I know I haven’t been releasing as many pieces lately, but as you all may know by now, grad school has been keeping me very busy. As it gets closer to the graduation date (June ’12!), my presence will be more and more scarce, but I hope to still be able to put things out in the minimal free time that I have.

Thanks for staying with me and watching me grow over these past couple of years. It’s a great pleasure to read and see people’s reaction to my work. Thank you for your continued support and I hope to be able to share more of my videos with you as I continue to grow and develop.

Here’s a short piece I put together of a recent trip to Monterey of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I didn’t make it to the seahorse exhibit, but I hope the jellyfish are enough to hold you over!

Robin Hannibal is a bit of a mysterious guy so I thought that in this video, he should play a central role in it. Robin came up with the storyline and we felt things along as we were shooting. It was a fun and low-key day at the canals, the beach and in Los Feliz and I had a great time. Keep an eye out for the second video, but enjoy this one in the meantime (which debuted on OkayPlayer and CMJ)!

I know it has been a while since I have updated my site and released new content, but I’m in my last year of grad school and it demands all of my time. Nonetheless, I am still trying to use the little free time I have to work on new projects. In the next week, or so, expect not one, but two music videos I directed from the likes of Robin Hannibal (of Boom Clap Bachelors and Quadron) and Mara Hruby. They both possess really different styles and aesthetics and I enjoyed creating them.

I also have some new music videos that will soon be in the works, one of which will feature Bay Area’s SiairaShawn. She’s currently doing a Kickstarter campaign to get her two videos funded off of her new EP. You can check out more of Siaira and donate here.

Stay tuned, folks, and many thanks for all of the continued support.

Earlier this year, Ant reached out again and, since I was about to wrap up the school year, I agreed. I was really honored that even though things didn’t work out the first time, he asked me again, so I really wanted to do my best to bring Cadillac’s vision for ‘Dreams’ to life, despite the distance.

This was my first time working with a really energetic model (the cutest 5 year old that you’ll ever meet), so it was a bit of a challenge (I really would have loved a co-director), but it all worked out in the end. I hope you all enjoy this video. There’s still a bit of summer left, unless you live in the Bay Area (summer never came), so enjoy this really fun and upbeat tune and beachy scenery!

With that being said, here is my latest unofficial music video that I have directed for SBTRTKT’s Hold On which features one of my new favorite vocalists, Sampha.

*Caution: There is subtle nudity in this piece.*

SBTRKT has the illest beats. Sampha has the illest voice. I heard this song one late night and knew I wanted to set visuals to this track. Many thanks to Laura, who laid on her apartment’s cold hardwood floors for over 3 hours in nothing, but her undies and Yesenia, who met up for a second reshooting of the glasses, even though I decided to go with the originals.

Model: Laura T.
Painter: Yesenia E.

It was a quick shoot, but definitely had me thinking about what to incorporate for future projects, including trying the ever-challenging piece that’s completed in just one take. I hope you all enjoy this and I’d love to hear your feedback on it if you have a moment!

The more that I shoot, the more that I realize that I’m not always going to get the exact shot as I had envisioned in my head, but that most of the time I’ll be able to walk away with something, sometimes a completely different shot, that evokes the same feeling I was looking for. There are always going to be factors working against you as a filmmaker, but keeping in the mind the feelings and emotions you are looking to communicate in your story will help you under the pressures of time, changing light, and tired cast and crew.

The latest excerpt from “What They Don’t Teach You at Film School,” deals with knowing when to shoot and move on.

If You Can’t Be With the Shot You Want, Love the Shot You’re With

The audience knows nothing about, and could care less about how you had originally planned the shot. Maybe that special shot was an artful way of delivering this scene. But who has the time of art at the point when you are losing light and you are about to be kicked out of your location? You need to tell the story, fast.

Ask yourself, what is the one thing that needs to happen in this scene so that the story can move on to thenext one, and the one after that? Boil it down to one critical thing that must happen in this scene and no other: the gesture, the word, the ultimatum, the introduction of a prop, the single raised eyebrow that lets us know the character is suspicious, etc.

Shoot it and move on.