Panic Films

I shot some new photos recently with my 35mm Kodak VR35 film camera. My friend Keith dubbed it the Darth Vader camera because it kinda looks like Darth Vader. I spent some time walking in the Loop the other night and documenting the demolition of the house across the street from me. I would guess that the 2 flat house was around 100 years old. I felt I had to take photos of it’s final hours. There’s a timelapse video in the works as well, but that’s for another post. For now, let’s enjoy the rest of the photos.

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Have you ever seen the video that plays before a movie that tells you to text the word “dream” to a number? Sprint does that so you can see what your phone dreams while you turn it off during the movie. When I saw G.I. Joe: Retaliation last week, I did that and the video above is what I saw.

I had to allow Sprint to access my Facebook profile so it could take my photos and random information. I also made the post visible only to myself so that it wouldn’t post to my timeline. Apparently, my T-Mobile phone dreams in sci-fi endless tunnel motion graphics from 1999, with badass sound design. Below is the original video from Sprint.

EP01 HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY from LASTNIGHTSPARTY™ on Vimeo.

Years ago when we were throwing the Dark Wave Disco parties at Sonotheque, we had Last Night’s Party shoot some photos. I remember them being raw, scandalous, and soaked in vodka. They were pretty much just like the party. I’m glad he’s making videos and I really like what he’s doing here and I can’t wait to see more. Check out the Vimeo page to see more.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I haven’t posted photos from March 25th of The Old Farm dinner at Leopold. The restaurant has since closed and this was the last The Old Farm pop-up dinner that chef Michael Dean Reynolds was to have there. His guest chef was Brian Runge, formerly of Graham Elliot. Everybody seemed to have a blast cooking together I had a blast shooting all of it. It’s always exciting to be in the kitchen watching everybody work, shooting, trying not to get in their way, and tasting the food. The video edit is coming along nicely and I’ll post it very soon.

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This Friday and next Friday should be fun. Spring is here and I’m ready to get people dancing again. Hope to see some friends and new people out at Underground Lounge and PANIC! at Beauty Bar.

Here’s a time-lapse I put together from 1am thru 5:30pm of yesterday’s storm. This is the view from my living room window. Some early morning frames were cut because nothing happened while it was still dark out. It seriously looked like a still frame for over 10 seconds. When the sun came out the exposure was too bright so I crossfaded the cut when it was fixed after I woke up. A frame was shot every 15 seconds and sound was recorded on my phone from the TV reports on the storm.

About a month ago I shot photos and video of my friend chef Michael Dean Reynolds’ popup dinner at Leopold, where he is executive chef. He brought in chef Erling Wu-Bower of Avec as the guest chef. The menu included octopus, pork belly, duck, as well as olive oil cakes for dessert.

Check out some of the photos below and stay tuned for the next one at the end of March.

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CONSUMING SPIRITS (trailer) by Chris Sullivan from chris sullivan animation on Vimeo.

I’m really excited to see “Consuming Spirits”. I remember when this movie was in the early stages of production when I was a student of Chris Sullivan’s at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This was between 1994-1998. I’m proud of Chris for finishing his film after 15 years. This my friends, is art. Seeing how technology has changed in that time, and seeing something so beautifully animated by hand and filmed on 16mm film, it inspires me to no end. This is the kind of art that gives me hope.

I’m glad to finally get this video done and out to the world after having it sit on the Youtubes for a few months. Sometimes that has to happen. Either way, I like how it turned out and Chef Michael Dean is happy with it as well, which is what I care about the most.

Since August, Chef Michael Dean Reynolds is now Executive Chef at Leopold and I hear The Old Farm will return soon. This video was also the last video of The Old Farm dinners held at our beloved darkroom, that closed soon after. darkroom will always live on in our hearts and I can’t wait for The Old Farm to come back. The new year is coming and it’s time for new beginnings.