"I believe its one of the fettuccines..."

Happy New Year!

Merry Sketch-mas!

COMPLETE!

What a productive two days this has been!  I find it interesting the second the quarter is done, I finish two things that have been hanging over my head since summer.

First, I have finally finished my friend's wedding video (which is conveniently located below for your viewing pleasure.)


Caitlin Larsen and Chris Antes Wedding Spectacular! from Nick Nielsen on Vimeo.



And, today I FINALLY finished principal photography on Cop Story!
Here are a couple pictures from the shoot.

I am so happy that I have these things behind me.  Just being able to look forward at my future endeavorers without these hanging over my head is so relaxing.

Lots of interesting things in the works...

 I'll be sure to keep you posted!

KDH - Boardgame - Lady Gaga Parody

I helped with this.

I would like you to watch it.

It is entertaining.

I hope that you enjoy it.

Freezing hands and late nights

Just finished up principal photography on a short film that I made with one of my friends Blake Jensen for an English class.  Its called "Her" and it is chock a block with metaphors and symbolism and all kinds of crazy shite.

Heres a couple stills until the finished product is up.

Oh Internets # Whatever

Maybe it's just me.

Oh, hai bed.

I love the WWU library during halloween time. I wish the whole campus would decorate like they do.

Oh yes.

It's coming.


(pun)

Busy Man.

I'm involved with many, many projects as of late.  This weekend I start production on what may be the last "You Would!" sketch I direct.  I will say nothing of the story except for one thing:

DEERGASM

Details to follow...

Oh Internet's #2

Cracks me up every time.

Oh, Internets #1

I'm taking a cue from a friend of mine. She usually posts interesting pictures and other things from time to time and I feel like this would be an interesting way to pad out my blog when I don't feel like writing long lengthy posts about whatever

The difference with mine, though, is that mine will consist mostly of interesting ads that I find on the internet.

With the exception of this first one, there usually will be no preface given before or comment afterwards.

The pictures really DO speak for themselves.

Oh Vegas...i need sleep.

Off to Renton for a week!

Nothing says "Canada" like a toasted and buttered bagel from Tim Hortons. :)

Oh, hai there Canada.

Making Changes

For the first time in two years I am officially living in a new place.

Just the thought that I don't have to ever set foot in my old apartment brings so many smiles and happy feelings to my being.

It isn't just that I won't have to deal with my jackass of a roommate any more or that I now have a bigger room (which is always nice).

It's change.  My life is changing, in fairly significant ways I might add.

In addition to this, than a month from now I will be starting my senior year of college.  Insane.

I also am taking charge with the kind of film projects I am working on and I already have many lined up to occupy my time when school work and friends isn't.

I will also soon be beginning work on a much higher profile piece of work for a local celebrity (more on this when it develops).

Yep, lots of new things and big changes taking place.

Here's to hoping I can manage it all.


Until next time!

Oh, Pilgrim...

Yesterday, I had the chance to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

For approximately two hours my mind was continuously blown apart by the awesomeness that I was witnessing.

This film is unlike anything I have ever seen before.

It made me excited and hopeful that film, even being a little over one hundred years old, still has a few tricks up its sleeves.

It also made me want to make more movies, films, artsy things, etc and not be afraid to try something a little more daring or something that might defy convention.

This absolutely calls for a second viewing.

Or a third.

Or fourth....

The beginning of the end

The second scene shoot has just wrapped.

More details and a reflection to come soon.

Just know, slow motion makes a lot if not everything look amazing and awesome and cool.

Good lighting doesn't hurt either.

Hiccups (Cop Story Production Update)

Something that I am always having a difficult time with, especially as director, is maintaining control.  Over the course of the previous year I have gained experience and knowledge in many aspects of the production process.  I have come to realize that control really is just this nice little illusion that we give ourselves.  Without bringing into question of a higher being overseeing the world or something like that, it can be hard for me to justify all of the accidents and happenstances as pure coincidence. Either way, the most I can do is be prepared and hope for the best.  That's all you really can do. Besides, you don't want everything to be smooth sailing all the way through, where's the fun in that?

I mean, there are some things you can try to anticipate and work around.  But then sometimes it can just rain and rain and rain.

Cop Story's first day of filming had to be postponed because of, you guessed it, weather. It's all, anticipated, clear skies here on out, though.  Principal photography is set to begin tonight at 9:30pm and I couldn't be more excited and nervous and anxious.

It is nerve racking.

So, so, so, so nerve racking.

But...

I love it.

Until next time!

A "Cop Story" Story

As I would hope with every project I undertake, this has been such a huge, gigantic learning experience, and it has made me realize how people off campus are exteremly willing to work with you and be accessible for film shoots, etc.

This project has also been interesting simply because of the fact that this is the first time I've done a film during my college career that is outside of the "KVIK" banner.  It has been a bit stressful but also strangely empowering to be responsible for my own progress, it had really made me look at this whole "film making" thing as more than just holding up a camera and saying action, but that it is about working with you community and being responsible among other things.  Just seeing myself be so proactive during this whole time really has cemented the fact in my mind that I want to do this for as long as I can and also hopefully get paid while doing it too.  Money is always good.

Our first shoot is next Monday at 9pm and we film until 2:30am.

I am expecting at least ten extras, a crew of about six or seven.  This is going to be interesting.


Expect nightly updates, but don't expect them too much.

Sleep always takes priority over updating my imaginary readers.

Oh, and if you're wondering what the significance the picture above has, that's where we are filming.

All week.

At night.

:)

Until next time!

Rumblings...

I don't why I thought that compacting ten weeks of work into six weeks was going to somehow be easier cause, turns out it isn't.  At all.  But it is helping me take more action with projects and homework and other things. So that's good.  

Anyway, amongst the storm of my school work and the rising temperatures of the summer season, I am also developing a new short film that I am directing and editing.

Its about the trials and tribulations of being a police officer in this day and age and the consequences that arise when faced with the difficult choices that must be made in times of danger.

Oh, and mimes.

Cops and mimes.

Should be fun!

Details to follow.

Light Is Calling

A short film we viewed during out "Death of Cinema" portion of my Intro to Film Studies course. A very beautiful film and thought provoking as well.

Looks pretty impressive doughn't it?

As promised, here is my latest directorial effort: The Doughopticon.


The Doughopticon from Nick Nielsen on Vimeo.

This is definitley one of my favorites that I have worked on. We had a really good cast and crew as well as an excellent producer which really helped during the rough patches.  While it was fun, it also had its challenges.  About half-way through filming I had to go to my friends wedding in Philly for a weekend so I had my good friend and fellow filmmaker Gabe Conroy guest directed the entire end sequence with the montage and the reveal.  I unsure how it would turn out in the end but I made sure to go over my storyboards with him so he would get the "feel" that I was going for.  When I finally saw the footage my worries were put to rest, to say the least  The cinematographer was my other good filmmaking buddy Sean Leonard who also the camera operator on Bluebook Odyssey who never ceases to impress me with the work that he puts out.

If I have gotten anything from the experience of directing this sketch I would say that is has rekindled my passion for filmmaking. In all the hubbub of doing very rudimentary work for KVIK I had really forgotten why I was doing this to begin with and how excited I would get to just film in general.  It also got me really excited for my short film that I am working on this summer (which I need to start writing!)

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

(If you do leave a comment!)

Better late than never.

Remember how I said I was going to post a little pictorial of my trip to Washington DC about a month and a half ago and I never did?  Well, here it is!  


I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

More after the jump...

Sprinting to the Updates!

I now have only three weeks of spring quarter left and I still have so much that still needs to get done.  Amidst all of the writing of papers and studying for tests, there is a sketch I am directing for You Would titled "The Doughopticon".  It has been a fun little project and I have really been satisfied with the results up to this point, heres a little taste:

I am really excited to see how this one turns out. It is the first project I have directed that was not written or edited by myself, so I am interested to see how it all comes together in the end. I'll make sure to post it once its all completed.

In addition to my KVIK related projects I have finally decided on a story for my next short film and I have begun doing a rough draft of the script.  It is a very irreverent story but I think it will be a ton of fun to make and I am really looking forward to getting all my old KVIK friends back up here to help out. It will be a nice reunion of sorts. Developments will follow shortly....

Along with all of these projects I also made a quick little trip down to Philidephia for my friend Dave's wedding. It was a really great event, and I couldn't be more happy for him and his wife Helen.  While I was there I met up with some old friends from high school who were also attending the wedding. We got onto the subject of a little project that we all worked on a couple years ago entitled "Life with Lombardo".  We were all really proud of the work that we put into the many different iterations that we had created and wished we would've done more with it.  Then we got into a serious discussion about actually proposing the show to a network, more specifically, Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. So now I am in the process of researching how we should go about that.  We're not even sure if it will really go anywhere, but it doesn't hurt to try!  I mean, who knows, maybe it'll get accepted and then I'll be involved with the production of a show on Adult Swim! Or maybe none of that will happen.  Either way, its all sort of exciting happenings!

Been a long time..

So I have decided, after much thought on the subject, that this week will be one of the most stressful/exciting/crazy weeks I will have in a long, long while. 

Luckily tonight I am seeing Ghostbusters tonight in 35mm at my local movie theater. That is where the exciting comes in.  The midterm I need to study for afterwards is where the stressful comes in.
The insane weekend traveling to Philidelphia from Friday through Sunday is where the crazy comes in.

Oh yeah, I'm ready for it.

Wish me luck.

35 Millimeters of pure amazement

A local movie theater is doing weekly screenings of movie classics (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Goonies, Ghostbusters, to name a few) and I decided to take a trip down to check out the latest showing of Raiders. I had heard about it in my Film Studies class and I asked my professor whether he knew they were going to be screened in 35mm or not. He said they would all be prints, but I was skeptical.

I had been in situations where I was expecting a screening of a print but was sad to see that it was nothing more than a copy of the film on DVD. Having this happen to me several times I was a bit cynical to the whole deal. They wouldn't really take the time to order prints of these films, would they? I still bought my ticket hoping for the best.

The night of the showing finally came and my level of excitement really hadn't peaked quite yet. The unsureness of the method of screening probably more than any other reason prevented me from attaining that level.

As I sat there in my cushy seats the spaces around me slowly began to fill up more and more. In addition to myself two of my friends Ian and Thomas joined me to see this classic film. Finally the dreaded "Inside Look" concluded and the house lights came up. I wasn't too surprised by this, I figured there would be some sort of prize giveaway or trivia question to be asked by the most expert Indiana Jones fans in attendance, and this situation was no exception.  The prizes were given out and before the manager turned out the light once more he mentioned something about how the PRINT of the last film, "The Goonies", was a little rough but that this one should be in better shape.

WAT.

From D.C with love...

Hey there!

I have been having a great time for the past couple of days enjoying my spring break in our nations capitol!

Expect a pretty good sized pictorial in a few days showing some of the highlights!

-N

Take it away!

This has made my weekend.

Spring Shattering

Hey everyone,

Finals Week is almost upon me and my fellow WWU peers and that can mean only one thing...

No one is getting any sleep.

In addition to the obvious that also means that Spring Break is right around the corner!

I am really looking forward to this one because for the first time ever I am actually going somewhere and/or doing something exciting for Spring Break: going to DC!  Washington, that is.

I am borrowing my friend's Canon Rebel SLR camera for the trip so I will make sure that the it is well documented.

Look forward to (hopefully) daily posts about my adventures as I explore our nations capital!

I will end today's post with a video that I did recently for the that VTV show I work on every once and a while.
Hope you enjoy it!

Ruminations about projects

I've been thinking a lot lately of my own work and how much I really haven't done in the way of film. In order to combat that lack of creativity I have decided to make two changes.

1) I will do at least one creative thing everyday. This could include a drawing, taking a photo, editing something or writing a story. Whatever it is, it needs to start now.

2) Have weekly movie night at my friend Sean's place. Perfect oppertunity to gain some inspiration.

3) I am going to make a short film before next school year. I don't know what it will be about, but it will and needs to happen.



In the meantime I will be making a series of funny short shorts with my friend Chris Antes. We've been talking about doing them for a while now and I see a perfect opportunity to get help out my friend and make some fun, little movies at the same time.


I will keep you posted as things come arise.

BLUEBOOOOK ODYSSEY

Hey There!

It has been a while since my last post (school and things take up a lot of my time!)

Thought I would post that short film I was talking about a couple months ago

Hope you enjoy it!

PART ONE


PART TWO


PART THREE