Brad has a BLOG: The Reel

“The only place where success comes before work is in the...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:44:40 -0500

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

A late night post about moving on, working hard and some other shhtuff.

Dropped a new video with the acoustic hip hop duo VIBE. This song is called “Moving On” and its definitely about transitions and transformations in life. With that said, I’m looking at the future and seeing what moving on from undergraduate college life will be like. Got a lot of plans to fill and big dreams to catch! There’s graduate school out in LA and internships in the film industry this summer! Definitely nervous about those but we’ll see where the flow goes. Looking at Chapman, USC and UCLA for grad school and Warner Brothers or RSA (Ridley Scott) for internships. Yikes! But enough about me…

Going back to VIBE, we’re (The Meteorites) working hard to get their super chill and catchy music out there. Expect to have your ear buds tickled by more great songs and your eyes aroused by matching visuals.

If you’ve got something you really want to move on from or a dream to pursue, then just don’t sit around and hope it will come to you. Stop being passive and work for it. Do everything you can to bring yourself closer to that desire. Let’s work hard to see our goals become a reality! I love Chris’s line in the new song, “to follow my dreams make a name for myself/ takes courage, endurance and a bit of God’s help” . So true.

Don’t be afraid to take the first steps, or additional steps. Fight and endure. Trust that our all powerful and loving God will have your back every step of the way. :]

I hope you found some encouragement with this post. It’s easy to get tired, burned out or down in the dumps when things begin to crash around you.

That’s it for now! Stay tuned!

Brad

OH I ALMOST FORGOT…

I put four secret messages in the new music video. They’ve got good vibes and are universally great messages. Two are in Korean, two are in English. They’re for everyone to enjoy! There are a couple however, directed towards a very special individual. See if you can find all 4, but don’t forget to enjoy the music! If you find all 4, let me know I’ll give you a prize haha.

Finally, I’ve got a twitter now! Follow meeee

https://twitter.com/#!/i8curry_mmm

Music video I made with the acoustic hip hop duo VIBE! Show them...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:03:00 -0500

Music video I made with the acoustic hip hop duo VIBE! Show them some love and like them at www.facebook.com/123vibe

Over 60,000 views in a month! Thanks for all the support! It was an awesome experience working with such talented artists and creatives! More to come, stay tuned :]

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. -Eleanor Roosevelt

oh pee ess…I signed up for a twitter account. Just sayin’

https://twitter.com/#!/i8curry_mmm

These past two months into school have been hectic, hard and...

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:07:00 -0400

These past two months into school have been hectic, hard and humbling. This is my first semester at the UofA not taking any science classes. Instead, I find myself doing all BFA and film related coursework with a bunch of amazing filmmakers and people. The projects have been hectic and it’s been hard to balance theory with work, practice and application. Despite all of this, it’s a good kind of chaos. I realize now that I’d rather be busy and busting my balls pursuing something I love than something I don’t care much for, like cellular metabolism and physiological processes (yuck). Granted, the stuff is interesting, but when I dive into a film project, I get a certain high and lose track of everything else around me. I realize now that I work obsessively, which can be a good or bad thing. I remember one time, my good friend Elijah Chiang commenting “Brad, you tend to concentrate and focus on one thing at a time. You need to be more aware of the things going on around you”. It’s true, and its both a blessing and a flaw that I need to continue to work at. In fact, this past week, my obsessive work habits became more clear to me than at any other time.

This past week I participated in Campus Movie Fest at the University of Arizona. It’s the world’s largest student film festival and it goes to hundreds of college campuses each year. Last year, my team threw something together and we made it into the Top 16 but to be honest, it shouldn’t have. This year, I had a plan. I got involved with as many projects as I could because of my love for production. I had the blessing of being Ethan Moore’s Director of Photography for “Caution Wet Floor” and Co-Director of Photography for another film called “The Elevator”. In addition to all of this, I developed an old pseudo sci fi script that I wrote and enlisted the help of my classmates and friends to help me bring my story to life. The result was Dr. Shelley. With the amazing talents of James Bonanno, Bruce Shelton and Michelle Papademetriou, my characters became reality.

During the week though, everything got put on hold. I didn’t return texts/ calls (sorry) to anyone who wasn’t apart of the production. I skipped class a couple times and didn’t do some assignments. For “Caution Wet Floor”, Ethan, Shon and I spent hours upon hours for two days inside a stinky, non-air conditioned men’s bathroom. For “The Elevator” we spent three days at various locations around Tucson filming. Finally, on Sunday night, my team and I worked hard on filming from 9 pm-5:30 am for my own film. It was tough and without the hard work and dedication of the cast and crew the film simply wouldn’t have been made. We finished at 5:30 am and I immediately began to edit to meet the 6pm deadline. It was crazy but well worth it.

Fast forward to Friday, September 30 at the CMF finale for UofA. My girlfriend, Hayeong and I are sitting in a row with our actors and crew from Dr. Shelley and Caution Wet Floor. Ethan and I are waiting anxiously for the MC’s to say our names. I can’t remember feeling anything other than pure nervousness during those final moments when they were announcing the awards. When the award for Best Drama came up, I closed my eyes not wanting to see what was on screen. Suddenly I heard it and my heart stopped. “The award for Best Drama goes to Dr. Shelley”. Then my heart went from 0 to 23032952304803 bpm and I walked up to the stage with Jason, Victoria and Bruce. I was really humbled that our work was recognized and I couldn’t bring myself to say anything when they gave us the mic other than “thank you to everyone who was apart of this”.

As soon as I had recovered and gotten off the stage, Ethan’s film, Caution Wet Floor, won Best Comedy and I had to go up again. This time I hid behind our actor James Jefferies and Producer, Shon Gale. I didn’t want people to see how nervous I was.

All in all, the week that CMF took place was a really humbling experience. I realized that I worked obsessively and it was bad at times but it was also good. I’d have to say so far, despite the days of no sleep and the tea and energy drink binges it’s been the highlight of my semester. From participating in film projects and CMF this year, it became more apparent to me that there are many talented and aspiring filmmakers (on the UA campus alone) who share my same dream. I can’t even begin to imagine how many are in Arizona, California and in other parts of the United States. CMF was a success because people transformed their love for film into actual tangible works that we could watch. Rather than sitting around and wishing they could make something, they actually made a film. CMF gave the opportunity to many who weren’t traditional film students (business majors, religious studies majors, science majors etc) to explore their own creativty and passions. That’s what was great about it. The finale was great because people came out and submitted their films and we all got to enjoy them together. To know that there are so many other talented people out there who share my love for film makes me want to work even harder to obtain my dream. :]

Thanks for reading again, I’m going to catch up on some much much needed sleep. Until next time, stay tuned!

Brad

ps you can also watch Dr. Shelley above so please check it out and let me know what you think! (Also, I’m trying to reach 1 million views to win an ipad 2 so if you share it, that’d be suuuper!)

The finished music video for “Love Came Down” by Jon...

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:09:00 -0400

The finished music video for “Love Came Down” by Jon Yee! Check it out!

Synopsis: The video is a modern reference to the story of Hosea in the bible and symbolizes God’s continuous pursuit and love for His people despite our inequities. Love Came Down refers to how while we were still sinners, God made the ultimate payment and sacrifice by sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for mans’ sins. [a reference to Romans 5:7,8] It follows the journey of a young woman swept into the dark world of human trafficking and her mother’s continuous pursuit of her daughter.

Making this video with Jon was a very intense and heavy experience. Over the course of a year, we met in Tucson and Phoenix to conceptualize, research, write, shoot, edit and screen it. I remember talking to Jon during one of our brainstorm sessions and saying “so Jon what kind of direction do you want to take this? We can either do a generic performance piece with band sequence or we can go edgier and do something less typical”. He decided on the later with a “how would that look Brad?”. I paused, gathered my thoughts and then responded, “what if we do a modern day retelling of the story of Hosea? This time, with someone who gets caught up in human trafficking”. But little did I know that we would actually be retelling the true story of a 16 year old girl named Paige. Jon got in contact with an organization called Streetlight Phoenix and through them we met Paige’s mom, Catherine. After hearing the true story at coffee shop, Jon and I were simply speechless. It was so sad and heavy. I remember feeling overwhelmed and a mixture of anger and sadness. How could we honor Paige’s memory yet capture, if only on the surface, all the horrors that happened to her? Jon put it simply, “let’s show everything except this time, let’s end it the way God would have wanted it to end”.

To learn more about what you can do to help end modern day slavery visit: www.streetlightphx.com

You can listen to/ purchase Jon’s album at www.jonyee.bandcamp.com . This is a really really great album with lots of well produced meaningful songs. Check it out!

The Present and the Near Future

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:43:31 -0400

So it’s been awhile since I posted. I guess you guys haven’t heard too much from me since I got into the BFA Film and Television program. It’s true. I blame the BFA for being so extraordinarily busy….but it’s a good busy and I love it. This first semester in the BFA has probably been my most favorite semester since coming to UofA and it’s so for a number of reasons. First and most importantly, I’ve met and gotten to know the other 19 people in our class and they are AMAZING. We have people who want to be cinematographers, animators, sound designers, editors, and directors! Not only are they technically capable but they’re all really great people. My classmates and I are able to share our passions for film and creativity in an environment where our short film productions equate to tests and our experiments with lights and green screen equate to labs! Heck, we don’t even have traditional finals! Our finals are to make movies…HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT?! To put it in a nutshell, I love the people in my class and I can’t wait to see what we create together and where we’ll be senior year and beyond. :D

I guess what I’m saying with this portion of the post is that if you have a passion foranything, whether it’s film, music, video games or food….surround yourself with people who are equally passionate. It’s the greatest feeling when you can relate to each other and even feed off of each other. Not only will you make great friends but you’ll also grow together and learn. Try it sometime :]

Now to the fun stuff! In terms of future projects that you can expect to see in the future, here’s some insight:

An untitled short film about an epic gun fight using fruits in Safeway.
“Love Came Down” by Jon Yee music video (we’re almost done shooting!)
An epic end of the year episode of CHTV with explosions and an evil villain
A melancholy short film about a middle-aged man who leads a pathetic life
The annual Taiwan STM music video
A music video cover of “Wasting Away” by Tonight Alive

Please check out my company’s facebook page to see the trailer for Jon Yee’s music video http://www.facebook.com/pages/Genesis-Music-Videos/176453902396440 if you haven’t gotten to see it yet!

Also, I’ve uploaded some of my class projects onto my vimeo account. Check them out here! http://vimeo.com/user5001887

It’s gonna be great you guys! Stay tuned! :]

Brad

I'm In!! :D

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:11:00 -0400

Last Friday (10/15/10) at 5pm I was accepted into the highly competitive Bachelor of Fine Arts Film and Video Production program at the UofA. After what seemed like weeks of waiting, I finally received the email while scarfing down some eggplant tofu. When I saw the first words “Congratulations on behalf of…” I shouted for joy and happily hugged my friend who had a mouthful of food in her mouth. It was a great feeling because I felt extremely blessed to have beat the odds (I think I heard that over 100 people applied and only 20 were accepted). I honestly did not think that I would make it, but God was faithful!

I now know that this is the path that He wants me to take and as I sat editing in front of Panda Express I started to think of how He caused everything to work together so perfectly. I used to be bitter that I had “wasted” 1.5 years of college solely focused on physiology and science. I was angry that I wasn’t allowed to follow my passion. But as my friend once told me, “God has you in a particular place, at a particular time for a particular reason”. And it’s amazing because I now realize He was building up my maturity and helping me to gain the experience that would make me a more competitive applicant. From blessing me with two wonderful jobs my sophomore year, (PBS TV crew member and Campus Health Videographer) to allowing me to serve on missions work in Taiwan, everything He blessed me with surfaced in some form or another during the application process. I even got to talk about Him to my interviewers!

This is a very wonderful and exciting time in my life and I cannot wait to begin taking my BFA classes next semester! Even though Friday was a couple days ago, I still feel like I’m in some sort of dream. And when I think back to everything that has happened, I’m reminded of the verse Jeremiah 29:11. It goes…

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

1.5 years ago, I didn’t understand why He was making me suffer through science classes I had no interest in. I didn’t know why I had even come to Tucson since UofA is a premiere research university. But It’s amazing how God works. He’s always faithful and even though we may not understand our circumstances He has our best interests in mind.

So to those of you who are struggling with figuring out what you want to do with your life, for those of you who feel frustrated and trapped on a pathway that isn’t you, and to those of you who are unsure about your circumstances…I really encourage you to just trust in God. He loves you, He has a plan for you and He causes all things to work together for your good and His glory.

The future is looking even brighter! Thanks for reading and stay tuned! :]

Brad

Suspension by MAE 1 of 50 songs from my list of 50 songs to...

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:51:13 -0400

Suspension by MAE

1 of 50 songs from my list of 50 songs to listen to before you listen to anything else!

The future looks bright!

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:35:55 -0400

Recently I had the opportunity to make my first short film with a friend for the Interpretations contest. I’ve always focused on music videos so I figured it’d be a great way to start learning how to make shorts. I must say that it was a great learning experience and I realized how lucky I am to have friends who would sacrifice the better part of their day to help in the production process! :]

Making my first short and entering it into a contest was also very very humbling. There were entries from many very talented people who, to say the least, kicked my team’s butt. BUT! I’m very grateful for the opportunity because it allowed be to gauge where I stand and how much harder I’ll have to work to follow my dream! Right now I feel like Naruto wanting to take on the whole ninja world! I want to keep learning and growing in my craft to become the Hokage of Hidden Leaf!…..err I mean a director in the film industry.

Guys, I’m super stoked to see the new things God is going to throw my way and this is only the beginning. I really hope you’ll stay along for the ride!

Thanks so much for all of your support! You rock! :D

Stay tuned.

Brad

A Music video cover I made to “I Am For You” by...

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:09:00 -0400

A Music video cover I made to “I Am For You” by Waking Ashland

Original music by Waking Ashland
Composure 2005
Tooth and Nail Records
Lyrics and Music by Jonathan Jones

Music video cover of “After the World” by...

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:07:09 -0400

Music video cover of “After the World” by Disciple

original music by Disciple

Scars Remain 2006
Epic Records/ SRE recording

Directed by Brad Wong
Ellis 42 studios
6.23.09