Ryan Southwell Films

I’ve never seen this side of San Francisco before. We shot this whole thing in the middle or on the outer skirts of the big city. David and Lisa were geared up for an incredible day and were complete ballers. Literally. It was cold and dark at the end of the day and they still wanted to do some b-ball shots. Not to mention that they treated us to some delicious food, this trip was definitely worth it.

It’s not on every short film that I go as far as manipulating the image, even for a short 2 seconds, but I did on this one. On the crane lift shot toward the beginning with David and Lisa running away from the camera there were approximately 5 other people and 6 cars I think that used to be in that shot. They were small but added clutter. I thought that if I took them out (see slideshow below) that it would really focus on these two lovebirds in a big city all by themselves – so to speak. After all, when you are in the moment, you don’t see all the distractions about us anyway, they all just sort of disappear. So I did just that — to help the viewers get in the moment as well. Oh, and I rigged the license plates too. How could I not? With matching silver Benzos all I needed was a free online license plate font. Done. All in all, David and Lisa were a blast to hang out with. What makes it for me is that they had FUN instead of just making out on camera the whole time. Waaaay better. Have yourself a looksie.

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Dan the firefighter, the cute little Stephanie and I spent the afternoon around Orange County, CA and Laguna Beach having a good time down side alleys and jumping into the ocean. I often have the thought that during good times and *real* moments in our lives there’s never a camera there to document what happens in that instant. Not that there necessarily should be, it’s just that when you break out the camera, that human connection that can’t be faked often disappears. I know it’s true in my life, sometimes I feel downright awkward in front of a camera but something about this film makes me feel like what I’m seeing is the real deal. Congrats Dan and Steph and thank you for the good times!

The title says it all. Brett, Shawna and I spent the afternoon filming across southern California and hit up quite a few places. Not to mention some really good pizza. I took a drive inland from the San Diego area to find some new territory that has yet to be filmed on and found this nice little grassy area. I love watching it flow in the wind. It was perfect for some crane shots too. It was all quite green, which didn’t fit my color palette for this little film so I colored it to be more like dry brush. The rest of the film is gravy. Enjoy the love in Del Mar.