Adam Lisagor

Some news items. My publicist has been working especially hard, so I have some fun things to share. Some clippings for the old scrapbook.

• Morgan Spurlock started a new company called Warpaint for making TV commercials. It’s somewhat innovative in how it handles its directors, and I’m one of those directors. It’s a separate thing from Sandwich Video, which remains intact. I hope to make an animated booger or anti-depressant commercial at the very least.
• Today, the new LA Weekly comes out. It’s the People 2012 issue and I’m one of the people. I guess I’d mentioned my deep and abiding love for “Kentucky Fried Movie” and why wouldn’t I, as all facets of my work can be traced to it. I’m working on something superfun right now that’s basically a shot-for-shot reproduction of A Fistful of Yen, but with karate.
• Shopping for cereal last week, I happened to remember that one called Blueberry Morning had been my favorite, but was absent from store shelves for months. A quick search turned up that it had been discontinued by Post, reason not cited. But I guess you can order discontinued/expired cereal from the Internet, which I did. Here’s what I can say about doing that: don’t order discontinued/expired cereal from the Internet.

fuckyeahdirectors:

Ben Kingsley and Martin Scorsese on-set of Hugo (2011)

MS: “And then you say these words right here, you’ll be like I USED TO MAKE MOVIES A LONG TIME AGO but say it like you’re sad.”

BK: “But I’m not sad, Marty.”

MS: “You should pretend you’re sad though. Just say the words like you’re sad. When we press the button on the camera, pretend you’re sad and say these words, just like on this script page. Okay, I’m filming. Okay pretend now.”

Ted made a beverage vid in the mold of my own, and I love it. Who will follow suit?

THE CHALLENGE: Put that camera to use. Pick your favorite fussy beverage-making tool. Show the world how you use it. Cut it up real nice. 60 seconds. At the end, make us laugh. Maybe tag it with something. I don’t know, #bevmercial.

tedfromtheinternet:

@lonelysandwich made a spec spot for his favorite fastidious and persnickety beverage preparation device.

I found it throughly delightful and decided to make one of my own in the same style.

For about $100 you can have a piece of plastic in your kitchen that carbonates water. If you’re part of the 1% or something you can add in flavored syrups, but I prefer just the straight up bubbles. When you’re out of gas, you can get more carbonators from your local artisanal kitchen store (hi, @hillskitchendc). I didn’t even know this fanciful home-carbonation technology existed until a former roommate of mine put it in the kitchen last July.

I shot this on a 7D and cut it in FCP.

Special Thanks to Roommate Adam S. for helping out with a few things during the shoot.

Comical outtake/VFX demo from AeroPress “Ritual”

I’d already styled 9 cups of picture coffee for this shoot, and I really wasn’t in the mood to style a 10th. So I gave myself one take for the puck shot, and when something went stupidly wrong, I decided to fix it in post. Ta-da.

AeroPress “Ritual” (spec)

This is a short tribute to my AeroPress. Two years ago, one was given to me, and it changed everything.

For a little more than $20, this marvel of science will produce arguably the best cup of coffee you’ve ever made in your home. It makes no sense.

Here’s where to buy it: amzn.to/IiqlhO

Video Arts

Took some me-time to watch the John Cleese Creativity Lecture everyone was going bananas about last week and noticed the similarity of his company’s logotype to my logotype, which is unintentional but I don’t mind it at all. Let’s call it homage. Mine was designed by Tag Sexpigeon in 2011 and I love it.

the-overlook-hotel:

Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown takes actor Danny Lloyd for a ride on his Steadicam just outside The Shining’s Hedge Maze set on the backlot at MGM Elstree Studios. Brown discovered that Danny was about the same weight as the camera, so he would often have him ride in a makeshift swing hanging from the device.

youlooknicetoday:

Welcome to this annotated introduction to You Look Nice Today, A Journal of Emotional Hygiene.

To acquaint yourself (or a special friend) with our program, we invite you to download and enjoy six of our favorite episodes:

DOWNLOAD: “You Look Nice Today Starter Pack” (127 MB zip file)

This officially-sanctioned Starter Pack includes: “Sacks-Minnelli Disease,” “Truck Spank,” “The Tux Age,” “OPN♥WDE,” “Expressed as a Vest,” and “The Good Part”

Also, please do feel free to explore further into the YLNT franchise by browsing the links below and by subscribing to our program for free via RSS or iTunes. New episodes of the program are posted on the second of each month.

It’s a start.

Read More

It brings me great pleasure to have this back in my life. We started it four years ago. Nixon was in the White House. No one knew what “post-PC” meant (I did). Scott was in short pants. Merlin was in short shorts. Woodstock.

But things change. Interest rates fluctuate. We grew apart. Editing is hard.

Long story short, there’s a new guy in town. His name is Claude Zeins but we insist on calling him Klaus, and the boy can edit. Which frees us up in a whole new way to rock the microphone. Which we’ll be doing on a regular basis, even when we’re “not in the mood right now”. The output of which, Klaus will make beautiful and we’ll release to the stream on the 2nd of every month, a strategy we’re marketing under the banner “Dropping it on the Deuce”.

The deuce is nigh, you guys.

Ron Burgundy just announced ‘Anchorman’ sequel on Conan

Oh my goodness. When he said the bit about the sequel coming, I pumped both fists in the air like no one was watching. Ronald Joseph Aaron Burgundy made me pump ‘em.

I’d like to mention that the jazz flute scene from ‘Anchorman’, on the Venn diagram of things I find funny and things I find musically satisfying, sits heroic and squarely in the center, all big in a nice font. At :45 when he does that first run, I get chills. Every time. Please do me the honor of watching. I could not be more excited about this.

Out with the team for lunch in our neighborhood and we found a new Banksy.

noahkalina:

I think everything is going to be okay. 

laurensieczkowski:

This photo will have much more relevance soon.  

Stay posted to see the finished collaboration between Noah K, Adam Lisagor/Lonely Sandwich, Will W, and me. 

Well, not much more relevance. Questions will go unanswered.

Fingerspoo: Retina (“The new Fingerspoo”)

It flatters me that almost two years after I made this, enough people are still using it to warrant a Retina-compatible 2048x2048 version of it. So here you go. Knock yourself out. Let your fingers poo freely upon those pretty new screens.

Download Fingerspoo: Retina

lonelysandwich:

iPad Wallpaper: Fingerspoo

Because you’ll never be clean enough. Never.

Oh, wow. Now this is a Razzledazzle fan edit.

“SAMPLE TEXT” tee - Large, white Lucida Grande (default) on black

I’m putting this here so I don’t have to actually print one because that would be a giant waste of time and not even editors will get the reference in two years anyway.

Reacting well to competition requires critical analysis of your own product and its shortcomings, and a complete, open-minded understanding of why people might choose your competitors.

- Marco Arment

And speaking of Peter Atencio, he was interviewed on the most recent episode of a very neat new podcast program by a commercial director named Ron Small, who invites a guest commercial director each episode to talk about how they work, how they’ve learned, what they’ve learned, and why they work in the short short form.

The first guest on the show was me, in a two-parter that was really one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever gotten to do. In the first ten minutes, I talked about being a VFX assistant on the movie “Torque” (2004) and how the director Joseph Kahn has a larger than average-sized head. Subsequently, Joseph Kahn heard the episode and defended his head size on Twitter, blaming it on the head of his beautiful Korean mother. I also talk about cameras and doing what you love and finding God in the music.

But in Peter’s interview, rather than commercials, he talks all about what it’s been like making this incredible show Key & Peele for Comedy Central. At about 50 minutes in, the discussion turns to what ended up being a pretty giant struggle with the network to keep a laugh track out of the show, even getting into some of the psychological implications of the decision, and the sisyphean task of convincing Comedy Central to fight their instincts and preserve the show’s integrity. Spoiler: he won the battle and thank the lord.

Anyhow, if you’re into this sort of thing, I think you’ll enjoy Spotcast. Other guests have been my friend the VFX maven and author of The DV Rebel’s Guide that changed the filmmaking game for so many of my generation, Stu Maschwitz. And Vince Laforet, who basically got the world excited about shooting movies on DSLRs. And hopefully soon, Joseph Kahn himself.

Spotcast!

Key & Peele: Flicker

This is a less-than-six-minute video and I had to take five breaks to watch the whole thing because I don’t think I could stand being subjected to this much grace and perfection all in one sitting. It was causing me emotional turmoil. Because these people—Peter, Jordan, Keegan are SO good at this form that it literally makes me uncomfortable.

atencio:

Key & Peele: Flicker

This is my favorite sketch of the season, and by far the one I spent the most time on in post-production, trying to get the timing of the edit and the music just right…

I’m naughty!