We are very active in the support of Only in Houston , a group that promotes the creative resources of America's 4th largest city to the rest of the world. The website gets around 100,000 hits a week and brings a whole new audience to Houston creatives. OiH advertises the site and its members all over the US.
We are active in advocacy for the Texas film industry and work with the Texas Motion Picture Alliance to help them lobby for legislation and tax incentives that will bring more motion pictures, episodic television, video game and TV commercial production to the Lone Star state.
Our short documentary One Day in Houston was commissioned by the The Greater Houston Convention and Visitor's Bureau and underwritten in part by Continental Airlines ...since it was completed for last years MPI conference in New Orleans, the film has taken on a life of its own... tallying up thousands of hits on sites all over the web, winning awards and getting noticed by really important people. It has been a really fun ride and we have the City of Houston and the GHCVB to thank for their collaboration, vision and support.
I am a guitarist and played in a lot of rock bands while I was growing up and in college. My interest in rock and roll has led me to develop a music video project for Houston rockers The Southern Backtones . We shot the video late last year and premiered it at the Houston Halloween Film Festival. Since its release Forever has had a terrific run, bringing some much-deserved attention to this talented rock trio. Our uploads to numerous video sharing sites resulted in "Forever" being noticed by and eventually airing on MTV, MTV2, MuchMusic and many other networks.
The sucess of "Forever" has led to more music video projects...we have just completed principal photography on the Southern Backtones' new video "Slumber Party" which I co-directed with the Backtones frontman Hank Schyma. "Slumber Party" is a fantastic spaghetti western-meets-psychedelic pop project. I don't want to give it away but it features guns, girls, film-noir, and fantastic B&W cinematography by Wayne Forster ...
Dan Workman of SugarHill Studios is a truly amazing record producer and a great friend. With Dan and his partner Andrew Amelang of TLM Music I have started work on a beautiful music video project for Jennifer Grassman and her song "Pretty Girls". We finished principal photography this summer and are currently in post-production. I can't wait to finish the project, although we have been set back a bit by our unwelcome visitor Hurricane Ike.
Special thanks go out to Panavision Plus 8 Digital Houston and to The Lighting Zone Houston for their work on these projects. Also thanks to our fantastic crew. Justin Deguire, David Zenteno, Rolf Eberlein, Michael Turrin, Jarrod Gullett, Tracy Jemison, and Everett Tassevigen .
On May 3, with the help of cinematographers Raul Casares , Richard Lacy and Bob Ball, and camera and lens systems from Panavision Plus 8 Houston , I shot my first feature-length concert film: Nothing to It, The Art Guys in concert. "Nothing to It" is a retrospective of 25 years of conceptual and performance art by Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth. The Art Guys . Of special significance is the location of the film which was shot at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Houston. It was at U of H that The Art Guys met and began making art together in 1983.
Also as of this writing, I am working with my long time friend and creative partner Michael Trigg to produce a new CD for Trigger and Some Dudes Named Roy..a rather tasty and bizarre comedy meets country project.
Southern Backtones 77,000 Hits on roxwel.com
Southern Backtones - Slumber Party
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