We'll be traveling Friday up to Provo and will be in Utah until Tuesday morning. Although we have some plans, we would love to see you and film some fun videos for YouTube.
If you have anything you think we would love to film, or just would like to help out, send me an email or tweet (@splanderson).
As a result of our trip, the video for tomorrow may not get finished in time, but we will for sure have something up tomorrow morning before we embark on our journey - so stay tuned!
Until then, here's a fun little behind-the-scenes shot of Eric working with the Flycam:
We have a desire to experience everything in the world. To see what is out there.
This weekend we were drawn into the movie Into the Wild. We were fascinated by what it was he experienced and what it was he was exploring in his life. Although he was in search of something that he did not find until the end of the film, his goals and dreams are similar to what we already know we want. Happiness in this life is only really experienced when it is shared.
Malibu Canyon - May 18, 2013
There is no time to be wasted on a solitary life. No exploration will be truly satisfying if found alone. We embark on this journey together. Not just the two of us, but with you, our audience in tow. The world offers experiences too big for individuals or even a couple to take in alone. They will be exciting and breathtaking.
It is our privilege to be able to bring the people and places we explore in this world to you. This is the pursuit of our life. While we didn't wander into the wild as Chris McCandless did; we have gained insight to our goals and purpose. It is to be free to experience what is out there.
Camp Chula Vista, CA - May 12, 2013
Below is a clip from the movie - WARNING: if you haven't seen the film, there are slight spoilers in this clip. Please watch the full film before viewing.
Every year, a group of people from my church in every part of the globe get together to do some community service. This year the North Hollywood Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints met at the Hansen Dam in Sylmar to help lay down sod for a portion of their park.
It was tedious, hard, smelly work (of which I contributed but little since I was snapping so many photos and recording video).
The opportunity seemed like a fun short subject for a new aspect of my YouTube channel which will be called "Mini-Docs" - which are miniature documentaries of almost any subject.
This particular Mini-Doc features the spirit of teamwork and the joy of putting yourself out there to help out the community.
Welcome to the delightful world of Star Wars fan films! Er... Horror film homages! Uh... let's try that again:
Welcome to the world of Star Wars horror films. Awful, awful horror films:
The video today is a fun trip through the past. It marks almost two years since filming.
In the fancy days of May 2011, a group of friends and I set out to film a scene from a feature film called The Gilliam Effect. It was going to be directed by my co-writer Spencer and I. We both synced in what we wanted and it was a team effort from the beginning.
The scene was a small cutaway that would serve as a joke to the type of campy films that the filmmakers in the movie would make. It was only intended to be a 15-20 second spot in the whole feature-length film.
After traveling up to Utah, we gathered a small cast and crew. Spencer's co-worker Eric provided the costumes - and also played the menacing Tusken Raider.
We drove everyone out to the Little Sahara sand dune national park in Western Utah. After several hours of affixing the complex costumes to our actors, and after losing a lot of light, we were able to get the few shots that were needed to complete the video.
Because of the difficulty from the loss of light, both Spencer and I had to direct two different actions at the same time to finish up the last few shots. I directed the screams of the hopeless innocents. Spencer directed the terrible wrath of the lightsaw wielding menace.
We shot a majority of the footage on a Canon T2I that we borrowed from our good friend Anthony Ambriz, but when our battery ran out we had to resort to filming with a crappy Canon PowerShot camera I had brought along to take stills. When placed together, it's obvious which camera was better, but since it was supposed to look crappy (with a VHS filter) anyway, we didn't really care.
After the sun went down and we couldn't film any longer, we went through the process of taking off the complicated costume and wrapping everything up. We were all starving by this point. The few crackers and veggies we had for craft services didn't cut it. We all headed to a local diner to relax and enjoy the fun day. The owner of the diner was really cool and the food was super fantastic.
This was seriously the most fun I have had shooting a video since film school and unfortunately it didn't continue on like my initial filmmaking dreams (more of that story to come later). Hopefully this sort of magic can happen again soon, and I have now made a commitment to post at least one video each week on my YouTube page.
With the development of my YouTube channel, and all the exciting stuff that we've been filming lately, it looks like we'll have a lot more goodies for you in the near future.
Stay tuned, and hit subscribe on my YouTube channel :)
