Message From Space

It's a Man's Man's Man's World

2012-06-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a music video I just finished making for James Brown's classic tune, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World."

All the footage used here is from the Prelinger Archives at archive.org, and is clear of copyright restrictions. I sampled a number of different 1930s - 1940s educational and amateur films fromt he archive to make the music video, trying to capture the spirit of the era in which James Brown wrote the song:

It's a Man's Man's Man's World

Maximize Your Life

2012-04-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

Is your life on the skids? Call Max Millians, the Life Maximizer:

A Street Segment I Used to Know

2011-12-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile. I've been busy, so I'm just sharing two videos that I'm in love with right now:

Party Like it's 1986

2011-10-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

I just made this promo for the Center for Democracy & Technology. The organization is advocating for an update to our nation's digital privacy laws, which were drafted in 1986. They wanted a video for their big publicity push that underscored how far technology has come since then. The law was written back when "Top Gun" was rocking the box office. A lot has changed:

Flush the Filmmaker

2011-09-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

The stellar magazine Flush the Fashion just posted an interview with yours truly. They have great articles and reviews, dig into their website if you have a minute. Here's a link to the piece:

Flush the Fashion: Torrey Meeks

Everybody Sees the Ants

2011-09-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Check it out, here's an animation I just finished making to help promote my friend A.S. King's new book, Everybody Sees the Ants:

Endless Road

2011-08-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

Well, I can't embed this one unfortunately but check it out if you have a minute. Here's a music video I produced and co-directed with Christopher Owings for a contest over at Genero.tv:

Endless Road

The Think Tank

2011-08-17T08:21:00.001-07:00

This is hilarious:

Wildfire

2011-08-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

If no one uses this in something soon, I will:

Keep On Walkin'

2011-08-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

This was just posted as a response to my Hallway Scenes video, and I'm stunned by it's brilliance so I have to post it.

You anonymous editor, you are awesome.

Keep on walking, and try to keep up:

This Must Be The Place

2011-08-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how to classify this music video. Is it parody? Sure, but that's not all it is. Does it have acting genius? Yes, but that alone wouldn't carry it. Is it a great cover? Absolutely.

My hat's off to the director Dave Green and the actor Miles Fisher, and the editor David Surmi made it pop.

I laughed hard:

Pop Culture

2011-07-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

This is incredible. That is all:

Alright that's not quite all. After I posted the original above I couldn't get the song or performance out of my head, so I cut a video to it syncing all the original music videos to the samples as a weekend project. It took just over 24-hours from start to finish:

(I just noticed that my music video edit to Madeon's live performance is on the front page of Reddit! Wow. It's one of my all time favorite websites. The video is going insane on YouTube now. Thank you Reddit. I love you all.)

Hallways

2011-07-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest video. The idea developed like this: There's no such thing as a boring location, only boring films. Let's take a location that blends into the background of our everyday lives and see how many cool scenes I can find.

I found way more than I thought I would.

Thanks to Robert Richards, who gave the the initial idea and let me run with it from there.

Here it is. Hallways:

Honeymoon

2011-06-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

I shot this while my wife and I were on our honeymoon in Barcelona. We finally got to take one after being married for six years, and we had a hell of a time.

This short was shot entirely handheld using one zoom lens:

Be The One

2011-05-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

My friend Sheridan O'Donnell and I worked up this music video for the Moby, Saatchi & Saatchi and Vimeo "Hello, Future" challenge. The contest organizers gave it an intentionally tight deadline, and we made it from pre-production to post in less than a week and a half. The short turnaround really drove our creativity, and I feel like it's one of our best films to date. Enjoy:

Show Reel 2011

2011-04-22T10:30:00.001-07:00

Here's a show reel of the work I've done over the last year:

Drunk on Laughs at L.A. Comedy Shorts

2011-04-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

All you need to know about the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival is that it is funny. My eyes bled. My ear drums ruptured from howls of joy. My aorta hemorrhaged from laughing.

The festival directors Gary, Jeannie and Ryan put on a hell of a show. It was professional, classy, packed to the gills and all around hilarious.

The audience loved the diabolical story for Guaranteed Sex written by Anthony Morcom, and the film was a big hit. We got one of the biggest laughs of our screening block near the end of the film. After the screening Guaranteed Sex was invited to submit to The Friars Club Comedy Film Festival and the Orlando Film Festival.

Can't wait to see what comes of those.

LA Comedy Shorts popped my festival cherry, and I'm hooked now. I can't stop. I woke up this morning jonesing for another and my wife had to lock me in the room with canned soups and porno until I calmed down. It didn't matter. I was on my phone manically trying to score more. You've turned me into a twisted creature, L.A. Comedy Shorts. An obsessed man. A film monster.

Thank you.

Sergio the Sexy Sax Man

2011-04-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Give this man a medal:

Guaranteed Sex at the Los Angeles Comedy Shorts Film Festival

2011-03-22T09:05:00.001-07:00

When I got the phone call my heart started pounding and I'm sure I sounded like a drooling troglodyte to the person on the other end.

"Torrey Meeks?"

"Yes?"

"This is Los Angeles Comedy Shorts, we're calling to let you know Guaranteed Sex is an Official Selection. Congratulations."

At that point I dropped the phone and ran out into the street naked, nearly getting struck by a passing car, and shouted things I can't remember at the top of my lungs. Not really. But that's what I wanted to do.

My greatest thanks to Anthony Morcom, the writer, who has been an all around most excellent person throughout the evolution of the film. We blindsided him with it, and he's taken it in stride.

Here's the film, one more time:

The Egyptian and Tunisian Democratic Revolutions and Carl Sagan's "Earth: The Pale Blue Dot"

2011-02-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

It's the nature of revolution to be quick and hot and usually bloody.

While you watch these things you hope that all the right people get into power when it's done. That the government doesn't start killing. That the country makes good on the promise of individual freedom and democracy. That it doesn't abuse its new power, that it learned from its oppression, that it uses it wisely.

In the moment, before anything has had a chance to go wrong, revolutions are inspiring things. I think it's a triumph for us as a species whenever we reject tyranny and oppression.

As I watched the collective gasp for democracy in the Middle East, I was struck with the idea of making the following video. It samples footage from the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, mixed with timelapses and other footage from all over the web. The cornerstone of my mix is an amazing timelapse film shot and scored by Michael Marantz. The way it was set to Carl Sagan reading from his book "Earth: The Pale Blue Dot," inspired me. I felt it spoke to the potential of these moments.

A list of source videos are included in the infobox.

Here's to the desire to better ourselves:

Life in a Day - Final cut

2011-01-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

I made the final cut of Life in a Day!

To create the movie the filmmakers, Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald, asked the YouTube community to submit videos of their life on a single day - July 24 2010. They gathered 80,000 video clips (5,000 hours of footage) and edited it into a 90-minute documentary that premiered at Sundance last night.

They used the part where my gorgeous wife pulls her Ruger out of her pocket:

Here's a link to the Life in a Day page. Unfortunately they aren't rebroadcasting the film on YouTube in the United States:

Life in a Day

Guaranteed Sex featured at Best for Film

2011-01-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

The incredible turtle riding Magda Knight of Best for Film just featured Guaranteed Sex in the new Short Film of the Week section. Check it out. There's a brief interview with yours truly included:

Hot Air Balloons

2011-01-22T08:24:00.000-08:00

I shot this timelapse of a hot air balloon launching in Las Cruces, NM. It's the first video I've uploaded to YouTube in 4k resolution and I think it turned out pretty nice.

Enjoy:

Viva la Vida -or- How To Giftwrap a House

2011-01-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

The footage I used in this video is from the film, The Art of TPing -or- How To Giftwrap a House. It was made in 1971 as a highschool English project, then scanned from film to digital and uploaded to YouTube.

Around the time that Coldplay released their album, "Viva la Vida," my wife discovered this film while browsing through random YouTube videos. She thought it would go with the song. After I watched it, I thought so too.

I cut the film into this video in one night when I couldn't stop listening to the song for a few days.

This has been offline for the last three years due to some copyright issues, but I think the time is right to put it back online:

All Day

2010-12-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

Girl Talk's new album, All Day, is a masterpiece. You can download it at the previous link or listen to all the tracks back to back for free with a cool track breakdown scrolling below.

Or both.

I can't stop listening to it.