Enter the Hero!

filmmaker/photographer Pete Lee and his projects

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Johnny Physical Lives Trailer

The mini-finale for the three-part summary of my 2015 - Johnny Physical Lives - a short film I’d been working on as its producer, cinematographer, and editor - has finally released a trailer. It’s a devastating 22 minutes that’s currently making rounds on the festival circuit. It’s one of my favorite pieces of work and I’m beyond proud to finally share it with the world. Look for its general release in about six months.

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The Best Winemaking Ever Filmed (I Hope)

Last August, Eric Wolfinger and I were approached by the guys at Hoffman & Co and Kosta Browne (some of the same guys we did the Cirq campaign with) to create a series of videos for their re-branding. We were still in the midst of coming up with a video treatment when we were told the shoot had to move up by five weeks, since the drought moved the harvest schedule up this year. We spent half a week with a tiny crew flying drones in door and moving big lights in and out of the way for hurling forklifts. We returned two more times as we edited and fleshed out the footage, creating a visual language as we went along. We also shot with every type of camera we could get our hands onto - phantom for the slow-motion pour, 6k Red Epic Dragon from a helicopter, Arri Alexas and Amiras, Sony A7rIIs for drone and movi shots, FS700 for b-roll, Canon 5DMIII for interviews, and even a gopro just to throw around. We were thousands of feet above the Russian River and also looking right at microscopic wine bubbles. The edit was rounded out by our frequent collaborators at MFD, Jeremiah Moore who handled the sound design, and new best friend Anton Patzner for the pumping soundtrack.  I really like this piece. I hope you do too. 

Also - check out Kosta Browne’s website for other videos and treats on there.

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The Big Catch-Up Part I

Hi. So the second half of 2015 turned out to be a crazy year - not that you’d know it if you follow this blog. Luckily, only 5 people seem to have read it. 

On top of my current production company, Scandinavia’s website - you can now find most of my work over at www.ohpetelee.com as well. Still, I’ll do my best to keep all five of you looped in. I dealt with a flurry of advertising projects last summer, including two broadcast spots for Credit Karma (co-directed with Mr. Ben Fee). I learned quite a bit prepping for these 30-second spots, it was a lot of math, as every shot had to be timed perfectly to cut together. Also squeezed both spots in one day, including a three-hour shoot with the great Samantha Jayne where we had to cover the span of a year on a hot summer day.

rewinding a little further back. Ben and I also did a spot for OpenTable with the guys over at RGA. It was fun to try my usual food porn skills with a completely new team, as I had to channel my inner Wolfinger. I hope he’s proud. This piece was done with an insane two-week timeline from beginning to end, where I had to start cutting pretty much as soon as we wrapped. It was pretty crazy trying to fit like four restaurant shoots in three cities in two days - and one of the cities was London.

Speaking of Mr. Wolfinger - we returned to Uruguay last year and made some wine porn for a little vineyard called Bodega Garzon - it’s a boutique label with a huge undertaking, as it tried to create this Jurassic Park of wineries in creating a whole patchwork of landscape in the middle of this old train town. In many ways (unbeknownst to us at the time) it was a taste of what was to come. It was fun to be set loose on a gigantic property in the town of Garzon for seven dusty days. This spot was shot by Drew Daniels and me. Drewbaby, by the way, has had an awesome year himself. 

Lastly - we also seem to have done a spot for Uber last year. It was in the middle of a flurry of projects and I don’t remember too much from this gig.

Ok. Check them out or don’t - I’m following this up with two more posts to try to catch you up to speed. See you soon. The most exciting stuff is definitely still up ahead.

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An Afro Tango from Ethiopia

Hi again. Entertainment Weekly has just premiered my music video with Meklit, Kemekem.

The great Meklit approached me some time last autumn for a music video. We had all sorts of pretty crazy ideas, centered around the phrase “I Like Your Afro”, which is the English title for her track. It was pretty hard to narrow down the choices. Then one afternoon, she added that the lyrics tell a story about love on the down-low. It’s an old-fashioned, country-side type of love.

I immediately thought about inter-office romance, which is one of the the last bastions for taboo hidden passion in our supposedly free and open society. The rest came real easy. We choreographed a dance like a heist - that is, in broad daylight behind everyone’s back (a la the bank robbery scene from Groundhog’s Day) - and somehow lucked into an office that used to be a bank vault. 

This was done on a tiny budget with a three-person crew. Somehow we were never quite overwhelmed. Sometimes all you need is good chemistry and a hazer to make something spectacular (and some nice vintage Cooke lenses, a beat-up dolly, ample rehearsal time, cool looking actors, and a killer colorist wouldn’t hurt either).

At the risk of sounding ineloquent (or even incoherent), I have to say that it’s been an especially hard week for the Ethiopian community. As a complete outsider, I can still recognize the oddity of releasing something so light-hearted amidst difficult times. I pray a bit of rest for those who are grieving, for those who are fighting, and especially for those who are bravely giving away their hearts in the face of the tragedies and travesties. Your voices are heard. 

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The Story of Our Steps

Last November I went on a work vacation with the boys and girl at WKG Creative in Tahoe. We sat in a little cabin and brainstormed pitches for Sols, a cutting-edge orthotics company. We ended up with the idea of telling a life story solely through feet. We are very rarely aware of the ground we’re standing on during some of life’s biggest moments.

We then developed variations of the idea - creating many fictional characters and trying to find one that would fit the branding of the company. One of the things I loved about Sols was that it was run almost entirely by these sharp, witty, funny ladies. 

I then thought about all the powerful sassy ladies I knew in my life, and zeroed in on my friend Lori, the Executive Producer of SpyPost as the prototype for the story. Lori’s a funny and tough lady who runs an awesome company during the day but kickboxes and tours with a thrash metal band when she’s not at work. I then constructed a more brand-friendly version of Lori, storyboarded, and went to work with my trusty team at Scandinavia. 

The production was really rough, as we had to squeeze every scenario with a tiny budget over two very long and very hot days, but everyone had fun and we managed to wrap every location (I think there were sixteen?) on time and unscathed. Hats off to the crew at Scandinavia and Steadicam Op Steady Stew.

Here are some choice shots of me on set, courtesy of WKG’s very talented Brienne.

All in all I really like this piece. It’s much heavier than any advertising work I’ve done. I’ve put a little bit of my story in there too (specifically when my father was fighting some serious heart troubles at the hospital), which is something I’d never done before. I hope it resonates with at least some of the viewers. I also hope I get to do more spots in the future that get to tell stories and take risks.

Lastly, here is a previous spot I’d done with WKG for the product Calm, a meditation device. It was a nice and breezy shoot for which I’d donned a wetsuit and plunged into a pre-dawn Pacific Ocean for the opening shots. WKG also named the main character after me.

Plenty more to come. Very soon.

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The Food of Taiwan is Out!

Hi. The cookbook I’ve been working on for the past three plus years is finally out! Go buy it here: http://thefoodoftaiwan.com.

I was barely a photographer the first time Cathy and I went to Taiwan. I was there mainly as her guide and translator. I’d filmed food professionally, but photography was a hobby at best. When I came back to the States, I carried my camera everywhere, and tightened my food porn game by photographing almost every meal I had. Not sure how much all that helped, but I can safely say that I’d never once coasted during the entire process. I can also safely say I’d savored every moment, even the tough ones.

It’s been an honor to be able to share a huge part of my culture and my old home with friends and strangers in my new home. I really hope the dialogue doesn’t end here. The book is in no way comprehensive, and, in many ways, I feel like I’ve only began to really learn about Taiwanese food. I’ve always been terribly envious of my American friends who grew up with hip-hop. I’m envious of the ability of hip-hop to connect so many different types of folks together, and to tell such dense stories, fantasies, and realities in a manner the whole world can relate to. Food, in many ways, is like our hip-hop. 

Here are a few shots that didn’t make it into the book (and two that have):

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Pete, How are you doing? i'm looking to do and indie fight scene nothing as complex as the ones you but never the less a fight scene. It's a period peace film, around the time of the Black Death time period. I was wondering tips on making the fights scenes look real and not over done like a lot of wester fight films. I like simple but effective look. It will be my first on I do. I know they say watch films, what does it mean editing on the beat? Thank you

Hi. I saw this post just now and I’m not sure when you sent this message. When I work with the stuntpeople, it’s all about knowing what moves work for which angle, and we never force moves that might look cool if we can’t pull them off. The hits have to line up. You have to know your shots…each angle only works for a handful of moves, and it’s a matter of knowing what looks good to you in the shots and if they can cut together with the shots before and after. If you break everything down to individual shots, then it won’t be so intimidating. Give yourself plenty of time to rehearse before and plenty of time to shoot. In terms of performance, make sure the actors are comfortable really going at it with each other. And make sure nobody is standing around waiting to get hit or reacting to moves that haven’t happened yet. These are all common mistakes that still haunt most movies.

I think you gotta be tough on yourself, and not think that the audience will not notice.

Good luck man, I hope this helps. Check out a DVD called Jackie Chan: My stunts.

And, in the immortal words of stunt coordinator Tung Wei: it’s not how they move, it’s why they move.

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SF Weekly Cover Shoot

I was asked by SF Weekly's music editor Emma Silvers to shoot their cover story last week, which chronicles the making of a punk rock BDSM musical written by NOFX's Fat Mike, dominatrix and actress Goddess Soma, and lyricist Jeff Marx. Here are some choice shots from the fun shoot. You can read the whole story here.

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And Here Comes Rope a Dope 2

I get what's so fun about sequels now, minus the making a ton of cash part. Sometimes you find a theme you're not done playing variations of yet, and sometimes the severe limitations in terms of budget, equipment, time, talent, location, and all these other constraints get out of your way just one quick year later. That's what happened during Rope a Dope 2. (Check out Rope a Dope 1 here if you ain't familiar.)

It was weird to see that Tom Cruise movie come out (unnoticed?) with many of the same jokes, gags, and plot points as our humble little movie. When Clayton, the producer/ stunt coordinator asked us to make the sequel, we knew we had to really top it. Eric elaborated on the idea he already had a year ago - to double down on the Groundhog Day premise and to create a dual timeline, and we spent some months cleaning it up and making sure that it actually works. We assembled the crew and just never looked back.

The production itself was quite a journey. Some scenes went through four re-shoots (well three and a half considering one of them was interrupted by an armed robbery in which our $60k Red Epic was forever taken from us at gunpoint). But one of the most brutal decisions the stunt team made was the the decision to re-shoot the last fight inside the ring. We had a perfectly good fight that worked with all the moves and the story in there. But it was done in a rush and the stunt team was just not satisfied with the results.

We went back to the ring to spend 14 more hours beating our two leads up. Our aim was to create something that was spectacular, beautiful, and full of drama and humor - something that you can appreciate even if you were not remotely interested in the genre. Please let us know how we did.

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The Annual Late Update Spectacular

It's been a crazy little summer, where I started out working on the food photography unit in a silly salsa commercial in Canada, ran a free camp for kids in Oakland and SF, along with my production studio that taught them how to make music videos, I've also been hired to produce, edit, and shoot a rock'n'roll documentary about leukemia, and a sequel to Rope a Dope is on the way. This one features probably the best action set piece I've done to date. It's kinda frustrating to be so excited about these projects while the release dates are still so far away (both Johnny Physical Lives and Rope a Dope 2 will debut in film festivals before the internet release as well).

In the meanwhile, some stuff I can share - 

1) I don't think I've ever formally announced on here that I've been part of a production company in Oakland called Scandinavia. It's run by the same crew I've been working with for the past couple of years and it feels good to see them turn good chemistry into a business.

2) Aside from my usual mix of food, music, and martial arts, I'd also been directing a steady string of spots for agencies and clients. Here are two:

We've been prominently figuring in new (to me) toys such as drones, MoVis, anamorphic lenses, rickshaw dollies, etc into our production, and I'd love to do more sports stuff in the near future.

3) I've recorded a few more commentary tracks for my music video at IMVDB.com. You can find the If I Be Wrong commentary here and the ZZZ Top commentary here. It's a lot of rambling.

And we haven't even touched on the other non-film adventures I've been getting into, including the new cookbook that features a couple hundred of my photos, as well as a table read I just did for Boots Riley and Dave Eggers. Please do come back soon, I swear I'll be updating this shortly.

Until then, happy autumn.

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Atmosphere's Kanye West now with Commentary

Doug Klinger of IMVDB, aka the Internet Music Video Database, lives in the future, but also in the past, Last week he's asked me to do a director's commentary for the Atmosphere music video, and, after about half a dozen false starts, I managed to get one through. I think we will be doing more of these for the past videos.

You can check it out here.

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Atmosphere Wanted Me to Hit Some Liquor Stores

I pulled a muscle in my neck this morning, so I'm not having a great time typing or sitting upright right now. I'll keep it short. The friends at Rhymesayers called me up in January, very excited about an idea. I was in the middle of a commercial project that was getting bigger by the week, and was just fantasizing about doing another music video with my friends at Scandinavia and goofing off on set. The timing was good. The guys had a very fun premise: Bonnie and Clyde with old people. They also made it clear that we won't try to be funny or try to laugh at them, but these are folks who love what they do and love each other, and we should envy their conviction. I've actually never seen Bonnie and Clyde, instead I just watched Friends of Eddie Coyle again (after Mr. Oswalt reminded me what a great film it was), as well as some older Takeshi Kitano movies, scouted a bunch of Bay locations (places I've shot at and loved, such as Viracocha, as well as places I've always wanted to shoot at, like the race track), and began re-writing the story. I originally wanted to cast Silk E from The Coup as the lady, but there was a scheduling conflict, so I ended up going with Chinaka Hodge, based on Boots' recommendation. She was actually younger than me, but she just looked so badass killing hipster zombies in that video, that everyone was down to change the age of the character. For the gentleman I always knew I was going to use Mr. Takahashi, my landlord who was almost going to be in the Delicate Cycle video but was cut out last minute. He's a gunsmith who owns San Francisco's last and only gun shop, and he's had a crazy life. I know he'd be good in the role, despite minimal acting experience, hard of hearing, and lack of confidence with the English language. The pair hit it off, and here's the video.

It was my first time handling quite a few new elements on my own as a director, but luckily the team at Scandinavia more than backed me up. I've got a robbery script in the works for some time now, and having done this project just makes me all the more excited to finish it. I'll be chatting with Doug from IMVDB about the making of this video, so check back in the coming weeks! 

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A Williams-Sonoma Ad That's Named Like How We're Named

It's been a fun year so far, though most of my works have yet to find their ways to the public just yet. Here is one from earlier this year that was a fun little session. Williams-Sonoma asked Teen Sensation Eric Wolfinger to photograph their spring catalog, which happens to be named OpenKitchen, just like a certain small-but-scrappy-video-label. The music was by Tom Hagerman of DeVotchka, who has scored quite a few tracks for us over the ages. 

More stuffs coming very soon.

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Just Enough Time

This was a music video I had to direct twice; due to a freak drive crash on set. It was for Megan Keely's single "Just Enough Time." 

As per usual, I was given some budgetary, spatial, and time constraints, and we figured out the concept from there. The video was a dedication to our dear friends who, for some reason, all have been through a ton this past year - in particular the very talented and ill Wolf Larsen.

This is an excerpt from a director's statement I had to prepare for the video premiere on Paste:

It was an especially rough year for way too many people I know. Therefore when Megan sang this song a cappella for me in a car late last year, I was especially moved. Right away I told her I wanted to make a music video for it, so earlier this summer my team and I went to work. We were determined to reflect the comfort I found in the song, and sought to create a 360 degrees set that could augment (but, at the right moments, also hide) all the performance and visual tricks we set out to capture. Central to the construction was Viracocha, a store/venue/art space in San Francisco that is my second home.

We used the store as an inspiration for production designer Margaux's exquisite, skeletal set. The folks behind the store, Jon and Charlie, offered us their time, their materials, and their labor, at no cost (and this wasn't their first time being this kind for one of my music videos). The experience was so memorable and sweet that, when a freak technical accident forced us to re-shoot the entire video, almost everyone returned (some bringing friends) to sweat thru the re-do.

But this year is not easier than the last. I've known way more good folks battling illness, death, evictions and heartbreaks. In fact, even our beloved Viracocha is in danger of closing by the end of December. I am grateful to have this little video (amongst my others) to remember Viracocha by. Furthermore, I'm proud the whole Viracocha family for demonstrating, amongst other things, how to exquisitely and respectfully give misery the middle finger salute.

photo by Nicola Parisi.

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If Groundhog Day Starred Jackie Chan and If Jackie Chan was Bruce Campbell

Here it is, Rope-a-Dope. The immeasurably capable Eric Jacobus came to me with a very funny idea, given to him by an also very capable Clayton Barber (who, as a producer, has been championing Eric's many efforts): a fighting man's Groundhog's Day. Eric flew with the idea; he was excited. I got excited too.

I ended up co-directing the picture with him, which took just four days to shoot. We ended up channeling more Buster Keaton than any Jackie Chan or Groundhog Day bits. Our job was to keep all the elements as straight as we possibly could, never once winking at the audience, nor parodying any known scenes. We went to the corners we loved, from Oakland to Emeryville to Treasure Island, knowing that if we could keep the comedy real, then we could let loose with the climatic battle no problem. Watch out for some cameos - like Boots Riley's house, or little Jacob (and his house), whom've all made appearances in my previous work. Especially Jacob. That kid's everywhere.

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Making Grapes Sexy Take II

This was a small project that snowballed into something pretty grand, at least by our standard. We were given a couple of cool wine dudes and a couple of vineyards, and we were asked to make the most epic little video within the given means. About a year ago, Eric Wolfinger was approached by Hoffman/Chrisman to do a video portrait for a winery. He took the usual suspects with him and they went up to Russian River Valley to grab some gorgeous harvesting shots at Michael Browne's new project site, even sent Drew up on a helicopter. Two seasons later, I was brought in to bring the footage to life.

Over a few very intense sessions involving multiple parties, we decided to do a mix between a very simple story, with very laborious methods to get the most beautiful shots. The result is a grape farmer's drive to work that spanned over 8 months and nearly four seasons to shoot and edit. 

If the score sounded a little familiar, it was because it was by The North Sky Cello Ensemble, whom I'd once done a live music video for.

The wine label is named Cirq, and it's got a very nifty website too.

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food and hands and mouths!

I'm gearing up for my month-long cookbook shoot with author and chef Cathy Erway next month, trekking cross country then across the globe to finish her book on the food of Taiwan. Here's a little set I've thrown together of some of my favorite food shoots in the past couple of years: