Join the Fight Against Cancer

September 15th, join myself, the Aikido Center of Miami, and countless others in the fight against cancer. It's going to be a fun time with great people. You can check out St. Baldrick's Foundation's website by Clicking Here or for those with facebook you may join my event page by Clicking Here.

I'll be out there documenting the event and standing in solidarity with others by shaving my head. but donations is what really would help the cause. Remember folks: Each year, 175,000 children are diagnosed with cancer worldwide. Cancer is the number one disease killer of children in the U.S. and Canada. Research saves lives.

Let's help those who are to young to help themselves...

Let's join together to help those who are to young to help themselves. (I hope to see everyone out there). 

Just Wanting To Share

I was checking out my stats just now and saw all the support my blog has been getting from across the world. I just wanted to say thank you and share a snap shot of some of the different countries viewing this page.

3rd Annual FAME

August 3rd, 2012 FAME was back for it's 3rd annual event. This years program called for, upcoming fashion designer Asanyah Davidson showcasing her Circa 24 fashion line. Musical performances by SpaceBetween Words, The Fly Kingdom, Nude Cap, & The Mirrors. Art exhibitions by Denise Diaz, Yanelys Escobar, Johnny Garcia, Enrique Sendra, Miguel Franco, Jennifer Ramos, Felix Mas, Brandon Taylor, Tryst Trigger, and Katrina Ramos. The event was also hosted by Sasha Cabrera and comedian Rhett Thompson. Here's some photo's I snapped during this years event. 

       

  

Seeing as this is my blog and I can shamelessly plug whomever I wish lol I'd strongly urge my followers to check out: http://www.jenneferramos.com/ 

She has some really great pieces that definitely stood out to me.

Summer of 2012

The Summer of 2012 presented me with one of my biggest challenges so far as a film maker. A week before production was suppose to begin, I received a phone call offering me a job Directing a feature length film called "The Will".   Concerned with the amount of time (or lack there of) I would have to prepare for this project I quickly set off on finding out all the details. After receiving all the information, I quickly contacted Ibzan Lagos and offered him the role as my Director of Photography. I told him we would have 5 days to film a feature length movie in a Ft. Lauderdale hotel. He agreed to the terms and we set off on preparing for this film. It was a long week of meetings, readings, and conference calls; not failing to mention sleepless nights of script changes, lining, and creating shooting schedules, shot lists, and obtaining all the necessary paperwork we would need to begin filming this. Ibzan and I moved into our hotel room Saturday, unpacking our bags and settling our gear we then began to film a few minor scenes to lighten the workload on the other days. The days were long and challenging but with the help of some familiar faces like Irving Mercado and Brian Brody we managed to get this film finished on time.

Here are a few photos from the production:

    

      

Now here's the trailer (edited by Felix Marcel Bernabe), I hope you enjoy it.

Sister Mary's Fun House + Motivating Minds Media

Sister Mary's Fun House lives up to it's name Brian Brody introduced me too to owner and from there the friendship took off. We put together a prop bomb vest, and then a few days later Sister Mary's Fun House came up with an idea and we shot it. As usual I'll post a few pics then the video.

     

RED

RED, no not Retired and Extremely Dangerous starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, etc etc etc. This RED is starring Veronica Otero and Beastly Brody. The song is performed by Cathy Davey a phenomenal singer from the UK. I wont say much about it, so just watch it and let me know what you think.

Jessie aka Project Dinner Date

What started as Dinner Date eventually became simply "Jessie". Director Ibzan Lagos had concentrated on this film for the majority of the semester. Opting to shoot this short film with the Panasonic AF-100 we set out to get this job done. This film was shot in two days, (unfortunately) the time we shot this was just before "Ill Will" when I was sick and felt like my death bed lol. The production called for shooting late into the night and when mother nature allowed it. This was a great experience, with a small crew we finally got to break Ibzan's white wall syndrome lol. Jessie was written, directed, and shot by Ibzan Lagos a challenge not easily met. I hope you enjoy it.

Working Girl

Working Girl was Directed by Alexander Fernandez. On this production I came in as 2nd Unit Director of Photography to assist Alex on re shooting a scene. This particular production was a bit of a different experience for me, I enjoyed every second of it though. As soon as I came on set Alex and I discussed the scene and I began preparing the shots on set. The trailer we filmed this in was even smaller than it seems on screen which presented a few difficulties but nonetheless we got it done quick, professional, and the shots came out beautiful (in my unbiased opinion). Check out Working Girl, starring Isabel Ruiz, Jeffrey Romeu, and Alexander Fernandez.

Dawn of the Writers

Oh this film... Irving Mercado has such a great mind for writing. Within our atmosphere of film makers at Miami Dade College I find his scripts are in a category of their own. In this movie he pokes fun at the industry during "pitch day". It was a real honor working on this production, with the group, I was able to learn a lot and hopefully I was able to contribute just as much as I learned. But with out further a do, here's on funny ass short, Dawn of the Writers:
(Starring Brian Brody, Ricardo Fernandez, & Ibzan Lagos)

Luminous

Created by Sean Cartaya, we watch as a man searches desperately for his wife. This project was pretty cool, we used a green screen for a few one scene (tell me if you know where). Of course like every product there were a couple hiccups but like a true professional Dir. Sean Cartaya found a solution and we continued  on creating his vision. I hop you enjoy, Luminous:

Still Catching Up

Sorry guys I'm still playing catch up here. But by the end of the week I'll have the blog back running 100%

"The Showdown" - Directed By: Ibzan Lagos

It was all a race to this final showdown. In this sequel to Ibzan Lago's "The Race" the characters return to settle the score.

Here are some photos from making this movie.

This project was a great experience to be apart of. It was a lighthearted set with a talented cast and crew. It was my honor to be Assistant Director on this set. Ibzan Lago's Wrote/ Shot/ Directed this movie, he used the Panasonic AF-100 (shown below).

Here's the film, I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.

You Are Here

A Film Production 2 project I worked on. This was a lot of fun to make and I was surprised in the end how it all turned out. Here you go, enjoy!

A man awakens trapped in a storage room on the day of an unspecified apocalyptic event and desperately tries to get out as he reflects on significant moments in his life.

Ill Will

This production took its toll on me. I had come down with some relentless flu for weeks previous to this shoot. This was another class project this time the teacher assigned me the genre of "Suspense". I had to rewrite the original version of this script (which I had wrote in Screenwriting 1) due to the location. The original script takes place in New York in the Winter time and I was going to have to film on Miami Dade College's campus. I adapted the script to take place in a bathroom.

Sorry I don't have to many photo's to offer you this time. On this production due to me catching the flu I had missed a few classes and was unable to gather the essential crew for this project. I worked past that during production using one of my actors (Brian Brody) as somewhat of an Assistant Director. I shot this movie myself using a Canon T2i.

Here's the film. I hope you enjoy and it leaves you on the edge of your seat!

Are you asking yourself WTF? Do you find yourself wanting to know what happens next?

Danny Gorrin and I have made a deal, I told him I would write and produce the sequel to "Ill Will" if my youtube channel gets up to 60 subscribers and the video receives 300 views. With the sequel I wont have the restrictions of filming on campus or a lack of crew members. 

Uncharted Territory

So during the short break in between my Fall Semester classes and my Spring Semester classes I developed a plan to make a Spanish film in my Film 3 class. No one had really done it before in our classes or the classes before me (that I had seen or heard of). So I decided to challenge myself with something new and deliver a product no one else in my class had attempted yet. I knew I would have three projects to turn in during my production class, so I came to the conclusion that it would be best if I attempted my first Spanish film as a class project. I would just have to wait to see which project I should wait to make this attempt.
By the time we got ready to start working on our first project, our "music project", I determined this would be the assignment I attempted to do in Spanish. I was assigned a somewhat romantic sounding song and since I had never wrote a romantic film I decided to "kill two birds with one tommy gun".
I knew this would be a challenge as I do not speak a word of Spanish. Regardless I got right to work. I began by writing to the assigned track. I had written just a scene but nonetheless it was what I wanted. I went to school and found out it had to be a complete story so I went ahead and added two more scenes. My secret to this film I thought would be ingenious. I took my assigned song and blended it with lyrics from an interlude of a Blink 182. With those lyrics in Spanish I knew no one would ever connect the two.
As the production day grew near I assembled my cast and crew. A long side with my DP Ibzan Lagos, we finalized our pre production work and awaited the production date.

Here our some photo's from that day:

*Fun Fact about the production. Due to my inability to speak Spanish, my Assistant Director, Raul Rodriguez, actually monitored the audio during recordings while I watched the actors actions. 

Unfortunately the production didn't run as smooth as I would've hoped. Not to say it was a disaster, we shared a lot of laughs and accomplished what we set out to film. But we did finish way behind schedule and the end product wasn't what I had envisioned. I have decided to re-shoot the project at a later date. My cast & crew did an amazing job and even though as I said previously this wasn't what I imagined I still got an amazing film out of them. 

Here's the film "Para Ti Mi Amor". I hope you enjoy.

Lady In Blue

"Lady In Blue" was a Film Production 2 class project for Miami Dade College. In film to we still were using CP-16mm cameras (like we used for "The Race"). The difference this year was we were trained in lighting & sound equipment. For this project we had 4 classes to film this script wrote by Sean R. Cartaya. The group was made up of four students (including myself) that would rotate the above the line positions of Director, Director of Photography, Gaffer, & Assistant Camera. I had a great experience working with both our above the line and below the line crew for this project. Here are some photos from the making of the film.

Here's my edited version of Lady in Blue. Enjoy!

Angel - Can't Tell You

Motivating Minds Media teamed up with Phoenix Films Entertainment once again to introduce the public to Angel. Directed by myself, Cinematography by Phoenix Films Ent., the video was written by the artist Angel. We shot this in two days over various locations in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.

Here's the teaser I released to the music video.

And with no further delay here is the actual music video, Edited by: Motivating Minds Media.

FAME

The 2nd Annual FAME Event was a great experience. FAME is a Fashion, Art, Music, and Entertainment networking event. Allowing local Miami artists and companies to showcase their talents. The event was August 5th. Here are some photo's from last year's event.

 

 

Photo's By: Robert Rios Photography | www.robertrios.com