After Formula Drift Irwindale, Rhys Millen asked me to travel to New Zealand to work on promotional content for the 2012 Leadfoot Festival. Having never been to NZ, I immediately re-arranged my schedule to make the trip down south work out. After a 14 hour flight, Rhys and I arrived back in his homeland. It was as beautiful as I’d heard, NZ is lush and green and the people are incredible. Rhys’ father, Rod Millen, has a stunning 160+ acre property along the coast – near Hahei Beach. Rod has built an incredibly challenging driveway (over 1 mile long) and is hosting his own hill climb & historic automobile festival on the property annually. Similar to the UK’s Goodwood Festival, the event takes place over three days and is nothing short of a race enthusiasts dream!

Rhys shipped his Global Rally Cross and X-Games car – the Hyundai Veloster down from the US for the media day event. Also parked out on the lawn is Rod’s Porsche Cayenne Rally SUV and his Pontiac Cheiftan station wagon.

One of the cars I had the pleasure of driving was this RHD Toyota Land Cruiser. The four speed was entertaining to drive around the bay to Hot Water Beach and is the perfect NZ ranch vehicle. I haven’t had the chance to drive a right hand drive car since visiting England last year. Always takes a minute to get the left hand used to shifting gears again – since all my manuals are LHD in the US.

Both Rod and Rhys have fond memories of growing up in New Zealand – there is something magical about the island. Its not the jet lag, that wakes you up in the morning yearning for adventure that you really can’t get anywhere else.

Plus it seems like the country hasn’t been lost on Facebook, the internet, and addicted to crappy television. There is so much to do outside and friendly people everywhere. We found cruising the Land Cruiser at 40MPH acceptable at all times (well below the posted maximum) and a rush to get nowhere. It was like a working vacation.

The final day in NZ, we fished at sunrise then surfed the break at Hot Water beach. There was a fun swell coming in and no one minded sharing the waves with the small 5 person (total) surfer crowd. This type of wave and crowd is unheard of in Southern California. This was on a weekend too! Thanks to Rhys, Rod, Shelly, Eddie, and Mike for their hospitality!

Photo by Linhbergh

Framing up a shot in my Cosby sweater.

April 10th & 11th, 2009 was the first round of the 2009 Formula Drift Season at Long Beach. The Long Beach track is a portion of the setup used by the Long Beach Grand Prix which is held the weekend after Formula D. This year, shooting for StreetFire.net instead of Riceboytv- Ricky Chu, Ricardo Glock, Joshua Herron, and I set out to shoot the event. Here are some images from my Panasonic LX2 from the new StreetFire office in downtown LA, Korean BBQ Tacos courtesy of Scion (thanks Fred), some dupa fresh clouds, and of course drifting from LBC.

Check it out:

If you didn’t know this about me- I really like clouds. In Southern California we don’t get many big white fluffy clouds. When we do, I’m usually lost in them- like this past week. Head in the clouds. Reminding me of someone special…

Joshua Herron is in town and crashing on my couch- nice having two different S14′s to drive everywhere. Plus some much video dorking out.

Crazy J shift knobs are what the slider kids are rockin.

When you ride shotgun you can take photos and enjoy your world a bit more.

110 North express lanes overhead – I dig how it looks. Stacks and stacks of highways.

Downtown Los Angeles.

Outside the StreetFire.net office/loft

Inside the new digs.

8 stories low.

Downtown Long Beach. Dark skies.

Rik and I schemed to get our hard cards with photos of us with cowboy hats on- no luck.

Head in the clouds.

JTP, Justin Pawlak’s FC RX7

The new Bergenholtz racing RX8

Ricky Chu takes over so I can shoot some stills

Ross Petty’s rasta S15, remember the white S15 Ross was driving in Mexico- looks a little different now. Very nice from Garage BOSO.

Formula Drift starting grid

Korean BBQ steak and tofu tacos courtesy of Fred Chang and Scion.

Kogi Korean BBQ tacos

Ricardo Glock and Ricky Chu approve.

Couple of crazy supercharged G35s.

Victor’s Emergency Hookers towing service

Pat’s freshly painted Nissan 240sz S14, gold with white and red graphics- running an AIT body kit. 

Glad to see everyone out at Formula Drift! Till next time.

AT&T Center – San Antonio, Texas. Ricky Chu and I went to San Antonio for the night after the Texas Mile to watch the Los Angeles Clippers take on the San Antonio Spurs. Ricky was able to score some tickets from his Clipper’s ticket agent. I haven’t been to an NBA game since before the CAVS got LeBron. It was a fun way to end the day. Even though the Clips were without Baron Davis and the Spurs dominated at home.

More home made motorcycles, Texas Mile, and photos from the game.

Some kind of home made chopper. Pretty awesome. I have respect for DIY.

Texas ranch.

Mas bikes.

Inside the AT&T arena.

Good sized crowd.

Goodbye Rental. Mud Splashed and dirty.

Some flowers at the track.

A bike going for a fast standing mile time @ Texas Mile

Ricky checks out some of the runs at Texas Mile.

Don’t Forget that this is my JOB (gotta make time to Jump On Beds -Rums of Puerto Rico mi favorito – noni)

Here is my finished piece for All Star Bash V. Let me know what you think. The song is one that I’ve been playing non-stop- “sleepyhead” the Wallpaper remix. More info on the video soon. Cheers.

This edit was done quickly with News Market footage of the BMW 5 Series GT Concept. Added music, a few titles, some quick color grading to pop the contrast and diffuse the highlights.

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800hp+Shelby+Prudhomme+Edition+Super+Snake+GT500+M

Quick turn around for this video. Shot the event 7:30-8:30pm then edited in the car on Mac Book Pro and exported the finished video by 10:30pm. Color graded with a custom preset in Magic Bullet Looks to give a little bit of highlight diffusion and punch up the contrast. Shot on the Sony EX-1, edited with Final Cut Pro 6, grading in Looks 3, exported natively 1080 24p re-compressed to H264 720 24p for upload. 

After a weekend of fresh powder- I finally got the chance to ride at Park City Mountain Resort and Sundance Resort.

It was incredible. The day before Park City got over a foot of fresh stuff. Check out the photos after the link.

Nate scopes the summit at Park City. This peak is the one in all of the photos of the resort. It’s the best run I’ve been on in a while. 

Nate’s goggle lenses are really cool. I’ve tried them out before and it looks like a bob marley album sounds like.

Black and white adds a certain dramatic quality. Textures.

Keep following the path.

Ready to rock. Short lift lines. Not too tracked up. 

One of the coolest pizza places in Park City. I even spotted an Iron City Dark beer can on the wall.

The drive up to Sundance Resort.

View from the lift at Sundance. Mt. Timpanogos hidden in the clouds.

Here is the Live @ Sundance 2009 Week in Review video. I did not edit this, but did shoot some of the clips used and did a few quick color grades. Now its time to kick back in the condo hot tub, watch a couple of films, and get ready to ride in the 6 inches of fresh pow that have blanketed Park City. 

The Boneyard, Live @ Sundance Crew posed for a few quick snaps by Elisha Christian- here are a few of my personal favorites. Click the link below and check out the larger images. 

Director of Photography, Elisha Christian. (and the photographer of the follow shots)

Shooter/Editor, Christopher Joseph.

Mike Mohan, Producer and really good guy.

Danny Roew, Shooter/Editor. 

Some dude named Will Roegge, Shooter/Editor/Robot

Dave Drusky, Volunteer Video Pro.

Mark Harrison, HP Panel Crew.

Andy DeYoung, HP Crew. 

Great guys! Sweet Photos.

Here is a quick edit I did on foreign filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival 2009. 

Look into my eyes and tell me what it is you see.

Unless I’ve just consumed a Rockstar energy drink- you’ll probably see a blank gaze.

Its my tenth day at Sundance. The end is in sight. Snow on the horizon. Snowboarding next week. I’m working on finishing up a piece on international filmmakers at the festival. Sounds similar to one I did on short filmmakers- just change the accent up a little. 

Some jumbo soggy snowflakes came down early in the day. It made me think of my trip to Chicago and the last snow fall. 

It was in the upper thirties and the snow was melting fast!

Check out this stream flowing with ice cold snow melt water.

Funny. A construction worker saw me jump off this snow pile and was really confused.

“Why are you taking photos of the snow pile?” he asked. I just smiled and laughed.

This is some kind of radio transmission unit. If you get close enough, there is some kind of speaker inside, and you can hear people talking. Really random. I think I’ve found my way into a James Bond movie.

Sunset was gorgeous again. 

A steady stream of dripping water from above creates ice stalagmites. 

The source of the drips.

Sunset in the building across the street.

Amazed. Sundance beard coming in nicely. Do you think I’ve broken my nose before? Surfaced capillaries?

Until the award ceremony tomorrow. Boneyard.

Clouds. Finally. Hopefully, some snow is on the way. Sunny and in the 40s during the day does not make for good “dry Utah powder”. Check out the rest of my day at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. 

There is another old mine by the office. 

Gas meters. 

Wolf sculpture by the Live @ Sundance office. 

The 40k bear sculpture. Not joking, seriously, forty thousand dollars- well spent.

Macro. What ya know.

Such a tease.

Then it was down to the Kimball Center for the NHK Awards Reception. 

Some cool photographs from previous films at the festival. 

Dave watches as Elisha sets up lighting for an interview.

Yum. A nice spread of food with a waterfall in the middle. 

Please, bring some snow. A lil pow pow to round out the week.

Short filmmakers are awesome. They are forced to tell compelling stories with limited resources and within a short time frame. 

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival had an incredible short film program. 

This is my latest Sundance video. Shot by Elisha, Produced by Mike Mohan and Joe Beyer.

Edited and Color grading by me. 

Andrew DeYoung directs and Mark Harrison stars in Will Balance. Forget white balance, there is a new light temperature that is sweeping the filmmaking scene- Will Balance.

Andy and Mark cut this together with some white balance footage they had from their HP Panels videos. It was just the goofy thing that all of us needed yesterday- to make the day easier. I’m not sure if I should be honored or scared that they picked my credential photo to superimpose on the white balance card- thanks guys! haha. 

Game face. Its day Seven, for you non-spanish speaking numeral understanders. So scope these photos. 

Unseasonably warm, check out some of the snow melt around the ponds in this park across from our office. 

This statue better not be to scale. If so, I’m very frightened of bears. 

This lift is right by the office and at the top of the stairs by the office. What a tease. 

Banners in tow.

I really dig this wooden framed elevator. 

Trees, vertically. 

Day before the inauguration. Feeling patriotic- saw this outside of the Park City lift. 

Self portrait, dead serious. 

Presidential Inauguration video coming soon- response from the crowds in Park City and talking with filmmakers about art, politics, and the economy.

Who are they?

Well, Spymob provided the backing studio instrumentals on several NERD albums (In Search of… and Seeing Sounds) and tours. The single Half Steering is also featured on the 2003 album“The Neptunes Present…Clones” . The band is from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The song is one of my favorites and even though the band experienced limited commercial success- their tracks have a undefinable addictive quality. Up tempo jazz and guitar riffs, falsetto vocals, extended harmonies, check, check, and check.

And the NERD albums that they support are solid in their own regard.

Now you know, Half Steering, Half Eating Ice Cream- much more than just a song title- a life motto.