As my company blog and my personal filmmaking blog start to head off in different directions, I want to define the difference a little bit. Sandbox Love is the company that I have been building for almost a year. On there you will find nothing but wedding related videos. However, on that site I will talk about the couples I get to work with, what I find inspiring about their story, and a little about how the films were made.
On my personal filmmaking blog you will find a lot of videos that aren't related to weddings. It will be videos for the PR firm I work for, films I make with my friends, and any solo cinematography projects I do. I will also post wedding films that I made with Sandbox Love, but in the text I will talk more about how I made those films. More of a behind the scenes if you will.
Allison and Craig's wedding was such a fun event. Check it!
This was the video I wanted to launch my wedding film company with. The joy, playfulness, and cinematic opportunity at the wedding was exactly the feel I wanted to base Sandbox Love on. For more about the approach to my company, see below or click here.
Going into the day, Nick, Rob and I planned out how we wanted to do most of the shooting. I rolled around with the glidetrack and wide lenses mostly while Rob "rocked" the 85mm close ups. Nick (quickly earning the nickname "Iron Nick") was using the glidecam to get all of the great sweeping shots. The combination of all of this is a magic combo. We should give it a name.
While we were taking a break and restoring some of our brain's creativity, Cassie and Dan at Los Gatos DJ Company played that first song you heard in the video. I turned to the rest of the team and said, "we're using this."
A huge shout out to Ashley Maxwell and her husband Jason who are incredible photographers, super warm people, and quickly becoming friends. We've shot with them before and can't wait to shoot alongside them again.
It's finally here! I've been building towards launching a wedding film company for the past year, and I've finally got everything up and running. Take a look!
I should say a few things about the company. When I first started working in the wedding video industry, I was a little ashamed of what I was doing. Coming from a top film school, I felt like I wasn't owning up to my full potential; that I should be in Hollywood somewhere making real movies. Then something changed. I had a realization that wedding filmmaking, when done my way, is exactly what I want to be doing.
I get to tell meaningful stories again and again. My films aren't just entertainment... they are memories. I make films that matter. It's inspiring to know that each little cut I make in a film will be there, playing on their screens, in twenty years. Sons and daughters of my clients will grow up seeing these movies, catching a glimpse of what their parents were like on the happiest day of their lives. That I get to use my creativity and passion for this purpose, is truly amazing.
Sandbox Love is a company that strives to hit two feelings. The first is Love. But we're not going for Enya style here, we're talkin the fun, playful side. The cute quirks that make couples unique. Weddings are fun, and we want to capture that energy. The second feeling is Nostalgia. We want there to be a degree of reflection in our films. An air of sweetness, and sensitivity. I believe that feeling to be often overlooked in wedding videos, and I want to see what happens if I can capture that emotion.
Above all else, this is what I want to do. I have found my purpose. Sandbox Love.
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!
My buddies and I have been doing this 48 Hour Film Racing thing for a little over a year now, and we love it. Going into it, I always dread the amount of work that is going to be required to meet my standards, because it often comes at the expense of sleep. But at the end of the 48 hours, when my body is numb and teeth are chattering from the absurd amount of caffeine in me, I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment. These weekends are by far the most productive weekends I'll ever have. In the words of Ben Tuller, who is on my team, "These are weekends I will actually remember." Troof.
Here was the assignment for this years SF race. Genre: Fantasy (Awesome) Character: GG Cook the Consultant Prop: A Plate Line: "You're not going to believe what happened."
So, ya... I mean, our whole approach to these weekends is about having fun. We. Just. Want. To. Have. Fun. And we definitely do. But you're still probably asking "What in the world was that?" We'll leave that up for interpretation. Of course, one clue might be to watch the video that comes after this one, Nellius 5000 and Zupitron: Ultimate Battle Buddies.
The cool thing about this movie is that we made this entire thing in 48 Hours, WITH 4 PEOPLE! Our actors were our crew. That was it. We're extremely proud of our ability to make fun films look amazing, with the tiny crew that we have.
The only big difference between this online version and the version we turned in is the sound design. It's now properly mixed and I added a bunch of extra sound effects. We had all of the grading and editing done before hand, which is pretty incredible to think that we color graded in a 48 hour film. IMO, definitely worth it.
One question that was asked at the screening was, "How much of this did we prepare ahead of time?" The answer is, none of it. We fortunately had loads of props and locations from films we have made in the past. We shot this on a Canon EOS 7D with a very basic lens kit. Nothing too fancy... (we didn't get to utilize my macro lens). Hope you enjoyed it. I'm really hoping we're in the running for cinematography this year!
You guys have no idea how busy things have gotten. Well, maybe you do because you've seen I haven't added any new content to my blog. Well, this week will certainly have content! What have I been working on?
The major thing I have been working on is developing my new Wedding Film brand. It's a project I've been working on for almost a year, and it's finally getting to the launch point. Expect big news within a month, and a bunch of awesome new wedding films!
I've also been doing some commercial work for a candy store at Universal Studios. Very excited to show you what we came up with for them... footage looks legit.
I also made two videos for a huge author you may have heard of, Geneen Roth, who has been on Oprah twice now and has been at the top of the New York Times best seller list for a few months now. I also had some of my footage on Oprah, and had the first credit of the show go to me and Vitalie Ungureanu, who shot the videos with me.
I've also been working hard at my full time gig, LaunchSquad. Brett Marty and I have really pushed the video department far in the last few months. I have a bunch of content I am waiting to release regarding that stuff, just waiting for our clients to release the videos. Marty and I have been to Las Vegas, New York, Washington DC, and almost got to hit up Chicago. We're producing some very solid work, and are gunning to push into the advertising realm with some of our clients!
But for nowwwwwwww. Here are two more short videos I did for Shmaltz Brewing Company! Basically, just introducing the folks who are on the label's of Shmaltz' Coney Island Lager. To see the last video I made for them, and to see the equipment used, check it out here.
SOOO much stuff coming out this week! Stay tuned for the new 4QR98 Pass 48 Hour Film!!!
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.
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