Blue Highways + Last Exit To Elsewhere

I haven't read Blue Highways: A Journey Into America. Clearly though, I better. It's a book written by William Least Heat-Moon in 1982 which chronicles his late '70s roadtrip across America.

For a taste of it, we've got this damn fine video called Last Exit To Elsewhere. It features VO taken from the book, paired with footage filmmaker Dan Sadgrove shot while on a recent 5,000 mile road trip of his own. 

The tone, of both the VO and the visuals, are entirely different than your typical roadtrip video. The piece doesn't culminate with tight tan bodies leaping from cliffs into the sea. There's no final call to action. There's no Go For It Bro! There's just this tone, throughout. Of searching and sadness too. 

The video culminates with a realization: "I still dream... but I'm not restless anymore." Is it wisdom? Surrender? A bit of both I suppose. I've come to the same understanding myself after extended time on the road.

I imagine one of these times the feeling might stick for me. But not quite yet.

Based off conversations William Least Heat-Moon had on the road in his book 'Blue Highways: A Journey into America.' This film represents my journey of lonely miles through small towns and empty highways. In late 2015 I went on a 5,000mile road trip through the bottom half of the US from California to Louisiana and back. Driving through back-road highways, much like the Least Heat-Moon, I avoided the Interstate Highways as much as I could. It is off these Interstate highways where you can still find remnants of America as it used to be, maybe back when the author drove through it in the late 70's. Over the course of my journey whilst reading 'Blue Highways' I found my experiences on the road mirrored that of the author and though it was written in 1978, still held true to my journey in 2015. Director/Editor: Dan Sadgrove Music: Hanan Townshend Narration: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson Sound: Morgan Johnson at Barking Owl Sound Color: Kath Raisch at Company 3

Morgan Maassen made a fine to-do list for you

Morgan Maassen direct • film • edit www.morganmaassen.com motion clients: Audi, Corona, Samsung, Volvo, Delta Airlines, Peugeot, NBC Universal, Monster Energy, Quiksilver, Patagonia, Billabong, prAna, Nixon, Roxy, Hurley, Teen Vogue, National Geographic, United Nations shot on Red Dragon & Epic music: "After Gold" by Kelpe

Don't have your summer plans ironed out yet? Nothing nailed down for this weekend?

Fear not my indecisive one, photographer and filmmaker Morgan Maassen has about 4,000 ideas for you and he's compiled them all into one absolutely gorgeous video called "Motion."

I suppose "Things You Can Do If You're Bored" wasn't his intention when he put this together. But if watching it doesn't make you want to get out and do something (like right now!) I don't even know what to say to you.

Anyway, check it. The footage and the edit are fire and the music track by Kelpe drives it all perfectly. This kid is really really good. At 25, he's already shot for some of the biggest companies in the world. His work doesn't feel that way though which is about the highest compliment I can give.  

He's a good follow on Instagram too: here.

Goats and limes and oysters oh my!

A friend I haven't seen for quite a while recently stumbled across Bring Limes. 

She sent me a nice note in which, among other things, she mentioned that she's reached a bit of a personal plateau. After kicking some serious ass in the corporate world over the years, she's wondering what's next.

Now, she tells me, she's working on a plan to become a goat farmer. Of course, the fact that I've felt the same farming urge, only with limes, shouldn't come as a surprise. But I feel a lot of urges. All the time. In fact there's stuff careening through my head right now that I won't even remember in... wait, what was my point? Heh.

My friend though? It seems she's serious. And I hope she figures it out. First of all because goats are awesome, even with their freaky-ass eyeballs. But more important I can't think of too many things that provide connection to, and meaning for, our lives on planet earth the way farming does. 

This video is a great example of that. If you like farming or oysters or the sea or incredible french guy voices, I bet you'll like it.

Director: Douglas Guillot Creative Director: Sergio Penzo Production Company: Panthalassa Content Set Photographer: Sarah Arnould Sound Recorder: Romain Grenier Graphic Design: Stefan Schröter Original Score: German Wahnsinn Grading & Postproduction: Harvest Digital Agriculture Equipment & Technical Support: 18-55 Translation: Cathrin Freifau von Seld-Thie

“Our life is determined by the tides and the sea. Which is good because we can’t just make something up. The wind and the sea are unchangeable. You don’t mess with it. You don’t cheat with it. So it’s very important to us.”

Being There > Being Away

This past week had me on both coasts.

I was within yards of each ocean, to the east and the west, but never got the chance to touch either one. From my hotel window in Asbury Park, New Jersey, I could see a tiny sliver of the sea. And then 48 hours later: a strip of bright white turbulence, lit by the moon, along the Pacific Coast Highway. Just a quick glimpse from the driver's seat at 60 miles per hour before the 10 took us inland.

They were business trips both: a presentation in New Jersey followed by a photo shoot in LA. The presentation was well received and the shoot, despite a huge celebrity and 50 or 60 people on set, went off without a hitch. So: mission(s) accomplished. I made my way through the airport Sunday evening feeling exhausted but, you know, pretty good. 

One thing I wasn't feeling though is that I had actually been in either place. Yes, I had been away from home. There were planes, trains, and automobiles. I have receipts. But I never really had a moment, or more accurately: I never took a moment to be where I was. 

I was thinking about this last night. And then this morning I came across this video. The filmmaker, Andrew Norton, and his wife (who sounds as cute as a bug!), serve up a great reminder of what it's like to truly be in a place. To be affected by it. Sometimes it's epic in scale. Other times, small and simple. If you don't open yourself up to it, though, you're going to miss your chance for either.

I do realize he was in the Galapagos and I was in Jersey. So I'm not going to beat myself up over it too much. But my point holds. 

I recently got invited to visit the Galapagos islands in Ecuador. Just before returning home I called my wife, Katie to tell her about it. A tale of trying quasi-adventurous things, Darwin marrying his cousin and riding a tortoise and a kid that can do 1000 kick-ups, among other things. Note: No tortoises we ridden during the making of this film. Illustrations by: Drew Shannon Music by: Podington Bear Grading by: Alter Ego

Pure Imagination

I damn near cried when I watched this. If you're a child of the '80s or '90s, I bet you'll damn near cry too!

I honestly don't know what else to say other than you really gotta see this thing. 

As children, we viewed the world through the lenses of our imaginations. The carpet became lava, the shadows formed monsters, the family minivan was a spaceship. But the older we got, the more reality set in, and soon we forgot the magic our minds could create. We invite you to step back into your childhood and take a look through the lens once again.nahue and Roth Rind, that takes you on a journey through the mind of a 10 year old boy living in the 80’s and 90’s. Watch the Behind The Scenes Here - https://vimeo.com/140583965 Follow us on Instagram - instagram.com/permagrinfilms Directed by Marc Donahue www.permagrinfilms.com Produced by Roth Rind www.rind-raja.com Download “Imagination” by Jordan Corey FREE at https://soundcloud.com/jordancorey/pure-imagination-final-bounce Download the recreation of "Oompa Loompa" by Drew Roulette FREE here: https://soundcloud.com/drew-roulette/oompa-loompa-cover-song Starring Kai Burich Co-starring Stephen Burich Get your PermaGrinFilms shirt at www.vooray.com

Credits are at the end of the film, but a big Right On! goes to Marc Donahue and Roth Rind of PermaGrin Films.

Reminder: The world is really really cool

Mike Olbinski drove 17,000 miles capturing this footage, shooting 105,000 frames worth of time-lapse in the process.

It was so well worth it.

Blu-Ray discs available here: http://www.mikeolbinski.com/shop/ Song by Kerry Muzzy: "Palladio Rebuilt" (on iTunes: http://bit.ly/pall_MO) Follow me: http://www.mikeolbinski.com / https://twitter.com/mikeolbinski / https://www.facebook.com/mikeolbinskiphotography / https://instagram.com/mikeolbinski ---------------------------------- I've been chasing the monsoon in Arizona for about 6-7 years now. This summer was different though. Back in late July, I was wondering why it felt like I was out chasing more than ever before. And then I remembered. I had a job last summer. This year I didn't. I went full-time photography in November of 2014 and haven't looked back. I was free to roam and had virtually no limitations. I even had multiple chases where I never actually wend to bed, but instead chased all night. I took the kids to New Mexico at one point early in the season. Last year I counted roughly 31 total days that I chased a storm during the monsoon. This summer: 48. Yikes. 17,000 miles driven, which was about 3,000 more than last year. Perhaps the biggest difference this year was shooting nearly 60,000 more time-lapse frames than I did in 2014. 105,000 total. And what sticks out to me even more than any of the other numbers above, is that only 55,000 of those 105,000 frames made it into Monsoon II. What that means is I was able to stuff this new film with only of the best of the best. We missed out on some of the huge dust storms like I've captured in years past, but overall, I think this represents some of the best weather I've ever photographed in Arizona. There are stunning shelf clouds, gorgeous rain shafts, lots of blowing dust, tons of lightning, and even multiple mini-supercells/mesocyclones. The brief meso over Cottonwood at the 3:38 mark is one of my all-time favorites. I can't talk much more about the film without addressing the music real quick. The song is called Palladio (Rebuilt) and it's once again by the amazing Kerry Muzzey who donated it to me for Monsoon II. He also let me use another song of his for my previous film, The Chase and I'm beyond grateful for his generosity. I mean, how do you thank someone enough for that? Click here to find the song on iTunes and please support his work! I've said it a million times...the music is at least 50% of these movies I make. Kerry's art helps bring my films to life. Thank you my friend! When I'm out there capturing footage for these films, I'm constantly thinking about the story I want to tell. For example, I wanted a lot of erupting, towering cumulus at the beginning to launch into the meatier clips. I started laying out the film back in mid-August. Certain clips I already knew would be in certain places in relation to the ups and downs of the song itself. As the season wore on, I gathered more and more clips and began to lay out the entire film. I'd remove clips when I got something better. There was exhausting editing, re-editing, looping music, reluctantly dropping clips that didn't work or were unfixable and watching it over, and over and over, to make sure I was telling the story I wanted to tell. At one point, about halfway through...I was telling Jina that I have a lot of great stuff, but still haven't shot the final scene yet. I had no idea what it would be, but I knew I didn't have it. And then that very night (or maybe the next day)...I was out west of Tonopah and I knew on the way home that the monsoon had finally delivered my ending. That is what is so amazing about doing this. You hit the road with zero idea about what you're going to see over the course of a summer. You might imagine scenarios or have ideas, but they get blown out of the water by reality. And that's what I love about it. My hope is that you can see and feel that love in this film. The beauty of the monsoon in Arizona. This is where I'm from and this is home. More on the story here: http://www.mikeolbinski.com/theblog/2015/10/monsoon-ii/ -------------------- Technical Details: Captured with Canon 5D3's, a 5D2, Canon 16-35mm, Rokinon 14, 24, 35 and 85mm. Processed using Lightroom, LR Timelapse, After Effects and Premiere Pro

THIS IS NOT A SURF FILM

Those of you that know me know this: Johnny don't surf.

Not that I haven't. And not that I won't again (hopefully soon, I love it). It's just that in my neck of the woods, the only rideable waves are called "wakes."  And the closest we get to surf's up is "snow's down." 

So why am I diving into another surfy post? Because this: Surfers make the best videos. That's just how it is. Or at least they make the most soulful ones.

Trust me, I've at least dabbled in pretty much every solo sport there is: winter, summer, action, silent, hook, bullet, esoteric-stuff-that-white-guys-with-dreadlocks do, you name it.

The point is, my interests tend to careen. And with each new obsession comes hours of youtube time. So it's with absolute certainty that I say no one draws the connections between who they are, and what they do, as well as surfers do. 

The short film "Out of the Black and Into The Blue" is no exception. Of course, the surf footage is spectacular: Ridiculous sets – the likes of which I've never seen. And ridiculous rides – the likes of which I can only imagine in my wildest Spicoli dreams... right before me and Mick wing over to London to jam with the Stones.

But this is not a surf film. 

You can watch it as a surf film, yes. I'm sure director Luke Pilbeam would appreciate it, since that's the film he made.

But once you've watched it, play it again with your eyes closed.

Just listen.

This is a life film. 

Of course, that's the film Luke made too. Surfers just get that kind of thing.

"It's difficult to explain to those who haven't found their calling..."

Winner : Best Short London surf film festival 2014 This is a story about drive, passion and ambition and what it means to put everything into something and gamble it all. Directed by Luke Pilbeam Music score: Nick Tsang Words: Joey Brown Colourist: Matt Holloway Voice: Nina Symons Featuring: Jayce Robinson, Lyndon Wake, Andrew Cotton, Axi Munion, Nic Von Rupp Frederico Morais, Alex Bothelo, Pablo Garcia. Additional footage: Peter Clyne.

Props to Luke Pilbeam (Director), Nick Tsang (Music), and Joey Brown (Words).

Longing for the apocalypse? Try Rx Nature!

This 90-second video is 100 percent awesome – a perfectly crafted reminder to get yer ass outside. It also includes what must be my favorite disclaimer copy of all time: "Results may vary. Golf is not nature."

The Endless Summer

Sometimes I find myself missing places I've never been during eras I've never lived. Such as? Key West in the 30s. NYC in the 70s (alright I was alive but not of the recommended age for doing 70s NYC things). And California in the mid 60s. 

That last one is where The Endless Summer comes in. If you're not familiar (and you should be, friend-o), the film follows several surfers to Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Tahiti and Hawaii. Because "On any given day of the year, it's summer somewhere in the world." (Some decades later, the philosopher Jimmy Buffett would further parse this seminal theory to conclude: "It's 5 o'clock somewhere.") 

Despite the worldwide locations, though, The Endless Summer couldn't be more 60s Californian if it tried. It's the perfect tale of care-free wanderlust and adventure: beautifully shot, wonderfully narrated, and set to a killer soundtrack. In my mind, when I think about escape plans, they look exactly like this.

You can watch the whole thing right here: