Primary1

I was Production Coordinator on, by far, the most extensive and exhaustive shoot of my life. I have a lot to say about it, but 'the story' deserves it's own post.

Primary 1 "Princess" from Dandy Dwarves on Vimeo.

Yeasayer

I was ridiculously busy in the first part of February getting all the systems in place to build the company the way I see fit, and amongst the madness, the ever-amazing Jonathan Wang called and left me a message to work on the new M.I.A. music video, I called moments later and reached his voicemail and by the time he got back to me they’d found somebody else. Bummed out to miss an amazing opportunity, I went back to consulting for TugTub and decided that would be my week until big man himself, TeamG’s Jett Steiger reached out for me to work in the Art. Dept. on a Yeasayer video. I jumped at the opportunity, even though I wasn’t super familiar with the band except for what Oliver showed me, I just wanted to work with the TeamG and Dandy Dwarves crew as we’d hired them out for The Dead Weather documentary last summer and they were awesome.

There was horrible rain that weekend and it took be about 2 hours to get 20 miles due to the rain. I arrived and immediately I was in over my head. We had a ton to do in art in a very small period of time, and cause of the rain we were 5 hours late in setting up. We prepped until 1am the first day, back up at 4am for 6am call time in rain, then a very physically demanding/high stress day.

The set called for a lot of neons and we had some trouble rigging them the morning of, but at the last minute right before we were about to strike them myself and the most amazing gaffer on the planet sorted it at the last minute. It was a really cool moment for me to prove myself to the producers.

The band was super cool and were totally hard working which always helps the production. The whole crew was really positive including the art director I worked under Peter Klein who is about the greatest person to to be next too in strenuous conditions.

All and all it was a great people, super fun vibe and the the goodness on set far outweighed the 19 hour days in the pouring rain.

Here is the video directed by Kirby (swoon) and Julia of Radical Friend:

Sherwood

Back in December just 3 days before Christmas I had the distinct pleasure of working with a friend's band Sherwood for the video "You Are" directed by (the reason I moved to Long Beach) Matt Wignall and produced by the ever-awesome Jonathan Wang for Shooter Classics.

We chose the windiest day of the year to blow up hundreds upon hundreds of balloons to tie onto the poor band's belts. It was a fun day of carrying helium tanks up and down muddy hills and doing all we could to keep warm. I met a lot of cool people on this shoot and re-united with Dan from Sherwood which we'd hung out one time previous, but realized at that point we really really liked each other. We filmed the video in a park in Huntington Beach and then at my old loft in Long Beach (the grey concrete one) where I got to deal with my old property manager who always hated me, he told us the city is mad at us for filming and that they were going to call someone. Super threatening and...specific. You can see me left frame at 1:24 and right frame at 1:25 running in the video. How embarrassing:

Introducing Michelle from Quail, Stylist

Michelle from Quail my stylist for ever and ever Amen. I can’t tell you what an asset she is on set, she’s one of the only people I can (due to my obsessive-compulsive-nothing-less-than-perfection-sometimes-micromanaging-nature) walk away from and fully trust her decisions to be better than mine. Michelle owns Quail and Quail Bridal and I’m lucky to steal her away when I can, because when she is by my side her attitude and eye so add to the project it’s not something words can describe. I need Michelle and I love Michelle and we laugh so hard together it should be illegal. Now go buy a Quail dress already!

The Greatest American Novel (Part 1)

The Greatest American Novel (Part 1)

They say,
If you don’t use a language you start to lose it.

I am 2,387 miles from you.
Chased your mariposa echo across the border,
Busting into every bar and brothel on the way,
(To see if you stopped off for a drink (or a fuck)).
And with every step, I start to forget.

Buenos Aires used to be a beautiful city,
Until progress.
Until you.
I even took three semesters of good ol’ Espanol,
So I could understand all those cryptic phone calls.

Our conversation hangs strangling in the gallows,
At a $1.46 a minute every second counts.
My words are kicking feet looking for something to stand on,
I try to connect, but I just forget, and the feet go limp in just one breath
Good Bye’s used to kill you,
But now I’ve forgotten, and it’s voo doo.

Live torture,
Malpracticed acupuncture,
Amnesiac pupils replaced with pushpins,
They’re just periods at the end of sentences like
“Your tongue is a noose in which I hang myself with.”
And “I’m the wetback border breaker that’s escaping the poverty of us.”
It’s amazing what you see when you don’t have to look each other in the face.

And like a stabbed matador that hears the silence of the crowd,
I say ‘You there?’
And you lay silent, wounded, alone, then you say ‘have you forgotten me’
And I don’t speak,
Sometimes silence is more of an answer than words will ever be.

THE END OF THE COLD WAR (IN REVERSE)

It all started, with the teaser trailer for their new EP, it all started with a music video Vern and I did for them in 2006 which gave me my blood lust for the amalgam of music and film, it all started with someone with the screen name bloody knuckles aol messaging me in 2000. This is the story of the Cold War and why I am one of it's kids. Here's the 2006 version of a Cold War Kids video Vern directed and I produced:

And this is what a Cold War Kids video that Vern directed and I produced in 2010 looks like:
More on my history with the Cold War Kids, Vern and I in another post, but here are some behind the scenes shots of us testing out the underwater camera housing, The amazing yacht I got for the shoot (for a 36 pack of Coors Light & a Bottle of Rum) and filming on the edge of a cliff cheating death to get the right light for the convertible scene.

While we were filming the teaser trailer which was an ambitious 6 locations in one day, with multiple scenes in each location, including a performance piece in The Cold War Kids brand new performance space which you can check out an MTV video of here. Below is photos of Vern and AC John Raines filming on the edge of a cliff cheating death to get the right angle for the convertible scene with Johnnie & Noel. I was mostly have a panic attack that there'd be an earth quake or they'd trip and i'd have to explain to Vern's pregnant wife why he's now Polish goo splattered on the side of a cliff.

While we were filming, Nathan Willett, lead singer and I were talking and realized that the footage we were getting would make a great music video. It was debatable whether the label would go for it as EPs traditionally don't sell very well, and CWK were going to put it out on their own initially. It was a strange turn of events with the label, but the teaser came, they were happy and they green lit the Audience video.

Vern wanted to do underwater shots and some sort of boat, preferably a sail boat. So I have a friend who went on a party boat months back and I reached out to see if we could borrow it, they respectfully declined because we wanted to go pretty far out in the water, and it's a harbor boat. Accepting defeat, I hopelessly checked Craigslist for a non-insane boat owner...30 minutes later my friend writes back, we have a 50 foot Yacht in San Pedro (exactly where we're filming), and a captain and a crew, will that do? Vern and I, after getting a complete boatner, were like...how about drinks tonight? Here's just a few photos of the Yacht.
Original Family owner since 1954, it was built for them.
Their grandfather thought it'd be funny to plate everything on the boat that was brass with real gold. What a sense of humor.

We had 14 people on board with a ton of props, craft services and equipment and it was still comfy. The family, when they sail to Catalina say it sleep 12 comfortably. I kept asking if they wanted money and they said, nope, we just like people who like our boat! Seriously cool people. A HUGE HUGE thanks for Oliver and Cat for hooking us up!

Next the underwater housing, for an HVX 200 there are only 2 underwater camera housing companies in LA that carry a housing for that camera. One wasn't sure if it'd be back from Indiana on time and the other one was this guy who had the shittiest store front like a quarter mile from LAX, and he had no finger nails and so much dandruff on his shirt a thought it was a pattern, but he makes pretty cool housings, this one he made specifically for the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show and we were the first people to rent it since. Here are some photos of John and Vern testing it in the AMAZING Adam Ganser's (seriously, favorite dude that I can't wait to work with!) pool.

So we did a day of shooting on the open seas somewhere a couple hundred feet off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes, and honestly had the time of our lives. We had also had a day of footage from the teaser trailer and did one more day performance at Maust's art studio though when it went to be edited there were some continuity issues, so they went in and did another quick day of shooting band performance and yet one more day of the couples in the studio. And I must say it turned out great. Also they were recording for some footage for the back drop for their live shows and also came up with this awesome video:

Broken Bells

Danger Mouse and The Lead Singer of The Shins teamed up to create Broken Bells, which Vern had the opportunity to do behind the scenes for their video and created a couple of blips. I thought they were pretty neat so I decided to post them, though I had nothing to do with them.

I got to see The Shins when Delta Spirit opened for them last spring as Matt from Delta got me in (swoon), but was less than impressed with The Shins performance (Delta is a hard act to follow). I really like the Broken Bells album and I think Dangermouse does a lot for the team, and of course I love the lead singer of The Shins voice, so judging by the footage and the blips they’ll be a more exciting show…if we can ever get tickets!