I’m embroiled in the post-production of the music video I drected, and I’m really super proud of the look of it. There has always been something about film school movies that has made them very obviously film schooly to me. In their look, presentation, pace, etc.

When I was in Ireland I was focussed on writing, but about twenty of my classmates there were in a music video program that produced videos ranging from very film school-looking to not at all film school looking, and I was really surprised at how good some of them had turned out. I’ve been wondering if I even had that ability, or if something still eluded me about filmmaking, and had I made a vid it would have fallen toward the lame end of the bell curve.

Well I’m looking at this footage I got for my video, which wasn’t mediated through a film school environment and can more or less stand as my debut in the industry, and I think I’ve broken out. I think this looks like a professional music video. There aren’t film school mistakes. There are some mistakes, but they aren’t the kind that green sophomores shooting 16mm for the first time make. My aesthetic decisions actually panned out. It’s sort of surprising in some ways, because, despite the fact that I’m in film school, there have been relatively few benchmarks as to my personal development in the area of visual storytelling. To be sure I’ve taken a lot of classes on it, but the only real test is actually putting it into practice.

Anyway, I feel like I hit a new plateau this weekend, and I just wanted to brag about it. Keep your eyes peeled for the video on this blog and all over the internet. It should drop within a week or so. Blao!

Posted: March 28th, 2007 under Film and Video, Projects.
Comments: 1

Clap and she will get better.

Posted: March 8th, 2007 under Miscellaneous.
Comments: 1

Thing about New York is that a lot of the main travel routes aren’t listed on Google Maps because the subway is underground. Over the past few months I’ve been using a sweet mashup of Google Maps that superimposes the NYC subway routes onto the city, making it much easier to plan how I’m getting where I’m going (previously I would use google maps in conjunction the stupid, inert MTA map). Anyway, thought I’d share:

Ch-check it out.

Posted: March 6th, 2007 under Miscellaneous.
Comments: none

Joe: The Art of Coffee, my favorite coffee shop on the planet, has been nominated for the “Best new alt coffee shop” award from Time Out New York this year. The elephant in the room, of course, is the absence of any explanation of what an ‘alt’ coffee shop is (alternative? to what?), or why Joe would be in a ‘new’ category, despite being an established (albeit young) neighborhood institution and the winner of the 2004 ‘Best Coffee’ Eat Out Award from the same magazine. Perplexities aside, Joe deserves to be the award-winingest coffee shop out there, with beverages that make the competition seem pitiful and withering, and service that makes the competition seem off-putting and uninviting.

Anyways, the ballots are online right now, and all the coolest kids in town are voting for Joe.

Here’s the link to the ballot. I didn’t bother filling out the rest. You can find Joe’s listing by scrolling a bit less than halfway down.

Posted: March 5th, 2007 under Coffee Shops.
Comments: none