Jaron at BladeHQ

So once upon a time I got a job, a real persons job. Like a 9 to 5 job. I LOVE IT! Weird right? Jaron likes being on someone else's schedule? He likes answering to people? Well it's not quite what you think.  The company is called Blade HQ and the name of the game is youtube. Thats right I run a YouTube channel for a living. We produce a video a week all based on the products we sell, which is knives, outdoor gear, and survival stuff oh did I mention knives? So the most difficult part about this job is making content. Like I said we are release a video a week and that means new content every week and that means fresh ideas all the time which keeps me on my toes. But that also means a lot of new experiences.

I have shot with snakes, made fire without matches or a lighter, shot in slow motion and  worked with other YouTubers. And its all so much fun! Our Youtube channel has 37,000 subscribers and growing so there is a huge fan base and all of them get to see my pretty face on the channel from time to time.  because not only do I shoot and edit I also cohost! So if you ever find yourself bored or really like me and or knives watch me on the Blade HQ channel. (search YouTube for KnifeHQ). If you have ideas for the videos let me know! Also be on the lookout for some great vids coming out from Underground Creative.

Links you may like

http://www.bladehq.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/KnifeHQ

Be a Hero

Have you ever wanted to be a hero? Or at least feel badass and larger than life? So there is this little camera that most everybody today knows about that lets you really feel like a hero. It is "the worlds most versatile camera". You can put it, float it, stick it, sink it, glue it, mount it on anything. The way you look and feel makes you feel like a hero. I think for me it's because this camera lets me see myself with my friends and family experiencing life. That's a remainder of how badass life can really be. This camera is non other than the GoPro Hero. 

I love my GoPros, I Have two and I use them when ever I can, for what ever I can. I have been known to mount GoPros to walls, ceilings, floors, cars, people and even camera cranes and tripods to get some awesome footage. I have also used it to get shots for films and TV shows, but mostly I use it to shoot awesome things in my life. I wear it when I am hiking or four wheeling or even swimming. I take my GoPros when I travel because they are so light, compact and the picture quality is so great.

Like I said I have two GoPros, the Hero2 and the Hero3 Silver edition. I use them both to take video, stills and time-lapses. The Wide lens of the GoPro allows for some epic shots from Hero shots of the everyday person right up to sports enthusiast, the lens also allows for great valley shots in a time-lapses. It shoots full 1080p HD video and 10 mega pixel photos. The best part of the camera is that its small and compact and you can literally stick it anywhere. I have mounted it on the underside of long boards and in other crazy tight areas that have given me way cool shots. The camera also comes in a water proof case so you can submerge it swimming or take it boating or with you to play in the ocean. GoPro offers awesome accessories like chest and head mounts, or suction cup mounts to mouth on cars or windows. I just got the roll cage mouth and am looking forward to using it next month on a trip to a cabin my friends and I are taking. I love my GoPros, they allow to capture some way cool life experiences and take it home with me to experience again and again. Like I said, it really is the worlds most versatile camera and when I us it I really do feel like a hero. 

Below are two videos I have shot entirely on my GoPros as well as some pretty neat pictures. Both videos are just for fun and give you a feel of how awesome life can be when you get to relive your experiences with your GoPro footage.  

Everything Is Awesome

When I was a kid I could lock myself in my room and play with my Legos for hours and hours. I had so many sets, from pirates to knights, Lego City to Robin Hood. I had a huge box full that lived under my bead [when I actually put it away]. Not to sound hipster but this was before Lego had cool licensing agreements with other companies like Star Wars and DC Comics. So if I wanted Darth Vader I had to make him. I remember blacking out a race car drivers helmet and cutting a cape out of black construction paper to make the dark lord of the sith. Mis-matching other lego characters to make the ones from my favorite movies. I had to make up my own instructions to make that X-wing fighter or an awesome pirate ship. But that is what made it so fun for me. I got to use my Imagination to create things I loved. 

When The Lego Movie trailer was released I was so exceed and had so many reservations. I was worried the animation wouldn't be right or that it was going to be some cheesy story that only children would like, I underestimated Lego. If there is a company out there that knows the culture behind their product it's Lego. These guys cover everything in the film that a Lego fan would ever want and they even manage to fit a feel good uplifting message into it. You know those pesky things that kept ending up in your lego box like your sisters broken toy, q-tips, band-aids, rubber bands, and other crazy odds and ends? Well Lego knows about them and they use those to drive the story along! And didn't it always bug you that when you made your Lego horse gallop you had to move the entire thing like a see-saw? Well lego knows about that too and they animated their horses just like that! There are so many little things in the lego movie that take you back to being a kid like drawing your own face on a character or calling out "I need a 2x6 piece". You find yourself thinking how could they possibly know that's the experience I had playing legos. The way the characters are designed and interact with the world and how the totally awesome cast portrays them it's like they are right out of a child's imagination. 

You will not stop laughing or smiling the entire time you are watching The Lego Movie, and by the end you will leave felling inspired, how could you not with such and inspiring theme. There are two types of Lego builders in the world; people who can build anything out of nothing and people who follow the instructions that Lego provides. The movie deals with this a lot, talking about "Master Builders" and "Ordinary People". By the film's end  it's clear what the theme of the story is: everyone is special. They deal with the theme in such a way that it is not over the top cheesy and you genuinely feel good. The animation is awesome. Every little bit is constructed of Legos. The explosions are legos, the ocean is Legos, the clouds are Legos, everything is Legos. Go see The Lego Movie, there are so many one liners you won't stop laughing, you will feel like a kid again and leave feeling great about yourself. The Voices in My Head Give it five out of five stars. *****

Here Is a quick little time lapse of me building some kick ass legos to The Lego Movie Theme song "Everything is Awesome" By Tegan and Sara Feature the Lonely Island

Links you may like:

www.lego.com

the Lego Movie Website

The Wiki Site on Lego

I Knew Him When

So, many of you know that my family is extremely talented. All my siblings have their own unique talents and they all excel at them.  This last weekend was my birthday so my little brother Jess decided to paint me a picture. I love Star Wars and I love zombies and he was feeling inspired by the book Death Troopers so he decided to paint me Zombie Darth Vader. People he painted this in a morning. This would have taken me a week to try and paint [and with out doubt fail] and he did it in a single morning. Jess has so much talent, SO MUCH TALENT. His forte is spray paint art which blows my mind watching him do. People this kid is awesome. Feel free to check out his work on Underground's website here, you can even buy his art right from the site. There are videos of him working posted on the site as well as his work samples you can check out. Jess has talent people and now you can say you knew of him when... 

www.UndergroundCreative.co/Elvin-art

MRJP

As a few of you know Underground Creative hosts and sells local artist's works so over the last year I have been looking at a lot of art. Last September Utah had it's first Comic Con (and it was a hit!) that is where I met Mr Jake Parker. Jake Parker is a freelance Illustrator, designer and comic artist. He has a great portfolio including some awesome films such as Titan A.E., Horton Hears a Who, and Epic. Now Underground does not host or sell any of Jake Parker's art but as I was looking for future artists to feature I came across his work and having not seen his art before I found I enjoyed his work instantly. His work is so fun, and so full of character. I bought one of his books and find myself picking it up often and browsing through  its pages looking at all the cool characters he has created. As you look at each character you can tell each one has it's own story to tell. 

I asked him about a few characters in particular, his "Tiger Robots" and he told me that the idea for those actually came from his son. His son was making up a story about these Tiger Robots and so he began to sketch them as his son told him this newly imagined story. Another one of my favorite characters of Jake Parker's is the astronaut "Space Skull" and he is exactly what you picture. 

"Skull was one of 7 astronauts sent to inspect a space anomaly. Some sort of black hole on the edge of the solar system. The whole crew got sucked in but Skull seems to be the only survivor. He can't remember any thing, and his life is devoted now to uncovering his past. Perhaps a second crew member survived an astronaut all in black. he's hunting skull for some reason"- Jake Parker Drawings pg. 76

This is the type of story you get from each of his characters. Just by looking at his stuff you begin to make up you own adventures that these characters go on in your own mind. And I find myself thinking "What was he thinking when he created them all".  Below is the book I bought from him and you can too by clicking on the the picture or this link Here. Go to mrjakeparker.com to see more of his awesome characters and illustrations. Thanks Mr Jake Parker for your awesome work.

Darkly Dreaming

I have always been a fan of Showtime's hit show about Americas favorite serial killer, Dexter.  Before you read any further know that if you have not read or watched any of Dexter this may contain spoilers. Dexter is a killer, a killer with a code, Harry's code. He only kills those that deserve to be killed. I have been a fan of the show, faithfully watching every episode and owning every season. After throughly enjoying and finishing the t.v. show and having a goal of reading 14 book by the end of this year I decided to pick the original novel by Jeff Lindsay.

Season 1 of the t.v. show is one of my favorite seasons and is based on the Book Darkly Dreaming Dexter. The book and the show deal with the same story line, that of the Ice Truck Killer and the origin of Dexter's "Dark Passenger" (The thing that gives Dexter the need to kill).  But they deal with the story line in different ways. The book is much more descriptive of the nature of Dexter's Dark Passenger in a way that made my skin crawl so much more than the show ever did. It was clear that the Dark Passenger is driving Dexter's need to kill. There is a constant theme of learning to be human in both the t.v. series and the book, but the in book you can tell he is not human, he doesn't know how to be but fakes it. The show deals with this a lot and Michael C. Hall (the actor that portrays Dex) does a really good job, but the way that Jeff Lindsay (the author) describes him and his inhumanness sends chills up and down my spine. To think that there are really people out there that experience life the way that he does and that have a need like Dexter's need makes me cringe. 

People that don't die till late in the seasons of the show die in this first book and people that don't die int the book die in the show. Events that take place in the first book don't in the series. Just like any other book translated into screen things change. All together I can see why the producers made the decisions to add, and take away to Jeff Lindsay's novel to put on the screen to create content for a whole season. With the events that happen in the book that don't happen in the series I wonder how the remaining books coincide with the rest of the seven seasons of the show. The voices in my head give this book a blood curdling four out of five stars **** 

The Gravity of the Situation.

In October last year one of my favorite films of the year came out. This film was such a emotional ride, for Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullok's character) and for myself. From the second the film started till the credits rolled I was glued to the screen and a bit of a mess. You see this film came out at a moment in life that I felt like everything was spinning out of control.  So many things had abruptly changed and I didn't know what to do.  So when I went and saw Gravity and how Ryan's life was literally spinning out of control I could relate. I was ready to give up, shift gears, and chase after a someone else's dream. 

When the universe was literally throwing everything it had at her, Ryan Stone kept fighting. So when I felt everything was being figurative being thrown at me I had the realization that I should keep fighting. She had reason too, I had reason too. I had strived to make so much out of my life, my work, my family, my relationship. I am still so young and I have so much ahead of me. And I had so much support in doing so. By the end of the film I couldn't stop, well I couldn't stop feeling. I left feeling inspired and moved. That is why I make films. I love being able to help move people, help them to see, to feel and understand. That is why I do what I do. The way that that movie inspired me, I want to inspire others.

When I started this post I wanted to remark on how phenomenal the CGI was, how the acting was  moving and real. How the first shot of the film ran for thirteen minutes before it cut and showed show much beauty it was breath taking. And how the rest of the cinematography was just as astounding as that first shot. But instead you got the mushy feelings that the film created. That to me is how I know it was a good film, it made me forget the technicalities and be immersed in the story. Let's hope that the Academy feels the same way I do. The voices in my head give it five out of five stars. *****

Trees of Light!

Color and Texture, two of my favorite qualities of light. Here are a few pics from my last design of the show The Servant of Two Masters where I had to quickly make a decision using these two qualities to create stylized looks. When I first got there I was under the impression that the flats where going to be black, and when I found out they where painted to take color I had to quickly go back to the drawing board. So adjusting a few systems of lights I had already drafted, I moved the system of trees that cast leaf textures over the stage to cast them onto the flats to create a stylized trees, then adding splashes of color to distinguish location in a stylized way.  After a few quick adjustments, being electrocuted and some hard work from my electricians the show ended up looking really good.