Aveeno Commercial

This thirty-second 'Aveeno' commercial was my first directing assignment done for Acting and Directing class. I was lucky enough to direct and film this at a friend's house in Southern Highlands where it was the perfect setting for a sunscreen commercial. I did not use any lights for this shoot because it was outside, and I was using a Lumix GH4 4K camera with a 50MM and 24-135MM lens with variable ND filters on both of them. In this particular medium close-up shot, she was slowly walking towards me while I was walking backwards and using a glide cam. The sun was out that day, however the it was really windy that day so it gave me some complications with the microphone and my actress' hair was blowing everywhere. I used a windscreen on the microphone but the wind could still be heard in the recording. Also, I wanted to use my DJI Phantom II Vision Plus (Drone) but when I flew it, the weather conditions could not allow me to get a nice steady shot above her. Another issue I did not realize was that there was a huge mountain in the neighborhood of the house I was filming at, so the sun came down a lot earlier then I had expected. Besides the handling of the camera, it was also a good learning experience in directing because the purpose of this assignment for class was to direct talent. It was a lot more difficult then I had expected even after all the pre-production work because sometimes it is hard to explain the vision that is in your mind. Overall, it was a fun and great experience in directing.

You can watch the commercial by clicking here!

The "DJ Earwaxxx" Documentary

This picture was taken from the making of the documentary "DJ Earwaxxx" at the "House of Waxxx." Charleston Perez aka DJ Earwaxxx is a Las Vegas DJ, originally from Southern California. He has been a DJ for over twenty years and came to Las Vegas about seven years ago to fulfill his dreams to become an elite DJ in Las Vegas. This documentary interviews DJ Earwaxxx, as well as many of his other DJ friends, and they discuss the struggles and successes in his journey in becoming one of Las Vegas' most talented DJs.

The "DJ Earwaxxx" documentary is a long-term shoot because I am trying to show the story from a lot of b-roll footage throughout a period of time, maybe 2-3 years. Specifically in this shot of him showcasing a performance, I am using a Panasonic Lumix GH4 4K camera on a glide-cam, as well as a Canon T4i on a tripod and slide. There are three LED panel lights, and for sound I am using a Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone on a boom pole. The set design was excellent, perfect for the scene I was trying to shoot and the lighting was also great, allowing me to set a low ISO for no noise. The only difficult part of the shoot was being able to move around a lot with the glide-cam because there just was not a lot of room to get the angles and shots I hoped for. However, overall it came out nicely!

Steve Aoki Interview

Steve Aoki is a talented DJ that travels all around the world DJing at big nightclubs and festivals. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to shoot an interview with him as well as working with the crew from 98.5 KLUC Las Vegas. We filmed this at his suite at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas right before he had to DJ at Hakkasan Nightclub. We used three cameras - one on our interviewee Steve; one on our interviewers DJ CO1 and Yung Jon Que; and another doing a wide-shot of all of them. We had four big LED light panels that filled the room nicely, which allowed us to lower our ISO all the way to 200 to reduce the grain. It took us about fifteen minutes to smoothly setup everything and the interview was great. All of the cameras were on tripods making them all static shots in the final edit. The full interview was over ten minutes, however we cut it to about five minutes with some b-roll of his previous performances from different venues. It took me about three hours to cut the full interview with some added color correction to make it look a little more cinematic. Steve is incredibly talented and has a great sense of humor, if you ever have the opportunity to see him perform, it will be an experience you will never forget!

You can watch the full interview by click here.