I'm thrilled to let you all know that I'm now a married man. My fiancée and I took our families over to Italy and had an incredible trip that culminated in a wedding in Tuscany. She may not have her name in the credits but my wife has had such a pivotal role in my work. She's given me tons of ideas for videos (i.e. Out of Control) and she's got a great eye for what works.  I'm so blessed to call her my wife.

My favorite quote of hers came after watching "Mystery" for the first time when she noted: 

"It looks like a reproduction ballet".

Priceless.

I'm not ashamed to admit it; I love campy action movies with their ridiculous plots, overly choreographed fight scenes, and snappy one-liners.  So when I needed to make a promo for the 7th installment of my church's movie series I thought I'd make an homage to every over the top action movie that I've ever loved.

Make sure to check out the "FX Breakdown" to see how the project came together.

Credits:  Distressed Damsel - Janie Russell,  Cop - Jon Lorenz,  Sister - Renee Rebold,  Mysterious Man - Cris O'bryon,  Pilot - Matt Bradford,  Audio Engineer - Brian Ciganero

Most people spell success: M-O-N-E-Y.  Jesus, however, had a radically different view of success that had nothing to do with wealth or power.  Forget economics, this is God-o-nomics.

Like a meteor, he flashed across the inky blackness of Israel's spiritual night.
-J. Oswald Sanders

Elijah the Tishbite stepped out of nowhere to become a prophet of God. The rugged, gaunt prophet from the obscure town of Tishbeh became God's powerful instrument of confrontation. Alone, Elijah faced off with over four hundred prophets of the false god Baal and won. He was a man who God loved so much that He prepared a special chariot and horses of fire to transport him from earth to heaven. He was Elijah - the man in a whirlwind, the humble hero. -Charles Swindoll

This project required massive amounts of post-production work because all of the shots were done entirely on greenscreen. Every environment had to be pieced together from individual elements because I wanted each shot to be a work of art. The composition of each shot needed to enhance the emotional temperature of the shot. Lots of hours went in to this project and I'm very proud of the end product.

Check out this visual FX breakdown for a couple of the shots from "Elijah."



Credits:
Ari Sorrentino - Elijah
Shelly Smith - Jezebel
Brian Cigainero - Audio Engineer

The goal for this project was to create a series of portraits on prayer some joyful, some sorrowful, and some introspective. The concept was that we need to repaint our picture of prayer. Using a hand drawn technique, the picture emerges from the canvas while the text guides the viewer to confront their misguided ideas about prayer. This was a very meticulous video to put together because every on-screen element needed to animate in somehow. The end product, however, was well worth the effort.


Credit: Janet Hirata - Logo