I wasn’t really sure anymore if I still wanted to direct films. It’s strange to say this as I’ve always been someone who knew exactly what I wanted to do – be a film director. My friends spent their high school and college years figuring out what they wanted to do as a career. I spent that time figuring out how to get into the film industry. When the opportunity arrived, I moved to Hollywood to pursue what I knew in my heart I had always wanted.
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A couple weekends ago we had the privilege of shooting a surprise proposal performance by one of our herd, Matt Cheah. We collaborated with him closely to get the shots that he wanted as he performed a dance for his soon-to-be fiancée at the beautiful Heritage Park in Irvine. Matt put all the footage together in the next week and produced this video documenting the start of his engagement!
The footage from the dance was actually shot over 2 weekends. The first weekend was a dress rehearsal and a practice day for us to make sure we could set up lights and get all of the positioning down for the dancers. A special thanks from Matt to everyone who dedicated their time and made this event possible. The dance was choreographed by Chris Song and he joined Michael Wen, Franklin Yu, Jonathan Liao, and David Gao as Matt’s entourage. The decorations were headed up by Deanna Ngo, and she was joined by Reuelle Shao, Tricia Halim, Alicia Halim. A big thanks to Rebecca’s friends Jennifer Wang and Kristen Au-Yeung for driving down from Norcal to celebrate with us too. Finally, we’d like to thank Alicia Legas for helping coordinate our time at Heritage Park, as well as Shant, Shayne, Jasmine, and Angela at Simone and Son. Best engagement ring ever!
Congratulations to Matt and Becca!
Phase 2 has officially begun! I’d like to take a moment to applaud Marvel Studios, whatever the true balance of luck and pure creativity may have been, for having such a successful Phase 1report. From Iron Man (2008) to The Avengers (2012), all six Marvel Cinematic Universe films have been well received, some much more than others, but nonetheless a very impressive feat. I mean can you think of a franchise that has gone around as many times as this with each turn just gaining more momentum? Yeah, not even Star Wars, sorry. That being said, it looks like the winning streak is going to zoom along just fine because the third outing for our, let’s face it, most beloved Avenger, shows us that there is still plenty of man to uncover beneath the armor–Iron Man 3 is fantastic.
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May 8th, 2013 – A classy night in the heart of Koreatown, Los Angeles, California was the premiere of Midnights with Adam at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. With the Cinematography by resident Classy Deer, Andrew Ng (myself), a few other members of the herd also joined the celebrations.
This past weekend we started production on Classy Deer’s new short film Ink. It’s tremendously exciting to see this great story by Jen Silverman come to life through the magnificent performances by Josiah Thibodeau, Lyndsey Lantz, Emily Felt, Beverly Jaret, Harwood Gordon, and Dennis Lavalle.
Have you ever shot something and thought, “Man this is beautiful.” Then, you get to post, see it and say, “Oh no! How did I not catch that!?”
No need to fret just yet. This happens to even the best filmmakers out there and because of this, I’m going to be showing you all how to fix minor things I’ve run into in post. Myself, I’m more of a visual person so, instead of writing it all out, I’m going to show you. I present your first Classy Deer Color Video tutorial (long name), Digital Makeup.
Enjoy! 
Jess
Classy Deer had the pleasure of creating a video for a great cause. UC Irvine’s Medical Center: Child Life Program is a therapeutic play program used to help children and their families cope with the hospitalization experience. The hospital experience can sometimes be stressful and scary, these volunteers are here to help some of their most precious little patients and families cope with that. If you are interested in becoming a Child Life Volunteer, you can do so by filling out an application here. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old.
What is an AD you ask? What does an AD do? You have a lot of questions don’t you stranger?! Well, friend, “AD” is an acronym for Assistant Director. Now, I know the title may sound like this person assists the director, but don’t let that fool you–an Assistant Director actually works for the producer, and his/her main job is to keep the production moving and on time. On smaller sets an Assistant Director may also be in charge of all the paperwork that may be needed for certain people or locations.
If you’re interested in becoming an AD, or would like to know how to be a better one, follow us as we go through these 10 things to know about being an AD.
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Vincent La Foret had much of the video world in a tizzy last night when he announced MōVI – the tiny gyro-based camera stabilizer from Freefly Systems that is in production to sell for around $15,000. At first glance, MōVI seemed to me like nothing more than a cool toy. The shots look beautiful, yes, but the demonstration video shows only a smaller and lighter version of a Steadicam Zephyr, which sells for around 11k. The extra 4k seems like a decent price to pay for a more versatile stabilizer rig, but it doesn’t seem worth it to purchase it for those of us who may already own a Zephyr. As I began to look through the footage though, I realized that the potential of this system is much closer to limitless than I had originally imagined.
Let’s get it out of the way…because it’s like an elephant, it’s in the room, and now it’s taking a sh*t–we have to talk about it. The true appeal of Spring Breakers is seeing Disney star, good girl Selena Gomez in a bikini, taking bong hits, downing booze, and just praying she’ll flash her “Beibers” or at least settle for some side-Beibs (and Vanessa, I didn’t forget you, but come on, old territory for you). I’ll reveal it all now, Selena does NOT bare her anythings in the film, not even close, but fortunately Vanessa does for a short bit, so there you go perverts. The film follows four childhood friends Brit, Faith, Candy, and Cotty (Ashley Benson, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and Rachel Korine, respectively) who are in dire need to escape their painfully redundant, college lives and party hard for spring break. After successfully robbing a diner to satisfy adequate funds for a trip, they travel to Florida where they are sucked into the allure of the wild, exotic, and care-free world that is “partying like there is no freagin’ tomorrow.” Of course, nothing lasts forever, and the moment their paradise illusion is disrupted by matters of the law, drug-dealing, and gang wars, each of the girls slowly realize there is no escaping “real-life”…it’s about what life you feel most comfortable trapped in.
For a film that is stuffed to the brim with babes, bare boobs, fornication and bad consciences, (high five to those who get the Rorschach reference) as well as an absolutely outstanding, gusto performance from James Franco, Spring Breakers left me quite indifferent due to its unrealized agenda. By the end of it all I just didn’t know what I cared about, if I cared about anything at all, or if director Harmony Korine wanted me to care about anything at all. At first exposure we are presented with these self-absorbed girls who are as horny and money hungry as Donald Trump on vacation. With the exception of Gomez’s character Faith, who we learn has a Christian background, the remaining three girls have very little to distinguish them from each other, and are thus reduced to interchangeable vessels that exemplify what seems to be the “typical” girls-gone-wild woman: welcoming of danger, addicted drugs/sex, apathetic to opinion, and socially confused. With this information in the chamber, expecting some dynamic character arcs seemed reasonable, but it is clear by the time that when two of the girls decide to go home only after they’ve either been sexually threatened or shot in the arm, and they are never mentioned or seen in the film again, that this is not a character study. So, what we have here are four main characters who turn out to be nothing more than stupid people who have to “see it to believe it” before making a smart decision.
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