Red 5 Studios

And the winner of “The Longest Day” season 1 contest is….TEAM A!

Talk about a come back. If you followed the show throughout the past few weeks, and if you read the comments on the blog leading up to the finale, it was not looking good for Team A. The mid-way poll even had over 50% of voters voting for Team B as of half way through the series. Team A’s 4+ hours of deliberation paid off.

But, much props have to go to BOTH teams. Everyone worked really hard anb both projects were enjoybable to watch. And because of all their effort, Thirst Relief International will earn $3,000 and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep will get a $2,000 donation.

Click here to read more…

Photo by JD de La Torre

I met Terrance and Maggie last month and they asked if it was possible to do concept video for their reception. They were referred by their event planner, Helen Wu of A Timeless Occasion, who had seen one of our productions on our blog. All they knew is they wanted something that was laugh-out-loud funny. We talked about potential ideas in our first meeting. But then I got an e-mail asking if they could do a spoof of Forrest Gump and somehow incorporate a photomontage. When I saw that they wanted to do Gump, I got excited! Gump happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time (Hazel and I got engaged the year it won Best Picture). Needless to say I was really looking forward to making it.

There were 3 things we needed to get it right: 1) locations 2) costumes and 3) Gump’s voice. The first 2 were easy. We shot at Cal Poly Pomona, SC Village Paintball, Fullerton Arboretum, and, of course, Hollywood Blvd. and Santa Monica Pier (which appear in the real movie). Terrence and Maggie did a great job finding the right costumes (even down to the classic Nike runners) and getting all their friends involved and excited. However, getting the voice right was tricky. Now here’s a little secret… that’s my voice narrating the film. As in most of our movies, I like to make a little cameo (whether its playing a villain in MI3, or the voice of Vader in Nacho, or just my hand in The Office). This time I got to play Forrest… well at least the storytelling part.

On the wedding day, we added highlight footage, making the Same Day Edit the conclusion of the film. Again, the locations were fantastic. We shot around Old Towne Pasadena with their photographers, Jerry and Ingrid of Jerry Yoon Photography (one of the most creative photogs I’ve worked with). The premiere at the reception was incredible. I’ve never seen a crowd laugh so hard then turn around and ball their eyes out! Terrance laughed so hard he lost a contact. It was quite a memorable moment and it was truly a pleasure making this for their wedding.

And as Forrest would say… “that’s all I have to say about that”.

Click here to watch Terrence Gump in HD! Enjoy!

A big thanks to Ricky and Brady of Props FX for setting up the AV and cranking up that volume!

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If you’ve been a fan of the online reality TV series “The Longest Day”, you’ll love today’s episode of F-Stop Beyond. The series involved twenty-four of the top wedding and portrait wedding photographers from around North America. They were divided into two teams and given just twenty-four hours to write, shoot, and edit an original short film. The reality TV show involved the behind-the-scenes making of the two teams’ films. The drama. The antics. The mayhem. If you haven’t already seen it, you can check out the season recap (as well as the two final videos) at thelongestday.tv.

Today, we have three of the cast members from the show: Jules Bianchi from Team A, and the two team creative consultants, Loyd Calomay and David Robin. Jules, Loyd, and David share with us the inside scoop of what happened that day that we didn’t see in the show. We answer questions like: why did Jim Garner and Bambi Cantrell of Team B already have a film idea sorted out? What happened in Team A’s room that caused the horror story idea go south? How Loyd and David did the editing “magic” they did for the videos? What was it like for Loyd and David coming into a mix of such big names in the photo industry?

- Ron Dawson

Click here to read more and listen to the interview!

Ja and I first worked together at the wedding of Cynthia and Gary and have become good friends since. Last October, we shot his wedding and got to witness one of the coolest First Dance routines I’ve ever seen. Ja, along with his wife, Bev make up Ja Tecson Photography, one of the best and brightest photography studios in the L.A. area. Check out this photo shoot that we had down in Hollywood.

Click here to see more!

IT’S HERE!!! The big reveal! After all the drama, laughs and tears… our final short films are here! Thanks for watching and for all your support!

Before I post the final episode of “The Longest Day”, I wanted to take the time to let you know what’s in store for 2009 here at Red 5 Studios. First, we’re just about to close up our calendar for the year. Yup, that’s right. We’re almost completely booked. So if you’re still sitting on the fence about whether or not to hire us as your filmmaker, than drop me a line as soon as you can. Second, we’ve got a bunch of cool concept videos/movie trailer spoofs scheduled for this year. Just to give you some hints we’ve got a Oscar Best Picture, some TV superheroes, an Adam Sandler comedy, and some kung fu action. Finally, we also got a few new toys, including the new Canon 5D Mark II, which if you haven’t heard yet, is a digital SLR that also shoots HD video in 1080p. The cool thing is you can use a ton of different lenses to get a real cinematic look! Check out some of the photos I took at a relative’s wedding. Guess, I caught the photographer’s bug hanging out with some of the big guns on the set of “The Longest Day”. More big news to come!