken up kind of early and gone to Stuyvesant high school (where it’s being held) from 9 to 3. Kind of like school - only I want to be there and the things we’re being taught I actually want to learn about.
So far it’s been a lot of fun, and not nearly as boring as these film programs sometimes end up being. Well - the lesson about how a Mac is different from a PC and the basics of Final Cut Pro was boring but beyond that I’ve actually been learning some very interesting and exciting things.
Until now we’ve only been working on small practice films, but starting this week we’re beginning work on our major project for the summer: A 5-7 minute movie that takes place in a specific neighborhood of New York City and focuses on a certain sub-topic, assigned randomly. There are 5 groups and about 20 kids so groups of 3 and 4 are each making this movie together. My group’s sub-topic is music.
We had two “pitches” - A documentary idea and a narrative idea. The staff would choose whichever one they thought was better. Our documentary idea was about street musicians in Central Park (which the staff allowed us to consider a neighborhood) and why they do what they do and what their effect is on the park.
Our narrative idea (which we like a billion times more) is about a young man living in Brighton Beach. He never pays any notice to the violin player who plays music every day on the boardwalk, which is on the main character’s way to work. But one day the musician is gone and the main character sees Brighton Beach in a completely different way. What used to seem like an exciting and vibrant neighborhood now seems dark and ugly.
I don’t want to give away the ending because - guess what - we got the narrative idea (yay!) So I guess that you’ll just have to wait and see the movie yourself then.
Well, here it is. 4 minutes of sound effects enhanced lego action. It’s the sequel to (surprise!) Bounty Hunter 1. And yes, I am aware that our hero’s hair style magically changed in between the two movies, but it’s not my fault that the old hair just decided to disappear!
Anyway, yeah. As usual, although I am posting the YouTube version, I highly recommend that you watch the hi-res quicktime version (45MB) for it’s superior image and audio quality, if your internet connection and computer hardware so allow it.
It’s sequel time! This time it’s the exact opposite: the death of our christmas tree. (As opposed to last time.) The song is a shortened version of “Funeral Dirge” by Terrence Blanchard.
So sad!
iMovie’s being annoying and not saving my movies correctly, so it’s only the YouTube version this time. Sorry. Anyway, it’s us decorating the christmas tree. Taken from my computer’s webcam. The song is “Landed” by Ben Folds.
Only 6 more days till Christmas!
Yes, here’s another movie of mine. It’s not a lego movie, just a 1 minute short parody film of the Casino Royale trailer (which is where the music is from). If you think it looks cheesy… it’s supposed to be. It’s parody. And yes, I filmed this before I got my haircut, like in September. As usual, I highly recommend you watch the hi-res Quicktime version if you can. Tell me what you think in the comments. Enjoy.
(Thanks to Mr. Bennett for the prototype props)
Yes, I know it’s been over a week. Yes, I know The Office season 4 premiered. Yes, OMG. More on that later. For now, I’ve made a 3 minute movie of the experience that Aaron and I have had with a really cool toy advanced aerodynamics device called The Dragonfly by Wowee.
I’d tell you the story, but it’s all in the movie:
It’s kinda hard to read the small text in the super-compressed YouTube version so I highly recommend that you watch the hi-res quicktime version (about 30MB) for a better viewing experience. Highly.
Questions? Comments? Criticism? Insults?
In my second lego movie from this summer, (here’s the first) the lego people revolt against their human rulers. It uses a combination of stop-motion pictures and video. And yes, I know I spelled “legos” wrong. Just wait until the end.
Again, the YouTube compression is kind of crummy so if you have a fast computer be sure to watch the hi-res quicktime version. Tell me your thoughts in the comments!
I also have 2 more movies in the making now: One lego, one not. Coming soon.
I’ve finished my lego movie! It’s called “Bounty Hunter” and uses over 1,000 still shots and stop motion to make my lego dudes move like regular people.
It took about 3 days to film and edit, and is made up entirely of still shots. No videos were used in this movie. Enjoy!
The YouTube version is compressed, so you can download/watch a much higher quality 12MB quicktime version here.
Parts of the movie were inspired by movies like V for Vendetta (sword throwing), Star Wars (chase scene) and 300 (blood splatters).
There was a huge storm last night with lots of thunder and lightning, and our building got struck! Pieces of the building fell right past our window onto the sidewalk! Luckily, no one was hurt.
And guess what - I got it on video! (Not the pieces falling, but the thunder and lightning.) So I quickly edited it in Premiere, and uploaded it to YouTube, and I even slowed it down for you guys near the end.
In addition, I took some frames of the video, and have put them below for your viewing pleasure.
Also, check out my latest mood:
Finally!!! It’s online! Just head over to the movies page (right under Crusader) or download it here. The quality is pretty bad, because it’s almost 18 minutes long, and only 18 megabytes, but hey - I can’t use up all of the bandwith with this thing. It’s the first full movie that I’ve done in adobe premiere, so it’s pretty awesome. Don’t forget to watch the end credits, and everyones last names, or should I say, lack of real ones.
And of course a special thanks to Kevin for giving me Premiere, which is like a billion dollar program.
There are for new movies over at the Movies page. The movies are:
- The Diablo
- It’s Just a Windy Day
- Cousin Wars
- The End of the World
They are all available for download in .wmv format, with YouTube versions coming soon.
