In a ghost town in Nelson, Nevada, I had the opportunity to work with the rock legend George Lynch. George Lynch is an American hard rock guitarist and songwriter.
Lynch is best known for his work with heavy metal band Dokken and his
band Lynch Mob. Lynch is considered to be one of the most influential
and famous 80's metal guitarists (Wikipedia). I was the drone operator for the official music video of 'Testify,' where we had some major challenges due to the weather, equipment and car problems. Location was incredible, it has been the location for many past music videos from many major artists in the industry. One of my primary shots with the drone was George peeling out of gas station onto the main road, however his first take was our last take because he ended up blowing his transmission. The car was the most important prop for the music video, so we had to think creatively on how to already use the shots we had with the car to the car now not being available. It was a fun and challenging experience.
A superstar DJ, sought-after producer, taste-making label owner, and
wizard behind Major Lazer, Diplo (aka Diplodocus, Wes Diplo, and Wes
Gully) launched his career on the fringes of dance music. With his
mash-up mixtapes, he found and created a sound where his musical tastes
-- '80s pop, electronica, Dirty South hip-hop, and his major influence,
Miami bass music -- intersect. (courtesy of allmusic.com)
Watch it now by clicking here!
This interview I filmed for 98.5KLUC in Las Vegas featured DJ/producer Diplo. Diplo was in studio to talk about new and upcoming projects and events and answer questions from some lucky fans. For the interview we used five cameras to get different angles on Diplo, the interviewer and the fans. Also, we had two LED light panels to get the right exposure and not push our ISO. The interview went well and as soon as it was over, he was nice enough to sign autographs and take pictures with fans even though he had to catch a flight to DJ at Coachella the same day.
On Monday March 23rd, the grand opening of Celebrity Cars Las Vegas was an amazing event I was lucky enough to film. The showroom was filled with cars such as Ferrari's, Porsche's, and many other classic vehicles and choppers. There were models, food vendors, bikini contest, DJs, and an open bar available for all the attendees. On of my main focus was to get nice shots of the cars, so I utilized a slide and had smooth dolly movements on the some close-up shots. In this particular shot I was getting a close-up of the Ferrari logo and dollied right to reveal the 'Celebrity Cars Las Vegas' logo. The shot came out great. Other coverage I wanted to get was the crowd, as well as small groups just enjoying themselves and having a great time. The DJ was also a target, however it was a little more difficult because he was about 20 feet up in a DJ booth. Also, some more great footage I got was from the bikini contest, the women were beautiful and they did a great job modeling the bikini's from one of the sponsors. This was my first car show shoot and I really enjoyed it!
On Memorial Day 2014 I had the opportunity to do a promotional video for the Planet Hollywood's 21 and over 'The Pleasure Pool.' There were five DJs rocking the party that day, including a live sax performer named Natty Rico who did an amazing job playing the sax in key with the music. A bonus was the bikini contest, where there were about twenty beautiful ladies who competed and had a fun time. In this particular shot I was using a Canon T4i camera with a Canon EF 8-15MM fisheye lens, and a Rode Stereo VideoMic with a windscreen on it because it was windy that day. It is always difficult to shoot on a sunny day without a neutral density filter because it usually overexposes the background. Another challenge was maneuvering through the crowd. Overall, it was a fun experience and I edited the raw footage in Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
You can watch the full video by clicking here!
I was in Cancun for four days to film the exclusive music video of "Cancun X" from the Club Killers artist. The setting was perfect for the genre of the music, basically a party song with good energy to make people dance. We had several actors and models in the shoot. The first day we shot at the pool of the hotel we were staying at which was perfect for what we wanted to shoot, and we also were able utilize the drone as well. On the second day we filmed at the ultimate nightclub Dady O's, and a memorable moment was when the Aztec had an amazing performance. The third day we shot at Mandala Beach, which is Cancun's biggest pool party where we had four models with our main actor. The fourth day we shot on the amazing beach, which had clear blue water, and where we had our actors also ride on the wave runners. The shots were great because we used the drone to follow the actors on the wave runners. However, this is only half of the video we completed, we still have to go to Los Angeles for the final shots before we can edit and release "Cancun X."
If you want to view what we shot the first day, click here!
This is behind the scenes of the short film 'Say Goodbye' that I directed for Short Media Production class. This film was about two women who play with a Ouija board and one of them gets haunted and killed at the end by a ghost. I had to make sure my two actresses were comfortable with using a real Ouija board because some people are just freaked about what can happen if you do play with it and it responds. Luckily, my two actresses thought it would be fun and they were actually asking it questions, however nothing happened and they just physically moved the planchette themselves when filming. In this particular shot, I wanted my actress' hair to move like it was being brushed by a ghost so I decided to use a blow dryer to make it happen. I knew I would have to re-record the dialogue and audio so the sound of the blow dryer was not an issue. The equipment I used was a Lumix GH4 4K camera, several different lenses, LED light panels, tripod, glidecam, and a crane jib. It took us a total of 8 hours to shoot the whole film, and I learned a lot after I edited the whole project. There were a lot of things I could have done better, some of the shots could have been improved with better framing. I definitely want to re-shoot it with the same actresses.
You can watch the trailer by clicking here!
