Headlights

I spent the weekend with Headlights shooting a video for their forthcoming album. Cole shot it I directed. We had a blast with Headlights, they are great friends, definitely pick up their album when it comes out in February. A huge thanks to the crew for helping us get this done and to Mario Casamalhuapa and The Sun Valley Group for the beautiful flowers.

Menomena and Panther

I shot with Menomena and Panther a few weeks ago for Daytrotter. Both were really fun/creative shoots. I had some help from Matt Eastin and Nate Graves on these, thanks guys. We shot Menomena at Gilgal Gardens and they got attacked by some Halloween clad children. For Panther we shot them in their most familiar setting... their van. If you are unfamiliar with Panther they are a 2 piece; a drummer, a singer, and a laptop. Charlie plugged his computer into his van stereo and sang while driving and Joe rocked out on his bass drum and snare in the back seat.

Kineto Video

Julian and I just co-directed a quick project for Kineto Pictures. Here are a few screen grabs. Jon Troutman did the titles and effects. Enjoy.

Of Montreal

I shot with Of Montreal on saturday. I shot 2 cameras, one of them was my Canon point and shoot in video mode. I caught some of their show after the shoot, they covered a Prince song for the first song of their set.

John Vanderslice

I filmed with John Vanderslice a couple weeks ago when he was in Salt Lake. His show was at Kilby Court and he did the coolest thing at the end of his show. He had the entire crowd go out of the venue and performed his last song by the fire in the court.

Maritime vs Jimmy Eat World

I spent some time in Milwaukee and Las Vegas with our friends Maritime shooting a video for Guns of Navarone and shooting some live stuff of Maritime and Jimmy Eat World. Thanks to both bands for working everyting out in Vegas. Davey sang Praise Chorus with J.E.W. from their self titled album (formally Bleed American), it was pretty cool to see. Jon Troutman and I are co-directing the Guns of Navarone video, The video features some art work of Jason Gnewikow, look for it very soon.

Short Film

I just got done shooting this short film in Orlando, Florida. It was a lot of fun - the weather was crazy but I guess I'm just not use to that climate. We shot 35mm, anamorphic - the director was John Herzog.

Gentle Tyrants

My friend Rob has just started a music podcast, Gentle Tyrants. Rob sure knows music, check it out to get some incite on music, culture, art, it's' just a good ole time.

Daytrotter

I started this really fun project with Daytrotter shooting bands performing their music live, recording the music live as well. I started last night with Damien Jurado and Okkervil River. Eventually I will post links to the videos so check out the blog or my website in the coming weeks.

Cole

Summer has been great. Shot a feature. Spent a week on a river in Washington. My daughter turned one. Went to Germany. Graduated.

I've been listening a lot to Au Revoir Simone, Page France, and Amiina. I lost my iPod last winter so my music library is slowing making a comeback - thanks J.

Watched and loved: Children of Men (Julian loved it but he fell asleep when we first saw it in the theater in Illinois), haven't been to the theater most of the summer - film hours are rough.

In pre-production for my last big spec thing - a volkswagen rabbit commercial. Should be a lot of fun.

Julian

I am the first of our, what we are into right now, posts. Maybe those other dudes will post too.

Listening to: Maritime "Heresey and the Hotel Choir", Feist "The Reminder", Amiina "Kurr", Mika Miko "C.Y.S.L.A.B.F.", Deerhoof "Friend Opportunity", American Analog Set

Watched and loved: Paris, je t'aime, Hot Fuzz, Babel, Volver, Children of Men, Ratatouille

Reading: No one belongs here more than you, Rough Stone Rolling

I am also playing drums in Alligators...come to a show!

Blogs + Deerhoof = Truth

So I was reading blogs of people around town and artists I've clicked into while surfing the internet, all while listening to Deerhoof. Surprisingly, nearly everything I read seemed so cool, jokes were funny, writing was clever-er. I think Deerhoof makes blogs what they were intented to be. I usually scoff at the jokes, cool attempts, and clever-ing, which is bazaar because I have a strange/not very funny sense of humor so maybe I am a bad judge or, binarally speaking, I am the king of cool and I have every right to. So I guess my point is: listen to Deerhoof while reading blogs, actually turn it on now and re-read this one.

Headlights on MTV

You can catch the Headlights TV video on MTV's website...but there are plenty of other places to see it in much better compression, like our website! Which reminds me, I have been promising a new website forever, I think we really will have one up in the next few months, I've actually seen it in the works.

Pacfic Northwest Music

I went to the Jonathan Rice, David Bazan, Ben Gibbard show in Portland, Jenny Lewis sang as well. It was great. I got to chill a little with Dave afterward; what a cool guy he is, introspective, considerate, great musician. I heard a little of Ben talking to Colin Meloy about their music and the success of other bands of the area. Seems like all those artists really stick together and have such positive relationships with each other, it makes the fruits of their labor much more sincere/positive.

Tilly & The Wall

We shot Tilly & The Wall nearly a year ago. Here is some fun behind the scenes footage. They are trying to remember the lyrics to the song we are shooting the video for. I think nearly every band I have done a video for has forgotten the lyrics to their song...just what are they singing during their shows :)

Tilly Words

YouTube

Our video for Headlights is featured as an editor's pick on YouTube. Here is the link:

Headlights on YouTube

Wadsworth

We did this commercial for Wadsworth some time ago but it got put on hold for a bit. I think it is nearly done, just some clean then sound and music. Thanks John McGinnis and Chris Walla for the music! Wadsworth has incredible modern furniture, he also outfits Paul Mitchell the School across the country.

Shoe Horn

I did the weirdest stop motion spot a week ago about a shoe horn. Check it out at our site in a couple days. Thank you Brighton for the use of your lovely room and Dave Bunnell for the art!

Dancing the night away

We shot a fun little commercial with some hipsters dancing at Muse Music. Thank you everyone who came, call time at 11pm is rough. A big thank you to Muse Music for letting us shoot there, you guys are great! Also thank you U.S.E. for providing the music for the spot. Check out our website to see the completed cut in 2-3 weeks.

Mongoose Spot

Chris Coy just directed a commercial for Mongoose bikes, along side of Steve Olpin. Tim Irwin shot it, I produced, Ryan provided some lovely locations. This a Solpin Films production, I think, I can never keep Steve and Tim's production companies straight. Look at their blog, click on the OI Documentary link.

Our first video

This was the first video Cole and I work on together. Blake from TaughtMe is doing well, he is on tour with Uzi & Ari right now in Europe.

Headlights

We love Champaign...Illinois. Headlights were so fun. We shot all exteriors for this video and had limited daylight so we got to spend a few days with the band. For the Utah people, Headlights will be playing at Kilby Court March 29th, go to the show.

we love uzi and ari cause they are awesome. mtv europe loves them too.

Maritime "Calm"

A few weeks ago Cole, Ryan, Ruel, and I went out to the midwest to shoot a couple of music videos. Our second stop was in Milwaukee to shoot Maritime. Maritime was great, we made a video about mind control with them. I've been a fan of their music, both with Maritime and The Promise Ring, for some time. It's always so satisfying to work with other artists whose work I admire.

I will be posting very short documentaries that I make with my Cannon Powershot. See how hard we worked on the Maritime video in this first short doc.

Calm Doc

Branden Steineckert, Bryan Niven, and Apple

We are making this film about Bryan's photography that he will use for this event he is doing for Apple in New York. The photo will be of Branden from Rancid. I'm feeling pretty punk with this whole event.

Hello, nice to see you

I have been meaning to start one of these for some time now. I hope you enjoy it. I guess we will back pedal a little to catch up.