Frankenstein's Dog Emailer

7x7 writing about Frankenstein's Dog

Here

Frankenstein's Dog

Here is a short I directed, shot, edited and cowrote.

Film Still #2

Film Still #1

Day 2

DP

I worked as a DP on a short this weekend and it went incredibly well. Thanks to all for their help

PreProduction

We are in preproduction on a short that I will act as a DP.

Sly Sylvester/DP

We are in preproduction on a short to be shot next week.

Healthy Advice Magazine

10 years ago

Writing about 9/11 from the distance of California reminds me of that joke about how many Vietnam Veterans does it take to screw in a light bulb ?
Answer:"I don't know"
Response, "You don't know !!!! You don't know because you weren't there man!!!!"

I was in the kitchen in Japantown in San Francisco making breakfast for our one year old and for her 8 year old sister. A friend called knowing we did not have a TV and we watched the second tower fall on the CNN website. The 8 year old thought it was a movie and said "Cool! I closed the computer and did not watch any footage again.

For the next three or four months everything seemed different. Everyone seemed more careful with each other on the street. We were all more patient with each other.

A few weeks after September 11 I was at the counter at Peet's coffee and there was a long line behind me. I paid for my drink and put 40 dollars on the counter and told the woman behind the counter to buy everyone behind me what they wanted and walked out. Stangers paid my toll on the Bay Bridge.

Now 10 years later it is hard to remember that time at all. Looking back buying those drinks for those people seems grandiose. We are back to cursing at each other on the freeway. A woman yelled at me because she thought I was trying to cut in line at Whole Foods. I catch myself notifying an assistant that we could no longer work together...via text message.

We are like that married couple who come close to breaking up and decide to reconcile. For the first few weeks things seem like they are better but slowly they forget how close they came to ending it all and soon the old problems return and they learn to live with them.

But I remember when things were different and I will not forget.

Awesome Making of Video for Chipotle

Le Monde Travel Piece

I shot all of this within 5 minutes of my house in Oakland.

Steve Jobs

I got a call from Fortune Magazine asking me if I wanted to shoot Steve Jobs and some new device Apple was working on.It was 2001. I had shot him before and always left the shoot a little shaken but said yes. We got to Apple early to set up. All the traffic around the building was stopped and blackout curtains were put up around the room. Someone put a plain cardboard box on the table.

Steve Jobs rolled in and I spent about 15 minutes photographing him and this little white music player ( the image above is from a later shoot) .

After he left, I picked up the iPod and held it in my hand.

'Mheh" I thought to myself.

Emailer

The 10 year old

Sister Coritia's Rules

Mr Anderson: An Interview with the film maker

Mrs B in Maine

Maine Dream

Most of my film work has been shot with the camera or a jib. I recently saw a movie that was shot with a lot of hand held camera work and I wanted to give it a try while on vacation in Maine. I like the looseness and spontaneity of not having the camera weighted down by a tripod but I found that I have to shoot a lot more footage than I usually do.

This song is from a John Lee Hooker album from the early '90s.

The 18 year old hating life

Stills and Motion

There has been a lot written about the convergence of still photography and film. Television shows are shot on still cameras and still photographs are made with film cameras.

I have drunk the Kool-aid and have jumped in with both feet. It is incredibly easy to shoot stills photographs while shooting motion. Above is a still image and a short video clip.

New Wonderful Machine Emailer

Here

On Vacation in Maine

The Jeff Singer Intervention

I first met Jeff on a shoot in Santa Cruz over looking the Pacific ocean. He was at a photo school up in Canada and was in California on vacation. We chatted while I waited for the right light and enjoyed talking to him. A couple years later he moved to the Bay Area and hung out his shingle as a photographer. I would see him over the years at various APA functions and he seemed to have an easy going manner which I chose not to hold this against him . He had been an engineer at Cisco and was just as methodical and focused in his new career. He quickly started getting assignements.

A couple years ago I ran into him at an APA show.

JS WTF?
TB Wha?
JS What are you doing ? Who would want these images? You are a still life shooter? I thought you shot people ?
TB They are conceptual. Not still life
JS I guess I don't get it.
TB I want to bring the same sensibilty I brought to people as I do to these images shot in my studio (office ) . Don't you see I am dealing with light and space the same way no matter what I point the camera at ?
JS Not really.

Of course he was right. I had spent 10 years establishing myself as a portrait/location photographer and people were confused by the new work. So for the last year I have been focusing on what I have been shooting since I was 16. People. I really enjoyed the two years I spent looking at objects through an 8x10 camera. But I am excited about shooting people again whether it is shooting films or still.

Doritos Spec spot

Cleaning out my closet

I came across all these old promos. From when I started as a magazine photographer 14 years ago until now.

BTS

New Spec Spot

I cast, scouted , shot and edited this 30 second commercial myself. The script came from a CD in New York. I have really enjoyed shooting films and am learning a ton. Will post another commercial I shot next week.

New Dog image

Before

After