Rena'sance Robot

NOHO, then and now - Google Steet View

2014-06-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

I moved to the North Hollywood area in 2007, knowing that the neighborhood had great potential. Since then we've seen it grow into a great community, with great food, entertainment, and people. Google just updated street view so you can go back and see their earliest photos from those off looking cars with the camera on top, which just so happened to start in 2007. Here's a few GIFs of some of my favorite haunts in NOHO.

Here's the Bow and Truss going from a Auto Shop, to an empty lot, finally to the upscale restaurant.

The Brickyard was once a dingy little pool hall called NoHo Billiards.

The shops to the North of Tokyo Delves were more or less empty for years. Now the popular District Pub and a coffee house are there.

One of the coolest conversions is this pretty ghetto looking tattoo parlor turning into on of NoHo's most popular spots, The Republic of Pie. Not the "now leasing" sign in Aug, '11 is gone by Sept.

The Blackhands - "Penny Green Mutiny / No Good" Music Video

2012-11-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

Have a look at a new LA based Blackhands music video we worked on with Nathan Bunker and Jeoff Hanser of O3Productions. It includes the audio-scape "Penny Green Mutiny" which tears into the raw acoustic "No Good".

Shot on 2 Canon 7Ds, edited in Sony Vegas and Final Cut

The Blackhands - "Penny Green Mutiny / No Good"
Album: Skull & Bones

Director - Nathan Alan Bunker
Director of Photography - Jeoff Hanser
Editor - Michael Darling

Wasteland Weekend III 2012 Highlights

2012-11-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

Here's the highlights reel from this year's Wasteland Weekend event produced by Rena'sance Robot.

Bodie, California: Ghost Town

2012-11-01T18:01:00.001-07:00

Bodie, California is one of the US's best preserved ghost towns, with about 100 original buildings kept in a state of arrested decay, many of which still contain the original furniture and wares from when Bodie was a bustling gold boom town of about 10,000 residents. Check out this video, then find out more at Bodie's official website, bodie.com.

A Tour of Wasteland Weekend III 2012

2012-10-12T11:47:00.001-07:00

Check out this slightly abbreviated tour of the inner compound of Wasteland City. Fantom, a.k.a. Captain Fanty Pants leads an educational, entertaining, and slightly sexy tour of the vendors, tribe camps, and vehicles of Wasteland Weekend.

Shot by Tellier Killaby
Music by Kevin MacLeod

Wasteland Weekend: Don't F*** with the Guard

2012-10-08T18:45:00.001-07:00

Here's a short film shot at Wasteland Weekend 2012. It's features the Elite Guard, (as seen in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome), as the guardians of Wasteland City as they deal with a wastelander who didn't "know the law".

Starring:

Michael Robinson, Curtis Gropp, and Rosie Neuharth as the Elite Guard
and Chris Gibson as the Wastelander

Wasteland Weekend 2012: Construction of the Gates

2012-10-02T15:09:00.001-07:00

Wasteland Weekend 2012 was a huge success, brought about by the willingness and determination of scores of volunteers. One of the very first and most difficult parts of Wasteland Weekend to be constructed is the iconic Wasteland Gates. Designed by Wasteland Weekend artistic director Adam Chilson and built from real rusted metal and worn tires, the gates are no easy project to assemble, (though the redesign from the 2011 gates did make the work much easier).

The gates feature two gigantic battle-torn doors, flanked on either side by towers constructed from old truck tires and armed with a flame thrower and ballista right out of "Mad Max II: The Road Warrior." Continuing the wall to both sides are rows of vehicles, spare metal, and anything else the "wastelanders" can pile up to guard the city inside. Once the gates are fully constucted, they are protected by a group known as the "Elite Guard" known as the protectors of Bartertown from the third of the Mad Max trilogy "Beyond Thunderdome."

The gates separate the two very distinct areas of Wasteland Weekend. On the outside, there's general camping, where anyone can pull up in their modern vehicles, pitch a tent, and enjoy the weekend. Inside the gates is a completely post-apocalyptic area, where no modern vehicles, tents, or amenities can be seen. The idea is to make the wasteland more legitimate, like you are walking into a Mad Max movie or even a Fallout video game.

Below is a 2 1/2 minute time-lapse of the construction of the Wasteland gates, which took a full day to complete. It took a lot of people a lot of hard work to build, but the results speak for themselves.

Perseid Meteor Shower 2012

2012-08-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

I went out with a small group to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower, and came back with a few fun photos to share. Along with the show of shooting starts, there was also the rising of a crescent moon in line with the planets Jupiter and Venus. The picture below is my favorite shot from the evening which shows a brilliant meteor just off the horizon.

Here's another meteor I missed the first time through the pics:

Here we are just off Little Tujunga Canyon in out make-shift camp. I snapped this picture as a car was going by.

And finally here's a timelapse that shows a few meteors as well as the moon risings in line with Jupiter (above) and Venus (below).

Megan and Caleb Dizon Wedding Video

2012-07-22T23:01:00.003-07:00

I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding video for Megan and Caleb Dizon last month. They had a beautiful ceremony and reception at the Padua Hills Theater and Dining Room in Claremont, CA. Shot on 2 Canon DSLR's and set to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri, this is a video they'll be happy to share and revisit for years to come.

If you're interested in having us shoot your wedding, please send an email to renrobot@gmail.com

Playing with Twixtor

2012-06-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

I just got my hands on a copy of the Twixtor Plug-in for Sony Vegas and decided to test it out a bit. The tools are pretty simple to use, but have some mixed results. Check out the videos below to see the Canon 7D's 60fps brought as slow as 1000fps (in the waterfall clip). I'm looking forward to testing it out with some footage specifically purposed for Twixtor, because I hear there's a few settings that help the plug-in work better.

For this first video, I used a small segment of my friend Nicole Dionne in the Wasteland Weekend promo I shot. The footage was already in 60fps which is a good starting point. I got excited and went straight for time mapping, where the speed of the video seems to change mid-shot. If you look close, the background around the gun as it comes up seems to liquify, most likely a side effect of long-exposure time in the original footage, but it almost adds a "Matrix"-like space warp effect, like she's actually going so fast it bends the air around her...not a bad first attempt.

Next I wanted to see just how crisp I could get the rendered video to be, so i took this shot of Jay Preston walking in a dry lake bed and added the effect to the entire video. This take was a lot steadier to begin with and the new frames blend in perfectly, I can't wait to do this shot with a power-sliding race-car!

Finally, I had to see if Twixtor could make 1000fps look good, so I found this clip of a waterfall near Mammoth Mountain. The original video is very shaky , as you can see in the first couple seconds, but slowing it down about 16x smooths it right out. I'm very impressed with how well the plug-in handles all the tiny water dropletts with only a touch of blurring. How epic is that!!??

How to Survive the Apocalypse at Wasteland Weekend

2012-06-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Wasteland Weekend is a 4 day Post-Apocalyptic themed camping festival that takes place just North of Los Angeles. It'll be taking place this fall from Sept 27th through the 30th. Anyone who likes the "Mad Max" movies, "Fallout" video games or "Wasteland" graphic novels will absolutely LOVE this event. With its desert location, 360 degree themed area, and genre embracing entertainment, Wasteland Weekend is already growing to become a world-class event, drawing people from across the United States as well as abroad.
But don't think you can just show up willy-nilly. First off, you have to buy tickets ahead of time, put together a costume to wear, and then make sure you're prepared for 4 days of complete self reliance (because after all, it's the wasteland). That means bringing your own camp, food, and water, along with everything else you'll need to survive (and party) in the desert.
This video below is the first in a series that helps you better prepare for your first, or a return trip to Wasteland Weekend. Check it out, and then click on the links to more videos toward the end to find out more. After that you can find tons of information about anything Wasteland on the events website www.wastelandweekend.com.

First up: An overview of the event and the following videos hosted by Sickle
Next is everything new for Wasteland Weekend 2012 hosted by Max Replica and Forge

Here's some rules and suggestions for costuming from Shakti

Camping in the desert is tough, but these hints from Milosz will make it a lot easier

Find out everything there is to do in the Wasteland in this video hosted by Rumor

The Padre will help you form a tribe and clue you in on all the secrets to creating a fully themed camp

Wasteland Weekend is built and run by volunteers. Jay will tell you how you can get involved

Videos produced by Rena'sance Robot

Travlete presents The Ethos Endurance Festival

2012-06-07T00:19:00.002-07:00

Travlete is a website full of reviews of endurance races around the world written by the athletes and for the athletes. Host Angela Durazo gives us the site's very first video review, commenting on the Ethos Endurance Festival that took place in Temecula, California. We got some incredible first hand footage from a GoPro head-cam and followed along side the race to catch all the action. Check it out:

TRAVLETE Review: Ethos 8K Adventure Race - Temecula, CA from TRAVLETE on Vimeo.

The Most Epic Engagement Photos EVER!!!

2012-05-17T01:44:00.001-07:00

When Brad and Jen approached me asking for engagement photos, I thought we'd be just going for a stroll in the park or have a nice day at the beach, but I never expected them to come up with this!!!

"Apocalypse Girl" with Dolly Devoor

2012-05-08T22:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a fun photo session with model Dolly Devoor with a bit of a narrative tying the two looks together.

Dystopian Weekend 2012

2012-05-05T22:38:00.001-07:00

Mentryville: Ghost Town - A Video Blog

2012-04-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I found myself in Mentryville, CA and explored the remains of what was an Oil Boom town from the late 1800's. This is one of the oil fields where the Pioneer Oil Refinery of a past exploration got its crude oil. Enjoy:

The site that includes most of the structures is currently closed off to visitors, but the Friends of Mentryville (the current caretakers) still hold tours by appointment. But you can go on a full tour from the comfort of your home simply by pushing play on the video below, hosted by a past resident of the town.

Finally, heres a little stereoscope photo I animated! This is Pico number 4 when it was still standing.

Pioneer Oil Refinery

2012-03-18T22:21:00.001-07:00

Here's some pics of the Pioneer Oil Refinery as it stands today in Newhall, CA. Lots of great information on the site can be found through the Santa Clarita Historical Society. This site has tons of info, plus historic pictures and the supposed plans for a new renovation of the location.

Alright Alright - New EP Release

2012-03-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

La's premier Sci-fi band Alright Alright just released their newest 4 track EP "Pleased to Eat You".

The celebration took place at the Silverlake Lounge (Silverlake, Ca). The set included the new songs as well as many past album favorites like Jenny of the FBI and Drunk Dialing Vampires.

I've been to a few Alright Alright shows, and this was surly one of the best. The bands lead singer, Michael Sweeney (who also stars in Rena'sance Robot's Alpha Planet) told me that they were extremely well rehearsed, and though he just ended an abnormally long workday, they took the stage with energy and shear domination. The newest tracks feature more prominent vocals out of the band's back-up singer Ryan, stepping up to lead alongside the incredible range of Sweeney.

If you were lucky enough to make it to the show, you would have received a free copy of the EP, but if you missed out, you can still order one here. The band also offers plenty of free downloads on their site as well.

You can also hear some of AA's songs in the web series Blood Lies.

Llano Del Rio: Ghost Town - A Video Blog

2012-03-11T15:52:00.001-07:00

North of Los Angeles, just past Palmdale is a small collection of ruin and foundations along side Highway 138. It's the remnants of a small colony called Llano Del Rio with a rather unique history. Check out the video below for a brief overview.

"The End" - A short film

2012-03-06T20:38:00.001-08:00

Here's a fun short film that we made for the Zooppa "The End of the World as You Show it" contest, which took 1st prize! A nod to the 2012 end of days hype, the contest called for an interpretation of how the world will end. Some entries evoked zombies, others planetary destruction by comical forces. Ours was a trip through the cosmos and back again:

You can check out the Zooppa contest winners list here.

The entire film was shot in 1 day in Griffith park partly at the Griffith Observatory but mostly at the LA Old Zoo. "The End" was written and directed by Mike Darling, with sound by Stephan Rich (of Treelawn Productions. Arron Marie Fenton and Lawrence Keli'i Ranada played the philosophical couple, and Ivan Ruiz Serrano composed the original score.

Shot on a Canon 7D

OH, and by the way, this is the 2nd Zooppa contest that Rena'sance Robot has entered and the second to win an award. Our short film "Survival Plan" was an entry for the Universal Studios "King Kong 3D" promotion contest, and won an audience choice award. This was shot back in the Summer of 2010 and was one of the first RenRobot projects ever completed. Check it out and see how far we've come in the last two years.

The Abandoned Rose Valley Work Camp

2012-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Note the old Basketball court

Now here's a spot full of history. We went exploring north of Ojai (on rt. 33) this past week and found the old Rose Valley Work Camp. It was a minimum security prison from 1988-1992 where the inmates were basically treated like enlisted men, having to wear uniforms to spec and beginning the day cleaning the grounds to pass a sergeant's inspection. The inmates would then go to classes like job training, substance abuse, and auto mechanics. It was an experiment in "boot camp" jails and from the article written in 1990 for the La Times, it seemed to be working, and the inmates even appreciated the discipline.

The old dorms

It seems like the camp was a victim of budget cuts and closed in 1992, after being open only 4 years. The grounds were re-purposed as a site for the Concerned Resource Environmental Workers (CREW) until 1996. After that the forest service asked citizens for proposals for what to do with the site, but it seems nothing useful ever popped up because the grounds have been mostly unused since then. I say mostly because the forest service still uses a couple of the buildings for equipment storage and part of the grounds are now firing ranges for the local gun club, but most of the buildings are simply wasting away.. There's also a campground nearby, two small ponds, and plenty of trail heads leading from the area.

Upper Pond

Lower Pond

The grounds were originally constructed for the US navy; it's where they trained the Seabees (Phonetic for the initials of Construction Battalion). They would land after the Marines had cleared an area to construct the infrastructure to support the armed forces from WWII on. When the Navy left the camp in '72, it hosted the Youth Conservation Corps, the Young Adult Conservation Corps and a Forest Service helicopter crew before being renovated as the minimum security Work Camp by the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept for a staggering 1.3 million (~$300k in another article). By '96 the value of the property had fallen to $230,000 and the fee for anyone to use the grounds would have been roughly $1100/month (and any improvements to the grounds would have been deducted from the fee).

A sign warns about trespassing

My best guess is a old portable water pump for watering the farm.

Here's the old kitchen, there's a couple giant walk in fridges there too.

The murals in the cafeteria still look great

The Forest Service's (still used) storage garage.

One of the old bunks

Looking into a dorm through a broken window

Semi-private restrooms

A place to check your standard length haircuts

An empty dorm

Outside the library

Inside the Library (the fan was practically new!!!)

Outside the security office

Inside the security office

The dish-washing room off the cafeteria. Seriously just needs a good scrub-down.

Saw this incredible sight up the road a way.

Before you get there stop to see the US's smallest post office.

A horse farm

Some references:

Here's an LA Times article from when the Work Camp first opened

Here's the LA Times article from when the Work Camp was open.

LA Times on foreboding budget cuts that may have closed the camp.

LA Times: Site almost became a drug abuse outreach site immediately after closing

Here's the county's request for new ideas for the grounds.

Wikipedia Article for the Seabees

Alpha Planet: Looking Back

2012-01-29T15:03:00.000-08:00

About 3 years ago, I'd been in Hollywood for about 2 years. I'd had zero momentum on the acting front, there was a writers strike going on, and there was all this buzz about web series starting to happen. A friend of ours, James Rhodimer of Brash Studios, had just taken a photography project and turned it into something quite different. It was a loosely scripted web series called Apocalyptic Playground. While it has since turned into

something quite different (you can see the teaser that incorporates the old footage here), it started out simply following characters as they explored some post-apocalyptic areas around LA. As it grew, it evolved into a well told narrative of people held in a sort of trap.

What we loved about A.P. was the desolate nature of the locations, and how such a powerful story could be told while spending $0. So we started writing our own web series, borrowing elements from series like A.P. and plenty of movies and television shows (Star Trek, Star Wars, Earth 2, Lost, and even The Shield to name a few). At first I was writing myself in to play the lead, Adam Landrey, and I would find someone else to shoot it. We played with Arron playing Karin Dawson too, but in the end we decided that first off, I shouldn't try to direct and act at the same time (thanks to an experiment known as Banana Who?) so i choose to direct, and we should write Arron a role more suited for her screen age.

Here's "Banana Who?" just to show how far we've come. DON'T JUDGE ME!!!

o.k. judge away...

And so that's what we did. We recast the roles to friends much more suited to the parts, (Adam Landrey played by Michael Sweeney, and Karin Dawson played by Jen Tobin.) Arron Marie Fenton took on the supporting character Kira, and I started investing in a camera and sound gear. We shot the Prelude in our home studio with the lovely Megan Franich from "30 Days of Night". It would cover some of the important elements of the back story that we couldn't film thanks to the zero dollar budget.

To be quite honest, I don't think we knew how hard or how much fun it would be to actually go through with it, but in the fall of '09 we all showed up at a river wash is Sunland to shoot the 1st three episodes of "Alpha Planet". We were inundated with problems from the start, but didn't really care. It was raining on first arrival (which cleared up quickly), but then we were left with the freezing cold as we waited for the sun to come up, and there was an incredible dust storm that raged through the area. So worth it. That spot had been hit with a forest fire earlier in the season so the landscape still had a char covering the trees and ground, a perfect setting for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi to take place.

(Getting that ship to land probably took as long as editing the first half of the whole season, but showing it was much better than the original idea of attempting to imply that there was a ship instead of showing one.)

As we pushed on through the rest of the season, we attempted to shoot less script each day to devote more time to getting things right. This was my first major project ever and there was a steep learning curve involved with having dove in head first. Along with the progression in production value, came the slowly changing landscape of the Earth. At first, the crew finds nothing but scarred landscape and a single thriving (poisonous) vine, but as they continue exploring, they find plenty of surviving plantlife and even some animals, namely the unseen snake that bites Karin.

This is about where the series takes a turn from general exploration to survival. The stakes are finally raised as one of their own has been injured. Also this is where our writing style changed quite a bit. Fun Fact: The Prelude and first three episodes were originally written as one longer episode and then split in three parts to work with the web series "keep it short" rule, which explains why the show is a bit slow moving to start. The same is true about episodes 4-6. It was after that point that we started writing the episodes in the short form that they were released in, which helped the episodes to move along faster. It was about this same time we received word that Jen, playing Karin, was pregnant and that we'd have to finish the season quickly if we wanted her to keep fitting in her already too-tight shirt. Of course we accommodated her by having her act all day in the middle of summer and walk up and down a hill in ep. 7-8.

JD, playing Ian, jumped at the chance to roll down that hill. I took one look at the dirt and knew it would be a painful shot, but he insisted he do it, he never expected me to ask him for a second take though.

Having met the character Kira, I figured it might be a good opportunity to introduce a couple more characters (The Rustlers played by Brad Hills, Stevens Gaston and Camilo Alfaro Rios) and answer a question that had come up in the comments for episode 1, namely "what was that object Karin found, and what was it doing there?" The next episode flashes back to the day of the landing as Kira runs from the Rustlers' camp with a stolen (and broken) radio.

As the season closes out we introduce the final character, one that the crew has been talking about since the landing, James Dagney, played by Jay Preston.

So what happens next? It's a tough question. Luke Brodie, played by Don Jeanes, has become a bad guy, and Karin and Ian are kidnapped! It's up to Dagney, Landrey, and Kira to save them. But didn't Dagney say there were other survivors?

And (as the title says) looking back on Alpha Planet, I'm so very proud of our cast and crew for creating such a wonderful story. There's not a whole lot I would change, other than the fact that I've learned a lot about filmmaking since then and know I would do things differently now.

I don't think we'll be seeing anymore no-budget Alpha Planet, but the story still grows (mostly in my head) and we've started work on both a novel and feature script, but with so many other projects keeping us busy these days, who knows when they'll be done. For now Alpha Planet is open to your interpretation.

"Mad Max" Trilogy Screening

2012-01-23T03:28:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of shooting photos at the sold out "Mad Max" trilogy screening at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood this week. A bunch of Wasteland Weekend people were there in full Maxed out costumes to take pictures with the crowd and promote this year's event. Mel Gibson even made a special appearance between the 1st and 2nd movies to talk about the movies and some of his upcoming projects (catch an overview here). Evidently, the "Mad Max" screenings are just part of a "The end of the world is coming" series happening at the Egyptian all the way through the end of the world in December. And don't forget, the next installment of "Mad Max" is already underway! (though Mel won't be in this one...sad)

"Monster Hunter" - a 40 Second Short Film

2012-01-18T15:49:00.000-08:00

Last month we decided to create an entry for the NW Film Center "Make it Short" competition. After debating what direction to take it in and creating a handful of scripts, we decided to go with "Monster Hunter". It's about a little girl, who's had enough pestering from the monster that lives in her closet and takes matters into her own hands. Enjoy:

"Monster Hunter" was shot on the Canon 7D, and features music by Ivan Ruiz Serrano. Written and Directed by Arron Fenton, with Producer/Director of Photography Mike Darling

Wasteland Weekend Part 5 - "Mad Max" highlights / Timelapse

2012-01-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

With the new year, we've found some time to work on all this Wasteland Weekend footage. Along with logging the tapes for the feature documentary, we've finished a few short videos from this years event.

First is a "Mad Max" specific video showcasing the weekend. The whole idea started from a small "Road Warrior"weekend and has in the last two years opened up to include most* things post-apocalyptic (no zombies, no mutants), but a very large portion of the wasteland population is there for the Ford Falcons, spiked shoulder pads, and Thunderdome.

The next two videos are time-lapses of the days leading up to the opening of the gates. First, on the build day, Thursday, I pointed the camera toward the themed area to catch the construction of the gates and a couple camps behind the wall.

On Friday, I turned the camera the other way to watch the general camping area fill in with hundreds of wastelanders.