Hey, so this week’s film “Drive to the Border” isn’t a “new” film per-say. I made it a while ago…but recent events inspired me to post it.



A couple weeks ago when Teal was in town we went to the Hollywood Bowl w/ Liisa & Clovis to see DJ Shadow perform with Cut Chemist. It was an ALL 7 INCH set. So they used nothing but already pressed, original records. No effects, no breakbeats, no computers – just records and skill. It was an amazing set – they drift in and out of classic funk, hiphop, soul mixing in hiphop “standards” with motown with music I’ve never heard before. And the Hollywood Bowl…in June…ahhhh – it’s one of the best things LA has to offer in the summer.

Seeing DJ Shadow again remind me of the spec music video I made for his track “Why HipHop Sucks in ’96″



Since he used all “found music” I wanted to make a video using all “found footage.” At the time I was living in South Lake Tahoe, surrounded by snow…so I knew just the footage that I wanted to use too…



Back in film school I was working on making a motion picture logo for whiteout films. I went to a found footage house – basically a basement with a huge collection of old 16mm films that filmmaker Craig Baldwin had collected over the years. Educational films, movies, documentaries, natural films…he had it all.



Here’s the logo I made from found footage.




While I was looking for footage of a snow and people walking thru snow I came across a film called “Making Winter Driving Safer” It was made by AAA and the goal was to show people how to travel safe in the winter time.



The film was loooaded with a ton of badass footage of cars slipping, sliding, and running into snow banks.



I knew I had to use it for something and about a year later I came back and bought that film and every other piece of film that I could find that involved cars & snow.



The DJ Shadow video was the first piece I used the footage for…but I knew there was something else in the footage…I just couldn’t wrap my brain around what it was.





It wasn’t until several years later, I was sitting in a Starbucks in Seattle (go figure) and thinking about another project (what became “How to be a Ski Bum in 5 Easy Steps”) that I had the idea to turn the educational films into a trailer for a never-to-be-made feature film.



Since the best footage was from a 70′s traffic safety film I decided to make a funk inspired road movie. 

Here’s the entry from my sketch book

I wanted to do everything in the style of the time, music, titles, voice over…I worked with Rus Archer to create the funk soundtrack. The titles were supposed to be done by a friend…but after waiting for weeks he told me he “was busy” (or something) so I made them myself with Photoshop, After Effects, and a font I found with some help from my graphic designer friend Joe. 




The voice over was recorded in a session at the place I was working as an assistant editor by one of the actors in the film I was working on – Michael Moon. During that afternoon we also recorded the VO for “Faith Memorial: ZMO” (which Rus also composed the music for) Heh, you can see that once I find people I like to work with…I work with them again and again.



Here’s 1 take from that session.

Hope you enjoy the piece.

 Watch it here.

-Luke

alight, so most of you know I’m a film maker…but I’m not sure how many of you know what I do for a “day job.”



I work in post-production…often on Made for TV movies (MOW’s)…often on really really bad MOWs. The thing is though, there are bad movies. And then there are movies that are so bad that they take on a life of there own…they achieve new goodness.



This one I actually did a little work on…I recommend seeing it. It’s every bit of what the review describes.



Also, occasionally I’ll go film things. Usually for friends…and often for free. I’m a pretty good shooter…I have a good eye, but it isn’t what I want to do – so I don’t spend time searching out that sort of work.



My friend Chris got married yesterday, and a couple months back, he asked if I could help him out and film it. Of course I said yes. I also knew that to do a good job, I’d need more than 1 camera, so I hired my friend Christian to help me film it.



It was a really nice wedding..I usually don’t think to highly of the event – but this one was nice. We had little to no technical problems, we didn’t miss any of the important events, got some good interviews, dance footage, cake cutting and so on. We shot the ceremony with 3 cameras, Christian & I on opposite sides near the front of the church, and a static camera in the balcony at the rear of the church.



That is…it was supposed to be static.



Why was it not you ask? Well the answer rhymes with “Ron Stake.” That is the name of the “sound guy,” at this church. From my very first interactions with this man it was clear there were going to be issues.



We spoke on the phone and he repeatable interrupted me, spoke over me, and continued on and on explaining things to me after I made explicitly clear that “I got it.”



It’s ok if you don’t know all the answers…a lot of us are still learning. I had trouble with the white balance on the camera for example..but when you both don’t understand the job you are supposed to be doing AND then proceed to tell me how to do my job – which I do know how to do…



that just ain’t cool.



For example: 

He and the wedding planner, while consistently talking to Chrisitian and I like we were disrespectful children NOT professional filmmakers, proceed to lecture us about NOT SHOOTING FROM ON STAGE.



Then, not 5 minutes later, he suggests that we set up 1 camera on stage behind the organ. wtf. then he asks us about it again.



But this “professional” sound guy doesn’t know how to take an XLR feed out of the mixing board so that we can record on something other than a mono-channel VHS tape.



And the coup de grace, while the ceremony is proceeding he goes over to my “static” camera and reframes. MULTIPLE TIMES. I did not ask him to do this. He did not ask me if he should do this. I said nothing that would indicate tacid approval of such actions.



What gives the sound guy the idea that he should be adjusting the camera? Does he think that I don’t know what I’m doing? Is he an amateur videographer in his spare time? Is he on psychotropic drugs? Should he be?



Luckily I don’t ever have to work with him again. I guess that’s one good thing about shooting in Orange, CA…



-Luke



p.s. Next week I’ll be uploading a new short…so stay tuned.