Bringing you up to speed

Obviously I haven't posted in a while. It's been a super busy few months, so I could use that excuse, but honestly it's due to laziness.

I plan to spend a lot more time updating this blog on a regular basis but first I guess it would be a good idea to show what i've been working on.

The biggest thing that has happened is I formed a Production Company with two of my friends named 214 Productions. We plan on focusing on Commercials, Music Videos, and Narratives (Short Films for now).

You can view everything we've done so far at our website 214productions.com.

Our biggest project so far has been a music video for a local band named Blame Sydney. It's gotten some good buzz in the local community and hopefully will open up avenues for us to get into more music videos.

Other than that, I directed a short film, co-directed a promo video for a local DJ group, and worked on a few commercials. Just go to the website and check us out, give us feedback. I'll keep you up to date about all our future projects.

The Ambiguous Ending

After seeing Inception more than once, I feel I should say something about one of my favorite things...the ambiguous ending.

The ambiguous ending is something that instantly doubles the greatness of a film to some, while frustrating others that want everything to be tied up in a nice neat package. I and definitely in the first group.

Two of my favorite films from the past decade, Pan's Labyrinth and the aforementioned Inception, both have brilliant ambiguous endings. They are in fact essentially the same ending, asking the audience whether they believe the certain things are real or mere fantasy.

Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth, was quoted as saying that you could tell whether someone was an optimist or a pessimist based on their interpretation of the ending. Whether or not thats exactly true, I don't know, but I do think he's hinted at the brilliance of such endings.

That brilliance lies in the fact that essentially the ambiguous ending takes the experience of the entire film, with all it's emotions, and turns to the audience asking the question: " What do you think?"

It's that question, that bringing the viewer directly into the world that gives the ambiguous ending it's power. The experience ceases to be voyeuristic, and becomes participatory. What YOU believe changes the film, and no one can factually prove you wrong. It allows you have some sort of faith in the film.

This does however bring up the question of who gets to decide what the truth of a certain film is. Del Toro has said that he has an opinion about the ending of Pan's Labyrinth, and that his opinion is true in the sense that it has some facts backing it up. But does the director's opinion trump the viewers? That's a question for another blog post...

An amazing ad from Britain

This is a video I was shown by my fiance, and it's just too good to not post here. It's simple and beautiful. I hope one day I can make videos on this level.

Sweet Home Fundraiser Video

Sweet Home is a TV project of the Layman Group, a local non-profit arts group in the city I live. I am in charge of making behind the scenes documentary videos for the project and this is the new one I just made. Check it out, let me know what you think.