Thanksgiving photo shoot with Trevor Finc

My brother Trev is the most humble rock star out there, but I convinced him to let me take these "glamour shots" of him on Thanksgiving night in 10 degree weather.  Click on the images to see them larger.

Bloodbuzz Ohio

And now I'm going to interrupt my retrospective series that is just getting started to post something new.


Natalie D-Napoleon is a singer/songwriter friend of ours.  She's originally from Australia but currently living in Santa Barbara.  We've seen her play at a few different venues around here and her latest album has been my go-to choice for family-friendly, living room listening lately.  The song she's playing above is a cover of a song written by The National, one of my favorite bands from the last decade.

This project is less a music video and more of a recording of a live performance.  The idea behind it was to do something simple, informal, off-the-cuff.  The immediacy of it was uncharacteristic for me.  The first time I heard Natalie's version of the song was during our first take of recording it.  I didn't get a look at the recording space until 15 minutes prior to that.  The editing was done during limited free time over six days.  It has more in common with my Bud Light Film Crew work than something like my "Fake Empire" music video (another song by The National, by the way).

This is the first video I made with my new Canon 6D, and it was meant to be a kind of test, not only of the equipment but also of my skills, seeing as I hadn't done anything with video in over three years.  This was a modest restarting point, but I'm hoping to step things up with increasingly complex productions, possibly more with Natalie if she's interested.  There has been some talk of bringing her band members into the mix.  We'll see.

I didn't want the camera work or editing to distract from the performance.  Originally the style was going to be even more minimalistic -- I wanted to limit the whole thing to two takes and call it good -- but I lost my confidence at the last minute and decided I needed more coverage.  I'm not sure I like the combination of handheld and tripod shots and kind of wish I stuck to one or the other.  It was a case of not having a clear vision of what I wanted and the results feel somewhat compromised by doing it both ways.

I hate to concentrate on the negative, but in order to learn from the experience, I want to document the major flaws in the video (this way I can beat you to the punch):

• Audio is distorted at peaks.  This is my biggest regret from the shoot.  I misjudged how loud Natalie would get.  We could have avoided the problem with a proper sound check.  Or I could have used the automatic settings for audio capture. The problem with auto sound, however, is the levels are equalized.  It brings the quiet parts up and loud parts down so it all meets in the middle.  Is a more dynamic experience worth the distortion?  Probably not.  I'll stick to manual settings next time but need to set the levels lower.
• Lips/guitar out of sync with music.  Ideally, we would have recorded the song in a studio, had it properly mixed, and then played it back while Natalie sings along.  The second best option would have been to have her listening to a click track so that the song was played at the same exact tempo for each take.  But we didn't use either of those methods.  She played the song five times, and I used the audio track from the second take.  She did a fantastic job of recreating the performance (movements, eye line, etc) each time, but unfortunately the beat was not consistent.  While editing, I couldn't hold a shot of her singing for more than a few seconds without her lips becoming obviously out of sync with the words.
• Changing light.  We recorded for nearly two hours late in the day and it was difficult to compensate for a quickly moving sun.  I made some adjustments to my aperture settings as I went (shutter speed and ISO settings had to stay the same throughout), and I attempted to color correct every shot afterward (which made me realize how little I know about color correction).  But I wasn't able to overcome the changing light and colors in the room.  I probably could have covered it up and given it a more consistent look by adding some kind of filter in post-production, but I wanted it to look as natural as possible.
• Camera shake and out-of-focus.  This was a bigger challenge for me than I expected.  I shot three of the five takes hand held, with a really shallow depth of field.  The Canon 6D does not have an auto focus while shooting video.  It was very difficult to hold the focus and also make any kind of motion smooth.  It was hard to tell if/when I even was in focus.  I want to make a magnifier for my viewfinder. I also got my old shoulder mount out of the closet and plan to use it next time.

...So maybe I'm over-thinking the video after all.  This was a fun project to work on, and it really whet my appetite do more creative things.

Early works revisited: Marco Polo (2000)

I shot "Marco Polo" over Christmas break during my junior year of college with my dad's Hi-8 video camera and put it together in an analogue editing suite at school during the month of January. I had access thanks to the suite my involvement with the campus TV station. I remember NOT asking if I was allowed to use it for personal projects because I didn't want to be told no. Since the J-term was pretty quiet at school and I knew the guy who work-studied at the front desk, I slipped in under the radar once in a while.

It was an unforgiving editing machine -- once you laid down a clip, it stayed there. Each time you recorded over a section of VHS tape, the quality noticeably degraded, so the every cut was planned out ahead of time by going over logs of the tape in my dorm room.  The audio could only be laid down while the video was playing, with all adjustments happening real time, manually with a dial.  But all of this was an improvement over the "two VCR" method of editing that I'd used prior to this project.  Now you can do non-linear editing of HD video on your phone.  But in the year 2000, the opportunity to edit video was worth a great deal to me.

The news packages I was making at the time were each a few minutes long, contained hard cuts (i.e. no dissolve transitions), and were overlaid with one track of music and one track of voice -- all the same elements that comprise "Marco Polo".  If you dare, here's one of those news packages.  As rough as it is, it remains one of my favorites from the time because we had one day to record it and it was pouring rain outside the whole day.  We had to get creative and shot almost the entire thing from inside a car.  I lived for challenges like that.

While "Marco Polo" is meant to stand on its own, it ended up acting as a loose sequel (or epilogue?) to a collaboration between me and my brother called "The Winter War" that was worked on both before and after this one. "The Winter War" expands on the school-as-war metaphor by actually diving into the battles described in "Marco Polo." It was more ambitious in every aspect and took me over a year to edit (and this was back when I even had a lot of free time).  I can't wait to discuss that one in its own blog post eventually.

The first shot of "Marco Polo" sets the pace -- and it's a slow one. It doesn't hold up so well with the short attention spans found online today (I should talk).  The movie I made prior to this, "A Night In January" was something like 20 minutes long. "Marco Polo" was actually a response to that length, something that would be more likely to get into a no-budget film festival. Back then I thought it was streamlined, but who has time to sit down and watch a six-minute amateur movie these days?

There is very little camera movement in the film. Using a tripod was important because the steadiness was the only production value separating this project from a home video.  Once the camera was on the tripod, I didn't touch it.  Any movement would have been too jerky.  If there are jitters present, they are probably the result of tape degradation.

The film is scored by a slow burning Depeche Mode song. That's a band that will show up again, quite memorably if you ask me, in "The Winter War" along with all of my other favorite bands of the time. "Marco Polo" is shorter and the mood is more singular, so it felt right to limit the soundtrack to one song.

The opening and closing credits are not in their original form. Originally, they were typed up in Power Point, displayed on a computer monitor, and then I simply pointed the camera at them. Unfortunately the camera wasn't quite level and I didn't notice the problem until I was in the editing suite, so I used them anyway. A couple of years later when I transferred the film to a computer for the first time, I replaced the credits with the current digital title cards. I know it's only in my head but they still appear not-quite-level to me.

I don't want to dive too deep into the intended meaning behind the film. You can probably tell there are some personal bits in it, although don't get too caught up in that thinking because there's still plenty of artistic license at play. The overall theme comes from the feeling I would get being on Christmas break during 5th or 6th grade. Those were rough years for me. I felt like the world was trying to corrupt me or at least bully me.  It probably would have been more poignant (but perhaps more typical) to represent the horrors of war by telling a story about kids in school, but I swapped it around and used war as a metaphor for school because that was more meaningful and relate-able to me.  I like small-scale, personal films, not global or political ones.

So there's all these lines like "they taught me so much" and "playing with such a toy..." and references to childhood like the monster under the bed scene and birthday parties and the game Marco Polo itself.  There's the shot of Trev wearing a graduation gown in front of a mirror.  I loved the idea including bits that couldn't be literally explained but still conjure up some meaning.  I was much more interested in moods and atmosphere at the time than I was with plot.  Those are still the types of movies I like to watch today.

My favorite scene is in the middle when we see the black and white movie playing on a TV screen. The footage playing was originally it's own project called "Five Years" and it was edited entirely in-camera. By cutting between it and the "Marco Polo" footage I was able to eliminate some of the roughness and gaps "Five Years" had as its own film. It made a nice home for this other video project that wasn't good enough to stand on its own and didn't seem to fit anywhere else. As far as what is happening in this movie within a movie... It has something to do with calling a girl.

My least favorite scene is the one with my cameo as the friend who gets "eaten by the monster under the bed."  First of all, it's not very well shot. I had to frame the sequence without seeing me in it, hit record, and then get into position. I had very little to work with while editing and reshooting wasn't an option because by the time I realized it wasn't going to work I was already back at school. Then there's the ridiculousness of the acting. It doesn't look like a monster is pulling me under the bed so much as I'm pulling myself under. And the animated making of the bed was just a bad idea that doesn't fit, even within the internal, skewed logic of the film.

I'm not sure where I got the idea for "Marco Polo" from, but the narration was inspired by the narration in Fight Club.  That movie had a huge impact on me, as mentioned here.

At one time I had the entire narration in "Marco Polo" memorized. I had spent a lot of time working on the words, tossing them around in my head over and over again, until they felt right. There's a point in that process where you cross a line between what might actually be poetic and what only sounds good because you've heard it so many times. I couldn't even tell you what side of that line this narration falls on because of my closeness to it.  I would literally recite the whole thing aloud to myself while driving or taking a shower or whenever, and I don't even know why.

If you want to take a closer look at the narration, I transcribed it below:

The winter war was over. Upon my homecoming, my loved ones greeted me at the door. They were unaware of the monster I had become. I was now the living, breathing embodiment of everything they hated. I had built a wall surrounding me – blocking me from all love and humanity. I was every woman’s broken heart. My parents had missed me, but they would continue to miss me because their son would never come home.

The war began in September. I forget the year. My friends were still spending their allowance on cigarettes. I had to roll them myself, but I got cigarettes for free. I got a lot of things for free. I’m just glad they let me keep my gun. Playing with such a toy could be dangerous, but I could handle it well. They taught me so much, including some valuable life lessons.

I was home in time for Christmas, but that made no difference. I guess not even love was enough to save me.  

I discovered my friend was dead. He was eaten by the monster under his bed. I’m sure we all know by now, human nature leads to bloodshed.

I must have been an emotional kid. I remember crying when I bit into a piece of candy with the plastic wrapper still on it. I cried other times for no reason at all - just to cry. I remember attending a birthday party where I didn’t know any of the boys very well. I started crying, and I told the birthday boy’s mom they were all picking on me. I’m not sure why I did that.

I had nice parents, but I remember them turning on me once. They made fun of my crying once. I used that moment to fill my head when I started killing. I can imagine people doing much worse things if their parents had acted that way more often.

Thucydides, a Greek historian, once said, “War is a stern teacher. In depriving them of the power of easily satisfying their daily wants, it brings most peoples minds down to the level of their actual circumstances. War also brings envy and revenge to the surface and frantic violence becomes the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of defense.”

I never noticed how alien the ears on the sides of my head looked until my return from the winter war.

My emotion has escaped me. I feel none. I wasn’t even upset when they took my eyes.

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I recently reviewed some of the uncut footage for "Marco Polo", and I can see I was demanding on my actor, Trevor.  I sound pretty bossy.  To be a filmmaker, you need a strong ego.  That's another thing I have lost in the years since, humbled by life in the real world and from watching amazing work from all kinds of creative people online.  That could be part of the reason for my lack of output lately.

I don't have a lot of "extras" for this project. I wish I had my original notes/script, but they are either somewhere in my parents' garage or lost forever.  I did find this blooper reel from when I was trying to get a line from Trevor for "Five Years."  It goes on a little long, but it fondly reminds me of the hours Trev and I used to spend working on projects like this.


After all that trouble, the line didn't get used anywhere, probably because it didn't make any sense.

Well, this has been an unorganized stream of thoughts about the film.  I'm trying not to spend too much time perfecting my writing.  I'd rather just get more of it out there.  I'm sure I'll be clarifying/expanding/fixing each of these entries as time goes on, so let's just consider this a rough starting point for now.

Early works revisited: Introduction

Since my creative output has been limited lately, I figured I'd take the opportunity to look back at some earlier projects of mine that haven't yet been documented on the web. This will allow me to record some of the details before I forget them entirely and also share them with anybody who might be interested (granted that may only include my future self).

I was going to start at the beginning and work my way forward, but that would just be too embarrassing too soon, so instead we're going to start at what I consider to be a turning point and go in both directions through time from there. At the rate I've been blogging, it will take multiple years to cover everything I want to cover, so I hope you are by no means expecting this to be wrapped up quickly with a constant stream of entries.

Another disclaimer: The works I will be discussing are ridiculously indulgent and pretentious and hold very little entertainment value. But at the time they were made I considered each of them to be a personal, artistic statement. I still hold them dear, even if they are dated and laughable. I'm aware of their flaws... they were made by a kid after all.

And just to set a little context, most of these videos were made before YouTube and some of them before digital, non-linear editing (at least for me). It was a time before everybody carried a video recording device in their pocket. There was still some magic in the medium for me. I knew nothing about photography and was training myself in video production. For a long time it felt like anything was interesting if you put it in front of a camera. Believe me, I tested that hypothesis by shooting some pretty mundane subjects.  Editing was a thrilling puzzle. I loved putting two shots together and discovering what fit and what didn't.  So much of it is based on intuition rather than hard science, which was a nice change of pace from the track I found myself on during school and in my career.

By working on my own movies, my appreciation for watching movies deepened, especially lower budget, independent films because those are the ones in which you could still see the seams.  There was a local film festival held at my college my freshman and sophomore years that was incredibly inspiring to me.  I was a no-budget filmmaker and I liked to see what could be done with similar / the same constraints.

Projects I want to discuss (in a rough order):

- Marco Polo
- Four Rocks Down
- A Night in January
- Quit
- The Winter War
- Placebo Road
- Drunken Laundry
- Cottage Cheese
- Dreamer
- Unproduced scripts

A few of them are already online and clips from almost all of them show up in my early demo reel, but I have some additional things I want to document about each.  Maybe I'll scan some handwritten notes and shot lists for the projects or include some deleted scenes.  I even have a campus-televised interview with me discussing the meaning behind "Placebo Road" that I might share. This is going to be fun!

Movies from 1999 [archive]

I was going through some files I had transferred from an old computer, and I thought this was interesting.  It's a list of all the movies I saw in 1999 with a brief review of each.  I wrote this at the end of 1999 and posted it on my website (called "Jeff's Lair") at the time.  I haven't re-watched many of these movies recently, so I can't say if my opinions hold up (I was probably a little harsh on The Hurricane), but these thoughts from a younger me may help set the stage for the retrospective of my creative projects I'm planning for this blog.  Take a look.

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1999 was a great year for movies, in fact the best I can remember. Here's a quick look at all the movies I saw during the year. They are not in an exact order from best to worst, but the better movies did tend to make their way to the top of the list.

Fight Club -- The most breath-taking, in-your-face film I've seen in a long time. More than just a movie, it is an experience that will take you to the edge and back. This brutal satire is one that will only get more popular in the years to come. In my opinion, it is the one movie that will define the 90s more than any other. Fight Club is my favorite movie of 1999 and one of my favorites of all time.

American Beauty -- How could anybody not love this movie? This is a wonderful way to spend a few hours. I was so deeply involved with this movie in the theater, I was almost unable to return to the real world when it was done. I loved the beautiful wide-screen cinematography, the score, the script, the acting... This movie rules.

Go -- An intense rush of a movie. It's all about being young and invincible. You can't go wrong with a concept like that, along with superb direction. This one will make you feel alive. Enough said.

The Sixth Sense -- Unfortunately I saw the ending coming from a mile away because it was lifted from an episode of Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I was more frightened than I like to admit.

The Blair Witch Project -- The public may have backlashed against it now, but I'm still a big fan. When I saw it on opening night--after months of anticipation--the crowd was completely still and silent after we were struck with the final image at the film's end. When we reached the parking lot, my friends and I were yelling and screaming in delight. This movie is like a string that is pulled tighter and tighter until it snaps. What a build-up! What a pay-off!!

The Matrix -- Along with Terminator 2 and Dark City, this is one of the best science-fiction movies of the 90's. The plot sounds like one of the discussions we had in my Philosophy class, and the action is amazing. The scene near the climax with the helicopter is truly dazzling.

The Straight Story -- This G-rated movie is not supposed to appeal to a college-aged audience, but it captivated me well enough. However, my opinion may be slightly biased since this is the latest picture made by my favorite director, David Lynch. It's a simple story, the pace is slow and relaxed, but this only adds to how touching the movie really is. Although it's very restrained on sentiment, it really pulls you in by the time it concludes. I liked the cinematography and the music, as well as the accurate depiction of a small town. Also, many of the characters reminded me of my grandparents.

Being John Malkovich -- Great film. Mesmerizing and imaginative. While being one of the most bizarre comedies you can imagine, it also had a very sad tone to it brought on by the music and purposely drab set design. The result of this contrast is very unique. Sorry, I can't think of many other words to describe this film. You better just go watch it for yourself.

Magnolia -- I must say this one was very entertaining. I'm glad nobody had the chance to ruin the totally bizarre ending for me. Bizarre is actually a good word to describe the whole movie. Not too many directors (except maybe for Lynch in Fire Walk With Me) choose to play the music so loud in certain scenes that you can't hear the dialogue between characters. That was okay, however, since this movie has a great soundtrack. This movie may not be for everyone, but I recommend it to anybody who is open to fresh ideas and wants to enjoy a three-hour escape.

Three Kings -- People were comparing this to Saving Private Ryan. I definitely can't say it affected me as much as Ryan did, even if it does convey some of the same themes. Still, I give this movie credit for its very unique style and for some awesome action scenes.

The Green Mile -- Not as good as I expected. Not as good as The Shawshank Redemption. But still a terrific movie all around. I felt like I really got my money worth with this one. The movie's biggest flaw was with the bookends. They are just too over done in movies these days (Titanic, Pvt Ryan) and that old guy was just not very convincing as Tom Hanks. The movie would been better and shorter without them.

The Cider House Rules -- I didn't know what to expect going into this one, but I was pleasantly surprised with a beautifully shot coming-of-age story. The movie may not have much "edge," but it was a very well-done piece of old-fashioned filmmaking. Out of all the movies I saw from 1999, this came the closest to bringing me to tears.

Election -- A small-scale satire that works marvelously. It has a very drab atmosphere that brought back feelings about my own high school, and each of the characters definitely reminded me of real people I have encountered. Chris Klein's jock character was absolutely hilarious. A couple of my friends have asked me what the point of this movie is. I don't know if it can be summed up in a few sentences, but here's my take on it: The movie is about finding happiness in one's life, and that happiness is not related to success. Matthew Broderick's character claims to be happy with what he is doing both at the beginning and end of the movie, but I think he is lying and is secretly jealous of the direction of success Reese Witherspoon's character is heading in. The only character who is truly happy is Chis Klein's jock who takes everything so lightly. Now I'm getting more in depth than I wanted...

Eyes Wide Shut -- No, I didn't go see this movie because of all the infamous sex scenes; I just wanted to see a Kubrick film in the theater and to see what all the fuss was about. It's a movie that everybody seems to either love or hate, but for some reason my opinion falls between the two. I loved the dreamy atmosphere but thought the script was lacking. I like it when movies are left open to interpretation; I was flabergasted when the entire mystery was explained to exact detail near the end. It reminded me of Pyscho when the psychologist comes out and analyzes Norman Bates' mind. Pyscho worked for the period in which it was made, but I expected more from Kubrick. Today's audiences want to continue thinking after they leave the theater... at least I do. That was the case with most of the other movies on this list.

Stir of Echoes -- This one would have been better if I hadn't seen The Sixth Sense first. It was along the same lines. There were some definite chilling moments -- the first half was especially good for them, but the second half became predictable and lost its momentum. Still, this would be a good movie to check out on Halloween or on some Friday the 13th. It's very refreshing from the slasher movie standard we see so much of these days.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace -- I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about this movie by now, so I won't write much. I thought it was good, but not great. The special effects and the fact that it is the opening to a great saga definitely make it worth watching. I got chills when the opening rolled, but other than that it wasn't anything special.

Arlington Road -- I wanted to see this one mainly because the score was done by Angelo Badalamenti. It turned out to be a intense movie with an unexpectedly depressing ending. I liked it. More movies should aspire to take the risks that this one did, particularly in its introduction and conclusion.

American Pie -- The best teen movie of 1999, unless you count Go or Election, which I consider on another level. Chris Klein, who plays basically the same character as he did in Election, is hilarious again. Other than that, there's not much to say about a movie like this.

10 Things I Hate About You -- This movie doesn't do much other than show how much Shakespeare's work can be related to life today. A lot of the humor relies on your knowledge of Shakespeare, particularly The Taming of the Shrew, to be fully appreciated. I would label this movie as mediocre.

Cruel Intentions -- Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar look great in this movie. Don't expect much more than a guilty pleasure from this one. It's kind of fun to watch spoiled rich teenagers ruin other peoples' lives just because they have nothing better to do.

8mm -- This movie could have been great -- it was written by the screen writer of Se7en for crying out loud -- but it lacked in direction. Joel Schumacher is no Fincher or Lynch. It would have been interesting to see what either one of those directors could have done with this material.

200 Cigarettes -- This one's got a great premise and some colorful characters, but it still doesn't quite do it for me. It was trying too hard for laughs or something. If you have to choose between this movie or watching Go for the 10th time, I recommend choosing Go.

Man on the Moon -- Jim Carrey did a superb job, but the movie was nothing outstanding. Maybe all the in-your-face movies on this list are making me spoiled for exciting flicks. This movie just didn't have much to offer. The facts presented were interesting. I have been intrigued by Andy Kaufman since a classmate gave a speech on him during my sophomore year, but this movie was nothing more than a timeline with some funny jokes thrown in. I do not recommend paying the $8 to see this in a theater. You could have the same viewing experience at home on a television set. For a much better Jim Carrey movie, see The Truman Show.

Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me -- It was fun to watch this at a sneak preview in the theater with a lively crowd. The other high point is Heather Graham, who looks truly amazing in this movie. There's not much more you can say about an Austin Powers movie.

The Hurricane -- This is an example of a movie that has way too much of a plot. It was too long, boring, and predictable. I'm not a fan of biopics. There was no style or atmosphere in this movie -- any no name director could have made this.

2012 recap

© Kacie Jean Photography

Well, there you have it -- only two posts in 2012 and one of them was a recap of 2011.  I also got about half way through the yet-to-be-published first entry in my video retrospective series.  Maybe I'll finish it (the entry, not the series) in 2013.

No, writing hasn't been much of a priority lately, and I'm fine with that for now.  Photography has been my go-to hobby partially because I'm able edit photos during breaks from work but mostly because I love having a visual record of my family, especially of our darling Veronica who is growing up so fast.  Her first 2+ years are documented pretty extensively over on my photo blog if you want to take a look.

Yeah, V has been growing in leaps and bounds.  After a brief introduction to the concept, she took the initiative to potty train herself.  A few days later she was done with diapers completely.  I was so impressed.  Right now she's into Mickey Mouse, macaroni & cheese, pretending her bed is a car, living room dance parties, and picking out her own clothes for the day.  Her imagination and use of language have really taken off and brought on a whole new world of cuteness.  And, wow, is she smart.  Last night she uncovered our secret hiding spot for cookies.  We can't slip much by her anymore!

Life has settled into a somewhat steady rhythm split between working our jobs, caring for a child, and trying to fit in an hour of TV once or twice a week.  We're still in Santa Barbara and still with Ameriprise and DuPont.  This is the longest we've lived in one place since graduating from high school, so that itself feels like an adjustment.  I've never been sure how attached to get to a place, but it's safe to say we've established a deep enough connection with this town now that we'll never be able to fully leave it behind.  Even if we were to move away for a while, I think I'll want to retire here.  But that's obviously a ways off.

We vacationed in Hawaii, Portland, and Minnesota in 2012 and made smaller trips to Montaña de Oro state park, San Diego, and Los Angeles.  Now that V is two years old and an extra ticket is required for flights, we'll be taking to the sky less.  R, the trip planner in this family, is working out the details for some upcoming road trips.  I'm really excited to do more camping this year.

Well, I don't want to put this blog post off any longer, so I'm going to hit Publish.  I hope your 2013 is off to a good start.  See you on the information superhighway-