Subterranean Homesick Alien

This is a layout project for my 344m class, inspired by early morning drives, The Iron Giant, and Radiohead.

I took these pictures with the iPhone camera back in September, 2008.

Unboxing 2009

Welcome to the year 2009. Sometimes I think a new year (or a new semester) is like a package waiting to be opened. I've been waiting for this one, and I'm excited about it's contents, but I'm not too sure how everything will play out.

I guess this is going to be one of the more important years of my life. By the time it is over, I should have finished taking every academic class I'll ever take, gotten a diploma, biked 4500 miles to Alaska, and more!

For now though, I'm returning to this fun joelisfar (short for Joel Isaac Farris) blog because of RTF 344m: Visual Effects and Motion Graphics. So far it has been my HS Projects Reel, my misc. / haircut videos reel, and I've even posted two projects I've created at UT. BUT NOW, in 344m, I must use this blog to post and submit each of my assignments, each week.

So here we go, the box has arrived, consider this the kickoff, the toast.

Cheers 2009.

A Few Steps

(or check it out in HD on Vimeo)

This is a stop-motion project I made that promotes the Texas 4000. Project features over 2000 photos, shot by my friend Daniel Manley.

Please visit my rider profile at texas4000.org/user/profile/10223 and visit texas4000.org/give/donate to donate. Any amount will help us make the ride, and fund cancer research.

Special thanks to The Album Leaf for permission to use their song "Micro Melodies".

Another Final Cut

Click to Play

Only 17 months later, the Groomer becomes the Groomee!

Ludwig

Click to Play

RTF Project #2 for the semester. We had to use 12-15 still photos and 2-5 minutes of sound to tell a story. This one goes out to anyone who has ever worked around pianos, in particular, my dad, Jeff Farris.

Laustin Found - Soup and Stevie

Watch the video (4m17s)

This is an episode from the second season of Laustin Found where we went to Auditorium Shores to see Stevie Ray Vaughn and then to Austin Java Co.

Front Row Intro

Watch the video (1m)

This is the intro I made for the sketch comedy show we had at CCN in high school. We shot it in a day - edited it in a week. Enjoy.

The Edge - Fashion

Watch the video (7m)

The Edge is a pop culture show that I edited/produced my junior year of high school. It stars two of my crazy friends, Jason Morris and Eduardo Ramirez.

Last Minute

Watch the film (4m28s)

Here's the last short film I made in high school. It isn't great but it has its moments. It was a blast to make with my friends - probably under 12 hours of shooting and editied in a week.

New Orleans [2006]

Watch the video (42m13s)

Each summer, Woodlawn Baptist Church takes three trips to New Orleans. There we stay at the Rachel Sims Baptist Mission Center. We spend a week working there with the children of the area: The Irish Channel, inner-city New Orleans. My job this summer was to document that. So here it is, my view of the whole trip.

Final Cut

Watch the video (1m27s)

Gordon could not focus on the essay he was writing after he randomly thought to shave his head. He wouldn't let me read my book until I cut his hair. I think that this is some of my best work yet. And I don't mean the video.

Tribute

Tribute

Watch the video (1m36s)

James Martinez was the computer maintenence man for CCN this last year. A few weeks ago I was informed that he had been taken away from us. Silly high school computer nerds and their risky hacking competitions...

After I heard of his departure my heart filled passion. This is my mourning video.

James is ok though, and I'm pleased to announce that he's now living hapily in Cambodia under the witness protection program.

New Orleans [2005] Intro-Highlights

New Orleans [2005] Intro-Highlights

Watch the video (3m3s)

Each summer, my church takes three mission trips to New Orleans. Last year I was appointed to be the video producer for the trips. After my completion of the video, it was screened to the church and released on DVD for each team member and for future promotional activities.

This is the first few minutes of the video.

Davy Nominations: Best Editing

Davy Nominations: Best Editing

Watch the clip (36s)

Each year at Crockett, CCN hosted an Oscar-style award ceremony that we called The Davy Awards. I was in charge of the nomination videos. This is one of the 16 categories.

The Applican't

The Applican't

Watch the film (5m)

This is a short film I made in the film class at David Crockett High School. It was a last minute short that expressed my trivial frustrations with the college application process.

The official synopsis:
When a boy is faced with the deadline of writing an unusual college application essay, he conceives a utopian ideal that speaks louder than the standard drivel he has been forced to write.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by joelisfar with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

Swing

Swing

Watch the video

This was the first video I ever made. Ever.

I'd like to think it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I was using my digital camera that I bought for $20 at CompUSA. It could take very nice pictures with a resolution of 352X288. It could also take video for two seconds (10fps) at that res. or 8 seconds (10fps) at 176X144. Those are the settings I chose to use for this piece. Sometimes under this sort of gravitational pull the camera would kinda bleed all the colors into a purple distorted image, and I could've had my guys in hollywood clean it up, but I think it shows the native natural beauty of low res. digital photography.

Enjoy.

For the Record,

When I think about William Shakespeare, I think:
"He's an A+ number one writer dude"