Casey Jost mentioned to me that Lord Easy was looking for a music video for his dance song Double Dutch so when we first discussed the process, I was already intrigued for a variety of reasons, 1) cause we both knew Sal and Casey from the times that Lord Easy hosted Karaoke Killed The Cat in at Cargo Cafe in Staten Island, and 2) because the song was incredibly fun. I knew it would be a great opportunity not only to work with some friends from the Impractical Jokers crew but also with Sal, Casey, and Easy. Since this had to be shot in our off time we tried our best to fit it in amongst both of our busy schedules.

Directed by Geoff Celis

DP – Al Pollard and Geoff Celis

Produced by Lord Easy

Co-Produced by Jay Miller

SInce 2014 I’ve been working as the Director of Photography of Impractical Jokers. Over the years, our show has had a multitude of unusual creative that almost every shoot required us to have to figure out new ways of filming and covering the Jokers. Whether it was one of the guys in a jet, swimming with sharks in Hawaii, or covering an entire soccer team slamming penalty kicks at the guys in an English soccer stadium, we had to figure out how to get each of those glorious reactions of the guys. Whether it was working with Neville Longbottom (actor Matthew Lewis), Gary Busey or Jeff Daniels, we had to make sure our coverage accented each scenario. Here is a collection of some of those moments over the years.

Geoffrey Celis has been in and around the world of film and television production since 2000. From becoming the director of photography for an internationally successful tv show, to producing award winning independent films and popular internet videos, Geoff’s diverse production background allows him to adapt to any production scenario he faces with a goal to always push narrative to its maximum potential.

Geoff started his career as a cam op in Live event production around NYC filming legendary musical acts such as Alicia Keys, the Rolling Stones, Elton John and other top tier musical talent.

In 2011, Geoff helped create the visual format for TruTV’s hit comedy show Impractical Jokers. Since 2014 he has since been their director of photography and continues to push improvisational comedy to new storytelling possibilities.

Geoffrey Celis has been exposed to the volatile environment of movie making. In 2014, Geoff finished his short film “Some Guys Are Bigger Than Others” that screened in film festivals across the country and won “Best Comedy” in 2015 in the NY Downtown Short Film Festival.

Throughout his career, Geoff has independently produced digital content, music videos, commercials, and other videos that explore new media and ways of reaching an ever growing landscape of internet based films and videos.

He aspires to continue creating original, and entertaining films that examine human nature and hopefully encourage social change. Geoff and his wife aspire to buy a farm and utilize regenerative practices and self sustaining ecosystems to return the land to a better state than it was left.

Contact:

Geoff Celis

email: geoff.celis@gmail.com

cell: 347-432-0136

instagram: @geoffcelis

vimeo: https://vimeo.com/lablogogeoff

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/geoffreycelis/featured

twitter: @geoffcelis

podcast: geoff celis films and videos

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Winner of the 2015 NYC Downtown Short Film Festival’s “BEST COMEDY” award, this comedy short is for fans of Morrissey, The Smiths and Lucha Libre. When Jim, a ‘Morissey’ fan, is goaded into entering a Mexican Wrestling tournament, he must prove he has what it takes to survive. Will his love for the Moz help him? Starring Tim Duffy, Casey Jost, Kevin Devlin, Michaelangelo Muniz and appearances by Tru TV’s Impractical Jokers,  Brian Quinn

In 2013, after working with so many amazing professionals throughout the tv and film industry, I decided to conceptualize and create a movie that my friends and I could finally produce to see if it could help us all get some practice getting to where we wanted to go in film.  I reached out to Tim Duffy, now successful writer and talent for Comedy Central, to create the structure for this script. Once created we brought his former comedy troupe cohorts, Kevin Devlin and Casey Jost to punch up the rest of the script.  A year later we brought on Mike Rizzo as editor, Michaelangelo Muniz as a costar, and several other members of impractical Jokers freelancing roster to flesh out this wonderful film.  In publicizing the film, Brian Quinn agreed to be in the short whilst the rest of the jokers helped my crowdsource some of the funding.  After applying for a grant from Staten Island Arts, as well as selling “Made In SI” tshirts, i was able to fund the rest of the film.  To this day, it was one of the biggest lessons of my career producing from concept to festivals, an award winning short film.

In the spring of 2012, a Director of Photography friend, Eythan Maidoff suggested to me to take advantage of his recently purchased Red EPIC.  Immediately I imagined a high wonderfully irresponsible video involving samurai swords and possibly a music video, but what band would I ask and more importantly where was I going to find samurai swords.  A quick posting on Facebook asking if any my friends had a samurai sword, quickly came with results from my long time friend and neighbor James Sorrenti. Little did I know that he would have a plethora of awesome sharp objects.  So, sharp objects were found, now to find some great music and a great fun band to be in this project.  I contacted long time friend Casey Jost, who I worked at Maries Gourmet together when we were struggling for work, but eventually started working together on the hit show “Impractical Jokers” on TruTV.  Casey has had a wonderful indie band named Les Vinyl who have opened for Ingrid Michaelson and played all over New York.  They’re energy was just so much fun and have been friends with Jenny and Pat for a while now. So we set forth in assembling a wonderful crew starting with a great producer and AD.  Keith Lambe saved my ass in the project as producer and Gena Mimoso , and my AD has been my logistical rock for years already. We rounded out the rest with these amazing people:

Associate Producer/Assistant Camera
Mike McWeeney

Director of Photography
Eythan Maidoff

2nd Assistant Camera
Miguel Gonzalez

Art Director
Gretchen Kittel

Hair/Makeup Design
Kristin Nawrocki

Assistant Hair/Makeup
Elizabeth Taillie

Production Assistant
Noel T. Jones

“Director”
Jay Miller

Weapons Master
Kevin Devlin

Extras
Sam Rodriguez
Christina Carannante
Joan Moore
Gary Moore
Thomas Thomas
Leigh Janicki
Joe Imburgio
Joe Pecora
Chris Vertaramo
LeighAnn Sciara

Casey use to swim at Hillside Swim club in Staten Island and so graciously allowed us to film in their parking lot.  Anyways, using the EPIC i always wanted those great 180fps slo mo shots of destruction. And with this video, we were able to acomplish it.  Everyone worked so hard on this piece and it was a great pleasure for everyone bring a rather silly idea to fruition.

This video is being premeired on Magnet Magazine

Film At 11: Boy Genius

Marisa Cerio of Boy Genius and I collaborated on a experimental music and art show by the Verrazano bridge a few years ago.  The first year I created an abstract narrative to play behind her band.  The next year, I curated an experimental film exhibiton bringing 8 filmmakers local and around NYC to screen.
Besides our affinity to off-color humor, creatively I loved working with her, Jason, Lisa, and Jeff on this music video.  I can’t stress how hard working, responsible and punctual people are appreciated.  In bringing the resources together in directing this video, it was a no-brainer to call on the services of director of photography Hugh Mackey.  It was the first video I shot on HD, and wanted to make sure that the DP had a good sense of what New England locales look like.  Hugh, originally from Ticonderoga, lent some great insight in bringing Boy Genius’ vision to fruition.

In 2007, I worked as the Director of Photography on a music video for world renown rapper Dres from Blacksheep.  On a low budget, and the resilient work ethic of the people involved, we were able to put this music video together.