Alia + Josh

Masterpiece? They're all masterpieces these days. So proud of how well Sandbox Love is moving!



Editing this film was one of the hardest tasks I've ever had. I had footage from 4 days of shooting that all had to be packed into a 15 minute piece. Well, I just couldn't make it fit, so it's about 20 minutes. But it's a good 20 minutes. An amazing 20 minutes.

For SO long, I would bring up the project, look through the footage and decide that I wasn't in an inspired enough place to take on what I knew would be one of my best films yet. I had all the tools there, but it was the approach. There were SO many good stories that I wanted to tell. There are some amazing parts to Alia and Josh's story that didn't even make it into the video. Because of that, stay tuned for a little Part II action.

Me and Vitalie shot pretty much the whole thing, with Shaun helping out the first day. As you can see, everything about their wedding weekend was beautiful. I felt incredibly blessed to be part of such a wonderful experience and meet so many wonderful people.

Farewell LaunchSquad

The only thing I can say to justify leaving a job I love is, "Well, it's finally got to that point."

I have worked at LaunchSquad since March of 2010, and I would have kept going had it not been for the immense amount of side work that has come my way. When I started my wedding film company, Sandbox Love, I didn't anticipate it growing so quickly. SBL has now grown into a legitimate brand, being featured on some of the top wedding blogs in the world. Of course, this means I am getting SO many amazing weddings booked, and because it is my dream and passion to tell personal stories, I must pursue it.

I have also taken on a large load of freelance corporate work, which has been awesome. Clients like Yahoo, Easton, WeVideo, Yam, and more have popped up. I've been finding the work I'm doing with them challenging and inspiring.

While there is risk, what it all comes down to is that my ambition has pushed me forward. I believe that with some more time put into Sandbox Love, it can become greater. I can develop the brand, become more responsive, and take on more wedding films. And with more free time, I can take on some corporate projects to keep my creative energy diverse and adaptive.



My time at LaunchSquad has been amazing. I have learned SO much, met so many wonderful and talented people, and been inspired by the businesses I have worked with. I have had so many fun experiences there, from unrestricted access to the top of the empire state building to staying up for a week making the holiday film... it's been nothing but goodness. I'll be writing a big ol' blog post sharing some of the awesome times. I consider myself so lucky to have been a part of the Squad. Take care friends.

3 Big Things (I learned):
- Story always goes first. My Creative Director, Brett Marty, would often guide me in the direction of storytelling. I believe it is an extremely valuable skill to have and an important lesson to learn. I am now a better storyteller... which makes me a better filmmaker.
- Relationships are everything; with the people you work with, the people you work for, and the clients you serve. LS built a relationship focused environment and taught me that co-workers are friends, bosses are mentors, and clients are partners. We are all working together to deliver results.
- Some rooftops have trampolines.

To see a bunch of the work I've done while at LaunchSquad, you can check it out here.

SlideRocket for iPad

Here is a commercial we did for Sliderocket, a presentation creator and viewer that makes presentations look super polished. Definitely check them out!



We shot this in two days in a ton of different locations. It was a long shoot, but very worth it. The hardest part is getting those overhead shots, as it means setting up the large jib. Fortunately, by the end of the shoot we got pretty efficient and can now set that thing up in no time.

WeVideo

Made this one, freelance style, for a company called WeVideo who offers a pretty baller product. They let you do all of your video editing in the cloud which means more collaboration, more flexibility, and the amazingness of being able to edit anywhere with a wifi signal. No hard drives to lug around. Just your footage in the ether, ready to go.



We also made an AWESOME behind the scenes video that shows our process of packing, filming, and then editing the commercial using WeVideo. Because we had such a tight turnaround with the video above, we had to be very clever with our coloring, uploading, and editing. I can't wait to show you how we made this, it's going to blow your world.

Lots more WeVideos to come!






Producers: Jesse Tarnoff, Ben Tuller, Pierce Templeton
Executive Producers: John Canning, Magnus Kristiansen
Director: Jesse Tarnoff
Director of Photography: Vitalie Ungureanu
Screenplay: Jesse Tarnoff
Sound Design: Matt Schwartz
1st Assistant Director: Pierce Templeton
1st Assistant Camera: Richard Paganini
Audio Recording: Nick Ainsworth
Editing/Color Grading: Jesse Tarnoff
Rotoscoping: Cameron Clark
Production Assistant: Shaun Goo
Freefall Cinematography: Iwan Van Der Schoor

Crime. Organized. With Yam!

Life has been crazy busy! Weddings, Commercials, and Corporate. I promise I will get some sleep soon. I just need to hold off the heavy eyes for about another week!

I am VERY excited to show you this commercial I made for a product called Yam. They are an online meeting organization platform that literally allows everybody to be on the same page, while working remotely or locally. Basically, if you were having a phone meeting with someone in San Francisco, someone in Moscow, and someone in Timbuktu, this would allow you to have a common interface for collaboration. Like notepads, voting, cost benefit analysis, and a ton of other tools. Way powerful, and allows you to really accomplish a lot during a meeting.

So... what would happen if the Russian mob got their hands on such a valuable tool? Well, hit fill screen and watch :)



This shoot was so much fun. SO much fun. Cars, Bikini's, Guns, and some great locations. We did production over the course of two days, with a mid sized crew. The editing took a while to get all the fine tuning right, as there was a lot of stuff I wanted to include that we had to trim out for length's sake. But I am seriously siked with the end result!

Crew:
Producers: Ben Tuller, Jesse Tarnoff
Director: Jesse Tarnoff
Executive Producers: Bret Clement, Kyle Peterson
Director of Photography: Vitalie Ungureanu
Screenplay: Zack Keller
Sound Design: Matt Schwartz
Editing/Color Grading: Jesse Tarnoff
1st Assistant Director: Pierce Templeton
Gaffer: Sebastian Burke
Sound Recording: Shaun Goo, Ben Tuller
Production Assistant: Charloette Bueb








"Blonde Hair. Green Eyes."

Caitlin + Ben's "Fly Safe Please"

Here is another film I created for Sandbox Love. When Caitlin emailed me about the opportunity to film this incredibly emotional moment, I think I did a backflip in my seat. I was like, OMG I HAVE to tell this story. Check it out, and you'll see why.



Shaun and I went out to Virginia Beach to shoot this one, and what a trip it was. The weather was perfect, the locations were impressive (fighter jets!), and Caitlin and Ben were just awesome to kick it with. You can check out the official SBL blog post here: Caitlin + Ben.

So proud of this one.

Sandbox Love Turns Uno!

So happy to announce that my company, Sandbox Love, has turned 1 year old. It's still a baby, I know. But the more I learn as a business owner and the more experiences we have, the more mature we'll become. I can't wait for another year of amazing memories.



There are a lot of things I will be implementing in the business, such as hiring somebody to run the day to day operations as well as trying to find some more creative filmmakers to join the team. However, we will remain true to what we are... a boutique wedding filmmaking company. Which basically means you're going to see the same amount of attention to detail we've put into all of our films.

And to our fans, thank you so much for encouraging me. Seeing your comments, reading your emails, and seeing the "like" counter go up energizes me every time. So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

With Love,
Jesse

Inception Spoof - Launchsquad Holiday Video

The hardest we ever work at Launchsquad is during the one week period we have to make a 30 minute holiday film involving everybody in the company. Imagine not sleeping for more than six hours in an entire week. Filming skit, after skit, after skit. It's a ton of fun, but I'm pretty sure we shaved off a couple years of our lives.

During one of those nights, Brett, Nick and I were up all night filming the Video Team's skit. Christine, our Producer and Project Manager has a kid, so she got to go home early :) But check what we did for the Video Team's segment. We rocked it, Inception Style.



This is one of those nights you like to look back on as a filmmaker. Brett, Nick and I were coming up with ideas left and right, figuring it out as we went along. Did we plan ahead of time how we were going to fake the antigravity? No way. And we kept plussing each other. Someone would come up with one thing, and then another person would add something to that, and it just got plussed and plussed until it was this beauty of an inside joke tied into inception.

I still feel sleep deprived from that week. But it was probably one of the best weeks of 2010. So down to do it again.

Dolphin! For Android and more!

Love this quick little project we shot for Dolphin, Android's most popular browser. This project was really spurred on by the Evernote Peak video that we made at LaunchSquad. However this time, we really wanted to add a little style to our production design. Good choice...



My calves got such a workout shooting this. In order to shoot down on all of our mini sets, we had to get the camera pretty high up. And we definitely don't have a ladder laying around at "the pad". Some I was pretty much standing on the tallest chair we had, on my tippy toes, trying to get everything all set. Definitely made the case for getting an external monitor :)

Love the style. Love the look. And 220,000k views on this video ain't bad. And it's still climbing.

Kathryn and Ryan's Wedding FIlm

Here is the Signature Film we made for Kathryn and Ryan's beautiful wedding! We shot this in San Francisco and had the whole Sandbox Love team out for it.

Kathryn, as many of you know, is the founder of a fantastic wedding blog called Snippet and Ink. A while back, she saw a video that we made and decided she wanted us to make a film for her wedding.

We got some awesome coverage with this film, including having our film featured on Martha Stewart! And of course, being the big time blogger that Kathryn is, we got some great exposure from Snippet and Ink.

And most importantly, we've made another beautiful film for a beautiful couple. We've captured an incredibly important moment in their lives, and we're so proud to have been a part of it.

Hindsight - 48 Hour Film

Hey all. So in playing post catch up, I wanted to post a video we did a while back for a 48 Hour Film Project. It was the Go Green version, so we had to do something environmental. Did we? Well, watch and find out. Here are the elements we had to include:

Theme: Saving the Future

Line of Dialogue: When does she arrive?

Prop: Camera

Character: Professor Johnson

So, I'm fairly certain we were disqualified. I don't want to brag but our film looked amazing on the big screen. We loaded it with cool cinematography, awesome music, sound design, and some pretty cool costumes. However, despite being stellar (and arguably the best in these areas) we were awarded nothing except Audience Choice Award Runner Up. But then again, I don't think our film is very environmental.

Still, it was a ton of fun to make. Nick Markham and I did all of the Post Production, with Whitney Ferris helping as a Producer. Our cast also included Kye Mou and a talented Steve Mnich, who nobody knew could act.

While Nick and I were editing, we'd realize we needed to shoot another scene here or another scene there. So we'd get back into costume, head to the location, set up a camera on me and him, and run through the scene. That's why sometimes really amazing cinematography is cut right next to a scene that has zero cuts and runs for a while.

Oh, and if you don't know who the guy at the end of the film is, check out this link: The Nellius Saga.

J. Hilburn in Cancún!

This was a pretty rad trip that Brett Marty and I got to take. J. Hilburn, a company you guys now know all about, rewards it's top sellers with an annual rewards trip. This year, they headed to The Ritz Carlton in Cancun!

You can see that everything about this trip was a beautiful experience. Lots of fun, beautiful weather, and a chance for the partners to take a break from their lives back home.

Shooting this project was right up my alley. With all of the wedding and event coverage I have done with Sandbox Love, this felt like something that came totally naturally. The goal was to try to capture the feeling of the trip. You know, how were did the partners feel being there? Relaxed, free, positive, and with a hint of reflection. I think that really comes across in the video.

Also, it was a great chance to hang out with some of the folks I have been getting to know who are involved in J. Hilburn. I am continually impressed by the caliber of people in that organization and honestly believe they will soon be a fashion powerhouse. It's just awesome that I've been able to see their business grow into what it is now, and I can't wait to see it progress.

J Hilburn - Experience

Check out this video we made for one of my favorite clients eva. Since starting work with J. Hilburn, I've pretty much become an evangelist for their products and business. Love everything about my experience with them. Here is a video we made at Launchsquad to promote their custom clothing.

Obviously there is a lot of cool stuff that went into this video. Visual effects, sets, baller cameras, and lots and lots of practice. This was a pretty big production with months of pre-visualization. We had days of auditions to get the right guy, editing and pacing tests, visual effects tests. It's crazy how much pre-production and planning went into this thing.

Here is a video of the behind the scenes for The J. Hilburn Experience. It's mostly behind the scenes of production, rather than of pre-production and post. But it's still pretty cool.

If you want to take a look at one of the previous videos we made for J. Hilburn, check it out.

BACKtotheWOODS - The Society

Well, this shoot certainly brought be back to where I got most of my filmmaking background. Before I hit film school, and before I even made my high school films, I was a skater. And I made skate videos.

I shot this with my buddy Zack Heffner, a wicked photographer turned into a wicked filmmaker. The shoot was so sick, we went up into the woods and basically built a little makeshift skatepark. The riders you see in the video are sponsored by The Society and so it was cool to do a skate shoot for an actual company, rather than the typical "for my friends" kinda deal.

While we were shooting, I was amazed by how resilient these skaters were. They were taking falls and hopping right back up to try the trick again. I guess I had forgot about the beating my body took 7 years ago.

I love the video. It's got style.

Evernote Peek

This video is way rad. In the middle of all the crazyness that's been going on, we got word that we needed to make a video for Evernote's new product, Evernote Peak. We had something like 48 hours to put something together for their launch. Take a looksie at one of our most viral vids...

We did the shooting in about 5 hours and then I spent about 2 hours with it in editing. Came out so well. And here is a little secret: all of those hands are my co-workers at Launchsquad (except the kid).

The video took off, getting to about 140,000+ views within 24 hours. Looks like folks just needed a short and sweet, cute and fun, incie wincie little video. AND the product is pretty clever too. Definitely better than the flashcards I used to use back in the day :)

UPDATE: 200k Views! And it looks like the video is going to be a commercial you will be seeing on Hulu :)

Anyclip

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I posted anything. Things have gotten crazy busy with Sandbox Love ramping up, Launchsquad Video ramping up, and a bunch of cool freelance corporate opportunities. But the good news is I have like 20 videos in the "to be blogged" queue.

First Up! Anyclip!

Here is a video Nick and I made at Launchsquad for a company that basically takes the idea of all of the Low Quality versions of real movies on Youtube and makes running across them a non issue. If you search for a scene in Anyclip, that scene actually comes up; in a high quality, fullscreen-able viewer.

As you can see, the video is motion graphics heavy. We've been dabbling more and more in motion graphics and I'm happy to say that we've made some huge progress in what we can achieve. Just wait til you see all the other good stuff coming up!

Jumio goes Viral

Well it's happened again. Another video we have made at LaunchSquad has spun upward and out of control. And this time, it's something we were intending. We created a video for a company called Jumio who is still in stealth mode about what they actually do. So, the little bit that I know, I can't tell you. But what I can tell you is that Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin (Yup, the dude from The Social Network) invested a substantial amount in the start-up.

And Jumio being the cool and edgy client that they are wanted to do something that would stir up some conversation around their company. And so here is what we came up with.



The Path to Viral.
When the Huffington Post wrote an article on Jumio's funding from Saverin, they embedded our video into the article. The Huffington post of course gets a ton of reads, and a lot of those readers checked out the video. And what they saw was not what they were expecting from a company that changes the way we handle electronic payments. Most of them viewed the video as a horrific example of scare tactics and propaganda. They accused our expert Sebastian Cole of being a liar and a fear mongerer. The comments shot up on the article, and there was quite a bit of controversy around the video.

We wanted to take it as far as we could, to the point of being over the top. Very few people seemed to get this video was made to be tongue in cheek. When the video went viral, Wade Roush wrote this Xconomy article on the video itself. He even interviewed Nick Markham who played "Sebastian Cole". And Nick definitely held his own both in character and out.

Making It

When making this, I tried to shoot the dollar bills in as menacing a way as possible. That shot of Lincoln sitting there is way creepy. I mean, there's really nothing happy about the dollar bill. I also did a bunch of post grading on Nick's interview to give it that orange and blue look. It was really the first time I had played with that color spectrum. Editing it was pretty easy since the main force comes from the narrators voice and the creepy images. I kept bursting out laughing when I would roll playback.

I love how everything turned out. It's awesome that so many people, even doubters of the technology, know the name Jumio now. And honestly, I still laugh every time we see that baby and hear the thunder clap. "It could kill our children!" People took that seriously? Lawl.

More Jumio video coverage: Zippy Cart.

Thrutu - An Awesome App

I love this video. Nick and I recently made this for one of our clients at LaunchSquad: Thrutu. The application basically lets you use your phone to easily send information while talking on the phone. So if we were chatting and I wanted to send you a picture of where I was, I could easily snap a photo and send it through the phone call. Check it out:



When we brainstormed for the video, we tried to come up with some of the most meaningful and useful ways to use the application, but to also make it meaningful. We shot this over a few days around San Francisco. And if you watch the second half, you'll notice an adorable kitten. That's Clocks, my old roommate's kitten!



Really excited about how we're pushing the production quality higher and higher. More good things to come.

Clairmail Fraud Solution

I recently had some fraudster put about $350 on my account. It sucked. I knew it wasn't me because I there were two charges at a place called "House of Chicken" which is definitely not me. As you know, I'm more of a cereal guy. So, coincidentally I was working on a video at LaunchSquad for one of their clients, Clairmail. Clairmail works by sending alerts to your phone when they detect fraudulent activity AKA someone tries to spend $100 at "House of Chicken" when you're a cereal kinda guy.

Here is the video:



Nick Markham and I shot and directed the video. It also stars an actor/filmmaker friend of mine, Ben Tuller. I'm really happy with how the video turned out. It's got great production value and is crystal clear about how their company saves folks from losing money to fraud.

A Whole Lotta Savings!

Brett Marty, Nick Markham and I got to head to Chicago in early November to film a bunch of videos for Savings.com. They were having an event called the Save Up where they invite the most influential people in the "savings and deals" blogosphere and have a little conference. It was held at The James Hotel which was super nice. Like, really really nice.

It was cool getting to meet all of the people behind such a forward thinking company. They're really trying to build a community of money saving experts, and it's pretty cool to see all the backgrounds of their "DealPros." All in all I edited about 30 videos for them from the footage we shot while in Chicago. Wild right? Most of them were interviews with their DealPro's on how to save money during the holidays. But we also did a couple of other videos that were about the conference. Here are some vids for you to check out!







We also shot a bunch of awesome tilt shift footage while we were on the rooftops. Some day I'll edit that stuff together for ya :) And here is us goofing around on the trampoline that was on one of the rooftops while we were timelapsing!

Swanman Travels Live Show

A while back, Vitalie and I went up to UC Davis for the Whole Earth Festival to film my brother's band, Swanman Travels. Unfortunately, the band isn't around anymore as a few of the band members moved away from home. It's a shame, cuz they have such a wonderful sound and energy. As you're about to seeeee...



It was hard to string together one piece out of their whole performance, since it spanned the entirety of the sun setting. Some shots it's bright out, some shots it's very dark. I tried to take some creative license in in giving the brighter stuff a more of a gold color tone, so that it didn't look like it was meant to be part of the performance, but rather, almost a flashback of the beginning of the show.

I'm hoping these guys get together again and make some more music. Love their album!

Jared and Christy's Wedding Film

Check this. Seriously. The last part of it combines so many camera trinkets it's like a camera connoisseur's vision of heaven. I'm talking a modified 5D with an ultra-violet sensor, a digital harinezumi, car mounted GoPro hero, handheld time-lapse, tilt shift lens. And WHAT!? This is a wedding video? Damn straight.



This is of course the newest film made for my company, Sandbox Love. It was shot by myself and Vitalie Ungureanu and edited by me. The reason I got to go crazy with all of this camera gear is because Jared himself is a camera junkie. He is an amazing photographer and a great filmmaker. Check out his company, Redtail Media. It was fun to film with him; he kept asking us about our little film trinkets. Like my digital harinezumi, a toy video camera that makes footage look like 8mm film. He and Christy also totally played for the camera. Like doing cute little things when they knew we were shooting, so that we'd get great moments.

Such a fun wedding, and so excited for Jared and Christy who really are perfect for each other. Here is the official Sandbox Love blog post: http://sandboxlove.us/?p=204

MORE
Jared and Christy's Love Story!
Jeffrey Neal's Demo with Jared and Christy!