SHOWTIME

We shot this out in Milwaukee a couple months ago.

On our way back from the east coast, Matt and I stopped in Wisconsin for a couple days and met up with the homie John Pangilinan and Stan from Toyo Tires. We rented a bunch of lighting equipment and went out to Roufusport, Anthony's home gym where he does most of his training.

We shot it all in one night - mostly captured in super slow motion on this new camera we picked up recently, the Sony FS700. Anthony was cool to work with as always.

Sidenote for die-hard UFC fans - we actually filmed this as a promo for UFC 163, a fight that was scheduled, at the time, between Pettis and Jose Aldo. But the day after we filmed, Pettis flew to Brazil to do some pre-fight press and while he was there he ended up hurting himself in training and that forced him off of that Fight Card entirely. So for awhile we had this footage and there was no fight scheduled at all (Matt was sad). But then Anthony ended up getting on the UFC 164 card, which was also a title fight, AND it happened to be Milwaukee, Pettis' hometown, so it all worked out for the best.

Anyway, check out the fight this weekend. Matt and I will be there in Wisconsin - you'll probably recognize us on TV, we'll be the 2 guys eating hot dogs and not wearing Affliction or Tapout shirts.

MORE HYPE

Episodes 2 and 3 from the 5-part series we made for Cycle World and Ducati.

A few random production notes:

Episode 2: Target Practice

We scouted locations with views of downtown LA for almost a week. Regular building rooftops would not work because they have too much junk on the top - A/C vents, satellite dishes, etc - and not enough space to ride. So we rented the top floor of this parking garage.

The 'targets' we used here were light bulbs filled with a mix of corn starch and dry tempura paint. Made for a decently cool effect when they shattered - especially when we captured it up close in slow motion.

We hallowed out the light bulbs and funneled the powder mixture into them in the car on our drive to DTLA the morning of the shoot. We prepped about 50 bulbs to account for re-takes and multiple angles. The backseat of Matt's 4Runner was about as messy as you can imagine it might be.

Episode 3: Container Yard Chaos

This Container Yard is our go-to location in Long Beach - courtesy of our boy Tim Cadiente. It's the same spot where we shot Pacquiao and a music video and a bunch of other behind-the-scenes stuff for Tim.

The container that the riders do the long stoppie through had a hardwood floor. In order for the riders to get enough grip, we bought rolls of skateboard grip tape and laid it in strips across the length of the container.

Anyway, enjoy the vids - comments and feedback have been really positive and the series has already logged a couple hundred thousand views. I'll post 4 and 5 soon - an Egg Drop vid which made a huge mess and then the finale which we filmed at Oakley.

ADIDAS NATIONS 2013

Matt and I went out and took some photos at Adidas Nations last week.

Adidas Nations is one of the premier Summer camps for the nation's best high school players plus they bring in prospects from all over the globe - Asia, Africa, Russia, etc.

During the week the camp counselors consist of top college players and then a bunch of NBA guys drop in to help as well.

The guys trained and played all week at the Next Level gym in Garden Grove. Then on Monday, we went out to go check out the 3rd Place and Championship games which were held at Long Beach City College.

Overall it was a cool environment. We enjoyed hanging out at both the practice sessions and the games. It was interesting to see the coaches and scouts interact with the players on and off the court. The global aspect of it was intriguing too - spent a lot of time watching the teams from Africa and Russia and just appreciating how universal the game really is.

Rookie of the Year phenom Damian Lillard was in the building.

As was John Wall rocking some new Pro Model's and fresh off signing his $80M extension.

Damian asked to take a picture with me on my way out.

Matt and I left halfway through the last game as we had to get back to the office and finish a few projects on deadlines. A couple days later I read that Derrick Rose dropped in later, after we had left. Missing hanging out with him is probably the lowest moment of my basketball player stalking career. Oh well, next time. I will find you Derrick :)

Thanks to Nima and, of course, SLAM magazine.

GAME OF HYPE: EPISODE 1

Shot this in June on a stretch of abandoned highway at an undisclosed location.

We had 2 pro stunt riders, a van full of props, a few hours to film and 1 super slo-mo camera. There are 4 more where this came from. If you don't like this one, don't worry, they get cooler as the series goes on. Episode 2, shot on the rooftop of a parking garage in Downtown LA, coming next week.

KDVI PREVIEW

It's been hectic recently.

Past couple months have probably been the hardest that we've ever worked. But, for all the late nights spent working at the office (every night) and the weekends we work straight through (every weekend), there've been also some not so bad things too. Like chilling with Kevin Durant in Santa Monica last Saturday, courtesy of The Swoosh.

Anyway, more KD pics on the way shortly because I'm definitely planning on catching up on blogging soon. And sleep. And laundry. Until then, enjoy this new Drake song 'All me' because you know no one bootlegs music at 2 in the morning like we do.

DOWNLOAD NOW.

PIKES PEAK III

Because all epic stories are trilogies.

Last month we went back out to Colorado for the annual Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

Flew in Thursday night and had to be up on the mountain at around 4AM on Friday. At 14,000 feet, in the pitch dark of night before sunrise, it's freezing. We set this sunrise timelapse shot up and then climbed back into the heated seats of the rental car for a half hour.

Ducati didn't bring a factory team back to the mountain this year so we went out on behalf of ID Agency to cover Jeremy Foley for Recaro. Jeremy was the driver in that gnarly crash last year that was seen around the world.

Matt and Ryan were back in Cali filming other stuff so Petra came out again this year. Jennifer from ID came along to chaperone us.

While we were out there we also got to hang out with and interview Jeff Zwart and some guys from his team.

Jeff is a motorsports icon - started as a photographer then became a driver himself and also, by the way, is now a renown commercial director for all the big car companies including Porsche.

The Hill Climb is not a joke.

While we were out in Colorado Springs we found some time to try Rudy's Country Store which is a legendary BBQ spot, and also a gas station incidentally.

We were hungry and the food was cheap and I was worried that we wouldn't get to eat much being stuck on the mountain on raceday so needless to say we bought an absurd amount of food. The chicken was pretty amazing. As was the chocolate pudding.

Anyway, it ended up being a fun trip. Shout out to Greg Tracy and Carlin Dunne and the whole extended Pikes Peak fam who we ran into and hung out with that weekend. If you want more pictures of racecars and stuff and less details about what I ate for lunch, hit up our boy Jamey Price's blog. He has some sick images from the week - especially considering he shoots on Nikon's ;)

NEVER NOT FILMING

June was insane.

We basically filmed almost everyday of the month.

Milwaukee, Colorado, a stretch of abandoned highway, mountain tops, helipads, Oakley headquarters...

Anyway, we'll be editing around the clock for the next month. Or so.

It's 3:42AM at the moment. I'm at the office. Editing. Listening to Magna Carta Holy Grail. Here's the title track featuring our boy Justin Timberlake. DOWNLOAD NOW. No Galaxy needed. Happy 4th.

Shout out to Oakley for not only opening their doors to us but also letting us move their tank around and stuff. And Wes from Production Locations for all the help finding abandoned buildings and rooftops for us. And Mark Arcenal for throwing me on the Fatlace blog :)

PHILLY + BOSTON FOR SHRINERS HOSPITALS

We flew back east a couple weeks ago to film for Shiners Hospitals for Children.

First off we spent a couple days filming at the hospital in Philly.

We were framing up a shot for a guy with a guitar - he did music therapy with the kids - which is why I'm holding the boom like this.

The week was packed - we'd start pretty early each day and covered all parts of the hospital including filming in the Operating Rooms during surgery which was sometimes crazy.

Philly was cool. Ate at a couple nice spots - I'm usually skeptical of East Coast Mexican food but El Vez was good. This place Marathon had like healthy, organic food that was great. Matt actually snapped this photo one night on our way out to Insomnia Cookies.

Then from Philly we flew straight to Boston and filmed 2 additional days at the hospital there.

This hotel was pretty legit - a hundred years ago it was a jail and they've now converted it into a luxury boutique hotel with a charming 'jail' theme.

Hannah, the PR intern, helped make our jobs easier by handling the millions of consent forms we gathered from patients and their families throughout the day.

Didn't eat anywhere special in Boston - the one night we were there we were exhausted from the flight in, the jetlag and the third consecutive day of filming. So we stayed in, napped and watched a Kardashians marathon with some Room Service.

All in all, we filmed a ton of stuff in 4 short days and really we're just getting started. Hitting 3 more hospitals this summer including Portland and Mexico City.

Really interesting places to film and obviously completely different than everything else that we do. Always come away feeling extremely grateful and also just happy that the kids there are getting the best care in the world. The attitudes of everyone in the hospitals really make them special places.

Shout out to Fabiana from HQ for making it all happen and Stephanie and Jeanne for the hospitality.

RECENT WORK: DUCATI MONSTER RIDE VID

Here's the spot we did last month for Ducati.

This was like a 3 day trip where we filmed a group of Ducati Monster owners riding from Newport Beach up the coast to Monterey. It was a fun time, some great views and weather and Ducati took good care of us - lots of nice meals and hotels etc. Shout out to The ID Agency for making it all happen.

(If you check it out, click on the little gear icon and change the quality to '720p') :)

CHILLIN AT LUMI HQ

I recently spent a day hanging out and filming with Lumi founder Jesse Genet.

Lumi Inkodye is a sunlight-sensitive line of colored dyes that you can use to print everything from t-shirts to upholstery.

Long story short: I heard about this stuff on Uncrate about a year and a half ago and bought a kit to test out and play around with. A few months later I got to meet Lumi co-founder Jesse Genet at her company Holiday party. And then about a month ago I was able to get a tour of their company headquarters located in the Brewery Arts Complex in Downtown LA and film Jesse giving a product demo and talking about how far the brand has come.

Jesse and her business partner both dropped out of Art Center to start the business. Last year they raised over a quarter of a million dollars on Kickstarter to continue growing their product line.

Jesse has an amazing story of building this brand and the product itself is pretty revolutionary - it's a low cost, accessible alternative to traditional screen printing. It's always inspiring to see young, hungry people chasing their dreams and creating their own lanes. Jess was super chill and extremely easy to film and work with. Excited to watch where Lumi goes from here.

For more details, check out their site.

RECENT WORK: CYCLE WORLD: HIGH PLAINS DRIFTIN'

Two and a half minutes riding around in the dirt.

Last month I mentioned this project we filmed for our boys at Cycle World. Last week it became the video that everyone in the motorcycle industry was talking about.

We're pretty happy with how it turned out and more importantly everyone over at Cycle World seems genuinely pumped about it. Shout out to Alpinestars and Ducati for throwing it on their Facebook pages and everyone who helped blow it up on Twitter. Cyc World said the vid got some major traffic over the weekend.

This was a pretty epic shoot - Dudek, the rider, actually blew a tire during the shoot which caused some delays while it got patched and then made filming the bike jumping scenes a bit more nerve wrecking. Also Matt and Ryan drove the 4Runner up a mountain to get the one super wide shot and then they almost got it stuck trying to drive back down over some boulders. There happened to be a few random ATVers out at the lakebed in the background while we were filming so Matt had to digitally remove them from a few shots in post-production.

Thanks to Jeff Allen and Dudek for having us out there. Shout out to Scott and Sean from 4120 for the epic aerial shots. It's cool to look around online and see the response to this - in fact Matt and I were chatting at lunch today about possibly putting out a behind-the-scenes vid from this shoot. Could be cool - we'll see...