Conor O'Sullivan

This past week I spent my time in Missouri to shoot footage for a video Jeff Rose and I are putting together for next year’s Shot Show in Las Vegas. The video will also be used in commercials on OLN and other venues. It was freezing cold on Wednesday and Thursday when we were out in the field. But we got some really great stuff that I’ll share when it comes along. All of our actors/helpers were great, especially Rod Schaffer who did all the driving. Anyways, without further adieu, here are some stills from the shoot. All of these are raw, untouched images. They will be edited if they are added to my gallery.

Here are short comments on the films I have seen since the Summer ended, mostly to jog my memory.

Taken

This is a film where I saw the trailer, and knew exactly how this film was going to end. Liam Neeson’s daughter gets kidnapped, and he kicks ass to save her. And that’s exactly what happened in the film. So bad, so predictable.

Where the Wild Things Are

This film I had such high expectations for and it failed to meet them. It was slow, boring, and plotless. Great visual style though.

A Beautiful Mind

This is a story about a Nobel Prize winner who lives his life as a schizophrenic. This was a great film, Ron Howard surprises me again.

Possibly more to come…

Well, it’s been a bit since I updated the blog, but better to catch up late than never. So I’ll start with this, and I’ll post a catch up post sometime soon as well.

This Wednesday I went on a video shoot with my co-worker Jeff and our actor, Larry. They went hunting before the shoot and offed an 8 point buck, which we utilized in the video. I also got to fire my first gun, a Glock 17 pistol. The sense of power was awesome. After the shoot we went to Larry’s house and checked out a hunting game that he is developing for multi-platforms, including the Wii. I got to see the Ndev Nintendo development kit. Larry also had a Canon GL1, which reminds me of my old GL1. He also happened to have the same mic as I do, an Azden SGM-1x. Anyways, after that we went to a Mexican restaurant named “El Burrito,” which is actually a Movie Group inside joke. All in all, a great experience, and it feels great to get payed doing something like this. Here are some pictures from the day.

So, my Summer has ended and I’ve made my way down to Florida. On the way down my sister and I watched Flight of the Conchords and X-Files. We stayed with my grandma for a few days, had some great meals, and saw (500) Days of Summer. On the way to our cousins’ we went to this awesome Cuban restaurant in Tampa. We then spent the night at our cousins’ house and watched the films “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” and “Shrooms,” both horribly excellent. I met my cousin Riley’s current girlfriend, who was nice. The next day we went to Ikea, bought all my furniture and whatnot, and moved all our stuff up 3 flights of stairs with Russell and his parents. As of today, my apartment is all set up and the ‘rents are gone. Looks like it’s going to be an awesome year, the place is great. Pics coming eventually.

I’ve watched a handful of films this Summer that I never put the time into reviewing. So I’m going to post a brief opinion on each of the films I’ve seen so far.

Notorious

I really enjoyed this film. It gave me an insight into the history of the life of the Notorious B.I.G., who has become one of my favorite rappers and musicians. I thought it was pulled off very well, and very realistically. Emotionally well played.

Fan Boys

Great film about Star Wars fan boyism. It had a few flaws, but was very enjoyable.

Ganja Queen

Documentary about a woman who was arrested in Indonesia for the possession of 10 pounds of marijuana. It was an interesting insight on the legal system in Bali, and how corrupt the country is. Tragic story, the Australian who was clearly innocent ended up being sentenced to 20 years in prison for a harmless substance that wasn’t even her’s. Disgusting.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fantastic dark comedy about a drug trip to report on two stories in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is probably going down as one of my favorite films of all time.

Wackness

Indie film about a teenage drug dealer who sold weed to his psychiatrist in exchange for sessions. It starred Josh Peck from the kid show “Drake and Josh.” I thought it was well done, but had its flaws. Fantastic acting from Josh Peck.

Hurt Locker

I saw this with my grandpa after my interview with National Geographic Traveler up in Baltimore. Directed by a female director. I thought this was fantastic, one of the best films to be released this year. It was intense, sad, funny, awesome.

Valkyrie

Saw this on On Demand with my dad. I thought it was very well done, very interesting. The span of accents in the film was ridiculous, but it didn’t bother me in the least. I’d recommend it.

LSD: The Beyond Within

Old BBC documentary about the history and philosophies behind LSD. Extremely well done with some fascinating footage.

Funny People

This movie was alright. It had it’s moments I suppose. Overall I was somewhat disappointed.

(500) Days of Summer

I saw this visiting my grandma at an epic theater. It was extremely well done, probably one of my favorite films of the year so far.

This is all I can remember so far, but possibly more to come in a future edit.

This weekend I had the fortune of visiting my friends from UCF for Jess’s birthday party up in Baltimore. The partying was fun, and the love I felt for my friends was a great feeling. At the party was Dan, Jess, Gabe, Lisa, and Angel. When standing outside on Jess’s porch analyzing a flower, I found a nut shell that had the word “love” carved into it in perfect lettering. I believe in coincidences, but I don’t feel this was one.
At the party we played pong, kings, some weird animal game, walked around outside, etc. Here are some pictures from the party, with maybe more to come later (from others’ cameras). The last one is some weird car we saw when we tried to go to the Baltimore Art Museum (which was apparently closed specifically on Mondays and Tuesdays):

On the way up I got ticketed for speeding and a ticket for an expired inspection. The week before I got a cigar light from a homeless man outside of 7-11. He asked me for some spare change, which I didn’t have, but I may have had some in the cup holders of the Mini Cooper. He started analyzing the car and pointed out the inspection. If you’ve had the chance to read my flashback entries, you’ll know that I now believe in Karma. I should have mentioned it to my dad when I got home, even though it was just a small ticket.

Today my parents and I talked to Lee, a fellow photographer who lives in the neightborhood, who recounted his photographic adventures with the foxes. He was able to get up real close and they did their thing, essentially ignoring him. He did his shots at 6:00AM when there was some light, but since they’re nocturnal and I was bored, I decided to give it a test run. We saw 3 foxes and managed to get some shots of one of them. It was too dark to get anything worthy of the gallery, and they were afraid of the flash on my camera (which was necessary given the light). But here’s one of the resulting images:

I definitely plan on waking up one morning and looking around for them to try and get a proper shot, and maybe see if I can get them doing something cool. Lee said he got shots of them grooming each other, eating birds, among other things. Can’t wait. But I’m going to Baltimore tomorrow so it’ll have to wait.

I filed the police report on all the stolen goods yesterday. The officer was very nice, though I’m sure that job was boring for him. Hope the stuff turns up somehow, but at least now we have something to show to the insurance company.