Bryan Hong's LAFS Projects
The Los Angeles Film School

Here in approximately reverse chronological order, are my shooting projects so far from my time at LA Film School. I think it's pretty amazing the difference between the first projects and the last ones, and that there was only a year in between them.

You will need Quicktime 7 or newer to view these files which you can download by clicking on the frame grabbed image for each clip. I suggest right clicking and saving the files to your computer rather than trying to watch these in the browser unless you have a very fast connection as many of these are fairly large downloads.

Thesis Projects

Some of my favorite of the thesis projects I worked on. I am not particularly interested in directing, so I did not direct a film, so I mainly did lighting and DPing. I will keep adding more of my favorites as they become available to me.

Shelter Run Time: 13:43 File Size: 624x352 - 115MB Director: Michael Carreño DP: Bryan Hong Producer: Matthew J. Pagoaga Production Design: Michael Carreño Editor: Peter Lazarus Sound Mixer: Daniel Krotin Boom Operator: Chase Nelson 1st AD: Jonathan Chaupin 1st AC: Kit Vandervort 2nd AC: Irma Gomez Loader: Grant Smith Script Supervisor Doug Cooper Make-up Artist Christina Ojeda Gaffer/Dolly Grip: Jett Evans Key Grip: George Arquilla Grip: Andre Dos Santos Music Editor: Michael Brake Rerecording Mixing: Shawn Seeger Joseph Garcia Ty Higgins Ben Tedesco Music by: Fernando Cardoso

Comments: Mike the director wrote a great script and seemed to really believe in me being the guy to shoot his film. We tried to plan everything out as best as we could. We shot in the last week of the thesis cycle so although everyone was tired, we were able to learn from the mistakes and triumphs of some of the previous projects we had worked on. Although I made a few mistakes, overall I'm really proud of the film, and I'm also proud of the great crew we had, especially with Jett and George on the lights, they really got a lot of work done in a short amount of time! "Shelter" was shot in the Super16mm format on Fuji Eterna 500 film stock donated in part by Fuji. I know the file is kinda big but I wanted to get the maximum amount of video quality in there, haha. You will need Quicktime 7 or some other suitable h.264 codec player to view this! Starring Jorge Cordova and Michelle Field.

The Butcher Run Time: 7:50 File Size: 624x352 - 69.8MB Director: Joseph Garcia Producer: Ryan Navarro DP: Leigh Vega Production Design: Elexis Delair Editor: Junhee Kim Sound Design: Joseph Garcia Sound Editor: Shawn Seeger Art Director: Eric Trowbridge 1st AD: Michael Carreño 2nd AD: Drue Jackson Camera Operator: Omar Marquez 1st AC: Ben Tedesco 2nd AC: Grant Smith Boom Operator: Mitchell Gebhard Gaffer: Bryan Hong Dolly Grip: Adrian Soriano Grips: Sean Regan Robert Ferbie Art Grips: Kelly Kenny Matt Esquivel Construction: John Mancini Raphael Rodriguez Make-Up Artist: Sarah Wolfe

Comments: Written and directed by Joe Garcia, "The Butcher" is a pretty awesome little horror flick. Leigh Vega who I love working with was the DP and I was her gaffer. This was a very fun film to light, and I'm really happy with how the lighting came out. The production design by Elexis was absolutely amazing. It's pretty hard to believe it was all shot on the soundstages at school (except the last scene which was shot on location). And good lord there was blood everywhere. I still have some of it stuck in my work shoes. "Shelter" was shot in the Super16mm format on Fuji Eterna 500 film stock donated in part by Fuji. I know the file is kinda big but I wanted to get the maximum amount of video quality in there, haha. You will need Quicktime 7 or some other suitable h.264 codec player to view this!! Starring Megan Scortino and Jason Grey.

Midterm Projects

Midterms at LAFS. Every day we shoot a scene from a movie that's already been made. It was a lot of fun and I got a lot of practice lighting a lot of different scenes either as the gaffer or the DP. I'll be posting the ones I DP'd on this page as they become available. Some additional post production work may be done on these in the future. I'll make updates when necessary.

A Scene from "Good Will Hunting" Run Time: 6:32 File Size: 427x240 - 37.9MB Director: Vishal Solanki DP: Bryan Hong Producer: Patricia Poienaru Production Design: Robert Lofstrom Editor: Mannix Rickenbacher Sound Designer: Seth Eubanks 1st AD: Kyle Roumillat 1st AC: Leigh Vega 2nd AC: Beth McMillan Gaffer: George Arquilla Grip: Jett Evans Dolly Grip: Shane Farris Sound Mixer: Seth Eubanks Boom Operator: Chase Nelson Script Sup.: Paul Medley

Comments: This is not the final version, post production sound will be added in the near future. This is Vishal's interpretation of a scene from "Love Actually". Man when I saw the first rehearsal of the day we shot this thing, my jaw just hit the floor, the performance was so awesome and I thought "Damn, we should have been rolling on that!" but I didn't have to worry because amazingly these actors were able to keep up the intensity all day long. They were awesome. And Vishal did a great job directing everybody. Shot on XL2 with P+S Technik. Starring Paul Haitkin and Makinna Ridgway.

A Scene from "Love Actually" Run Time: 5:33 File Size: 427x240 - 33.3MB Director: Seth A. Eubanks DP: Bryan Hong Producer: Rodney Krueger Production Design: Eric Trowbridge Sound Mixer: Mitchell Gebhard Editor: Junhee Kim 1st AC: Vishal Solanki 2nd AC: Ryan Navarro 1st AD: Matthew J. Pagoaga Script Sup.: Kyle Roumillat Boom Operator: Adrian Soriano Dolly Grip: Shane Farris Gaffer: Jett Evans Grip: Shawn Seeger P.A.: Kevin Ivers Make-up: Christina Ojeda

Comments: This is not the final version, post production sound will be added in the near future. This is Seth's interpretation of a scene from "Love Actually". By the way, I had nothing to do with the Veronica Mars line being in there, the actress once had a speaking role on the show! haha. And I was the one that took the photo in the frame... I had nothing to do with that being in there either, haha. Shot on XL2 with P+S Technik. Starring Rodney Krueger and Katie Leclerc.

Term 2 Projects

Camera Test: "Drug Deal Gone Right" Run Time: 2:57 File Size: 640x360 - 21.9MB Class: None Assignment: None Director: Bryan Hong Crew: Jonathan Drake Seth Eubanks Mitchell Gebhard Mandas Jordan Chase Nelson Chris Tarango Matthew Teague Vishal Solanki Editor: Bryan Hong

Comments: I got a bunch of cinematography students together and we made this little experiment in different contrast ratios in the lighting. We shot a (really terrible) scene four times using different contrast ratios between the key and fill lights to see how changing the lighting would change the mood. We did this on our own time outside of class using equipment we check out from the school for free! And it was fun. Shot on XL2 with P+S Technik. Starring Bryan Hong and Vishal Solanki.

Random Footage From Test Run Time: 1:58 File Size: 480x360 - 14.3MB Class: None Assignment: None Crew: Morgan Bright Jett Evans Bryan Hong Omar Marquez Vishal Solanki Matthew Teague Kit Vandervort Leigh Vega

Comments: This is some random footage from in between takes from the first camera test we did with the P+S Technik adaptor. For those that don't know, this thing lets you put 35mm motion picture lenses on an XL2 and get the same depth of field as if you were shooting on 35mm film. The major advantage of this is that you're shooting on a $3 miniDV tape and not rolling a lot of expensive film. There are a number of tradeoffs however -- you lose a lot of light, and you can't shoot at a very high F stop if you want a lot of depth of field. I got together a bunch of people who were interested in seeing what shooting with this thing was going to be like since we are using it on our midterm projects. We discovered that the adaptor sucked up about a stop and a half of light, maybe a bit less than that... not as bad as the 2 stops we were told of. We were all pretty impressed with how the footage came out. LAFS students who want a copy of the actual test footage, give me a blank DVD and I will burn you a copy.

Term 1 Projects

Here in approximately reverse chronological order, are my shooting projects so far from my first 8 weeks at LA Film School. When I look at what I shot near the end compared to what I was doing in week 1, I'm pretty amazed not only by how big the change is, but by how fast it happened as well. So far, I'm quite happy with what I've been able to do here.

Alien Encounter Run Time: 1:33 File Size: 640x360 - 14.5MB Class: Cinematography 1 - Week 7 Assignment: Class exercise Director: Elexis Young Group Members: Nov. '05 Groups X and Y Editor: Adrian Soriano

Comments: During a class field trip to Mole Richardson, we were told to make up a scene and light it. And this we pretty much made up as we went along. The fan operator on this project was an amazingly talented guy, and I hear he's extremely good looking as well. November 2005 class... best class ever? I mainly did grip/gaffer work on this, which I really enjoy doing during these trips there. They have a lot of fun toys to play with over at Mole. Starring Chris, Chris, Chris, and Beth.

Waiting For Raoul Run Time: 1:31 File Size: 640x360 - 14.8MB Class: Cinematography 1 - Week 6 Assignment: Waiting For Raoul Writer: Blaine Brown Group Members: Chris Bessounian Alessio Della Valle Bryan Hong Kevin Ivers Ryan Alexander Navarro Elexis Young Editor: Kevin Ivers

Comments: This was an in-class shooting assignment for Cinematography 1. Each group was sent to a different location to shoot the same script. Each group needed to use their location to whatever advantage they could. Certain requirements were in place. We must show time passing. We must effectively convey that both characters notice Raoul's shoelace. And we had to have an insert shot of a clock -- but none of the assigned locations had clocks so we had to find one from someplace else. We were also required to make two mistakes -- we must jump the line, and we must include a wrong eyeline. This was a great group collaboration and I enjoyed the opportunity to finally work with some non-group A people. We had a fantastic location -- all of the lockers had just been cleared out so we were able to move them and rearrange them to create a much more interesting space. We also happened to find a vent cover in the room that we used in the final shot. Of course another advantage to our location was that we were right next to the equipment room so any time we felt like we could use something else, say, the manual lens, or a boom mic, we just ran down the hall and got it. So in that sense, we kinda cheated, haha. Ryan Navarro and Elexis Young star in this terribly punny script written by our instructor Blaine Brown.

Indian Tale Trailer Run Time: 1:05 File Size: 640x360 - 9.35MB Class: Film Gym - Week 4-5 Assignment: Intimate Window Producer: Patricia Poienaru Writer/Director: Alessio Della Valle DP: Bryan Hong Production Design: Chris Burciago Nico Saba Editor/Transportation: Jett Evans Sound: Seth Eubanks 1st AD: Aurelie Comboul 1st AC: Sam Bishop 2nd AC: Jonathan Drake Production Assistant: Edward Cazalet

Comments: This is what we turned in instead of the rough cut of the actual film because we had shot so much footage that there was no time to edit. This group was extremely focused and did a lot of good preproduction work. I'm sure we all put in way more hours into this thing than any of the other groups in our class and I think the resulting footage was pretty darned awesome looking. Alessio, the writer/director wanted to do more than the typical film gym project warrants and created quite an ambitious script that involved a large number of locations that needed to be shot in just one weekend, and I thank him for that as it gave me the chance to experiment with lighting in a lot of different conditions. It was after shooting this that I knew I wanted to know everything there is to know about lighting. We spent a surprisingly small amount of money on this as well -- I think we spent more money on feeding ourselves and the actors during the shoot than we did on everything else, haha. I can't wait to see what the final results look like. Starring Marcus Maria Jung, Alexandra Nowak, and Eddie, whose last name I don't know.

Merry Christmas Run Time: 2:09 File Size: 640x360 - 18.0MB Class: Hands On 1 - Week 6 Assignment: Scene from Outrageous Fortune Producer: Jonathan Drake Director: Jonathan Drake DP: Seth Eubanks Prod. Design: Morgan Bright Editor: Bryan Hong Sound: Jett Evans Camera Op: Chris Bessounian 1st AC: Kyle Shepard Script Super: Chris Burciago Grip: Sam Bishop Alessio Della Valle Vishal Solanki

Comments: This project suffered from a severe lack of preproduction because about half of the people in the group on this project were also working simultaneously on "Indian Tale" -- On Thursday we were informed we'd be shooting this scene on Monday. After we had already scheduled to shoot for "Indian Tale" on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. When the hell were we ever going to cast actors for this scene? Still, Jon somehow managed to book the actors (although Chris Burciago jumped in to play the father) and considering the circumstances, the scene came together rather nicely despite some struggles in the editing room with jumping the line. As usual, all five Hands On groups from our class shot from the same script which was given to us. Starring Mary Grace (don't know her last name... Jon, help?), Judy Durning and Chris Burciago. As a note of Group A (aka Sausagefest Productions) trivia, both this and the previous Hands On project were shot in their entirety inside of the same room.

Tommy's Bungalo Run Time: 2:05 File Size: 640x360 - 19.3MB Class: Hands On 1 - Week 4 Assignment: Scene from A List Producer: Morgan Bright Director: Bryan Hong DP: Vishal Solanki Prod. Design: Sam Bishop Chris Burciago Editing: Chris Bessounian Jett Evans Sound: Seth Eubanks 1st AD: Jonathan Drake 1st AC: Alessio Della Valle Script Super: Chris Bessounian Grips: Jett Evans Kyle Shepard

Comments: This was our first Hands On assignment and my first (and so far, only) go at actually directing a full crew and multiple actors. Each group was shooting from the same script, in this case, an excerpt from an unproduced feature film. In the story, Tommy, a stand up comedian that is trying to break into screenwriting goes to a party at a Hollywood bigwig's house where a random 12 year old kid snuck in, pretended to be Tommy's son, dazzled all of the partygoers, then pitched a script idea that everyone loved, claiming his "dad" wrote it. This scene takes place the following morning. Starring Drew Butler and Andy Devendorf. Andy's an old friend of mine from San Diego who had no acting experience but I knew he'd show up on time so he got the part, haha. Although before school I had some idea that I didn't think I'd really enjoy or be really good at directing, this project more or less solidified my opinion on the matter.

Barbara Twerliger Run Time: 1:16 File Size: 640x360 - 11.2MB Class: Film Gym - Week 3 Assignment: Working Director/DP: Bryan Hong Grip: Morgan Bright Editor: Bryan Hong

Comments: A lot of people asked me where I found this actress. Many of them were somewhat saddened when they found out I shot her wedding video, haha. She's married to my friend Felix and she'd been in some commercials and movies and such but has been out of the acting game for some time but ready to get back into it. This was our second assignment where we were allowed to use lighting. Our first one was in week 2. We recreated paintings using costume and set design and lighting. This was the first one where we actually had people talking, though still no editing allowed. Unfortunately the material had to be adapted from one of the interviews in Studs Terkel's book Working which ended up with Samantha having to basically read a boring old monologue thanks to my lack of directorial skills, but the way the lighting came out had me considering that maybe I should concentrate on cinematography rather than editing which is what I originally intended when I enrolled at L.A. Film School. Starring Samantha Dunn, and Morgan Bright as "The Shadow".

Hopper Run Time: 0:27 File Size: 640x360 - 2.40MB Class: Film Gym - Week 2 Assignment: Painting Director: Bryan Hong

Comments: The second week we did our first project using lighting. We had to select an approved painting and recreate the look and mood of it using costume, sets, props, and lights. I chose Edward Hopper's self portrait. I was criticized for the key light being on the wrong side, and for the very distracting crap on the wall; praised for recreating the mood and for the hat, which Jett provided. Seth Eubanks sat in as Hopper.

Wait Run Time: 0:29 File Size: 640x360 - 4.23MB Class: Film Gym - Week 1 Assignment: Lost and Found Director: Bryan Hong

Comments: On the very first day of classes at The Los Angeles Film School you're assigned groups of 4 or 5 and each group is given a Canon XL2 camera, and each member of the group must, with the help of the other group members, direct their own film for this assignment, and they've got one week. The paramaters are: only available light allowed, and no editing allowed. The piece must be 30 to 60 seconds long and the central character must lose something and then find it, using minimal dialog. The idea is to get the students thinking about how to tell a story in a visual manner. I made up some fake wedding invitations using whatever photo I could find of myself with a hot chick. Even though our names were changed, a lot of people asked me if I was really getting married. I was appalled that someone would think my real wedding invitation would be so ugly as something I'd slap together at 2am! Starring Alessio Della Valle.