howdy hi,

one of my ongoing projects has been update my flickr (www.flickr.com/lukeasa). I have 7 years of back photos…so it’s taking me a while. once they are online and organized I’ll be posting groups of my favorites on here. until then, here are just a few misc. production pictures.

-Luke

“new media,” “internet distribution,” “going viral,” what do they mean and, more importantly, how does one utilize them?

these are questions that I’ve been exploring, investigating, pondering, and testing the past couple years.  there are millions of people watching videos online everyday. and out of those millions there must be thousands that would be interested in my latest music video or short film, right?

so how do I find those thousands?  or how do I find the hundreds that will attract the thousands that will attract the tens of thousands and so on?

the methods I’ve been working on recently include: posting and interacting with people via my twitter account, my blog, updating and maintaining my mailing lists which includes several Yahoo filmmaking groups, posting on facebook/myspace, and directly contacting blogs.

in marketing an internet video, blogs seem like one of the best bets.  they represent a “reputable” 3rd party which adds legitimacy to your project.  it’s one thing to say “hey, check out my video, it’s AWESOME.”  it’s another to have someone you don’t know say “hey, check out this video, it’s AWESOME.”  additionally, a blog will have its own unique set of readers… a group that you probably don’t know and wouldn’t have access to it.  if one of them likes it and passes on to ten of their friends and one of those ten likes it passes it on, well, you’ve effectively promoted your project in true grassroots fashion.

for my snowboard travelogue, “Chingón Aguilas: Turn it to 11″ I set out to do this for the first time.  the first question to answer was, “who is my audience?”  I figured that fans of Chilean snow sports, snowboarders, and lovers of Super 8 filmmaking would be interested in the project.  with the help of my intern Mustan, we searched the web for blogs that  fit those categories AND had history of posting videos.  He would compile a list of potential sites, then I reviewed and contacted the ones that I thought were a good fit.

the responses were overwhelmingly positive, people liked the film. But I didn’t just want them to just say “cool film”…I wanted them to post the film on their sites.

of course, anytime you put yourself out there, you risk getting a response like this from www.angrysnowboarder.com.

Luke,

What do you want me to tell you? That it looks like a bunch of guys went and shredded Chile and didn’t even venture off into the real terrain most people should go there for? Or that it’s all filler and like zero thriller?

I’ll be honest it doesn’t do shit for me as a snowboarder, writer, or someone that has had some whacky ass trips that have been documented. To me it just seems like 2 guys went to chile had fun and shot it in super 8 (sick medium that I love personally) but over all isn’t something I’d ever care to watch again. I love raw and gritty shit classic example is I love what June and Esthera are doing with Peepshow when that movie came out I was like, “holy fuck an all girl shred flick I can actually stand to watch”. My .02 cents is you got skills with a camera either next time show the turmoil of getting there and shredding or show me the goods none of this artsy fartsy shit. Also more metal in the edit, the world needs more metal. Running free by Maiden would have been a good one.

interestingly enough, some of the things he didn’t like about the film were the very things I was trying to accomplish.  but that’s besides the point… if you share your work with strangers, you have to be prepared for some of them not to like it.

of course, some of them will really like it.  another site, www.shayboarder.com, liked the film enough that they interviewed me about the trip and filmmaking process for their blog.

here’s a little excerpt:

Often snowboard journeys are undocumented travels, lost in our memories and shared secrets between friends. Snowboarders from California Luke and Will shared their journey in a super 8mm film for the world to see and while many Chilean travels are left to the pros, I enjoyed the passion and creativity that came out from their film.

I caught up with Luke to find out more about their travel experience to Chile and how they documented the experience in a short film.

read the rest of the interview here.

and from Shayboadrer’s interview the site www.shredunion.com tweeted about the post & film, sharing it with their 2,300+ followers.  those are 2,300 potential viewers that I didn’t have access to before!  I’m not sure it went too much further than that, but all and all I’d call it a successful first foray into the world of blog promotions.

promoting and distributing short form projects on the internet is something that I’m still learning and experimenting with.  I’d love to hear any experiences, thoughts, or stories you may have!

-Luke

A couple of weeks ago I went with some friends to the Annenberg Space For Photography. It’s a gallery and lecture space next to the CAA building, the talent agency affectionately know as the “Death Star” for it’s warm and cuddly atmosphere.

We were there to see photographer David Maisel give a lecture about his work entitled “Black Maps.”

When the lecture started, I was confused. Why was he showing pictures of oil paintings? I expected to see some of his work. It took me a while to realize that those WERE photographs.

In the simplest terms, David does high altitude aerial photography of the interaction between man and the environment. Scenes of mines, clear cuts, drained lakes, and expansive urban environments were the primary focus of his lecture that evening.

The confusion on the origin of the first images is actually something to be expected with his work. One of the reasons that he uses aerial photography is so that “nothing will tell you where you are.” By eliminating perspective and context, he forces the viewer to examine the image for the sake of the image.

This unearthly perspective also adds tension, chaos and a sense of “the lack of control” to the images. The best art marries theory and practice by having the themes of the work represented in medium. And these photos exemplify that, because in many cases they feature massive environmental calamities. The pieces from his “Lake Project” details the destruction caused by the draining of Owens Lake. The lake was drained to provide water to Los Angeles. In providing life to the city, the water department created an environment that produced toxic dust storms in the Owens Valley.

Is the environmental impact apparent from the photos or do we need to learn more about the circumstances that created what we are seeing? This is an element of the duality of Maisel’s work. On one hand there is a aesthetic beauty to the images, there is no denying the brilliant colors and stunning compositions. On the other hand they represent a wanton pillaging of the Earth and, in many cases, highly toxic and dangerous spaces.

But this is not immediately apparent as the forced perspective renders the photos abstract. Are we to judge the image alone, or the image in context? Do we see the beauty or the horror? David would argue that there is no need to separate the elements, they can exist together at the same time.

While his photographs seem to be an indictment against the practices of logging firms and mining companies, David strongly avoids this. He points out that many of the chemicals he uses in photography come from these mines. He is complicit in what is happening. And by viewing the photographs and by buying his book of photography, we too, as the audience become complicit. It’s a challenging concept and a bold statement that doesn’t limit itself to his photography.

“The audience completes the work” he stated. It seems like a given, but if photography is a form of perception, what makes it different from actually seeing something is the ability to share that perception with someone. And it raises the question without an audience would there even be art at all?

-Luke

All images © David Maisel. More can be found at his site, http://www.davidmaisel.com/

hello fellow dwellers of the intertubes!

I’ve just finished a new music video for Grand Vanity’s song “Got A Nerve.” the band is composed of Greg and Dani Jong, a husband and wife duo that I first met on the Procession’s “Major & Minor” video (watch it here.)

the video was a lot of fun to make, the Jong’s have a great attitude and since it was pretty low budget, I got to work with friends. that is, I had to convince people who like me to come work for free or cheap.

since we were going to be pushing the limits of our budget, I wanted to make sure the video was well planned. a month or so before the production, I went to Van Nuys with my Canon Powershot and shot some tests which I then cut into an animatic.

here are some clips from that test.

intro test

stop motion test

soon the week or the production was upon us…unfortunately the Jong’s came down with the flu. being a performance video it was kinda important that they were in good shape for filming, so we pushed the video. this is never a fun thing to do. once you change dates, the availability of crew and gear can change drastically. and the later we were going to shoot, the worse the weather would be.

yes, this is Southern California, but it does rain here. and the closer you get to the end of the year, the more likely it will rain. but this time, fortune smiled on us. between our initial shoot day and the day we shot it got cold. cold enough that the leaves changed.

leaves before

leaves on day of shoot

this isn’t something we could have planned, but it totally worked in our favor. the potential negative of delaying the shoot turned into a positive that enhanced the mise-en-scène of the video.

the shoot itself went smoothly. no one hassled us at all, which was great since we were shooting IN THE STREET without permits. this means that if anyone had a problem with us shooting they could report us to the police and the police would shut us down. thankfully, Saturday morning in Van Nuys is a pretty mellow place.

you can see a woman walking her dogs stopped to say “hi.”

this was my 2nd video with the director of photography Brett Pawlak he shot the “Come Around” video. it was good getting to work with him again. since we were shooting on a long lens, we were pretty far from the band and would often chat during the takes. listening to the audio tracks cracked me up. maybe someday I’ll cut together some choice lines. until then, you’ll have to be satisfied with a pic of our sweet kicks.

Tony Federico came on board to produce. this was also our 2nd project together, the 1st being the Rotten Apples video. many of these pics are ones he snapped on set. it’s pretty great working with someone who has an even more ridiculous mustache than me.

early morning Tony

the day consisted of much walking around Van Nuys, some stop motion shooting, a bit of green screen, and ended with a short narrative scene. this “house” was actually a small, detached guest room in the backyard that the Jong’s used as their recording studio. add a knocker and a coat rack and viola! another location. part of this scene we had to film after the sun went down. luckily the small lighting package we had did the trick.

to celebrate the shoot I treated a few of the guys to a pretty awesome meal at Umami Burger.

a big thanks to Ben Ceccerelli, Steve Romero, Andrew Drapkin and AJ Ullman for their help with the post production. these guys have all helped me with numerous projects and I couldn’t keep doing what I do without them.

enjoy the video! (quicktime here)

-Luke

p.s. the next day, Tony, Brett and I would be going on an adventure… we had the camera package for the entire weekend, so we decided to shoot a little short film. a couple posts on craigslist, many headshots, and a few phone calls later we had our talent…

more on that once it drops. until then, here’s a teaser pic from that shoot.