Validation

These people have now seen my name in print on their computers

The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For

Also, please visit my site for a fancy flash version, and visit Hella for updates on them.

Also, tell your friends. Especially those in high places. Leave comments in the...uh...comments.

Patience: No Longer Just A Song By Guns N Roses

I know, I know many of you are wondering where the new fantastic superstatic, wondertastical Hella music video is. Some of you are wondering if it exists. Some of you are wondering if I even make music videos, and if my name is actually Aaron. Let me put your queries to rest.

Yes it exists, yes my name is Aaron, and fuck off its on it's way. Technology is a bitch and sometimes uploading genius takes more time than anticipated. Those who have seen the video are rendered speechless, thoughtless, and (on rare occasion) brainless. Just look at some of the reviews:


I can't get it to work. I hear music, but there is no video. Is there supposed to be a picture?
-My mom

I couldn't get the sound to work, but the picture looked good. Your credit card bill arrived. We need to have a talk.
-My dad

I mean, it's really good. I don't really like the song, but I think I can appreciate how cool the video is.
-My girlfriend

It looks super sweet, and we are really stoked.
-Hella guitar player Spencer Seim

Obviously the only review that even matters is the last one, and since my parents have trouble resetting the clock on the oven, I am not even sure why I sent them something as complicated as sound and picture coming out of their internet machine. So hold your horses, it is worth the wait.

No, YOU Tube it

I used to love YouTube. I thought it was merely a good idea at first; given that anyone could post anyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifthing at any time. Then when I realized that it would be the future of the music video industry, I embraced it with the love that can only be shared between father and son, mother and daughter, priest and alter boy. Soon though, it got bogged down with nonsense. The curse started to outweigh the gift, as people started posting stuff like this:

Really? You really want people to see this on the internet? Nothing says, 'I rule' like a white kid 'ghostriding' his sister's bike through his gated subdivision. Maybe if it included that same white kid ghostriding his sister's bike through downtown Cincinnati, it would be more interesting. Racial strife is always interesting.
In any event, the same geniuses who put up videos like must be in charge of uploading, because after two tries to put up my Hella video (which looks gorgeous in quicktime, by the way), the quality didn't look much better than that of Chad riding his sister's bike down the streets of the Babbling Brook complex. I am currently on the lookout for another site where I can upload my site. Any suggestions?

Something very exciting is coming very soon

Very soon...

Guy Behind the Guy

Would you believe me if I told you that both of these guys have girlfriends? I didn't think so.



This photo was taken almost exactly 5 years ago today, on the closing night of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. If you can believe it, that's me on the right. I had just spent 6 months living in Spain and made the trip up north bringing with me my excitement to meet new people and my gorgeous flowing mane of hair. On the left is Jay Bender; a guy I met at the festival, a movie geek from upstate New York with whom I found I had a lot in common. It turned out to be a fortunate meeting for the both of us, because years later, Jay has become my editor and has cut all of my projects (psst..look over here------>). For Jay I have become....uh....well he's cut all my projects. My presence in his house is a gift.

When I showed up at Jay's place in Sherman Oaks on Tuesday night to begin editing the Hella video, I was nervous about the results. It had nothing to do with Jay's ability, which have been well documented in various niche trade magazines and non-televised award shows, but more with the serious possibility that I had not done a good enough job shooting the video. Given that this is my first video for a band on a record label, my first video for a band with a real following, and my first video that I am positive will get press and lots of views, I was a little scared. I have to say, as well, that as I drove home at 5:00AM on Wednesday morning after spending 6 hours studying the footage, I didn't feel much better. Well around 5:00PM yesterday, all of that changed. We are about half way done cutting, and the video is so much more than I imagined it could be. Thanks in part to Spencer, Josh, Zach and Aaron's ability to improvise (under my strict guidance, of course), the video is funny, strange, at times scary and very enjoyable. Jay's ability to find those moments, put them where they need to be, and show me all available options is truly priceless (which is good, because he's not getting paid).

If this video is a success, which I really think it will be, Jay will have been an enormous part of it. Many times I think that filmmakers want to take all the credit themselves. I like to do that as well, but this time I just can't.

Jay is also a director himself. Check out his handiwork here.

Another One in the Books

Sorry I haven't updated, I have been pretty exhausted. I spent the weekend shooting the Hella video at my parents' house in Sacramento. It was a terrific experience, and the guys were great to work with. I am a bit nervous only because I like them so much and want them to like it. I leave for LA tomorrow to edit with superstar Jay Bender, and once it's done I'll post it. Hit me up in the comments if you want photos.

Low Budget Diary

Producing a low budget music video (or any film, for that matter) is a tough endeavor, especially when some crew members are long distance. On this job, we are shooting in California, with the producer still in New York City until tomorrow night, and the cinematographer about an hour North of Sacto at his parents' house. The band is scattered all over the city, while the de facto leader is on vacation in Canada. All of these things must come together by Friday morning when we begin shooting. We must pinch every available penny that we can, so we are looking for things for free. We need an old bike for a prop, we need a camera, and some memory cards for the camera (memory cards are the new digital video tapes). We also need crew members for free, which is hardest to find. I am ending up asking friends to come out and help, which is great, but most, if not all of them, have never been on a film set before.

Things are starting to get hectic and I am beginning to feel very nervous. I have made a shot list with which I am confident, I have even designed a schedule. Making the schedule is something that, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be responsible for. Given the low budget and the lack of crew members, however, it falls under the umbrella of things I have to do. In any event, I have prepared very well and I am confident with the idea. This happens with me every time I begin to shoot something. I get nervous and feel like I can't figure it out. That anxiety goes away usually the morning of the shoot and I enter this zone and all of a sudden it is lunch on the first day and we have done 10 shots.

On the Secret 6 video I had no idea how I was going to shoot any part of it. I hadn't storyboarded it, I hadn't done any kind of shot list, and I hadn't even thought about a visual style. The only thing I had done was scout locations and figure out where we were going tp shoot. We changed the location for the house the night before we shot there, so I had only looked at it once. Luckily this time I know the location really well (it's my parents' house), and I have a great sense of how I want it to look. I hope things turn out all right, as this is a huge opprotunity for me to shine and have lots of people see it.

Jack Frost

The man just ripped the pants down and forcefully inserted himself into Conan('s show). What a way to cap off an incredible week of Conan shows in San Francisco. Baron Davis and Jason Richardson even showed up to congratulate themselves once again for completing one of the greatest upsets in sports this side of Sawks/Yanks 2004.

But anyway, Tom Waits rules, so does Conan, the Mavericks do not.

Hella goes this weekend. I will try and update every night after we shoot. Wish me luck, I am nervous as hell.

And now I leave you

You like these? I didn't think so. I don't either. Too bad, because I am about to spend a shitload of time in them over the next month. I leave today to fly to California to attend the 2007 Coachella Music Festival. I invited a bunch of my friends, but none of them wanted to come. I am meeting some good people out in Palm Springs and we will be staying at my grandparents' house. I would be lying if I said I wasn't extremely excited. I will try and give an update of who I saw and how they were (maybe in haiku form, if you're lucky), but I don't have internet there, so it will have to wait until I leave.



Following Coachella, I am travelling up to Sacramento to shoot the much anticipated music video for Hella's 'The Things That People Do When They Think No One's Looking'. I will be able to post news and updates and photos when that happens.

After we shoot, I go back to LA to edit the video with my famed editor Jay Bender. He just released a fabulous video for the Albany act The Clay People. When I get permission, I will throw it up here.

After we finish editing I travel back to NYC for 3 days before going to Chicago for my cousin's wedding. I finally return to New York for good on May 30th, just in time to see !!! at Studio B.

It will be nice to be busy on some work again, after some time off. Keep up over at Wasteland, as Wes and I try to update that as much as possible. There could be some news there shortly. Shane is out in LA doing his thing.

Ok, that's about it for now. I will get back to you all, all 4 of you, after Coachella.

Hell yeah!

As previously reported over at The Pharmacy HQ, I am back in the music video business. I have booked myself a video for the freakin awesome band Hella, based out of, and shooting in my sweet hometown of Sacramento, CA. Of course this was bound to happen, because they rule, and (obviously) so do I. Wes and Jason and I will be going out to Sacramento next month to create a clip which will surely catapult them to the top of the charts. The indie rock, prog/math rock/noise charts.

Between now and then I will be finishing up the initial part of Wasteland, travelling to LA, back to New York, then out to Palm Springs for Coachella. I will be friggin exhausted, and all that travelling will certainly screw up my sense of time, but it will be great to go home and shoot some film. In fact, just like Hella and me, it will rule.