Fool Me Once
 
   
 
   
Click Here to View - (9 min 30 sec)
  
 
     
  Synopsis: A man wakes up one ordinary morning to an unsettling text message from his mistress. While trying to hide his betrayal from his wife he is sideswiped by one surprise after another until finally, devastating secrets are revealed.

Film notes: Filmed in Spring 2006 and completed in late Fall, "Fool Me Once" was a chance for me to work on something other than straight comedy or adventure. Although FMO has it's own dark comedy elements, the film allowed me to play with escalating tension and dark story beats.

The film was completed using a Panasonic DVX100a digital camera and shot using natural lighting rather than lighting setups which in the end allowed us to shoot five pages a day and complete the shoot in a weekend. Then back to "Family Guy" on Monday. We also did one day of reshoots, mostly so that I could reshoot parts of the ending.

Note to other filmmakers...try never to shoot your film near an airport, let alone two.
 
     
Closed:  Living Life
  
 
   
     
 

A young woman overwhelmed by her job takes a "time out" to enjoy life.

"Closed: Living Life" was originally intended for an under one minute film contest on Coppola's Zoetrope.com website in the Rosso Bianco theater section.

We again used the DVX100b, shooting and editing the film in a day. I had a notion of what music to use, but as the deadline for this was fairly quick I was able to get music from Patrick's music library. He
happened to have music he had composed for another film that was not used and lucky me...the music synced almost perfect. A little tweak later and the film was finished.
     
Dog Fur Hire
 
     
     
Click Here to View - (2 min 30 sec)
 

 

 A short animated film I did in the UCLA Animation Workshop while attending the School of Arts and Architecture. It was a graduate program, but I crashed it and as an undergrad I was one of the only people to finish a film that year.

Put together before the digital age, I cut, inked and painted over 1000 cels in 7 weeks. I also painted the backgrounds during Christmas break and shot the whole thing in a tiny room under an Oxberry camera during Easter break. Needless to say, I ended up with a 105 degree temperature all while taking 8 hours a day of classes. But the experience was worth it. Unfortunately it took me 10 more years to make another film.

     
The City I Love
 
 
   
     
Click Here to View - (2 min 30 sec)
 

 

A student film I did during a hiatus from working on "Family Guy". My wife and I drove through the city of Los Angeles late one night and this is the resulting music video.

The idea was to capture the colorful and beautiful aspects of LA in ways people don't expect.

     
Quicktime required - click here to download.
     

All images © 2007 Phil Langone