So right now, I’m kind of in between projects. It’s a little frustrating. Last year, I just kept on making stuff and was pretty busy almost the whole year. I guess part of the reason I’m in between stuff is that I’ve been working on my reel/website and trying to get a good script ready to shoot on 35mm. In the meantime I’ve been going to shows, meeting bands, researching production companies, and trying to keep the fires stoked.



One thing I’ve been working on is a series of “lost films.” My Dad shot some super 8 in 1978, one of the projects he cut another he didn’t. I remember seeing these in the pantry a few years ago, and when I asked he just said it was something from a community college class he took in the 70′s.



Then a couple months ago, he decided he wanted to make a DVD of one of the films and send it to his actor. The actor was probably 10-12 years old in 1978, so there is a good chance that he now has a kid as old as he was then. My Pops asked me if I could help, of course I said yes. Actually I was pretty thrilled to be working on them. He got the super 8 reels transferred to .avi’s and then mailed me the data dvd. I remember I watched them as soon as it arrived.



I took the edited short and did a few minor fixes. I cleaned up edits & splice bumps, color-timed it, added music. The film had “aged” pretty significantly and had taped splices…so a little bit of work improved the image quality immensely.

Here’s a still from it before / after.



So far, I’d only worked on 1 or the reels, so I started going thru the other ones. Mid-way I realized this was an unfinished film. These were the raw film reels, the “dailies” from a shoot in 1978, that my Dad shot! I was pretty excited. I cut a version of the film, not telling him I was going to do so. 



I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of “lost films.” Films that are uncompleted, misplaced, or abandoned be it by chance or circumstance…so getting to finish one is pretty cool…all the more cool that it is something my Dad shot when he was a little younger than me (he would have been 26 in ’78). I posted it on my website and emailed him the link.



After he watched the video we talked about it…midway thru the conversation he mentioned that he had 1 more reel of undeveloped film. And he was pretty sure it was part of this project! That would be great…because right now I don’t really have an ending…



Here’s a still from this project.

While I’m working on this for him, I’m also trying to work with someone on one of my own projects. I think it’s important that I start delegating more tasks to other people. I want to work on more complicated jobs…and more jobs period, and in order to do so, I’m going to need help. So my friend Jeremy is helping me editing “The Real Luke” Season 2. Back when I was home I filmed 3 new episodes….The Real Luke goes mushroom hunting and then ends up hunting and being hunted by something entirely different.



Here’s a still from Episode 201.


Expect those to start dropping in a couple weeks…



-Luke

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

So last weekend, even though I was still recovering from what I’m naming the “Griffith Park Flu” (as I got sick right after the HUGE fire in Griffith Park near my house), I journeyed to San Francisco. Audiopharmacy was performing and they were going to premiere the music video I directed for their song “Prophecies.”

I actually finished the video a couple months ago, but rather than let it slowly leak out – Teao (the producer and ‘chief’ of the musical tribe that is the ‘Pharm) and I wanted to have a more coordinated strategy and release it in time with their album, ‘Spare Change.’ So we waited…

This wasn’t our first artistic collaboration. Back when we both lived off of Geary Blvd we made ‘Late on the 38′. This experimental short, much of it shot on the 38 Muni has done well, screening at the SFSU Film Finals and LACMA’s Young Director’s Night among others.

We had talked about doing a music video for a while, but life, work, and living in separate cities slowed the process. As they were finishing the album, the desire for a video was stronger, so during a trip to SF, Teao, Pasha and I worked on the concept for their song ‘Prophecies’… drawing from art by Sef and the lyrics of the song we settled upon an idea.

I shot a test of a motion effect and the guys in SF along w/ their artist friend Lucien did a picture test of one Sef’s drawings. I integrated these along w/ location scouting photos to create an animatic of the video, which you can watch below

or to see it in in beautiful quicktime, click here.

A few weeks later Angel flew out from Ohio and I drove up from LA and we shot the video. It was a good shoot, I learned a lot and we got most of what we needed. A month or so later, Teao came down to LA and we built a 2nd set in my studio. My studio apartment.

We black-wrapped all the windows and shot for a couple days. It got so hot in there with the foil on the windows, three 650 watt lights, three tv’s, computers and more running non-stop for hours. But we got what we needed.

Clovis & Liisa came over to visit the “set.” At some point we took a trip to CVS for beer, even dressed like this…in Hollywood we didn’t get more than a 2nd look.

After more editing and some help from Brad with the vfx’s and we had a video.

As a special treat for you guys I’ve done a breakdown on a VFX shot to show you the steps that went into making it. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

To see this in beautiful quicktime, click here.

Or if there is anything else about the video or production you’re interested in let me know…

Here is a link to the final video.

-Luke