E-mail Newsletters




User Login




blog.

The Corral Brothers featured in El Paso Magazine

August 25th, 2009

The Brothers Corral

The Brothers Corral

After graduating from Cathedral High School, the Corral brothers had their futures down pat. Carlos was studying computer science, his brother Octavio in biology. However, there was no disputing their true interests. “There were stacks upon stacks of VHS tapes we made when we were little,” said Octavio. After the dreaded call home to inform the lifeline about the permanent change in their future careers into a notoriously unpredictable field, both University of Texas at Austin students changed their majors to Radio-Television-Film.

Just two short years after graduating, the enterprising siblings are deep into their business venture MindWarp Entertainment LLC, a production company specializing in web design and video production. Although they run their own company with two locations in the state (Carlos, 26, is in Austin, while Octavio, 24, is in El Paso), they were still able to nurture their pet project, a feature film about an alcoholic doctor called Hands of God….

Continue reading the article at www.epmediagroup.com

‘Hands of God’ at the El Paso Plaza Classic Film Festival

August 10th, 2009

Hands of God Poster

Hands of God Poster

We will be having a special sneak peek screening of our new feature film Hands of God on Thursday Aug. 13th at 9pm and Saturday Aug. 15th at 10pm at the 2009 Plaza Classic Film Festival right here in our hometown of El Paso TX. The first sneak peek screening has already SOLD OUT and tickets are going fast for our 2nd screening on Aug. 15th.

If you would still like to purchase tickets for the second screening, you can drop by the main box office at the Plaza Theatre during regular business hours or purchase them online at Ticketmaster here.

We’ve also received some great press from the El Paso Times and What’s Up El Paso about our sold out screening. Below are some of the highlights from the news articles we have been gathering: Read the rest of this entry »

RED ALERT! 10 Things RED Camera Users Need To Know

July 7th, 2009

1. REDCODE vs 35mm Film

I’m sure everyone has had this argument with someone they know or work with. I’ve had this discussion/argument with a cinematographer who has both shot on film and on RED and still prefers 35mm over RED despite the long waiting period and higher costs of production. Maybe it’s an age/generation difference. Here are some facts that I have read regarding RED footage and 35mm film and how each is handled. I highly recommend checking out Paul Wheeler’s High Definition Cinematography Book, it’s a great read!

35mm Film Camera

35mm Film Camera

RED Digital Camera

RED Digital Camera

RED & 35mm Cameras

RED & 35mm Cameras

Read the rest of this entry »

MPEG-2 is DEAD!

June 28th, 2009

JVC GY-HM100 Handheld

JVC GY-HM100 Handheld

Last week, my friend Phil Goetz from Texas Media Systems invited me to a JVC: Solid Solutions seminar hosted by Scott A. Burch, a JVC district sales manager from the great state of Texas. Scott introduced us to the JVC GY-HM100 and its older brother the JVC GY-HM700 back in May. This time, he hosted a full breakdown of what these cameras can do with SDHC and SxS workflows. Check out my previous blog review of these two cameras here:
The JVC GY-HM100 & JVC GY-HM700

I want to take the time to go over a few more things that I both love and hate about these new cameras. First, I will give some love to the JVC GY-HM100 on its size and flexibility. Mounting this little guy on a Steadicam is easy. And the best part of this is it’s a full 1080p camera that only weighs 3lbs. Can you say smooth and simple?
Read the rest of this entry »

HOT / WHITE Pixel Fix on the JVC GY-HD110U

June 17th, 2009

This month, I wanted to take the time and talk about a small problem I encountered last year while filming our feature film Hands of God. As you have read from our blog, we used the JVC GY-110U HD camera with the Redrock 35mm Adapter and Nikon Lenses for our shoot. During the production, the JVC camera’s CCD sensors would occasionally overheat and cause small white pixels to appear in our shots. Here are some examples below of some of the issues that occurred:

Read the rest of this entry »

Worst Ideas Ever: Steadicam Mountain

May 22nd, 2009

My friend Neal Barenblat and I decided to rent one and climb a mountain. We rented a Varizoom Steadicam Navigator from Omega Broadcast here in Austin, TX and drove out to Enchanted Rock. We mounted Neal’s DVX100B onto the Steadicam and climbed the 800 ft. mountain, all while documenting our experience on my Canon XL2. Worst Idea Ever? Maybe. Check out some of the photos below:

Neal & the Steadicam

Neal & the Steadicam

Steadicam? No sweat!

Steadicam? No sweat!

Ready for Adventure!

Ready for Adventure!

Neal was up first. We took out the Steadicam and assembled it. Since we had only taken a small crash course on how to use a Steadicam, we were about to find out if we could climb Enchanted Rock and keep the camera steady. Neal decided to do the uphill climb and I would do the down hill climb.

Check out the short video below:

Website Launch: Mendez Burk Realty

May 20th, 2009

Our latest web site comes from a new player in El Paso’s real estate market. Mendez Burk Realty is a team of bilingual and multicultural professionals servicing the El Paso, TX area’s real estate needs in the residential, commercial and rental sector. A few of the website’s highlights include its integration with the El Paso MLS real estate listings, as well as its quick Spanish/English translation for Mendez Burk Realty’s local clientele.

www.mendezburk.com

Mendez Burk Realty website

Mendez Burk Realty website

Breaking Borders: Cross-Dressers & Drag Queens of El Paso, TX

May 8th, 2009

El Paso Filmmakers Diana Cordova, Benny Ontiveros, John Castaneda, and myself all collaborated together to bring you our first documentary. Every Thursday night at a local Taco Cabana in El Paso Texas, Manuel Nunez and friends put on a cross dressing drag queen show titled “Samantha’s Travesti Show”. Through the use of comedy and entertainment, Samantha, Viviana, & Zayda break the borders of transsexual identity and acceptance.

Click on the image below to view the documentary:

Breaking Borders

The JVC GY-HM100 and JVC GY-HM700

May 6th, 2009

My friend Phil Geotz from Texas Media Systems invited me to a small filmmaker get together where I met fellow Austin filmmakers Matt Iha and Rod Cole.  We all got to speak with Scott A. Burch, one of the JVC district sales managers from Texas.  Scott recently returned from NAB 2009 and provided us with some hands on experience with the JVC GY-HM100 and its older brother the GY-HM700.  Allow me to post some fun facts about this camera.

JVC GY-HM100 with Mic

JVC GY-HM100 with Mic

JVC GY-HM100 without Mic

JVC GY-HM100 without Mic

Matt Iha & HM100

Matt Iha & HM100

Read the rest of this entry »

Editing with REDcode

April 13th, 2009

Red Logo

Spencer Pharr will be producing and directing a new upcoming short titled “Sawed-Off” during the first week of May and asked me to sign on to the project as their editor.  Spencer gave me some RED footage to play with in order to understand and choose a workflow for his film.  This will be my first post-production gig dealing with the RED workflow.  I’ve been reading up on a lot of workflow types with RED and I think I found one that I am happy with.  Since I have a Dual 2.8Ghz Quad-Core MacPro with 8GB of RAM, I’ll be going with the following workflow Read the rest of this entry »