Andrew + Mandy

Music Video Shoot

Edward

Whatta ya'll think of this?

Someone likes me!!!

I was checking out my Google Analytics, and noticed a few hits from a website, that I found to be very strange, so I checked it out HERE and found out that someone thinks my website is worthy of checking out for inspiration while designing websites.

Thanks whoever you are!!

Pillitteri Estates Winery Commercial

Here is a commercial we did for Pillitteri Estates Winery

It's been a while for this one

Finally got it online. Here you go.

Bad Ass

The sun never sets ...

Lesia & Levco's Wedding

I've been waiting a long time for this one. I met with Lesia more than a year before their wedding, and she booked me on the spot. My first official booking (not including the 20+ wedding I did last year working for Aexian) so this was a very exciting day for me, and them of course.

Here are some of my favs that I've worked a little bit on. Not a lot, but they are coming along. A lot to go through, too many to choose, hard to edit down.

What A World We Live In

What kind of a world is it, when you can't even offer to be nice.

I'm the type of person who holds doors open for people, offer's a hand when I see someone in trouble, so naturally, today when I was at the grocery store and saw an elderly woman pushing two carts through the parking lot, I offered a hand.

Now, it was a little bit because she was taking too bloody long to get through the doors, and I wanted to push her along a little faster ... call me selfish in that respect, but really, it was a gesture of good faith, and a solid attempt at being polite and offering a hand to someone who obviously looked like it was needed.

Me
"Excuse me ma'am would you like a hand with that?"

The lady chuckles, and shoots me a strange glare.

Lady
"Thank you."

So I place my hand on the buggy she was dragging behind her.

Me
"Where's your car?"

Lady
"Oh I'm fine thank you."

Me
"Are you sure?"

Lady
"Yes, thank you"

Me (in my head)
"That's funny cuz it looks like you're holding up a massive line of people behind you"

Me (really)
"okay then"

And I thought to myself, what the hell was that about, she was obviously struggling with her two carts, which by the way, was not necessary for the amount of groceries she had purchased.

I'm trying to be nice, and helpful, but whatever. It just sucks that we live in a world where the elderly think that a gesture of good faith is a setup for getting mugged in the parking lot of a Costco...




...then again, would you accept a hand from this guy?:

Deep River : A First Look

I'm quite excited to post these photos.  These are the first look at the first episode of Deep River.  I normally wouldn't post anything like this for fear of Adam kicking my ass for posting spoilers, but they're going on the website under the cast section anyways, so they're not a big secret.

Anyways, here you go, the first look at Deep River Episode 1. (NOT Color Corrected, these are directly from the camera)

Deep River Production Day 2 Photos

I'm not going to write anything about the day because it was last week, plus it's probably pretty boring anyways. So here are a few photos from the shoot:

Deep River - Day 1 Production

This is coming a few days late, mostly because of the Easter Holiday, mostly because I've been busy as hell, but here is the day 1 production wrap-up.

The first day of production started with a location scout in St. Catharines. After we picked up Erica and Derek, we headed over to Chris's house to check out his basement as a possible location for Carl Boyer's "man den". It's suitable, so we give him a quick nod and head out the door, back into the truck, and start heading to Port Robinson for the first scene.

We arrive in Port a little after 4pm, and the crew (Paul, Melody, Derek & Erica) unload everything from the truck onto the grass next to the beautiful bridge while Adam and I scout the best possible location for the shoot. Shortly after we make a couple small decision, Adam takes off into the woods while I shoot some footage of two men in a small boat fishing.

The kids arrive around 5:30 after we've gotten everything figured out, and set up. Adam runs through the scene with them, while we set up the dolly, and quickly get to work.

The first scene flies off with only one small hitch. Just as we were shooting the last few shots, the Brevis stopped vibrating. We think it was probably on account of the cold weather, but we've been in much, much colder weather and had it working (shooting the icewine harvest at 5am comes to mind). Hopefully the motor, or the battery, or both aren't going on it, we can't afford to be without one at this point in time, as we have a lot of work, both with Deep River and with Corporate Clients coming up over the next two weeks.

We finish up at the bridge, and head over to what will be Lilly's house. A beautiful medium sized log cabin looking house near the tracks. We start setting up the lights for inside, while we prep the scene outside, and Melody runs to Tricky Mickey's to grab us all some food.

The sun goes down, and I opt to add a few more lights to the front porch before we start shooting. We get everything going, and knock off the first scene for this location in about an hour.

After that, we head inside, I adjust a few lights, and we shoot it. A simple one shot scene (like I'm feeling most of the show will end up being) of Tina sitting at her desk doing her homework as she gets a phone call from the boys to come out and investigate the sound they heard in the forest earlier in the day.

All in all, the shoot went well, with very few problems, the kids were great, and everything worked out in the end.

Looking forward to more shooting with this crew, as they are great, tomorrow (Saturday) we get two new additions to the crew, Bill one of our Producers, and Kyle a sound guy who is coming out to help out when he can.

Here are some behind the scenes photos. For more, check out my facebook page.

Skitzo's Official Premiere

Ok, so after our little April Fool's Day joke yesterday with the release of Skitzo we are officially releasing the video today. And for future reference all episodes will air Midnight Thursday nights, or Wednesday nights if you don't consider it to be Thursday until you go to sleep and wake up.

Anyways, with that said, here is the first episode of Skitzo, titled The Dual Audition. There are two parts, so when you get to the end of this first part, there will be a link to click, that will take you right to the second part of the episode.

Enjoy!

What the hell was I thinking?

Ok, so I decided to build a dolly ... (read title of post) ... I start off with the essentials ... getting some skateboard wheels from my brother, who happens to work at SportCheck, sweet, most of the cost is the wheels, so I'm pretty pumped about that. Although two weeks ago I did order a set of 40 (don't ask me why 40, but it was actually cheaper than buying 16, which is how much I really needed) wheels from Ebay, which haven't arrived yet, but I did get the tracking number the other day, so they have been sent.

Anyways, I got the wheels, now I just need the hardware. I have an idea of what I wanna do, having seen a bunch of homemade dolly's on the internet, and also in person, I've used about a half dozen or so over the years. I get to Home Depot, and proceed to procure all of the items I'll need, nuts, bolts etc. etc. All in all I spend about 3 hours trying to figure out how I'm going fashion this to that, and how that thing's gonna fit into this thing.

3 hours later I make my way home, happy about the decisions that I've made, and the total cost of all of the items so far, is under 75 bucks. I'm pretty happy about that, seeing as how I haven't had much paying gigs this winter (which reminds me, winter sucks, I hate it, I want it to go away and never come back, I work a lot more in the summer, I need to learn how to save.)

Anyways, I get home, only to realize, I don't have any bloody power tools. Out the door I go, headed over to my dad's place to borrow a drill and saw. He doesn't have any power saws, except a table saw stacked under a pile of stereo equipment in the shed ... forget it, I'll saw by hand, the old fashioned way.

Three strokes into the first piece of wood I felt like my arm was going to falls off. People cut limbs and extremities off all the time when using tools, (well, maybe not all the time, but sometimes) but has anyone ever had a limb, just fall off from being overworked? I chalk it up to being lazy as shit the last few years, and lack of excercise and head outside for a smoke before even looking at that second piece of wood.

I finish my smoke, and head back inside for that dreaded second piece. I get half way through and call Adam.
"Does Chuck have any power tools?"
"I dunno, maybe"
"Kay, I'm comin' over"

I head over to Adam's house, and get Chuck to cut some wood for me. He cuts them all nice and perfect, even the ones I need cut angularly (I don't know if that's a real word or not).

We discuss Deep River, the dolly etc. Adam has no clue what I'm talking about when I explain to him what I'm trying to do, probably because I can't speak properly on account of my arm fucking killing me. I barely have the strength to lift my flash drive off of his desk and place it in my pocket ... I manage it, and head home.

Half way home I realize I needed to stop off and get some new bolts, because the original ones won't work a slight modification I made to the original plan. I head to Home Dept again and bring the piece of beautifully cut wood into the store with me, to make sure I get the right sized bolt.

I get outta there in a real flash, I meet Pete Mander, a guy I haven't spoken to in about 3 years at the register, he's also purchasing hardware, probably for building one of his crazy things (seriously, this guy is a genius when it comes to building shit, he built a dolly, a jib with a remote head, and he's quite spectacular at costumes and makeup as well, wish I could find his website).

So I get home, eat 7 slices of pizza and chat with Amber on the couch for about 20 minutes while she watches One Tree Hill, probably not caring, or listening to a word I'm saying because all I can think about is finishing the dolly. I seriously have a problem with focusing on getting projects all done in one day, it's like, if it doesn't get done today, it'll never get done. In fact if Home Depot were open, I'd be there getting the remaining pieces I need to complete the things.

In fact, as I start to put it all together, I notice that I'm missing one of the pieces of angled wood. I must have left it at Home Fucking Depot ... LIVID. I can't believe it, I must have left it there when I was grabbing the bolts. Thank god I have another piece here, that I just need to get trimmed. I'm gonna head to HD early in the morning, and see if that piece is still there, if it's not, I'll get them to cut a piece for me.

So, needless to say, it won't get done in one day ... 24 hrs ... definitely, but not before I go to bed tonight.

Here's where we stand at the end of day one:

More Photos

I just keep finding more photos that have for some reason been lost in the pile of work I have on my plate this month. There are a few cool shots I took of my beautiful wife, at our fundraiser at the beginning of March.

Another cool photo

This one was taken by Erica, hilarious.

Random Location Scouting Picture

Here's a cool shot I forgot I took a couple of weeks
ago while we were doing some location scouting for
Deep River.

A Real Good Job

For the Hell of it

This is what happens when you get bored as hell in between auditions.



This is what happens when you get bored as hell in between auditions.

Roxy & Edward

Day 1 of Deep River is officially in the books. We started off the official Deep River shoot today with a short teaser involving two of our characters; Edward and Roxy.

Here are some stills from the footage that I captured. I will post some behind the scenes pics that were taken by Derek, Adam, Erica, Paul and Melody (my camera's like a carousel, everyone gets a turn).

I Love My Dogs

What is Skitzo?????

What is Skitzo? I know one thing ... it's NOT a house!!!


Promo Two from Skitzo on Vimeo.

Skitzo: Promo One

Promo One from Skitzo on Vimeo.

Writing Session

This is what happens when Adam and I try to write ... dogs are distracting to writers.

Writing Timelapse from Skitzo on Vimeo.

Kristy & Jay's Wedding Video

Here is a little wedding video I did back at the beginning of February.


Krisy & Jay's Wedding Video from Jason Lupish on Vimeo.

Enjoy!!

Rudolph

I just realized that I posted in November about a film we shot on Halloween night. I put up a little poster that I made and everything, it was a shot from behind of a man with red hair, and a hat and cane. At the time, I called it Into The Night, because I didn't really have another name for it. Well since then, the film has been up all over the place, and it's called Rudolph. So here is the new poster, and also the video.

Enjoy!


RUDOLPH from Adam Stephenson on Vimeo.

My old friend Corey and his crazy YouTube Videos

Ok, so I have a friend named Corey who makes YouTube videos. The kid's cool as shit, we worked together for most of the summer doing weddings, and whatever.

He made a video which basically was him lip-synching to an acapella song by a group called Moosebutter, the video was cool, and ended up getting his funny ass nominated for a People’s Choice Award, how cool is that?!!

So recently the video’s been taken down for copyright infringement, because the music that the band is “acapella – ing” too, is music that was composed by John Williams, and is now owned by Warner Music.

So, I’m keeping up to tabs with this whole thing, cuz I feel bad for the guy, this is how he makes his living. So I’m reading through this article thinking it’s kinda stupid that they are taking these videos down.

Then I started reading responses on Youtube about people who are upset because they aren’t allowed to post videos with copyright music in it.

I’m sorry, but people let’s be real here, I can’t make a film and just put in any music I want, why should your video of your dog running around the backyard have the right to use copyright music?

Chances are more people will see your stupid video than see my film. It’s a harsh reality that I’ve learned to live with at this point.

My point isn’t that no one’s watching my films, they are, but my point is that people are making a shit load of money with these no-content, life sucking, bullshit YouTube videos and they’re complaining about copyright issues with music, you should have your video removed, and you should have every cent you made as a result of that video, taken away from you.

If I made a film, put a Killer’s song in it, start selling it on the internet, and on the streets, or wherever else I decide to peddle my warez, and the record label finds out, I would get the shit sued out of me faster than I can say … whatever it is you say when you get sued.

Corey’s (and others in the Warner dispute) case is a little different, Warner had an agreement with Youtube, to allow their music to be used, the deal went sour, now they’re pulling everything. This to me, is bullshit, Corey’s video, along with any other video that WAS under the agreement should remain up, as long as it was posted before the deal went down the tubes.

As for all you other life sucking leeches on Youtube, you’re ruining society with your fucking dribble. I actually feel myself getting full of rage every time I hear about some other jackass who’s made a shitload of money by shooting themselves making stupid faces with their webcam and calling it a web series.

Whatever happened to production value and quality? It went down the drain with YouTube. I’ll stick to Vimeo, at least I can upload in HD there.

J

Upcoming Projects & Recent Work

Well, it's been a while since I last posted anything, so I'm gonna start off by saying that I hope everyone had a great New Year, and a Happy Holiday Season.

We're embarking on some pretty exciting times now, and I'm happy to say that we're finally going to shoot Deep River, it's been three long years in the planning, and we've finally got a final draft of the pilot episode completed. The final draft is a simplified and rearranged version of the first two episodes that Ryan and I wrote back in the winter of 2007, before we shot A Life Less Gone.

I decided to revive the project, because I was sick of sitting on it. I've been in love with the idea since it's inception, and we've just been so busy trying to get The Dead going that I had forgotten about it.

But now that we're putting The Dead on hold for creative reasons (mostly writer's block) I decided to give Deep River another go. So Adam and I sat down for a two day no holds barred writing session in the middle of a massive snow storm, and got it all done.

So last week we started casting, and we've got some great submissions so far. We've also put up a little teaser trailer, it's really nothing much, it literally took me longer to drive to the location than it took me to shoot it, and edit it together. But here it is:


Deep River : Teaser from Jason Lupish on Vimeo.

We've also been working on a few other projects, another commercial for the Niagara Ice Dogs, which I am happy to say that I giggle with joy, like a school girl every time I watch it. It's just so fast, and impactful that it makes me wet just thinking about it.

We're also just finishing up a series of 15 second spots for White Haut, a high class Toronto-style nightclub that has recently opened up in Downtown St. Catharines. This place is very cool, check it out, I feel like I'm stepping into Toronto every time I go in there.

Back before Christmas we shot a few small things, one was a 2 minute piece for the Reach Out Centre For Kids (R.O.C.K.) in Halton. It was a series of three spots that highlight a troubled child in a situation that gets resolved by ROCK's intervention. I'm particularily proud of these spots because of the fact that each spot was a single shot each. I'm a big fan of the "oners" so when they agreed to let us shoot them this way I was happy. The result was a great video that they are going to be using for their fundraisers, and I believe on their website as well, but I'm not sure about that.

Also back in December, we shot a short commercial for Niagara Vintage Wine Tours. Chris is a wine expert, and tour guide who specializes in customer service and satisfaction. His tours are pretty unique in that they are very hands on, customizable and personable. His evening tour is my favorite, visits to multiple wineries, topped off with dinner at Casa Mia restaurant in Niagara Falls, you can't beat that.

Last night we finally got out to shoot some night icewine harvesting for our video for Pillitteri Estates Winery. What a night, we spent about 8 hours putting the finishing touches on the Ice Dogs video, then get a call at 10pm from Jamie saying he's headed out to do the icewine harvest, so we bundle up, grab the gear and head out. Luckily everything was charged.

We got out there and shot some pretty unique shots, I just hope we had enough of the light we did have to make the shots work. This Pillitteri video is definitely going to be one of my favorites, it's going to be pretty unique, can't wait to finish it.

J