Movies | M i a b i . F i l m s

How To Do a Flea-Flicker

16-01-2009

Lespants recently asked me if I’d like to collaborate on a “How To” video for the Emerging Filmmaker Program at Howcast.com. I was kinda blah about it at first- until he suggested putting my new After Effects skills to work. Seeking any opportunity to use my favorite game for good, I jumped on it.

Howcast is a pretty cool How To site which has hundreds of neat video tutorials. Things like How To Pick up a Flight Attendant and How To Look Hot While Playing “Rock Band”. This is not your father’s How To website.

It all gets wrapped up in their standardized packaging. They provide a basic script, a VO track, graphics, and access to a music library. Leaving us to shoot it any way we want.

We downloaded How To Do a Flea-Flicker. (Grammatically incorrect title. Should be: How to RUN a Flea-Flicker) Christian shot it in front of a green screen on HD with our friend Noah Starr filling in as the entire team. Then I edited it and ran it through After Effects; adding backgrounds and motion graphics work. It was fun to see it all come together and it helped me perfect my FCP to AE to FCP workflow.

Have a looksie… Hopefully you’ll dominate this year’s family pigskin pickup game.

Bigger than Jesus

By: Greg

01-12-2008

Movies

2008 (0:45) – Hello friends. I know it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted here regularly. This place is not forgotten. Just been really busy at work and play.

And something that qualifies as both work and play is Adobe After Effects. (AE is an industry-standard motion graphics and visual effects program.) I took that three day course a few weeks ago and have been doing online tutorials nearly non-stop since. Trying to figure out how to use AE to my advantage. I’m addicted to this game. Getting “good” takes practice, so I’m being a proper little geek and learning my hotkeys. After Effects is bigger than Jesus.

In other news… in case you hadn’t heard, a Vatican newspaper has forgiven John Lennon for proclaiming The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” more than 42 years ago… chalking it up to youthful exuberance. So nice to see head Catholics instep with the times. John is rolling over in his grave. Yoko is probably giving the finger to someone.

In honor of this great news for Yoko Ono and Lennon’s ghost, I wanted to post some videos I created using a few of my new AE skills. It is important that any effects I create with my new toy be complimentary and transparent to the work I’m using it in. But for now, I’m just having fun as usual.

The first is a 5 second blast for Miabi Films and the second is a nifty little short about a mysterious man from the future.

Hope you enjoy…

Lightsaber Practice

By: Greg

12-09-2008

Movies

2008 (1:05) I just signed up for this After Effects course. I’ve always wanted to learn it and this was a good three day intro course to get my feet in the pool. So I went for it. If you are unfamiliar with After Effects, it is Adobe’s ubiquitous industry-standard motion graphics software. Photoshop for video.

In preparing for the class, I figured I’d play around with the program to learn where all the buttons are. Get a head start you know. Since the first thing anyone does when they are learning After Effects is give someone a lightsaber- that was my first assignment. It’s like learning to play “Smoke on the Water” when you first pick up a guitar. I found this great tutorial online and tried to follow it as best I could. Lightsaber Practice is what happened. The finished video is not perfect but After Effects worked out great. Fortunately for me because the actual working lightsaber kept malfunctioning on set.

This is my first and last Star Wars fan film. Enjoy.

| Right click to download the iPod-ready version. 6.3 mb (QT7 required)

Golfin’ 2

By: Greg

06-09-2008

Movies

Golfin’ 2 | 1:13 (2006)

This is a sequel I did to the Golfin’ series from 2005. The song is Take A Bow by Muse. More fun with special effects!

Dirt-bag-alina

By: Greg

01-04-2008

Movies, Vodcast

This one I don’t get. I could understand 2girls1cup. I could understand the Star Wars kid. But this is one internet sensation I’m missing. Apparently, Delta Air Lines produced a new in-flight safety video with the intention of making it more interesting to look at. Achieved by throwing in higher production values, a touch of comedy, and some sex appeal. The general thinking that people zone out during this part of the flight and if they actually pay attention to this video, they may act appropriately when the time comes. So throw sparkly things at them! ooohhhhh ahhhhhh. Shiny.

Well they were so proud of their work that they decided to post the thing on YouTube for all the world to see. And the video took off. Got something like half a million views in a few days. The nice looking lady who appears in the video has been on a number of morning shows (and Ellen!) Dubbed Deltalina, a portmanteau of Delta and Angelina Jolie, (people say she looks like our favorite goodwill ambassador) has become something of a celebrity. Katherine Lee is her real name and she’s an actual flight attendant for Delta. That’s all well and good for her. I’m sure she takes her job very seriously and deserves the 15 minutes.

But what I don’t get is why this thing became a… thing. There is near zero comedy and little to no sex appeal. I don’t find Katherine Lee all that attractive actually. She’s got some odd looking cheek bones. She’s not ugly by any stretch. But she’s not entering Kardashian territory. Did I just kill my credibility? She does that one famous little finger wag. One little finger wag and you’ve got an internet phenom? Really. It’s JUST a safety video. Is all the hoopla because of those cool rack focuses? Watch it. I swear. There’s nothing to it. Seriously. Go on. Go ahead.

Looking to capitalize on any popular meme I can, I’ve decided to make my own safety video in response. I assure you, after watching mine, you’ll deplane that plane faster than petrification. Mine has no comedy or sex appeal either. But what it does have are lots and lots of sound FX! Zooooom!

or…

| Right click to download the iPod-ready version. 3.3 mb

Motion Sickness

By: Greg

31-01-2008

Movies, Vodcast

I'm gonna be sick.
2008 | 1:34

Like many other people, I surrendered to the hype. That enigmatic trailer. That deliberate exclusion of information. I was there on opening weekend to see Cloverfield. And I was there to nearly vomit on the person sitting in front of me.

We had high hopes for this movie. It’s JJ Abrams. The man responsible for our dear LOST. (Season 4 premieres tonight!) So what if it looked exactly like Godzilla. JJ would see it through. And in some ways he did. We got tons of looks at that cool monster. And the story was a near-perfect post-911 New-York disaster movie.

But there is something to be said about the horrific camera shake. I started pining for the Dramamine about 15 minutes in. Right around when our friend HUD grabbed the camera. The person I was with started feeling it even sooner. I had to shut my eyes and look away every 5 minutes. Probably missed a quarter of the movie because of this. What about reviewers? It can’t be good policy to make a person reviewing your movie physically ill. The girl I was with said it best, “They could have explained it with a simple line of dialogue. Like HUD was a videographer and knew how to handle a camera or something.” In the end, I think it is a gimmick that either failed, or is much better used in small doses. Something the YouTube generation of filmmakers need to get in their heads immediately. (I don’t recall how I reacted to The Blair Witch Project, because I was too busy trying not to shit my pants.)

I would not be surprised if the camera shake is a major reason why Cloverfield has seen such a stiff drop off at the box office. The person sitting in that stadium seat in front of me has no idea how much danger they were in that night.

So here is my interpretation of Cloverfield 2. Bring your barf bag.

or…

| Right click to download the iPod-ready version. 7.6 mb

Robot!

By: Greg

25-08-2007

Movies, Vodcast

Robot!

2007 (1:08) – Here’s the story of two guys, in the throes of a White Castle daze, mesmerized by a flying saucer. The song is “Robot” by The Futureheads. This is really stupid and probably an inside joke. But I think the editing and song have some redeeming value. I had the camera out for no reason whatsoever. This is just cut down from that footage. There was no intention on doing anything with it. The song is from The Futureheads self titled debut record. Hope you go out and buy it.

| Right click to download the iPod-ready version. 5.9 mb (QT7 required)

Byrnes!

By: Greg

14-08-2007

Vodcast

A vodcast only Miabi Film! This video arose from a conversation a friend and I had at a bar. We were discussing the fielding pyro-technics of the exceptional baseball player Eric Byrnes from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Byrnesy is one of my favorite players because he risks life and limb on every catch. His complete disregard for personal safety is infectious and its a miracle none of his teammates have killed themselves trying to imitate him. He’s no slouch at the plate either. Anyway, this is my tribute to Eric Byrnes. It’s amazing what booze and Photoshop can do.

iPod/iPhone version. Right click to download. 1.8 mb

Video Books

By: Greg

02-01-2007

Movies, Vodcast

It’s the new year. A time for new things. New ideas. This next one is really going to knock your socks off. Just file it under the “why didn’t I think of that!” category. Are you ready for it+ You’ve heard of audio books… Well I give you Video Books!! You actually get to SEE someone READING your favorite book. Long road trip? Pop a video book into your video iPod. Rather play with your electronic gadgets than read a book? Now you can do both!

Isn’t video the next logical step after audio? With download speeds always increasing, youTube becoming a household word, and the dissemination of internet video as a whole, I feel video books are the next big thing. Keep an eye out for them at your local iTunes music store.

As a proof of concept, I give you a reading of the first Chapter of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Timequake. I did not get Mr. Vonnegut’s permission to use this book. I hope he doesn’t mind, or Kilgore Trout, or Berkely Books.

Thanks.

| Right click to download the iPod-ready version. 10.2 mb (QT7 required)

parum Diabolus

By: Greg

29-12-2005

Movies, Vodcast

2005 (4:49) – This is my first attempt at a thriller. Basically I’m ripping off David Lynch. Right down to the Angelo Badalementi score. John was a great director of photography on this one. It would have been out of focus without him. I don’t remember how the idea came to me, but I remember it materializing very quickly. I hope you’re terrified.