I was browsing the web and saw Vincent Laforet announcement of his contest. I thought it was a GREAT idea to take a still image, interpret it, and turn that interpretation into a short film of 2-4 minutes. Not only does it give you exposure, but it gives you a purpose which drives motivation and determination which is the foundation to success in any industry. In addition, it would help build a reel (portfolio) of my work in all categories of filmmaking.
So in this film, we had to interpret a treasure chest in a warehouse. I had a million ideas how to take it, but of course, have to stay within budget which “NO BUDGET”. But I knew that the only time we can do it was at night and I had the perfect location to shoot it. But as the result, I needed a shoulder-rigg which I had to dish out, out of my pocket. We shot using natural lighting which is pole lighting from above and used a flashlight for a “spotlight”. It was about 20 degree below and we took 2 nights to shoot it (5 hours each). After we shot it, I spent well over 40 hours of editing, sound designing, music scoring, and overall production on this film. I can tell you that within that 1 week of editing, I only slept about 3 hrs a night. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the film!
Brief Synopsis:
An ordinary man and woman stumble across a mystical clan of spirits yearning to break free from their dwelling inside a vintage 1950’s radio.
Kvibe Productions, LLC
Produced by: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Directed by: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Written By: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Director of Photography: Khoa D. Le
Editor: Khoa D. Le & Salvatore E. Sutera
Original Music & Written By: Khoa D. Le
Sound Design by: Khoa D. Le
Behind the scene photos: George Rivera
Production Assistants: Kim Nguyen, Joe A. Nunez, Eggie Belizario Escueta, Alyssa Pontecorvo
Actors:
Jean / Girl: Jean Farinella
Man: Paul Santiago
Jean’s Friend: Alyssa Pontecorvo
In 2 weeks, I finished 5 songs, finished 2 short film screenplays, setup online distribution stores to sell songs from Artist I worked with as I’m doing Independent releases to my records, and shot a wedding for my photography work. I also entered into the Vincent Laforet Contest to shoot short films with a deadline for each submission. And this is on top of my 9-5 job at Ernst & Young.
People ask me how do I find the time to get things done. Well, lately I’ve been sleeping around 4:00 am – 5:30 am and having to wake up at 8:00 am for work. I guess you can say that I’m more motivated than ever as I feel I am producing quality work, very confident in my abilities, and I smell something happening around the corner. I also think having management to help me expose my work motivates me as I finally have a vehicle to drive my music to another level. I have someone to take my work, present it, and I don’t have to go out of my way to do small talks with people just so they are comfortable on who I am so they can “place” a song for me. If only they used their ears instead of relying everything on reputation, it would be much easier for me.
Anyways, that’s my update! Please go to my iTunes store or Amazon or whatever stores that are posted on my page and download and support! Thanks!
Since it’s the holidays and I know everyone is on a budget. I’m giving a holiday discount for portrait photographs. It’s $100 for 2 looks, 4 edited pictures, and all unedited photos I took for that session. If you’re interested, please email me at khoa.le@kvibe.com. You’ll get the pictures within 2 days. This is only temporary until after new years.
Shot this with a customized grid (made out of straws) on a speedlite 580ex ii on camera left. Had continous halogen lights lighting the back and a reflector on camera right. I used a 50mm F1.4 and a tripod to shoot.
Took a few tries to get the right lighting angle that I liked, but I got it.
I’m pretty convinced that this music industry is just getting harder and harder in becoming successful. You would think just like any successful business, you need to have the right people to work beside you to make it happen. It’s just that, in music, with the right people, you still have very high potential chance in failing. Supposedly, you have a better chance of being a Brain Surgeon or astronaut than being a superstar. Now, I don’t need to be discouraging, it’s just the facts of life.
I believe how I will achieve success in the entertainment market (which I love so much) is by taking a new route. Something I also enjoy doing lately which is writing, directing, and producing films. I’ve been on the grind on that level where I’ve been practicing, learning, and continue to further my self-motivation in educating myself to create great films. To think I started off video blogging to making films blows my mind. But I’m falling in love again(almost cheating). But the music business have jumped into the wild wild west where nobody really knows how to become successful. I know people with such a big network of people, credibility, and still can’t make it happen in today’s market. Though film and music go hand to hand, film requires more patience, more work, more creativity, and more of everything else than music. Unlike music, you can’t finish a film in a day. Or do post production in a day. There’s a huge difference in the work ethics for film as far as people and I believe it’s such a turn on to lean more towards that route.
In music, I just don’t know why musicians, artists, writers, and even producers who are trying to be established slack off sooooo much. Their mind says they love music and want to do it, but their actions speaks for itself. And I can tell you, the people I’m dealing with now, nobody is there right now. I thought of becoming my own Artist, and I believe I can do it much better than so many right now. But I just don’t love being an Artist, I don’t love performing or care for it. Because my heart isn’t there compared to writing and producing, morally it won’t sit in well for me. But film has taken a new turn in my career and I believe “Journey To Success” will be leaning there. It’s not confirmed as I like to have some Reels to show. And if it comes out great where I feel I have the nack for this, it will be confirmed that my priority will be films and since I do produce music, I’ll be scoring on my own films as well.
Lets see how that turns out =) If only there was a Recording Artist that had more drive than the average human being, maybe it would just be a different story. Again, remember, you can be managed, produced, be under a major label, but if have the mind frame of being pushed by someone else and think they will make you successful, you got it all wrong!
Photographer Nini Kim Nguyen taking more pictures of me. We try to practice as much as we can as not only it’s fun, but it’s really the only way to get a strong understanding of taking artistic pictures which we want to get into. Playing with the shutter speeds, aperture, iso, natural lighting, shadows, and then post production. I hope you guys like
We were in this shadowy area. I wish there was more light, but we played with the shutter/aperture/iso and achieved these results. We are still learning how to use the Camera so we can achieve great results for our music video. No manual controls just yet until June 2nd for video so it’s better to test with photos. I’m working hard to achieve quality. Leave a comment on what you think?
Richard M. Ponce: “A Flock of White...
Shavon Grass: I would be interested in submitting...
Khoa Le: Major labels shot themselves in the foot....
Robert M: Great topic and I think I can add...
Khoa Le: You too Tuan! It’s always nice to...
Add Comments | 
Recent Comments
Richard M. Ponce: “A Flock of White... Shavon Grass: I would be interested in submitting... Khoa Le: Major labels shot themselves in the foot.... Robert M: Great topic and I think I can add... Khoa Le: You too Tuan! It’s always nice to...