Photos & Drawings Trailer

I am super excited to share the Photos & Drawings Trailer. It turned out beautifully thanks to the help of SPLICE and editor/colorist Joanna Day and music by Thomas Fay.





Two artists in search of inspiration discover something more. 

Written, Directed & Produced by Jon Maichel Thomas
Producers: Matt Osterman & Alyssa Thomas
Starring: Sasha Andreev, Linnea Mohn, Corey Walton

+ Trailer Credits
Editor/Colorist: Joanna Day @ SPLICE
Sound Design: Kent @ SPLICE
Composer: Thomas Fay

3 Films. 2 Fests. 1 week.

Pure Craziness!!! Next week I have three films making their premieres.

#1 My short Photos & Drawings is playing Twin Cities Film fest before the feature CONVICTION. Written & Directed by yours truly. My labor of love, this will always be my favorite of course!

#2 Phasma Ex Machina, an intelligently beautiful film I co-produced and did the titles for is premiering regionally. Written & Directed by Matt Osterman.

3# THE TESTED, a honest, heartfelt, gem of a movie is making it's debut at the Woodstock Film Festival. Written & Directed by Russel Costanzo.

WHAT AN HONOR THIS IS to have all of this happening at the same time. It is proof that hard work pays off, sometimes a little luck comes your way, and how you really wish you could time travel so you could be in all three places at once. Luckily I get two of the three. (Best of luck at Woodstock Russell and Melissa.)

I hope you can make it out to the Fests and take in these movies. I am extremely PROUD of every film. All the filmmakers and directors (including myself) put every last blood, sweat and tear into these pictures. This is commendable because Films don't happen overnight, everything must fall into place to make them happen, and once it is done you hope and dream of getting into a festival.

I look forward to next week and this rare event. Hopefully we all continue this ride as it is truly "one lucky trio".

Music Video: Lookbook - Over and Over

Saw this video for Lookbook’s new video for “Over and Over”. Made by some great Minneapolis folks. I really love the concept, cinematography and art direction. Awesome Video... Nice job guys:

Directed by Bo Hakala
Art Director and Special Effects Technician -Sarah Jean Kruchowski
Additional help from Ben Krueger and Mike Gunnerson.
Special Thanks to Aaron Landry, Todd Cobery, Andy Awes and Tasty Lighting.

Lookbook is Grant Cutler and Maggie Morrison. Their new album is Wild At Heart.

THE VICIOUS ALIVE

So I've been a fan of this local Minneapolis band for a while called The Vicious Alive. I am definitely a little biased because the band was started a few years ago by my long time friend Thomas Fay and brother Scott Thomas. From the first song they played for me, rough and raw, acoustic in my living room, I was hooked. It was solid, true rock+roll music with hints of references to bands of our past and present like: Led Zeppelin, America, CSNY, The Cure, Audioslave, Alice in Chains, or STP. It was music I love, the stuff I listen too.

And ironically, for the past two years I've been the drummer for TVA. It kind of happened accidentally really. Their previous drummer moved away and I was the only one left standing who knew the songs well enough. But really the needed someone to fill in on 3 days notice to compete in a battle of the bands. We pulled it off. It was a lot of hard work and we didn't win.

The video I am sharing is from THE VICIOUS ALIVE's recent recording session for the album Supermodel Suicide, due out this spring. Scott and Thomas are running down a track from the album called "Sentiment" while Chris Harrington preps the studio.

The finished album will have a lot more going than this, more vocal and guitar layers. This video however captures what got me hooked from day one... solid rock+roll songwriting.

Lonely Dear: I Was Only Going Out [Polyvinyl]

It is always humbling to make new friends and then see them make gorgeous work. This is not surprising from Ron Eyal (Director) and Amy Seimetz (Actress). I love the new video they collaborated on for Lonely Dear.



Ron and his directing partner Eleanor Burke were just honored in Filmmaker Magazine's "25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM" article. Their film Stranger Things is a must for your short list of upcoming films to see.

The Lonely Dear music video features the talented Amy Seimetz, actress and director of City on a Hill.

Great work guys!

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop)

I posted on BLU before. @KDFindley passed this on. It is incredible to watch these life size stop motion graffiti art animations. Who knows how many hours went into this, gallons of paint. Glad they have the patience to create such amazing work.

Working with the Coen Brothers: The Intolerable Cruelty title sequence

I wrote a story for the Walker Art Center Blog about my experience working with the Coen Brothers on Intolerable Cruelty. Read it here.

TRON 2

I am geeked up for Tron 2. Last time I saw the original was nearly ten years ago on a 16mm print at MCAD. Jeff Bridges is back and looks bad ass.

Simon's Cat 'Fly Guy'

Check out this film by Simon Tofield.

Synopsis:
A hungry cat resorts to increasingly desperate measures to catch a housefly.

I love this. The kitty animation is brilliant. If you have cats you'll know this little guy or maybe.. he's yours.

Encyclopedia Pictura

Was talking film the other night with a friend and was reminded of the group Encyclopedia Pictura so thought I'd post on it. They make some of the most trippy artistic music videos.

There work is usually a hybrid of rich graphics, nature themes, and mixture of live action and vfx.

One of my favorites is the video Wanderlust they did for Bjork. You can see the making of here. Pretty epic stuff.

Encyclopedia Pictura is represented by Ghost Robot where you can check out a lot of kick-ass work as well.

Check out the videos Grizzly Bear - Knife and Seventeen Evergreen - Haven't been yourself below.