Archives for posts with tag: California

Foodzie Videos

December 6, 2011

A few months ago Emily Olson asked me to come to San Francisco and make a few videos on their deliciously delightful company Foodzie, a website connecting you with small producers who create real, good tasting food. It all started several years ago when I met the Foodzie team filming a short piece, StartUP, on TechStars for Current TV.

Fast forward to October 2011 when I found myself in San Francisco spending a weekend doing a lot of shooting… and eating! It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. The good news is I actually did not gain any weight. I also got to see two of my close friends who live there.

Here are two of the videos I created for Foodzie, the first one is The Story of Foodzie. The second video follows the food adventures Emily takes on with Aida Mollenkamp from FoodCrafters. They explore the Ferry Building Plaza while Aida picks out her favorite entertaining treats for the tasting box.

Please take note of the music in both videos. Their CDs make great holiday gifts;)
Story of Foodzie: Harper Blynn, Ben Suchy & Hello Kavita
The Weekend Market: Griz, Calvin Locklear, Harper Blynn, The Autumn Film, and Rosie & Me

The Story of Foodzie

The Weekend Market

Tags California, Tech

Categories My Projects, Travel

The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

May 20, 2011

Let’s go back to the summer of 2004. This brings us to Los Angeles, California in USC’s Cinema production division. I decided to take a summer documentary course taught by Wendy Apple. It was a lot of fun, meeting students from all over the world, and I ended up with this video on a 6’7″ German surfer, The Alchemy Hour. It was definitely a video I created many years ago as its hopefully obvious.

I remember our professor mentioning how she was directing a documentary on editing. I’ve always had an interest in editing, ever since the beginning. From in-camera editing when I was probably 10 years old to being able to edit in high school in our TV production class, taught by the wonderful Mr. Profeta, a.k.a. Pro. I love editing. It’s magic, that simple. Why? Just by the choices you make when cutting, where you place various shots & audio, for how long… you have the control to create completely different worlds. I wish I could edit life!

Wendy Apple’s documentary on editing always stuck in the back of my mind, curious how I could watch it. Thanks to another student in the class, I recently found it! The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing can be bought or rented! It’s rather intriguing and enjoyable to hear directors, actors, and other successful people in the film industry talking about editing.

Believe it or not, in the early days editors were mostly women as cutting film could be compared to sewing. Today, as I’ve read here, only 18% of movie editors are women. I believe we were the last class at USC to be able to edit our 16mm black & white shorts using a flatbed. Quite the experience! It helps put things in perspective. Thank goodness for non-linear editing. I hope you can check out this documentary, I definitely recommend it.

Tags California, documentary, USC

Categories Random Inspirations, Video Tips

California

March 31, 2011

I’ve posted this video already over a year ago but a friend just reminded me of it so I thought I would throw it out there again. Every time I see the photos and footage from California it makes me extremely nostalgic. What a great time in life, college days, living in L.A., when I first met Brian, sunshine, the beach, making movies …

The great thing is there are some new fun days coming up and I see this as a reminder to embrace the present. I propose taking a camera and shooting some photos and/or video of anything this weekend. Pick a random activity and just film it. I’d love to see what you come up with! Feel free and post links below.

My Grandpa, Stanley Bernstein, said “We come into this Earth crying and everyone else is smiling, when we leave this Earth we should leave with a smile and everyone else is crying”.
California

Music: Devotchka

Tags adventure, California, USC

Categories Family & Friends, Just For Fun, Random Inspirations

More Wag

September 4, 2010

Less Bark, More Wag

Last fall I flew out to San Fransisco for work and like always, had to stop by Pier 39. It’s a tourist trap but I love it regardless. Along with housing shops & restaurants, Pier 39 is home to California Sea Lions. I decided to get some shots of them while visiting and made this quick fun video.

Easier said than done: bark less, wag more.

Tags California

Categories Random Inspirations, Travel

Ace

August 31, 2010

In the four years I spent at USC, I met tons of talented & interesting people. I wrote about my friend Kyle Ruddick a few months ago and his project One Day on Earth. This October 10th (10.10.10) is the day that filmmakers all across the world will collaborate and document what they see in life. Check it out, you can be part of it!

In the middle of the summer I was exploring different videos on vimeo and ran across this music video of Darwin Deez. I love it! I noticed that the director is a guy named Ace Norton. I recognized that name! Ace graduated from USC, not sure if he would remember me but regardless it’s such a great feeling to see all the wonderful projects my friends are working on… more to come.

Darwin Deez – Radar Detector

Tags California, Music, USC

Categories Random Inspirations

The Happy Show

January 28, 2010

In 2003 I decided to try & get my own radio show. At the time, University of Southern California’s radio waves did not exceed too far out of south central but we did have an online presence. Listeners could tune in from anywhere in the world via web. In order to have your own radio show it was a requirement to intern with one first. I chose the reggae guy at 11pm on Sundays. I even went to a reggae festival in San Diego to try and make up for my lack of knowledge on the genre. Not sure if anyone has been to a reggae festival inside a stadium in California, it was an aventure.

I eventually got a time slot and decided my radio show would be – The Happy Show. Focused on music that inspires & makes listeners happy. I had two interns and would frequently send them off on campus with my tape recorder to interview students on what made them happy. It was great! One of my only loyal listeners was Alan Cotler, my Dad, a Philadelphia lawyer with no idea how to use the internet. Every Thursday he would have his secretary set it up. My Mom listened as well. I’m not sure if I knew he was listening to my show until I got the first call. He just wanted to let us know he was a happy listener. This was extremely valuable information and I tried not to talk about my weekend plans or anything scandalous… anymore. Not that I did anything wrong. Those were some great days. The week ended on Thursday with The Happy Show, no classes Fridays, and Southern California at my finger tips. Following The Happy Show was Tough but Tender, radio host Ben. Pretty funny & random.

One of the few interviews I actually got to have with bands was with G.Love & Special Sauce’s, Garret Dutton (a.k.a. G.Love) He is also from Philly. The interview didn’t go so well. I was really nervous calling him on speaker and recording the conversation to play on The Happy Show. I actually spent an hour last night sitting in a car with a tape player listening to the interview with G.Love & another band Townhall. I thought it might be funny enough to record and include in this post, but it was just too embarrassing.

What’s the purpose of writing this? Well I have to start blogging about something and why not happiness. Like the theme in Rushmore, find what makes you happy and do it for the rest of your life.

After five years in California, Brian and I decided to take the risk and move to Colorado. Here we are in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. The big question is will we stay or go back.

This is the five years spent on the west coast squeezed into three minutes: photographs, film, video, anything I could find.

Tags California, USC

Categories Family & Friends