My own corner where I put my thoughts, likes, projects and anything else that might come up in the near future.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

So this is the obligatory Death Cab for Cutie quote...

Hope all will be fun and safe for everyone on this fine night.

Its crazy that 2010 is so close, I remember when it felt like a far off year that would never get here.

One cannot help but remember that fateful battle that occured only twenty years ago tonight...




Happy New Year!

Friday, December 25, 2009

My Favorite Things #'s 3, 4, 5 (Christmas edition)e

So, yeah. I didn't put up my last three entries before Christmas. Oh well.

Just so I don't feel like I wimped out on the whole blog I'll give a quick rundown of what they are.

FAVORITE THING #3

X-Entertianment.com Christmas Countdown/Advent Calendar


Before you make any wild accusations, no this is NOT a porn site!

It is a website that does reviews and such for pop culture gems from the late 80's to present time.

I discovered this website when I was around fourteen or fifteen years old and I've been checking back for updates every since. One feature that that I look forward to every year is the Christmas Countdown/ Advent Calendar.

This consists of the main writer of the website, Matt, reviewing various nuggets of Christmas joy in the form of Christmas Crunch and Play Doh Christmas Gift Box Super Set's.  These reviews have become infrequent during this time of year but the one thing you can count on being up nearly every day is the Advent Calendar.

The X-E Advent Calendar is a joy to read every season.  There really isn't anything I can say to describe it other than you have to read it from the very beginning when they first began to be put up.

Below are links to the individual years. I know it looks like a lot read but trust me, each entry is pretty short and the story that is woven over the years is really a great read if you have some time to kill (or some assignments to procrastinate doing)

Advent Calendar 2003
Advent Calendar 2004
2005
2oo6
Two-Thousand Seven
Twenty Aught-Eight<---can't find it, will update it soon!
Too 1,000 NINE


FAVORITE THING # FOUR!

SANTA HATS!


To those of you who choose to wear these in public: Keep it up!

FAVORITE THING # 5!

"24 Hours of 'A Christmas Story' on TNT/TBS"



For the past seven years this has been an annual tradition for me and my brother. Now you may ask yourself, 'Why on earth would you want to watch 'A Christmas Story' over and over and over again? Wouldn't you get tired of it?"

To answer your second question: no.

To respond to your first question question: The key is to NOT watch it over and over again. You must watch it like you would eat a tasty snack at a plentiful snack table that would be at a holiday party. Say you like deviled eggs. Well you're not going to wolf down the whole platter! If you did that, you'd get tired of them pretty fast. You just nibble a bit. You savor it, you enjoy it. and thats how me and my brother enjoy this Christmas film.
We watch a scene. We laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and laugh.  Then we change the channel and watch a documentary on Wal Mart! We then go back and watch Ralphie kick Black Bart's ass for the fifteenth time. It is always a great time and I look forward to it every year.

That brings this favorite thing entry to a close, look for another entry pretty soon detailing my haul this year on this, the grandest of holidays!

Monday, December 21, 2009

My favorite things #2 (christmas edition)

I have a feeling that most of these entries will be film related....

Oh well!

Today's entry is very near and dear to my heart.

"National Lampoons Christmas Vacation"

I remember this being one of the movies that I would watch with my family from a very young age during Christmas time. Thinking back on that now it is a bit surprising that my parents would let me watch something like this at such a young age, this alone could be the reason for my twisted, warped sense of humor.

Huh.

Below is just the intro to said film, probably one of my favorite parts from the whole movie.




Poor Santa, can't catch a break.

I hope everyone is getting about done with all of their shopping for this glorious time of year. If you're not done, may God have pity on your soul because the crowds will not.

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

My favorite things #1 (christmas edition)

For Christmas this year I am doing five day series of things that I absolutely love about the season.

For my first entry, a Christmas classic:



Random Thought: You never really hear anyone call Charlie Brown just "Charlie". I almost feel like the universe would implode in on itself if such an act occurred.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

10% chance of percipitation. 100% chance of frost bite.

As I've mentioned before on here, I am making a short film. I have been for about three months and tomorrow will be our last major shoot.

I managed to get a video camera called the HVX secured for the shoot which is awesome for one and one reason only: it shoots 60 frames per second. Which basically means it will shoot slow-motion footage in camera. No motion blur or anything of that nature. And that makes me really, really, really excited.

However...

What doesn't make me excited is that for tomorrow the high will be around 31 degrees and the lows will be much lower than that.

In addition to that, one of my actresses doesn't wear shoes in the role that she is playing.

Yeah.

This should be interesting....

I'll be sure to post the aftermath as soon as I get the feeling back in my hands.

until then!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Watch this now.

I really enjoyed the Pixar film, "Up" both in regular format and 3D.
If you haven't seen it, go and watch it then watch the video below.
If you have, watch this NOW!




hee hee

Monday, November 23, 2009

Busy week provides entertainment for the massess...

I have been extraordinarily busy this short week. Provided for your approval is one such project to be born out of this business.

I hope you enjoy!

You Would! Fall 09 Trailer from Nick Nielsen on Vimeo.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Funny thing happened today...


  

     I work with the television station on the college campus, it's called KVIK, and today I was filming a segment for one of the shows that they produce called VTV.  The segment basically comprised of my friend Ian, the interviewer, going around Red Square, a large area that is prime for social gathering, and asking people questions and getting responses. Pretty straight forward, not too hard to film and we couldn't have asked for a better day either. It was BEAUTIFUL! Not a cloud in the sky!

   The only problem that arose once we arrived in Red Square was we didn't count on there being loud jack hammering and sawing going on in the construction site adjacent to this social gathering space.  Me and Ian talked it over and decided it wouldn't be too much of a bother so we continued on.

As we were getting into the filming and having fun with it, suddenly and without warning at least 15 people walked into Red Square. Each one was carrying a large graphic picture of an aborted fetus. What they were doing there is pretty obvious.

We both were a bit taken back by the turn of events. We thought that today would be the best day for this kind of thing to be filmed and it was! The weather was amazing! Not a cloud in the sky!  With the exception of the jack hammering and the aborted fetuses, it was a wonderful day!

I guess the point of all this is that, as a filmmaker who is filming on location you never really have that much control over the elements.

And with that expectation, Murphy's Law reigns.

But, having to work with these unexpected occurrences on set is what makes this work interesting.

It keeps you on your toes.

Or, something like that.

Monday, November 9, 2009

30% chance of rain = No rain at all

Last Sunday I had another great shoot for a little short film I wrote and am co-directing.  It's called "Bluebook Odyssey" and I couldn't be more excited with how it is turning out.



Below are just a few shots of the production so far.











  




 


As we near completion I'll be posting more photo's of our shoots and the final product.






Friday, November 6, 2009

First.




So, here we go. Following the example of some of my friends, and just wanting to have a place to post my own personal projects and experiences, I am starting a blog.

To start it off I posted a picture!

It was taken in Alaska last Summer while I worked in a salmon cannery for about a month. With all the pictures that I took, I really felt that this above all else really exemplified what Alaska was like for me. Sunny, barren, and filled with people riding ATV's on the main highway.

I might go back next summer.

Maybe.