Michael Mohan is an amazingly nice guy. His first feature film, One Too Many Mornings, is premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Which is also amazing. I had the pleasure of working with Mike on a few Sundance projects over the past two years and was always impressed by his creativity and dedication. One Too Many Mornings also features Elisha Christian as the Director of Photography and a musical score by Capybara. Both are incredible at what they do – and I also had the pleasure of working with them last year at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
So check out the OTMM trailer and better yet, visit One Too Many Mornings site and pre-order a copy of the DVD or HD download of the film.
My pick for Video Of the Week is Winch Madness. Winch Madness combines great titling, good cinematography, a killer JUSTICE track, and the combination of wake skating, a gas powered winch, and some skilled riders. Hopefully you will be just as inspired as I was from watching it.
Down the bike path from me is Playa Del Rey. Playa Del Rey is situated on the beach just north of LAX. Its a chill and relaxed little town. Dive bars and coffee shops. Plus a washed up sail boat that is now fenced off with snow fence – like a monument or tombstone to the tides.
I brought my pin hole camera and Panasonic LX2 to snap a few photos of the boat. The LX2 is great for wide images with its native 16×9 sensor.
As a Christmas present, my sister Lindy gave me a Pin Hole camera kit. The kit includes a home made camera photography book and the pieces to assemble your own 35mm pin hole camera. Using the heavy paper, dowel rods, pre punched pin holes, and take up canister – you can build your own pin hole camera like min pictured above. The shutter and view finder are one piece that you manually lift to take an image. Then advance the film and repeat. Exposure times vary based on the available light. My experience has been 1-2 seconds for direct sunlight and daylight. Increasing all the way to a few minutes for night time and tungsten indoor lighting.
Keeping the pin hole camera steady is important. A nice feature of the kit is an included tripod mount. With 5 minute long exposures this is a must.
Here are some images from the pin hole camera taken with Kodak 200.
Joshua ‘Hobo’ Herron did this interview for Death Machines. When Josh was out visiting me a few months back we shot both of our interviews at the same time. Josh’s came out great. He was able to cut together his funny answers and capture his personality better than mine. Mine comes off a bit stiff – which was intentional. Josh’s though, gives you a better sense of his humor and random style.
Enjoy it. I expect big things from Josh in 2010. 2010. 2010.
Chris Adams shot and cut together this quickie edit from our recent trip to Bittersweet Ski Resort in Otsego, Michigan. I eat it on a small method grab within the first minute, but redeem myself with a clean gap over an iced tree. Thanks Chris for cutting this together. All shot on a Go Pro HD in 720/60p.
Will - Skate Regular. Surf Goofy and Snowboard Goofy. You?
MIke_GruiZinga@yahoo.com - Will,
I live like 2 seconds from Bittersweet and I'm out there all the time! I love your work, keep it up.
Maybe my Z will find its way into one of your videos some day.
On the last day of the decade, December 31, 2009 – I’ve put together this highlight post of my 2009. The year has been great for me, I started my own production company, had several firsts (NASCAR race, Bonneville Speedweek, Pikes Peak, and FIA GT), and crisscrossed the United States on road trips no less than three times. I also got to visit friends and meet up with friends in new areas of the country. Snowboard more than previous years and get recognition for my work. Thank you to everyone for your support and friendship in 2009. Cannot wait to go bigger in 2010. Happy new years.
January
Flew to Chicago to visit with the MWS, Mid-West Surf crew and snowboard in Michigan.
Sundance Film Festival. Worked on the Live @ Sundance crew for my second year in a row. Then got to play in some Utah pow pow afterwards.
February
Colorado trip. A Thousand Miles of Colorado. Drove all over the state.
Started at Streetfire.net – started with this video and ended up producing over 50 more videos for them during my time there.
March
Visited Texas for the Texas Mile event.
Utah trip number two. With Blake and Chris.
April
Formula Drift – Long Beach edit released.
Ford Mustang GT500 press trip. Clicked off a 12.7 Quarter Mile ET in my second time drag racing.
May
Licensed to drive a motorcycle. Picked up my 2005 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R.
Formula Drift – Atlanta edit released.
Italy trip with Speedhunters to cover the FIA GT race in Adria. Films released with some of my work behind the lens.
Pike’s Peak testing with Rhys Millen, first footage for what would become Climb Attack.
Redline Time Attack shoot at Willow Springs.
July
Formula Drift – Las Vegas edit released.
Pike’s Peak International Hill climb with Rhys Millen and team RMR.
Scion Racing – Titan Motorsports Drag raicng in Richmond, Virginia.
Mitsubishi Lancer shoot from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Climb Attack released.
August
Formula Drift Seattle. Hitched a ride up to the event with Shaun Carlson and the NuFormz team. Good memories of Shaun. Rest In Peace, honored to know you.
Attended my first X-Games. X-15 in Los Angeles for the Rally event.
Bonneville Speedweek. With Speedhunters: Rod, Linhbergh, Rachel, and John Brooks. Great trip.
September
Four Hundred released. Linhbergh says this my best of the year. I agree.
BFGoodrich Nation of Go Tour starts in San Francisco, California. On the road for 23+ days – working out of a van. With some amazing guys who would become great friends.
October
Road trip – Richmond, VA to Los Angeles, CA – Buffalo, NY and Cleveland, OH thrown in the mix to visit friends and family. All in a 2010 Mitsubishi Ralliart Sportback.
Microsoft Store launch in Scottsdale, AZ. Medium Monster behind the scenes production.
November
SEMA 2009 and the start of ARTPANTS – Linhbergh and I’s 365 daily-photography challenge.
Nashville, TN – Bash Bash Bash with some DM family.
December
Utah, first snowboard session of the 2009-2010 season.
Sean - Wow, you had a huge year! Here's hoping that 2010 will be even bigger. I'm a big fan of your work so keep on keepin' on!
Linhbergh - What a fantastic year. What a trip it was to meet each other at D1 Anaheim and what a journey for the both of us has blossomed since then. It has been an honor to work and also hang out with you this past year. Cheers to an even more epic 2010!
I think I've whored out "Four Hundred" enough on various blogs and social networking sites. :)
Will - Thanks Linh. It has been a pleasure shooting with you at events - it always makes them more fun. I also have this mound of expired 35mm film on my desk now. :)
Brian Casse - Congrats on all the success this year. I hope 2010 brings big things for you.
Issue #13 of Wrecked Magazine is out now. It’s the annual Pro Am issue, which focuses on the Amateur Formula Drift drivers who earned their professional licenses this season. It also features an interview with me! I am really excited about the interview and the issue.
Wrecked Magazine’s Industry Indsider – Will Roegge.
All of my secrets are revealed:
How I got into shooting drifting.
Favorite drivers.
Plus why growing a beard is the most important part of shooting high quality digital films.
I’ll admit, most of the work I do allows me to travel. In the past couple of years, I’ve been able to visit some amazing places with jobs. When my schedule started to ease up towards the end of 2009 I decided to take a break, and… gasp, go on a vacation.
My friend Katie proved to be a good adventure buddy and we decided to travel to Costa Rica for 6 days.
Prior to departing, I got food poisoning from El Tarasco – which was devastating. Not only because I was puking my internals out, but because Tarasco is one of my favorite spots to grub. It felt like being cheated on… by a carne asada plate.
Our first flight got cancelled and pushed back our travel plans by 12 hours.
Once we finally made it to San Jose, Costa Rica, we stayed at the Adventure Inn – which was a great place to stay. The staff made it easy for us to pick up our rental car and get started on the trip to Jaco. This duck caught my eye at the park at the end of the street.
Hotel Canciones Del Mar was right on Jaco Beach.
Rental Car – Suzuki Alto, as the Japanese call it – a Kei car. Little car.
Ricing out cars is still big in Costa Rica. Like this Sentra with 16 inch wheels and a muffler. Made me laugh.
Heavy duty Street Fighter style fiberglass wing on an Eclipse in Jaco, Costa Rica.
The chef from a local bar and grill catches up with a friend.
Complimentary colors, green wall and red dress – make for a cool shot. My travel buddy Katie ponders what to order for dinner.
A Day with Will is the post category that came out of ‘A Day in the Life of…” challenge. Which was a single day photo exchange between myself and KD almost a year ago. It has since evolved into being a day in my life. Any day that I pick and have my camera around to document with photography. This post is a preview of my trip to Costa Rica. I’m going to cut the characters and let the pixels do the talking.
Dropping in on some Jaco mush. Photo by Katie DeWolfe.
Moo Goo Gai Pan week 2009. The week when Brian Steele and Jason Buckley are the same age for the year. Better known as the week between their respective birthdays. This year, a bunch of us went to Ocean Seafood in LA’s Chinatown. I brought the 7D and my 50mm f1.4 to document the celebration. Here is a day with me…Moo Goo Gai Pan week style.
Happy Birthday B-Steele! Cleaned out Ocean Seafood.
My short, Climb Attack was a finalist for the Audio/Visual category. An honor just to be nominated. The other finalists: Audi’s Truth in 24 and the BBC’s Top Gear. Top Gear, being the most popular automotive television program in the world and Truth in 24 being produced by NFL Films – I was the underdog. For me, Top Gear is more than just a “car program”. Before shooting my first automotive projects I was a Top Gear fan. It’s style had a big influence on me and inspired me to make the best looking work possible. Truth in 24 ended up taking home top honors in the category and overall.
Still impressed with the response to Climb Attack. More interested to see how it does in years to come – with films like Climb Dance gaining popularity years later. Climb Attack still is one of the few pieces to cover Pike’s Peak and all its glory.
Congratulations to my friend and fellow drift shooter – Alison Merion who was awarded the Dean Batchelor Award for Photograph of the year.
2009 has been a great year and I was honored to be a finalist for a great award in my field of work.
Brandon Scarpelli - wow Will this is huge man! Big props to you on this achievement! I'm really looking forward to your work in 2010! Have a great New Year!
Will - It was a gigantic honor. I have some big things planned for 2010. Happy New Years.
by Will
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