“Tornados” Music Video Nears Completion

The Smart Set music video, “Tornados” is finally nearing completion and it looks awesome!  This has been a long time in the making, my apologies to the band.   I had a super busy 2009 filed with some big changes. In the meantime enjoy this screen grab of Brandi Emma singing and driving a 1962 Ford Falcon down Main street in Santa Monica.

Tags: Billy Johnson, Brandi Emma, Canon 5d markII, Directed, music video, The Smart Set

Scores of Interviews in 2009

I was archiving my projects from 2009 and realized I directed 116 interviews throughout the year.  Crazy, I knew I filmed a few, but not that many.  That’s going to be a tough record to break in 2010 unless the documentary financing fairies drop some cash.

Tags: Directed, Documentary

New “Work” page up

It has been a long time in the making and finally arrived. The new “work” page includes some recent work and old favorites I dug out of the archives. I’ll be adding more in the future. Currently my archives are about 20 terabytes, lots of material to sift through and I have so many projects right now that I need to finish. In time more will be up.

Tags: Directed, Documentary, music video

In Oxford filming the TEDGlobal Fellows

When you walk around this town you can feel the history. Amazing! This photo is from the tower at Magdalan College, one of the 38 independent colleges of Oxford. It was founded in 1458!

If you haven’t heard of TED you should check it out.

Tags: Canon 5d markII, Directed, Documentary, travel

The Smart Set “Tornados” Music Video on the Canon 5D Mark II

Last week I directed the first music video for a great new band called, The Smart Set. The song is called “Tornados” and it sounds like it is right out of an Apple ad. Super excited, the edit is just underway. The DP was my good friend Marcus Hoffman. Thanks to everyone who helped out, filmmaking is truly a collaborative process and I appreciate everyone.

We shot with the new Canon firmware on 5D Mark II with 14mm, 50mm and 85mm primes and 24-70mm and 70-200mm zooms. We brought out all the toys to give the camera a good work through. I’ve owned it for a few months but haven’t really had the time to use the video function. So I was eager to bring it out on set. We had our challenges. More on that later. Some sample footage soon to come.

Check out the band on their myspace page.

Tags: Canon 5d markII, Directed, Marcus Hoffman, music video, The Smart Set