Music Video Production

Sorry for the huge delay in posts everyone, my apologies for that. This weekend was one full of ups and downs to say the least. The down was not being able to attend Otakon for sure, it was super disappointing, not only to my client but also to myself. The main problem was just not really finalizing the ride situation which was my fault. I had one ride locked down then things changed so I told them not to worry about it and then it changed again and those people weren't available. Then I tried a friend of mine who wasn't available but didn't let me know til late and by the time I found someone my client was already all done with being in costume which sucked.

On the up side though I got to start filming for a music video for a song called Three Beers Later which is a fun little country song with a lot of energy. We are making a video that is pretty funny and goofy which fits the nature of the song for sure. Sunday we mustered through a lot of the video but unfortunately had to come back Monday to finish it all up. Luckily the owners of the bar we filmed at were nice enough to let us come back on short notice. Now that we have all of that done however all that is left is the shots from the field, a location which we are in the process of locking down now. Once that is done we will edit it and finish everything all up!

Random Movie Fact: In the 1992 film Chaplin, during the scene when Chaplin is at work on Shoulder Arms he asks his cameraman Roland Totheroh how the light is. Totheroh (and the rest of the crew) replies 'better down at Barney's bar'. This was the signal for production to end for the day - the 'light' Chaplin was referring to was the light beer served at Barney Oldfield's bar, which was the favourite drink and hangout for the crew after filming.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Otakon Tomorrow

So tomorrow I will be up at Otakon 2012 taking lots and lots and lots of pictures for a friend of mine. It is my first time going to the convention and it should be a lot of fun. I am going to get a grand tour by my bud who has been going forever now so I should get a nice taste of the convention. It will be a cool experience and I am looking forward to it for sure! After that of course that means more photos for the blog and the official facebook page for To Tony Productions.

In other news I have a meeting on Sunday for an upcoming music video. I really want this meeting to go well as the artist that is looking for the video is super duper talented and to me has a lot of potential in a commercial market. So that being said I want very much to produce the video for it. It is perfect timing since this Sunday is also the video production for Wesley Spangler's Three Beers Later song which is sure to be a cool time. If you want to be an extra it will be filmed at Pop's Tavern in Dundalk, Md around 5pm. Come on in and have some drinks and be in a music video!

Random Movie Fact: In the 2003 film Mystic River, the studio executives at Warner Brothers wanted Clint Eastwood to shoot the film in Toronto, Canada to save money. Eastwood refused and pushed to have the film completely shot in Boston where the film is set.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Finishing up...Starting up

Things are really rolling along nicely over here. I am so close to finishing Voicebox I can taste it and that feeling is amazing! Also this Sunday coming up is my first official music video since finishing up Hello by Kane Mayfield back in January. The video is for a song called Three Beers Later by Wesley Spangler. It is a fun country song that will make for a cool little video. I am excited to be filming a video which is more light hearted in nature as compared to my past work. The song and video are intended to not take themself too seriously which is great to say the least. We will be filming at Pop's Tavern in Dundalk, Maryland on Sunday starting at 5pm. If you want to come out to the bar and be an extra in the video you are more than welcome to stop down. Everyone is welcome to be in the video! Thanks guys!

Random Movie Fact: In the 1989 film Road House, the car that Dalton buys at the used car dealership was a 1965 Buick Riviera - the only year that Buick used the "clamshell" headlight covers for the Riviera. The other car that he drives near the beginning of the movie before picking up his Mercedes Benz and leaving for Missouri is a 1964 Buick Riviera.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Foley Work and Scouting

So today was a big day for the foley work on my upcoming short film Voicebox. I was up at a local sound studio [kp] mag, they do great work you should go check them out if you are in Maryland and need any help with foley work or sound recording. Nice little studio for sure! We got through the majority of it today and will officially finish up tomorrow sometime in the day. After all that I had to go down to Fort Howard Park to do some scouting on a music video coming up on Wednesday. Today we picked the filming spot in the park and tomorrow we will be testing lights for the shoot. Finally we will be filming the performance end of the video on Wednesday. After that we will work on the story part but that is later down the road. Keep in the loop and on the lookout for Voicebox!

Random Movie Fact: Marlon Brando reputedly suggested that his cameo role as Jor-El be by him in voice over only, with the character's image onscreen being a glowing, levitating green bagel. Unsure if Brando was joking or not, the film's producers formally rejected the suggestion.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Otakon 2012

Just wanted to let everyone know that To Tony Productions will be at Otakon 2012 taking lots of pictures and hopefully filming some video content as well, but we will see. It is going to be a fun day and I hope to take a ton of pictures, plus hand out a boat load of business cards as well, I even got new ones made up just for Otakon! Can't wait to go, I have been waning to go to Otakon since I was about 14 years old and finally this year I get the chance.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2003 film Finding Nemo, Pixar's characters are often planned years in advance. Nemo first appeared as a stuffed toy on a couch in Boo's room in Monsters, Inc.. This movie introduces the main characters of post-2003 Pixar films. A boy in the dentist's office is reading a "Mr. Incredible" comic book, anticipating The Incredibles. Luigi the car is driving by the dentist's office, anticipating Cars.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Haunting Ground

Without further ado here are the photos from my latest photoshoot with Mary. This shoot she did cosplay as Fiona, the title character from the survival horror game Haunting Ground. Not many people do cosplay from this game and to her knowledge she is the only one she knows of that has done it, so it was awesome to be able to do photography for such a unique character.

Random Movie Fact: The 2007 film Hot Rod, shares almost the exact same basic plot line as Dirty Work, which also starred then-current cast members of "Saturday Night Live". Both films are centered around an unsuccessful young man attempting to raise $50,000 for his father, a cranky ex-boxer, to have a heart transplant.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Editing Photos

So today I am going to be editing photos from the second photoshoot I have done with Mary. It was another fun and productive photoshoot last night, which even had me scaling walls to get cool shots. My biggest worry was the photos themselves were going to look too different from the last one but they have a completely different vibe to them which is great. I think these photos will come accross much warmer and have an overall more approachable look to them. After lunch I am going to be going through all 23 approved pics and clean them up for Mary and the blog. Should be up and ready to go by tomorrow!

Random Movie Fact: In the 2008 film The Dark Knight, once she knew Heath Ledger had been cast as The Joker, costume designer Lindy Hemming based the character's attire off of an eclectic line-up of clothing styles, ranging from Vivienne Westwood to John Lydon to Iggy Pop to Pete Doherty to Alexander McQueen. Hemming's aim was to modify The Joker's familiar appearance with "a younger, trendier look", in order to represent Ledger's generation.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Productive Day Ahead!

So today I have a business meeting in the morning to finalize the date for an upcoming music video for a local musician. This will be the first big paid video I have ever done and I as of right now things are moving together nicely with it. We have a location, people for crew, people for cast, and also a good mindset of which shots to use. But yeah it should be a short meeting, but to the point I am excited to have a firm date finally.

In addition to that I have a photoshoot today with Mary, the model from the Jill Valentine photoshoot. She has more costumes and locations to use so I am super excited. She is really cool and chill to work with, and we have a lot more shoots coming up in the future besides this one, which I can't wait for to be honest.

Random Movie Fact: In the 1994 movie, Chungking Express, since Chungking Express was filmed in sequence or "like a road movie" as Wong Kar-Wai has said, Wong wrote each scene either the night before or on the morning on the day of filming.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Ending...

So today was the end of my car photography stint that lasted about three days. The company I worked for was just simply asking too much out of me for not enough pay. While it would have been a nice way to earn extra cash, in the end it just really wasn't worth it. Not only considering that but also the drive to the place was quite the haul so all in all just not up to the level I needed it to be. In other news I am also stepping back from a local record label I have been working with for a few years now. I am not naming names or pointing fingers, I just think creatively we are seeking two separate things. It was fun, I learned a lot, I still love all the guys to death I just wanna go my own way for right now. Maybe sometime in the near future, some level of collabaration will be feasible but for now not really.

I think right now is just a time for me to carve my own path with To Tony Productions, I am getting into a little bit of everything just to try it and gain experience. As time goes on I know we will be able to gain a niche but for now it is a lot of experimentation with what works and what doesn't work. Well I will keep trucking forward and hopefully you guys will stay informed on what is soon to come.

Random Movie Fact: In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, at the end of the sequence in which Dorothy and the Scarecrow first meet the Tin Man, as the three march off singing "We're Off to See the Wizard", there is a disturbance in the trees off to the right. This was long rumored to be one of the crew (or, by some accounts, one of the dwarf actors) committing suicide by hanging himself, but it is in fact a large bird stretching its wings.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Day After B-Day

So yesterday was my birthday and it was a lot of fun! My girlfriend Ashley treated me to a day out at Ocean City and it was so cool. My friend Chris was visiting his sister down there and he hung with us for a good chunk of the day and it was a nice time. I got to go swimming in the ocean, riding all the awesome waves, I got pinched on my pinky toe by a crab, and I had a nice crabcake dinner. It was a good day and I can't thank Ashley enough for a wonderful and relaxing birthday. Oh and here is a pic of me chilling on the beach yesterday.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2008 film Iron Man, Ghostface Killah, a long-time fan of the Iron Man comics (he uses the aliases "Ironman" and "Tony Starks", titled his 1996 album "Ironman" and samples clips of Iron Man), got a cameo as a Dubai tycoon. However, his scene was cut from the final film. Jon Favreau apologized to Ghostface and used his "We Celebrate" video in the film.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Birthday!

Today is my birthday, going to Ocean City all day to relax and hang at the beach! Going to be a fun and relaxing day!

Random Movie Fact: In the 1981 film The Evil Dead, Bruce Campbell twisted his ankle on a root while running down a steep hill, and Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tapert decided to tease him by poking his injury with sticks, thus causing Campbell to have an obvious limp in some scenes.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Product Photography

Well this week, I worked a few days a local car dealership taking photos of new cars for the website. It was a good learning experience and got to meet some nice people. I have been offered a part time job at the place, but I don't think I will stick with it just because the pay is too low and the work is harder than you think (baking out in the hot sun and manuevering the cars a different way for each shot takes it out on you). And on top of that the pay is next to nothing, but anyway here are some of the best shots from the week...Enjoy!

Random Movie Fact: In the 1982 film Creepshow, at the beginning of the film when the boys father is scolding him for reading the comic, the boy comes back with saying it's no worse than what's in the porno magazines his father has. Stephen King got his start writing short horror stories for pornographic magazines.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Zero to Hero

So these past two days I started working for a car dealership as a photographer which has been pretty cool. I take photos of the cars for their website and then they upload them onto their website later. The pay is ok, nothing amazing to say the least but for now it is a means to an end for me and I have been pretty strapped for work. I hope that soon though business will pick up to a point where I can move on from it. We will see, I don't mind it and as long as I don't get too screwed over it is all good.

In other news I feel like for a while there I was on a bit of a streak where I was making more enemies than friends. Between not working a whole lot, a ton of free time, and also just too much thinking I was in a bad place. I hate where I was in life and anyone I offended at that time I extend deep apologies too, but now that I am back on track with life I think I can starting mending it all up. I am sure it will all work out in the end.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2004 film Ocean's Twelve, the Night Fox's mansion is on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. The name of the city overlooking Lake Como is Bellagio. The city and the lake were the inspiration for the design of the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, site of the heist in Ocean's Eleven.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Photo Portfolio

So I have been wanting to do this for a while now and would like to present my favorite/best photography I have done so far.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2002 film Irreversible, Director Gaspar Noé only had a three-page draft before the movie was shot, so all of the dialogue was improvised.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess