one more thing to forget

Emma Panda at Z-Rant

2011-12-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

I tried some new things with editing here. In my previous bartender profile videos, I tried my best to maintain some continuity to convey the story of crafting a single cocktail. for this video, I tried to see just how little continuity I could maintain while still producing a video that felt natural. The result is a bit bouncy and flirty.

Do you think it worked?

Whitney Pallend at Cuchi Cuchi

2011-12-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

Whitney Pallend at Cuchi Cuchi from Joshua Guerci on Vimeo.

From now on, I'm going to swallow my pride and use auto focus in these tight situations where I am having trouble focusing. In these low light scenes, I have to open up all the way to get a descent exposure and often sacrifice some depth of field. It makes it hard to focus, escpecially when running off the flip out screen and not the eye piece.

I use the Sony NEX-VG10. I am not afraid to push the gain all the way up because the noise doesn't bother me so much. The important thing is to tell a story and I believe this video gives us a good feeling for Whitney's personality.

I could have gone for a little bit more ambiance shots.

Editing Video for Rocco

2011-11-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

I want to share some work I am doing for a client. I am editing these informational videos as part of a campaign to boost Rocco's SEO on his website. I hope it works.

I Photoshopped the logo in the beginning. The client's original file is much smaller with a white background. I lightened the colors and ran some filters to smooth the pixels over. This is also my first real effort with lower thirds graphics.

As a filmmaker, I must learn to embrace these opportunities. They teach me to be more methodical in my work. Lord knows I could use some help in that department.

Don't forget to be social!

2011-11-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

When people think of marketing, the first examples that come to mind are typically television commercials, print advertisements and billboards. People don't often realize marketing is much more than getting the word out. For example, the Starbucks store layout is a major part of their branding. Apple's customer experience is also a marketing strategy. They discount the social and experiential aspects to marketing.

People fail at social media because they approach it in the way they might develop a traditional ad campaign. They use their twitter account like a psychic hypodermic needle, injecting their narrative into public consciousness. Young people and professional marketers make this same mistake: Mass tweets to people they don't know, blind Facebook invites, generic blog posts. It comes off as inauthentic. Worse, creepy. Its as though they missed the social aspect of social media. The connection part of the internet.

A friend once described it as soft marketing. The goal is to ease yourself into the conversation by listening to your audience and responding accordingly by providing a value add. Such as personal responses, compliments and thoughtful questions. Let them know a real person is on the other end of the tweet. The trick is to allow their curiosity to lead them to your product. And be available for them when they have questions.

When I released my Battle of the Buskers video series to accompany the contest hosted by Seattle Metropolitan monthly magazine, the first thing I did was send a link to each performer who participated in the event to let them know the video was up. I then re-tweeted their tweets. I kept an eye out for people commenting on YouTube or mentioning my video on Twitter. I engaged with those people. I sent an e-mail to the Pike Place Market staff, thanking them for their participation and included a video link. I posted links to blogs that embedded my video and I engaged with people who were talking about my buskers on Twitter.

Not that I can claim any credit to the following success but: Fox Q13 posted my video of Carly. Winner of the contest, she went on to New Day on K5 and Rolling Stone.

Further reading: I Will Never Hire A Social Media Expert And Neither Should You

Lulu in Berlin by Richard Leacock

2011-10-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is pretty dry for a documentary about sex and murder. Louise Brooks was one of the most beautiful women in motion pictures but this documentary doesn't really pull me in. According to her story, Richard Leacock was not to first to intellectualize the vivacious actress. The most interesting part of the doc is when Louise tells us about how Pabst was most happy with her when she was playing the part of Lulu on camera and must furious with her when she continues to be Lulu off set. Comical, the inability to recognize Louise and Lulu as the same girl. But I feel this film doesn't show me anything I couldn't read in a well written article. Its falls flat.

Behind the scenes look at Occupy Boston

2011-10-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

You really have to go down to an Occupy Wallstreet protest and spend a couple hours walking around camp to understand it. Its an anarchist collective, in the philosophical and historical sense of the word. Its a club for manic late night conversationalists. But one thing i its not is: a political organization with a poised agenda. Nobody knows whats going to come of it. At best it's a think tank. Its a place where you can go to express your frustrations and not worry about making sense. And everybody is already a member. They're pretty accepting down there.

October 5

I didn't really know what I was doing on my first day. I've filmed cinéma vérité before but usually when people were expecting me. I filmed The Tommy Dean Show. Even a Westboro protest. But this was a more intimate setting. I was behind the scenes and capturing people at their most vulnerable. Some of them asked me to stop and so I did.

October 7

On the second day, people remained apprehensive about the camera. People tried to lecture me about asking before I film them but to avoid confrontation, I ran away.

October 11

This was the day after the mass arrest. People were especially apprehensive, forcing me to grow some courage and start introducing myself to people. Once I explained myself to people, they seemed more happy to have me around. A few people maintained their distrust but I was able to avoid them.

Edit: October 24

I would be down at Occupy filming more but I've been fighting a cold. Boohoo me! ;-p

Dear Zachary

2011-09-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Zachary is exactly the kind of documentary I want to make. And I feel compelled to watch everything by filmmaker Kurt Kuenne. Its a deeply personal account of human tragedy. More than a record of events, it's an experience. Events unravel before you as they happen and the filmmaker puts you into the moment to experience the pain along with the subject as its happening.

I love the texture of the film. It feels like a home movie because it was intended to be a home movie about the filmmaker's close friend. Beginning with the death of his friend, the film develops as the friends and family of the deceased learn more about the situation. The plot thickens with ex-lovers, murder and a pregnancy. That's where Zachary comes in. He's the dead guy's son. You have to see it.

Not everybody appreciates the editing. Kuanne is not afraid to squeeze a passing clip in the background only to bring it back later in its full context with new meaning. A simple sigh or a foreboding comment can mean different things at different points int he story.

Kuanne's film captures grief as it belongs in time and space. It forces you to reflect back on those unintentional premonitions and moments of foreboding but its also an experience in itself which can be so painful as to be surreal, torn between letting go of the past and accepting the present.

You remember all those promises and dreams that will never come to fruition because an important piece of the puzzle has been lost. In situations of great loss, it borders on a psychedelic experience. Not so much hallucinating a thing that isn't there but in refusing to accept the thing that is not.

The impact of the tragedy comes from narrator's habit to obliquely lead into the bad news. It starts with an expression of hope in the past tense before it slams you with the tragedy. For example, I always thought we'd go skiing together but then you moved away. Or I baked you a cake! But then you couldn't make it to dinner.

Death is a human tragedy. Death as an interrupter of dreams is a personal tragedy. And it leaves you wanting to go back in time to prevent it.

Fantastic film. You can see it on Netflix.

Is CHBP good for local businesses?

2011-07-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Capitol Hill Block Party. Its kind of a big deal. Some people are excited, I'm sure. You'll see them bouncing up Pike and Broadway on the day of but if you look at the comment section of any given local blog (here / here), you see hate.

So I did a video interview with CHBP planner Jason Lajeunesse. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought that would be a good idea.

My goal here was to put Jason's authenticity on display. Quotes in text articles lay flat within the context of the journalist's words. Video interviews are less easily manipulated. And here, you can look Jason in the eyes when he admits "getting people to shop durring the block party can be difficult" and decide for yourself if he is being genuine or not.

Cinematography is by Brody Willis. I performed the interview and edited the video.

Making Movies For Nothing

2011-07-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I am home watching Netflix, I think about how I would much rather be making movies than watching them. And as a young filmmaker, it's tough. The first temptation is to call up all your filmmaking buddies and say "come on! lets make a movie!" but that doesn't always work. Then you're just sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring.

Find things to go to. Seattle puts on a filmmaker happy hour. Local film forums often put on nights for local filmmakers to show their work. And of course, you should always keep an eye out for local films on Kickstarter and make a modest donation.

The most difficult thing to remember is that nobody owes you a spot on their film crew. Especially as you start to grow in experience and pride it is easy to forget that film crews come together with trust. Don't sweat the gigs that don't work out. Just keep your head up and look for the next opportunity.

Sometimes you have to learn to create opportunities for yourself. Don't worry if you don't have gear and you don't have money to rent gear. The most valuable asset in a filmmaker's toolbox is his ideas. If your ideas are sound and inspiring, the rest will fall into place.

My ideas start with the experience that I want to capture and share. For example, an early afternoon cocktail with one of Seattle's top bartenders. Or hanging out with the owner of Seattle's finest basque restaurant. Or taking a walk with a busker.

The next challenge is to find someone with gear but doesn't know what to do with it. It sounds easier than it really is to convince someone that the prospect of bringing your idea to fruition is better than watching Netflix.

Most importantly, you need to make people feel like not just anybody is qualified to help you and that you need them for their specific skills. It is imperative that you are authentic because people will know when you are just using them for their gear. You should watch their reels and talk to them about what they love about filmmaking. If you can't find some common ground of mutual appreciation, you probably shouldn't ask them to help you.

Lastly, if you're asking people to help you, a lot of people are going to say no. If you have some strategy to your alliance building, you can find mutual benefit. Cinematographers need beautiful subjects. Sound guys needs interesting situations to show off their skills. Gaffers also need practice overcoming situational challenges. There is a trick to selling ideas to people. They need to feel that you're giving them a genuine opportunity.

You can never really make movies for free. If you have a day job, you have to take time away from making money. If you hire a crew, you force them into making a similar decision. Also, don't forget the time of your subject but don't sell your idea short. I believe good ideas are as good as money and if you have a good idea for a video, the time and money part will fall into place.

Getting into show business

2011-06-19T11:49:00.001-07:00

"Yeah, I'm a filmmaker. But it's not so glamorous as it sounds."

I've said that phrase to over 100 people this year and not a single one of them believed me. I think I really mean to tell them that filmmaking is a long journey. If you ask me if I am a filmmaker, I am sometimes tempted to say "I don't know. Ask me in 10 years if I'm still in the business."

As a production assistant at the bottom of the film industry, I encounter all shapes of gatekeepers. These are people who try to keep you out of the industry. Some of them appear to me in the form of demanding producers and assistant directors and some of them appear in the form of grizzled old film veterans with an axe to grind with everyone he's ever worked with. The trick is to keep a level head and not so much to defeat these foes but to soften the relationships and build friendships.

Oh, that's easier said than done!

The first thing you must learn is the inherit risks in the film industry. Every minute you invest in a project is a potential loss. You're not just betting on the quality of the film but also its ability to meet completion. Will anybody want to watch this picture? Will anybody bother to edit the picture together? These are all likely scenarios for every picture.

Field producers are under a lot of pressure from the studios and production companies to keep operations under a limited budget. They have a limited amount of resources with expectation to pull of a television show that works. They're looking for help. They don't want to quibble over nickles and dimes and often, the production assistants are asked to help fill in the gaps.

My recent experience with a reality television producer can be summed up as thus: he asked me if my car could carry a doorway dolly. When I said no and requested a truck, I was fired.

Was that a messed up situation? Of course! But its not unusual for producers to delegate responsibility (and cost) to production assistants because, if for no other reason, there are production assistants out there desperate enough to do it.

I don't think these overworked producers set out to take advantage of the crew. Expectations are high for everyone from the top down and its not unusual for a production to expect even the lowly assistants to share in some of the risk. As they say, shit rolls downhill.

The second kind of gatekeeper is the seasoned veteran filmmaker. They offer words of warning to young filmmakers, not to let producers walk all over them. These guys who earn their stripes and hold indispensable positions on the crew are quick to forget that one's dignity is a privilege in the film industry, that they too once had to swallow their pride to get into show business.

The number one benefit of being a production assistant is the opportunity to make yourself useful. Simply fulfilling your duties and doing what you are told is not good enough. You have to pickup the slack where no other person could possibly do the job as well as you. You need to make yourself invaluable. And the most difficult thing for a production assistant to learn is that having this opportunity is a privilege.

Is being a filmmaker a glamorous job? I guess it depends on how you define glamorous. Is it an uphill fight, both ways? Yes. Is it by all means impossible to break into the business? Yes. And once you're in, is it one of the most exhilarating and rewarding things you can do? Absolutely. Its glamorous. And just as anything that's worth while, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication and sacrifice to get in.

Edit: Since writing this blog post, I sent a message to that producer and told him that I was sorry for not seeing things his way. He responded that he appreciated my note and that he would give me a call if he needed any help.

Candidate Kickoff Party At Havana

2011-06-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

I shot another video about Seattle city counsil elections for Washington Bus! This year I took a reality approach. Host Alex Miller does a little intro / outro and provides the (somewhat silly) questions.

Appearing in this video is: Michael Taylor-Judd, Sandy Cioffi (who has since dropped out of the race), Maurice Classen, Sally Clark (incumbent), Bobby Forch, and Tom Rasmussen.

I shot this video with my Sony NEX-VG10 and Brody Willis helped me out on sound. I love his microphone. It did a great job at isolating the sound. Also, I love how he threw up a little 500w bulb in the corner. It doesn't work on every shot but from time to time, you'll see a little highlight to separate the subject from the background. Just a smidge.

Original music was provided by Dan Roeder. As an independent filmmaker in Seattle, I can't overstate my gratefulness to local film score composers. I met Dan through a networking event hosted by Catherine Grealish and at the time I didn't think I would be using any composer talent but I guess I was wrong!

Edit: Check out the Washington Bus blog post here!

Storm Surge

2011-06-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

I met Stacy of Moontown Foundation late last summer immediately after his return from the Gulf Coast where he collected personal testimonials of Katrina and oil spill survivors. He contacted me, the journalist filmmaker, because he wants to go back to the Gulf Coast, to capture their stories and produce a documentary film.

That film project is Storm Surge.

Our goal is to push through the immediacy of tragic events as fragmented news stubs and look at the bigger picture. We want to shake up everything you think you know about The South, their relationship with big oil, their feelings about the environment and their plans to rebuild. Most of all, Storm Surge is a testament to the importance of individual action in one of the greatest social, economic and environmental tragedies of our time.

Stacy's plan is to bring a multidisciplinary team of college students from the science and engineering schools to evaluate the environmental capital and socio-economic feasibility of launching sustainable business opportunities. Natural resources have been destroyed, homes were lost and several core industries may not ever recover from the oil spill. Not within our lifetime. So the question we are asking is, what comes next?

Seattle Met: Battle of the Buskers

2011-05-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

I created this video series for Seattle Met with cinematographer Brody Willis. My goal was to capture the relationship between musicians and people walking by and to convey a sense of being in the market. Do you think I succeeded?

The first video in the series is Reggie Miles singing Gentrification Blues. He also plays a mean saw. I wish I had some footage of that!

Then Morrison Boomer sings their song, Eyes Open Wide. There is a fourth member of the band not featured in the video here.

Squirrel Butter is a banjo playing tap-dancing duet and here they are performing an original arrangement of traditional song If I Fall.

I first came across Emery Carl in conjunction with my Tommy Dean movies but only now have I made the opportunity to film him. I honestly don't know if his songs have names. He's more of a spontaneous "in the moment" kind of performer. Refreshing, I think.

Then, Carly Calbero sings Beat It. You know, the Micheal Jackson song? She's got a surprisingly big voice.

Howlin' Hobbit is one charming dude with a thing for ukelele adaptations of the classic standards. I follow him on twitter.

And finally Yaacov Reuven sings In Your Eyes. I'm a Peter Gabriel fan so filming this video made me pretty happy.

EDIT: Oh! Seattle Met is holding a poll so you can vote for your favorite busker!

Thoughts and Questions about Social Media, Communications and Networks

2011-05-18T11:05:00.001-07:00

I want to make a series of personality profiles about people who have jobs in social media. The trick, as always, will be to look past the standard cliches and search for the meaningful story that has yet to be told.

Its the internet. I get it. Technology connects people from around the world and builds new communities based on interest and curiosity rather than region. Culture now breaks geographical boundaries. I'm actually kind of over it. The Global Village is a rehearsed concept. It's lost its charm.

I want to know about your personal village. I want to put aside technical aspects of media and look at how we communicate. Are you an especially communicative person? Where you outgoing as a child or were you relatively shy? Did you have many friends or did you tend to build few but meaningful friendships? What are the big factors?

For example, I grew up with a deaf brother. How did that shape the way I think about communication? How did that shape the way I think about language as shaping reality? Or reality as shaping language? And ultimately, how did that change my relationship to the community? These are things that I'd like to talk about in person.

If I had been raised in a different family background, I might have developed a different curiosity about the social functions of communication. Such as, if I had non-English speaking parents, seeing them as isolated from their environment and relying on me to conduct even mundane interactions, I might be inclined to see communication as building community. If I had grown up in a more intellectually stimulating environment, discussing over dinner such topics as personal preferences for either Indian or African elephans, I might see communication as expressing curiosity. If I had been raised in the old world or without mass-communication outlets, relying on verbal conversation to pass the time, I might view communication as entertainment.

Building on the foundations of communications, how have you assembled your personal social network? Do you prioritize familial relationships over friendships? Do you rely heavily on your professional networks to satisfy your personal life? Are you close to your neighbors? Or do you immerse yourself into intellectual pursuits and build friendships exclusively on interest, bridging generational gaps, overcome geographical limitations and surpassing political boundaries? More and more, these preferences are chosen rather than implied.

And finally, how does all of this change the way you engage in the business of buying selling or participate in serving humanity?

Sucker Punch. Not for critics.

2011-03-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

As a filmmaker, I am constantly disappointed by my peers and their failure to appreciate the fullness of their craft. Sucker Punch is a great example. It's a movie about a girl on lobotomy row. It's about a girl sold into sexual slavery. It's about a special forces unit of steam punk chicks that fight against hoards of Nazi zombies. Its all the above. Its shallow. And its awesome.

Ignore all piffy reviews. They're dumb.

There is no plot but In The Mood For Love has even less plot. There is no character development, but that didn't stop Goddard in Breathless. The literary criticisms are not only empty, they show a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium. Film is shallow and superficial but that does not imply that it is without beauty.

This film a high-octane parable of Jungian psychology. The Hero has five faces: Baby Doll (Emily Browning), Sweat Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). If you read Sybil or seen the 1976 film you know that the five aspects of the single personality represent the tools for overcoming a traumatic experience.

Sucker Punch has a lot in common with Inception. It's not only a film about alternate reality but ventures into the meta-dream space. To escape the mental institution, Baby Doll enters a brothel. To escape the brothel, she enters the steam punk comic book action adventure sequence. Each sub-reality is more glitzy and less dangerous than the last and, like Inception, the dream-space action offers some psychic tools to overcome real life problems. The difference is, Abbie Cornish didn't fancy herself taking part in this generation's version of 8 1/2.

Much like the characters, even the story locations are just psychological constructs. The mental institution is no more real than the prisons Johnny Cash sang about. Enter the dark blue color palate of the theater, where the girls fight over checkerboards and the psychologist's couch is casually replaced by a bed on a stage. This is also the scene where Babay-doll's father bribes the abusive orderly to falsify the lobotomy paperwork. It would be frightening if it wasn't so surreal.

The brothel is not only an escape from trauma but it also rationalization of the absurd. Baby Doll's father figure is replaced by a Catholic priest, a villain we are much more emotionally prepared to deal with just as we are more prepared to deal with abusive sexual situations in the brothel than we are in the mental ward. Its to be expected. And there is a layer of magic to it that separates it from reality. The five girls are presented as prostitutes in the same way Audry Hepburn's character in Breakfast At Tiffany's is a prostitute - cute, charming and not a bit dirty.

Sucker Punch is secretly smart. It might not get strait A's from the critics. It's thesis is nebulous. The narrative introduction and conclusion are not intended to explain the story but simply add color to the visuals. It doesn't call upon Fellini for inspiration or offer you any such serious bylines as Christopher Nolan or Wally Pfister. The film doesn't feature a Laurence Fishborne character to spell out the existentialism. It disguises itself as the 420-friendly version of Beowulf and doesn't let on that it has anything going on between the scenes, that everything should be accepted for face value.

Most importantly, Sucker Punch doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is. This film is not literary art. No film is literary art. It's a sequence of visceral experiences aimed to illicit an irrational emotional response. There is no message except for the one you bring with you. And after the film, we reflect upon those emotional responses and supplemental messages over cocktails. But its not literature. Its fun.

Indie Band Street Show

2011-03-08T14:50:00.000-08:00

I am a huge fan of Wild Nothing. I feel like videos like this have been popping up all over the internet since the accessibility to low-cost HD cameras and high bandwidth internet connections.

I saw Wild Nothing play at Vera Project last weekend. It was an amazing show! I wonder why Paris and Vienna must have all the fun, shooting indie bands on street sidewalks? Why can't Seattle share in the street performance indie documentary fun?

Maybe they're worried about swarms of hipsters? Or night life hating cops?

Hermes Festival of Crafts

2011-03-01T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is my first published fashion video. I hope it to be the first of many. I shot it with William Brody as my cinematographer at The Bravern in Bellevue for Seattle Met Magazine.

It was important for me to get good audio. I wanted to hear the man scraping the dye from the screen, for example. In my other video you can hear stretching leather and folding canvas and such.

There is a lost clip where the silk printers tell the crowd that after the event, they will throw away their labors of the day. The reason being, the silk was not printed in the preferred conditions, at the workshop in France. I think that was amazing. Too bad I left it back on the cutting room floor!

Women Behind Bars

2011-02-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

I shot this video series for Seattle Met called Women Behind Bars and meeting all the bartenders at the most trendy bars around town.

I wish I was a more confident shooter. I love shooting and I love watching my footage come together in the edit room but I think I could save a lot of time and avoid a lot of pain if I would just slow down and pace out my shots. Yes, there is a lot to look at but if you try to capture it all, you'll probably miss it all too.

For technical issues, I would discourage anybody from using the 5D for documentary style shoots. The image sensor is too big. Yes, everybody likes to see less depth of field but at the end of the day, you want a clean crisp image and you don't want to be scrambling around wasting time trying to get your subject in focus. Go for the 7D or 6DD. And slap on a fast lens.

In the video above, I asked Chelsea to make the same cocktail twice. If I was smart, I would have used the Zeiss 50mm prime lens (normal on a 5D) I had in my bag or a 80mm prime lens for the first time through where she gives a little narrative with the cocktail and I'd focus on her face. Second time through, I'd pull out a 90mm or longer for the closeups on the hands and the booze.

Editing this piece I learned something about editing interviews. Normally, you should avoid cutting audio of an interview with an image of a person that is not in sync with the audio. That is, if you see lips moving that fail to connect with the voice, it looks weird. Also, if the lips aren't moving, it still looks weird. But if you post an image where your eye is distracted by other movement in the frame, your brain doesn't seem to mind the disconnect. Do you see what I mean?

Personality profiles are great opportunities for video. You get so much more understanding about a person from a video that you can't get from a written article. Also, personality profiles are relatively timeless. If the bartender writes a blog, she can post a link or embed this video into her bio.

Preliminary treatment for an untitled film

2010-09-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

It is a dusty dawn. No people are walking the beach. It’s too foggy. Long stretches of grass like the unkempt hair of balding hobos spill out against curtains of grey. Lifeguard towers guard the unutilized sandy space against further emptiness. Everything is movement but we are not arriving.

Ventura is a funny little college town without a college. The downtown strip is lined with thrift stores and restaurants that don’t serve lunch. Blue parking meters stand out front of the closed businesses like modern art sculptures. Sex shops put on vulgar window displays under self-consciously ambiguous business names. Everything is layered in a false sense of modesty and exaggerated humility.

Vagrants bang on guitars and hold up accusing signs, assuming a moral superiority over their guilted patrons. They hang around the grocery stores and take turns begging for money at the edge of parking lots. Sometimes they have dogs with them. Sometimes they have children. Sometimes they yell at each other and stick out their chests.

California builds their highways so wide and it is difficult to imagine them congested with traffic because at times, they are empty. When it is sixty degrees, people think it is cold out and they hide away indoors in their beds with their lovers.

Our film settles into the claustrophobic safety nest of a young couple, spending a lazy mid-afternoon lying on top of the sheets and looking at each other. We are the voyeurs of this intimate setting, watching the young couple kiss and run their fingers through the other’s hair. And touching at the hips. And crossed over at the thigh. And moving the other’s elbow.

He brings out a rolled cigarette, lights it, and passes it to her.

In the Goddard fashion, we arrive at the conversation mid-conversation. The couple talks about their frustrations of not fitting in and trying to rise above their insincere and mundane surroundings.

He is frustrated with friends and people who are pretending to be people they are not. She picks up on the irony and explains to him that he too, is pretending to be someone he is not. He says she is right to a point, but he is only acting in hopes that one day he can fill new shoes.

She laments that there is no authenticity in the world and that everything is just dust anyway.

He says she has a lousy attitude. Her nihilism is so unfashionable.

She insists she is right. Truth is classic and immune to trends. It is not cliché but a commonly accepted truth.

He disguises his indigence by praising her for her sweet submissive qualities.

She dodges his phony kisses. He doesn’t realize that his kisses are fake. She says she does not judge him. All people say one thing and mean something different.

As it becomes apparent that our young couple would much prefer to use their lips for kissing than for talking, we turn to look at the window, half out of reverence but mostly we are bored with our voyeurism.

Abruptly, we are thrust into the drunken small town bar scene of downtown Ventura. Sound is abrasive and video is choppy and we blink to black.

Meet the people behind Noble Rot

2010-08-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

As a local Northwest film maker, I would like to see more videos like this. I love the idea of small businesses encouraging community through video. Also, I like to see larger companies who care to distribute this hyper local media.

Seed to Plate: A Garden Story from Riley Hooper on Vimeo.

Noble Rot is a great place in Portland to hang out. Its close to the Doug Fir and Juniper Inn. Its a great area for music shows and eating great food.

The Epic Beard Man Documentary

2010-07-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

Did you see that video? The one where the bearded white guy beats up the black guy on the bus? I think the time is past for being amazed by the power of viral video. Also, the rabbit-like breeding nature of viral video is somewhat boring. Media begot media begot media I get it.

This is the documentary about the guy who punched the guy who cried for the ambalamps. Its about Thomas Alexander Bruso, also known as Tom Slick, also known as Epic Beard Man.

The documentary grabbed me right away because of the meme hype but kept me sucked in because it quickly transformed into a real story about a real person. Thomas is not the only one out there. It seems that absolute chance has gained him some internet fame but I quickly get the impression that Thomas is part of a trend and not such a wild beast as the Epic Beard Man title might suggest. He's actually quite sad.

We get the idea pretty quickly, that Thomas is playing a role. He's the epic anti-hero of the non-working class. One moment, he is setting himself as the villain, relaying to us how he went to a baseball game after consuming a smorgasbord of alcohol and narcotics. The next moment, he is a victim of police brutality. The story doesn't have to make sense because he is no longer trying to make sense of it. Every moment can be cooked down to a an iconic single-serving story. Time is fragmented. Cause and effect are not related and he's lost out there in the soup.

All of this is section 8, he tells us. He's referring to his house but also his self and his being. He is identifying with the labels society has suggested to him and he expresses contentment with it.

Racism is a recurring theme in his dialogue. I think he identifies with blacks, or his perception of what it means to be black. He expresses a solitude with the feelings of alienation and oppression. There might be some parallels in how the draft essentially abducted young boys and hauled them off across the sea to die. Unable to relay his thoughts in a way that is socially acceptable, he turns to violence.

This documentary made me rethink the archetype of the Vietnam vet. I wonder how many people like Thomas are out there and I wonder how many of them are leading equally epic lives.

Zoo, documentary about "Mr. Hands"

2010-07-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

This is not an easy documentary to share with people. Its about a group of men who have sex with a horse. They get much unwanted attention from the law and the media when one of them is mortally injured and bleeds to death.

This is not a gross-out documentary although the subject might be difficult to stomach. This is not a tear-jerking sympathy story although the subject might be tragic. Most of all, this is not a documentary that tells you how to feel.

The story is told through the voices of the people actually involved. The filmmakers collected the most vivid and humanizing interviews with the men who call themselves 'zoo' and edited it together with the most moody cinematography of rural Washington. What is most striking about the narration is how the men talk about their intent for the animals.

Immediately, the viewer begins to wonder if the animals were at all harmed by the sexual encounters. By the intents of the men, these horses were very well taken care of. Jokes aside, these were some happy horses. Once the presence of a victim becomes less and less clear, so does the legal discussion of animal rights.

I understand that most people will not want to see this movie and would not appreciate it. The distinction between personal ethics and social morality is a mute point and they are incapable of dialogue. This group of people is not limited to vegans. I find that most people have actually made up their mind on the issue. The issues of liberty are lost on them. They have decided that the animals are in danger and no amount of contrary evidence is going to sway them. The men are in-condonable.

I found this movie because I am a fan of Stranger writer Charles Mudede. He is credited as a writer on Zoo, so I rented it from Scarecrow Video. You can also rent the movie from Netflix. If none of those options appeal to you, you can watch the entire film on YouTube:

There is something very American about these sorts of discussion. They seem to resonate with our value for the pursuit of happiness. Also, they bring to mind the cultural attitude that, although I find your behavior abominable, I defend your right to do it. Your sins are irreproachable.

Lick The Star

2010-06-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

Sofia Coppola directed Lick The Star in 1998. Like most of her films, this black and white short is about a little girl.

I like the non-linear way Coppola approaches her stories. She doesn't set up villains or heroes so much as she evokes moods and feelings by dwelling on some moments and breezing through others. Its as though some scenes are cut short, not because it's a short film but because the capriciousness of the 7th grade girls demand that the scenes be cut short.

You know? Like, whatever. =)

Untitled Science Fiction Film: Scene 5

2010-06-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

I shot this short film scene with my friend Sam Higgins to complete an assignment for Cinematography 309 at Brooks Institute. We were a crew of two. I was inspired by the opening scene of Blade Runner, where Leon shoots the guy for asking about his mother. I wanted a high contrast film noir look.

If I had to do it again, I would have added a fill light with a 1/2 CTB to bring out some more detail in the shadow while maintaining the illusion of darkness. Blue light is a common technique for shooting dark scenes with video.

Shooting this scene with only two people was a big challenge. I tended to the camera while Sam attempted to both direct and hold the boom. If we only had one more crew member, we could have focused more on the lighting.

Sam and I had a look in mind and I think we accomplished it. Looks great! But It would have been best if we could have justified the look a bit. Such as, why is there so much smoke? Why is it so dark? Is this scene Noir for the sake of Noir?

All things considered, I am proud of the outcome. I can't wait until next session.

After school, I plan to return to Seattle. I would like to get employment working on corporate videos and commercials but also to applying my skills as a Seattle film maker towards independent projects.

War Prayer

2010-06-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

I met Harold Cronk on set for a casino commercial I worked on two years ago. I was a production assistant on that shoot. I was pretty green to professional sets back then and I was pretty nervous. They attached me to the assistant camera. That was quite the learning experience, grabbing lenses and slating the camera.

I keep an eye on what Harold is up to because of this short film:

War Prayer (short film) from TiM on Vimeo.

I love the textures of this film. It really feels muddy, doesn't it?

Recently he was production designer on Abram Makowka's Tug. He also has a project in post production titled Jerusalem Countdown.

Donut Shop

2010-05-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

This is a short documentary about what happens in a donut shop. Simple idea. I love it. One of the best ways to get people to talk is to ask them about what they love. And generally, what they have to say is pretty interesting. So go find people who love weird things and talk to them. Such as, people who live at Starbucks!

Sparrow Songs - Episode 5 - The Donut Shop from Sparrow Songs on Vimeo.

If you like that, you might check out the other films. Its a project by director Alex Jablonski (Blue Boy) and his goal is to make a new documentary short every month for one year. The products are manic little testaments to the joy of film making. The narration is often a bit overt and sometimes uneven but I like it. Its raw.

The Tea Party's Robin Hood

2010-05-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

Errol Flynn is not in this movie. Sorry to break your hearts but this is not a re-make or even a re-telling. It is a separate work to be appreciated on its own and free from comparisons. Its gritty. It drinks mead. And much like the story of English folklore, it is told not only to entertain but also to carry rhetorical message.

I am convinced many films are born out of whimsy. Danny Boyle really wanted to make a Bollywood movie and thus we have Slumdog Millionaire. Likewise, Riddley Scott thought it would be really funny if Robin Hood was a hero of libertarian principles. Libertarian ideas are popular in film. Look at Iron Man.

Crowe's Robin Hood has two notable opportunities to deliver his political view of the world. In the exposition, he declares that the common man has the power to make England rich. In the conclusion, he preaches the values of liberty and the natural rights included within the American constitution. He was truly ahead of his time, wasn't he?

Also, the evil power hungry King John has a beautiful scene in which he blames his predecessor's futile war. He says he inherited so many problems. Sound familiar? He also concludes that the kingdom has no choice but to tax its way out of debt.

This is a story about politics. To keep your attention, Mr. Scott delivers plenty of action and cinematographer John Mathieson gives us all the glitter and glamor we expect from a meticulously crafted story.

Scott is obviously planning for a sequel. The entire film feels like exposition and thus it feels shallow and simple. The philosophical scenery is painted in broad strokes of black and white. If Brian Helgeland's story is to develop this story, he wants to lay a thick foundation and save the subtle touches for the sequel. The irony being, there probably won't be a sequel. If Scott was serious about making a sequel, he should have dropped some Easter Egg clues to the potential development.

Negative reviews such as from The Village Voice express a lament over the film's failure to deliver on the initial hype of the film. I see opportunity to make right on these wrongs in a sequel. What we have is the groundwork for blockbuster sequel of Matrix proportions. What the Larry and Andy Wachowski did for Descartes, Riddly Scott has the potential to do for John Stewart Mills.

Scott's Robin Hood ultimately failed with critics because they are unable to separate the folk lore from its previous interpretations. Errol Flynn's gaiety and Disney's cute Socialist undertones are difficult icons to overcome because they are so ingrained into pop culture and remain powerful after several decades.

My question is, why does Robin Hood fail where Batman succeed? It is strictly politics?

Precious Blind Side

2010-05-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

, moFinally got around to watching The Blind Side and Precious. I watched them back to back because it felt like the thing to do. The comparison is natural. They're both films about poverty and redemption and the power of education. The first was hyped by the studios in the traditional mass appeal fashion while the later was more of an independent project backed by Oprah. And to no surprise, liberal newspapers hated The Blind Side and loved Precious.

I was hesitant to enjoy The Blind Side. Having read and enjoyed the novel by Micheal Lewis for its insightful analysis of football strategy and economics. The Lewis novel structures the history and background parallel to the personal narrative. Needless to say, I was hesitant to watch a movie about benevolent white people. The critical response to the film did not help, either.

In watching the movie, I must retract all initial impressions. As with many book adaptations, the film offers a smorgasbord of moments while failing to deliver a full meal and yet the film's soft vignettes offer their own sweet satisfaction.

On surface level, you get a series of vignettes about as heartwarming as a precious moments gift-ware. You know, that stuff on QVC? And the running joke of the film is: what if a precious moment scene randomly featured a token black guy? And honestly, you can get quite a bit of mileage out of that joke.

Beyond that, there is a story about white guilt and the intangible rewards of charity. You get a subtle nod to the color blind nature of the free market. Football does not care about your politics, your religious upbringing or your political orientation. Football cares only about the value you can bring to a team.

Precious offers a much more gritty picture. Its a pretty stiff contrast to the lifetime gloss of The Blind Side and your mom probably won't like it.

Also, Precious shows the inner workings of volunteer powered outreach programs, which appeals to liberal people. If The Blind Side was pitched to your average blue state conservative, Precious is aimed at your average metropolitan social worker and enlightened cynic.

Cinematographer Andrew Dunn paid special attention to the use of color in this picture. The yellows feel dreamy. The blues feel defensive. The browns feel secure.

The characters of The Blind Side may have been based on real people, but the characters in Precious feel more real. This is not a film about rhetoric and it has no political agenda. Precious is a story about people and interpersonal relationships.

If The Blind Side is a story about redemption, Precious is a story about pushing through when there is no redemption. Precious boldly points to the source of the problem but is slow to offer any solutions. Again, it's non-political. It's interpersonal. Precious favors the acclimation of little victories over the grandiose.

Neither film is smarter than the other. Neither film uses less stereotypes. Neither film is brilliant. But both films are worth watching and both films will offer conversation fodder. Good times.

Thoughts on Steven Spielberg's Duel

2010-05-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Duel is Steven Spielberg's debut made for TV feature film. It is a film about a man who encounters a psychotic truck driver along a sparse California highway. The film works for commercial television because of its high concept. Middle class suburban man versus truck driver.

Steven goes to extra length to strip the story down to its bare essentials. He doesn't want to concern you with the answers to those superficial questions: Who is the truck driver? Why is he so crazy? Steven's refusal to answer our questions heightens the tension. The identity of the driver is almost completely obscured in shadow except for his arm, which he uses to menacingly beacon David to pass.

The dialogue is sparse. Obviously, dialogue is unnecessary to tell the above story but the addition of language gives us some subtle clues as to how to interpret the story of David's Plymouth Valiant versus the giant Peterbilt 281.

In the introduction scene, David is listening to the radio. We hear an advertisement for some gentleman's product like hernia creme or something. Then we jump into a talk show in which a man is confessing his embarrassment of not being the head of his household. The female talk show host assures the man that there is no shame in being a stay at home dad. When we realize this conversation is within the context of a census form, we begin to see the full scope of the themes discussed in Duel. That is, unbridled masculinity versus the industrial system.

Coming out of Christopher Voler's book The Writer's Journey, I was looking for the character archetypes. David is on a journey into his repressed animal nature and the truck driver is his shadow mentor. The people David encounters on the road are brought in to benchmark David's descent into his manhood. And David's wife acts as a threshold guardian, reminding him to come home in time to receive his visiting mother.

Issues of gender power dynamics are most apparent when David attempts to discuss with his wife, the situation in which a man made sexual advances towards her. The manner in which she avoids open discussion illustrates her low expectations of him. I don't want to talk about it, she says, because then you'd get upset and we wouldn't want that.

This is the only scene that feels real to me. It is almost as if this one dramatic scene is a separate short film surrounded by a surreal thriller about a man up against something larger than life, something he cannot control. And the only way to defeat the thing is to...

You get the idea.

American Auto Makers (phony) Decleration of Independence

2010-04-27T18:11:00.001-07:00

I don't think I'm alone here. I'm skeptical of these reports and I'm disappointed by the lack of coverage. Articles like this are plentiful. They tell us the White House is pleased to inform us about our "investment" in General Motors and gives us reason for new faith.

They are quick to point out that the hypocritical Republican Party came up with this whole bailout idea in the first place and it is quite strange how they are so morally against big government now that they are no longer in power. And of course, I think this is pure comedy gold. Seriously. Dear GOP: WTF?

Questions left unanswered are, why are the neo-Keynes trumping their horns as though the debt is returned in full? Numbers seem to indicate to me, less than 13% of the loan is returned. But what is with the misleading headlines?

I also have bigger questions. Such as, where is this money coming from? Is GM selling cars, making a profit and repaying their loans in gold bars? Is the man behind the curtain manipulating the money and paying off its loans with prospective stock options?

Most importantly, am I the only one who cringes when Mr. Ed Whitacre talks about a company all Americans can be proud of? Because it creeps me out.

Of course, there are answers to these questions floating around the internet. My friend half jokingly suggested that he would condone the act of robbing liquor stores in Detroit to pay back the loans. Today, he admitted that he might not be far from the truth and gave me this link.

If GM is truly using taxpayer dollars to pay back taxpayer loans, why isn't this information more prevalent in new media? Why isn't this news story all over the front of the New York Times, LA Times, Wall-street Journal and every alternative newspaper in the country? Because it seems pretty freaking important to me.

I guess it's lost somewhere in la-la land along with the wars.

Ryan Henry Ward conquers Seattle

2010-04-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

I met Ryan Henry Ward today. He is a pretty whimsical character. He paints murals. Some people think he paints too many murals. I mean, they are pretty insistent about it. Personally, I think if Seattle could do worse than cover itself in cute paintings. We need somebody out there to step up their game and exorcise the ghost of Kurt Cobain. I want us to transcend flannel shirts and grunge music.

This fish is pretty awesome. It covers the broad side of a house near the Fremont bridge. Its on 35th somewhere. you really can't miss it because its huge.

Keep up the good work, Henry. Look forward to seeing some thoughtful documentaries about public art.

Edit: I enjoyed this little clip about Henry

Smith & Winston

2010-04-26T08:44:00.001-07:00

This is my first student film for Brooks Institute. I am mostly happy with how it turned out. I was not the director. There are some small things I would do differently but before I get into that, let me point out that not every good idea was my own and not every bad idea was presented by someone else. This was a group effort and every decision was made as a group.

Now, first you must watch the film.

I annoyed by two background lights. The white light on the piano is too intense and should be filtered down with some scrims and maybe extra diffusion. We couldn't really fit a flag back there without risk of the c-stand being in every shot so mostly I'm happy the c-stand we did put back there wasn't more obvious. Also, the blue light on the bricks is both too intense and too blue. Lastly, our professor pointed out that the light should have been lifted up to cast down more like a street lamp.

I wish we had spent more time on the reverse shot of Winston, the man in blue. This is most my fault because art department was my duty. I love how Winston is shot for the 'toast' shot but I wish there was something in the background such as a poster or something.

I don't know why we have a jump cut at the end there. Maybe we didn't get enough coverage. Maybe the shot of Brittany rushing over with the bar mop didn't look very good. Maybe we needed a close up of Winston walking out the back door. Whatever happened, we needed another shot.

Never dress a girl in black if you want to see her. Someone warned me against doing this and I did not follow their advice because I am a dumb dumb dumb boy. To be honest, I did not have a lot of options. I wish I had a faded black because I could have gotten away with that. The red dress may have worked. I don't know.

Over all, I'm pretty happy with my group and I think we will work together again on future assignments.

Streetwise (1984)

2010-02-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

This is the out of print short feature documentary about homeless youth in Seattle, filmed in 1983 by Martin Bell and Mary Ellen Mark. The husband and wife team came to Seattle to expose rampant homelessness and desperation, thriving even in America's most livable city.

The pacing of this film is brilliant. It does not feel like a documentary. It feels more like a fictional piece, how we get such a moving and intimate look into the lives of these young people.

The film is book-ended by Tommy Dean's mentor and music local Seattle street performer Baby Gramps.

Where Do The Hippies Go?

2010-02-05T14:49:00.000-08:00

Ballard's Chai House closing up shop and going on "hiatus" is old news. As a past patron myself, a tear comes to my eye when I think of all the hippies and passionate poets and musicians who are now sent packing for another place to hang out. As a poet and musician myself, I will miss Mr. Spots scratching post.

While many bloggers are crying out why? I want to take this opportunity to show you a valuable resource for answering all property related questions.

Such as, consider the parcel of land upon which Mr. Spots built The Chai House. If you want to know why the landlord doubled the rent, check out this website. Enter the address of Chai House: 5463 Leary Ave

You will see in 2009, IRS appraised the land value at $376,200. Coming into 2010, the IRS raised the appraised value to $486,800.

Conclusion: the landlord raised Mr. Spot's rent because the cost of owning the land increased. In other words, property taxes went up.

There are many reasons why the IRS might appraise land at a higher value than the year before. Some reasons may include a fluctuating housing market and I discuss them in this blog article. But what circumstances might cause a jump in $100 is curious to me. Is this a real estate trend happening in many neighborhoods or just Ballard?

More thoughts about neighborhoods and artists...

2010-01-31T13:55:00.000-08:00

People want to be close to the arts. I think it is required of all white people to go through a phase where they dream of living in an area like Greenwich Village and neighbors with a character like Bob Dylan. Or maybe you would prefer to move into the an apartment over Pioneer Square and hang out with Tommy Dean. But of course, investing in Artists is often like investing in volcanoes. Science can tell us, beyond a doubt, Mt. Rainier is a volcano and could blow up any day. The problem is, science can not currently tell us when Mt. Rainier is going to blow. Nor can any economist tell us when Tommy Dean is going to become famous.

How Neighborhoods Change and Why People are Often Left Behind

2010-01-29T14:48:00.000-08:00

"Neighborhoods change," said Lyle Bicknell. Like the people who create them, "communities are continually evolving. They get richer. They get poorer. They change in complection. That's just the human condition."

Lyle is the big man at Neighborhood Planning. His job is to lead a team of skilled city planners in aiding Seattle neighborhoods along to realizing their inner ideal. Yeah. Its pretty holy stuff.

The ideal neighborhood is self contained and sustainable, said Lyle. Of course, it hasn't always been this way. What was ideal in the 1950s might not be ideal in the post-global warming, post-housing crisis American landscape.

At the turn of the century, for example, cities like Seattle and San Francisco relied on the street car system to keep their neighborhoods connected. A good trolly line could connect urban families from the apartment to the grocery market to the public park. At the end of the day, workers could follow a trolly line from the office to the bar back home.

After World War II, America was able to resume its love affair with the automobile and families shifted from urban living, out to the suburbs. This shift was made possible, I imagine, due to low gas prices and low interest housing loans. But if the low prices of the strong economy paved the roads to the suburbs, family values and desire to own land fueled the transition.

Let us refer back to our Platonian understanding of the relationship between things and ideas. Ideas, such as the perfect neighborhood, are the models by which city planners and developers shape things such as real neighborhoods.

The Pike / Pine Corridor for example, is a beautiful manifestation of neighborhoods. Ideals in the flesh. God came down to Earth and said, 'let there be a neighborhood' and God saw that it was good. In this case, God was a team of urban developers like Liz Dunn, urban planners like Lyle Bicknell and small business like Cupcake Royal. No single person can take credit for the success of the Pike / Pine Corridor.

What happened between the beginning of the 20th century and end of World War II was not a rebuilding of cities but a metamorphosis in American values. Specifically what changed is, the values of people who had money.

Suburban life was the ideal maybe in the 50s, said Lyle. But we are beginning to see things differently. People want more options.

Wait. What happened?

Global warming, unstable gas prices, the internet and evolving family values are among the factors to be considered but return to urban life, like the sprawl of the 50s, was ultimately determined by the values of people with money.

Through the 20th century, the ideal lifestyle was to live in the suburbs with Sloan Wilson and The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. Somewhere along the way, people became sick of life in the suburbs and decided to move back to the city. The age of Ricky Ricardo gave away to the age ofJerry Seinfeld.

When money leaves the suburbs and returns to the city, urban neighborhoods experience growth.

Neighborhood growth is a beautiful thing, said Lyle. When a light rail line is introduced to a community, for example, everyone benefits. Local businesses benefit from the extra foot traffic, streets are relieved of congestion, property values go up and everybody prospers.

Of course, as one thing is gained another is lost. Such as with the transition from the street car to the personal automobile, there is a story of triumph and tragedy to be told behind the mass yuppie congregation in areas like Ballard.

The problems arise when we look to preserve what is already there, said Lyle. People notice when local icons such as when Mr. Spot's Chai House was forced out its formative Market and Leary location and sent looking for a home elsewhere.

Short sighted is the narrative about Ballard small businesses closing up shop when you consider the small business owners who have taken their place. Still relatively new to Ballard are Delancey, Bastille and Blackbird's Field House.

Also short sighted is the narrative that tells how condo developers are kicking out the artists when you consider how Nicole, and artist in her own right, has been experimenting with her nationally recognized Blackbird brand. Blackbird's Candy Shoppe could be compared to such bold career changes as Dylan goes electric.

I sincerely doubt anybody will long for another rendition of Knocking On Heaven's Door at Mr. Spot's Chai House.

And yet, we can't help but to reflect upon what we have lost.

As cost of retail space goes up, businesses that cater to low-income communities are expected to either grow with the neighborhood or move out. The customer base of endangered retail stores, such as Mr. Spot's then must decide if they are going to start hanging out at Bastille or follow their retail stores out of town.

There is a story in here about what it means to grow together with your neighborhood. It is also a story about what is so attractive about city living in the first place. That is, you need to duck dodge and weave everything they throw at you or else, the city is going to wash you away with the rain.

Ballard developers may be setting themselves up for failure if they do not plan to serve a diversity of cultures. And "there is a notion," Lyle explains, "that neighborhoods are like forests and tend to thrive better with a diversity of cultures. The monoculture forest is most vulnerable because if anything happens, everything dies."

Brothers Keeper

2010-01-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

I used to have a friend who I will call Chuck. I loved Chuck like a man might love a brother. In the prime of our love, I would have given the shirt off my back for Chuck. Because he was my brother and I loved him.

I met Chuck when I was living in squalor in the University District. He worked at the convenient store up the street and he was my neighbor in an apartment house.

When I decided to begin the long struggle of pulling myself up by my bootstraps and go to school at Seattle University, Chuck remained where I left him. I didn't speak to him for two years.

Then, a phone call out of the blue. He needed help.

He slept on my dorm room floor for a lengthy period. My love life suffered. Understandably so, my partner did not want to sleep over when I had a strange man sleeping under my bed.

Chuck was kind of like a pet. I could not make him a key to my dorm so I would have to be there to let him in at night. Often I would come home and he would still be there, waiting for me.

Once, I came home and I caught him attempting to enter in coitus with a friend of mine. At that point, I was tempted to get Chuck neutered and reduce his natural urge to breed.

At this point I start asking myself about the value Chuck brought to my dorm room. Chuck was an expensive pet. I paid with my wallet to keep my fridge stocked so we wouldn't starve. I paid with my sex life. I paid with the risk of being caught breaking the rules of my housing agreement. What did I get in return?

A friend of mine one congratulated me on being kind enough to help the homeless, one man at a time. Of course, this was the same friend who I later found grooming a cross class romance under my bed so her opinion of my generosity was a bit biased.

The irony of sacrificing my love life for the benefit of his is not beyond me.

If Chuck and I started an epic scale rock band of such artistic genius of MGMT proportions, the price to pay might have been diminished by the infinite rewards of the riches and fame that come from being MGMT.

If I was able to support Chuck on a journey of self fulfillment, I could justify the physical expenditures by the non-material benefits. If I could have helped Chuck perfect his resume and watch him get his first stable job. If our late night conversations about our true inner selves resulted in a life changing decision, to join the military or commit to a life of religious piety, I could justify my sacrifices.

My partner rather wisely suggested to me that I did this for Chuck out of guilt. She could not explain it to be, but with growth and hindsight I am able to see what she was trying to tell me.

When I struggled in the University District, my parents supported me in the same way that I later supported Chuck. They helped me pay the bills when day labour was not enough. They helped me pay for food so I would not starve and they waited patiently for the moment to come when I would decide to change and choose to engage.

Chuck was not lucky enough to have parents like mine so I felt guilty. And from this guilt, I was able to reap nothing but dependency.

Providing for Chuck with what little provisions I was able to acquire for myself was out of a shameful kinship based on an inability to own up to my own responsibility to myself to further my own destiny. My negligence to own my responsibility turned into an unjustified feeling of responsibility for my friend Chuck.

I do not want to say that I am not my brother's keeper but I am compelled to amend all notions of brotherly love with an explanation of personal growth and co-development rather than co-dependancy. Friendship can be a beautiful thing but without notions of friendly competition and challenging each other to grow, I am afraid to say that the bonds of love can just as easily turn destructive.

Sheriffs First Act

2010-01-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

The Sheriffs First Act (HB-2713) is scheduled to be out of committee February 2. It is part of a package of small government themed house bills, Matt Shea explains in full in Resist DC, an article he wrote for a small government think tank.

The Sheriffs First Act affirms the County Sheriffs role as the senior law enforcement officer both in terms of rank and legal authority in a county by regulating the jurisdiction of federal employees to perform arrests, searches and seizures in Washington State. It asserts that the federal government was created to serve the states and not the other way around.

It is not unconstitutional, said Shea. People who say this do not understand the history behind Anglo Saxon Common Law.

The social logic behind these small government house bills is to empower the people of Washington State and affirm the value of local knowledge. For example, nobody understands the interests of Clallam County than the people of Clallam County.

The Squim Gazette documents a story here about Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, who wants to delegate the disposal of unused prescription medications to the man who initially dispensed them, Cy Frick of Frick's Drugs in Squim. Trivial conflict with federal DEA ensues.

Fox television show Bones alludes to sovereignty rights of local sheriffs in January 14 episode titled "X in the File" in which local sheriff character refuses to release evidence of a crime to federal agents.

Both mainstream news sources and progressive bloggers describe this recent push for small government legislation as coming from a wacky fringe element GOP, an effort to undermine the union. But it is important, says Shea, to make a distinction between national politics and state politics. At a state and county level, Shea says, GOP politics have traditionally been in favor of small government practices.

Update: Ron Periguin, undersheriff at Clallam County gave me a call. He said he would not be surprised if the Sheriffs First Act is soon found to be unconstitutional.

Films Encourage Children To Smoke

2009-12-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

Did you know smoking was a part of the criteria the MPAA addresses when deciding a film? It happened in 2007. But these people don't think the motion picture industry goes far enough. Their argument is based on the hypodermic needle model. That is, kids see Brad Pitt smoking a cigar and instantly, they drag their brainwashed behinds into a 7/11 and buy themselves a pack of Swisher Sweets.
Do you believe it is the responsibility of the motion picture industry to provide entertainment to kids, free of any items that might offend your moral sensibilities? Or do you believe children should be legally permitted access to all content, regardless of exposure to sex and violence and smoking and fatty foods?
In 2004, GKC Theaters (now out of business) attempted to introduce a system by which kids under 17 could attend films Rated R without parent supervision. Some parents loved this idea because they wanted the freedom to send their kids to the theater to see rated R movie without being forced by the MPAA to go with them. Some parents complained because they were afraid of being hoodwinked by their kids. This article cites a concerned parent saying ...they'll go see what they want to see with the card. They'll tell you they're seeing 'Billy Elliot,' but will see 'Kill Bill,'
Crazy kids can't help themsleves! If the state doesn't protect the children from themselves, who will? Parents?

Amanda Knox: Guilty or Not Guilty

2009-12-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

“It is better ten guilty men go free than one innocent man be punished" - Thomas Jefferson

Consider this: perception is reality. If we take this axiom seriously, we must examine these perceptions and take into account the biases at play. When we focus on the limitations of our ability to understand the world, the truth of reality becomes more and more like a trivial abstraction. Our understanding of perception becomes the new reality.

This week's stranger (vol. 19 no. 14) comes with two articles concerning the Amanda Knox story. One is a fictionalized account of the murder, portraying Knox as guilty, meticulously cited from the prosecutor's notes. The other is a plea from an ex-roommate, Madison Paxton.

Charles Mudede's story reads like a Quentin Tarantino script. How Mudede feels about the case is irrelevant. The genius of this article is how it pieces together the perceptions of the prosecuting team in a way we have not seen until now.

Criticism at the foot of the article strike me funny. I also read this article about how Mudede came to America from Zimbabwe and lived on the streets of Seattle. I suspect that Mudede is suspicious of cops and the legal system but he does not use this opportunity to expound upon his personal beliefs. I respect his style because he allows his subject to speak for itself.

The Madison Paxton plea and response seems to have been removed. The fault of the defense is, I have yet to see an alibi account of what happened on the night of murder. If Knox and Sollecito were not raping and killing Kercher, then where were they? Smoking pot and having sex?

Although not as dramatized and sensational as Mudede's fictionalized account, Paxton presents the logic of the defense in a succinct linear manner. Like a true college student, she begs us to walk away with three strong points. There are no recordings of the police interrogations of Knox. There is no evidence directly linking Knox and Sollecito to the scene of the crime. There is no logical motive, indicating Knox and Sollecito to rape and murder.

Analysis of the media maelstrom is to miss the point. At this time, the guilt or innocence of Knox is equally irrelevant. More important to society is, how believable is the prosecuting story? How pure and untainted is the due process?

After all, if perception is reality then our world is pretty hazy. Lets try to get a clear picture before we sentence someone to prison for murder.

Analysis of the Obama Doctrine

2009-12-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo could easily be the most important and most defining speech in his career. In it, he discloses the full Obama Doctrine. He begins by telling us about the necessity of war and leaves us with his feelings on charity. War for peace and giving what is required. You can watch the speech in its entirety below or read the text.

There are two parts to Obama's speech. The first half is his philosophy of war and the second half is his philosophy for peace.

Interesting how Obama accepts the award and reluctantly places himself in leagues with people such as Martin Luther King. When King delivered his speech, he accepted the prize on behalf of his people, or as he said it "beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold."

You can read the acceptance speeches of Albert Schwitzer, George Marshall, Nelson Mandela or any other laureate on the Nobel website. I look forward to reading the lecture of Paul Krugman.

I am intrigued by Obama's recap of history. He recalls the US involvement in World War II as selfless and heroic. He twice cites the Balkans as evidence to the effectiveness of 'peace through strength' and once refers to Korea. He insists history shows us the spoils of war may include lasting peace while maintaining King's contradicting philosophy, that “violence never brings permanent peace."

We know that North Korea is not a democracy and we know that the Balkans are run by the mafia. Funny how his success stories are not success stories at all. And interesting, how Obama chooses not to talk about how FDR's Machiavellian tactics brought democracy came to Japan. But of World War II, Obama speaks mostly about the European front, in which US involvement is a mere footnote by other accounts.

(citation, i admit, is missing here)

Obama makes it clear that Gandhi and King, in all their greatness, could not stop Hitler's armies or bring peace to Europe. He neglects to tell us that all of Kennedy's armies could not put an end to the Cold War, either.

Obama concludes his justification of war by identifying the war tactics of The United States as the ideal by which all just wars are modeled. When he says "I believe that the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war," he is indirectly condoning and aligning himself with the acts of war committed by George W Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gone are all campaign promises of change.

In a transitional paragraph, Obama makes an interesting reference to Guantanamo Bay. He says he is against torture and that is why he ordered the closure of the prison. Funny, how there is no real deadline for the closure. Sometime next year, he says.

Obama says there are three ways that we can build a just and lasting peace.

The first is through imposing tariffs on trade and other economic restrictions. Obama says "sanctions must exact a real price."

The second is through recognition of man's natural rights as outlined in the American constitution and echoed in Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Obama said "I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear."

The third is through economic security and opportunity. Obama gives us the nut of the Obama Doctrine when he says, "for true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want."

The third path to peace is most interesting because it directly reflects his policy on domestic issues of education and nationalized health care.

My questions for Obama are:

Do trade tariffs truly prevent war or maintain peace? Is it possible to maintain conversation while a country is in alienation from the developed world? I would like to research and discuss how open trade aided in the cultural evolution of India, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Is it possible to force a country to respect the natural rights of its citizens without violating the natural rights of that country's leaders? I would like to research and discuss the legitimacy of the Vietnam War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and The War of Northern Aggression.

And finally, whose responsibility is it to restore hope to the hopeless? In what way is duty different from charity? Is it morally justified to force man to do good?

Interesting, how Obama talks about war. He refers to it as someone might talk about the weather. Americans do not seek this war. It is miserable like the rain and from it, we are inclined to seek protection. But keep faith, Obama says. Keep faith in humanity's tenacity to rebuild. We must maintain our faith in human progress, he says, and he never takes ownership of his war.

Edit: Thanks Fjahma for reminding me, Obama is now in ranks with great people such as Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat.

nonsense / there is no other

2009-12-10T09:34:00.001-08:00

i made this video as i was graduating from high school. i was such an artist back then! what we have here could be a typical film school image and symbol collage. we have hitler and billy graham and industrial japan and al gore. but what makes this special to me is the subtitled narrative.

i recorded the soundtrack myself. the first half is an audio collage full of all sorts of sounds i collected while in high school. the second half is a piece i composed in a midi sequencer. i captured the billy graham speech off the radio. all of the images are taken from movies i rented from the library.

i made this video prior to both 9/11 and global warming so i am not trying to make a statement about those topics. i am making a statement about national identity and point of view. and of course the image of al gore receiving the fascist salute is pretty funny now, considering his cult leader status.

when i show this video to people, they walk away with one of two messages. the first, is that i am contrasting man's world view with god's truth. man creates chaos and god is here to guide us through it. the second, is that i am only looking at man's image of perfection. for billy graham, jesus was the ideal to aspire towards. to hitler, science (bad superstitious science, but science none the less) was the ideal to aspire towards.

i prefer the latter because it lends meaning to the final question. is it best not to dream at all? in other words, is it best not to imagine an ideal? because in many ways, these ideals lead to genocide and prejudice.

i would like to challenge billy graham's statement that 'when we do what is right in our own eyes, there is chaos' because i disagree. i believe our country was founded on the principal that it is best if we are all free to do what is right in our own eyes. the problem lies within people who want to coerce their beliefs onto others, either through physical violence or social chastising.

so dream on. your world view is quite possibly your most valuable asset.

Rosa Alba and Fjahma

2009-12-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

I met Fjahma at the NW Film Forum where I volunteer once a week. He is generous with his world view and meek as a monk. He always wears a big black hood over his eyes. He's an ambitious guy. I respect ambition in a person.

rosa alba

fjahma | MySpace Video

8mm film about a CIA agent who follows a flower girl from the Bremerton ferry and kills her in an alley somewhere. In the above sequence, he uses a golf club he finds leaning up against a wall but in other edits, he just shoots her.

Not sure what it all means.

Cops Good, Crooks Bad

2009-12-02T16:18:00.000-08:00

A police might wake up in the morning like an ordinary man and put on his pants one leg at a time, but as soon as he dawns the badge he transcends his personal identity and becomes an icon of public safety. Injury inflicted upon his body is not a crime against mortal flesh but a crime against society.

Two stories of cop killers within 30 days, the common thread between Christopher Monfort and Maurice Clemmons is the media and community response. Who would willingly wage war on an icon of public safety? What kind of monster enters into a state of war with the man in the white hat?

The more important question is, what circumstances lure an individual into making enemies with a system he cannot defeat? He must know, upon breaking the social contract that there will be no return. Society will dehumanize him. His friends and family will become suspect of assisting and enabling him. His political affiliations forever tinged.

Monfort could be lucky if he never sees trial. History shows that the jail system shows no mercy to convicted cop killers.

From Seattle Times archive:

PASCO — A man convicted of killing a (Washington) State Patrol trooper is suing Franklin County and a sheriff's deputy over the way he was treated after being arrested.

Nicolas Solorio Vásquez, 30, alleges that Sheriff Richard Lathim's "tepid disciplinary action" condoned Deputy James Dickenson's behavior and the use of excessive force.

Solorio Vásquez is serving a life term in the October 1999 shooting death of Trooper James Saunders in Pasco.

Dickenson pleaded guilty in June 2000 to assault on Solorio Vásquez and was sentenced to 80 hours of community service.

The details surrounding the death of Maurice Clemmons leave no room for reasonable skepticism. Make no excuses, Maurice Clemmons executed four police officers in cold blood. He deserves none less than punishment at the fullest extent of the law.

In the hunt for Clemmons, police trashed the house of one woman (a family member of Clemmons) who decided to do the right thing and call the police. When Police have a monopoly in the business of capturing criminals, there is no accountability for the collateral damage of their man hunts. Begin moral debate over the legality of citizen vigilante groups. Or individuals.

Monfort and Clemmons are not heroes. It is wrong under all circumstances to kill another human being. Do not idolize their actions. Do not give them pity. Rather, is there no cure for mental illness? No way to reform a system than reaps absolute dualism between cops and criminals?

If Clemmons was a bicyclist, hit by a car, we might be inclined to put up a memorial at the scene of the accident. Society is not keen on sympathizing with cop killers and yet, how much like a bicyclist was Clemmons, precariously sailing our lives in a separate reality until just recently. He collided with reality?

The Decline and Fall of the Republican Party

2009-12-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

I caught this video from my favorite progressive blogger and I want to share it with you. Its about the proposed Republican Purity Test. Its a suicide pact. Its tearing the party apart. It begs the question, what is the GOP going to do next? Are they going to splinter off ala reformation style?

Conservative economists Gary Becker and Richard Posner wrote about the deterioration of party politics, signs pointing back as far as the 1960s.

During the republican presidential debates Ron Paul said (among other things), the base of the republican party shrunk because of the war issue. Ron Paul continues to tell Rudy Giuliani that 9/11 was Islamic backlash against American Interventionism.

Senator Lindsay Graham dishes out some backlash of his own against Ron Paul's intervention of the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has fragmented into two camps. One group is the carrying the zombie corpse of The Bush administration and everything it stood for. That is, government bailouts, government sponsored monopolies in the health care industry and war mongering in the Middle East. The other group are the librarians who are against all that.

The Republican Party is in serious need of organizing and prioritizing their values. They may find that their survival into 2012 will call for compromise of various social issues such as legalized abortion, legalized gay marriage and legalized recreational drug use. Young conservatives do not buy into the hypocrisy of a political platform that preaches small government in economics and yet insists upon a federal church of morality.

the xx, crystalised

2009-12-01T19:59:00.001-08:00

i love the xx but this video seems a bit... uninspired?

i agree with the notion of presenting a minimalist style but placing the band up against a wall and using a video projector as lighting is a bit obvious. don't you think?

i wonder if the director alex flick was thinking about this nine inch nails video when he was doing this?

Working Class Hero

2009-11-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

From NY Times opion:

“A working class hero is something to be,” John Lennon, that product of ragged Liverpool, sang just after leaving the Beatles. “Keep you doped with religion and sex and T.V.”

As someone who had a union card in my wallet before I owned a Mastercard, I don’t share Lennon’s dark view of blue collar workers. But as long as they can be distracted by people who say all government is bad, while turning a blind eye to manipulation at corporate levels, they’re doomed to shouting at phantoms.

I have been thinking about the big government versus big corporate groups. In your mind, which one is more evil? More importantly, are they mutually exclusive? Most Republicans and Democrats argue as though we have an either/or situation.

If the government isn't running things, then the evil corporations are going to rape us in our sleep!

Somebody once told me, the problem with big business is their ability to bribe the government. I think this kind of insight is very short sighted. He should have said, the problem with big government is that it opens the doors to lobbyists and special interest groups and as of late, corporate execs looking for bailouts.

How are we going to put the power back in the hands of the people? I do not think this comes from artificially inflating the power of either government or corporate fat cats. Power for the people comes from preserving options.

Why do you think non-paid internships are on the rise? I somehow doubt it is because our employers are not taxed enough.

Free Speech vs Defamation of Character

2009-11-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

From Seattle Post Intelligence:

PERUGIA --Italian authorities have served the parents of Amanda Knox with legal papers notifying them they are under investigation for defamation, an accusation related to their allegations that police brutalized their daughter.

People might feel sympathy for Amanda because she's young and cute (despite the denim jacket). The Italian people already distrust their police. Heck, we aren't very big fans of our own police, here in Washington. These claims, truth or not, only reinforce a pre-existing distrust of police.

What actions do the police, as employees of the state, have against these allegations. By rules of logic, they are unable to prove that misconduct did not occur. Their best option is to maintain their professionalism and transparency throughout the case.

Cases of defamation of character in American courts are typically awarded to situations regarding individuals and private organizations. Cases that hold up in court are typically follow a utilitarian argument, gauging the malicious repercussions of the message against the social utility of the content.

For example, a department store may not post photographs of shoplifters on its front doors because it is of no use to the public to see the faces of people who have already paid for their crimes. Also, the information may hurt business opportunities otherwise available to publicly shamed individuals. A libertarian argument would suggest that public image is like a commodity that holds value. Damage inflicted upon public image is like damage of any other property and must be compensated for.

People exempt from pressing defamation charges are public figures such as politicians and celebrities. Their public image is regarded as public property and a fair subject for free speech.

local hip hop

2009-11-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

I discovered Zia Mohajerjasbi through his genius award write up in The Stranger. Check out his Vimeo page. He makes hip hop videos for local Seattle artists. Pretty cool, right?

I think when your average person thinks of hip hop videos they think of guns, gold chains and half naked women. People should be thinking of a second type of hip hop video. That is, the short film:

Common Market "Trouble Is" Music Video from Zia Mohajerjasbi on Vimeo.

Framing a hip hop video like a short film makes sense. Indie acts such as Common Market are heavily message oriented. They tell stories about poverty and economic hardship.

They're like the Almanac Singers of the modern depression. When I was making a documentary about street musician Tommy Dean, I really wanted to end the film with Tommy's comments on hip hop. The moral is, folk singers (by nature of their medium) are looking in the rear view mirror. Hip hop is current and modern. It doesn't preoccupy itself by imitating the blues and it doesn't try to hide behind a clever riff or a catchy melody. Its just message.

That said, I'm interested in what Zia is doing. I'll keep an eye on him.

the blind side by mike lewis

2009-11-21T13:31:00.001-08:00

Have you seen the preview for The Blind Side? You should take a look. Seriously. Next Hollywood blockbuster with a pay-it-forward sort of feel good moral. Its based on a true story about white people helping black people with their homelessness and drug addiction. And guess who the hero is? Football!

I read the review of the story in The Stranger and The Seattle Weekly.

I am sure the authors of these reviews all went to fine liberal arts universities and I commend them in their ability to point out the racism. Somebody please give them the Bill Cosby award.

If they had read Micheal Lewis' book, they would also know that the true story is aware of all their criticisms. Behind the movie script and the literary journalism are real people and a real moral dilemma regarding not only race and economic prejudice but also the sport of football and the impact it has on education and society.

It is easy to criticize white people for being so pompous as to paint themselves as the savior of poor black people and it is a legitimate argument. Michael Oher is adopted by the coach of Briarcrest Christian School for the explicit purpose of winning football games. The selflessness is a thin disguise for the true story of opportunists.

Also real are the benefits appreciated by Big Mike. He really was homeless. His mom really was a prostitute. His father really was a deadbeat living on the streets. Football changed all this.

Mike Lewis simply tells the story as any free market capitalist would see it. The sport of football presented a need for a tall athletic heavyweight and Big Mike was available to fill that need. Of course, Big Mike could not have made it on his own so he found assistance from Sean Tuohy and his wife.

The important dialogue that is being passed up here is: Sean Tuophy morally wrong for taking advantage of disenfranchised youth? He does pick the kid off the streets and give him an education. Is capitalism wrong for rewarding selfishness? Is football morally wrong for providing a means for the rags to riches story?

I can't comment on the movie because I have not seen it yet. I would not be surprised if the moral dilemma of the book is missing from the film. Please don't judge a book by its movie adaptation. All objections to the movie are actually the subject matter of the book. The "selfless and benevolent white people" are actually fully aware of their post-racist behavior and are torn between helping the kid and leaving him starving on the street. In the book, there is actually a parallel development between "Big Mike" and a lesser (little?) Mike character who does not get a football scholarship.

Friday Night Lights might be a better film but the literary story telling of The Blind Side is a terrific book. Also check out Mike Lewis's other novels.

telekinesis! at bumbershoot

2009-11-19T20:06:00.000-08:00

i had a lot of fun shooting and editing this video. telekinesis! reminds me a bit of both deathcab for cutie and older nada surf.

shooting bands is easy. the biggest mistake you can make is thinking too much. just point the camera and have a good time. use the opportunity to play around a bit. here, i stuck to wide angles too much and i think i botched it. don't do that. just have fun.

chief of sales?

2009-11-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

this week marks the beginning of my new career in sales. my friend fransisco asked me to do some rep work for his clothing label, built for man. i have never worked in fashion or sales but here i am, neck deep in fashion sales. we'll see how i handle this challenge.

i really love fransisco's wool and cotton pieces. all of his clothes are made out of the finest materials. baby alpaca wool and pima cotton. also, they are sold at affordable prices. you couldn't find a better deal at target. seriously.

this last week, i've been compiling a list of all clothing stores/boutiques/outlets in seattle who might carry built for man product. next week, i'll be developing a sales strategy. wish me luck!

portfolio links

2009-11-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

social media profiles
facebook: /platypusrex256
twitter: /platypusrex256
yelp: /platypusrex256
linkedin: /platypusrex256
vimeo: /joshuaguerci

video samples
women behind bars: /click
hermes festival of crafts: /click
smith & winston: /click
football video: /click
emerson salon: /click
kexp bumbershoot: /click

laser light show on broadway

2009-11-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

my friend angelo put this video together for seattle university's student newspaper. i'm glad to see the spectator take advantage of multimedia like this. i'm thinking i might want to swing by and take a look at this art exhibit while its up.

Lasers bring life to an empty lot from The Spectator on Vimeo.

Story of Tim Brenton and Christopher Monfort

2009-11-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

I've been following the story of Officer Tim Brenton and Christopher Monfort pretty closely because I am interested in stories that reflect upon issues of security and civil rights.

Police officer shot dead Halloween night. (article) Brenton's position as a senior police officer and a mentor to Britt Sweeney enhances the symbolic meaning of the story. A police officer is dead and we are faced with the mortality of our protectors

Police in search of suspicious car. (article) Once we establish the mortality of our hero, we introduce our faceless anti-hero. He draws power from his obscurity.

I know it is a lot to ask from the city, but I would like to see video evidence released to the public. Screen shots of video are not enough.

Police share theory about suspect. (article) Our anti-hero challenges the morality of our hero. Our villain wants us to ask questions about the deputy sheriff and the girl in SeaTac. Our ghost story becomes a moral dilemma.

Monfort is shot at his home. (article) As DNA and other evidence is collected, it is important to note that Seattle Police own this story. The journalists were good to gather some additional comments when available but the Police remain the sole proprietors of meat to this story.

Friends and family of Monfort have an opportunity to speak to the press at this time. Often friends and family will decline to speak with the press, often by request of their lawyers, out of fear that the press is out to ruin the case and create prejudice against them before the jury is assembled. It is the journalist's first priority to understand the family's need for space but it is also important for the family to understand that silence is not always the best option. In the Monfort case, silence is counter productive.

If Monfort is innocent, it is the duty of his friends and family to step forward now to clear his name. If Monfort is guilty, the journalist might offer an opportunity for speak anonymously. Either way, if the journalist is not able to dig up information about Monfort, he loses an opportunity to tell a compelling story.

Monfort questioned authority. (article) When friends and family do not speak, a journalist must rely only on public record. Here is where we establish Monfort's identity as a proponent of freedom. He witnessed the fall of The Berlin Wall and participated in the first Iraq war. In school, Monfort was deeply passionate about the people's right to a government that stays within the confines of the constitution.

The danger of these findings is that the story becomes instantly political when the shooter is identified as representing a political point of view already grossly associated with domestic terrorism. For example, should society be fearful of people who question authority?

This story ends with a dead police officer but its power is in the conflict between security and freedom. The intent is not to vilify Monfort because to do so would to paint Brenton's death in vain. Also, the story is not to patronize Monfort's politics as to neglect the true struggle of the human condition.

Rush to buy: issue of free speech

2009-10-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

Rush Limbaugh wants to buy the St. Louis Rams. Al Sharpton is leading the crusade against Limbaugh’s efforts, arguing that Limbaugh is unfit to own a sports franchise because he is a racist and an addict; clearly an irresponsible role model for young Americans. While the drug possession charges are general knowledge, the racist argument is yet to be determined.

Common sense dictates that Limbaugh is a staunch conservative and therefor a racist and tainted with prejudice. But where are the facts?

Notwithstanding lack of evidence, is Rush Limbaugh entitled to his opinion? Or is his money no longer good?

This is an important ethical question for our generation to answer. Is it true that 'hate speech' is the antithesis of democratic free-speech and must be censored? If Limbaugh is a racist, should he be bared from participation in public radio, in sports, in business? Is Limbaugh’s money no good or is Limbaugh, in a free society, free to both speak and spend his money as he pleases? Is the NFL unable to stop him?

This discussion might be better framed as good or bad marketing: Does the NFL as a publicly traded organization have the freedom to pick and choose the partners it affiliates with?

David Sirota wrote in Huffington Post: Forget the double standard of Rush Limbaugh, a free marketeer, now decrying as outrageous the NFL corporation's logical business decision to protect its brand from his taint.

Sirota dismisses a good point. The St. Lewis Rams may, as a PR strategy, choose to turn down Limbaugh's offer to buy the franchise. But this decision should come from the Rams and the strategic decision will rest in the symbiosis of brands, weather or Limbaugh’s values are acceptable to the St. Louis Rams and their fans. Of course, we might safely assume that the target audience, Rams fans, are also Limbaugh fans. So.... it would make no sense to stop Limbaugh.

Freedom Watch hosts an interesting conversation:

goodnight unknown

2009-10-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

i am in love with this small documentary. its truly a personal little statement. i would love to spend so much time with an artist as they are making a record like this.

Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown Documentary from Merge Records on Vimeo.

documentary film is sharing a second hand experience. the trick is finding that experience that is worth sharing.

and finding a documentary you want to watch is kind of like shopping at garage sales. i suppose it goes without saying that i might see new life in old trinkets that no longer interest you.

its up to the documentary film maker to arrange the odds & ends and fragmented moments into a meaningful collage. a total product you might find more interesting than the sum of its parts.

fashion week bellevue

2009-10-05T11:49:00.001-07:00

a fashion designer friend of mine wanted to bring me to bellevue fashion week to film this event at the hyatt hotel but there was a conflict with the model contracts. of course, i was welcome to come shoot the video for my own personal use.

it is funny how journalism and pr and blogs all adhere to different rules. blogs are the anarchy of information!

i think it is useful to watch even bad footage. obviously, i will learn what not to do. but also sometimes the amateur eye is willing to see things from a new perspective. out of the mouths of babes, so to speak?

(pow pow) powercorp video

2009-10-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

i really launched myself into this project headstrong. i had just completed the video for emerson and i was feeling good about myself. i ended up making some silly mistakes on this one.

things i would change include:

1) don't perform an interview in front of a window. lighting is always tricky. thankfully, rory brought a truck full of watts or i would have been out of luck with a backlit subject. to avoid this problem, reserve a space ahead of time for interviews that you know will work.

2) use a monopod for b-roll. no hand is steady enough and a tripod is too much work.

3) plan the interview before you shoot b-roll. this way, you get b-roll that fits the audio.

4) planning is half the battle. you should know exactly how long the video is going to be and what is going to be said. even when the voice over is interview based, you should know the answers to the questions and script out the flow and feeling before you go in to shoot.

5) execution is the other half of the battle. planning goes to waste if you don't stick to the plan.

6) communicate clearly your expectations of all people involved. up and down the management chain, communication should be open and free. be respectful to your team members but also be respectful to the project and do what it takes to get the job done.

7) when you script out the quotes you want from your interview, you can better coach your subject into giving you that soundbite you need. don't think you can fix it in post because you will not always have the tools later down the road.

8) how many people are going to watch the video? who is going to care enough to show it to someone else? these are questions you should ask yourself when making any video content.

a little slice of life

2009-10-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

i like people. tommy is good people. so many experiences out there, waiting to be discovered if only you had the courage to talk to new people. or you can watch film.
that's what i like about movies. it gives you an opportunity to live vicariously through someone else's eyes. because we don't all have the courage to go home with weirdos like tommy and talk to them about the trinkets hanging on the walls.

wish i could show you everything but you probably don't care enough.

looking for work at a time like this

2009-09-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

my friend alex posted the video to his blog. also, washington bus posted my video to their blog. excitement all around.

today i spent the day applying for jobs.

has anybody heard of northwest marketing, inc? the google search results for the company show nothing but job listings. also, the website looks like it was built in 1998. sketchy.

also bizglimpz seems like a fishy program. they are looking for a freelance videographer and self-marketer to sell videos to local business. here is the deal: videographer brings the gear and the skill. bizflimpz supplies the web hosting and sets the price. videographer pulls commission. sound like a good deal? you tell me.

our money where his mouth is

2009-09-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

have you seen the controversial gm commercial with ed whitacre?

people don't like that gm chose the ceo as the face of the ad when people are distrustful of people in suits now more than ever. to me, the controversial part is where whitacre says we're putting our money where our mouth is. politics aside, there are more problems with the ad.

vp & social media lead at razorfish shiv singh offers some insight into gm his blog that you might not get anywhere else. basically, that gm is missing an opportunity to start dialogue.

the problem is, how does gm regain america's trust after going bankrupt? the question of whether or not gm has any hope of turning over a profit is certainly subject for hot conversation. how do we divert the conversation back to cars? more specifically, how do we divert the conversation away from politics and onto something that will encourage consumers to buy cars?

pj orourke (take him or leave him) says in the wallstreet journal:

The American automobile is —that is, was— never a product of Japanese-style industrialism. America’s steel, coal, beer, beaver pelts and PCs may have come from our business plutocracy, but American cars have been manufactured mostly by romantic fools.

many have suggested, america's love affair with the car is over. i think this metaphor might be a bit unfair. i think america's relationship to the car is listed as 'its complicated' on facebook but it certainly is not over.

the problem with witacre's ad is that he fails to acknowledge the rift in the relationship. i don't expect him to get down on his hands and knees and beg, such as the entirety of the reinvention campaign, because that would look desperate.

holy fuck from kexp music lounge

2009-09-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

the name of this band is well deserved. i hid away on stage and you can tell my shots apart because i focus on the drummer and the bassist from the side of the stage while zeek and jim filmed the stage more head on.

the films of sean dunne

2009-09-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

sean dunne is a filmmaker in new york. i found him through the little films blog. i like sean dunne's attention to detail. he is not afraid to get the camera in close and show us the texture of someone's life.

Man In Van from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

man in a van makes me think of what i wanted to do for random. i can think of a million excuses for why i never made that film and none of them are suffice. maybe i ought to revisit the idea and take some notes from sean.

Buckles from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

buckles moves a bit slow here and there but it retains gravity because of its historical value. someday even this will be a piece of history.

songwriters shack

2009-09-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

every man with big hair who picks up a guitar looks instantly like bob dylan. its a true story. and i've seen many of these singer songwriters buy into the persona and follow in bob's footsteps.

i stole this video from a big time dylan blogger. this is typical bob dylan-esque impressionistic storytelling and i don't think it is a minor detail that the 'dylan' character is reading kafka.

i like the soundtrack. is that the weight by the band?

cover letter to razorfish

2009-09-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

I am applying for the assistant media planner position because my unique background in film and video will provide me with insight into how to best engage people with innovative media. In my experience working in the film and video production industry, I learned that behind every successful creative decision lies both quantitative analysis and real human relationships. Bringing my experiences to Razorfish, my goal is to continue to build on these lessons while gaining a buyer’s perspective into media production.

Last summer, I made a documentary about Pike Place Market singer-songwriter Tommy Dean. I played Pennebaker to his Bob Dylan in my homage to landmark music documentary Don’t Look Back. Making The Tommy Dean Show taught me so much about harvesting a valuable second-hand experience from hours and hours of footage.

Currently, I am working with Rys Fairbrother. He sells video advertisements for vacation rental homes in central Oregon. Successfully completing these videos while working remotely, I have had to build strong communication skills, while organizing a systematic workflow and displaying initiative. Success on this project requires patience and clarity to develop a systematic workflow to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction that we often take for granted in business.

My most valuable experience was an internship with Guy Roadruck at Media Plant, a creative services group downtown. Media Plant taught me the value of systematically plotting the progress of multiple accounts, enabling all team members to quickly identify projects ready for action or waiting on assets.

Volunteering with KEXP and The Northwest Film Forum, I saw a despairing gap between what artists want to produce and what clients want to pay for. I read in an interview with Shiv Singh in which he comments on media professionals who task themselves with “educating and enlightening our clients” and I like how Singh counters this mindset that the relationship should be more symbiotic, that “we learn equally from each other even about new phenomena…”

If Singh’s remarks reflect the sentiment of the company, then I am happy to submit my application to Razorfish. I look forward to developments to come. Please contact me if you have any questions.

service and client, growing together

2009-09-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

I am applying for the the assistant media planner position because my unique background in film and video will provide me with insight into how to best engage people with innovative media. In my experience working in the film and video production industry, I learned that behind every successful creative decision lies both quantitative analysis and real human relationships. Bringing my experiences to Razorfish, my goal is to continue to build on these lessons while gaining a buyer’s perspective into media production.

Last summer, I made a documentary about Pike Place Market singer-songwriter Tommy Dean. I played Pennebaker to his Bob Dylan in my homage to landmark music documentary Don’t Look Back. Making The Tommy Dean Show taught me so much about harvesting a valuable second-hand experience from hours and hours of footage.

Currently, I am working with Rys Fairbrother. He sells video advertisements for vacation rental homes in central Oregon. Successfully completing these videos while working remotely, I have had to build strong communication skills, while organizing a systematic workflow and displaying initiative. Success on this project requires patience and clarity to develop a systematic workflow to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction that we often take for granted in business.

My most valuable experience was an internship with Guy Roadruck at Media Plant, a creative services group downtown. Media Plant taught me the value of systematically plotting the progress of multiple accounts, enabling all team members to quickly identify projects ready for action or waiting on assets.

Volunteering with KEXP and The Northwest Film Forum, I saw a despairing gap between what artists want to produce and what clients want to pay for. I read in an interview with Shiv Singh in which he comments on media professionals who task themselves with “educating and enlightening our clients” and I like how Singh counters this mindset, that the relationship should be more symbiotic, that “we learn equally from each other even about new phenomena…”

If Singh’s remarks reflect the sentiment of the company, then I am happy to submit my application to Razorfish. I look forward to developments to come. Please contact me if you have any questions.

a bit too dramatic for a cover letter

2009-09-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

I graduated from Seattle University with a degree in journalism. From the graduation ceremony, you could actually hear the walls of Post-Intelligencer caving in on it self. For four years, we studied the art of collecting and contextualizing daily trivia, listening to professors lecture us about how television and now the internet have corrupted what was once the practical skill of objective journalism, never to ask the important questions. That is, maybe we were wrong all along? Maybe we were naïve to think that journalism is the truth and that the public, who prefer to get daily news, filtered through partisan channels and marketing agencies, is wrong? Maybe the time has come, to rethink what we think we know about how people hunger for information and how they consume it? Time to let this failed dream die, wake up now to the reality of what consumers want, the value content providers imagine they provide, and the disparity between the two ideas.

I like the Thomas Jefferson quote in the picture above: Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

the valule of viral video and the second hand experience

2009-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

viral video is a pretty cool idea. make a video on a low budget. maybe shoot it on your flip camera and post it to the web. the idea is, its not the production that brings value to your story but something else.

my friend fransisco said to me that he likes how you can experience something in real life and capture that moment on your flip camera and take it home with you. you can open the video on your computer and re-experience that moment in a new context and you can share that experience with other people.

i think that is great! but what is the value of that experience?

how about this experience? i bet you always wanted to hang out with a couple of microsoft testers and geek out with them about bing! well, now you can:

i don't know how long the video is because i didn't watch the whole thing.

i found this page through a link on a blog critiquing the marketing strategy leading up to bing! launch.

i bet these guys had a lot of fun when they were making the video. you can tell by the jokes they tell each other and how they laugh. i bet they're great pals. but something seems to be lost in re-contextualizing that moment for second hand experience.

i met today with fransisco and we explored the possibility of making some viral video for his website. website design aside, how might i create a video that will be able to transcend that re-contextualizing process? as a local seattle video artist i want to know, is there a way to instigate a moment that might even benefit gain new meaning through going viral?

filmmakers with blogs

2009-09-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

i don't understand why so few seattle film makers are putting together blogs. every time i meet a film maker, i ask about their blog and they look at me like i'm crazy. they say they don't have enough time.

i found Jeven's blog today. looks like he was up in seattle recently and he made a music video for fun:

he has two feature films in the hopper. the scripts are: steven king's cain rose up and 1-800-Suicide by Michael Lamio. he's just as busy as anybody i've met in seattle and yet he has a blog. two or three entries a month.

now, to find some local seattle film makers with blogs. i want to see what people are doing in this town!

edit: i met a girl at the northwest film forum the other day who calls herself purple. she was with her dad and they were looking for someone who could help them cast a film.

parking in the neighborhood

2009-09-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

sdot will be hosting a community open house september 17, at first baptist church. please come and voice your opinions.

parking on capitol hill is a longstanding issue. are there too many people and too many cars to all park happily in the area? do more people need to ride the bus? do we need to tear down some unwanted buildings and put up a parking lot?

frankly, nobody can answer these questions better than the people who live on the hill, the people who bring value to the area. what city organization knows better for capitol hill than the residents and small business owners who live and work there? if sdot does not get your input, how will they know what to do?

i will be there to ask for an expansion of the zone 21 permit. i think anybody who buys a parking permit should be able to park anywhere on the hill and not worry about 1hr restrictions or putting money in a meter! so i hope to see you there and maybe afterward we can all grab a drink at rosebud!

raphael saadiq live at bumbershoot

2009-09-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

i volunteer with kexp once a week. most of the time i log tapes or catalog the archives but once in a while, online content cordinator jim beckman will invite me along to watch some live performances and shoot some video. i am grateful for this opportunity because it is a fun learning experience to record live performances.

raphael saadiq's old school rhythm and blues band was a surprise for me because i had never heard of them prior to the show. if you read his wikipedia page or allmusic profile, you will see that he's been around for a while.

for those shoots when a tripod is too much, it might be wise to invest in a monopod. no man can hold a camera that steady. i don't care how strong your arm is. you can never hold a shot for too long.

if you have the full final cut pro studio, you might be able to fix shaky clips in post. at kexp, we use the express copy so we don't have this luxury. but if you do have the full version, you can apply a 'smooth cam' filter. you can plan ahead for using the 'smooth cam' filter by keeping your shot a little loose. this way, when the filter enlarges your image for processing, you won't loose any information off the edge of the frame.

for a long time, i was obsessed with keeping one camera wide. here i will publicly denounce that initial philosophy. i learned my lesson. for live performances, wide shots are overrated. unless a performer is using the space in an interesting way, it is best to use tight shots. most performers do not move around too much and if you show them in a wide angle, you will only highlight the boring aspect of their performance. rather you should do the opposite and focus in on the little movements.

it might be wise to decide which camera is going to get which shots before you start. camera one focus on performer a and b. camera two focus on performer c and d. if two cameras agree to share a single subject, it might be wise to decide upon different focal lengths. this way, you keep your options open. you don't want to set yourself up for jump cuts in the edit studio.

try to minimize the noise in the shot. this is another reason to keep away from wide angle shots. the depth of field in video is too deep and if you throw in too much motion, you will only draw attention to the faults of the medium. keep it tight and try to keep the background bland and boring. black is good.

i love shooting video and i don't think i could ever grow bored with it. my biggest challenge is acquiring experience. every time i shoot video i make new mistakes. and with every mistake comes a lesson. and with every lesson, i am only more excited to go out and shoot more video.

thinking back to my work on the tommy dean movies, i would love to have a chance at that kind of project again. a subject like raphael saadiq would be a dream come true because his scene is neck deep in nostalgia. the question i would ask through a documentary about him would be, how does he capture the spirit of the original scene and how does he make it is own? pretentious stuff like that! anybody out there have any ideas?

my seagate issues, resolved

2009-08-17T10:44:00.001-07:00

all things decay. all hard drives fail. they overheat and crash. the best thing you can hope for from a company is a guarantee on the gear. don't expect to see your data again. but you might be able to get a blanket 'im sorry' and a new hard drive in the mail.

seagate is an honest company. i'm still not impressed with their external designs but at least they will replace them for free when they burn out.

i don't care what brand you buy, you will want two. and backup your gear. the question is not about if but when your hard drive fails, did you backup your files? and pray to god that two drives is enough.

take advantage of livemesh for your most important information. with every live.id you get 5gb of free cloud storage. this isn't much, but if you are a final cut guy like myself, this should be plenty of space to store your project files and special files from soundtrack pro or color.

recapturing footage might take time but redoing your work would put you in a whole new world of heartache. in many cases, you will never forgive yourself. kind of like losing your first born child.

tommy dean movies

2009-08-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

tommy dean is a singer songwriter who lives in the seattle and tacoma area. his life is a work of art full of adventure and mystery. he invites his audience to live vicariously through his music. some of his stories are true and some of his stories are outright lies.

if my movie seems overly romantic and idealized, it is because it was my first documentary film. like my subject, i am trying to find myself as an artist. it is a labour of manifesting my dreams.

tommy dean show (38:41) from Joshua Guerci on Vimeo.

this second film is an hour long. much of the innocent magic has dissapeared and the result is a much more gritty and real dipiction of my subject. as a film maker, i feel that i play the role of a selective mirror. i must find a balance between what the audience would like to see and what the subject himself wants to see.

further, it is a challenge to balance between scenes of idealizing my subject and showing off his grubby parts. too much of one thing will ruin the sauce.

tommy dean & friends (1:07:14) from Joshua Guerci on Vimeo.

if you would like a physical copy of these movies, please leave a comment below. you can see some outtakes on my youtube channel and send me a message there. if you would like to share this movie with a friend, i would be happy to send you a copy of the dvd in the mail.

i am an independent filmmaker living in seattle and i would love to do another project like this, to expand upon what i did right and practice some of the lessons i learned first time around.

king rat by modest mouse

2009-08-04T17:45:00.001-07:00

initially released in 2007, the rat king is released as an a-side to promote a b-side collection from modest mouse. i think the video is great!

pitchfork says heath ledger was directing this music video up until his untimely death. is that true? or is it some sick ploy? more likely, i think this video was directed and animated by terry gilliam.

whatever the case, this video is sick. whales hunting humans? do you think its some message of veganism? or some zen meditation? or maybe it just awesome. i'll go with just awesome.

emerson salon video

2009-08-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

i am the cheapest videographer in town. what is the quality of my work? look below:

Emerson Salon: Rusty from Joshua Guerci on Vimeo.

how did i get rusty to talk about himself as a hair stylist? i got him to talk about what he thinks people want to see in a stylist. in describing his idea of the other's desires, he is talking about himself. clever? i thought so.

i enjoyed talking to rusty and putting together this video. rusty told me about how he enjoys helping customers discover the hidden 'sexiness' of their hair. as a videographer, i enjoy helping interview subjects discover their message. one of the first rules of journalism is, everyone has a story to tell. and i believe it. with the help of a creative and skilled journalist, any person can be transformed into a goldmine of storytelling.

there is a trick to getting people to talk. the interview should be at least twice as long as the intended application will allow and a good interviewer will use that extra space to ask peripheral questions. not worthless or trite questions but poignant questions that will prime the memory well, so to speak.

this is the first personal project in which i used soundtrack pro. once you get over the initial intimidation of the software, it is very powerful tool. i am familiar with sony soundforge, cakewalk sonar and pro tools so it is not difficult for me to get into soundtrack pro. no video should be completed without first going through the soundtrack pro treatment.

if i had more time to play, i might go in and tweak things in color. add some gain to the shadows maybe? subtract a bit from the bright window?

the eye is naturally drawn to the brightest part of the picture. in this video, that would be the window. so did i make a mistake by shooting into natural light? i like the effect. but do you?

tiny vipers at kexp

2009-07-17T20:47:00.001-07:00

this was the highlight of my week. chatting with jesy fortino before her set at kexp. i have a lot of respect for musicans who manage to fold time and space with mere sound waves. communicating these feelings are hard enough but also to get into that headspace where you are capable of accessing them. amazing. tiny vipers is not just another girl with acoustic guitar singer songwriter shindig.

KEXP inStudio 11.1 from More Dust Than Digital on Vimeo.

i had no part of this shoot. i think i might have handed someone an extention cord but i was a happy bystander of a professional set up.

some things i might have done differently? maybe fewer cuts. i like the static shots, sometimes inconventionally framed. my only biggest complaint is silly but, i don't like the camera on the other side of the microphone. i know most people don't think it looks wrong but to me its jarring.

i like the wide shot that is kind of washed out while the other shots don't really match. i believe the wide shot was captured with a different camera. these mixed media shoots are tricky. more tricky than you'd think unless you've tried it before.

more dust than digital is a seattle based video production company in the university district. they volunteer their expertise to kexp and i would love to work for them!

shane tutmarc at kexp

2009-07-09T08:37:00.001-07:00

i volunteer with jim beckman once a week at kexp. its a great opportunity to practice shooting video because he's happy to get any help, open to new ideas and quite patient when those ideas don't work.

he and i shot this video together on canon xha1 cameras.

i had problems with the manual setting here and i am embarassed by the results.

using manual settings can be tricky but it is not hard if you think strategicly about what each of the settings does and how you might adjust them to best serve your situation. to take the weight off the thinking, make a system for yourself and stick to it.

first i set the shutter. this setting limits the durration of time that any frame is exposed to light. too long, and the frame appears smudged and overexposed. too short, and the frame is dark. for most situations, i find the 1/60 or 1/90 to be good enough.

then i set the gain. this is how the camera works in low light situations and it works kind of like selecting an iso for film. more gain is like a higher iso. the picture looks exposed but it will also look grainy. best to stick with the lowest iso you can.

finally, the f stop. smaller the number, bigger the appature. a big appature (f2.8) will let in more light while a small appature (f16) will have a much more open depth of field.

my mistake in making this video is, i did not think about ballancing all of the zones of the scene. i set the exposure not thinking that the scene was unevenly lit. so there are parts that are very dark. nothing looks overly exposed so this tells me i set the exposure for the most lit part of the scene. big mistake!

complains about the camera: not sure if the lense can hold a focus. also, too heavy for hand held but center of gravity won't allow shoulder mount.

tommy at the tavern

2009-06-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

tom brosseau will be promoting his new album, posthumous success, tonight at the tractor tavern. $10 at the door.

the new tom brosseau album is inconsistent. you would expect him to evolve after his brilliant 2007 efforts, grand forks and cavalier. and he does.

like tom waits, he crafts songs that tell stories about characters more complex and compelling than any singer songwriter could tell about themselves. that is, they are dishonest and kind of creepy. he consciously identifies himself with subjects that are larger than himself. much older.

it looks to me that tom has been looking to expand his sound with a band for a while. last year, he performed at the triple door with hauschka. it struck me funny that tom was looking much more comfortable when the avant garde pianist joined him on stage.

in performance, tom brosseau is one of the few musicians who can hold an audience on his own. while i am happy to see tom expand his sound i am nervous that in the transition, he will loose what makes him so special.

foolish and pretentious of me to see the dylan '67 story arch here. the artist who betrays his roots and reinvents himself as something, like his characters, so much larger than himself.

free jones soda

2009-06-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

free soda at jones soda headquarters every friday from 3pm-6pm

Westboro Baptist Church in Seattle

2009-06-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

Westboro Baptist Church came to Seattle Sat, to protest against synagogues, churches and public schools.

My girlfriend came with me when I was shooting this video. She had an interesting conversation with a rabbi from the nearby synagogue while the rest of us were occupied gawking at the haters.

The rabbi asked, why are people so eager to give them press coverage? Some people might think that it is the journalists civic duty to report about possible threats to the community but I am not so quick to buy into this theory. At what point does the reporting of the news distort the event?

The Wesboro Baptist Church are not dangerous. Never before has a member of the Westboro Baptist Church been accused of violence. If the police come to a protest, it is to protect the haters from society, not to protect society from the haters.

The danger of the Westboro Baptist Church is their ability to distort arguments. For example, there is legitimate discussion to be orated on the role of the US and Israel in the middle east. But to simplify the discussion to God hates Jews is very counter productive. It reflects poorly not only on themselves but onto everyone who has faith in God or is critical of Israel.

It is interesting to watch the gay community. Of all minority groups striving for civil rights, the gay community enjoys the controversy and is able to use it to their advantage. Watch the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in the video below as they approach other gawkers to give money for their cause.

The comments section of my videos are like little windows into how common America feels about issues of free speech. They try to tell me that 'hate speech' is the antithesis of democracy and must be stopped. I disagree.

To the Wesboro Baptist Church I would like to say, it's great that you feel that way and I encourage you to continue voicing your faith because open dialogue is what makes America great.

viral video as cheap marketing strategy

2009-06-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

this is what i get paid to do. people give me the assets (the pictures, the music, the voice over) and i mix it together in sony vegas. don't laugh. its easy and it gets the job done quick. the question you should be asking is not, what tools are you using but what does the final product look like?

then ask, what is the cost of your operation? well, compared to the $3,000 apple editing suite, this looks mighty cheap. you can get a windows machine and a copy of sony vegas for under $500 if you know how to bargain shop.

westboro baptist church is coming to town

2009-06-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

so the westboro baptist church is coming to seattle. you can see the details on their website here. the events begin friday evening and end monday morning. stops include spu graduation and garfield highschool.

here is a thoughtful meditation on the coming of the phelps family.

i am going to be covering the event for seattleiam, this up and coming video hosting site for video journalists. i hope to see plenty of people at the protest, ready to share their views and share their appreciation for our freedom of speech.

no age performs at triple door

2009-06-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

now this is a novel idea. a quirky punk band plays live along to a screening of a buried children's classic nature film. it looks pretty psychedelic and wacky.

showtimes are friday night 7pm then again at 930pm. at the triple door.

not another football highlights video

2009-05-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

how does someone maintain interest in football highlights? am i losing the intended audience if i play with effects too much? reverse? clever (or not so clever) juxtapositions?

i could be a little more conscious of my pacing in this video.

when you grow up

2009-05-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

this film maker was quite the find. fleet foxes did the soundtrack for this short movie back in 2006. i would sure like to work on set with a project like this. i like the mixed media aesthetic.

When You Grow Up from Matt Daniels on Vimeo.

mccain's little girl

2009-05-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

these are ideas i can get behind. a republican christian conservative that feels strongly for marriage equality. i'm starting to wonder if we did the wrong thing, voting in obama?

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Meghan McCain

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Gay Marriage

i like when meghan says blogging won't make the republican party cool for the younger generation, that the republicans need to focus on the message. wait... you mean to tell me that medium is not more important than the message?

this is the sort of opinion i'm trying to find for my one minute for marriage program.

question, where am i going to find these people? blogging doesn't seem to be the trick.

this could be the twilight of the big fight for marriage equality. the young people have reviewed the facts and they are voting yes on marriage equality. the fight is drawing to a close but that does not mean it is time to let up. i would like to see the community step it up a notch and burn all that extra wind we've been saving up. now is the time to sprint that final stretch before the finish line.

edit: i also like when she says she doesn't want to practice what she herself can't preach. actually, i think she flubbed it intentionally. but whatever... =)

wilco (the album) is dad rock

2009-05-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

the number one criticism of wilco's previous work, sky blue sky, is that it sounds like dad rock. i never really bought into that as a fault because i can appreciate a good cubicle album. to an extent, wilco has always been kind of a 'dad friendly band' with their woody guthrie tribute albums and wholesome yet creative alt country sound.

i once held a theory that once a band releases a live album, they are done from a creative standpoint. this rule certainly applies to wilco. they didn't sell out. they didn't change their style. they simply doesn't have the chops.

i love wilco but i see no reason for b(r)and loyalty here. so i probably won't be standing in line june 30 when the new album comes out. but i am pretty excited about the new phoenix and grizzly bear albums. i've heard them and they sound great. i'd like to get a physical copy for my vinyl library.

this is the video for 1901, the latest single off of wolfgang amadeus phoneix:

if it wasn't for the song, i probably would not watch the whole video. at its heart, it is a pretty standard live band music video. what i do like, however, is the combination of creative lighting in production and masking effects in post production. think i could learn how to do this in after effects cs4?

a wink & a smile

2009-05-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

i served the beer and wine for this event at nw film forum friday. the event goes for a week so check the calender and see if you can't catch a viewing. support local film makers.

the film exceeded my expectations. this last decade, burlesque has gone through some serious revival and with that fresh audience comes two things. first, innovation. second, new cliches.

if you are like me, you are fearful of the new cliches. if you've ever been to a dive bar or a bad party, you might have seen hipster girls stumble awkwardly around a stage and call it burlesque.

this is not that kind of show, folks. this is the real deal. these acts are truly unique and worth taking a look at.

the stories of the women are so personal, it is impossible to criticize anything. the interview sequences bring meaning to the half naked women on stage. so, this is certainly one of those female empowerment films about feeling comfortable with your body and your sexuality. the fault of this movie is that it never steps outside of that box. it would have been nice to see some interviews from friends or family. or club owners or bartenders. or barflies or anybody else on the fringe of the scene.

but certainly worth checking out.

i'll be looking for upcoming film pretty funny women.

the homeless world cup

2009-05-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

i met semi tareen in a film making class. i helped him make this movie. i learned so much about leadership watching him.

the other day, he recommended kicking it on his facebook so i decided to give it a look. it is about the homeless world cup and some narration is provided by colin farrel. it moves a bit slow but there are some interesting parts so take a look at it here on hulu:

this documentary is about homeless people first. the football tournament is merely a mechanism within the plot structure that transforms the characters from one thing into another. the success of the film depends on the likability of the characters.

the american guy is the most compelling to me. he says he hates it when people ask him, how could be homeless in a place like america? the problem is, he never answers that question. he is angry and he is righteous.

one strategy for this movie would have been to follow the american team through the world cup, discussing the personality of homelessness in america. but this film is very ambitious. it wants to discuss homelessness as a world issue. it is a profile by comparison.

the kenyans for example, are so grateful for the nominal accommodations provided by the tournament. the team sleep together in a big empty room in sleeping bags on camping mattresses. we are living like a professional team, one says to the camera.

the afghanistan boys are just so happy to see girls! and you better watch out because there is a small love story involving one of these refugees.

i love the scene where the us team is invited to visit a town in south africa where the non-whites were forced to live during apartheid.

and of course, no homeless video would be complete without a u2 song. you'll hear that during the irish guy's arch. go figure.

there is something sad and beautiful about how all these men come together and put so much of themselves into something as silly as a football game. i grew up in the suburbs and i never had much respect for sports but as i grow up and see more of the world, i see how sports are a metaphor for life. so is it sad, that they put so much of their hopes and dreams into the object itself, or is it beautiful how they are able to transcend with the aid of the more existential implications of sport?

pirate radio and seattleiam

2009-05-11T17:39:00.001-07:00

movies like this really appeal to my sensibilities. anybody who serves the us military and does not begin to question the motivations of the federal government needs a serious head check. i might want to look into this website a bit further.

help the fight for marriage equality

2009-05-11T12:46:00.001-07:00

i want to put together a couple high quality power viral videos for equal rights washington's one minute for marriage program. if anybody out there knows of anybody that would be a compelling and willing subject, please forward me their information.

i have already made many videos but i want to step things up a notch and do something more appropriate for broadcast news quality personal profiles or human interest stories.

ideal subjects would be:

1) proud parent who must confront conservative values in accepting gay son/daughter and ready to illustrate the irony in the struggle between family values and keeping the family together.

2) same sex partnership who want to raise family together. maybe they have kids or simply want to adopt. directly challenge the white picket fence 2.5 children atomic family.

3) libertarian intellectual who believes in marriage equality because the government has no business legislating morality. ideally, this person is a conservative christian who draws a line between personal faith and public law. this person may even have personal issues against the lbgt community but cannot compromise values of personal liberty.

please don't be afraid to contact me with your opinions. i would love to hear your ideas about the cause or about my strategy. we should all be strong advocates for communication and openness.

i would like to do something a little more like this:

watching short films

2009-05-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

vimeo is a great site. you can find film makers and students like jacob mendel. below is my favorite video of his because he sticks to his specialty, bringing life and movement to his stark images by adding sound.

Rooms from Jacob Mendel on Vimeo.

i am thinking about the 8mm film that i want to make later this week and i wonder if maybe i should pick a route similar to this. maybe i want to film people doing things on capitol hill. protesting foie gras, standing in line at molly moon's, working construction... what other things do people do on the hill?

his other films seem to be missing something when he adds too much to the formula. the tom waits soundtrack is a bit much.

no foie gras movie

2009-05-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

i am not surprised that narn did not answer my request for a video interview. it is my fault, perhaps. my yelp page is covered in notes of foie gras appreciation such as "people who do not like foie gras, do not like kittens" and "my last meal before i die shall be foie gras" so they are in their right mind to group me together with the "get a life and go home" crowd that typically laughs at them as they protest outside lark and quin's.

quin's owner has the right idea here. 10% of all foie gras sales go narn.

i think he may have learned from the cigarette companies. not to say that foie gras is like nicotine addiction but the idea that sometimes the best way to fight your enemy is to support them.

but where the cigarette companies do it because they have to, Scott Staples does it because he is punk rock.

i am interested in making a movie about the foie gras protesters, not because i am interested in their politics. i don't want to share their views any more than i want to fight them. i am interested in this sort of epic battle that they have stirred, the clashing of titans.

foodies will never stop eating foie gras. it is not because they lack ethical discretion. we simply live by a different world view. one where putting a tube down a bird's throat is not cruel. it is no more cruel than keeping a goldfish in a bowl. but doesn't take my word for it.

anthony bourdain puts it better than any of us could.

the animal rights activists will be around to protest foie gras for as long as there are liberal arts institutions to create them. there will always be people to look at "the big picture" and see the grey areas in life and i appreciate them. i really do.

my point of view, as the film maker, will always be subject to scrutiny. and my job will be to make that point of view accessible. transform it into something to be consumed in mass.

edit: my photo is used on capitol hill blog. yay!

bob dylan's new album

2009-05-10T13:49:00.001-07:00

this morning i went for brunch at waffles.fm because its the only place that wasn't packed with mothers enjoying their one day a year. i picked up a copy of bob dylan's latest album, together through life.

the cover art fascinates me because i think i have seen it before in a time life magazine. appropriate because bob dylan himself should be in time life magazine.

as trendy and appropriate it is to hate pitchfork, i am often amused by their way of saying what most of us are afraid to say. that is, even are most immortal music idols are merely human and often say or do things are objectively uninteresting.

"My band plays a different type of music than anybody else plays," Dylan recently told Rolling Stone. "As far as I know, no one else out there plays like this. Today, yesterday, and probably tomorrow." This suggests that he has never heard a moderately decent blues band in a bar.

now, go read whole pretentious thing yourself.

i have a theory that bob dylan died in that motorcycle accident. he did not survive. what we have today is some impostor. from time to time, that impostor is able to contact the spirit of bob dlyan or channel bob dylan's ghost and that how he was able to bring us great albums like john westly harding. or time out of mind.

okay i made a pact with my girlfriend, never to make her listen to bob dylan so... bon iver.

tommy dean & friends

2009-05-08T14:07:00.000-07:00

i spent a whole summer following around tommy dean with a camera. i wandered the streets of seattle and slept out of my car and hung out with some slightly dubious characters. then, i spent three months editing this movie.

tommy dean & friends (1:07:14) from Joshua Guerci on Vimeo.

i borrowed/stole the camera equipment from seattle university. i was not a big fan of the consumer cannon vixio cameras at first but eventually i learned to love them for what they are. little innocuous windows into people's souls.

not long ago, i sat down to make some "final" edits and i discovered that my hard drive had crashed. seagate external hard drives have a habit of overheating. if you buy a freeagent hard drive, i cannot stress enough that you need to buy two. if you are lucky, only one will over heat at a time and you'll still have your data.

the obvious fault of this movie is that it is too long. i might be a genius film maker someday but today, i'm a beginner. an amateur. it's too early to get self indulgent. even as a student piece, this film loves itself a bit too much.

there is no context for my subject. i don't have any footage of tommy dean in the market and i don't have nearly enough footage of him busking. and of course, the classic 'seattle shots' are missing from this film. no space needle. no viaduct. no pikes or pioneer square. of course, it might be a blessing that i avoid that cliche.

i would love to do another film like this but i don't know when life is going to allow me to do that. a student has so much freedom to pursuit things like documentaries and self-indulgent cinema. the rest of us have responsibilities to answer for.

how not to do online video

2009-05-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

i came across this company on youtube. my first thought was that someone had set this website up fifteen years ago and had abandoned it. the cyberspace equivalent of a ghost town. then i see the itunes logo and i am just confused.

it is an internet based television show that apparently has a contract with comcast to broadcast content on fox. content providers like to bring on people like this because it allows them to say to potential customers that they support local film makers. its a cheap gimmick.

to sum up itv's problems i would say, here is an internet television company that thinks like a cable network. for starters, the introduction logo sequence is fifteen seconds too long. and a close second is, what is the host weaing? i am certainly not an expert here, but if you are going to have a 'fassion' show, i woulds suggest against a balding host who looks like a washed up 70s lounge singer.

aesthetic aside, don't assume that your audience knows your subject. who is count kody? well, he's an event planner. but the video doesn't make that clear.

solution: skip the atari graphics at the begining and start off with a wide establishing shot of the count's events. show people enjoying themselves and having a good time. natural sound of chatting in the background and count kody says in his own voice something like "i put on this event!"

and of course, the video would be less than two minutes long because we'd do away with the host and stick to the meat and potatoes of the subject. that is, who is count kody and why do i, the viewer, care about what he does?

also, i would steer away from the temptation to post an extended cut. it would only confuse your audience.

finding faults in this video is too easy. what is it? what could have been a great opportunity to talk about the underground community of independent board game designers as turned into a corny nonsensical music video. where is the value in this?

i would start with showing people playing the game. voice over from the designer saying "i made this game" and so on.

i was excited to see a company showcasing local news and an independent perspective but i am disappointed by the execution.

the crocodile is back (old news) and the doves will be playing soon

2009-05-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

i've been sleeping under a rock for the last few months so i have not been to the crocodile since it has reopened. i've probably missed out on a bunch of brilliant shows. c'est la vie.

i am already impressed. they have a facebook page. and they have a twitter account. even better, they have a vimeo account with exclusive performances by indie artists like telekinesis!

Telekinesis "Rust" from The Crocodile on Vimeo.

the first crocodile show i will attend will be may 20th for the doves. only $20 for the band that pitchfork raves as kind of like coldplay if only it was cool to like coldplay.

i have a theory that the comparison is merely coincidental. the doves are huge fans of robert fripp and king crimson. king crimson are kind of like pink floyd if only it was cool to like pink floyd but that is beside the point. robert fripp put out some terrific material where he collaborated with brian eno. and of course, coldplay's most recent album is produced by brian eno.

okay, i'm not going to draw any lines here. just show the dots.

no. actually, i'm going to show you for the title track of the doves latest album, kingdom of rust. which believe it or not, was the point of this blog.

hump day might be awesome

2009-05-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

raise your hand up real high if you want to see this movie:

honestly. humpday could quite possibly be what all seth rogan movies aspire to be but fall just short of because seth rogan doesn't have the guts to outright say... wait. i don't have the guts, either.

this film has one big obstacle to overcome. as i see it, most mumble core movies fail at evolving past the premise. is humpday going to be a great feature film or a great short film that drags on too long?

i don't know when we'll be able to see this piece of local seattle film hit the big silver screen but i know i will be excited to see if it cuts the mustard.

there are two options available. you can go to the big party with the film makers. or you can just see the film at the egyptian like a reasonable person.

there is madness at the end of the world

2009-05-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

as promised, here is more of the video from monday night. this is a husband wife duo called star called sun. i still think they should rename the band sun called star but i'm kind of a goof ball.

again, i wish i was more confident shooting with a tripod. i used to be a pretty good at it. when i was in high school, i helped out at my local suburban mega church and piloted the beta cam that sent a signal to the giant projected image that hung over the pastor's stage.

yeah. my humble beginnings. it was the only period in my life where i attended church on a regular basis. i sat through 2 or 3 sermons a week! and when that i got old, i started doing audio for the youth group meetings. i remember one lesson in particular because a key point required me to play a song off a cd. many youth group lessons actually included a cd selection but this one was daring because it included a secular selection. one hit wonder the verve pipe and their hit single, freshmen. the song was already 2 or 3 years dated at the time of the lesson so it was particularly strange. especially because the twenty somethings really felt like they were being edgy by playing it.

not sure where that was going. maybe it all points back to the subject of the song. i kind of like the end of the world, too.