I’ll post the video here when it’s edited.

Blood Cousins (2012)

They had written a nice script they were happy with and coming off the success of the short films and commercials we had produced together, everyone felt it was a good time to tackle the lessons that are sure to come with a first feature.

Well, tackle it we did, after many lessons and wonderfully hectic days solving the problems of how to produce an 84 minute feature for less than $5,000. The only way it could happen was for me to produce the movie for no daily fee. Offering my cinematography, along with my camera, lenses, lighting, steadicam, dolly, jib, and audio equipment at no charge. (sorry, unless you’re a non-profit, this won’t happen again)

It was a great experience for all of us. But it’s also a great lesson in the value of having a balanced budget for any production. A majority of this movie was shot with the four actors… and myself. Literally. If there aren’t extras in the scene, then odds are that scene was shot with five guys in the room(or car), four of whom were acting or trading off their directions of each other. The fifth carrying a DSLR rig and headphones while setting up each shot.

This means that for the car scenes, I was in the trunk monitoring video and audio on a laptop with headphones. It means that the DP was the cinematographer was the grip was the set designer was the blocking director was the… you get the point. And shooting on a DSLR? Well, that meant no studio monitor. So it meant, we’d run through a scene, then I’d play it back to the guys and discuss options/changes. Although it sounds like a very slow process, we’d manage to shoot up to eight minutes of usable video per day, which isn’t bad relative to most productions. This is why most of the film is shoulder mount or tripod. As the story gets going I wanted the audience to feel like they’re there with the guys, to feel like they’re a part of the “wolf pack” to quote another movie.

After four months of quality weekend-warrior film making  the actors grew busy with their daily lives and we took a hiatus from the production and focused on editing. Six months later, we had 95% of the movie completed… but were missing all the “as-yet-not-filmed” flashback scenes, kind of important, and various other pickups to finesse the story and pacing. After about a year and a half of simply working on other projects, we regrouped and began a schedule of one weekend a month dedicated to finishing this project. After another six months, we had ourselves a finished feature film. Written and directed by four guys. Edited by two. Shot by one. This was quite the undertaking and I feel would be impossible for some. I have to admit there were times I wondered if we’d ever complete this monumental undertaking.

But I’m glad we finished it, even if the quality of the lenses/lights/microphones/etc. changed dramatically over those two years, even though some of the actors weight and hair changed dramatically throughout… Experience is the best form of instruction. And I think we all learned a lot.

Of course we won’t win awards or fame. But I sincerely look forward to sharing this movie with you.

I hope you enjoy it.

If you haven’t heard of Poptent.net, it’s an online “user-generated” advertising site that matches brands with filmmakers competing with each other for cash prizes. (a la doritos ads…)

Well, last fall, Poptent asked 25 filmmakers to direct in a private competition for Dannon’s new Oikos Greek Yogurt. The winning video would potentially screen at this year’s Super Bowl after a re-shoot so that John Stamos could star in it.

Dannon wanted to introduce their new greek yogurt in a way that would stand out among Super Bowl ads. Their motto was “Possibly the best yogurt in the world”, and the premise they wanted was a “taste adventure”.

I set out in this competition to make an animatic for a Super Bowl spot. I didn’t have John Stamos and I didn’t have a budget. I had my girlfriend, my equipment, a rented yoga studio, and a couple CL posts for two actors. I wanted something to stand out and be memorable.

After going through a few ideas. (many of which ended up being similarly produced by other filmmakers in the competition) I decided on the idea of a fantasy world similar to Willy Wonka’s chocolate river… I knew John Stamos had broadway experience and I LOL’d at the idea that Stamos would be belting out a broadway-style song during the Super Bowl. So I set out to script a broadway-esque, Willy Wonk-ish taste adventure that would certainly stand out among other Super Bowl ads. While still carrying the action and insanity of UGC ad.

This is the concept I wrote and directed, everything was shot on green screen and then layered over food footage I shot on a table-top green screen (some green foam papers in the toy section of HEB). Not a bad outcome for four days of work and only myself doing all production and post. (yes, those actors never set foot in a grocery store OR a blueberry wonderland!)

I wrote the song feeling it would fit, but after shooting, it became obvious that I had tried to squeeze too much into a :30 spot. I feel this would have been more fun as a :60, but I should have just removed a verse…

Although we didn’t win, I would still like to see John Stamos singing in something like this, it definitely would have been a memorable Super Bowl spot, even if it isn’t in line with the target audience. (but then again, Super Bowl isn’t in line with the target audience…)

Either way, it’s always a blast just grabbing the camera and putting together something creative…

Production Stills:

Special thanks to my girlfriend Amanda for help in finding and renting the yoga studio, and Bettye Jo Shyrock for playing an awesome scooter enthusiast.

Concept, direction, green screen, and motion-graphics by Brent Graham.

PS ~ Here is the video that won: Congratulations to Neymarc Visuals, I think they produced a very professional spot that’ll make the target audience smile.

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/super-bowl-backlash-five-most-debated-commercials-138099

CASA of Travis County speaks up for children who’ve been abused or neglected by empowering our community to volunteer as advocates for them within the CPS court system.

This was done in 48hours for the 2012 Alamo Drafthouse FilmFrenzy Reel Change festival

After meeting with CASA’s marketing director, I brainstormed various concepts, ruling out most ideas that showed the children as victims. After watching many child-focused PSAs, I knew I wanted to keep it positive and inspirational… Then I stumbled upon the idea of “Let’s have a conversation, just us adults.” Which felt very strong in getting attention, while setting the focus on our target audience, the adults. Once we’d settled on our focus, we jotted down various ideas of child potential and innocence, the root of why we have children and do our best in raising them to be good human beings, and from there we wrote this beautiful script.

Having only 48 hours isn’t much time, so we set out filming b-roll of children playing at Zilker park. We were sure to get releases from their parents so everything was legal and respectful. Producing a film on this very sensitive topic makes it pretty hard to get footage of kids. But I promised I would keep the kids faces out of the film.

Framing artistic and balanced compositions while not showing kids faces isn’t that easy, but I think we pulled it off very well. I also filmed our friend’s children, choosing to show their faces as their parents were okay with it. I feel that their faces and delightful expressions really add to the emotion of the spot. Most people don’t notice that they only see two kids faces the entire spot, they walk away feeling like they actually saw a bunch of kids. So I think we accomplished that fine line between privacy and intimacy that we were hoping for.

The studio shoot came together brilliantly. Using our iPad as a teleprompter, real-life CASA volunteer Jennifer C. did a wonderful job expressing the emotion of the script without pandering to our adult target audience. I will admit, the camera loves Jennifer under the Rembrandt lighting I chose for this shoot. It really couldn’t have worked out better.

In the end, we produced a very professional spot in less than two-days(I slept Friday night, and slept in Saturday, a rarity for a 48hr…) that the administration at CASA absolutely loves. Although we didn’t win the film-festival, we’re extremely proud to have helped a worthy non-profit focus their complex voice down to a very powerful 3:30 video for marketing and awareness.

Music by FNDMNTL – Impatient for Toast
Thank you to Dany (sorce) Gagnon for releasing his beautiful song for this cause.

Here’s our interview as we turned in our film: