SHOWREEL

DOCUMENTARY

BARN / neil young and crazy horse #GRAMMY NOMINATED BEST MUSIC FILM 2023

UPDATE* Late 2022 BARN received a Grammy Nomination for Best Music Film. See you in April at the # Grammys

BARN - Recorded in Midsummer 2021 somewhere in Colorado. Crazy Horse reformed for a two week recording session in a Pole barn that had been rebuilt exactly as it was originally in the late 1800’s. Daryl Hannah directed and shot intimate moments with the band while I facilitated the rest of the shooting. Don’t spook the Horse is always the main rule to abide so I designed the production around that, and crept around in the shadows operating where I could. The sleepless nights were worth it, as the time-lapse I made for “They Might Be Lost” is one of my best ever and when paired with Neil’s music brings a tear to my eye every time. Also pictured here is the packaging my photography was used to produce.

MOUNTAINTOP / NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE

Directed by Bernard Shakey and DHLoveLife. I was the Director of Photography. 86 minutes of unbridled Crazy Horse, making an album in a studio at 9,000ft above sea level.

“Mountaintop” is similarly restricted from a visual perspective. Despite the scenic locale of the recording studio, there are only a couple of moments when the band and the film step outside for a bit of fresh air. Most of the footage has been shot from small digital cameras that have been placed throughout the studio and is put together in a deliberately repetitive shot pattern that at times utilizes angles normally associated with security cameras. For some people, this particular approach may strike them as somewhere between irritating and downright perverse. But it proves to be an intriguing stylistic gambit from Young and cinematographer Adam Vollick, who create a visual equivalent to the Crazy Horse sound—something that might seem to be plodding and monotonous on the surface but proves to be far more inspired than that.

via https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mountaintop-movie-review-2019

HERE IS WHAT IS / DANIEL LANOIS

My first film. A co-direct with Daniel Lanois and Engineer Adam Samuels, I shot and edited this beast in the space of a year and it premiered at TIFF in 2007. I got to ride to the premiere with one of my heros, Anton Corbijn -who also shot a scene for our film in Morocco between Brian Eno and Daniel. I lived and breathed this movie, slept on the editing room floor in LA working 20 hours a day for 10 months. It was a trial by fire for a kid who only ever wanted to be a Nat Geo photographer. I have been learning filmmaking in public ever since. As an aside, I also designed the packaging of the DVD in it’s two different incarnations. The Deluxe edition layouts are included below.

MUSIC VIDEO

SELECTED WORKS

UNCERTAIN COUNTRY. GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS 2023.

In support of his Heavy Sun Orchestra lead track release, we made this psychedelic dance film. During the 2nd Lockdown here in Canada Daniel approached me about making a film for his latest upcoming release. We reused the film of our friend Carolina dancing after Nuit Blanche in 2010 (the same film Sioux Lookout was based on) in a reimagining amongst the geometric samplings Lanois makes on a daily basis. I animated the geometry and then put everything through my sound activated processing algorithm and this beautiful #glitchart is the result.

This is the earliest public example of my experimentation with sound activated manipulation and AI altering time interpolation. I took a collection of abstract images Daniel creates in his meditative way from sampling of his daily environment and run them through my processing rig attached to a series of microphones and algorithms that interpret different frequencies and apply various effects. I then recompile and resync the results to the original audio. It was done in support of the radical record Daniel Lanois and Venetian Snares produced in 2018. Reviewed by Pitchfork here.

Spontaneously one afternoon in Toronto, while we were preparing for departure on the Flesh and Machine tour, we rigged up the Cadillac to do a quick remix of Tinariwen. Cut it and delivered that afternoon.

Music Video, I shot, directed and edited for Daniel. This film was initially shot the night after Nuit Blanche in 2010. Daniel called Carolina Cerisola and I into his new workshop in Toronto after a sleepless night - and then the film was shelved, to gestate. All of our collaborations are impermanent, synesthetic and evolving to changes in the landscape. Then in 2014, when I heard the new developments in Dan's sonics for (flesh and machine), I was inspired by their sub-spatial nature. The indigenous cries that echo in "Sioux Lookout" remind me of the nearly extinct ways of people who understood our balance within nature. Carolina danced off the shelf and transformed into a disappearing supernatural creature - parallel to the sound - adapting naturally to her new environment.

Brian Blade, Daryl Johnson, Daniel Lanois and Trixie Whitley.  I shot a series of one take videos for this project that got me my gig with Neil. "Music video by Black Dub performing ""I Believe In You"" Live Off The Floor. (C) 2010 JIVE Records, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment"

NARRATIVE

PARADOX

An unrealistic tale of music and love. Directed by Daryl Hannah. Starring Neil Young, and Promise of the Real (Lukas Nelson, Micah Nelson, Anthony Logerfo, Tato Melgar and Corey McCormick).  Special appearances by Willie Nelson and Elliot Roberts.

THE FRONTIER

Directed by Matt Rabinowitz. Starring Max Gail. I Directed Photography.

The Frontier is a familial drama about three unlikely individuals at crossroads in their lives, who come together and help each other find their way forward. Sean, a retired literature professor and civic activist, writes a letter to his son, Tennessee, a ranch hand who hasn’t been home for years.

ART & MUSIC

NEIL YOUNG / HOME TOWN

December 1st 2018, Neil Young played Coronation Hall from Omemee, Ontario in a worldwide livestream and is now streaming on Crave TV in Canada.  Directed by Daryl Hannah.  I co-art directed and directed photography as well as operating a handheld camera.

JT + THE TENNESSEE KIDS

Directed by Jonathan Demme.  Starring Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids.  Streaming on Netflix. 

Shot over the course of 5 days in Las Vegas,  I was a documentary camera operator, and on stage operator for Declan Quinn.

NEIL YOUNG / JOURNEYS

2011.  The third in a series of Demme/Young collaborative concert films.  I got to shoot for Jonathan after he saw LE NOISE.  I was a handheld operator under the guidance of Declan Quinn.  My first of a few pictures with JD and DQ. 

NEIL YOUNG / LE NOISE

© 2010 WMG Watch the premiere of Neil Young's film "Le Noise," featuring performances from his new album! Get it at iTunes - http://wbr.fm/decJgb Directed by Adam Vollick.

COMMERCIAL

WATER COMMERCIALS / TIMELESS ORPHEUM / NEIL YOUNG

During the first lockdown of 2020, my daughter and I made a series of commercials for Water to coincide with a Neil Young Concert film I shot with him during the Polar Vortex in Minneapolis, MN in 2019.
We did the first one as a surprise for Neil when I delivered the rough cut. He kept making these throw to commercial from stage “this show is brought to you by water.. it’s free” etc. I couldn’t help but think he was talking to me.

If you haven’t seen it, head on over to NY ARCHIVES and checkout the Timeless Orpheum.