Making Mooooovies!

So I'm going to back track a little bit and recount status update on my film...

I had just gotten back from an epic 21st Birthday Celebration Galore in Munich, Germany when I finally got a solid response from one of my contacts. I was finally going to make a movie. One problem. She calls me on Monday the 28th telling me that that upcoming weekend may in fact be the only week she will be painting till Spring. Luckily I have no plans so I agree, realizing this may in fact be my only chance to get footage. However, this week was one of the longest weeks we had at the AIB. I was getting up at 7am and not getting home till about 11pm. Incredibly long school days, mixed with a trip to Aachen and Masstricht. On top of that we had an editing project to do for school.

Basically, that entire week I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to prepare for the weekend ahead. Come Friday, the day I leave for Berlin, I'm completely exhausted, unprepared, and unorganized for this trip. Yet, somehow I had unbelievable luck. One of the student workers agreed to come along with me, because she wanted the experience and liked my project. If it wasn't for her, I don't know what I would of done. She was able to keep the project running smoothly.

At any rate we make it to East Berlin where the artist lives. It was pretty sweet being in East Berlin because it just so happened to be the 20th anniversary of the signing of the reunification Germany. The city felt so incredibly alive. I was in awe of the surroundings for everywhere I looked was covered in some form of street art. We finally manage to get to the artists house, a bit behind schedule. The second we walked in the door she asks us "Where's the beer?" So we drop off our stuff go grab a few pints come back and stay up talking, watching movies, and enjoying a few pints.

I managed to grab some solid interviews the next day and some pretty sweet shots of her painting.

The next few shooting days were insanely hectic, however I was able to get some really good footage. Although, I'm not entirely satisfied with what I currently have.

At any rate the last day I went to this really sweet bar and made friends with the bartender as the place was closing. Turns out this guy is a graffiti artist and would be doing a joint piece with his friends the next week our group went there. Also, he may be doing it on a piece of the Berlin wall. I was freaking excited. So all in all hectic, but fairly good week.

The Pitch!

On the 26th of October we all had to pitch our ideas to a bunch of composers from Musicube. Hopefully by the end of the day we were all to have a composer or at least a step closer to having composer to truly get our film in the works. Sadly, we arrived at AIB early in the morning only to hear about the passing of a good friend back home. Needless to say it was a long and hard day. However, we all did manage to give our pitches, and in my opinion every single one of us did a damn good job. Everyone has really good and really interesting ideas, I'm looking forward to every single one of their films.

My pitch was interesting, I had no idea what I was going to say save "I'm going to keep this short..." It ended up being pretty decent although, my story became a lot more philosophical (for obvious reasons) Luckily after my pitch I had a few composers interested in my idea, and am now working with Sebastian Werrmeyer who is just as passionate as I am about my project.

Anyways, my heart goes out to all of you back at LMU, especially those men of principle who lost a great brother...

Il Tartufo Bianco

After the Berlin and Prague group excursion I had no weekend plans, so my friend Ben approached me and wanted to know if I could help him film his documentary in Italy. My instant reaction went something like this "Italy! Hell yea!" I'm so glad I did. Not only was Ben kind enough to pay for my flight since it was a bit last minute, we also got our lodging for free. Oh yea, I didn't mention that we just so happened to be staying on an Italian vineyard in Piedmont region of Italy. Not only did we get lodging for free, but the vineyard paid for most of our meals or at least gave us a nice discount. I was very content!

So here we are in this free bed and breakfast-esque vineyard making movie magic. Ben's project involves following the Il Tartufo Bianco or the white truffle from its search in the forest to the first bite. So Ben and follow a truffle hunter and manage to discover four white truffles. Prior to arriving in Italy Ben tells me to "Go crazy filming and just do what I do..." Me = Very Happy now.

It was pretty freakin epic following this dog around in the forest trying to film her in search of truffles. (They use to use pigs to find truffles, but they like to eat them. So now truffle hunters train dogs. Yea...there's a fun fact for you. You should feel smarter now.) So Ben and I are stoked on getting some pretty sweet footage, and go back to get some dinner and wine....for free! Awwwwww yeeeeaaaaaa!

The next major scene was to film a truffle dish being prepared. So the next day (after getting to sleep in for the first time since I left) we went to a restaurant, although not the one we initially planned for. Regardless, it was amazing! They took us into the kitchen and I begin bouncing off the walls trying to get sweet shots. The chef ends up making four traditional truffle dishes. One is buttered noodles, the second a cheese dish, the third some raw meat (basically it put Kobe beef to shame), and lastly a simple fried egg. They bring the dishes out and we get all the shots we need. Then Ben and I look at each other and turn to the chef to which he says, "Sit! Eat!" We are in shock. We ask how much and they refuse our money and instead bring us wine. We can't believe it. White truffles are pretty pricey, the truffle they were about to use on this dish was at least 40 to 50 euro! They want us to eat this for FREE!

They then shave the white truffle on the dishes... Now I need to take a moment to explain this to you, so you all can truly appreciate the beauty of the white truffle. They take out this elegant silver shaver that is wider then a normal shaver with an octagonal shape. They began to shave this delicious fungus onto the food.

The flakes lightly fall on to the dishes releasing their aroma into the air which gently caresses your nostrils longingly begging you to explore their deliciousness. It almost looks like snow as the shavings so delicately land on the field of noodles, finding a nook or cranny to cradle them. Once the waiter is done shaving the beautiful fungus you can't help, but salivate. The aroma is so pungent and distinct, that you can already taste it. At last we sample the dishes. I slowly take a bite of the buttered noodles now covered in the deliciousness that is still truly unknown to me. I take that bite, and in an instant my senses are just filled with beauty. We eat all the dishes and drink our red wine which so subtly compliments the flavors enhancing the overall experience that your tastes buds are going through. In truth I must say that the best dish was indeed the simplest. The fired egg truly let you taste the majestic flavors of the truffle. By the time we finished all the dishes and wine I thought my tongue needed a cigarette from the mind blowing tastegasm it just had. (I don't actually smoke...)

Afterwards Ben and I relaxed some more, hiked in some hills, and just enjoyed Italy. The final day we went to the 79th Annual Truffle Fair and got some footage then headed back to Bonn. Ben managed to pick up a truffle to use for his pitch the next day!

Last Group Excursion with a Side Dish of Extended Family

For our last group excursion we went on a week long trip to Berlin then Prague. I had been to Berlin the week before and made a few contacts that could possibly prove beneficial to a paid project LMU had put me on. Basically the idea was that Sam and I had to collect interviews on the street about the Berlin for its 20th year anniversary.

So when we arrived in Berlin Sam and I were allowed to deviate from the planned group events, and do our thing. We met with the bartender slash graffiti artist I had met in my previous trip. He took us to this little alleyway where he and five of his friends were working on a collective graffiti project. His friends were some well renowned artists in the graffiti world, among them being Poeta! We filmed their entire work, and I occasionally left and wandered gathering other interviews.

They were a great group of people and a lot of fun to work with. They came from all over the place some being from Berlin, others from Chile and Argentina. We spent the entire day with them, and even gathered more contacts, and another possible side project.

Later we met back up with the group. We checked out a few sites, like Checkpoint Charlie and the actual wall. We went to an amazing dinner then some of us went to catch a concert. That was an epic night. The concert went from being really tame to off the wall crazy the second BNR started playing. Somehow though we went from the very back of the crowd to right on the stage. We returned back to the hotel really late, and really sore, but it was an epic night.

The last night we all met up and went on top of the Rathus. After a few days we were to head out to Prague. Before that though we went on a few more tours and were allowed to do our own exploring. Sam and I did a little bit more work on our internship project as well as the other project I mentioned earlier.

We then checked out a studio in Berlin where they had just recently filmed "Inglorious Bastards" After that we were headed to the Czech Republic.

Oh Prague! After a long train ride we finally end up in Prague. We get there in the evening and we all go to this amazing restraunt together. We later explore the city as a group at night.

The next day I wake up to hear one of my friends say, "He look guys it's kinda snowing..." To which I immediatley wake up yell "It's Christmas!!!!" succesfully waking up everyone. Phil and I start dancing around and I open the windows and start taking pictures. Mind you it's snowing outside. I'm hanging out the window in nothing, but my boxers taking pictures talking about Christmas and Santa bringing toys. After a hour of this we go downstairs and start the day. We have a few planned activities and a walking tour. We stumble upon this little coffee shop and everyone gets hot chocolate (Prague was the first country I've been cold in)

The night begins and first it's off to the Opera. It was pretty cool for the most part, although it was in Czech. Afterwards we all headed to this little place called the Beer Factory. It was pretty sweet. Basically every table had a tap, and every beer you poured the bill and a tally would add up. The tally was sent to a big screen where every tables tab was kept. So basically you ended up trying to beat other tables or even challenging them. We won. Moreover, our entire group, well mainly the girls, decided to dance and once we hit the floor the place really picked up.

The following day we were on our own till midday. So we ventured around exploring the town. We found a Dali museum that was pretty cool and did some shopping. At midday we all went to a TV Studio. For some reason we were all acting silly and the tour guides were eating it up. They took us into this sound booth and started playing really random music to which we all instantly starting dancing too in whatever style it was.

They then took us onto some stages and gave us these muppets to play with. It was a really weird tour, but pretty sweet. With the coming of night we all went to one final restrauant together. Thee best sausage I have ever had. I called it the Obamasausage. It was that good. Our teachers were having a good time with us so we invited them out. They ended up coming with us to this 80's - 90's club. It was a pretty epic night.

The next day I departed from the group to a little town in Germany called Hof where my Step-mom has some family. It was a really relaxing weekend. They took me to this comedy club (Although I really only understood a few jokes about Obama), and then we went to a wall memorial where a piece of the wall actually went through a house. Later we met with more family and the daughter who was my age took me out with some of her friends. All in all an epic weekend!

Golden at Oktoberfest

So before I even left for Germany I was determined to celebrate my 21st at Oktoberfest. Part 4 of MG21E! was just that. We took an overnight train to Munich so we would arrive in Munich at 7am. Upon arrival our friends got separated. A few friends of ours who were already there had saved a spot for me in their hotel as a Birthday gift, and they also invited James to stay with them as well. Our friend Sam was going to meet up with some USC friends of his and stay with them and Phil and Ben were staying with some of Ben's contacts.

It's very hard to get back in touch with people in a place like Oktoberfest. On top of that all of us had run out of minutes, and none of us were really able to call each other. We only had some money to text each other. So the celebration didn't really go as I had planned from the beginning because I was separated from a good majority of my friends. At any rate we ran into a few friends, David and Sammy T. We tried to get into the Spaten tent that our friends were at, but could only make it to the garden (It turn out there were two tents, and we were at the wrong one anyway). Regardless, we decided we would try to meet up with them later so we go looking for a tent. Many of them were closed off, I thought I wouldn't get in, but good ole David was determined to get me in one.

We ended up at the Pauliner tent. It was amazing. There is nothing quite like Oktoberfest. After looking for a table for about 15 minutes we finally found one in front of the band, but had lost Sammy T and James. We figured they would try to text us, or were just a bit behind. David and I got a few liters and started making friends. The table next to us was all Italians, the table behind us was British folks, the table on my left was a mix of German, Austrian, and Alaskans. The table behind them was some guys from New York, and the table directly across from us was just some cute German girls. After a few liters we were all friends. Glorious thing of festivals involving music, food, and beer.

At last Sammy T and James had found us. Just as a group of Italian football players arrived. They were ridiculous. They instantly befriended me for my Italian heritage and the next thing I know we are singing and drinking together. The New Yorkers turn to me and yell, "Hey California!" I respond, "What up New York?" For some reason all the Americans found it easier just to call each other by their state. He continues, "Yo man, we need to get a goddamn God Bless America in here!" I respond, "Why not? You start, I'll get your back." "I'll right once there is a break between songs!" As he says this the band stops playing and there is an uproar for New York and me, the Alaskans, and my friends. The Italians join in as well as the Germans, and once we finish all of the Italians and Germans yell, "Obama!!!!!"

The Italians treat me as one of their own now. They start getting really saucy, and well, start grabbing woman passing by pulling them onto our table and having them dance for us. Meanwhile, continually telling me to grab their posterior. I'm not going to lie, I did, and every single time it went exactly like this. "Hey! Did you do that?" cried the damsel. "Why yes I did?" I replied with a slight grin. "Where you from?" they would retort. "California..." I would say. "California!!!! I love you!!!" they would yell. To which all of the Italian guys would start laughing and goading me on....oh ONE of my peoples.

We finally leave that tent get some food and crash out in the hotel. Which was sweet because the hotel was literally about a 100 feet from the festival. We later regroup and I get a call as I wake up that all my friends had just woken up from a nap to and our waiting for me on a hill. Meanwhile, one of the guys who had invited me to stay in his hotel, had gotten sick the day before (literally sick and was in the hospital). He ended up being ok, but could go out. Which sucked because he is of German decent and had gotten really excited about being here to the point where he had gotten legit linderhosen. I told him I would don his garb in his honor for the remainder of the day. Mind you he is bigger then me in both height and size, so the entire ensemble hung on me, and I looked as if I was 12 years old. I didn't care though...I was a man with a mission.

We eventually meet up with our friends and get into the Haufbrau tent. We spend the rest of the night there, as my friends buy me a few more drinks for my birthday. At last we get a bit more food and part for the night. Oktoberfest is an endurance test. Drinking from about 7am to 12am is quite a challenge, but we had survived.

The next day I took advantage of being in Munich and explored the city. I headed to the Olympic stadium, visited the BMW museum, and the Haufbrau Haus. We ran into a few friends throughout the day. Namely I ran into my friend Blake and Sam Thomas (who is studying in Austria). Later we ran into a few of the girls. First being Anna, who tagged along with us to the Haufbrau Haus. Along the way she found a stein from one of the tents and decided to take it. James had warned her that it wasn't a good idea, but she took it. As we walked up to the Haufbrau Haus they caught her with the stein and kicked her out. It was slightly funny. Anyways to make it up to us she offered us a space in the car that she and another girl were renting to take back to Bonn. James and I mulled it over and decided to take her up on that. Not the greatest choice cause we ended up in traffic the entire way. Oh well, I saw a lot of country side, and sang obnoxiously to the random music on German airwaves....

Overall, part 4 of MG21E! was pretty amazing. A few of the guys still want to do a little something for me, since we didn't really get to celebrate together till the very end though. So it looks like there may be a part 6 and a possible part 7 still to come. Part 7 being celebrating with my friends and family back home, since my 21st actually means something there...

Je'Taime Paris!

Awwwww Paris.... I have been to Paris once before when I was 12 years old, and to be quite honest didn't really enjoy it all that much. I did, however, enjoy the countryside quite a bit. Yet, I decided to give Paris another go. Especially since two of my friends speak French fairly well and one of them, that being Ben, had lived there for a year.

I must say this time I thoroughly enjoyed Paris. Ben showed us his favorite spots from when he was living there as well as some major tourist things to check out like that big metal thing that's really famous.

That night we out to dinner in this little Fondue place. It was such a good meal. They served us wine in baby bottles, which apparently started a long time ago during some prohibition movement or something, but the place kept in tradition. We later went to a few pubs and just really enjoyed the night.

Finally we made it back to our hostel, which also happened to be a bar on the first floor. We made friends with the bartenders and had a great night. I think I only paid for one drink there, it was pretty epic. Finally the place closes up, and the barkeep asks me if I wanna go out to this place he knows. I recall the words of my brother-in-law as if he were Obi-wan speaking to me through the force, "If someone asks you out, even if it's four in the morning...just say yes." So I heeded these words. We ended up at this little club listening to live music. It was an epic night. I finally made it back to the hostel around 7am and got up at 8:30am to head out to Disney Paris with Ben.

Disney Paris was freaking awesome. It was all made possible by cousin back home who gave me a free ticket to any Disney park in the world, as a birthday present. I was very happy, needless to say. The park was the most detailed Disney park I have seen thus, far. It also has the best Space Mountain of all Disney parks. Ben has been to Disney Paris a few times, and knows the park fairly well. So when we went on Space Mountain, he neglected to tell me the joys of this particular Space Mountain. So as we begin our descent we hit a loop, and I flip for I completely forgot that this was the park with the indoor loop. The entire time I'm laughing and yelling, "There's a loop...and a CORKSCREW!!!!" It truly was a great time.

We later met up with the rest of our group. They had gone to the Lourve, which I have been to before, but would have loved to seen again. We spent the rest of the time exploring Paris by night, and taking some photos of the lights. When we got back to the hostel, my friend's told the barkeep it was my Golden Birthday and he put on the most childish Happy Birthday song I have ever heard. Thus began part 1 of my Golden 21st Birthday Epicness!

We headed back home the next day and I got a birthday beer via train with the guys for part 2 of MG21E! When I arrived home my host family had surprised me when I entered the door with a few gifts as well as a cake. They prepared a traditional German meal for me, then my host sister took me out with a couple of her friends for part 3 of my MG21E! It was a good Birthday day, but was still be actually celebrated a few more times.

Oh Amsterdam....

First we attended the IBC 2009 the International Broadcasting Convention, where I realized I am a film nerd as Phil, Ben, Sam, and I started geeking our over lighting, editing, and camera equipment. After a long day of making some contacts, talking with some workers from "How I Met Your Mother" and playing with the RED, a big group of us made our way to the sketchiest hostel I have ever had the pleasure to stay on.

Now this was truly an adventure to get too. First we had to take a ferry...which went on and on and on. Then the directions simply read "Go around the MTV building (you might just wanna ask someone where it is). I look up and take in the scene. Basically it was an industrial play ground with broken glass and graffiti everywhere. Basically a place most people would tell their daughters not to walk down alone at night. Whatever, its Amsterdam right? So we keep walking and finally we see the sign to our hostel which looks like this:

Ummm.....yeeaaaa.....sketchy for sure. Yet, we finally managed to make it to our hostel. Or should I say Boastel! That's right we were staying on Boat Hostel that slept 25-30 people. We picked a winner for sure. Oh....European adventures.

Anyways, we enjoy the city and what it has to offer. Manage to see the Anne Frank House as well as the Vincent Van Gogh museum which was pretty sweet, and of course we got to experience the night life. Passing through tiny alleys in the Red Light District that both made you somewhat giggle and feel disgusted because it truly was like a Zoo Exhibit. I did, however, find it somewhat interesting that they were separated to areas based on....well....I guess....quality? I don't know. It was weird.

So we go back to sketch hostel 101. Mind you returning to this place is no easy venture. First off they gave us a map back which basically is a compilation of little squares and an arrow saying "Go Here!" Now here comes the fun story. It all begins with one very very special friend of mine....

As we step off the bus that supposedly drops us off at square one which we are suppose to walk around to go between big square and little square....seriously, worst. map. ever. Some of the guys decided that now is an appropriate time to relieve the built up tension of drinks before. They run off into a bush and my special friend tales behind. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out where I am and how to get to the hostel. As I stare at the map in utter confusion at the map one of the guy says "Oh look a cop.." To which the boys in the woods decided to stop publicly urinating. One darts off to only God knows where, one discreetly makes his way around back to my side, and the other well....we will get there in a moment. The cop pulls up to me and asks "What are you doing?" to which I show them the map and explain the situation. They ask "Were you just in the bushes?" I reply with a simple, "No." The cop is just about to say ok when suddenly there emerges our special friend from the bushes hair de-shelved, belt undone, zipper half zipped (or should I say half unzipped?) The cop looks up a bit startled to which this special friend yells, without any pretext, "I didn't do it!"

Now kids, I assumed everyone knew this, or at least learned from an early age that when one is confronted by authorities the first words out of your mouth should never be these. Especially when they haven't said a word. Yet, it gets better. This special special friend then chimes in with a "It wasn't me!" and wraps it all up with a nice final punch of "Nothing I swear!" I pause look at this special friend in utter disbelief, jaw somewhat agape and give him a look that reads, "Well...you're on your own now kiddo!" I return to trying to figure out where to go while my special friend tries to....well I presume talk his way out of the situation. Some highlights of the remainder of the confrontation:

"So if you weren't peeing what were you doing? Touching yourself?"

"Ok I was going to pee, but you came and I got scared"

"Do you have ID?" "Passport or driver's license?" As this special guy whips out his neck travel protector...mind you he is the only one wearing one of these things.

"I'm just scared!"

Anyways he manages to get out of it, and then we get directions from them. We return to the hostel all realizing how incredibly different this situation could have gone and glad we can now laugh about it. Oh Amsterdam...

First Group Excursion to Eifel!

Our first group excursion was to the region Eifel. None of us were really looking forward to this trip for all of our host families looked at us funny when we told them that we would be gone for four days in Eifel. Mine simply responded "Are you going to stare at trees?"

We headed out early that morning not really knowing what we would do. We ended up going to a few castles seeing a few sights, and strolling through a few cities. As we reached the top of one look out tower one of the heads of our program kept telling me places to find beer in case we ran out that night. I wasn't really sure if he was joking or not. For just a few days ago we were to have a group pub crawl in Bonn to get acquainted with the city and have a good time. However, certain people from another program did somethings that resulted in it being cancelled. We thought that was the end of the cool AIB.

Nein! We were wrong. Eifel proved to be one of the greatest experiences. The first night we got our rooms. Basically we had a little house to ourselves, complete with kitchen, living room, fireplace, and even a sauna. This was to about seven people, and we loved every single second of it. We go to the dining hall to get dinner, and feast on meals of the most delicious potatoes I have ever tasted. They serve us a beer and we cheer. All is good in the world. Then the beer just keeps flowing. Then suddenly something wonderful happened. Our teachers and faculty as well us were all on the same level. Which is a great feeling. The night ended with a blindfolded beer tasting challenge.

The next few days held cinematography projects, but since I had already taken this course in the states I basically just got some B-roll for my internship project and relaxed all day, hanging out with the professors. That night we had wine tasting, followed by the guys in my cabin going back starting a fire, playing some music on the guitar, and drinking some hot tea.

The next morning a few of the guys and I went on a morning hike and watched the sun rise over Eifel. It was a pretty amazing weekend, and I gotta say I must agree with what everyone told me about this program. You really do become your own little family.

Woah!

Wow so yea....I've been busy. Really really busy, but in a good way. So why I go back and try to retell the events of the past months here are some cool things of note:

Dancersize work out video ONE from Jesse Mansfield on Vimeo.

This is a little Project that I worked on this past summer and as you may notice I make a little cameo.

Moreover, I actually began some shooting in early October and hopefully will have a teaser trailer of my documentary up soon!