Done With Love Experimental Video

If you remember from an earlier "update" post I said something about doing a video shoot that I would elaborate on later. Well, later is now.

For the past few months Anna and myself have been in love with a song by Absofacto called, "Done With Love". When I saw the video I loved the song even more and I started to realize how simple the video actually was. The only real difficult part was figuring how to sync the mouth movement that was moving in slow motion while the normal tempo of the song is being sung.

This is the actual video - > Click me

Once I learned how to sync everything, I talked to Anna and King Quise about doing the video for me. I got to give them a lot of love and praise because this was out of their element. They needed to learn how to sing the song going twice it's original BPM tempo speed while conveying emotion. At the end of the video you see a few seconds of what they are actually hearing while recording.

The other challenge we faced...it was a cloudy day. The sun didn't come out til the end of the shoot. I was trying to keep everything a natural lighting because we were in a small vehicle. While compared to the actual music video they were in a more spacious vehicle. It was hard trying to keep enough light on King Quise being that he was in the backseat and the light wasn't strong there in some shots.

I would have liked to have had a person as a driver too. Freeing Anna up to be in the backseat with Quise, but no one was available and I hate rescheduling shoots. So, we went with the backup plan. Anna is a Uber driver, lol.

Towards the end of the shoot it started to get cold and in this last part I couldn't be in the car video recording them. They came back 4 or 5 times with not hitting the record button on the camera. Which was hilarious. I threw some outtake clips in at the end.

All in all, this was a lot of fun. I like to say that this experiment was a success. I hope you enjoy it as well. Please leave a comment if you like and thank you.

Calm before doing stupid

Check out that title right...?

Ok, here's what happened. I went on a impromptu shoot with Erin the other day. I wanted to check out this new spot to hopefully shoot in the warmer season. (Damn I need to live in Dubai or Cali or something!) Now the first location was kind of bummer...

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In the background if you can see, there are these tunnels things where water ran through. Better image from google -> 

I wanted to go into the tunnels to shoot from there. The tunnel is very short. You can see both sides from the road in like 10 to 15 steps. The shadows and lighting interested me including the architecture. However the problem was that the was water too high at the time we were there...and it was cold...and we weren't going to try to walk through that water...so...yea...but that ain't the stupid...

We decided to go to the second location. We used google maps as our guide but once we got there we need to do a u-turn and go to the otherside. Erin was in her car and I was in mine. When she stopped, instead of me rolling the window down like a normal human being I got out of the car and my car (still running) locks itself...this is the stupid...

We literally sat there for 1 hour and half as I tried to break into my own car...Watched Youtube videos and everything and apparently my car is the greatest anti-break in vehicle in history...or I'm just stupid... By the way, we did call the police, but the police will only break into your car if there is a kid or pet locked in the vehicle. 

So...I had to call a locksmith...he unlocked my car in like 2 mins....no sweat off his balls...easiest $100 he ever made I'm sure. You know what made this the stupid that is pure "the stupid"...I had the hanger inside my car trying to pull the latch or the door handle to unlock my door and guess what I kept hitting over and over again...the window button...

THE FRIGGIN' WINDOW BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...guess what the locksmith did...he pressed down on the window button...

...so...yea.

Now we are at the other location and holy hell is it 100% better than the first. The architect and shadow and lighting is everything. I can't wait to do more warmer shoots here. Check out some of the images -

She is so brave to be in that bodysuit for like 4 or 5 shots. I took lol. 49 degrees on this day but near water it felt like 33 degrees (per my app). 

So yea...that's my stupid moment of recent...what's yours? (Comment below!)

Fashion Work with Layla Larin

I got to work with California native Layla Larin last week. You might have read in my previous post that this shoot was stressful because of time constrains and things. I actually took a step back and let the photos marinate before I decided to start editing them. I'm glad I did because they turned much out better than I expected.

Persian Queen

I've been wanting to shoot with Layla for over a year and a half. I love her work and look. I got lucky because she came to the East Coast for a project and had some time for us to shoot.

This is where things almost went seriously wrong ->

Look at her hand...when she pulled it out... ->

No one realized that the smoke grenade actually covered her hand. We didn't know until we switched over to the red smoke grenade. Luckily my make up artist had some wet wipes with her and we were able to get it off...However another problem presented itself ->

Look at the very top of the umbrella...the smoke grenade was so hot it melted through the umbrella, lol. The smoke grenades only last for about 20 to 30 seconds. We didn't have time to waste. I even had to yell out to Layla who was surprised by the smoke (she never done it before) to keep looking in my direction and model! That why some of the photos is of her smiling and not 100% modeling. 

Either way, I'm glad I did this shoot. I wonder deep down what it is like working with people in other parts of the country or world. Are the expectations the same? Are people more asshole like in certain areas but not in others? I'm hoping one day to get back to traveling a lot again. In the meantime thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed me sharing this with you all.

BTS Test shoot with Ashley C

Got to work with Ashley Cunningham a few days ago.

Smoke'EM Part II

I did this shoot with the grenades the very next day after my initial try with it the day before it. This time instead of having the model run at the camera and jump through the smoke I had Anna on a trampoline and jumping. I figured keeping her stationary with her movements going up and down I figure it would be easier and less tiring for the model.

I was wrong, lol. Anna got just as tired as Deshae did. Which made some of her jumping height decrease. I did get some good shots from it though that I really enjoyed. The other thing that I realize I didn’t like and will avoid next time is not have a completely white background. It actually took away from the smoke itself.