Remote Control Death Car

A fake grindhouse trailer written, shot, and edited in 24 hours for the Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival.

3 Elements were given at the kickoff - 
Prop: Remote Control
Scene: Knoxville Sunsphere
Dialogue: "I remember the first time I went to jail"

Winner of 2 awards at the festival: Judges Award and Most Horrific Film

cast:
Midori Mcphetridge
Bow Morton
Wayne Nichols
Kenny O'Day
Kevin Woods
Matt McMillan
Justin Demeere

written, shot, edited, visual fx, narrated by

Justin Demeere​

The Velvet Huntress

[Warning: Contains Brief Nudity] 
Created for the Knoxville Horror Film Festival's Grindhouse Grind-out. 

The challenge: Make a Grindhouse trailer in 6 days and 66 minutes of the genre drawn at the kickoff.

Genre: Giallo

Cast:
Midori McPhetridge
Karen Hon
Bow Morton
Kevin Woods
Susannah Cadle
Kristen Tunstall
Megan Sherwin
Molly Davis
Rashida
Jenni Roselle
Jane Doe

Crew:
Grip - Jeff Reed
AD/AC - Michael Samstag

Written, Edited, Music, Directed by - Justin Demeere​

Room 222

Winner for Best Cinematography and Best Use Of Elements (Secret City Film Festiva), Best Romance (Maryville Film Festival)

Created for the Secret City Film Festival's 7 Day Shootout competition.

7 Days to write, shoot, edit a short 7 minute film.
Elements given:
Genre - Drama
Prop - Fan
Dialogue - "The secret is out."
Visual Element - The number 22

Cast: 
Al Wong
Jamie Lee Rathert
Karen Hon
Zane Triplett
Ken Zhai
Philip Cheung

Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor:
Justin Demeere

Production Notes:
Written in an hour, 3 days to find cast and locations, 1 day lost from losing cast member and finding replacement, 9 hours to shoot, and 2 days to edit.

The interiors were lit with a 1K Arri and bounce.

The bartender, Zane Triplett, was the actual bartender for the club.

The extra, Ken Zhai, was the voice of the narrator as he could speak Cantonese. 

In cantonese Ken actually says 22, not 222, didn't inform him of script changes.

Equipment:

GH13, Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, Elgeet c-mount 13mm f/1.5 (for the fan shot), One 1K Arri light, H4N, NTG-2​

Westerly Incandescence

Winner - Best Cinematography @ The Secret City Film Festival 7 Day Shootout. 
"Westerly Incandescence" was my entry for the 7 Day Shootout contest held at the Secret City Film Festival in Oak Ridge, TN. The idea here is you have 7 days to make a film with the genre, prop, and line of dialogue that you randomly draw out of a hat right before the kickoff. The rules were it had to be between 4 - 7 minutes long, contain the elements drawn from the hat, and a black slate in the beginning of the film 25 seconds long containing the elements used with team name. 
-Elements- 
Genre: Wester 
Prop: Light Bulb 
Dialogue: "I'm sorry, this is a strange time in my life." Team: Burning Crow Pictures.

Cast & Crew: Written, Directed, Shot, Music, and Edited by Justin Demeere 
Actors - Kevin Woods, Kenny O'Day, Bow Morton, Wayne Nichols 
Production Manager - Karen Hon 
2nd AC - Kevin Woods 
Boom - Karen Hon 

Special Thanks - Sheila Sloan and Crew.​

Witch Bottle

Shot in 2009 and was my first short after a long 6 year break from filmmaking. Was rusty but I still love it. Made in 5 days with a GH1, no tripod, can lights from home depot, and no mic. But that is why I like it so much. I've learned a lot since then but this still is a favorite of mine. Guerilla filmmaking and a lot of pizza and beer.​

Aotearoa

My entry for your-big-break.com
My story is about a Maori legend about Kupe and his wife Kuramarotini leaving their Tahitian home by canoe to discover a new land now known as New Zealand. The legend says Kuramarotini spotted a cloud (He ao!) which was over the island. I wrote in my script that the cloud was actually snowcaps on a mountain mistaken for a cloud.
This is a super short based on the script that I felt would better describe the idea instead of my own words on camera.

The short was written, cast, shot, edited, graded, and scored in 2 1/2 weeks. It was shot on a Sunday afternoon at Douglas Lake in TN. The costumes were made with table cloth, yarn, feathers, a bo staff, 2 grass skirts, make-up, and a bar of soap. Cost - $33

The Maori people have a certain look that I wanted to capture. One of them is the pendant they wear around their necks. I didn't have the pounamu (jade) or the skills to carve it so I just used a bar of soap. It is the Hei Matau which is for a safe journey over water.

The weather was 20 degrees so it was all run-n-shoot style jumping out of our cars for a minute then going back in to warm up. It was great fun and no matter what I have learned more about my craft doing it which is all that matters to me.

The actors are Shiva Davey and Christina Hayworth.
Score vocals were performed by Megan Odom.
Shiva Davey and Megan Odom are in a band together.
You can find out more about them here - myspace.com/megndredd

It was shot on my GH1, a still photography tripod, and a PL filter and ND filter with the STOCK lens. 1080p, Smooth Film Mode
Contrast -2
Sharpness -1
Saturation -1
Noise Reduction -2

Now that produces a washed out image which I have been hearing it helps hold up to grading better in post. I gotta say that I was surprised how well it was holding up. I pushed this pretty far in some shots and maybe even a little too far. But I wanted it to not look like it was 20 degrees and more like an almost real early spring. I am not too sure if those Smooth Film settings are the best as of yet and this is only my second shot at using Apple Color but seems to look good to me. I have been teaching myself to read scopes and after using Color and doing my grading on full manual I won't ever look back to a quick plugin solution.

Before and After shots of color grading posted here

dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=196018​

2011 Demo Reel

Knoxville In January

Shot for the Year In Knoxville project.
yearinknoxville.com

Shot, Edited, and Music by
Justin Demeere

Music created on the iPhone using NanoStudio
blipinteractive.co.uk/

Shot on GH13 (hacked GH1)

Edited with FCPX 10.0.2​

Noxim Girls At NV

The Noxim Girls visit NV for a night of fun.​

Matt Woods Music Video

Matt Woods
"Beating Down My Door"
The Matt Woods Manifesto 2011

Director: Justin Demeere​