Thrilling Images

So here below are some images I took of my brother and his girlfriend. They came out pretty good, but it really started to make me think. What if I made an entire short film out of still black and white images.

See the thing is I want to capture this image or raw emotion into a good short story. I have the idea for the short which is based off a true event, that happened with me in my old apartment. But the whole idea is really to build a large amount of care and suspense for the audience in just an image.

I called my old friend Davin up to see if she wanted to partake. "Of course," she said which is always the good thing. More plans for the idea will happen after the New Year. So we will see.

Another Music Video for my Brother!!!!

So After the New Year and the big hangover we all have, I'm set to shoot a new music video with my brother. I brought on my old friend Hunter Baker to shoot it with me.

And yes, it will be shot on the Jersey Shore again, but this time at locations that people don't really recognize. Majority of the shooting will be done in an alley that looks over the water in Deal, NJ. The great thing is no one knows about it. Vast parts of Asbury Park that no one seems to look at. The rare things that we notice are all ways the good things. It makes the piece stand out more and stand on its own.

Hopefully this video will be successful as the others that have gotten high hits on Youtube.com or have gone to broadcast. But we will have to see. Maybe this will be the first of many that will come under my new up and coming company, LIFTED PICTURES. A production company set for music videos and music related media to be created!

Money + Film = BROKE

So check this out, even though shooting movies is my passion, capturing a moment, style, or personality is really what I enjoy most. Either making a film or shooting photos, a great landscape with those three elements I listed above you can't loose...Well at least I think.

I found these photos I took of my brother back in the summer. I have been trying to shoot more just like this style, but with film costing a lot that becomes an issue. So rolls already shot just wait on the shelf till I get the cash to develop them.

The best part about some of these shots are the style in which it starts to bring back memories. I felt like I was a kid looking at an image of the Jersey shore from the 90s, a place that really wasn't a big vacation spot as it is now. Still having those abandon home and apartments right on the water from Asbury Park to Long Branch.

New Photos!!

So I just got handed a bunch of FREE film from friends of mine. And with a hobby of photography, I took a couple of new photos when I was way up in Vermont with my friend, Lala. Take a look and love to know your thoughts.

The camera I used was an old Minolta from the 70s or early 80s. My grandfather handed it off to me as a kid and I never thought it could really work...But I was wrong. Don't have too many lenses to switch out from the 50mm, but it's good enough.

The story behind the Star Wars collection

So many of you already have seen the photo I posted of my Star Wars toys as a kid. I remember the first time I ever saw "A New Hope." I couldn't believe the magic and imagination that was to be set upon me. As a kid with a big fantasy and an inspiration such as Star Wars, there is only one thing you can do! Make a movie of your own. A world of your own!! So I saved and saved, buying any new figure that came out. Holding on to them and creating my own battles in my mind if it were my own movie.

When I was in the fourth grade I did so. Made a whole world in my basement setting up and 10x6 foot space. Making huts and bases out of my parents containers and house hold items. I like to say this was the start for my love of set design for movies. An insperation to build my own world.

It's funny how old some of the stuff is. My mom use to bring me into the city to a place called "Love Saves the Day." And spend all my money on the biggest and rarest ships that the store had. I loved it in there! A shitty little store in the lower east side during the mid-90s.

The sad thing is now when my mom called me home asking to clean out my shit in the attic, I realize that these toys I once enjoyed need to go. Hoping to fund my next journey across the world. But they are a big part of who I am as a filmmaker today. And am always grateful for how they made my imagination run wild!!

Getting lifted on LIFTED

So as you may or may not know. About over a year ago my little brother started a company called Lifted Enterprises based off his song, "Lifted." Months back Quincy asked me to be part of his company, it is then when I started the idea of Lifted Pictures.

I have made a few videos under the name. Some well received and some have gone to broadcast. Things have been looking up so far. I'm still building on the company to be grounded, but its a work in progress.

But it was a few weeks ago my brother asked me to be part of his clothing line. Making t-shirts and designing them from my photography. It was then I missed silk screening and the work I use to do in the print-shop at SVA. Coming up with pop art, or contrasting elements to make something new, eye appealing, and made you think.

It has been two years, but I'm stepping back into it with new ideas and designs for my shirts and prints. Making t-shirts and making music videos under Lifted Enterprises is pretty cool. Lets just hope it catches on!!

What do you do last weekend?!

So After every weekend you know you get the typical question, "So what did you do this weekend?" Well for those of you who want to know, this is what I did. A stop-motion animation with my friend Vanessa.

She wanted to do something funky for her Masquerade birthday party, so we came up with an idea of Vanessa trying to get her mask on her face and go to the party, but scared the mask runs away. It is cute and funny at the same time.

Click HERE to view.

The Sci-fi Short!!!

It's been a while since I did a short story, but when friend, director Craig Singer, told me that the both of us needed to collaborate on a project. I wanted to jump right in! Soon friend and writer Jordan Barel jumped in as the three of us wanted to make something really different and crazy.

The cool thing about Craig is he has been in the biz for some time. Making movies with titles such as, "Perkins' 14" and "Dark Ride" for Lionsgate. I met Jordan through Craig originally to help me finish a script. Our schedules got busy and both of us couldn't do it, however we are both thrilled to be doing something together this time. The cool thing about Jordan is he isn't that much older then me and has won awards for his scripts. He also with his brother makes comics and a few have been distributed. This year he was at the New York Comic Conn with one of them.

The cool thing is Craig decided to jump on a genre that I had never done. Science Fiction! A post apocalyptic world mixed with time travel. Can't lay out too much of the details, but this one should be interesting. When we started talking about the visuals, "THX 1138" was brought up. Which if any of you don't know was George Lucas' first movie in the early 70s.

We wanted to make a Black & White type of future and the insanity of man's own creation. Will keep every one updated, but really excited about this one!

Looking Back

So I was bored the other day and like the "now" generation does, I went on to YouTube.com. I was flicking through videos when I found a channel that was made to remember my high school years. On the channel were videos I use to make with my friends in our last year of school.

I wasn't the cool art kid back then...More like the film nerd. If you had a question about a movie, I probably knew the answer! My last year of school, me and a friend Tyler Haughey ran the high school TV show which would air during study hall. I took it as a job, cause I wanted it to be the best year of Ocean Township High School's TV programming. And I think me and my class can agree it was.

Many years have past, we've all moved on,  and now dreading New Jersey and having been living in NYC for the past five years it's funny to look back upon my old film work and see how crazy the stuff we did really was.

Check out this piece we did with my old friend Shane, click HERE to view. It's a rip off of "Terry Tate-office linebacker" but it's still hilarious!!!

Making Another Puppet

So If you don't know, stop-motion is how I started making movies. Had no actors when I got my first camera...so I made clay-mation characters. After I made a few animations, I then started to get real actors in my movies, but still did stop-motion. My last full stop-motion short I did was just with my brother Quincy for his music video "Sunshine." We made it this past summer.

But my last puppet animation was my short called, "Mustache" I did a year and a half ago. A YEAR AND A HALF AGO! Way too long! Click HERE to view the short.

Realizing I am over due for a new one, I started making new characters. I don't have a story yet, but I want to make something very fantasy and surreal! Here below are my two heads of my new characters.

I am making one guy tall and the other short. Maybe that can be a kid and a wise man. I don't know. I would love to hear other thoughts on what I should do! Let me know!! Always open to ideas!!

Under the Microscope

Okay, so I know I've said before that I want to make a film about Brooklyn life style, but I think more then ever I've been going crazy by what I have been seeing and not being able to capture! The fashion, the music, the scene! I have been in development of just those elements. Including not just Brooklyn but the rest of America. A film that is a cross between "True Romance", "Into the Wild", and "Easy Rider." Mixed in with characters from modern day Brooklyn.

I have been doing my research more and more about my generation living in Brooklyn after college, even though I am that myself. One thing I must say people don't talk about is the constant unemployment of graduated college students trying to survive in the boro. It's a scary thing, but it's what's happening.

Stay tuned for more!

My Brand

One thing as a filmmaker, you know that the business of the industry is 20% creative 80% business. If you disagree all you film students, just wait till your out in the real world! It was during my first few months out of college that I decided to brand who I am not just as a filmmaker, but an artist! Something that I have been since I came out of my mother. Weather it was writing, painting, drawing, or photography I was doing it. It wasn't till some time last year my friends and family told me I should start to take my art some place, and then I thought why not to the streets!!

Some of the images I would make a short story or a poem, you can't read this one, but if you look around the city hard enough you will...If you know what I mean!! But also If you look at the two images below, they also feature my brand logo as well as the QR code to my website and blog.

Look around the city for them and more to come...

New Music Video

So yes it has been a while since I blogged. Probably coming off my high from my long Europe trip! But Since I left and when I came back I had been working with the band MY PET DRAGON with there new hit "Moonshine." It was a fun job so to say, creating the mood of the audience, shooting with out a crowd and making the band act like there is one.

But over all me and Kyle Sather my DP, just wanted to shoot something that looked like a home movie. Or something on 8mm!! Click HERE to view.

An Adventure

So if any of you know or haven't known, I was gone for three weeks backpacking through Europe. Staying with friends, living in hostels, meeting new people and friends. I always thought I was born to travel, and each day I would have a new home, where ever that may be. I once met a man in San Diego who had been in the Vietnam War, he started to tell me the many journeys he had been on. In the end he turned to me and said, " Son I've lived a good life." I realized that's all I wanted was to have my life filled with adventure and story to one day tell others and my grand children if I ever have any...

I had traveled to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Nothing will ever compare to the people I had met and the stories I walked away with.

My first batch of photos are from Switzerland.  I landed in the capital, Zurich, and was picked up by family friends of mine the Fischer family. Kurt Fischer had known my parents since the early 80s when my mother use to be his baking assistant. She learned almost everything from him. Three years ago they came back to the states and ever since they wanted me to come out and visit. So this time I did! Up into the Alps and country side I went.

One of the cool things tho was I was in Switzerland for their independence day. Everyone was extremely nice. You can see below how they celebrate with a big morning brunch and for some hold 80 pound bells, swinging away in tradition.

When I was hiking in the mountains we visited a friend of the Fischer's. They were a couple that lived in a cabin and made REALLY GOOD CHEESE! They liked me and enjoyed my company, the wife told me I was a good looking young man. Like I said Switzerland people are very nice. We stopped there for a bit to eat and went on our way.

I then left and headed to Munich Germany to see a close friend of mine, Simone. I had met Simone at Pianos in the lower east side of Manhattan one night after I finished up a job that was one of those, "I want to rip my eyes out" kinda jobs. But any how, from then on till she left for home, we hung out a lot, and to be honest she opened my eyes to what the world was like for her outside the states. She had a grasp on life that was so different then me, I started looking at things from a different angle.

So when she said come out to Germany...I did.

The more I learned about Munich's history I realized how very different it was compared to New York. Every New Yorker knows how rough our city can be if you live there long enough. Everyone living on edge, and ect. It's pretty funny actually. But Munich when I look back on it now was magically. A city that was kept old and still remained the look it did hundreds of years ago.

Here are kids playing in the fountain, right on the west gate of the old city of Munich.

I then left for Lake Como, Italy. It was a different place, but the culture made me feel that they like to keep to them selves. 

When I got to Atroni in the south of Italy, it was like everyone with open arms welcomed me. Swimming in the Mediterranean, I couldn't compare it to anything else! The place took my breath away by how much beauty was there. I stayed with Anna, who was my babysitter as a kid and was like my second mother since I was three. I stayed with her and her son Alfie. Together I must say we had a blast!

Staying with Anna, I learned so much more about life. She talked a lot about her Husband Vinny who passed away a few years ago, and how in the little town of Atroni he swept her off her feet. Her stories of old love gave me hope and put a smile upon my face. I always loved that about Anna, how she could tell a story to me and make me smile by the end of it.

In the end, the adventure was with in me. It made me rediscover who I am. I can't tell you about what I experienced and who I met, cause you would have to be there to see it for yourself. I think back to the old man in San Diego now, "Son I've lived a good life." I will always remember...