Story by Micah and Gina DeBenedetto, Screenplay by Micah DeBenedetto, Sound by Jeremy Montalvo, Director of Photography, Editor, and Director Micah DeBenedetto.
Filmed on location in Corpus Christi, Texas between August 2-5, 2012.
Special Thanks to Tony Martinez of Crush Girls, Ruben Barrera and Willy Yelverton of Goodnight Studios, Aerial Support provided by Peter Kendig of AirCzar (361) 884-2400, Rebecca Akins.
Moonlight Lies Movie Poster
Note: Click on Poster for Larger View. PS this is my first movie poster – WOOHOO!
I just learned “Tomorrow Morning” won runner-up for Filmmaker Voted Award… after starting the screening of the film part of the way through and with minor sound issues! In addition to that, “Howie” won second runner up for Audience Award – fancy way of saying “Third Place” – I’ll take it! Go TEAM TEAM-MEN-age and Team Zerep Productions!
From an earlier post:
I had an exciting weekend working on two short films for Stuf’s 48cc Short film challenge, one in which I’m still recuperating from. But I walked away with having worked on two eclectic and different projects. I was a “Team Leader” for TEAM TEAM-MEN-age where I essentially worked solely as cinematographer alongside David Maxwell Cole. I had an amazing time setting up lighting conditions for every individual shot in Lou’s Saloon. Then some of the beach photography was also really incredible, with my favorite being the wide shot of the character “Howie” falling down onto the beach and being taken…. well I don’t want to spoil it for you, but if you watch hopefully you’ll know what I’m talking about. The loteria card drawn was “El Nopal” – The Cactus. With that said, meet FRED, the cactus…. who is best friends with Brian Cobos - who did an AMAZING job acting as always. “Get back inside Marge!”
And then randomly after two days of filming “Howie” I was talking with Robert Perez from Zerep Productions (his last name backwards), and he said mentioned he wasn’t going to turn in a film, I said why not? Next thing I know I volunteered to act, contribute to story, and provide cinematography for the short film. So we arrived on set at 1 AM and wrapped around 3:30 and I rushed home and spit out the first edit and uploaded for Rob to see the next morning. I ended up asleep at 5:30 AM. Unfortunately I’m not posting the film, it’s one of those you had to have been there to have seen it. So maybe next time you’ll head out there! Instead I’ve made two trailers which individually should give you an idea of the film, and collectively should give you a REALLY GOOD idea of how the film plays out. I had a great time collaborating with Julia from Vice Versa Press – and it wasn’t too shabby to be lying down in bed ACTING right beside her, as well as collaborating with Mariella and Rob of Zerep Productions. Thanks to all three of you for allowing me to be a part of this beautiful and touching short film. The card drawn for this film titled “Tomorrow Morning” was “El Sol” – The Sun. Which inspired me to shoot with this particular yellow/orange/amber color temperature.
I had an exciting weekend working on two short films for Stuf’s 48cc Short film challenge, one in which I’m still recuperating from. But I walked away with having worked on two eclectic and different projects. I was a “Team Leader” for TEAM TEAM-MEN-age where I essentially worked solely as cinematographer alongside David Maxwell Cole. I had an amazing time setting up lighting conditions for every individual shot in Lou’s Saloon. Then some of the beach photography was also really incredible, with my favorite being the wide shot of the character “Howie” falling down onto the beach and being taken…. well I don’t want to spoil it for you, but if you watch hopefully you’ll know what I’m talking about. The loteria card drawn was “El Nopal” – The Cactus. With that said, meet FRED, the cactus…. who is best friends with Brian Cobos - who did an AMAZING job acting as always. “Get back inside Marge!”
I had an exciting weekend working on two short films for Stuf’s 48cc Short film challenge, one in which I’m still recuperating from. But I walked away with having worked on two eclectic and different projects. I was a “Team Leader” for TEAM TEAM-MEN-age where I essentially worked solely as cinematographer alongside David Maxwell Cole. I had an amazing time setting up lighting conditions for every individual shot in Lou’s Saloon. Then some of the beach photography was also really incredible, with my favorite being the wide shot of the character “Howie” falling down onto the beach and being taken…. well I don’t want to spoil it for you, but if you watch hopefully you’ll know what I’m talking about. The loteria card drawn was “El Nopal” – The Cactus. With that said, meet FRED, the cactus…. who is best friends with Brian Cobos - who did an AMAZING job acting as always. “Get back inside Marge!”
And then randomly after two days of filming “Howie” I was talking with Robert Perez from Zerep Productions (his last name backwards), and he said mentioned he wasn’t going to turn in a film, I said why not? Next thing I know I volunteered to act, contribute to story, and provide cinematography for the short film. So we arrived on set at 1 AM and wrapped around 3:30 and I rushed home and spit out the first edit and uploaded for Rob to see the next morning. I ended up asleep at 5:30 AM. Unfortunately I’m not posting the film, it’s one of those you had to have been there to have seen it. So maybe next time you’ll head out there! Instead I’ve made two trailers which individually should give you an idea of the film, and collectively should give you a REALLY GOOD idea of how the film plays out. I had a great time collaborating with Julia from Vice Versa Press – and it wasn’t too shabby to be lying down in bed ACTING right beside her, as well as collaborating with Mariella and Rob of Zerep Productions. Thanks to all three of you for allowing me to be a part of this beautiful and touching short film. The card drawn for this film titled “Tomorrow Morning” was “El Sol” – The Sun. Which inspired me to shoot with this particular yellow/orange/amber color temperature.
Nick Drake is today’s (January 19, 2012) featured article on Wikipedia. One interesting fact is that neither Bryter Layter and Pink Moon sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release. “In 2000,Volkswagen featured the title track from Pink Moon in a television advertisement, and within a month Drake had sold more records than he had in the previous 30 years.” He was 26 when he died from an overdose. Read more here. Listen to Pink Moon here.
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City. Coincidentally, I visited New York on the 30th anniversary of that sad day and visited Strawberry Fields and the exterior of the Dakota. As part of the South Texas Underground Film (STUF) Winter Film Challenge: a tribute to Sergei Eisenstein I made a short, experimental documentary film – otherwise known as a “shexdoc” – just kidding. In addition to this untitled film I screened two others which are explained further below.
“The Delivery”
a film made with an iphone 4 and go pro in 24 hours as part of STUF – 24CC.
“Lucky”
This is a short film which participated in being made within 7 days for the Corpus Christi 7 Day Film Challenge and contained three elements: Sam – a man who finds something, a line of dialogue, ” the problem with BLANK is that he/she thinks too much,” and a prop of black ribbon.
And this baffles me, but I didn’t include one of my favorite films made it New Orleans. I should have also shown “Ten Commandments” which features local New Orleans musicians and the poem with same name as film read by author and AMAZING poet Jericho Brown.
And in addition to all those festivities I’ll be out at Revolution (fittingly) tonight showing a documentary, experimental silent short … it will involve this guy:
and a tribute to this guy and in particular this stretch of soundtrack in his famous film:
Location: La Retama Park http://g.co/maps/y3fbu (you can park behind the Thomas J. Henry building or anywhere along the street LEGALLY of course, and be mindful of ONE WAYS! … it’s downtown. Oh and please don’t hit any stray animals because that makes me mad and sad at the same time… and you won’t like me when I’m angry and sad.
Thanks to Tony Martinez of The Crush Girls, Philip Cole with additional photography, and James Magel for watching a camera, and Dr. Rockstar with his awesome lighting. Of course the video would be nothing without the models, stylings, and make-up of countless people including:
Planet Sol – Spare Closet Consignment Boutique – Buckle – Corey Risper – Frank’s Extreme Wear – Cosa Bella – Annabelle’s Boutique – Kashmir Lingerie – Lane Bryant – Glam R Us Boutique – Infinite Surprises – Kaymare Boutique Featuring hair & make-up designs by these premier salons/stylists: – Salon Palomo – Planet Sol – Aveda Institute of Corpus Christi – Southern Careers Institute – Tease Salon – Yvonne Vaiz / Blue Neptune – MUA Krystal Kawaii / Ashley Marie – The Hair Shack / Stefani – Classic Cuts.
The challenge: pair a local director with a local band to make a music video. The South Texas Underground Film group put the challenge together and the videos premiered Revolution on December 18, 2011.
I put three comparatively short music videos together:
“Super Buffet” by Greedy Mouth was filmed at a company christmas party with an iphone 4.
“Let’s go to the Beach” by Greedy Mouth was filmed on location in North Padre Island on an iphone 4 using 8 mm app.
“Demented” by Bloody Pit of Hell was edited entirely using New York City stock footage from videoblocks.com.
Afterwards Greedy Mouth performed…. I took the stage with them.
Here is the video from the first Music Challenge, it features the band Killamora.
I took part, along with I believe a total of 13 other filmmakers, in a recent Music Video Challenge. The challenge: pair a local director with a local band to make a music video. The South Texas Underground Film group put the challenge together and it was kicked off at Revolution on August 24, 2011. Directors drew from a hat. I drew band number “1″ – Killamora. On September 29, 2011, a total of 8 videos had their premiere. It was an amazing night of films that showcased so much wonderful talent on so many different levels, each unique and wonderful in it’s own right.
Coincidentally, I’d actually photographed Killamora on assignment at Theo’s Billiards and spoken with lead singer afterwards about putting together a video. Nothing ever came about. Cue the Music Video Challenge. Strangely enough, the first of four nights and one day of filming was at Theo’s Billiards. But I decided I wasn’t going to utilize the footage and so collectively we decided to go a different route.
I met with the lead singer Tony and we went over a game plan. He gave me his interpretation of the song, which I’m not going to try and recapitulate here but one thing stuck with me. It was that “Groundbreaker” represented every-day person #keepthatinthebackofyourheadfornow….
Filming didn’t happen for a few weeks and when it did, we found ourselves at TFC Studios, problem was only 4/5 band members were there, this time missing Izzy. While I continued to sit on the footage… we needed to schedule another shoot to include Izzy. We now found ourselves in the guitarist David’s house… again with 4/5 band members, this time missing Will – the bassist. We took some footage, and 99% of it didn’t get utilized.
So far, we’ve shot three times, and 2/3 times I’d decided not to use footage. I thought to myself, “This isn’t going too well.” I decided to push for another shoot with the band, hopefully this time the entire lot of them on Wednesday, the day before the video was due. That shoot was cancelled. Again I thought to myself, “This really isn’t going too well.” But I found myself thinking how to fill the “void” of just having band performance footage in the video? I turned back to that first meeting with Tony and his interpretation of “Groundbreaker” #bringittothefrontofyourmindnow and decided to have a person being chased by “someone” and that “someone” ends up being the person that’s being chased, follow me? This is the part where you come up with your own meaning #insight. One more note, the chase scene couldn’t've been done without “Slayer” and his wife. She drove us around town while I sat in the bed of the truck filming. Slayer played the dubious looking double to Tony.
Izzy, Fidel, Tony, David, and Will of Killamora Rock on so many different levels. Get at them when you see them putting a show on and be ready because they rock it LONG and HARD – the only way to rock! KILLAMORA!
Anyway, here’s the video, which was voted #1 by a combination of audience award and jury panel. I think I won best editing too, although I’m not entirely sure. However I am sure I won $10 to Urban Fare Cafe #score
