STOP-MOTION LIVE

Tuesday, June 1st at 8:30 a.m. PST I will be shooting a stop-motion animation for Lafitte, a brand new and exciting restaurant from dissident chef Russell Jackson. We're going to be shooting in the restaurant and they have a web camera with a live feed into their kitchen. It's no accident that this camera happens to point right where we'll be shooting. Please check out THE CAMERA for all the madness that is stop-motion animation. A special thanks to Revolver Studios for the opportunity to create with such a culinary talent.


Follow @LafitteSF and @Revolver_SF on Twitter.

ACCELERATE

Last week I was in Las Vegas for work with Riverbed Technology. The company hosts an annual convention and this year I covered Accelerate 2010 for 4 days. This image is from the first day of set up. A special thanks to Alex Grossman, Jason Black, the Riverbed Executives and the event staff that put on such a colorful and informational event.

INKTANK VIDEO

Several months ago while culling through a shoot I did with Kristin in December, I noticed a poignant nuance in a series of frames. I made a mental note of it and moved on. This week those images came back out again and became part of a new motion animation. By combining the images from my (th)ink tank images and the images from Dichotomy in December, I have put together a new animation called 'inktank'. This is the first in a series I'll be starting this summer after I return from work in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Please check out the video on YouTube or preferably through the new motion section on my site.

TIME

Last month Katherine Mathis of Revolver Studios and I set out on our first of soon to be many creative endeavors. With no prior history of collaboration or working together, just a mutual respect for each others taste in art and literature, we agreed to make something creative out of an afternoon. That something formed into a stop motion video over 3 hours of shooting and 30 hours of editing. Check out the 3 or so minutes of visual fun. Check it out here on Youtube

(th)INK TANK

A few weeks ago I shot ink falling into a 10 gallon fish tank. The process of shooting just to make a beautiful image for no real purpose other than the act of creation is something I rarely get a chance to embrace. I plan to continue this series and incorporate the imagery onto a larger piece at a later date.

COLLABORATION : AD HOC

Friday I had a chance to shoot with Katherine Mathis. Katherine is a mutual friend who runs a marketing and branding company, Revolver Studios, and has a very well read and interesting view on art. We had tried to find the right inspiration and project to exercise our creative muscles with since late 2009 to no avail. Serendipity smiled and we both had a free afternoon but were without a plan for the end product. Throwing ourselves into the creative process we crafted a stop motion animation that happened completely organically on an ad hoc basis. Shooting stills for a stop motion animation is the first step and the editing process has yet to begin. I wanted to share the closing shot before next week brings me back into Sandbox Studio and the hustle of a new week begins.

SQUARESPACE SITE

I've been hard at work coding and uncoding, making and unmaking, remaking and unmaking, then coding again... it's been a little maddening. However, I'm proud to say my desire for a more interactive website with a unified cohesive web presence is almost complete. I still need to transfer a little bit more coding to the server but it's almost ready for the viewing public. For a preview please check www.brandonjosephbaker.squarespace.com.

72 musicians

This trailer for 72 musicians features my photography and stop motion. Please visit 72musicians.com for a free download of the soundtrack and to purchase the film.

TIME CHANGE

I always get a little sad when the time changes for the spring and summer months. I enjoy the shorter days. I just like being out at night more than the day. I do enjoy the light right in between night and day and the light right at day break. Magic hour. I couldn't sleep yesterday morning so I climbed to the rooftop to shoot my neighborhood from above right at day break.

CAST MONKEY SKULL

I took a little time today to shoot something new. This cast of a monkey skull I got from Blake Britton, an artist I photographed in Portland. I wanted to continue with the series I've been pursuing called Dichotomy however I don't think there is anything I can add to this series without becoming redundant. Onto something new it shall be. This is the last image I'll be posting for a while. I have to take sometime away from shooting to focus on marketing new business, print a new book and update my website. See you somewhere.

BROADWAY TUNNEL

In 2004 I took a cab from North Beach to Noe Valley with Tyler and Megan. There was something about that cab ride that I really loved. My guess is the speed we were traveling combined with the revelry earlier in the evening made such an impression on me. This is my homage to that night and to one of my favorite landmarks in San Francisco.

DICHOTOMY

–noun.
1. division into two parts, kinds, etc.; subdivision into halves or pairs.
2. division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action.
3. Botany. a mode of branching by constant forking, as in some stems, in veins of leaves, etc.
4. Astronomy. the phase of the moon or of an inferior planet when half of its disk is visible.

I've been conceptualizing, art directing and shooting this series in tandem with my on going series dealing with white noise and visions. I'm proud to collaborate with Kristin Gerbert again. She's always been a great to work with and create around. She's also a photographer and speaks the language.

SUNDANCE WRAP UP 2010

Saturday night was the last night of the Sundance Film Festival. I shot the awards ceremony with Calvin Knight and the other press photographers. Our video crew did a live feed of the presentation on the site and we posted photos as the awards were announced. It was quite an experience. Watching film makers reactions as they receive accolades for their hard work at a festival that really tries to support artists is truly an honor.
World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – Mads Brügger, The Red Chapel
Awards Host David Hyde Pierce
Juror Morgan Spurlock
Award Presenter Joseph Gordon Levitt
Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – Debra Granik, Winter’s Bone

Immediately following the presentation the award site turns into a huge reception and party. Ticket holders drank and mingled with the filmmakers. Yours truly enjoyed the festivities at two venues; the before mentioned Awards After Party and at Late Night Lounge, a venue for filmmakers and institute members. Both parties were tons of fun and were a welcomed end to a great festival.

Late Night Lounge

We saw the shorts presentation on Sunday morning. The Shorts Program at The Festival is one of my favorite parts of the experience. I shot the awards show for The Shorts Program earlier in the week. It was good to see both the US and World winners; 'Drunk History' 'Six Dollar Fifty Man' and 'Dock Ellis & the LSD No No'. My favorite film this year is a toss up between two films. 'The Kids Are Alright', which got picked up and will be released. It's a light hearted family story of two lesbians whose children find their biological father and the hi-jinks that ensue. My other favorite 'Enter The Void' was a dark and psychedelic drug movie based around the Tibetan Book of The Dead. This film was also picked up by IFC and has been edited down, which the run time really needed. It's an intense film. I also caught Tucker and Dale Vs Evil and HIGH School which are safe bets for cult classic status.Jury Prize in U.S. Short Filmmaking – Drunk History
International Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking – The Six Dollar Fifty Man

TWELVE

Last night I saw the premier of Joel Schumacher's new film Twelve. It's an adaptation of Nick McDonell's novel of the same title. Imagine Bret Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction, St. Elmo's Fire and Gossip Girl thrown into a blender with 50 Cent and a Sundance audience. My review is mixed. I liked the character study and the simplicity of the film but found it to be a little slow, cheesy and heavy handed in parts. I've seen better and worse. It was an entertaining film at the price I paid for the free staff ticket. I'm by no stretch of the imagination a film critic, just a photographer at Sundance.

NEXT

This year The Sundance Institute has created a new category for films called NEXT. The category is based on making a film with little to no budget. There's no epic explosions or big name actors in these. This category is super inspiring to me. The filmmakers are really trying to put a lot of emphasis on a lost piece of some modern cinema - Storytelling. I shot during a discussing this morning. The discussion was a live stream from the Sundance site. I haven't seen any of these films yet but I do hope to catch them before The Festival runs its course, specifically One Too Many Mornings and The Freebie.