My very first project. This was
based on the Lumiere films of the early 20th century. The very first films
projected to audiences. Since the medium of film was new to the period,
even the most simplest of activities found audiences enthralled. But the
camera could only handle 60 seconds of film, so the films were very short.
One of the Lumiere films I found fascinating was a group of people playing
cards. And that was all they did. So, like what happens to all good ideas,
I stole it. Of course, I put my own spin on it to avoid plagiarism
charges. They were playing poker in the original...
Up until Piece of a Puzzle, this was the work I was most proud of. I still
rank it up with my latest video, just because this video turned out just
as I pictured it in my mind (with the exception of the jerky cam). While
it came in second in a class competition (it lost to a rip-off of the
Eagle Eye Cherry music video for "Save Tonight"), and thus lost
its chance to be screened for my schools Art of Film class, it eventually
got its screening 2 years later (due to me previously editing in the
storyboards for a comparison of the storyboards to the finished project).
A funny fact, Chelsey (the lead actress in my first three videos) and Whit
(the lead actor in this piece) had actually dated in real life a year
before this was made.
My second video dealing with
relationships, and the most darkest. I purchased a Swingerhead CD at a
concert they gave at Seminole Community College and was haunted by this
particular song. Just the nature of the singer extolling how he's just
fine, and yet singing in a way that expresses great pain. And I just took
that pain and the themes of that song to the next level. This was the
first video I completely shot digitally, and edited on an industry
standard equipment (an AVID system). Due to the power of the equipment, I
was able to do special effects I had only dreamed about (the photos). Plus
it was my first experience with visual effects.
My most ambitious video, as it was
the first one that really didn't have any backing to it (no 60 second film
to rip-off, or music to place images to). I had always wanted to do an
action scene, and late one night, while leaving school, I began studying
certain angles and thought how cool it would be to have this particular
shot there. So I came up with a story to go behind it. Casting a co-worker
to play the hitman, hiring on another co-worker to play the lead and at
first casting myself in the third on-screen role (a role I later gave to
yet another co-worker of mine), we set out in the freezing Florida
February (It got down to 35 one night) to film. It took 3 weeks to shoot,
since we were all working around our work schedule. I created the
soundtrack in one afternoon (only the second time I had actually composed
anything). Numerous technical problems plagued the production, and as of
the day before it was due for a class assignment, had yet to be edited.
After completing a five hour editing marathon (and loving every minute of
it), I produced this finished piece...of a puzzle...
Videos
