Thankful

Much to be thankful for. As much as I bitch and complain about stuff, my life is pretty good. I've got my amazing and beautiful wife and I'm working on my dreams. That alone I'm thankful for, and yet I still have so much more while others don't have much at all. I understand just how lucky and blessed I am.

This is a pic from yesterday's Thanksgiving lunch at Juli's Grandad's house. Good food, and great times with my niece Brelyn and my nephew Ezra. I love those kids. So much fun running around with them in the yard. I still get amazed at how kids grow into little people, and how eventually they evolve into full grown people.  It's one of those things you kinda take for granted until you really look at how amazing the process of life is. (Oh Snap! Patrick is deep!)

It's been a pretty decent week, with so many possibilities coming up. Last week I shot and edited an ad for Poptent and UPS. I've been doing private assignments for them, which usually means I make ads that I can't show people right away. So it was nice to do a public assignment and be able to show the work to my crew straight off. As a matter of fact, here it is:

I go back and forth on whether or not I actually like this. I mean, I think it's "OK", I think we could've made it much funnier. Everyone did a great job in it, but I think I could've put in more effort writing wise. Oh well, it's in the hands of the fates now. It's all up to UPS as to whether or not they wanna buy it.

Was also able to reveal the video that CVS purchased from me. Very proud of this one. Goes along with my obsession with Rube Goldberg Machines. Not only did CVS like it but as I tweeted it (to Pee Wee Herman) , Pee Wee Herman Re-tweeted me.

He posted about it on Facebook as well. I can say that this is the second time he's re-tweeted me. A silly thing to be proud of? I think not. For crying outloud I got the attention of one of my childhood heros. How effin cool is that?

Here's the video:

I am VERY thankful for Poptent. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have the opportunity to use my skills to make some decent money, and I've done pretty good this year. And because of them I was able to get a great opportunity this week. Can't talk too much about it, but let's just say that some really great opportunities and possibilities may be coming up and I'm VERY excited to see the outcome of my work.

Got to shoot a pivotal scene this past Monday. Got to work with Danielle Motley, since she came in from California for Thanksgiving. Met her very lovely boyfriend, Ruben. Funny guy. Was able to get her scene for Redd out of the way, and also get the two of them into another ad I was shooting. 

Built her a website that's kind of a work in progress. Very simple, but at least she has something up that will help her career along. Check it out here:

DANIELLEMOTLEY.COM

And speaking of REDD, we've got some headway on it. Check out this little sneak preview I threw together for the upcoming PRODUCTION VLOG 3. People really seem to love our production vlogs. Let's hope they love the movie just as much.

Aiming to have a trailer / teaser up by Christmas / New Years. Also looking to put together another Kickstarter Campaign.  It's an exciting time, full of possibilities. Can't wait to see what the future holds. In the meantime, I work to make my own future happen. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to do that.

Snickers Machine

The video I busted my ass on all last week. It's for the Snicker's Assignment over at Poptent. I've said it before, if you're video maker and you want to try to build up your portfolio while trying to earn some money for major brands, then you've got to go over and sign up at POPTENT.



I've been with these guys for a while now and it's been a blast making videos for them, and it's helped me out financially as well. It's one of the many ways an indie moviemaker / video maker can make some money.


I will say that I tend not to work on video contests unless I feel the video itself can benefit me in more ways than just trying to win money. Here I decided to make a Rube Goldberg Machine. To be honest it's something I do alot actually. Origami, magic tricks, make Rube Goldberg Machines, it helps me think.

Not only did I think it would make a great video for Snickers, but I also wanted to finally shoot one of my machines to actually show what I have in mind for some of the scenes in Bobby's Closet. In case you didn't know, Bobby's Closet is a feature length film I plan on shooting next year, and or as soon as I can raise the money. The movie is a sci-fi, action, adventure, fantasy flick filled with funny characters, old school monsters, and a lot of Rube Goldberg Machines.

Here's the Rube Goldberg Machine Video I made for Snickers.



It was initially much longer, and featured parts I made for the now scrapped Halloween Machine video, which was going to feature a Halloween themed Rube Goldberg Machine. My ideas for it were entirely too big for the space I have right now. Maybe next year. I decided to use what I had and combine it with new pieces and parts for this here Snicker's video.

It was a HUGE pain in the ass to shoot. I could've easily faked each part of it, but the hard part of it was that it was pretty much fully functioning. That's what was so difficult. I was shooting it in pieces and cut angles, so when I rolled on one set up, the machine would keep going, and I'd try to stop it, and then re-setup everything. On top of me having to reset parts to get more than one angle at it. Oh how many times the ball would roll away from me, underneath a desk, and don't even get me started on how many times I had to set up those dominoes.

I know a lot of people who are in to Rube Goldberg Machines prefer the single take method. One uncut shot that records each and every step. But I prefer to see how each and every part functions, and seeing different angles to get an understanding of each part that moves. I was originally going to set up more than one camera to capture the entire machine in one go, but I only have one decent digital camera, the rest were of varying formats and qualities, and I wanted to try to stick to one format and look.

I love Rube Goldberg Machines. I loved seeing them in movies like The Goonies and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. All this ties into what kind of movie Bobby's Closet is, and how Rube Goldberg Machines fit into the movie. I hope Snickers likes it, but even if they don't, I've at least finally got an example scene for Bobby's Closet.

Click here to find out about Rube Goldberg.

Click here to find out more about Bobby's Closet.

Click here to go to Poptent and watch my video.

Ideo

IDEO Global Chain Reaction from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.