Occupy Wall Street

Nick and I went to Zuccotti Park and took some photos and video.

Jessica Little Portfolio Reel

Hippo shot a reel for Jess Little. If anyone knows someone that needs a reel (acting, modeling, performance, head shots) let me know.

Florida

I went to Florida a few weeks ago to visit some relatives. Dan and I shot some stuff in the hotel. We also went on a fan-boat ride and saw crocodiles. People kept saying those crocs had to be robots or puppets...but I've never heard a robot or puppet sing like that.

Amazing New Stuff

Well blogger, it's been a while. All of you are probably thinking, "Steve is so talented and amazing...I'll bet the only reason he hasn't updated his blog is because he's risen to the top tier of society and is far too busy for the likes of us." And by "all of you" I mean "none of you." And by "none of you" I mean "probably nobody will read this."

Banking on that, here are some things I have been doing and some things I am planning to do:

First off, I am moving to Prospect Heights on the 1st. So...that's exciting.

Here is a video Dan, Mike and I made for Landline. DISCLAIMER: Naked ass involved.



Lastly, I recently had to sit in the New Rochelle city court to deal with a traffic ticket. It didn't get resolved. I don't think anyone has a pleasant experience in places like that. There were a lot of babies crying and people yelling in Spanish. Anywho, I've been messing around with flash and thought it might be fun to animate the experience...with minimal moving parts. Here's something I did in 2 minutes:



Click it, he blinks! The character wouldn't necessarily look like that. It's just a quick doodle. Also, I've been doing a lot of freelance stuff...just figured out the whole moving situation. Now you're all up to speed. All of you. Everyone in the world.

Sometimes I Don't Know: Scenes 1-4

Howdy

A while ago I posted storyboards for my senior thesis film. Here are some of those scenes:



On a side note, I want to take some long exposure shots of my neighborhood. I'm not exactly sure why, other than I dig what this area looks like at night. I took a test photo at around 1am. I wasn't really concerned with the framing, I just wanted to see what it would look like. I will post others as I take them.

Bieberfarts

New amazing product from Captain Hippo.

Monreal: 320 Kickstarter

My friend Dan Ferrara wrote a short script that we are trying to shoot. We started a kickstarter for the project in hopes of raising money to rent equipment and all of that.

Click the image below to watch our pitch. Feel free to donate ridiculously large sums of money.



We also started a blog for it so that everyone can get updates on the project, see stills, etc. Fun stuff.

Montreal: 320 Blog

Hope you are all doing well. I'm fine...I'm great. Things are great. Yikes.

Max Asleep

My dog Max fell asleep in an awkward position, so I took pictures of him like a creep to post on my creepy blog for creeps. Enjoy.










































Someone's asking for a tummy-rub, and his name is this dog. Gosh, I'm lonely.

Ned On Earth

The couple hurried into pose as a local rancher snapped their photo. Ned never wanted to forget this day. That night, Ned and Cheryl became one. The next morning he was hit by a bus.



















Above: Ned and his wife on their honeymoon. Proving true love knows no bounds.

Cards I Have Drawn

I always draw cards for birthdays and holidays for some reason:










My parents won't accept a store bought card because they like the hand drawn ones. Jokes on them because the drawn ones are becoming more and more terrible. What do you think now, Mom? What do you think of your wonderful son now?

Anyway, I found a handful of them and decided to post them. I don't know the years of these, but none of them are that recent. I guess the simpler/ better drawn ones came later than the others...you get the idea. I posted them in no logical order. The cover images are on the left and the inside images are on the right. One of them is written as my dog Max. One is written to my grandpa, who lives in Florida. I'm not exactly sure why I have it here. Enjoy.

Writing

I had left a friend's house early one morning to discover that the house across the street had been torn down. Two yellow excavators creaked in the dirt as their metal shrank in the cold. I could have sworn that house was there the day before. It couldn't have happened during the night. That seemed too quick and strange a time to break down something so large and so personal. And I probably would have heard it happening.

It was after that thought when a sharp pain ran up my spine. After a stretch, I started shuffling down the street towards my car. I wanted to see how long I could last without hearing someone speak.

Power_Love-ASTRO CLUB BLONDE

My pals have created the future of music. Find more at www.millenniumblonde.com.

Captain Hippo-American Singer

New Captain Hippo Sketch. Enjoy.

Harry Potter Comic

I don't really know why I drew a Harry Potter cartoon. It doesn't even really look like Harry or Malfoy, but yeah...you get the idea. I always felt, while reading the books, that if Harry got unreasonably aggressive and just started screaming obscenities at Malfoy from year one, not only would Draco have backed off, but Harry would have looked like a total bad ass. I settled on drawing this after I couldn't think of a logical, narrative reason why Harry or any other character would be pooping their pants. Maybe I'll draw that anyway. Yeah...maybe.

Lady GaGa Sketch on Fox News

Here is a list of mostly everyone that was involved:

Featuring: Justin Brown, Talyor Sele, Andrew Ford, Rachel Geiman, and Grace Helbig. Written and directed by Steven Levine, Daniel Spenser, and Michael Antonucci. Lyrics sung by Whitney Gardner. Costume design by Elaine Haswell. Make up by Emilia Adamkiewicz. Shot by Noah Yuan-Vogel.

And here's Bill O'Reilly calling it "pinheady:"

Lady GaGa Shoot

I know I haven't posted in a while...but it's Christmas early with this new amazing post! I shot a short script with Captain Hippo a few days ago about a Lady GaGa Christmas album. It was my first time on set with the Canon 7D, which belonged to our DP, Noah Yuan-Vogel.









And here's a picture of me pretending to know what I'm doing:







They were lip-syncing to pre-recorded music so I got to say, "Roll camera...roll playback," like a bad ass.

Anyway, yeah. It was the first thing I've directed that involved original music, wardrobe and make-up changes and choreography. And it was weird seeing so many people work so hard on a script that was written by Dan, Mike and I while we were eating burritos. It was a lot of fun and hopefully it will come out alright. That's what she said.

Sometimes I Don't Know Storyboards

I thought it might be interesting to compare the storyboards for my senior thesis film to the finished image. The storyboards were drawn weeks before shooting. I think we did a good job of sticking to them.

Here are comparisons of Scenes 1-3 and Scene 6












I'm going to try to post the final cuts of these scenes sometime next week. I still have some sound and color work to do on them.

Inaction In Action

Howdy.

I told a friend that I would try to write an entry after two drinks. I then realized two-drink Steve probably wouldn't write anything...he'd just stare longingly at a wall and make everyone uncomfortable.

However, I feel two or three days without sleep yields similar head-space. So maybe after I write and edit down some thoughts I will post them. Maybe.

I've also been trying to write a few short stories. It is taking a while. None of them have a point. Does that mean something? Exercises in worthlessness.

Anywho, just a heads-up on that.

This whole island smells like fast food. Sometimes I want to move to Vermont. I could be that interesting recluse who may or may not have been famous. They'd publish my journal someday after I died. Lit majors would swap interesting facts about me: "I read that he never ate solids, he only drank tea." "I heard he would train his cats to act out his plays. I love him." That'd be something.

Personal question of the week: Why do I create dialogue for moments I know will never happen?

Favorite pick up line of the week: Do you like ant-farms?

Director of Photography Reel

Director of Photography Reel from Steven Levine on Vimeo.

Kicking off my October posts with my cinematography reel. I didn't include anything from films I have directed. That's a different reel that will hopefully be finished soon. In this reel are selects from a few films I shot last year, including:

Mickey dir. Daniel Ferrara
East Brighton dir. Anna Todd
Porcelain dir. Emily Wilson
Trust Me dir. Roberto Rizzo

There are also a few clips from various Captain Hippo comedy sketches. Hope you enjoy.

Bear Mountain

I went to Bear Mountain today to kick off the Fall season. I took some pictures from the top. In the last one you can see Manhattan in the distance. Fun stuff.