HKL Films Official Blog

Just Relax, ‘Cause Everything Is Fine!

February 26, 2013 – 1:00 pm

This music video is one my favorites that I’ve done.
I really feel it’s some of my best work as a director and producer — but more importantly it’s some of the best work we’ve done as a production team.

When I say “we”, I am referring to my friends at Maximum Flavor.
This video could not have been done w/out their tireless efforts, professional manner & kick-ass resolve.
And that goes for everyone involved, from cast to crew to talent.

This video was not an easy one to make, but everyone stayed the course and saw it through.

First off, this music video originated about 2 years ago.
We started off raising production money from IndieGoGo. The budget we were striving for was around $15,000 but ended up being much less.
We made it work.

Originally we were going to shoot the video at this abandoned military hospital. It would have been perfect for the backdrop to the “asylum” vibe in the video.
Unfortunately this didn’t pan out due to budgetary setbacks.
Without a location, we were kind of in limbo. Eventually we decided we would shoot it at Soundwave Studios in Oakland, CA.
I’ve shot there many times and it’s a great place. Very affordable, accommodating and professional.

Soundwave Studios in Oakland, CA

They have a building that is basically a warehouse with all of these equipment storage lockers.
We made it work.

For me, when I’m doing a music video that is based around a story element, where there’s a definitive narrative going on, I really feel like it has to be based in some sense of a reality.
There are reasons for things, consequences and these characters exist outside of this 5 minutes.
So when we make a change like location, I have to go back to my script and revise it so it makes sense to me.
Some music videos you can get away with nothing but abstract nonsense. Meaning nonsense as in, there’s no specific story going on here, it’s just a bunch of random imagery set to music.
I dig those music videos a lot because they’re a lot of fun to experiment with, but when I’m dealing with a story element that has a plot, I need it to make sense in the ‘big picture’.

So once the new location made sense in my head I was able to formulate a plan of attack and how different shots correlated to each other.
I live for this shit. It’s like creating something out of nothing.

So we ended up doing 3 different days of shooting and got a lot of great footage.
I was very happy with how it all turned out.

(l to r) Christopher Peoples, Karen Abad & Mark Austin Heim.

The visual style of this video can be attributed mostly to my DP, Mark Austin Heim. I’ve worked with Mark many times over the past few years and he has an amazing eye for lighting, style and appeal.
His AC Karen Abad, an accomplished cinematographer in her own right, worked with Mark on all of the hallway shots, and it definitely shows.
We used a lens baby for some of the “crazy” shots and eclectic lighting schemes for others. The smoke machine was in full effect for this video – it always makes things look cooler.
Overall, I wanted the aesthetic to be moody, dark and a little crazy. Mission accomplished.

Our gaffer & second camera, Christopher Peoples was on point as always and helped make for some truly beautiful shots. I’ve worked with Chris many times before and hope to many more times to come. He is also a DP and it definitely helps his eye when it comes to lighting and staging. Another strong asset to the group.

We were going to have George Clinton himself play the Doctor, but due to scheduling conflicts we just weren’t able to make it happen — so I tapped Tom Cokenias, whom I worked with briefly when I was doing ‘Help! I’m Alive…’ and I thought he’d be perfect. He was.
A really talented actor and a really good guy. In my opinion he nailed exactly what I was going for with that character.

My friend Alexandra Heard played Nurse Payne. Alex is a dancer, model, host & actress that I’ve used in a couple of different videos.
I wanted a nurse who was strong, sexy and no nonsense. It would have been easy to go with a ‘slutty nurse’ concept just for the eye candy, but I wanted Nurse Payne to be a real bitch – but still look good.
She is someone you don’t wanna fuck with. She runs that asylum and keeps everyone in line. I felt Alex was able to exude a certain amount of that power, while still showcasing a submissive nature to the Doctor who was really in charge.

Jeff Sun & Mitch Roth played the Orderlies. Jeff I also worked with on ‘Help! I’m Alive…’ and have since used him in my videos as well. Really great actor and an amazing person to have in your corner.
Mitch, who was actually the AD as well, stepped in to play the one-eyed orderlie. This guy had been around the block and did not take shit from anybody. I thought this was most apparent in his scenes where he’s roughing up Gift of Gab. Good stuff!

G Koop himself, who also produced the song, played the Warden. In the first version of the video, when we thought we were going to have a bigger budget, G Koop was going to play a secret agent type of character that rescued our heroes from the clutches of the vile, Dr. Nose! When we had to cut it back, I still wanted to use Koop in the vid, so I decided to make him the Warden.
While he’s not seen much in the video except for the opening slow motion shots, I saw him as the guy who oversees the whole project. He is equal in power and responsibility to Nurse Payne, but while she’s in charge of the patients, he’s in charge of the facility, the orderlies and making sure things run smooth. I wish we could’ve done more w/ the character, but time & money is always against us.

We put Gab, Lateef & LB in straight jackets for a few of the takes, and I could tell they really dug getting in to character. As you can see from their performances, they really brought out their “crazy” side.
It was interesting to me too how each of them portrayed that state of mind. LB was very physical and aggressive while Lateef was mischievous and paranoid. Gab was paranoid as well, but played out a more mellow and docile crazy.
These guys are always fun to work with and for this video we all had a great time on camera and off.

Anyways, that’s a little behind-the-scenes info for ya. Just some insight in to my creative process and the people who made this video a reality.
I also have to thank the IndieGoGo contributors who really made this video happen. We could NOT have done it without you guys!

I hope you enjoy the video!

-Justin

By hypokritical | Posted in Filmmaking, music, Music Video, Thoughts, Videos | Tagged alexandra heard, asylum, california, crazy, g koop, george clinton, hip-hop, hkl films, justin berger, lateef the truthspeaker, latyrx, lyrics born, mark austin heim, maximum flavor media, Music Video, oakland, paranoid, rap, San Francisco, soundwave studios, straight jacket, the gift of gab | Comments (0)

Acting Outlaws 2013 Calendar Photo Shoot Behind-the-Scenes Video Part 1

January 28, 2013 – 2:07 pm

Latest video I edited for Acting Outlaws, Katee Sackhoff & Tricia Helfer.
A behind-the-scenes clip from the photo shoot for their 2013 Acting Outlaws Calendar.

Video shot by Eddie Hobson & Dennys Ilic

Music by Latyrx

By hypokritical | Posted in Music Video, Videos | Tagged acting outlaws, behind-the-scenes, Dennys Ilic, editing, exclusive, funny, hkl films, justin berger, katee sackhoff, latyrx, music, sexy, tricia helfer | Comments (0)

Justin’s Top 10 Movies of 2012

December 18, 2012 – 6:46 pm

Here we are, at the brink of destruction. Until then, take a look at what I considered to be the top 10 films of the year.
Keep in mind this list is only based on the films I saw in 2012. I’m sure a lot of you will disagree with my picks, but the beauty of the internet is that you can comment or make your own damn list.
That being said, here it is:

10) THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Some of you are probably saying, why is The Dark Knight Rises at #10?! Well the short answer is because this movie really wasn’t that good, in my opinion.
I was really looking forward to this flick, and Christopher Nolan does not disappoint — at least he didn’t until this film.

Aside from the myriad of plot holes, this movie was kind of slow and a bit of a bore. I felt Nolan tried too hard to mix some ‘Inception’ style surprises towards the end that just fell flat.
For a film about Batman, Batman was hardly in the film at all. 2 of the best things about this 3rd film in the Nolan trilogy are Catwoman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Beyond that I just saw a lot of fancy CGI shots that were just trying to top ‘The Dark Knight’, useless dialogue to give exposition where none was really needed and a convoluted storyline that left me feeling a little confused and ultimately bored.
Not to mention Bane was a throwaway character that was built up through marketing to be the next Joker. He wasn’t even close.

The only reason I put this at #10 because it was one of the better films of 2012 (what does that say given my glowing review) and Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Tom Hardy is a formidable team that deserve some recognition.

09) TOTAL RECALL

For a remake this is one of those that’s better than the original, imo. Great cast, cool story, great CGI & action-packed. Colin Farrell is great as Arnold Schwartzenegger’s Quade who finds out he’s not who he thinks he is.

The bad guy is played by Heisenberg himself, Bryan Cranston (with a bad wig I might add) who has a bad ass right-hand (wo)man portrayed by Kate Beckinsale. Jessica Biel plays Quade’s alter-ego love interest and Bokeem Woodbine his best friend.
The remake was good I thought. They don’t go to Mars, Colin Farrell doesn’t pull anything out of his nose and there’s no corny bulging eyes at the end. What they did keep in the mix is the cloak & dagger element of this story, the sci-fi and of course the 3 breasted woman.

I went in to this with an open mind and no real expectations and was pleasantly surprised at what a fun, action packed & well done sci-fi film it was.
Definitely has nods to the original, but it is a great movie all on its own.

08) MOONRISE KINGDOM

This was a quirky little feel-good film that was a nice change of pace from the tent-pole actions films I saw most of the year.
People like to rant & rave about (or completely loathe) Wes Anderson, but I’ve never given him much notice either way. The only other film by him I really enjoyed was the Life Aquatic.
This flick though I found to be touching, funny, interesting & cute. I’m not sure if those are the adjectives one would hope to hear about a film, but I find them to be pretty accurate.

I thought the love story between the two main characters (10-11 year old boy & girl) was charming & overall the film had a really feel-good vibe that I couldn’t ignore.
While it wasn’t my favorite film of 2012 it definitely deserves a Top 10 mention.

This film also had a great ensemble cast (Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Francis McDormand, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton) who worked very well together. This was probably one of my favorite Edward Norton roles because it was very different for him and I thought he pulled it off well. Overall it’s one of those movies that you just kind of watch, smile over & move on with your life.

07) CHRONICLE

This movie was a nice surprise. I saw the trailers and it starred no one I knew but had a really cool premise.
Suffice to say it’s an anti-superhero movie about people with super powers. Actually about teens with super powers.

What I liked was the real-world accountability involved in this flick regarding the kids and their powers. Specifically the character of Andrew (portrayed by Dane DeHaan) who is an abused & solitary boy who starts to use his new found abilities in dark & twisted ways — an exponential reflection of a victim of abuse who becomes the abuser.
Written by Max Landis (John Landis’ kid), I liked the story a lot and I thought it was paced well and had enough character development to give the final and epic conclusion that takes place in downtown Seattle the room it needed to really have an impact. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.

The film is shot from the perspective of Andrew’s video camera for the most part, which gives it a found footage vibe, but it cuts back and forth between that and an objective observer viewpoint that you don’t feel like you’re watching Blair Witch meets the Avengers, which it could have ended up being.

06) JOHN CARTER

Another cool sci-fi flick that came out this year, John Carter (based on the book, A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs) was a lot of fun & had some great CGI.
I’ve heard people give this movie a lot of shit, but I have to say that I really liked it. It gave me a sense of that 80′s sci-fi feel like the original Star Wars or Buck Rogers or even Battlestar Galactica (the original) but through a modern point of view.

This was my first real introduction to Taylor Kitsch, and I really dig this guy as an actor. I also thought he was great in Battleship & Savages.
In this film he portrays John Carter, a Virginia solider who gets teleported to Mars where a battle rages between warring factions of humanoids as well as aliens known as the Tharks.
The Princess, who is portrayed by actress Lynn Collins, is a feisty, aggressive and strong woman who makes most Disney Princesses look like complete wimps. Her and Kitsch are great on screen together and gave the film a real sense of chemistry.

The film really does appeal to the kid in me, but I thought it was action-packed enough that even as an adult you’ll enjoy it if you like sci-fi and fantasy.

05) SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

Ah, the good ol’ Duplass’. This film was only produced by them and stars Mark Duplass, but it definitely has their vibe all over it.
Answering a craiglist ad about time travel, a reporter takes 2 interns (the female intern portrayed quite awesomely by Aubrey Plaza) with him to try and get a story for a failing magazine he writes for.
What ensues is a really great, quirky character piece that takes you on an interesting adventure.

Kenneth (Mark Duplass) comes off as a conspiracy nut who claims to be able to travel back in time. Throughout the movie you don’t know if he’s serious or just off his meds.
I won’t spoil the end for you, but I will say it’s a pretty awesome finale to this story.

There’s tons of great character development throughout the movie for all of the characters involved and I thought it kept the threads simultaneously interesting & connected.
Definitely one of the better films of 2012. I do recommend you see it for sure.

04) JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME

More Duplass madness. Written & Directed by the Duplass Brothers, this movie is a really awesome, funny & somewhat poignant indie comedy.
Susan Surandon who plays the mom of Jason Segel & Ed Helms, deals with her own life crisis as her two sons simultaneously deal with theirs.

Jason Segel, in probably one of his best roles to date IMO, portrays Jeff (the title character) who does indeed live at home with his mom. Ed Helms plays his arrogant brother, Pat whose marriage is failing due to his own short comings as a husband and a human being.
What makes this film fun and interesting is Jeff’s search for meaning in a random phone call that may or may not end up being so random.
It’s a really fun movie and by the end if you’re not emotionally affected, you might not have a soul. You should check.

03) THE AVENGERS

What Top 10 list of 2012 would not be complete without a Joss Whedon flick? Well without a doubt one of my favorite movies of the year was The Avengers.
Sure it was campy and over-the-top and filled with a lot of one-liners & corny dialogue — but what else would you expect from Joss Whedon, or a comic book movie for that matter.

Christopher Nolan this is not. Joss Whedon brings the super hero movie to a different level by infusing comedy & action together seamlessly with witty dialogue, great characters & cool toys.
Another all-star cast is present here with Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hiddleston and more.

What makes this movie work so brilliantly is a well-woven story that gives each character room to breathe, develop and interact with one-another in a way that shows off each of their talents, their personalities and how they all blend (and don’t blend) together.
Kudos to Joss Whedon who not only directed but also wrote the script and made for one of my favorite super hero movies of all time.

02) THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

Joss Whedon comes in at #2 as well as co-writer of one of the best horror flicks this year. He and Drew Goddard (who directed the film) penned a truly original-yet-homage-laden script that is funny, intense, captivating & even makes you jump as all good horror movies should.

Five 20-something year-olds go up to an old log cabin for a relaxing weekend that turns in to a night from hell.
I won’t spoil anything, because if you haven’t seen this film yet you really need to enjoy all of its twists and turns as you watch it — but I will say that the film is not what you expect and has an ending you will either love or hate.

The highlight of the cast for me is Fran Kranz who I first saw in Whedon’s Dollhouse series. He’s really funny and made the movie so much more enjoyable than it already was.
Other highlights include Richard Jenkins & Bradley Whitford who really steal the show & one of the best kills in cinema history.

There’s lots of blood and gore, as you would expect from a film that gives homage to everything from Friday the 13th to Evil Dead, some nudity and lots of laughs.
Easily one of the top films of the year and I can’t give it enough praise for being original and unique in an industry wrought with remakes, sequels & re-imaginings.

01) LOOPER

Drum roll please…..oh never mind — you can already see that my pick for the #1 film of 2012 is Looper.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a Looper, a special group of assassins that kill people from the future. They’re paid well and live a life of luxury in a future Earth where time travel exists in the future, but is illegal.
Confused yet? You might be. Time travel films always have a way of messing with your head, & Looper doesn’t miss that mark, but it doesn’t rely on it in lieu of a good story.

Bruce Willis plays an older version of JGL’s character, Joe, who is sent back in time to close Joe’s loop — a process in which a Looper kills their future self and gets paid a huge sum of money, and then lives out their days in even more luxury before they’re collected and sent back in time to be killed, 30 years later.
Like I said, Looper has it’s share of time-travel confusion, but what it also has is a solid, character-driven storyline that makes it fun, interesting & fresh.

I don’t like spoilers, so I won’t spoil this film either, but I will tell you that the ending is something that left me thinking for the rest of the night. It was impactful and unexpected.
Looper is easily the best film of 2012, and as I’ve said before, possibly of the past 10 years.
Director/writer Rian Johnson (Brick) created a really unique & entertaining sci-fi flick that will hopefully go down as a 12 Monkeys of this generation.
While some critics said it could very well be the Star Wars of this generation, I don’t think it has that broad of appeal & is too dark and brooding to be enjoyed by all.
It is a great movie though, and will most likely leave you and your friends debating time-travel theories for days.

Highlights also include Jeff Daniels and relative newcomer Pierce Gagnon who plays Cid — an 8 year old who steals the show in ways you’ll have to see to believe.
See Looper. You’ll enjoy the hell out of it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Tom Hardy in Lawless

PROMETHEUS – This flick failed in my opinion. A re-hash of Alien plot points. They say if you’re going to steal, steal from the best — but it seems that Ridley Scott might just think that’s him. After seeing this I highly disagree. Why did I give it an honorable mention? Because visually it’s great and Idris Elba is in it.

LAWLESS – I really liked this flick a lot. Tom Hardy’s character, Forrest Bondurant was one of my favorite anti-heros in a long time. Shia LeBeouf did really good in this as well. A prohibition flick that tells a true story about 3 brothers who go up against Guy Pearce’s character, Charlie Rakes — a federal marshall who bites off more than he can chew. Really good flick. Tom Hardy was better in this than TDKR for sure. Nice cameo also by fellow TDKR cast member Gary Oldman.

THE HUNGER GAMES – Last but not least, The Hunger Games I enjoyed. Never read the books, but I thought the movie was fun and interesting. Jennifer Lawrence is great in this, as is Woody Harrelson.
While it didn’t have quite the impact to make my Top 10 list I did think it was a good film.

So that’s my list.
Hopefully the world doesn’t end this Friday as I still wanna see The Hobbit, Argo and some other films this year not to mention what’s coming out next year…

By hypokritical | Posted in Films, Photos, Reviews, Thoughts | Tagged 2012, christopher nolan, Chronicle, Duplass Brothers, Gina Carano, hkl films, Jeff Who Lives At Home, John Carter, justin berger, Lawless, Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Prometheus, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Avengers, The Cabin in the Woods, the dark knight rises, top 10 movies | Comments (0)

“You Know I’ll Always Love You”

December 4, 2012 – 10:54 am

Today we released the brand new music video for Karyn Paige for her song, “You Know I’ll Always Love You”.

This was my 3rd Karyn Paige music video, and I wanted this one to be extra special.

Based off a treatment originally thought up by myself & Miss KP herself, the video took awhile to reach pre-production. Between the time we came up with the concept and the time we actually started pre-production for the video I met my current girlfriend, Michelle Fatale.
Being a director as well we teamed up on this project and together fleshed out a final treatment which you see in the completed video.

This was the first project Michelle and I worked on together that was ours. We had worked together on a couple of short film projects, but this music video was ours to direct, produce & edit.

In honor of our first project we created Chromosome 16 Productions, a production company that would be the umbrella for all of our joint ventures together.

Michelle Fatale & Karyn Paige on set

“You Know I’ll Always Love You” was not void of problems. The end of our first day of production the sprinkler system in the apartment of one of our producers was accidentally triggered and flooded the place. It was our last shot for the day luckily, and insurance prevailed.
We ended up going back there a couple of months later once everything had dried out and new furniture had been delivered. You probably won’t be able to tell in the video which shots were before and which were after the sprinkler incident, but the scene w/ the cupcakes was one of them.
The other shots were done at Lake Merritt in Oakland. It was a full afternoon of shooting in beautiful California weather and gave us some beautiful backdrops to some of the most important scenes of the video.

Myself with our DP Christopher Peoples

Working on this video w/ my girlfriend proved to be a really good experience. We work very well together and it made for an even better video than it would have been if just one of us was directing. We split up the scenes and each directed about half. Looking at the final result you can’t really see much of a difference between who directed what, which is in part to not only the similar way in which the two of us creatively view things, but also to our amazing crew who made every shot look like a million bucks.

Our amazing cast & crew on location in Oakland, CA

It was overall a great experience and produced a really great video.

Now watch some behind-the-scenes stuff:

By hypokritical | Posted in Filmmaking, Music Video, Photos, Thoughts, Videos | Tagged bay area, california, Christopher Peoples, Chromosome 16 Productions, hkl films, indie filmmaking, justin berger, karyn paige, michelle fatale, Music Video, oakland | Comments (0)

HELP! I’M ALIVE… Season 1 Teaser

November 2, 2012 – 1:52 pm

It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve finally released a promo for Season 1 of the post-apocalyptic web-series, ‘Help! I’m Alive…’.

The scenes in the teaser promo are from the shoot we did earlier this year over the course of 5 days.
We’re going to be releasing the very first episode on December 21st, 2012, and it will be a 5-8 minute webisode.
We’re very excited to finally be releasing the pilot as it’s been in the making for about 3 years now — not the 5-8 minute version, but the entire 22 minute pilot we were originally planning to release.

I edited the teaser utilizing the music created for the show by John Dahl Honore. Our fellow producer, David Schatanoff, Jr assisted w/ the sound design.
So, enjoy the promo and make sure you check us out at www.helpimalive.tv for the latest news, photos & videos!

Here are all of the credits:

Director: Justin Berger
AD: Mitch Roth
2nd AD: Karyn Paige
DP: Mark Austin Heim
2nd Camera: Chris Denise
MAU: Chrysalis Rose
Sound: Darlene Drake

Starring: James Bailey, John Bruno, Aleks Eydelman, Jeff Sun & Anthony Larice as “Loryn”

Produced by Great White Buffalo Films, HKL Films & D Studios Productions in association with Maximum Flavor Media.

Executive Producers: Anthony Larice, Justin Berger, Andrew Fassler
Producers: David Schatanoff, Jr., Dominick Ruiz
Written by: Anthony Larice, J. William Finn, Justin Berger & R. Mitchell Roth

By hypokritical | Posted in Filmmaking, Photos, Videos | Tagged anthony larice, d studios productions, december 21st 2012, great white buffalo films, help i'm alive, hkl films, independent filmmaking, indie, justin berger, maximum flavor media, post-apocalyptic, web series, zombies | Comments (0)