Our short film about Art Seaman, “Skating The Pacific To Europe,” took home the “Best Collaboration” award last night at the Riverview Theater and we were one of the five award-winning films (out of seventy-three submissions) from the 2007 MNHS MGG Moving Pictures Festival!
I seriously don’t know how the judges made their decisions with such a high caliber of movies submitted this year but we are honored to have been selected. If you weren’t able to attend the screening or awards, you can watch the five winning films online at the Minnesota Historical Society website and read the special edition of “Legacy News” for further details.
Follow our progress or even support our efforts with the longer-form documentary about speed skating history and legends at the official site: http://www.skatingcapitaloftheworld.com/

See the film that City Pages says "makes beautiful use of still shots."
This year we (myself and Rita) submitted two films about local speed skating champs for the Minnesota History Center's Greatest Generation Moving Pictures Festival and the debut of our films (and 50+ others) is on Sunday October 21st at the History Center in Saint Paul. All films will screen from noon until 5:00pm and then there is the awards screening and ceremony from 7:00pm until 9:00pm at the gorgeously mid-century Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. Oh, yes, this is a competition, too, and the winner gets $5,000 but nobody will know who wins until the screening so get your tickets early to ensure a view to the excitement!

Our two films are both on local speed skating champions who competed in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. "Skating The Pacific To Europe" tells the skating story of Art Seaman and his Hawaiian adventures while "My Name Is McNamara" explores the skating passion of Matthew McNamara and his European achievements. Both films are taken from a longer-form project currently in the works about the period in history when the Twin Cities was known as the Skating Capital of the World. Check back soon for more project details and how you can support the film!

You can subscribe to the Zombie Pub Crawl videos via iTunes now! Hit the link or search for "zombie pub crawl" or "moonpost" in iTunes.

Zombies vs Pirates 2006 (documenting the 2nd Zombie Pub Crawl and the 1st Pirate Pub Crawl) will be screening at the Fearless Filmmakers event on October 29th at the Parkway Theater and also on October 17th at Cinema Lounge at the Bryant Lake Bowl. Come on down for the spooky festivities!

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This video is a collaboration between myself (zombies) and Jesse of delicious filmworks (pirates). Hope you like it! See you at Zombie Pub Crawl III? You can subscribe to the Zombie Pub Crawl videos via iTunes now!

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Yes, this a repost from two years ago, but it is also an experiment in online video delivery at different sizes and quality so click and enjoy.

Not only were we selected for the "Best of Minneapolis 2007" show but we won "Best Ensemble Cast" for the second year in a row! Wowzer. How amazingly cool. The final 12 films were of high caliber and while it was a true honor just to be in the finals, it was super cool that our team of talent pulled off a win for "Megastorm." I can't thank the team enough for being so talented and hard-working and just plain fun to hang around. I'm very proud and pleased. And somehow, I want to make another movie right now.

The premiere of "Megastorm" went off well tonight and the crowd seemed rapt with attention. They seemed enthralled. The mix of movies shown was all over the place, but there was a trend of violence and lots of sound that could somehow make people die. Some of the kids in attendance got quite an education on language. But some very funny stuff, some outright weird stuff and some really good looking stuff. Our young first-time actor, Bailley, really seemed to enjoy the whole experience. Now we wait until next week to hear the results of the judges.

The Climaxx team pulled off some amazing feats over this past weekend and created a stunner of a horror film (that was our genre) for the 48 Hour Film Project in Minneapolis. Look for it at the premiere on Thursday night at the Riverview Theater at 7:00pm. Without giving anything away, I will say that the cast and crew were completely mind-blowingly amazing to work with on all levels and I'd be thrilled to work with any of them again. We brought back our three main actors from last year (David, Natalie and Elizabeth) and added several new people to our crew, including a first-time actress all of 10 years old who took direction like a pro and blew us all away. More details about our experience and movie to come. We were ambitious in many areas and still managed to get the film completed and turned in with less than 15 minutes to spare. Look for the prop (portable music player), character (Jill Meyers, veterinarian) and line of dialogue ("they will get them if we let them") in all the movies.

The 2007 48 Hour Film Project is coming to the Twin Cities this weekend. Yowza. Supposedly we already have over 77 teams and are looking for 80-plus! Four whole days of premieres! Mayhem! Sleep deprivation! Are you joining us? UPDATE: 84 teams and the madness starts tonight at 5:30pm at Midtown Global Market. Let the creative juices flow. Go Go Climaxx!

You are invited to the Minnesota History Center on October 8th 2006 for the MN Greatest Generation Project documentary film screenings. My latest film, "Karole Farley: All That Freedom" will be shown at 1:00pm and is eligible for a $5000 prize! This short film is a peek into the sometimes challenging, sometimes glamorous life of Minneapolis chanteuse Karole Farley who was a jazz singer in the early 40's. This 10-minute film was jointly produced with M. Rita Nagan and we'd really love you to see our hard work!
Check out all the amazing movies made by people of all types and experience levels: MGG Film Schedule.
Free popcorn and admission but the seating is limited. See you there!

Last night was the 2006 Zombie Pub Crawl in Minneapolis. Last night was also the Pirate Pub Crawl in Minneapolis. The two groups (hundreds, literally) clashed in a mighty dance-off 'round midnight. Good times were had by all. I think. My hand was cramped and my back was aching after shooting video for the entire night (8+ hours) but I witnessed some mighty fine brain-eating and lurching down the street. And zombieoke. I'm guessing there were over 300 zombies and possibly 80-100 pirates.
More to come once I carve out some editing time...

We won an award! On the weekend of June 9th, our team entered the 48 Hour Film Project challenge for the first time with a short movie called "Burnout Trail" and we were selected for the "Best of Minneapolis" finals, which took place tonight at the Riverview Theater (one of the last lovely theaters around). The competition was great, the quality of the films was very high and we went home with "Best Ensemble Cast" for Minneapolis 2006! Amazing! Full props go to Leigha Horton, our casting director (she played Counselor in our movie, too) and her cadre of talented and fun people that made up our cast. The award is really all theirs -- Leigha Horton, Elizabeth Hawes (Reef), David Coral (Shroom), Natalie Rae Wass (Speed) and Nathan Surprenant (Frank Mooney, DJ).

On the weekend of June 9th, our team entered the 48 Hour Film Project challenge for the very first time with a short movie called "Burnout Trail" and we just got word that the judges have selected us for the "Best of Minneapolis" finals! Out of 60 teams, we are one of the top twelve! Amazing and exciting beyond words. There were a high number of very good films this year (only the 3rd year for our metropolis) and it is an honor to be amongst the best. It was a super fun experience and we are already looking forward to next year. See the "Best of" screening on June 27th at 7pm at the lovely Riverview Theater!

Relax from your stressful life with some calming images of nature... I grabbed these photos and short video in our backyard this past Saturday morning. The deer hung around for over three hours and it was mildly exciting to get the video footage (I was shaking a bit). And this is in the city, too! (well, 4.5 miles from downtown Minneapolis).

- View the Deer Photos -

Happy 2006 to you all! Great friends, great food and great times were had over the holidays and I found a little chunk of time to slap together this short video piece of a mountain bike race I shot back in October of 2005 at Murphy-Hanrehan Park (part of the awesome Three Rivers Park District).
The premise was a Halloween bike race (The Grim Racer) with costumes and silliness but either these people were too hard-core in racing or the wind drag of most costumes was simply too great and only a handful of racers dressed up. The weather and location were great, however, and while this doesn't have much of a story to it (I was unable to shoot the race finish), I hope you'll enjoy the fall biking scenery (needs latest version of Quicktime).

Apparently my "Zombie Pub Crawl" movie is screening at the monthly Cinema Lounge at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Uptown on Wednesday December 21st at 7:00pm. Cinema Lounge is a free venue for local movie makers and lovers and the intimate theater also serves food and drinks. Join us and see what other local moviemakers have in the works. Happy Zombie Holidays!

Just finished up a short documentary-style movie about this past weekend's Zombie Pub Crawl, wherein 100+ people dressed up like zombies (think bloody, rotting flesh, dirty) and went for a little jaunt through NE Minneapolis for a quick nip down to the pubs. I figured this had to be good fodder for filming and I wasn't disappointed. The makeup and costuming was pretty impressive and for the most part everyone was sticking in character, although I'm sure that got easier as the night wore on (which I was unable to witness, sadly). I grabbed my DVX and some tapes and my shotgun mic and captured it all hand-held. The piece was shot, edited, music created by me using Soundtrack, and finished all up in less than three working days.
As featured on MNstories.com - see also the related article in City Pages.
In QuickTime's spankin' H.264 format (amazing! and a free download here). Click the picture to watch (about 20 megs)! Hopefully this won't kill my bandwidth...

I saw about 24 of the 39 Minnesota creations for the 48 Hour Film Project earlier this week and the quality and inventiveness overall was high. Being too busy to partake, as least I got to view. Last year's local winner ("Stale Mate") was fabulous and judging by what I saw it'll be hard to choose a winner this year (only the second year for MN). We need a team for next year, people! Or for any 5x24 projects that pop up (hint hint).

This week's flicker, Trapped!, is mostly an experiment in special effects since the main image in my head didn't develop into a full blown story until way too late. Thankfully, it is a short flicker and won't make you wait around. I kept movement to a minimum just in case of difficulties with the compositing, but it would have better with more motion and maybe some ropes! I'm eager to see the other submissions to WeeklyDV this week.

The WeeklyDV theme this week is "Distortion" and I thought it would be cool to shoot distorted video by somehow modifying the image coming into the camera. It worked out OK. The footage turned out decent and I actually got an idea for it two days later and thus "The Jar-head Dog" was born. Perhaps you'll be amused. The attachment for the camera was simply a glass bowl and I zoomed through to my liking. Noted error: I forgot (duh) to turn off auto-focus and it kicked in for a short period of time.

Since upgrading to FCP HD and all the new versions of LiveType, QuickTime, Compressor, etc, I have noticed a major problem with LiveType fonts in my Final Cut Pro projects: they are all dirty and pixelated and chunky. What the...?! When bringing the text into FCP it looks just fine and dandy:


But after you render the text it looks like this:


Viewing the video via FireWire to an NTSC monitor shows nice, crisp text BUT the BIG problem here is when you make a QuickTime movie for the web the text looks all chunky and pixelated and gross! I cannot get around it. Anybody know the answer?

I'm back with another flicker. Seems like it has been eons since I made a short movie and it feels good to create something new. The WeeklyDV capsule this week was "Stream of Consciousness" and I further challenged myself by trying to find a stream of constant thought - no editing allowed. I got a decent piece (I hope you agree). I did do some manipulation of the footage, but it is all one edit. Anyway, sit on down and watch my giant head talk for a few minutes in "Thoughts on Dying and Living." You in a hurry? There is a short version here. I made this flicker by just holding my camera in either of my hands, pointing at my face, and walking around talking about stuff. I used the on-camera mics and did not perform any edits besides the colorizing. The big challenge here was my computer - after upgrading to FCP HD I found I could no longer capture to my internal media drive. That took about a week to solve. Turns out I was missing the latest QuickTime update. Don't know why that would prevent my drive from capturing... Then it got really sluggish in FCP - very unresponsive. That took only a night to solve. The project's clip somehow got hosed a bit and wouldn't play all the way through. Turning off audio waveforms helped some but I ended up recapturing the clip and all is back to normal! Whew.

My latest flicker, American Idolatry, is online for your viewing pleasure. A not so mocking mockumentary about idol worship in our media saturated country. Two weeks in a row with an actual script! A precedent is being set... If you want the local link, in mp4 format (smaller and faster), click here instead.

What could be more magical than a genie in a lamp? What if you had three wishes, what would you desire? What if the genie wasn't exactly cooperative? Check out the flicker for this last week, "The Magic Lantern." Thanks to my sister Jenny for playing the role of Genie. She did great on very short notice and rememberd her lines almost perfectly. Thanks to Mohsen for a few minutes of camera operation and thanks to Meghan for "biscuits."

Talk about waiting until the last second: the movie deadline is midnight PST each Wednesday night and I didn't start shooting until after midnight CST -- on Wednesday night! I was strugging with a good idea and not having one so I just did this little mood piece entitled "Tea, Honey?" Completed the whole thing, including music, in just over an hour.

I recently did a short where I thought a blinking red light (see "Wired") might look good on an electrical control panel. But I couldn't just trip the system or set off an alarm -- my employer might not look approvingly on such actions. I figured I could probably fake it in Final Cut Pro and save myself some hassle.
This tip will work easiest on a stationary shot.
STEP ONE: Add a video track on top of your shot. This is where your blinking light will go.

STEP TWO: From the Viewer's Generator pop-up menu (the little icon with the "A" in it), select Shapes > Circle.


STEP THREE: Add the circle to your new layer of video. Trim the circle clip down to your desired length. The default should be a colored circle on black. Control-click on the new circle layer and set your Composite Mode to Screen. The Screen mode will get rid of blacks and leave you with a colored circle over your video.


STEP FOUR: Double click your circle clip to load it back into the Viewer. In the Controls tab, set your size, softness and color.


STEP FIVE: In the Motion tab set your center point to align your blinking light with the bulb (or whatever) in your video.

STEP SIX: Turn down the Opacity arrow and set yourself some keyframes for your light. Drag every other keyframe down to 0% opacity and leave the others at 100% opacity. It should look like a horizontal zig-zag.


STEP SEVEN: You should be finished. Enjoy your blinking light effect!

Ok, so actually my entry for WeeklyDV this week is called "Wired" because sometimes you just need a little extra juice to get you going. Yup. Extra juice. I did this whole video, including creating the audio/song, within four hours. I edited the piece together first then brought it into Soundtrack and set some markers so I could lay down the music to the visuals. I haven't always done this but it really made a big difference (duh). The visuals needed the music to build up tension and suspense and I think it achieved that goal. The red light flashing on the control box is totally fake and done right in FCP. You can also watch it right here if you want.

Mother Nature was very cooperative for this week's theme of "Arctic" -- and she didn't even hog all the food from craft services! All production by me, including the soundtrack, which was made with Soundtrack. You (yeah, you) should make a short flicker for next week's WeeklyDV.

I've got a guest flicker to share with you: Patrick (Meghan's younger brother) crafted this fine movie for WeeklyDV's "Arctic" theme this week. Bravo, Pat, Bravo. The mystery, the tension, the conflict -- all come together beautifully in the last act.

I had a brilliant idea for this week's theme: a gritty neo-noir B&W movie of a person driven to consumption for a new theory that explains the until-now evasive solut.... uh, this movie isn't that idea, unfortunately. But I went through some... tough spots... to make this flicker, so enjoy. Boink!

Too ambitious I was... too unrealized was my idea. Still, take a look at Wanderlust and enjoy the footage from around the world. I think you'll find it entertaining even though it is unfinished and could possibly stay that way.

This week's flicker is called "Sepiatone" and is a short experiment with Ken Burns-style documentary photo editing. I collect antique photographs and search for them during my travels. This piece contains photos found in Prague (Czech Republic) and Bellingham, Washington (USA). Music was created using Soundtrack and while I could have played off the theme of "Tone" even more with the sound in this piece, I chose to just create an atmospheric background.

After many many months of hiatus, weeklydv.com is back in action and the capsule this week is "soundtrack." The theme requires you to download a song and use it as your movie's soundtrack. I considered doing a remix of the song (adding beats and such) but I think it works just fine as-is and creates a nice mood for a short piece on autumn in Minnesota.

There seems to be a chronic lack of time around here lately, but still, another flicker for this week's WeeklyDV theme of Green: Tossed Greens. So very simple. Hopefully you like it. I also did a version with Pantone labels on each color, but chose not to submit that one. On top of that, I also did a stereographic version after reading about stereographic photos on kottke.org. You have cross your eyes to see the 3D effect. I have a feeling this would be much better if there were more distance in the shot - it's just too close to the lens. Plus, it is very difficult to take two shots of something with only one camera and keep the exact same rotation speed on the plate (by hand)!

I had literally no time to produce a flicker this week, but I couldn't let this week go without producing something, so just minutes before the deadline last night I put this piece together. A micro production of a micro idea for a micro movie. Took about 1.5 hours from start to finish. Sure wish a few more people would join in the weeklydv site! hint hint.

Instead of me just making a statement (or more likely a whole rapid-fire string of them) for this week's weeklydv, I'll let some people I know express their opinions -- everybody's got one. I guess in a way that is my statement: listen to other people and have enough courage to respect and allow their expression. It takes all kinds of people in this big crazy world..... peace.

Work schedule almost prevented me from doing a flicker this week, but I pulled one off just the same. Extremely limited time went into this and I felt like a creep driving around at midnight videotaping holiday lights on houses. WeeklyDV's theme this week is "winter" and my piece, "Winter 02" is viewable, as usual, either here or there. Also, I've been listening to Tom Waits lately.

Another short flicker out of my brain for weeklydv.com called "Attack of the Ninety Foot Toys." The theme this week was (as you may have discerned) 90 Feet Tall. Going with the "B" movie approach and shooting wind-up toys in front of a blue-screen was perhaps a bit too ambitious for this week. Especially as I have a tendency to start these things on Tuesdays. Doh. But I did learn a lot of blue-screen technique. I wanted to make it look like an imported movie with some fake subtitles, but didn't get those in before the deadline. This is the reason the dialogue is so messed up with dubbing. It is intentional, do not adjust your set. Feel free to watch the movie here or at weeklydv.com and comment on either site as well. Thanks. One thing that would have helped me (this particular project maybe not) would have been an actual script. I just had images in my head and went and shot them very rapidly. Then I was challenged with how to tie them all together and come up with fitting dialogue. The crew was difficult to work with and the cast was so dang demanding. Ugh, actors. Anyway, it wasn't until two days later that I noticed my unconscious brain is far smarter than my conscious brain -- the song in the intro and outro is from a band (one of my favorites) called Lamb. How appropriate, what with the giant toy sheep! I was shocked when I realized this and burst out laughing (at work). Go figure.

The theme this time around was "120 seconds" and I had a few ideas, but decided to go with this one. I'll be interested in your comments. It was all shot and edited during the day on Wednesday. I had the concept and willingness to appear in the movie and enlisted my friend Jack to run the camera. Whew! This was the closest one yet -- almost didn't make it in time for the midnight deadline. The challenges were as follows: I had a normal work schedule and Jack and I went and picked up the Panasonic DVX100 video camera for a demo early this morning! Wowzer. This camera rocks hard and appears to beat the competition soundly. This is a 24p prosumer camera for under $4,000! It does 24p, 30p, 30i, 60i, NTSC, PAL, has 2 XLR inputs with phantom power, great design/balance, nice lens, full manual control, stellar features... we couldn't stop playing with it! It is super cool. Anyway, not that you can necessarily tell from the video clip online, but some of the shots were from this camera. We just turned it on and shot. Reading the manual would have been a good idea! Do some research on this cam -- you'll be amazed.

I finished up my entry entitled "Girl Haunted" for this week's WeeklyDV.com assignment. Everyone's movie should be online by tomorrow (halloween) and I'm very interested to see what people came up with. I think my approach is not at all expected, but I hope that doesn't disappoint anyone. UPDATE: only two other entries this week (bummer) and they all took the same sort of approach that I did! Funny. All production was by me, Jeremy, and I wrote the dialogue as well. I shot the video at work in a brightly lit spot with a white-ish background. Coby was walking and talking with me while I shot. Once in Final Cut Pro, I edited the pieces together, slowed it down to 20% of speed, desaturated the colors, blurred it slightly and then used the 3-way Color Corrector to blow out the highlights, adjust midtone color and tint/lighten the shadow areas. Music is from a royalty-free library.

I finally got around to creating an entry for WeeklyDV.com! I am very excited so see what everyone else did and what the reaction to my piece might be. Mine is entitled "Dirty Steve" and it was tons of fun to make.