(Life)Style - Grey/Purple Gingham and Chambray

Heading out for a night on the town in Park City, Utah tonight.

Black Shawl Collar Cardigan by Gap, Grey/Purple Gingham Shirt by Calibrate, Chambray Tie by Aldo.
Not Pictured: Jeans - Levi's 511, Grey Suede Bucks by Land's End.

I am Downtown - Grand Prize Winners!

I am Downtown 2.0 - Grand Prize Winner 2013 from Connor Rickman on Vimeo.

WE DID IT!

Thanks to everyone who liked our video on YouTube and some fantastic judges, Ex Machina's submission for the SLC Downtown Alliance's "I am Downtown" video contest has won the $5000 grand prize!

We are absolutely ecstatic about this. We could further explain our feelings on the matter but ABC 4 News interviewed us and you can see exactly what our reactions were. Check it out below.

As it was mentioned in the video, the money will be used as seed money for Ex Machina Films. We're now one step closer to a legitimate business! LLC status, here we come.

2 in a row! - SLC 48hfp Winners!

Al Kessler Centennial Squadron has done it again! Thanks to some amazing teammates from the past year and a few new additions, we took home the 2013 Salt Lake City 48-Hour Film Project Grand Prize for "Best Film!"

Check out the film below!

Outlaws - Best Film: Salt Lake City 48hfp 2013 from Connor Rickman on Vimeo.

We sent a skeleton crew out to Torrey UT the night before the competition began to film the redrock scenes and kept the main unit here in SLC to film everything else. We even had some helicopter footage, although it never made it in because it looked like crap.

The film will go on to compete against all the other city winners at "Filmapalooza" the 48-Hour Film Project international competition. The top 10 films from this festival will screen at the Cannes Short Film Corner!

This year "Filmapalooza" is taking place in New Orleans. I've never been, but I'm sure it's going to be absolutely amazing! Be prepared to hear about that in a later post. In the meantime, check out some behind the scenes pictures. Especially the ones with Colin McDermott and I in some rad suits!

Ex Machina - Website Now Live!

It's been more than a year in the making but as of today my film production company Ex Machina Films has a website.

Thanks to the members: Michael Burnet, Jamie Greenland and Nicholas Dunn.

Special thanks to webmaster Gordon Dunn and graphic artist Jake Dickey for all time they donated into making this site.

Funeral Detail Screening - May 4th, 7pm at the Post Theater

You may have remembered my previous post about shooting a film called "Outprocessing" back in November. Since then, the film has been cut, colored, mixed, re-cut, re-dramaed, re-comedied and re-built into its final form. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you..."Funeral Detail."

Since the last time I wrote about this film, Dustin has employed Taylor Glenn, a long-time collaborator of mine, as the editor and entrusted the film's score to Christopher Doucet. 

To see this sure-to-be masterpiece, come down to the Post Theater on the University of Utah campus this Saturday May 4th at 7pm. Tickets are free! They couldn't be freer!

Read my previous post about making this film to hear some insight of the production process and to hear a bit about what the film is about.

I will say now, however, that working with this particular group of people has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Dustin's dedication to this project was contagious and right after the first read-through we had all caught on to his vision. It's truly an honor to be allowed to share something so personal with another artist and help bring his vision to life.

Dustin graduates from the University of Utah's MFA filmmaking program the day before the screening. After that, he's spending the summer in Turkey and Taiwan to begin the next chapter of his life. Please join me in celebrating what's next for Dustin as he says goodbye to Utah.

"Tonight" - Cover by Kyle Khou and Kandyce Marie

Last week, I headed over to Audio West in Provo UT for an in-studio music video with local vocalists Kyle Khou and Kandyce Marie. Here is what we created...



This is my second video working with Kyle who is an amazing artist and just released his first music video. (Now if we can just get him to hire me for the next one!)

This song hasn't even hit top-40 yet, but I expect we'll see it way up on the charts soon. Kyle and Kandyce's version, however, is an improvement on the original!

Become a fan, follow on Twitter and get all the updates on Kyle and Kandyce's respective websites.

AMUSIUM - Favorite Game [Official Video] Released!

Russell Huiskamp, better known by his stage name AMUSIUM, and I collaborated on a new music video for his upcoming EP "Favorite Game." (Available 04/24)



I believe this song is perfect for people like me that grew up during the "PlayStation Generation." As children of the modern world, we've all dealt with the emotions, both good and bad, inspired by video games. Just as the generation before discovered with television, and the next generation has with social media, we have discovered the possibility of escapism within every new cartridge or disc. "Playing the pain away" is something that we've all done, be it amongst friends or alone.

Without a doubt, this was the easiest video project I've ever put together. Russell and I continually discussed the phenomenon of how the pieces seemed to fall together. Everything from the Laundromat location, to the rental of the dolly and track went so smoothly, we almost couldn't believe it.

Therefore, to say that anybody "made" this video seems like an overstatement. It's almost as if the pieces of the video were simply waiting to be guided into place, which is strange because both mine and Russell's respective concepts were quite nebulous at the start.

The way in which the video was made was quite a departure from any of my other projects. The Laundromat, Hair Stylist and Tollbooth locations were all filmed first. Russell and I then put together a rough sketch of the final video in Adobe Premiere during lunch. We used different colored solids to represent the different locations and used an additional colored solid to represent video game footage that we would capture later.

With this rough outline in mind, we captured footage from StarFox 64 by pointing the camera at Russell's parent's HDTV and using a Mac-based emulator to play it while upscaling it to fit the HDTV. The StarFox footage was then dropped into the timeline of our rough outline along with several pre-selected clips we wanted projected on the wall. This was then exported to be fed to the projector in our final location.

Using various dolly speeds, we then filmed several angles  of Russell singing the song and a few special insert shots as well. Therefore, the video you see, is really two videos. One being projected on the wall within the other.

I have so much more I could say about this song, the video, and the process of making it but I'll simply leave you with one closing remark.

It's often said that "the best things in life are free" and while I agree with that sentiment I must now also believe that the best things in life are easy. When something is meant to happen, it will.

Late Night Alumni, Live from the Great Hall

Finally, here it is. After more than a year since production, all 6 parts of Late Night Alumni: Live from the Great Hall have been released!

This marks Ex Machina Films' first professional credit and we hope it'll be the first of many.

Watch all 6 parts below. Also stay tuned for a big announcement from Ex Machina in the coming weeks.

Late Night Alumni - Shine (official video) Released!

The first of the Late Night Alumni live concert videos has been released through the official LNA website. Take a look below to see some great camera work from my team at Ex Machina Films: Nick Dunn, Matt Whittaker and Chris Bradshaw.

Keep an eye out for light streaks as those were all shot with my camera. Also, check out the focus pull at 3:48. I love that!

Return to Encore

You may remember my first timelapse from about two years ago entitled "Encore." Well, just recently on my way to Los Angeles I stopped in Vegas and shot this little piece.

Return to Encore from Connor Rickman on Vimeo.

Every shot is from the Panasonic GH2 with the Minolta 50mm Rokkor-PG lens. There is however, one exception. Can you find it?

Right before shooting I enabled the 44mbps hack to clean up the noise that would inevitably come with the black sky. I must say, I'm particularly pleased with the results. The Vimeo compression just doesn't do it justice, the image is clean and nearly artifact free! The GH2 is really in its element in a neon environment.

I'm not quite sure what the video "means" but it sure is pretty. Enjoy.