Upbound Film | An Exercise in Creative Whim with Professional Craft
My first film was not a non-fiction or commercial piece, though documentaries are my favorite to produce these days. My first video project was a silly fictional piece shot in High school. I forget the plot, though I know it had a poor attempt at YouTube style comedy. But it was imaginative. Short fictional pieces, from the facetious to the dramatically cliché, were my first practice rounds of the film craft.
Upbound Film represents the passion arm of Upbound Media Group. While Upbound Media works closely with clients on commerical content, I work with partners on creative projects as well, and on occasion, I myself delve into the imagined possibilities of my artistic visions or non-commerical work.
Upbound Film provided the training ground for the expertise I honed that I bring to my commerical work under Upbond Media Group, but hopefully These inital creative pieces shot during my undergrad years offer a easter egg in the the roots of my film passion. I hope you enjoy this brief peer into my filmmaking roots.
What is Upbound Film?
Upbound Film offers long term services for specifically for projects of narrative story telling or documentary presentations. This can include both my personal fictional projects work or work with other; Such is my work with The Diesel Funk Brothers.
While Upbound Media handles the editing on their web series, The Diesel Funk Show, Upbound Film also works with J. Fielder’s Black Pi Studios on the release of his imminent feature-length film, PHLO.
I have an Achilles’ heel in the form of collaborative creative work. Click here to inquire about such opportunities.
The First Projects of Upbound Film | A Curated Experience
I took only two film classes, period; I am not a film major. One was an introductory class to film making taught by writer, editor and filmmaker Lauren Wolkstein. The other was an independent study. The rest of my experience comes from countless hours of films and YouTube videos consumed, and thousands of frames captured.
These shorts and micro shorts represent my earliest personal creative artistic endeavors not filmed in high school with a Casio point and shoot camera.
For information on the commercial arm of Upbound, click here.
The First Project of Upbound Film | The Breakdown
Timeline & Context
- These pieces were shot and assembled between the Fall of 2011 and the end of 2013.
- UnMarked (2011), Vampire’s Hunger (2011) and One Night (2011) were shot for my Introduction to Film Making course.
- Double Vision (2013), Here (2013) were shot for two Film Riot Monday Challenges of that year.
- Other shot sequences to be posted in mid-2020. See my work under Upbound Media Group for more recent samples of my current production and post-production workflow.
Participants & volunteers
- Each project could not have been completed without the help of friends that gave their time and attention to aid in each project’s production.
- This includes largely classmates from Trinity College classes 2013 and 2014.
- One of these classmates is Ezra Myles (Here, 2013), independent graphics artist, choreographer and performer. See more about Ezra here.
Production | Tools, Resources & Locations
-
All of these projects were captured in largely 1080p resolution at 23.976 frames per second with a Canon 600D manipulating available light.
-
Locations vary, but were largely shot in Hartford, CT & Brooklyn, NY USA, and Vienna, Austria including Trinity College’s renowned chapel, and in my hometown of Flatbush and Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Production | Tools & Resources
- Post-production editing and processing was completed using Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition on a 2010 & 2012 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro.
- My Pre-to-Postproduction Pipeline now includes Da Vinci Resolve 16 and if requested, Final Cut X.
- Mastering is completed on a custom-built Windows 10 machine, but if needed, can be completed on a 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro.
War Torn | Micro Short ● February 2013
Micro Short | Vienna, Austria | Feb 2013
This piece is the director’s edit for my first micro short “War Torn” created, as often these projects are, on a whim in the winter of 2013 while studying abroad in Vienna.
Special thanks to Joshua for giving a couple of hours to help pull this random idea together, and of course, to those that served and have served in the armed services across the globe.
Here | Micro Short | Film Riot Monday Challenge (Dolly Shot)
Micro Short | Hartford, CT, USA ● August 2013
Film Riot, in their words, “is a how-to trip through film making from the hyper-active minds of the Connolly Brothers…Film Riot explores the art of film-making in a way you’ve never seen.”
Words such as ‘under-the-radar-geeks’ and ‘DIY niche’ have been used to describe these folks, and starting in 2012, they began running a series called Monday Challenge on their channel. This competition had participants submit short films to them for review. Submissions had to meet a certain requirement. This challenge required the use of a dolly shot in at least two places. I had none.
So, we got together, and I used my tripod and my skeleton as the dolly to get this sequence captured. Small idea, elegant execution. Minimal film making so you focus on craft versus gear.
Special thanks to Ezra and Sarah who came out on a chilly fall night at the beautiful Trinity College Chapel to film waiting for our senior year to begin.
Double Vision | Short | Film Riot Monday Challenge (Hitchcock 'The Birds
Short | Brooklyn, NY, USA ● June 2013
Double Vision was a fun project. Film Riot came out with another challenge. The requirements for this one were, weird.
We had to include the line ‘Fix the bathroom like you said you would’, and a plunger as a prop. This is what I came up with! We also had to mimic a Hitchcock type shot found in his famous 1963 film, “The Birds”. I hope you enjoy.
Special thanks to my friends Bakari and Mckenzie for bringing their flavor to these simple roles, and to Mckenzie for offering a location!
One Night | Short | One Script, eight creators
Short | Hartford, CT, USA ● October 2011
This is the directors edit for an introduction to film class assignment called One Night. We all had the same script, so it was our job to shoot our own version of the simple script, and juxtapose the differences between the films to unearth the idiosyncrasies of people’s creative process.
Special thanks to Matthew and Rachel for helping me pull this one off in the middle of the night!
Vampire's Hunger | Short | One Continuous Shot
Short | Hartford, CT, USA ● September 2011
Vampire’s Hunger was a simple concept. The vampire is hungry. She’s got to eat. But that might be awkward on a first date.
This was my first attempt experimenting with a single shot. That was the assignment, do a single pass, single shot, no cuts. Looking back there’s a lot of unnecessary movement, but I do enjoy some of the frames I create in this college short.
Special thanks to Matthew and Nicole to helping that afternoon. Matthew appears in the above short as well, One Night. Seems to be have a tough string of luck
UnMarked | Micro Short | You Have Six Cuts
Short | Hartford, CT, USA ● September 2011
This may be the first film I shot in college. Lauren Wolkstein was our professor, traveling from New York City once a week to guide us through the rudiments of the film making process. Shooting with a minimalist approach was among the first skills taught.
We had seven shots to make any coherent short we liked. I opted to leave behind the dialogue after seeing a patch in the front yard of a campus building, and with help from my friend David, we captured the earliest frames of Upbound Film.
