And then it was May… 2025?
Whew! I released a few music videos, a short, a new demo reel. Worked on a handful of small indie films and even found time to practice my other hobbies. This post is going to be a scattershot summary of what I vaguely remember from these hectic months. Lets start with Grape Juice Scott! I could have sworn I already wrote up a post about this video, but looking into the Day Museum Vault I couldn’t turn anything up.
Grape Juice waiting for me to call “Action”
This shoot was a blast, not only was I able to work some of my favorite people, but the concept itself was just goofy fun. Matthew took dozens of slaps and cracks of the whip from Morgan like a champ as I continuously called for “one more take!” We got to break out some epic VR heads that Matthew created himself the night before. We set up lights and shot this whole music video in less than 5 hours so it was hectic but everyone had such a good attitude that it never felt like work. These are the kinds of projects that I live for, everyone left that day laughing and reminiscing, already nostalgic for a shoot that ended only 10 minutes previously.
Arpenter (Presley), Alexis Slickleman, Matthew Black Bryson, Morgan May Ross, Kevin Bailey
I worked on two different projects for the Flip soon after, one was a sizzle reel type video to highlight their live shows and the other a full on Music Video.
Skateboard, Bass and Video Camera. This video has it all.
The flip and I met for the first time at the skate park where this video was filmed. I was there skateboarding when I overheard Michael and Greg talking camera angles and drum kit set up. I quickly went over and introduced myself and offered my services. It’s been a dream of mine to mix my two loves, Skateboarding and film production for a long time and fortunately we quickly hit it off. A few weeks later we were all there with two cameras, lights, instruments and oh yes, Skateboards. I cradled my rig as I skateboarded, hoping and praying that I would stay upright, and did my best to capture some usable footage. This was pretty difficult since my rig turned out to be a little heavy and strangely shaped for this specific use, but I’m very happy with everything we were able to get.
Bootleg VHS, purchased off the street in Vietnam.
We had not originally planned for the VHS opening and this extra scene came to me as I was editing. The music video has such nostalgic vibes to me. Everyone in The flip used to skate religiously and they all wanted to include skateboarding because they love it. Even if they don’t all skateboard today, they all look back on it so fondly and it was fundamental in making them who they are. Not only that but the footage we captured fits a late 90’s MTV style music video so I wanted to lean into it. I decided to grab a box, fill it with skateboard related material and filmed myself looking through it, finding a bootleg VHS and popping into the VCR. I included it in my first draft without warning them about it and they wanted to keep it!
Mark and Taylor enjoy a scoop.
“Scoop” is a short film that my brother (Mark), my wife (Taylor) and I made on a whim. My brother was visiting us from Bellingham, WA for a few days and he wanted to film something quick before he left. So the last day of his visit we sat around the table, threw out a few ideas and decided that stop motion ice cream carnage was the right way to go. Unfortunately on our way to buy Ice cream we found the window of Mark’s car broken in. This was a small inconvenience as time was ticking and Mark needed to drive four hours home very soon, so after rigging up a steering wheel lock we left Mark’s car to the elements and started rolling. This is a fake stop motion since we only had a few hours to make it. I just rolled camera as Mark and Taylor moved one inch at a time, freezing in place for a second at a time in their motions. Everything was a single take and then right before mark left I had him grunt, chew and scream into a microphone so that I could dub sound effects over the video in post. The editing for this actually went pretty smooth although taking one second clips for every 5 seconds of video was time consuming. Still looks pretty good and it was a real fun one to shoot. I love the “what can we do in a couple hours with no plan” type of film making and after years of doing this I think I’m actually getting pretty good at it.
On Set for “Goose Woman” Jude Madonna, Jaime Lastimosa, Kevin Bailey, Steve Gardner, Cyndi Rhoades, Ariel Pastore-Sebring
This was such a fun 3 day shoot with some extremely talented individuals. Blazing sunlight, roadwork and tight schedules couldn’t stop us from filming a creative little comedy-drama downtown Portland Oregon. Jude Madonna wrote and directed this wonderful film and I was fortunate enough to operate camera and do a bit of Gaffing.
Goose Woman and Tooth Hurty Crew at the Clinton Theater for the premier
I also got to go the premier soon after and I have nothing but good things to say about the final edit. So fun watching Goose woman with everyone on the big screen at Clinton Theater. I was also working on another Film the same week of this premier.
Holy Sheet teams up again for The Last Stop Short film
Mike Ghoul decided to get the Holy Sheet gang back together for “The Last Stop”. Mike’s been living in Los Angeles the past year so I was very excited to have him back in Portland and to work on another original short film with a lot of familiar faces. This photo was taken around one in the morning after filming an 8 minute long one shot so Its shocking that we all look as energetic as we do, especially considering that we had already been working 10 hours and we weren’t done yet. I don’t have a ton to say about this shoot besides that I’m so grateful for the Portland creatives that volunteer their time, spaces, equipment and talent just to make something cool. I can’t imagine a more inspiring bunch of people to work along side, thank you all for doing what you do. The Portland film community is one of the main reasons I love this city and the more time I can spend on set with you all the better!
