BOSCO — "Cruel"
Dropped on NPR — “Cruel” music video by the formidable @hellobosco.
It was an honor to work with such an incredible team/family of intentional artists who gave their everything to make this as awesome as it is.
CREDITS:
Director - @fosteraddington
DP/Colorist - @alimsabir
Editor - @darthvadenz
Lighting/Grip - @mwilso26
AD/Script Supervisor/Writer - me
Producer - @vonallen
Art Direction - @hellobosco
Carlina Muglia / 2nd AD, Set Photography - @carlinamuglia
Any Churdar / Line Producer, Set Design - @ace.chudro
Sydney Anebrete Kosse / Set Design - @_strangerdanger
Additional Cinematography - @skull.lady_
Additional Cinematography - @caseydoran_
Location Scout, Set Design - @gabrielladanielle
MUA - @drvco
Stylist - @cdhouseofstyle
Hommeboy — "Otherworldly"
This was a lot of fun.
While in Atlanta to work on a short film written by Matthew Addington and myself, we had a couple of days set aside to work with some friends on their personal projects.
HOMMEBOY (Kawan Moore) was the lead actor in our film, and wanted to put something out for his new single, “Otherwordly.” So, with the help of some friends and a few choir robes, we put this together.
CREDITS:
Directed by HOMMEBOY
Cinematography by Matthew Addington
Second camera and set photography by me
You can Help Connect the World (with art)
From the desk (and heart) of @marceloasherQ
Although I’d love to go through the joyful process of focusing on an individually-crafted message for each of the people in my life, both the feasibility of such an effort and the time sensitive nature of what I have to say require that I reach out with the quickness.
Given the breadth of life I have lived so far, you might know me as a student, musician, parent of three daughters, high school literature teacher (in Argentina and in Virginia), writer, yoga practitioner, newspaper designer, web developer, content marketer, editor, journalist, outdoors enthusiast, traveler, photographer, filmmaker, insurance sales person, poet, pizza slinger … or one of many other roles I have stepped into over the years.
But I’m coming to you now fulfilling a task that’s at once something I’ve never quite tried before and a culmination of everything I’ve ever been: a director, cinematographer, and producer of an ongoing cultural exchange documentary series that seeks to uncover global connections through music and film.
As an introvert, reaching out in such a public way is not my norm (I’m growing). Being super vocal about my own projects can sometimes feel too narcissistic for me to do, but I feel that this project is so far beyond “me” that I’m unusually inspired to share it with you, hoping that perhaps you’ll seize the opportunity to be a part of it as well.
Someone I deeply respect recently told me that “art” projects (like this) are much more difficult to crowdfund than goods or causes. I insist, however, that Street Muse is all three — a film you can purchase, a humanitarian effort you can support, and an artistic project you can experience and enjoy.
This series began in 2012, when my dear friend and incredible musician (and excellent human) Nate “Gull” Rappole traveled with a small film crew to Kenya to perform his unique music and to interact with the local culture. After more than a month in Africa and many hours of editing, the hour-long Street Muse Kenya documentary came to be.
Film still: Meryl O’Connor
Over the past year, Nate, myself, and a few others have put in countless hours trying to ensure that the message of Street Muse does neither goes unnoticed nor ends with Kenya. We want to bring this project to as many nations as we can — not to impose any western (or personal) ideals on other people, but rather to connect with and showcase human culture as it is. You can help make this happen.
Ultimately, the underlying message of this series is for everyone — not just music music and travel enthusiasts. Street Muse is here to show that as humans, we are one people, and that cultural exchange is one way that we can choose to wage peace.
Yes, differences between us do exist, but my experience and belief is that through investigating and unpacking those differences, we inevitably find significant points of connection that far overshadow perceived details that make us believe we are “separate” from one another.
And in a socio-polticidal climate that is plagued by countless lines of division, this is my way of helping to foster peaceful, collaborative unity among all peoples.
While you can learn additional details from the Kickstarter campaign, I’ll leave some key points here:
We plan to explore Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to learn how ecology influences the types of instruments and sounds humans make
The Street Muse Kenya team raised $10K in Kickstarter in 2012, but wound up spending more than twice that on overall production costs
We need to raise $25,000 by February 19 in order to reach our mark and receive any funding — it’s all or nothing
As of this writing, we’ve only recently broken the $6,640 mark
There’s less than one week left of the campaign
We have a long way to go, but you can help shorten that distance by getting involved. Whether it’s with $1, $1,000 (our largest pledge to date), or sharing to your social networks — every bit counts and is greatly appreciated.
Street Muse allows us (all of us) to bridge cultural gaps through music, and is a unique way to gain insight from personal connections and exchange.
We are currently screening Street Muse Kenya in Virginia, but would love to bring it to other cities over the next few days and weeks. Reach out to me if you like what you see and can help facilitate (in whatever way) a screening/Q&A/music performance night near you.
~Let’s continue this conversation together ~
Peace and love,
Marcelo Asher Quarantotto
On Being Your Authentic Self (guest post and film for The Listening)
Read my words on The Listening's blog
Short promo film I created to showcase the general experience of The Listening.
As my life has been in a fairly consistent state of flux since ... forever, the concept of "being authentic" (and no, in case you are worried, I never use the #liveauthentic hashtag).
For me, being authentic has less to do with searching and finding but more so with simply being still and realizing what and where you actually are.
Nick George, founder of The Listening, asked me to create a guest blog post in honor of tomorrow's session. If you attend, you'll likely see me doing a bit of photojournalism for Riverviews Artspace.
You may also see me perform a song and poem. No promises. But it's likely.
In the meantime, you can read my guest post on The Listening's website.
Video: Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon — "Cali Cab"
A quick note on the creating process.
Sometimes, art can be messy. The way you intend things to go doesn't always happen — mistakes, happenstance and a bit of deus ex machina can get in the way.
And when plans go awry, you have three options:
Delete everything and never try again.
Release it as is.
Smile. Give it another shot.
My first inclination was to take route No. 2 for this project. I wanted to get the video out fast, and despite its flaws, I still enjoyed it. Still do. It was meant to be a continuation of the musicians series I began with my first-ever time picking up a camera in 2013, and was filmed in conjunction with a photo pack for my friends at Death to the Stock Photo.
My buddy and creative partner Matthew Addington now lives in Atlanta. We still toss around creative ideas and share projects, so I sent him the first draft to see what he thought.
In not so uncertain terms, he recommended a re-shoot.
"You know what's wrong with it, so why not fix it?"
Touche.
I knew next to nothing about recording audio (shameful, given the number of years I've been playing guitar), and now I know slightly more. The Zoom H4N I was using has an awful preamp hiss when you boost the recording level all the way. Lesson learned.
As for the over exposure ... I'll be honest: it didn't bother me all that much. The most important component of my work is the "human element," and that part felt locked in for me. But I took his advice and scheduled a time with Jeremiah to re-do.
Ok, so here's the original:
First Draft
We liked how it turned out, but in addition to my previously mentioned technical errors, Jeremiah was not thrilled about his mispronouncing the same latin phrase I used above. (In the heat of filming, I thought it was tongue-in-cheek intentional.)
For the second go-round. I hung a blanket from my backdrop stand to dampen the natural reverb and changed my audio capture set up, going in direct from the guitar and putting the mic up close, while also using the built-in H4N mics to capture the room tone.
All was going well, except I had a CF card issue — my camera display looked like a broken Atari game after a couple minutes of recording — about five takes in a row. Tried a few things, and finally got a solid take at the very last moment before Lloyd had to leave for a choir performance.
The final version is different, still imperfect, but I'm much happier with the end results. If you like what you see and hear or know a friend who would, feel free to share.
Enjoy.
—@MARCELOASHERQ
If you dig my content aesthetic/intention and would like to invest in your own personal project or business, click here to hire me.
For more on Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon and his music, read the story about our first collaboration.
Wedding Film: Bekah + David
Note: A version of this post originally appeared on my wedding site.
If the version of who I was 10+ years ago approached me now to photograph or film his wedding, I would have turned him down.
No offense, past me, but you were a hot mess. I got married just two weeks after turning 21 to my beautiful wife, in the summer of 2006. Drunken, self-focused and spiraling in so many directions — non of which represented a functional adult who knew what it meant to truly and actively love the person I was going to meet at the altar.
Don't get me wrong. My wife and I had been best friends all through college, and I don't regret my decision to marry her; she's the best person that I know and we now have three amazing daughters who exist in shocking contrast to who I used to be in my former life as an addiction-prone, immature college student with only a shade of introspective understanding.
Life is much different now, and my new vantage point (more than 2 years into sobriety and active wellness practice) allows me to acknowledge a good thing when I see it.
And Bekah and David are clearly a good thing.
Full disclosure: I cried a good deal when editing this film. I originally intended this to be a 4 to 6 minute highlight reel, but with all the different movements of the day and the raw energy of two people deeply excited about joining their lives together — I couldn't (in good conscience) do it any other way than it now exists.
Hope you were moved as I was moved.
NAMASTE
Wedding Film: Brad + Jordan
My first attempt ever at filming a wedding.
Dropped in deep end and this is what came as a result. Enjoy!
Glass Oaks' "Dim Coal Night" (Nashville, Tenn.)
I've been doing a bit of soul searching this week in Nashville, taking a break from the Lynchburg, Virginia, backdrop.
While staying with some old friends, another group of friends traveling back to Lynchburg from San Diego stopped by, some of which are from the band Glass Oaks, and I filmed them playing an acoustic rendition of their new song, "Dim Coal Night."
When you give a writer a camera (part 2)
Lucas Quarantotto, my younger (but much stronger) brother, recorded this and the last video in succession, since it was getting to point where his fingers were getting cold to play.
As I said in the video's description, we normally play this together (with myself on slide), but I love hearing it this way -- as he originally put it together -- on an old Yamaha someone gave me in the 9th grade.
Bad luck blues. Lucas Quarantotto. Good stuff.
Recorded with a Canon 5D Mark II at Colony Live (www.keepcolony.com)
First attempt at filming: Lucas Quarantotto — "Future Daughter"
This past winter, I wanted to try a new medium: DSLR videography. I have been able to tinker with this more in recent months, but here is video one of two of my first attempt.
This was shot in the gymnasium of the Keep Colony (a venue called Colony Live), on a very cold night. I finally started messing around with Premiere Pro this week, so I took some time to upload this to YouTube.
So here it is. My younger brother Lucas Quarantotto (we play in a band together, along with our older brother and another friend) practicing one of his originals, shot on a Canon 5D Mark II.
And now, here's is what the venue space looks like in full swing. Video by @fosteraddington.
Colony Live Promo from DuckDuck Collective on Vimeo.
