This week I was featured on MySpace. It’s funny, because it kinda all started on that site. In high school I used to make silly videos and post them on MySpace for my friends to check out. That’s pretty much how I built a following. Last week the social network connected and interviewed me to talk about me working with Snoop and Riff Raff. Check the post HERE.
There’s nothing like wrapping the year and finishing your final projects. 2013 was swamped with projects from all directions. I was overwhelmed, stoked, and incredibly stressed out, but in the end, I was super grateful for all the opportunities. For me, my last project of 2013 was a pretty big deal.
At the end of October I was approached by our producer at work about taking lead on a music video for Snoop Dogg’s(aka Snoop Lion) song “Get Away.” Snoop’s manager, Ted Chung, had expressed that he wanted me to fully direct a piece and that I would be free to do whatever I want. Though I was given creative freedom, it was hinted that he did want something in the style of a lyric video I did for Snoop at the end of 2012. Immediately I knew I had to bring in my good friend and awesome pixel artist, Myk, to help me out on this project since the theme of my treatment revolved around 90s video games.
Due to time constraints and other projects I was working on, the music video had to compromise. Myk and I had to pull out a 3D scene to make the delivery date, we planned on Snoopifying the indie video game, “Fez.” Luckily, we were able to make the deadline to send out to Machinima for them to post it onto their YouTube page.
Earlier this week I received an invite to join Google’s Explorers Program. The program allows devs, bloggers, geeks, and Google fanboys to get involved early with Google Glass. Those early adopter are then apart of a team that shapes the future of Glass…
After making an appointment, I dropped by Google’s HQ in Venice Beach to pick up my Glass.
I was brought into a Glass setup room where I was partnered with a Glass Specialist for an intimate walkthrough of the device.
Unboxing Google Glass was mindblowing. I was astonished by the amount of tech that was packed into such a small device. After syncing up with my Glass, I quickly realized that this bit of hardware is next up. It may look ridiculous, but the experience reminded me of the first time I got my hands on the first iPhone, it made sense and worked. Wearable tech is on it’s way to our lives, get ready.
Once I was done being setup, I was given an awesome tour of Google’s campus. Check out their famous Google Doodles hall!
For the past couple of years I’ve been working more and more in live production. It started with me creating stage content for Jason Bentley at Coachella in 2010, 3 years later I’ve now worked the top events and festivals in California doing live stage production.
This week my job, Cashmere Agency, held an event for Adidas Originals called “Respect The West”. Said event is a showcase that brings the top west coast artists to perform for one night in LA. Cashmere gave me the budget and opportunity to take over the whole visual experience of our Respect The West event, so I decided to bring in some killer toys and make it epic…
I went through a couple of stage renders for this event, but had to change the render up a couple of times due to budget constraints. I learned to scale down, while still keeping the quality of the experience at the same level. It was my first time designing a stage with multiple elements, I’m usually used to just throwing in a projector or two, but this time around I had LED walls, plasma TVs, and projectors. I wanted to amplify the live experience as much as possible.
Anxiety was trolling me hard the day of the event. I had a crew working hard bringing my stage render to life, my main concern was time. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to setup my computers in time since I had to do projection and pixel mapping. I was sending out 3 different signals, 1 to the projectors, 1 to the plasmas, and another to the LED walls. Luckily I had a Retina Macbook Pro and a 12-core Mac Pro to handle the load.
I was incredibly stoked when we were all setup and running.
Opening look. Pixels never looked so sexy.
Everything went as planned with minor technical difficulties. Adidas Originals couldn’t be more happy about the look, feel, and overall execution of the event.
It all came together with 45 Modular LED panels, 8 46″ plasma HDTVs, 2 projectors, a Retina Macbook Pro, and a 12-core Mac Pro.
I’m sure it’s no surprise that I ended up at the launch party for the Xbox One last week. I’ve been loyal to the console since the beginning and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Microsoft’s next generation entertainment system.
The event took play in Hollywood at Milk Studios. It was packed full of celebrities, YouTube stars, professional gamers, and fanboys.
Forza Mortorsport had a pretty nice setup in VIP. I was way too distracted by the Audi R8 to actually put my hands on the game.
The highlight of the night was the 2-hour set from Deadmau5. The Mau5 and Microsoft have an awesome relationship, it was great to get an intimate show from him outside of the music festivals I’ve been to.
Xbox nailed it with this launch party, it definitely eased the strobing pain in my wallet after buying the Day One unit. Can’t wait to start playing.