My Perspective: Kiehl’s Life Ride August 6th, 2010

August 9th, 2010
by hypokritical

Hey all. So this past Friday I got together with Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer to film some footage of them in San Francisco. They were in town as part of Kiehl’s Life Ride, a charity ride to help raise money for amfAR.

me filming Katee and Tricia

me filming Katee and Tricia (photo by Travis Shinn)

First off I had no idea they were even coming up to The Bay Area. I knew they were a part of the ride but I thought they were just doing it in LA. So I texted Tricia and asked if they were coming up to San Francisco, as the ride was from San Diego, up the west coast, ending at the Kiehl’s store in SF.
She said yes that her and Katee were riding bikes all the way up the coast.
So, I said that we should get some footage when they come up. After much texting back and forth we all decided that I should meet them at the hotel they were staying at (the Triton in downtown SF).
They were supposed to get in at 1:30pm, so I made my way from home towards downtown and over the Bay Bridge around that time. Got a text en route that said they would be an hour or so late. No problem.
Got across the bridge, found a parking garage (that raped me pretty much) and made my way to the Triton lobby. Waited for quite awhile, went across the street and got some Starbucks and finally around 3pm the Life Ride crew shows up.

Mind you I’m not complaining, I’m very much used to waiting. So around 3:30 I see Tricia and Katee and the other motorcycle riders pull up. So I sit and wait because there’s no sense in getting in anyone’s way until everything is situated. They end up having to park somewhere else and so I sit and wait patiently, sipping my Mocha Frappucino.
Katee walks in and I call out to her. She tells me she burned the clutch out on her bike.
Then Tricia walks in and sees me and starts apologizing for their lateness. I of course tell her it’s no big deal and not their fault (as it wasn’t of course).
So after they get their hotel room keys and everyone gets the info of where and when they’re all meeting to ride over to the Kiehl’s store later that day, the three of us take the elevator up to the top floor where their room is.

We walk into the room and it is TINY, as you can see in the video. But, Tricia did tell them that her and Katee just needed a place to shower and change as they were flying home that evening. But this room was super small and looked like something out of a 70’s porn movie. Not to knock the Triton Hotel, because honestly it was a nice enough retro hotel. I loved the carpet in the lobby:

Anyways, we start filming (which you can see in the video below) and these two are hilarious together — even moreso than I remember from before. I think they were a bit tired from their ride that day which made them even more giggly than usual. It was hard to not laugh out loud while filming. There’s more video coming next week which will show even more of how these two are when they’re together.

So we wrap filming in the hotel and I leave them to shower and get ready and all that and make my way to the Kiehl’s store on Fillmore. I arrive and realize that I’ve got about and hour and a half to kill, so I decide to finally eat, as all I had had that day was a donut and my Starbucks. The sugar was kicking in I have to say though and I needed some real food before I started feeling like a crack head.
So as I drove around looking for a parking spot I see a Crepevine on the same block as the Kiehl’s store. Perfect!

Crepevine on Fillmore in SF

Crepevine on Fillmore in SF

I love Crepevine. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. I’m not much of a crepe guy, but they have awesome sandwiches and a great garden burger.
Anyways, so I park and go eat (finally) and took some time to recharge. San Francisco is hilly as fuck and I wasn’t used to doing that much walking while carrying around a 30 lb. camera bag, so needless to say I was spent.

Hung out at Crepevine and then made my way up to the Kiehl’s store around 5:00pm. The bikes weren’t scheduled to arrive until 6pm, so I waited, talked to some of the people at the store and familiarized myself with the layout and let everyone know I was filming for Katee and Tricia so I was supposed to be there.

Finally a little after 6pm the ladies and all the other bikers show up. We all go in and photos, music, food and drink ensue. After doing some recording and being offered drinks by Katee and Tricia I decide my work was done for the moment so I put my camera away behind the bar and proceeded to have some awesome Vodka and Pomegranate martinis. The bartender was this really hot girl who was very gracious and loaded me up on alcohol.
Then I happen to make my way over to the DJ who turns out to be DJ Cams, whom I had actually met previously at Manor West one night when DJ D-Sharp was spinning.
It was nice to have somebody there I sorta knew, and I think he felt the same way, so we hung out quite a bit and picked some songs to spin for the party. It was very 70’s, 80’s and 90’s rock inspired.

DJ Cams

DJ Cams

As Katee and Tricia were obviously busy talking with, well, everybody at the party, I darted in and out (it was hella hot in there) and got some photos of the bikes and such and then resumed my filming duties when they presented the big ass check to amfAR and presented the riders and such.
Soon after the party was pretty much over. We all said our goodbyes and I went home.

Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff

Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff

It was really a great day/night and I’m glad I was on hand to capture it on video. Also, the Life Ride raised $85,000.00 for amfAR, which is pretty awesome.

Without further ado, here’s the video from that day (another one is coming next week):

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N-GAUGE “Attitude” 1998

August 8th, 2010
by hypokritical

Any of you who have been reading my blog know that I was the lead singer in a rap-core/metal band back in the late 90’s called N-Gauge.  Just recently I came across an old VHS tape of us performing at a house party in Tacoma, WA.  Thought I would share a slice of my past with y’all…enjoy!

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INCEPTION: What Dreams Matrix Come.

July 18th, 2010
by hypokritical

The title for this blog is derived from 2 films, THE MATRIX and WHAT DREAMS MAY COME.  For those of you who might not know the latter, it’s a film with Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. about a man who loses his wife and has to go through the afterlife to find her and save her.

It’s a very visually stunning, emotional and dramatic film.  Much like The Matrix, it pulls you into false realities and explores the basic question, ‘what is reality’?

I mention all of this as I’m going to give my take on the new Christopher Nolan film, INCEPTION.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the previews (as had I) and you have an idea of what the film is about — entering someone’s dream and planting an idea in their head.  It’s called Inception.

Before you even go into the theater you’ve been given the basic premise of this film.  What you get upon watching it is an esoteric, yet emotionally grounded story of a man who basically has to learn to let go.  Sounds easy enough, but as any person will tell you, it’s not so easy — especially when you’ve lost someone you love.

The film is a very MATRIX-like concept.  Mind you the comparisons to The Matrix films that can be made are valid, but it wouldn’t be fair to leave it at that.  There is a lot more to this film than those comparisons and it does indeed stand on its own as a great movie, however, without The Matrix, Inception probably would never have existed as it does.

Christopher Nolan wrote and directed the flick, and he did both quite well.  The story is pretty solid with little lack of plot and only a handful of (somewhat minor) holes that don’t really hurt the story.  Overall I’d say it’s a really great follow up to The Dark Knight (his last film, which has become a bit of a classic already) and shows Nolan’s ability to create his own worlds and characters just as well as deriving them from previously existing material.

I’ll go so far as to say that INCEPTION is a better movie than THE DARK KNIGHT in that it is far more original, in some ways.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in this movie is top notch and honestly the best work I’ve ever seen him do.  He really deserves recognition for this film in the form of critical acclaim and at the very least, an Oscar (for what that’s worth).  Ellen Page does a good job with her character as well, but it is truly DiCaprio who essentially owns every scene he’s in.

Nolan has taken us into a world that is dramatic, imaginative, dangerous and thought-provoking.  Inception will undoubtedly leave you feeling satisfied, even with its somewhat elusive ending.  While predictable, the ending was the obvious choice — but only because it was the best choice.  I won’t spoil anything for you, but if you’ve seen the movie you know that it couldn’t have ended any more perfectly.  And that’s why it’s predictable.  Even though I saw it coming from the first 10 minutes in, it still was satisfyingly complete.

My biggest complaint lies with the lack of technical explanation.  While some might disagree that its the technobabble that can ruin a story, I felt that it should have had at least a little bit to tie up some nagging questions I had throughout the film.  I can’t go into them without spoiling the movie, but once you watch it you may find yourself asking the same questions.

The editing was also done extremely well.  Once you see the film you’ll understand why.

So that’s my mostly spoiler free review.  I highly recommend seeing the film in theaters and I will most likely go again to take it all in.  You do have to pay attention in this movie or else you may not understand everything that’s going on.  I don’t feel that the movie is so complicated that it requires you to really think, it’s more of just, like I said, paying attention.

Is this the best movie of the year?  So far, yes.  Is it one of the best films of all time?  Not so sure.  I think time will tell on that one, but in my personal opinion it is a movie I would highly recommend to people to go watch, but when all is said and done I don’t feel that it’s a movie that will affect you beyond the car ride home.  I think it does its job to entertain very well, but I don’t feel that the experience was so moving and unique that it will affect me for a long time.  Not like The Matrix did.

Go see it, enjoy it, buy the DVD and lets show some support for good film making so hopefully we can get more great movies made from Christopher Nolan and other filmmakers who will bring us more original, engaging and intelligent stories and a lot less Michael Bay.

(I don’t mean to rag on Michael Bay, but honestly Transformers 2 was a horribly, shitty movie)

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Posted in Filmmaking, Films, Reviews | Comments (1)

BAD RABBITS “Booties” Unofficial Music Video

June 24th, 2010
by hypokritical

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I filmed the band BAD RABBITS at my friend, Jared’s house party in Oakland, CA. My goal was to take all the footage and put together a video for my favorite song off of their EP, “Stick Up Kids”.
The song is called “Booties” and I thought it was a perfect vid to put live footage to.
The reason it’s so grainy and contrasted out is because it was so dark — but I think it adds a certain stylistic element to the video.

I don’t know — let me know what you think:

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Broken Records.

June 23rd, 2010
by hypokritical

I guess you could call the title of this blog post a double entendre, but only if you’re a dick.
Seriously though, today I broke my record for the most videos put out in one day. Previously 3 was the magic number, but today I broke that record with 4 videos.

Lyrics Born, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer and Karyn Paige.
I directed and edited all four videos. In all actuality I shot, directed, produced and edited them.
While it may not be a big deal to most, to me it’s pretty profound to have four different videos released on the same day. Sure they’re just viral vids and nothing too fancy schmancy in way of production and editing, but I don’t care. It’s pretty fuckin’ cool to me…

I try to give each person’s videos their own style/look/feel.
There are similarities of course, as I have my own unique style/look/feel — but overall I don’t want them to all look the same. Mind you these videos were made with absolutely no budget what so ever. It’s basically me with my video camera setting up and shooting.

It will be nice when I have some money to throw around for some of these.
Anyways, enjoy the videos and if you aren’t familiar with some of these people, check ‘em out. They’re all really cool individuals and extremely talented in their own right.

LYRICS BORN / LBTV

KATEE SACKHOFF / “Ask Katee”

TRICIA HELFER / “Dark Blue” Teaser

KARYN PAIGE / “Working with the Producers”

So there you have it. Four online videos in one day.
That’s gotta be SOME sort of record even outside the realm of my reality…right?
haha whatever. Thanks for checkin’ out my blog and vids.

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Black Sheep Hamsters.

June 21st, 2010
by hypokritical

It’s been out for awhile, but I’ve only seen it twice until today. Both times were during the commercials before 2 movies I saw. It’s the Kia commercial with the hamsters. I fuckin’ love this commercial. The way they animated the hamsters to mimic the guys performing the song and everything else is just pure awesomeness. Check it out:

Some of my favorite scenes are the drummer, the two dudes who crash in the cardboard box car and the DJ. Really well done animation. The song’s by Black Sheep.

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Bad Rabbits

June 20th, 2010
by hypokritical

I had never even heard of this Boston, MA band until a few months ago when my friend Jared told me they were playing a house party at his place. I was interested and so I went to check ‘em out.
The band blew me away. An intense and amazing live experience. They have their shit together and make some awesome, funky, rockin’ and bad ass music.
Definitely check them out if you can see them live and download their EP “Stick Up Kids”. It’s available for FREE at www.BADRABBITS.com.

Bad Rabbits came back this past week to do a second appearance at my friend’s house party and this time I was prepared with my vid cam and shot some great footage. Half way through the set though some of the lights went out and so I had to do quite a bit of fixing in post.
I boosted the shit out of the gain, brightness and contrast, added a bit of saturation to the color and you’ve got the video below.
This was their encore song, “Bulls On Parade” by Rage Against The Machine. More video is coming from the rest of the show, but this was too good of footage to not post up…enjoy!!!

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Black Betty

June 19th, 2010
by hypokritical

For any of you paying attention, I’ve been working on a project called BLACK BETTY. It’s the story of a young girl who witnesses her mother’s murder and 20 years later tries to find the man who did it by becoming a vigilante known as Black Betty.

The first draft of the script is completed and I’ve got it out there right now being read by friends and colleagues for comments and criticism. So far the response has been pretty positive and every critique I’ve agreed with for the most part and thought that they were either right on, or at least fair.

The plan now is to finish the script with all the changes that need to be made and then shoot a short, which will essentially be a few scenes taken from the full-length script and re-written to work as a short film. From there I want to take the short to film festivals and see if I can gain some interest from studios and/or producers who are into backing the film and making it a full-length feature.

As of right now I’ve already got a lead to play Black Betty and she is awesome. I’ve found someone that I think would make a great bad guy and I’m still working on some of the other casting. First and foremost I need to finish the script and get the short film script written up. Then I can focus more on casting, but as of right now I’m focused on some other things including my work with Lyrics Born, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, Karyn Paige and DJ D-Sharp.

I’ve set up a website for Black Betty as a teaser and have both Twitter and Facebook accounts set up so as to keep those interested updated and garner some sort of fan base even this early on. I’m trying to get a friend of mine to do some concept art and within the next month or two I’ll start doing screen tests of everyone — but of course first comes casting.

It’s a crazy business, for sure, but I love it. So, if you haven’t joined Black Betty on Facebook or Twitter please take a second and do so:

www.twitter.com/blackbettymovie

www.facebook.com/blackbettymovie

The website is simply www.BLACKBETTYMOVIE.com

I’ll try and keep this more updated, but I just get so busy I honestly forget to blog — or usually just don’t have time. Thanks for reading (if you are).

-Justin

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LOST and found.

May 24th, 2010
by hypokritical

Corny title? Maybe.
But it fits.

If you haven’t seen the finale to LOST then you should really stop reading RIGHT NOW!

OK, now we can get down to business.
I thought the finale to LOST was very good. Was it great? No. But it was good.
LOST for the past 6 years has been about mysteries and questions and the ever present question; “What is the island?”

We learn what the island is in the last couple of episodes of the series and it’s presented as almost a throwaway. Because honestly the important part of LOST isn’t what is the island, it’s who are these people?
It sounds somewhat cliche and corny, but LOST has been about the characters and their journey. Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate, Jin, Sun, Charlie, Desmond, Claire, Locke, Sayid and all the others…and so it ends focused on these characters and the end of their journey. The greatest journey of all; life.

I’m happy and content with the ending. Some people will most likely have issues with the religious overtones, but honestly that doesn’t really bother me. The show has always dealt with the issues of faith vs. science and even at the end I felt that the church was nothing more than a metaphor for the spiritual side of the equation. Just the simplest and most basic representation of such for people to understand what was going on.

Now that it’s over I think back at what a great series LOST was. For anyone who has seen it from the beginning and stuck with it, you know the the first season was unlike anything on television at the time. It broke a lot of molds and set a new standard for main stream television. While there were times that the series seemed to drag and at times didn’t really make much sense, you still wanted to know what happened to these characters and of course, “what is the island?”.

There are questions that you can go back through the series and ask why they weren’t answered, but honestly it’s a bit moot at this point. The show is over and in the end everyone lives happily ever after.

Many people, myself included, thought the island was purgatory — and in a way it was, but not really. Purgatory was the sideways life that was shown throughout the last season. I’m anxious to go back and re-watch the show now, not because I know how it ends, but just because I think it will give me a greater understanding of these characters and their motivations and ultimate sacrifices.

If there is a moral to LOST I think it’s basically just appreciate the people in your life and what they contribute to it. Like Christian said at the end, “not one person can do it alone.”
LOST was a journey and now that it’s over I can truly say it was one helluva ride.

Again, the finale wasn’t great, but it was pretty good. I’m not sure exactly what would have made it great in my eyes, but maybe I’m just in denial that it’s over. Whatever the case I feel satisfied with the ending, I just feel like it could have been more. Oh well. Hindsight is always 20/20. ; )

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Karyn Paige Is The Next Big Thing!

May 18th, 2010
by hypokritical

I don’t say that a lot, but honestly, this girl is amazing.
Yes, I’m doing publicity for her, but that is irrelevant to the FACT that she is an amazing singer.

Spread the word!

www.karynpaige.com

To those in the know, Karyn Paige has been tearing up stages around the Bay
Area for many years now. As part of the super group, Supertaster, she has
wowed audiences with her amazing voice and exuberant stage presence.

Currently, as one of the featured vocalists for Jazz Mafia’s Brass, Bows and
Beats Orchestra, KP (to friends and family) is set to hit festivals all over
the US this year as the group brings their unique blend of jazz, hip-hop and
symphony-esque music to the masses at such notable festivals as Monterey,
Montreal, Harmony and the Playboy Jazz Festival.

Known mostly as a supporting member of this infamous collective, Karyn is at
long last breaking out on her own with a solo debut that will showcase the
singer’s talents beyond what people have already seen and heard.

Titled HOLA MADEMOISELLE, Karyn Paige’s 7-song EP focuses on her diverse and
vibrant styles as a solo performer who shines on songs ranging from love,
life and loss set to funky, modern, pop instrumentals produced by fellow
Jazz Mafia contributors, Joe Bagale and Matt Berkeley.

Kicking things off is the launch of KarynPaige.com, the singer’s first
official website which features tour dates, interviews, video blogs,
performances and more.

The release date of the EP has yet to be announced, but a single is already
planned for release in the coming months with the EP to follow soon
after. In the meantime you can learn more about Karyn Paige at her brand
new website and check her out on tour with Brass, Bows and Beats this
summer. You can also sign up on the website to receive the latest updates
on Karyn Paige via email and also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

http://www.karynpaige.com

http://www.twitter.com/karynpaige
http://www.facebook.com/karynpaigemusic

For press info and interview requests please email publicity@karynpaige.com

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