TOYO TIRES UFC SHOOT

We helped out with a little MMA photoshoot a couple weeks ago.

Our boy John P was photographing the UFC fighter Anthony Pettis and Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett for Toyo Tires.

Matt knows Anthony Pettis because he's a die-hard UFC fan. I only know about him because I saw him on MTV's World of Jenks one time. Cool guy though, very chill and easy to work with. He lives in Milwaukee and flew in just for a few hours - came straight from LAX to the gym in Fullerton where we shot and then he went directly back to the airport to fly home - kind of crazy.

We shot Anthony doing his his signature "Showtime" kick where he jumps off the fence. It's a pretty legit move.

Then we shot some stuff with Josh Barnett. We grabbed lunch with John and Josh after the shoot - we let Josh choose the spot and I thought we might go grab steaks or burgers or something but he took us to a teahouse where we drank tea and had salads - seriously.

At the end of the shoot Anthony actually climbed into the boxing ring with Stan from Toyo and they sparred for awhile. It was fun to watch up close. Anthony just sort of went at half speed but Stan was not as bad as you'd think for a guy who works in a tire company office all day.

New facebook profile photo :)

Here's one of the final pieces that Toyo used for posters and banners and stuff.

ATLIENS

Flew down to Georgia a couple weeks ago.

The ID Agency sent Matt and Ryan and I down south to go film with Pirelli for a week.

Pirelli lent us this conference room for the day for us to work out of.

We filmed a tour of their facility in Rome, GA. It's actually one of the most advanced tire factories in the world - it's filled with robots who construct their high end tires around the clock. Wish I could show more pictures but it was pretty cool - super high tech setup where a series of giant robots pass the tires down the assembly line.

Anyway, later in the week we went out to Atlanta Motorsports Park and filmed some on-track tire testing.

Pirelli brought a bunch of their staff out and tested their tires on several different sportscars - Porsches, Lotus', Benzes, that type of thing.

At one point, we hopped into the back of an SUV and a driving instructor drove us in front of former Formula 1 driver Derek Daly, in this Carrera, and we filmed some shots of him on the track. It was hot and super humid, and pretty nauseating getting tossed around the back of the Ford Escape but we got some really great footage of Derek driving.

Wednesday night was crunch time - we locked ourselves into this room at the Hampton Inn and cut 3 days of footage down to a little 4 minute edit.

We had a ton of stuff to go through, including about a dozen interviews, but all 3 of us worked all night and knocked it out. We delivered the vid Thursday at noon and everyone at Pirelli seemed to enjoy it.

Anyway, hectic trip but definitely a good time. Glad we survived the week's worth of thunder storms and got everything done on deadline. Shout out to The ID Agency and of course everyone at Pirelli who made the project fun.

CCS AM PROJECT SPOT

We threw this together this week for the skate retailer CCS.

I drew most of the pictures but Matt did the hard work and made it all move around and such. It was fun to work on - we've been wanting to do something similar to this for awhile.

Anyway, more posts and such coming soon - it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Until then, if you miss us and want to hear my rants on the Knicks player personnel moves, hit us on Twitter.



Shout out to Cullen and Paul at CCS and thanks to the girls at Pitchblend PR for putting it all together.

HOTWHEELS STUNT AT XGAMES

Went out and filmed the HotWheels Double Loop Dare at XGames last week.

We're putting together a little video for Recaro for the The ID Agency.

Ryan and I went to Mattel HQ over in El Segundo on Friday for a little pre-stunt press junket type of thing. We got to tour the Mattel offices and learn all sorts of HotWheels secrets. We saw how all the toys are developed and tested and stuff.

We did interviews with both drivers. Got to catch up with the big homie Greg Tracy and chat about the wildfires in Colorado that postponed Pikes Peak are were wreaking havoc on both our Summer schedules.

Met Tanner Foust for the first time - super chill dude, great to work with.

Anyway on Saturday, Matt and Shane and I got up at dawn and made the trek up to Downtown LA.

The place was packed with XGames athletes and fans and camera crews and stuff.

We got all our cameras in place and just waited for the whole thing to go down. The stunt was no joke - the loop was a World Record 6-stories tall and everything was broadcast live on ABC.

Of course Greg and Tanner made it look easy and everything went off without a hitch.

After the stunt was wrapped, security actually let us up onto the loop. Matt and Shane grabbed some cool b-roll shots while I snapped photos for Instagram.

Anyway, very cool project - it was nice to go out and film at the XGames. Our recap vid should be done in a couple weeks. Until then, just wait on the edge of your seats, thanks.

SCHEDULING

I found this photo a couple years ago online.

It's from Hypebeast, from an interview they did with a photographer named Kenneth Cappello.

I don't remember anything from the article about Cappello or his work, but the image of his handwritten schedule, littered with names of celebrities and legit commercial clients, always stuck with me.

From the outside looking in, you wonder how anyone ever gets to that point. The kid is doing photoshoots that other people dream of - and he's doing 3 of them of a week.

For us, in the past couple years, we've definitely come a long way. Scheduling is an art and the busier things get you feel like you're just balancing everything on top of each other. We try and be flexible. We book a lot of stuff last minute. We also miss and reschedule a stupid amount of flights.

I'm impressed by massive productivity, no matter the circumstances. So many people are out there working 2 full time jobs - that's what's up.

We really hardly say 'no' to anything cool that comes our way. It's a gift and a curse. But when you run your own thing and start like we did, broke with no clients, you dream about the day your calendar is filled and your phone is ringing off the hook.

So, with that in mind, keep it all coming. There's still one or two days left this year where we're not yet booked.