I get super caught up in Google, and College, and life sometimes that I forget to stop and look at where it all started.
My whole Tuesday was devoted to my friend Brian's movie premiere. It was awesome, and I wish I could have more days like that one!
I'm going to take us back a bit, to when we were still in high school. I don't remember how it all began, but somewhere along the way Brian and I became super awesome friends. Not even lying, I would pretty much do anything for him. We've done several projects together over the years, starting with our cake project freshman year. I don't think we did a project Sophomore year, which kind of breaks the pattern I was going for. Haha. Junior year is where the magic happened.
Our English teacher assigned us a video project. We had to make a parody video about two of the books we had read. Brian and I had no trouble deciding to work together. Chris, Ryan, Nate and Cong were also in our group and Stickley and Autry came from a different English class to help us with some of the scenes. (Julie also showed up to help, however she is Chris's super awesome mom and not a student.)
It was the most genius video I'd ever made, which doesn't say much because it was the first, but it was awesome. Brian planned everything out, and we pretty much hit the ground running. We decided pretty unanimously on Moby Dick and The Great Gatsby. Nate took the role of Ahab and the Owl Eyed Guy (Sorta), Cong was Queequeg, Chris took the roles of Gatsby and Detective Grissom, Ryan was a reporter, I was Moby and Ishmael, Brian was George, and everyone else were the extras that were at Gatsbys/part of Ahab's crew.
We started off with a Cribs-like intro, which was all about Gatsby, and eventually he got shot. This lead to the reporter and Detective Grissom, who segwayed the video into an awesome chase scene with Ahab and his crew chasing Moby, me. Brian, Chris and I spent several hours editing it, using Windows Movie Maker. We stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning, the night before we were going to turn it in. The rest was history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILXgwKasH2g
Shameless plug for a high school video. Yeah, haha. I went that far.
When Brian was looking into college he decided to make a video to send to USC. The video was How To Ride A Bike- Learning to Fall Down. It was a more inspirational type video than Brian had made. Here's that one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf30CumJTI8
Senior year, in our Government class we had to do a John Locke project. Brian, Brison and I teamed up and decided we were going to make a video. Somehow we ended up on the idea to take songs and rewrite them. We decided on two songs, Tik Tok and Birthday Sex. I have no idea how those two made the cut, but they did, and it doesn't make much sense.
I didn't appear in the video, and Brison did Tik Tok while Brian did Birthday Sex. It was an interesting video, and we meant it to be super funny with very little of the video that was scripted, with most of it being thought up on the spot. The hardest part was getting all the video and everything on my computer which wasn't able to connect to the camera anymore because we got a new computer. We actually didn't get the video working in time for us to present, so we made a backup slideshow that was thrown together in a few minutes.
I remember it was snowing a lot, because we had to drive over to Camron's to get the video on a flash drive, and then back to my house, and then to take everyone home and there was snow and ice and what not all around. We got the video together, with music and vocals which took some work, and then presented it the next day even though we had already done our slideshow.
Our class thought it was funny, and so here is that project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=989s7rkTDhs
Also our senior year, Brian had a few projects of his own for us to work on. One of them was a fun one called Wanted: New Roommate. This was all in our free time, over Spring Break senior year, and we had a ton of fun making it. It was serious, and funny all at the same time which made it rather good. This is the first of the films that I actually appeared in, if you don't count me carrying a whale/showing up in the credits for Death in The Water.
It was a lot of fun to shoot, and was the last video of Brian's design I edited. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgjPS7Si4uM
We did one more video where I edited, but it was more my set up, with Brian helping out with the filming and lining things up. It was a video for our choir banquet, that was supposed to be fun and cool for everyone to watch. I wanted it to be something we could watch and think, "Yeah, that was our choir!"
We interviewed a few people and put what they said in the video, along with some epic music and one of our concerts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JN-NcLshnc&feature=grec_index
The next thing Brian went on to tackle was a video he titled Cured. This video took place earlier this year, I think around Spring Break time. It's about a society that has figured up a way to keep people from aging and thus dying of old age. Basically, since there's more people you have to have permission to have kids basically. It's a strange society, and makes you question what you would do in order to protect the family you have.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iadQuTBmQp4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh9oit0Cz_0
Finally, Brian has recently made No Such Thing As Monsters. I've seen it twice, and the only reason I haven't watched it more, is because I've been busy since he put it up online. It is an amazing story, and watching it the second time it was a whole lot more powerful. The movie isn't perfect, but the budget was literally nothing for it, and so he made due with what he had and created an amazing show.
My favorite part of it is the characterization, and how real the actors make it feel. Keep in mind that everyone who appears in it did it because they wanted to, they had no obligation, no payment, just a love for acting. The same goes for the whole crew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8YjR3uE7iA
That's the movie we had the premiere for, and it's crazy thinking about how far we've come, how far Brian specifically has come.
There you have it, a whole novel post about Brian, and his films. I love that guy, and anything you could say that would make things better would be appreciated.
http://www.blackelephantfilms.com/
There's his website, and ways to contact him, cast or crew.
Alrighty, adios guys! Love ya!
My whole Tuesday was devoted to my friend Brian's movie premiere. It was awesome, and I wish I could have more days like that one!
I'm going to take us back a bit, to when we were still in high school. I don't remember how it all began, but somewhere along the way Brian and I became super awesome friends. Not even lying, I would pretty much do anything for him. We've done several projects together over the years, starting with our cake project freshman year. I don't think we did a project Sophomore year, which kind of breaks the pattern I was going for. Haha. Junior year is where the magic happened.
Our English teacher assigned us a video project. We had to make a parody video about two of the books we had read. Brian and I had no trouble deciding to work together. Chris, Ryan, Nate and Cong were also in our group and Stickley and Autry came from a different English class to help us with some of the scenes. (Julie also showed up to help, however she is Chris's super awesome mom and not a student.)
It was the most genius video I'd ever made, which doesn't say much because it was the first, but it was awesome. Brian planned everything out, and we pretty much hit the ground running. We decided pretty unanimously on Moby Dick and The Great Gatsby. Nate took the role of Ahab and the Owl Eyed Guy (Sorta), Cong was Queequeg, Chris took the roles of Gatsby and Detective Grissom, Ryan was a reporter, I was Moby and Ishmael, Brian was George, and everyone else were the extras that were at Gatsbys/part of Ahab's crew.
We started off with a Cribs-like intro, which was all about Gatsby, and eventually he got shot. This lead to the reporter and Detective Grissom, who segwayed the video into an awesome chase scene with Ahab and his crew chasing Moby, me. Brian, Chris and I spent several hours editing it, using Windows Movie Maker. We stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning, the night before we were going to turn it in. The rest was history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILXgwKasH2g
Shameless plug for a high school video. Yeah, haha. I went that far.
When Brian was looking into college he decided to make a video to send to USC. The video was How To Ride A Bike- Learning to Fall Down. It was a more inspirational type video than Brian had made. Here's that one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf30CumJTI8
Senior year, in our Government class we had to do a John Locke project. Brian, Brison and I teamed up and decided we were going to make a video. Somehow we ended up on the idea to take songs and rewrite them. We decided on two songs, Tik Tok and Birthday Sex. I have no idea how those two made the cut, but they did, and it doesn't make much sense.
I didn't appear in the video, and Brison did Tik Tok while Brian did Birthday Sex. It was an interesting video, and we meant it to be super funny with very little of the video that was scripted, with most of it being thought up on the spot. The hardest part was getting all the video and everything on my computer which wasn't able to connect to the camera anymore because we got a new computer. We actually didn't get the video working in time for us to present, so we made a backup slideshow that was thrown together in a few minutes.
I remember it was snowing a lot, because we had to drive over to Camron's to get the video on a flash drive, and then back to my house, and then to take everyone home and there was snow and ice and what not all around. We got the video together, with music and vocals which took some work, and then presented it the next day even though we had already done our slideshow.
Our class thought it was funny, and so here is that project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=989s7rkTDhs
Also our senior year, Brian had a few projects of his own for us to work on. One of them was a fun one called Wanted: New Roommate. This was all in our free time, over Spring Break senior year, and we had a ton of fun making it. It was serious, and funny all at the same time which made it rather good. This is the first of the films that I actually appeared in, if you don't count me carrying a whale/showing up in the credits for Death in The Water.
It was a lot of fun to shoot, and was the last video of Brian's design I edited. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgjPS7Si4uM
We did one more video where I edited, but it was more my set up, with Brian helping out with the filming and lining things up. It was a video for our choir banquet, that was supposed to be fun and cool for everyone to watch. I wanted it to be something we could watch and think, "Yeah, that was our choir!"
We interviewed a few people and put what they said in the video, along with some epic music and one of our concerts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JN-NcLshnc&feature=grec_index
The next thing Brian went on to tackle was a video he titled Cured. This video took place earlier this year, I think around Spring Break time. It's about a society that has figured up a way to keep people from aging and thus dying of old age. Basically, since there's more people you have to have permission to have kids basically. It's a strange society, and makes you question what you would do in order to protect the family you have.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iadQuTBmQp4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh9oit0Cz_0
Finally, Brian has recently made No Such Thing As Monsters. I've seen it twice, and the only reason I haven't watched it more, is because I've been busy since he put it up online. It is an amazing story, and watching it the second time it was a whole lot more powerful. The movie isn't perfect, but the budget was literally nothing for it, and so he made due with what he had and created an amazing show.
My favorite part of it is the characterization, and how real the actors make it feel. Keep in mind that everyone who appears in it did it because they wanted to, they had no obligation, no payment, just a love for acting. The same goes for the whole crew. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8YjR3uE7iA
That's the movie we had the premiere for, and it's crazy thinking about how far we've come, how far Brian specifically has come.
There you have it, a whole novel post about Brian, and his films. I love that guy, and anything you could say that would make things better would be appreciated.
http://www.blackelephantfilms.com/
There's his website, and ways to contact him, cast or crew.
Alrighty, adios guys! Love ya!
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