Ashes

A song by Dawnee Frinta

A film by MIchael Eggert

Shot on a two hacked Panasonic GH1's at 23.976 fps, with a Kiron 28mm f 2.0, Canon FL 35mm f2.5, Canon FL 55mm f1.2.

Edited in Final Cut Pro.

Color Graded in After Effects and DaVinci Resolve.

ASHES

Well I planted a garden in your backyard
Everyday I loved it more
And I gave it everything I had to give
Never asking myself what for
I prayed it wouldn't wither and waste away
All your flowers die these days

So won't you lay me in the garden if I must go
Let my sins melt away like fire in the snow
Should my heart break leave me there I've got to know
They say from ashes, flowers grow

Then I planted a garden of my own
I didn't see it as fancy or fine
But I gave it everything I had to give
Good or bad well, I knew it was mine
I was sure that it would wither and waste away
All my flowers are fine these days

So won't you lay me in the garden if I must go
Let my sins melt away like fire in the snow
Should my heart break leave me there I've got to know
They say from ashes, flowers grow

I need to know that if I break down
If I gave in
If I made a sound
If I break apart
If I rise above
I need to know

So won't you lay me in the garden if I must go
Let my sins melt away like fire in the snow
Should my heart break leave me there I've got to know
They say from ashes, flowers grow
From ashes, flowers grow
From ashes, flowers grow

From Stark Raving Calm, released October 12, 2012.

Vocals, Bass, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion - Lil' Dawnee
Drums, Percussion, Ambient Guitars - Mr. John Wells
Nashville Guitar - Jonathan Chi
Violins - Mike Starr
Cellos - Ken Oak
Additional Percussion - Greg Berella
String arrangements - Lil' Dawnee and Mr. John Wells

ldfrinta.bandcamp.com

Compositing Reel

I took some time off from working on commercials and decided to focus more on compositing, my first true love:)

Dedicated to Laurie & Aslan.

Break-Downs:
Ice Queen - Shot by Hollywood Camera Work
Matte Painting, Particle Simulation, Compositing, Grading

Knight Templar - Shot by Brad Haskell, Sean Isom & Michael Eggert
Rotoscoping, Particle Simulation, 3D Tracking, Compositing, Grading

Tanker Walker - Shot by Nicolas Germon & Michael Eggert
Rotoscoping, Motion Tracking, Compositing, Grading

Clones - Shot by Michael Eggert
Rotoscoping, Compositing, Grading

Disney Hall - Shot by Michael Eggert
Rotoscoping, Planar Tracking, Paint, Compositing, Grading

Hanging Man - Shot by Michael Eggert
Rotoscoping, Motion Tracking, Compositing, Grading

Software:
After Effects, Nuke, Mocha, Boujou, Silhouette, Resolve, FInal Cut Pro, Photoshop

Check it out in full HD on Vimeo.

Video Contest News Picks Gravity for Top 25!

Looks like Beardy at Video Contest News still doesn't quite grasp the gravitas of our commercial, but it still made his Top 25!

Suck it Beardy:)

Gravity and the Girl Website!

Our new website for our Doritos commercial "Gravity", is now live at gravityandthegirl.wordpress.com! Check it out for all things "Gravity"!

Pug Attack Sound Designer Likes Gravity!

I got a nice email from Patrick Knipe, the sound designer on last year's million dollar winning spot, "Pug Attack". He was cool enough to wish me luck and said, "Your commercial is really good, great job, it had me laughing". Thanks Patrick!

Video Contest News Says Gravity is Top Twenty!

Beardy over at Video Contest News was nice enough to review "Gravity".

Here is what he said, "This one is a really strong submission. The effects and photography are great and it was very well cast and acted and good call on having your actress wear those shorts. Right now I’d say your spot is one of the 20 best I’ve seen so far."

Thanks Beardy! Keep up the great work you are doing for the video contest community.

Fifth Graders Love Gravity!

Here is an email we recieved from a fifth grade teacher in San Diego.

"So, I showed the "new" Doritos spec to all 3 grps. today...they are completely entranced, and if you, Lauren and Luis ever wanted to boost your ego/day, you could come to speak to all my classes. They are all completely into this commercial (Look at the way she's standing! Notice how she sighs...and Luis, that impish grin--they can all relate!) If my students could vote, you all would WIN in a heartbeat. Thanks, as always, for keeping us updated. I know Doritos sales are soaring in Southcrest." - Terry

Those are some smart kids, I still have no idea what impish means:) Thanks Terry!

Doritos® - Gravity - 15,000 Hits & Still Climbing!

We now have over 15,000 views of "Gravity" on Vimeo! Which is a great honor, since Vimeo is the place for video professionals to share their work. Thanks guys!

Doritos® - Gravity - Rock Climbing/ Bouldering Reviews - Part 4

Just like the voices in Kevin Costner's head, "If you build it, they will come", my voices said, "If you film it, they will watch." And they have, and they continue to do so in great numbers. "Gravity" continues to be a big hit with climbers the world over and is now featured on the The Northeast Climbing Magazine, climberism.com, as well as the russian version of Facebook, vkontakte.ru.

Gravity is also featured on the blog for touchstoneclimbing.com, where they compare our commercial against a spot from Citibank and Sector Watches. Here is what they said, "Doritos has their own view on rock climbing. This one may be the most accurate of the three. I've certainly had this happen a few times, but my belayer is usually reaching for a piece of pie."

It's a great compliment to have our commercial compared to professionally produced spots. I think Touchstone Climbing thought ours was a real commercial. Shhhh, don't tell them, just let them enjoy it:)

Doritos® - Gravity Alternate Ending - Crash the Super Bowl 2012

This is the alternate ending version of "Gravity". This one is for all of you who were worried about what happens to the girl. Now you know:) Hope you like it as much as the original version. Cheers!

Click here to see the original version on Vimeo.

A commercial for Doritos.

Three friends experience the highs and lows of rock climbing.

Starring: Luis Galindo, Thomas Meaney and Lauren Johnson
Written, Directed, Edited, Composited and Graded by: Michael Eggert
Assistant Director: Laurie Shishino
Sound Design by: Marty Vites
Key Grip: Albert Salazar
Rigger: Patrick Meaney
Music by: Gioachino Rossini - Overture to "Barber of Seville"

Shot on location at Stoney Point.

Shot on a two hacked Panasonic GH1's at ISO 100, 23.976 fps, with a Vivitar 17mm f3.5, Canon FD 20mm f2.8, Canon FL 35mm f2.5, Canon FL 55mm f1.2, Rainbow Imaging FL/FD Adapter and LightCraft Workshop Fader ND.

Sansdisk Extreme Class 10 SDHC Card.

Rode Video Mic Pro.

Tascam DR-07.

Edited in Final Cut Pro.

Sound Designed and Mixed in Garage Band.

Composited in After Effects.

Color Graded in Color.

Check out the original version on the Dortos "Crash The Superbowl" website

Check it out on YouTube.

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Follow me on Twitter.

Check out my free HD tutorials on iTunes and at pixelphile.tv

Doritos® - Gravity - Rock Climbing/ Bouldering Reviews - Part 3

It now looks like "Gravity" has made it all the way to the Netherlands and Slovenia! We are now featured on the Slovenian site Gore-ljudje.net, where they said "Pazljivo izberite soplezalca", which loosely translates to "Carefully select the climber." And we are on the Dutch site sloper.climbing.nl where they entitled "Gravity" as "Flaw filmpje" which might mean "Light movie", at this point I can't really be sure anymore:)

Proost!

Doritos® - Gravity - 5 Stars!

Our Doritos commercial "Gravity", has a five star rating over on rockclimbing.com!

Thanks guys!

Doritos® - Gravity - 10,000 Hits & Climbing!

Thanks everybody for helping making "Gravity" such a success! We just passed over 10,000 views on Vimeo!

For those of you who have wondered what happens to the girl after the climber lands on her? That question will be answered soon in our forthcoming alternate ending version of "Gravity".

Spoiler Alert! The girl is doing just fine:)

Doritos® - Gravity - Rock Climbing/ Bouldering Reviews - Part 2

It looks like our Doritos commercial "Gravity", is a worldwide hit amongst rock climbers and bouldering aficionados. I had no idea when I shot this spot, that so many people would like it. I guess since there is very little dialog, it makes for a perfect international commercial, which anybody can understand and enjoy.

Above, you can see that we are featured on Germany's "Berg Leben" website, which translates to "Moutain Life". "Gravity" is a featured video of the week. Vielen Dank meine Freunde!

It looks like Jerry Lewis is not the only American who is big in France. We are featured on French Photographer Rogier van Rijn's blog, as well as Kairn.com, a French adventurers site. Here is what Kairn said, "Voici la dernière pub pour les chips Doritos. Attention à bien choisir vos assureurs!", which translates to "Here is the latest ad for Doritos chips. Make sure you choose your insurance!" Merci beaucoup d'amis!

And finally, our comrades in Russia at mountain.ru have been nice enough to help promote our capitalist ways. They called our commercial "Сила притяжения". which I think translates to "Attractive Power". They must have been talking about Lauren. Sorry Luis and Thomas:)

More reviews to come! Stay tuned!

Doritos® - Gravity - Rock Climbing/ Bouldering Reviews - Part 1

Well, it's been about a week since I finished and submitted my entry "Gravity", to this year's Doritos "Crash The Superbowl" contest. Some of the reviews and comments are starting to trickle in, so I thought I would share some of them with you.

Above, you can see that we are featured on the Rock Climbing UK magazine with an article entitled, "Why you should always pay attention when belaying...". They kinda took the commercial a little too literally, expecting it to be a video on proper climbing etiquette, rather that just a spot to bring a few laughs. I thought the British were suppose to have a sense of humor? Maybe they are still mad at us for stealing "The Office" from them:)

We are also featured on rockclimbing.com, supertopo.com and mountainproject.com. While most of the climbers really enjoyed it, a few took the time to point out our improper use of safety equipment. We know we took a few liberties regarding proper climbing procedure, but otherwise we wouldn't have had a punchline, and what fun would that be?

Here are some of their comments.

Wow! Nice to see an ad that 'knows what it is doing' with the ropes! - tooth

That chick has a HAWT ASS. Good production values, too. - toadgas

Well done! Thats a great commercial! - Prezwoodz

FABULOUS! Seems to fit the genre perfectly! YAY! - eKat

Fun way to start the week! Great job & thank you! - Fritz

Since there are so many commercials, there should be a law that each has to be funny. This would definitely pass the test. Very funny. Nice work. - Patrick Oliver

Superb! - Dos XX

FANTASTIC! I love it! - Ihateplastic

Haha that's awesome! Just sent it to everyone at the climbing shop I work at! - Curt Hokanson

More reviews to come! Stay tuned!

Doritos® - Gravity - Crash the Super Bowl 2012

A commercial for Doritos.

Three friends experience the highs and lows of rock climbing.

Starring: Luis Galindo, Thomas Meaney and Lauren Johnson
Written, Directed, Edited, Composited and Graded by: Michael Eggert
Assistant Director: Laurie Shishino
Sound Design by: Marty Vites
Key Grip: Albert Salazar
Rigger: Patrick Meaney
Music by: Gioachino Rossini - Overture to "Barber of Seville"

Shot on location at Stoney Point.

Shot on a two hacked Panasonic GH1's at ISO 100, 23.976 fps, with a Vivitar 17mm f3.5, Canon FD 20mm f2.8, Canon FL 35mm f2.5, Canon FL 55mm f1.2, Rainbow Imaging FL/FD Adapter and LightCraft Workshop Fader ND.

Sansdisk Extreme Class 10 SDHC Card.

Rode Video Mic Pro.

Tascam DR-07.

Edited in Final Cut Pro.

Sound Designed and Mixed in Garage Band.

Composited in After Effects.

Color Graded in Color.

Check it out on the Dortos "Crash The Superbowl" website.

Check it out on YouTube.

Follow me on Twitter.

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Final Cut Pro X - Epic Fail!

Apple has decided to forget about us professional editors, teachers, students and filmmakers, and rather focus on soccer moms and stay at home dads. Final Cut Pro X in no longer for industry professionals, and should have been called iMovie Pro.

The guys over at Adobe and Avid must be doing cartwheels down their halls, since they know that Apple has just killed the best editing program known to man. Nice job, Steve Jobs...thanks for negating 10 years of Final Cut Pro experience.

Here is what has been completely removed or drastically changed.

• Chapter Markers
• Limited Export Settings
• No Export for Hi-Res JPGs
• No Support for EDL
• No XML Import
• No OMF export
• No Native Support for Red Raw files
• No Multicam
• Inability to Open Projects Saved From Previous FCP Versions
• No Capture from Tape or Output to Tape
• Limited Options for Arranging Your Workspace
• No Native Support for Third Party Plugins
• Limited External Monitoring

Conan does a great job showing it's weaknesses, and gives a good laugh. Unfortunately, editors around the world see no humor in what Apple has done, as they have completely abandoned all of us who have fought to make Final Cut Pro the de facto standard.

Is it to late to go back to editing on Steenbeck?

iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo - NSFW!

Funny video made by a former Best Buy employee. Former because he was fired shortly after making this video.

Not cool Best Buy.

iPhone 4 Short Film

Well it didn't take long for this to happen. Somebody has already shot and edited a short little movie on the new iPhone 4. "Apple of My Eye" directed by USC film student Michael Koerbel might be the first short film shot with the newest version of the iPhone. Obviously Michael has access to some nice equipment, and more importantly, knows how to use it.

The iPhone does an amazing job, considering that it is a fixed lens phone after all. It does seem to have some difficulty in maintaining the highlights and often resorts to just blowing them out. But then again, other "real" video cameras often do the same thing. All in all, a very impressive debut of a short film shot and edited entirely on a cell phone.

Los Angeles residents might recognize the location as Allied Model Trains in Culver City.

Best Drummer In The World!!!

Okay, I lied, he's not the best drummer in the world. But he might be the most entertaining. Check him out as he takes a rather lame band into a completely different orbit. This guy cracks me up.

The drummer's name is Steve Moore, and maybe he can get a gig on a late night talk show as the band leader. Much more entertaining that frikin' Max Weinberg.