Men's Health and J. Hilburn

Here is a recent video I shot and directed for Men's Health. It was produced by LaunchSquad, and I have to say, it's a great piece.



Flew out to the Men's Health office in NYC and met up with Brian Boye and J. Hilburn's head of product, Jon Patrick. First, let me say that the Men's Health office is pretty rad. Yoga studio, lots of cool offices, and a pretty cool looking set of stairs right through the middle.

It was a fun shoot, despite my lack of sleep. One of the best outtakes I have ever witnessed occurred, and we all started roaring with laughter. I'm really happy with how the video came out and a lot of credit goes to the editor for compiling it into a great piece for Men's Health.

Client: J. Hilburn
Agency: Launchsquad
Creative Director: Brett Marty
Direction: Jesse Tarnoff
Writing: Brett Marty, Tessa Greenwood
Cinematography: Jesse Tarnoff, Joe Belack
Additional Footage: Jesse Tarnoff, Vitalie Ungureanu
Editing: Cory Leavitt

Lenses: 85mm 1.2, 24mm 1.4, 70-200 2.8, Sigma 105 2.8

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.

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.

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.

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!

i365 Cloud Vs. On-Premise Episode 2

Here is another video we shot for one of our client's at LaunchSquad. You may remember Episode one of Cloud vs. On-Premise.



Brett Marty and I had so much fun making this video. Something about having a giant Cloud costume in the streets of San Francisco makes the vibe of the shoots very low key and fun. We shot a bunch of other fun stuff that didn't make it into the video, but we're hoping to use it in the future.

Editing this film was a difficult, as there were a lot of considerations to make about what each scene said about the company's messaging. We wanted it all to work with the idea that a cloud storage solution mixed with an on-premise solution is the best option. A hybrid.

I'm happy with how it came out. I'm hoping we get a chance to up the ante even more in the next one. I see a lot of potential in putting our characters in some very dramatic situations and locations.

Here it is in action: http://blogs.i365.com/cloud-connected-recovery/backup-brothers-battle-video-part-ii-cloud-vs-on-premise/

On Top of New York: Towerstream

Brett Marty and I got to go over to New York for a couple of days to film this for Towerstream, one of LaunchSquad's clients. I was pretty siked when I was told we had unrestricted access to the coolest and tallest buildings in New York. Here's what we came up with!



There are a lot of really cool shots in here of skylines, clouds, and giant towers. There was one night where we were chilling on the top of the LaunchSquad New York office with a six pack, timelapsing footage of the Empire State Building. At the same time, we were doing a "Dolly Timelapse" where at every interval, we pushed the camera forward on our Glidetrack. It was funny, because we were doing this every 30 seconds, and we would sit down in between the intervals. So Marty and I had a lot of short, 25 second conversations: which is perfect for our rapidly declining attentions spans.

Me on top of "The Hub".
Marty on top of the Empire State Building.

Timelapsing sunrise from the top of the Empire State Building might be one of the coolest things I've ever done. We got a ton of beautiful footage for this film. We're excited to go on top of Chicago and Miami next!

J Hilburn - Revolutionizing Men's Clothing

About a month and a half ago I rolled to Dallas to film for an up and coming men's clothing brand called J. Hilburn. What they do is pretty awesome, and I had a blast getting to know the guys behind the idea. Check out the video, I think it does a good job of explaining how their business model works, and why they are able to offer top of the line custom clothing for less than half the cost.



I shot this with Vitalie Ungureanu, who's quickly becoming my go to shooter. Both days we shot were scorchers, luckily the 7 million dollar mansion we were shooting in was pumped with AC that felt almost as valuable. We used two 5DmkII's, an assortment of lenses, and the 'ol glidetrack. We got tons of good footage, some of which you might see more of. Every interview we shot was just packed with soundbites. It was a very successful shoot.



Going into filming, I knew that I wanted to include some elements that made the video look a little more "magazine-esk." I had a couple of different aesthetic choices in mind, and we ended up going with a merging of the different looks. Nick Markham did the visual effects in the beginning of the video, as pretty much his first dive into After Effects. So excited to see how far we're going to go with motion graphics and visual effects. We've just begun.

Editing this puppy took a while; lots of late nights, chipotle, and scotch. But I think that we definitely got a winner here. I'm very proud of it.

Diapers.com

Made this for LaunchSquad's client, Quidsi (parent company of Diapers.com and Soap.com) for the press event and launch of Soap.com.



I loved shooting this video. The coolest thing about working with LaunchSquad is that our clients are all so innovative. It wasn't hard to understand why Diapers.com was #34 on the fortune 500. I mean, they legitimately save moms tonsssss of time, which allows them to spend more time enjoying their kids. Diapers.com is brilliant.

Soap.com Launches!!!

It's crazy. Through LaunchSquad I have gotten to work with some amazing companies. Soap.com (Also Diapers.com) is #34 on the Fortune 500 list... and I'm shooting and editing the video for their company launch. I mean, this video is going to be at the front of a huge movement. The Soap.com launch is being dubbed the biggest launch in retail history, and I get to be a major part of it. How lucky am I? Here is the vid:




Soap.com is brilliant. You can bet I will be using their services for my toothpaste, floss, toilet paper, detergent; I mean, anything they HAVE that I NEED, I'll get from them. Wouldn't you?

I shot this with Brett Marty, mostly in New York and New Jersey. The warehouse footage is all from Reno and the kids stuff is from a shoot we did for Diapers.com a while ago. The major challenge in shooting the film was finding cinematic interview backdrops in the new Quidsi (parent company) office. And maybe dealing with the humidity of New York. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. For a long time, I couldn't formulate a vision for how I wanted to edit the video. Then I found a pace and a vibe that I liked, and it worked out.

Very very very excited to see how this video does! It's been posted on some HUGE outlets, one of which is TechCrunch!

Diapers.com Fulfillment Center

This is pretty cool. I'm on a plane back from NYC where I was shooting for one of LaunchSquad's clients, Diapers.com. They just announced their new sister company, Soap.com. It's pretty sweet, it's basically an online store for everyday essentials and it delivers it to 70% of the country the next day, for free.

Here is one of the three videos we made for their launch presentation.



We shot this with Brett Marty up in Reno a few weeks ago. I actually had a lot of fun on that shoot. I got to hop onto one of those robots as it made it's way around the entire factory. At one point I actually got boxed in by 4 other robots loaded with stacks of Diapers boxes.

This video has got a lot of praise so far from media. It was posted to TechCrunch which was a nice outlet for exposure. Check it out here.

Also, major props to Nick Markham for doing a great edit. Stay tuned for the other videos. Very different content but solid films.

-Jesse Tarnoff

Cloud Vs. On Premise Storage

Can two brothers reconcile their differences and work together in a state of hybrid bliss?



This film was a blast to make. Brett Marty and I produced this for i365, a data storage and protection company. After throwing around a few ideas about our approach, we settled on a fake movie trailer that plays up their relationship in a very dramatic way. Pretty hilarious stuff when combined with the cumbersome costumes. Here is a pic of Brett and I working hard:


To get the big movie feel we shot on a Canon 5DmkII and my Canon 7D with a 50mm 1.4 and a Sigma 10-20mm. I was very impressed with the 5DmkII combined with 50mm. We utilized the 1m Glidetrack both horizontally and vertically, putting as much subtle movement on our shots as we could. The next step was the editing. Lots of quick multishot sequences, fades, and sound design. I've always loved shooting and editing trailers, so editing this felt very natural once we figured out the feel of the piece.

I also wanna give a shout out to Henry Dombey, who recorded our sound and boom op'd. Stay tuned for additions to this video series! And if you like this, tweet it to your friends! Thanks.

-Jesse Tarnoff