Paper Route - A Night in Review

In honor of all of the year-end retrospectives floating around, I thought that I would share a few images I made in New York this fall.

I was in town for a few meetings and happened to overlap with the Paper Route guys. They were playing a show at Webster Hall and I managed to make it over to hang out for the evening. It was great to catch up with the guys and hang out a bit in such a great city.

So, you might ask, why post this now? The Paper Route guys have been on two (!) tours since then, I have (still) five open, ongoing projects right now… We have all moved on. Well, the simple answer is that, as we all move into 2010 and start making our lists and plans, writing down our goals and posting about all the “exciting things coming this year,” I realized that I only have one (professional) goal. Only one thing on a list: To work even harder in 2010 than I did in 2009. I want to push farther, to be more creative, to be less fearful of progress. I can spend quite a bit of time pulling back those layers, but the simple truth is that all of my other “micro” goals stem from just this one. To work even harder this year than last. Part of doing that is being surrounded by friends and colleagues who embody this spirit. I am thankful to have these kinds of friends and colleagues in my every day life, in my inner and acquaintance circles. I am even thankful to have these kinds of friends and colleagues in my “only see each other a couple of times a year” circles. For me, that was what that one night in New York was…a reminder that these guys, some of my friends/colleagues who I only occasionally see, believe this as well.  And not just believe it, but put it into practice. I know, but know that they are going to work harder this upcoming year than last and I am encouraged to do the same. So here’s to working hard in 2010, right?

So, all that to say, the images and and short piece are less important than the reminder that it provides. Either way, here are a few images from one night that looked light a lot of nights for these guys.

Take a look:

Paper Route - A Night in Review from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

Here are a few of the still images:

Best wishes as we all transition into 2010. I hope that we cross paths and can encourage each other to keep at it…

Thoughts? Comments? Send me an email: ryanwrites[at]gmail[dot]com or just click here.

Max’s Postcards

I have been a big fan of Max Richter’s work for a while now and earlier this year, picked up his “24 Postcards in Full Color.”  The music is fantastic.  It has been on heavy rotation for me and in fact, this is a collection of short pieces that were intended for use as ringtones. I’ll just let him explain it himself:

Now I am not sure if you caught this specific line, but he says, “I’d expect people to find other ways to use the tracks…” Now, I know that I have mentioned before that one of the ways that I differentiate between good music and really great music is whether or not images play in my head while I listen… If I can see something while I am listening to a song, well, then, for me, it is destined to be a classic. Needless to say, I see entire short films play when I listen to Max Richter records.  (Which is probably why he scores films as well).

Well this “…find other ways to use the tracks…” phrase really got me thinking. Why not make a short film to accompany each of the 24 tracks? Kind of like a little visual companion piece. It will be a great way to practice, to shoot a little, to self-impose some deadlines, and to make a little art in the process.

So, that is the plan.  Make a piece to accompany each of the 24 “postcards.” I’ll cut the video so as to use the entire audio track, as is. Some might be abstract, some might be short scenes…whatever the song inspires. I will release roughly one per week. (Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on my work load).  Keep me honest.

Now, I am not making any money from this and hopefully a couple of you are inspired to purchase a record of his. Either way, you can check out Max’s site here or just go to iTunes.

So, here we go. First postcard for the first song. (see below)

Postcard Number One

Postcard One from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

Remember, you can check out Max’s site here or just go toiTunes.

Feel free to email your comments to ryanwrites[at]gmail[dot]com or just click here.

The “Serial Box”

Over the past couple of years, I have been meeting with a handful of guys nearly every thursday morning for breakfast.  We are all more or less involved in some aspect of media production and, not that infrequently, have each expressed a desire to have some kind of collective studio/production/work space… Well, last week, we finally made that happen. We kind of stumbled onto this great little space right in the middle of downtown, across from Minute Maid Park. We are really excited to see what kind of projects we can accomplish now that we are all able to have some dedicated production space and more importantly, now that we are able to all work in the same room…we are going to call it the Serial Box.

We will definitely be renting the space out from time to time (in fact, in the last week and a half since we moved in, it has been rented for video productions three times and twice for photo shoots). We definitely want the space to be a hub for some great media production and want other photographers and video producers to feel at home. We are pretty committed to the “I-don’t-really-have-full-budget-for-a-huge-studio-but-I-could-use-some-space” crowd. Because honestly, that is what we are using it for…

We already have a few music projects in the works that I’m excited to share (soon) and will have a full site with images and video and details shortly. Be looking for an invite to some kind of kick-off event/party.

All that to say, in the last 10 days, there have been probably 50-75 people in and out of the space and it hit me, near the end of one of the big video productions, that I should be doing Street|Portraits inside…I should make an image of every single person that comes through that door. Because, really, Street|Portraits is about exploring “place”…so if I set up at a random street corner or front porch or, in this case, a studio, it is all just a variation of the same question, “who will we find?” Of course, this was the tail-end of a bunch of people in and out, but hey, better late than never. Thus a small project was born. Let’s call it: StreetPortraits - SerialBox Edition.  Why not.

So, here are a few images of some of the folks working in/passing through the newly minted, yet to be fully built out, SerialBox.

And a few behind-the-scenes photos made during the rentals:

What do you think? Send me an email at ryanwrites[at]gmail[dot]com or just click here.