Remake, Remodel

The December Film - SB 81

Here's the final film in my 12 Films Project, SB 81, a documentary about the Cottage Food Laws here in Texas and the people who helped get them changed.

 

It's an amazing feeling to be finished with this project and, honestly, all I want to do is crawl in bed and sleep for a week, but I'm already working on next year's project and I'm hoping to announce it in the next couple weeks.  I'm also writing a recap of the 12 Films Project, that will have a little bit about each of the 12 Films, which should be up on the 12 Films Blog over the next week.

A little hometown press...

LOCAL has been getting a lot of attention here in Austin, especially since this week is Eat Local Week, and a lot of area restaurants are featuring locally sourced specials on their menus.

Melanie Haupt (who wrote the Austin Chronicle article about the 12 Films Project) wrote an article for the Chronicle's food blog about LOCAL and just posted it up here.  Click on the link to read the entire article, but the part that really got me was this:

"In my other life, I teach a rhet/comp class at UT called The Rhetoric of Eating, which focuses on the different stories we tell about ourselves and our values through the way that we talk about eating and the choices we make about the food that we eat. I showed Local to my students on the last day of classes this semester and it was a breath of fresh air, a burst of inspiration and hope in the face of a feeling that we are trapped in a food system that effectively enslaves and poisons us in its drive for profits at any cost. Local is an example of the kinds of stories we should all aim to tell when it comes to talking about our food."

That feels pretty awesome...

 

LOCAL - My latest documentary

 

I couldn't be more proud of how this documentary came out.  I hope you enjoy it.

Moving Rapidly

I got the iPhone 4S for my birthday and have been fooling around with the video camera more and more.  I'm in the process of making a documentary for the November film of my 12 Films Project and will be using it to shoot some timelapse tomorrow which is something I never thought I'd ever do. 

I've been looking into different ways to use this new full-HD camera and came across this on Vimeo.  It was shot, edited and graded on the iPhone 4S and they even did a VFX shot on the phone.  Pretty damn impressive:

 

I'm not in love with the film itself, but it looks amazing (the DOF shot with the grass waving in the wind totally sold me) and shows just how powerful this "phone" really is.  I'm doing another doc for the December film, and I'm planning on using it as an alternate camera for shooting some wide stuff.  We'll see how that turns out.

The September Film - Layover

Incremental

My allergies are slowly retreating, leaving me feeling better, but ultimately still sick.  While my head isn't killing me anymore, I'm still stuffed up and I've got that dry thing going where my sinuses, lips, nose, etc are dry and feeling chapped.  I'm almost done with the steriods, which give me insmonia a little, so that's good, but I'm also still taking 9 Advil a day (3 pills, 3 times a day) which make me fuzzy and unable to focus.  It's a really weird combination.

I'm going to try and take it easy this weekend, work some, sleep as much as possible and get things ready for the 12 Films shoot on Monday.  I'm meeting with some crew tomorrow afternoon and then rehearsing with the cast tomorrow evening.  I'm really looking forward to working the script and getting everyone comfortable.

I've been working on a lot of animation work lately and bidding/pitching for directing work.  The 12 Films Project has really been an amazing way to open doors to the directing world and, while I'm really excited to finish it, I'm wondering if I should keep trying to make shorts next year.  Not once a month (don't think I could do another 12), but some kind of project that would keep the momentum going.

I've got the Charcuterie feature-length documentary that I'm starting to plan and that I'll be shooting on and off next year, and I've been writing my narrative feature script that I'm still going to try and finish by the end of the year, but working on an on-going project like the 12 Films has really been amazing and I'd love to keep something going.  Maybe partnering with another filmmaker or something like that would be a way to keep things going.  Or maybe I should just let this be this and move on...very torn.  I guess I'll see how I feel in January.

Charcuterie - Update

The hit counter for my July documentary, Charcuterie, just went over 3,100.  Truly amazing considering it's only been online for 12 days.  A huge thank you to everyone who got the word out about it, re-tweeted the link on Twitter and brought a lot of national exposure to the doc and to the Kocurek's who do some amazing work.  If you're in Austin, check them out at the local farmer's markets, their food is beautiful.

Some more great press...

Woke up today to find a couple new articles posted about Charcuterie.  It's amazing how much press this little doc has been getting.  

The big news was that Food & Wine Magazine put up an article on their blog today about the 12 Films Project and, in particular, the two food-related docs that I made.  I've been reading their magazine for a long time, so it was very cool to be featured on their website.

I was also forwarded this article from someone on Twitter.  It's cool that they're a food blog, but that they seemed to be really interested in the film side of the project as well.

In the past 5 days, it's had over 2000 views on Vimeo and it keeps growing.  Very exciting stuff.

Charcuterie - My July Film

Here is the July film from my Twelve Films Project.  It's a short documentary about Charcuterie featuring two rising stars in that world, Lawrence and Lee Ann Kocurek of Kocurek Family Charcuterie here in Austin, TX.

Heist-Off!

Here's the June film from my Twelve Films Project.  This was made in conjunction with the 48-Hour Film Project here in Austin.  It is, hands down, the oddest thing I've ever made...but in a strange way, I love it best of all.  While watching it, please do remember that it was made in 48-hours...actually, 46.5 hours (I got it done early)...

Enjoy.