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!