happy Comic-Con week to you! this will be my 4th year going…last year I felt like I was just hitting my stride with planning and execution of the convention. the only major change for this year… a closer hotel. all the better to facilitate afternoon iPhone recharging and naps. anyhoo, I’ll be talking about #SDCC next week.

this week, here are a couple of things I’ve seen on the interwebz

here’s a video where some nefarious characters battle with “cardboard” weapons… take a look.

I think this video is a perfect example of putting the cart before the horse. these guys have made a visually impressive video. they’ve taken a funny concept- “cardboard” weapons- and added in great vfx.

the different sorts of weapons and the escalating nature of the fight are great.

but story? characters? emotion? these are nowhere to be found.

visual effects should serve the story, not the other way around.

if they’d spent 30 seconds at the beginning developing the characters and setting up say, “a plot,” I’d want to watch this again…instead, I found myself losing focus during the 3.5 minutes. does it work as a visual effects demo? yes. does it work as a short film? no.

take a look at this Milk ad from Japan. it took has cool vfx and an interesting premise…but there is a STORY and we identify with one of the characters. caring about the characters makes it an ultimately more rewarding viewing experience.

-Luke

Music & Food.

and maybe not in that order.

on our 2nd day in New Orleans we took the street car up Canal St. it went almost all the way to the Fairgrounds. we didn’t really know where we were going, but we assumed that the massive group of pale, older, folding-chair carrying white people did. we followed the pack the 8 blocks or so and viola! the Fairgrounds and Jazz Fest awaited us.

it was sunny. and hot. and there weren’t many places to sit. we covered ourselves in sunscreen, camped out on the grass and started to watch music.

there are about 8 different venues that were simultaneously showcasing different sorts of music. each stage had it’s own theme (more or less). and each stage allowed for varying levels of intimacy. for example, on the “ACURA” stage, you’d be lucky to make out the performers features…if you could even make out their face. the “Heritage Stage” was one of my favorites of the festival. it featured local New Orleans musicians…and it was small, so I could get up close.

the Paulin Brothers Brass Band

after a couple bands it was time to eat.

crawfish Monica

mango freeze & boiled crawfish

the crawfish was pretty tough to eat. there isn’t much meat in each “fish” and getting it out is tricky. Teal and I eavesdropped on some other “out of towners” who were getting help from a “local.” step one, pull the heads off. step two, suck out the juices from the head. step three, pinch, squeeze and pull out the tail meat with you teeth. not an easy task. by the time we’d finished the 30+ crawfish I felt like I was just starting to get the hang of it… another basket and I think I’d be good.

sweet potato pie

some of the other bands we saw on the first day include:

Coco Ronicheaux and the Swamp Monsters
Groupa – Nordic Folk Collective
Steven Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers
Tribute to Louis Prima

Teal and I were both pretty tired after the first day…and our feet were even more tired-er. (hehe) so we decided to pick up some of those folding chairs that everyone was lugging around. best $10 spent. EVER.
(make sure to go into the CVS on Canal St. and pick some up if you go.)

the 2nd day was overcast, windy, and just a little humid. after the blazing sun and windless heat of the day before this was a welcome change. being able to unfold our chairs and sit down at a moment’s notice made it all the sweeter.

watching Buckwheat Zydeco

of course, the eating continued…

fried soft shell crab po-boy

pheasant, quail & andouille gumbo

even though we were tired, Teal and I stuck it out to the bitter end. our last stop was the Gospel Tent. there weren’t many people watching the act and we felt a little bad about leaving, but eventually we threw in the towel and headed back to our hotel.

some of the bands we saw that day included:

Hadley J. Castille Family & the Sharecroppers Cajun Band
Forgotten Souls Brass Band
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Gospel Inspirations of Boutte

along the way we tried to sell our chairs. there were still two more days to the festival and we figured SOMEONE on the street car would have sore feet from standing all day. but no one would bite! it was very curious. we ended up giving them to the front desk clerk at the hotel, hopefully they found a weary festival goer to hookup.

later that evening the whole family ventured into the French Quarter for an ice cream place that Teal had found called la divina gelateria. the night was hot and muggy. people were out and about, it felt like a real city.

one thing I really liked about New Orleans was the coffee. it was good. and it was good at any number of places. even the drip coffee at this little spot was excellent. after tasting numerous varieties of ice cream, we sat outside and enjoyed our treats. I tried to convince the clan to go get some Absinthe with me…but to no avail, so we headed home for some much needed rest.

black coffee & black pepper cherry gelato

our final morning in New Orleans we went back to Café Du Monde. it was just as good as our first visit. along the way we passed an art dealer selling paintings of the DOG that we’d seen all around the city including at Jazz Fest, on a big hotel, in various galleries, and in bus station ads.

rodriquez dog

smoking fish

our last stop before leaving was the famous Central Grocery where we purchased their equally famous “Muffaleta” sandwich…

Dad noms

it was quite a trip. we got to experience all manner of new food and new music. it was really special to try things that if we were back at home we wouldn’t have access to. New Orleans truly is an American gem. I highly recommend going there…and not just for Jazz Fest. there is music and food available on a daily basis there…in fact, it’d be hard to go and there and NOT experience it.

do you have any favorite food or music destinations? I’d love to hear about them!

-Luke

hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend…it’s crazy to think that this time last year I was experiencing winter in Chile (read it here). this year, my big trip was South again. but instead of South America, I picked the American South. my family and I were going to New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans has been at the top of my “places to go in America” list for many years. the history, the culture, the food, and the music have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. finally, the stars aligned and I was able to plan a trip to not only the city, but the famous Jazz Fest.

our first morning in NOLA we wanted to see the Mississippi…and have coffee and beignets at the world famous Café Du Monde. we walked along the river and looked at the birds, the auto ferry, and the joggers. it’s amazing seeing such an important body of water…it reminded me of seeing the Rhine. so much history in a flat, wide, and not very big river.

a statue by the river

nestled in the shadow of a dike, the café is surrounded by old brick buildings with wrought iron railings. the Café does only two things. and they do them well. normally I try to stay off the beaten path and out of the tourist traps, but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back here. I’d probably have gone here every morning if schedule allowed.

coffee & beignets

a painting in our hotel…just a little bizarre.

Jazz Fest didn’t start until the following day, so we took the street car down St. Charles Ave into the Garden District. this is one of the older residential neighborhoods I’ve ever been in…at least in the States. the area dates back to the 1800’s. it’s amazing to walk past a house and read a sign about how it was built during the Civil War…and it’s still being lived in! thanks to fires and earthquakes there aren’t many places like that in California.

a tomb in the historic Lafayette Cemetery #1

Mom & Dad

Teal checkin’ the interwebz

a house in the Garden District

Third St.

a tower of jasmine

besides the beautiful old homes and 100 year old oak trees, one of the things that I really loved about the Garden District was the smell. it really IS a garden. it is one of the lushest and greenest urban places I’ve ever seen. the entire area was filled with the fragrant smell of blooming plants. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much Jasmine in my life.

after walking around we’d developed quite an appetite… Teal had a list of notable local restaurants and after some discussion we settled upon Cochon. it’s a haute cuisine take on the local Cajun food that’s savory, rich and spicy.

pork & pickled watermelon

BLTO (the “O” is for Oyster)

dinner was incredible, but this was just the start. Jazz Fest was the following day and it promised not only interesting and eclectic music, but the food that makes New Orleans famous.

-Luke

a couple quick updates. my experimental narrative, “JEROME” is coming right along. sound design is done, a composer is working on the score, and *fingers crossed* I’ll be doing color correction and vfx tomorrow. also, I’m in the midst or working on an EPIC blog about my trip to New Orleans for Jazz Fest this spring. stay tuned.

in the meantime, enjoy this AMAZING Cadbury ad.

-Luke

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

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

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/

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.

here’s a little animation of me animating a stop motion segment for the Greg Jong AKA Grand Vanity “Got A Nerve” music video…

the video should be finished soon, so stay tuned!

-Luke

it’s quite possibly the best thing I’ve seen this year.

-Luke