The Bike Happening - Part 1

Three years ago I met with my friend Todd at Linnaea's Coffee Shop in the heart of downtown SLO. I had just come from a filmmaker's forum at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLOIFF) and I told him that I had resolved to make a documentary.

We discussed an idea that he'd been kicking around for a while. He told me he'd always been fascinated by a much-loved local event known as Bike Night. We decided to start filming the monthly ride…

…in December 2008 we completed the final edit of our documentary, which we named The Bike Happening, and submitted it to the 2009 SLOIFF. I was pretty confident that it would get selected, because I thought we'd done a good job of capturing the atmosphere and emotion of the happening, but you can never be sure. Then, a couple of weeks ago we heard the news…

The Bike Happening has been selected for screening as part of the SLOIFF Central Coast Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Doesn't that sound fancy?

The showing takes place on Monday, March 9th at 6pm at the Downtown Brew (right across the street from Linnaea's) and is followed by a short question and answer session. Come on down and check it out!

Rick Teed, Napa Consultants and Red Canary

It seems like 2008 was a good year for collaborations, which actually makes me feel pretty good, as one of the aims of seven and eight is to be part of a community.

For our first project together, I was hired by Napa Consultants to make an extended series of video shorts for their client, Rick Teed. Rick is a dynamic and creative real estate agent and developer, based in San Francisco. As his focus is the luxury real estate market, I knew that the project would require high quality footage.

With this in mind, I turned to my friend and colleague Todd Peterson of Red Canary Productions. Todd and I have worked on a number of projects together over the last two years (including a half-hour documentary that we wrote and directed - more about that soon), so I knew he’d be able to deliver.

We traveled to San Francisco for the shoot and after filming at five locations were able to complete 28 short video clips with custom titles and a theme tune (written by another top collaborator, Darren Clarke of Modern Music Academy).

Here’s one of them.

Firestone Walker and 3i design

It’s always a pleasure to work on a collaborative project with like-minded professionals, so when 3i design approached me about some flash video work they were doing with the Firestone Walker Brewery I had to get involved.

3i are a very open, committed and humorous bunch, so I knew that working with them on comedic shorts intended to sell beer, I’d be destined for fun. The most ridiculous part was when Wyatt and myself had to improvise some of the sound effects for the videos. We basically locked ourselves in a conference room with a laptop and tried to not to laugh whilst we took turns recording a range of dirty laughs, appreciative groans and other silly noises (including Wyatt’s star-turn as a woman scorned).

Here are the results.

Super8 wedding films and Cameron Ingalls

It's not always the best idea to mix business with friendship, but sometimes there are exceptions, such as my work with Cameron Ingalls. Cameron is not only a great friend, but also an outstanding wedding photographer on the California scene. We’ve been working together since 2005, mainly on his weekend shoots and custom album designs, but more recently we’ve broken into the movie making business.

Using super8 film (the same kind that people used for home movies before video) we’ve been creating fine-art highlight movies for the couples Cameron works with. There’s something magical about working this way – super8 has a unique way of catching the light and adding a sense of timelessness and emotion to the scenes that we shoot.

I hope you like it.

Shape Shift Photoshoot

Recently my glamorous, talented wife had the opportunity to carry out a corporate quality photoshoot with the editorial director of John Paul Mitchell Systems. Sunnie Brook has been part of the Paul Mitchell family for 3 years and works, among other things, as a national educator. She is also one of the owners of a Paul Mitchell Focus Salon in San Luis Obispo, CA, called REVEAL salon. Of course I’m biased, but it has to be the best salon in the world... ok maybe not, but definitely in SLO County.

The photoshoot was her reward for the winning entry in an international contest; an original concept called “Shape Shift” which was inspired by modern architectural and interior design. She wanted to create highly structured styles that maintained a sense of playfulness and femininity.

When I found out I could go with her to Beverly Hills for the shoot, I decided to document the experience. So here it is...