This short documentary was made for Digital Foundations, and tells the tale of Avi Fine and his epic beard.
24-Hour Film: The Private Eye
This movie was made entirely in 24 hours, with the help of Tommy McCauley on camera and Alexander Cooney with special effects.
“Homemade Assassin” was a photography/graphic design project I made for Digital Foundations in the winter of 2008. I am moderately pleased with most of the photography, but the story needed work, as I’m sure you’ll agree.
From this project, I learned that I need to force myself to push through the final days of hard work, even if I’ve been working on it for weeks and just want to see it finished, because I’ll regret not making that extra effort. And I certainly do regret it.
This is a poster for the short film “Facebook Hack,” made by Wain Yee, Alexander Cooney, Andrew Tatge and myself. We shot this in high definition (720p I believe) last spring, and really just used it as a way to experiment with high def and the use of a dolly and crane. Hopefully Wain will come back from Tokyo sometime and give us the finished version, which he has on his hard drive.
I learned that high definition looks good. Real good. And it makes up for less than great lighting and blocking. Also, I learned that I demand less of myself and the shots at the end of the shoot than at the beginning, so I must learn to pace myself.
“Pri Vetai: Private Eye” won first runner-up in the first annual Sparky Awards, a nation-wide event promoting open access to information over the Internet.
I learned a lot from this experience. First, make sure to use a boom mic if you are shooting in a chapel. I’m not sure even I can understand the lines spoken by Michael Bonin (the guy who saves the girl), so anyone else doesn’t really stand a chance. Once again, black and white serves as a cover-up for simple lighting, but works because it is justified. All valuable lessons.
One photo from my “Where I Live” project for Digital Foundations, Winter, 2008.
See the rest of the photos here.
I was pretty satisfied with this project, considering it was the first photography project I had ever attempted. The color/black and white contrast is pretty corny, and everything is shot as extreme close-ups, but I think it worked with most of these. I learned, however, that I used the editing tricks and close-ups as a crutch, because the pictures without editing (or from further away) weren’t interesting enough. Next time, make sure the pictures are great by themselves.
Hopefully this site will work as an archive of my work. I’ll be spending the next several days trying to get everything I’ve done online here, then see how it functions. Thanks for tuning in.
