Town Folk

John Reuben "Town Folk" from Gotee Records on Vimeo.

Producer: Jared Greene
Director/DP: Jeremy Hughes
Wardrobe/Make-up: Erica Stewart
Compositing: Jeremy Hughes/Tobias Roediger of Ravevfx.com
Illustration: Christen Nelson

(I'll look to add a post here soon with a little more behind-the-scenes stuff)

Boards, Locations and News

First off, its exciting to see that the first video for John is officially being released today http://tinyurl.com/jrtownfolk - it's a trippy and funny video I'm proud to have made.

Second, we're going to start shooting this week for Confident. Things have been very hectic the last week or two on all other levels so Confident has gone in a bit of a different direction in terms of how we're approaching it. It's going to be a very scaled down production but still aggressive in scope. I think it will be fun and remind me of why I love filmmaking. It will have a run-and-gun feel with just a couple of us at any given point. We're going to shoot more from a pick-up shot tempo meaning several half-days and not cramming a couple full days together. The goal is to keep energy high and the mood light.

Boards finished up and have been passed around.
Tomorrow we sort out make-up and final prepro planning. I'll look to get some more details up around all of this hopefully soon, particularly locations and how to get them to work for you for... uh, free.

A Conscious Effort to Post Regularly - At least for the next month

Blog are hard for me to update. Especially when I know everyone has a million other things to do than read another freakin entry someplace else. What I'm looking to do this time however is regularly post small updates on the progress of the next music video I will be shooting for John Reuben. We've shot two already and they have both been projects I've been very proud of working on.

We locked script on the next one last week. The song is called Confident and I had a interesting concept for John about having him waking up in an alley, beat to a pulp and not knowing who he was. We're running with it. Next step is storyboards and concept art. I'll be looking to post some of that. Also, items I'll try to keep this blog updated with will be the location hunt, a little bit of casting, fight choreography, figuring out which camera we'll run with, the production itself and post production coverage. It should be fun!

What might someone pick up from reading the upcoming postings? We work very light and stripped down. We're come the opposite direction from a lot of other video professionals so we've learned to do more with less. A lot more in many cases!

Here are a few images from the last shoot. Total costs were around $4k including a little equipment rental on top of what we owned, all costumes and locations, paying the talent and craft service. Not bad!

I Love Prince and the WGA

Thank you Prince, Artist formerly known as, whatever you are referred to now these days, for pissing on your fanbase and having an ego big enough to not realize you're squandering what could end up being millions of fans. Article here

Thank you WGA and Hollywood for coming to what seems to be a standstill for quite a while. Article here

Thank you Warner Music for boycotting Nokia and refusing to offer your music through their service for the time being. Article here

I believe you all are bringing us to what will be a head in the entertainment industry. A revolution. Maybe that word "convergence" will finally happen. You know, the one everyone spoke of several years back where you could watch video and communicate across anything from your TV to your Toaster while telling mom on her 2 inch phone via video that you need her to watch the kids.

The last time the WGA striked, cable got the go ahead from consumers across America. What's going to happen this time? Ratings are flat, they are falling in most cases. Many in the WGA seem to be there by default. The lost art of storytelling may be the boon for the Internet.

100 years ago, entertainers weren't exactly rich. Not the multimillionaires and celebs that we have today that blow half that cash up their nose. No, they were hard working, traveling showmen that did it because they loved it. We may be close to seeing that happen again. Especially when you have ego touting icons like Prince that wont even honor his fanbase by letting them honor him. Go Prince, help me see the media revolution through.

Then of course you have the big labels like Warner who squabble with maybe one of the MOST viable outlets for making cash right now in Nokia. Wake up Warner, your music is being downloaded worldwide everywhere. You have a legitimate partner where ringtones are ridiculously overpriced and you are peeing on it.

I love it, in the face of the giants fighting, innovation takes root. It grows and becomes something new. Bring on the renaissance. (note that at the time of this writing I work for AOL Video/Time Warner)