The Bryan Hansen Band has just released a lyric video for “Tasteless”, the first single from their upcoming album “When You Stop Pulling Back.” The album will be released on September 24, 2016, but Bryan asked me if I could create a lyric video for the song to help promote the release of the single.
Take a look at the video above and feel free to let me know what you think/share it. If you like the song, consider purchasing it and supporting a talented, young band.
Lyric Video
I’ve never made a lyric video before (and wasn’t even too familiar with the concept), but this was a fun, quick project. It was challenging and creatively fulfilling to be tasked with listening to a song and coming up with a visual concept from scratch. I’m happy with the results.
From a technical standpoint, it was an interesting limitation to edit to the music because in traditional editing I’m usually altering the audio to fit the visual needs of the edit — something that was obviously not possible in this situation.
All of the footage used in the video is sourced from Video Blocks, and it was edited in Avid Media Composer. Titles were created using Adobe After Effects.
I recently had the pleasure of working with the D.C.-based sketch group, Brick Penguin, on a few of their comedy sketches. They launched the first of those sketches today. It’s a promo video for a CBS sitcom called “You and Me… We’re Just Us”. I had a great time working with these really talented comedians. If you’re in the D.C. area, definitely check out one of their live shows. You can follow them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/BrickPenguin/
It was a fun experience to shoot and edit something that I didn’t write myself, which is a significantly different experience from directing things that I’ve imagined alone.
Please take a look, share, and feel free to let me know what you think.
Update: Brick Penguin has now released the second sketch that I created with them — “Ticonderoga Pencils.” It’s a commercial format. Take a look below and let us know what you think:
With Halloween approaching, people all over are doing what I do all year long — looking for horror movies to watch. Others are actively avoiding horror movies because “horror movies aren’t scary.”
Or, even worse, I’ll hear someone say, “I like horror movies, but they’re not scary.” I don’t understand this. Are there people who like comedies that aren’t funny?
In the case of comedies, it’s understood that people have varied senses of humor, and we make recommendations based on the type of comedy sub-genre that someone is likely to enjoy. To that end, I’ve broken up the 30 horror movies below into five broad sub-genres of horror — to suit your “sense or horror”:
Click on any title to go directly to the film’s iMDb page. You can get all the information there. I’ve just supplied a trailer and a quick sentence or two about why you should watch each film.
This list is in no way comprehensive or definitive. What it is, however, is a list that I vouch for. With so many terrible horror movies out there (including many that make “best of” lists), I wanted to create a list that I have personally curated and that I believe will have an extremely high satisfaction rate among anyone who might read this.
If you’re looking for a scary movie and haven’t yet seen one of these 30, go for it without hesitation. And now, the picks:
Reason to Watch: The horror comes from the reality of religious fervor. It’ll be hard to shake the feeling that America is filled with people like the protagonist.
Reason to Watch: One of the classics. The religious overtones tap directly into the anxiety of anyone raised Christian — and will make anyone else glad they weren’t.
Reason to Watch: Stanley Kubrick. Stephen King. Creepy kid. This is actually lower on my list than it would be on most because the narrative is all over the place, but the scary imagery makes it a must-watch.
Reason to Watch: We all have to go to sleep sometime, and Freddy Krueger will cross your mind the next time you do. Really any film in this series is worth watching, except for the second one.
Reason to Watch: A lot of the sequels are terrible, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from watching the original. If you forgot that Kevin Bacon is in it, it’s time to watch it again.
Reason to Watch: The zombie movie that started it all — for better and (mostly) for worse. It’s a small scale version of zombie uprising that leaves time for the viewer to really contemplate being in that horrifying situation.
Reason to Watch: The oldest film on the list. Bela Lugosi transformed the vampire into something sexy and alluring with his performance without even having a mastery of the English language.
Reason to Watch: This one is weird, folks. It involves otherworldly beings that live at the threshold of pleasure and pain. Don’t watch it with your parents in the room. Do watch it if you like a little kink mixed in with your horror.
Reason to Watch: This Spanish film is intense for its entire short running time. It was remade in America a year later as QUARANTINE (2008), but this original is far superior.
Reason to Watch: Aside from the fact that this film was made for practically no money, it’s legitimately horrifying. If you can see it on a big screen, do so. The effect is that the room in which most of the film takes place is presented almost at full scale in the theater, so the audience feels like it’s sitting just on the other side of the room watching it all unfold. A significant amount of the scare is lost on the small screen with this one.
The list would have quickly gotten much too broad if I didn’t exclude films that are primarily suspenseful, rather than scary. I consider this to be true for the following great movies:
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