Music Artist: !!!
Song: “Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass”
Directed by Saman Keshavarz

One of those music videos that gets better and better as the seconds pass.

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Warm Clothes – A social experiment movie

by Jimmy on February 6, 2011

Premieres in May 2011.

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A man and his statue.  Coming in February.

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On December 22, 2010, I shot the first scene for my Bridgetower movie at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.  As it so happened, the first scene would be the most difficult.  At least, I hope.  The first scene was the all-important concert where Beethoven and Bridgetower perform their memorable  “Mullato Sonata composed for the mulatto Bridgetower, big wild mulatto composer,” whose title was later changed to something totally different after the musicians’ brief feud.

Director Jimmy Nguyen with his actors, who rarely have time to study their scripts because it was sent to them the day of the shoot.

Needless to say, the scene needed to be special.  The chapel room had to be decorated to be intimate and quirky.  The room had to be filled with distinguished extras.  The actors had to deliver their lines with great showmanship. Naturally, the music would take care of itself with such great musicians casted as the actors.  As always, all the actors, extras, set decorators, and video camera/sound operators were volunteers and my budget to decorate the concert hall was an arbitrary, but whopping $50.  And as always, I am eternally grateful to everyone that helped me out with this movie shoot.  David, Lenah, Dana, Lalita, Mrs. Johnson, Raycurt, Kevin, Matt, Alicia, Adam, and all the extras, thank you.

My friend Dana doubled as set designer, extra, and understudy just in case the main actress didn't show up. It takes an entire village to raise a movie!

After all was said and done, it was a stressful, but instructional event at least from a moviemaking standpoint.  I learned a big lesson.  The lesson is always, always storyboard.  Apparently, Ang Lee hardly storyboards any of the scenes in his movies not even for highly choreographed movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. However, he is a master.  I am not.   [click to continue…]

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Happy New Year from Jimbob Movies

by Jimmy on December 31, 2010

2010 was a good year for Jimbob Movies.  We made movies.  We made music.  We made people laugh, wonder, and turn away in disgust – numerous times!  In 2010, we went through 66 mini-dv tapes.  At 60 minutes per tape that equals about 66 hours of shooting plus many more hours of footage captured on my hard drive video camera.  In the past year and half, we made 24 movies and videos.  Naturally, we couldn’t have done it without all the great volunteers, unpaid actors and actresses, and musicians who gave their time and energy to make 100% authentic movies.  The last shout out is to the people who keep watching these movies and who keep critiquing my work and who keep encouraging me to produce more.  2011 is going to be even greater.

I wanted to write this blog post so that I could look back and see all that we’ve accomplished in the past 18 months and to keep my overactive thyroid a little less active.  Sometimes I can’t sleep because I feel like there is something I should be doing or learning about movie-making.  I should be writing more.  I should be working harder.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and worry that I’ll never make another movie again. What if I don’t have any more ideas.  Well, I decided to make a list of the 24 movies and videos that I made in the past 18 months so that I could rest a little bit easier at night knowing that I should be happy with what I’ve done thus far.

In alphabetical order:

  1. A Christmas Encounter (short movie) – 4 min. 20 sec.
  2. Busking D.C. documentary trailer (trailer) – 10 min. 04 sec.
  3. Cherry Blossom Serenade with Raycurt Johnson (music video) – 3 min. 42 sec.
  4. Ending Childhood Hunger (short video) – 4 min. 15 sec.
  5. Fighting Obesity (short video) – 5 min. 53 sec.
  6. FNS Got Talent (music video) – 10 min. 51 sec.
  7. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program – Goals and Benefits (short video) – 4 min. 47 sec.
  8. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program – Outreach (short video) – 3 min. 27 sec.
  9. Island Dog Robber (short movie) – 17 min. 23 sec.
  10. Lawrence and Raquel Wedding (wedding video) – 35 min. 26 sec.
  11. Log Warriors (feature length movie) – 41 min. 42 sec.
  12. Log Warriors trailer (trailer) – 3 min. 31 sec.
  13. Morning Milk (short movie) – 3 min. 55 sec.
  14. Olfactory Thriller (short movie) – 14 min. 51 sec.
  15. My First Day at Work (short movie) – 7 min. 26 sec.
  16. Play 60 with First Lady Michelle Obama (short video) – 3 min. 08 sec.
  17. Ron Vogel – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (retirement video/documentary) – 48 min. 09 sec.
  18. Set It Off (dance video) – 2 min. 25 sec.
  19. St. Tammany – HealthierUS School Challenge (short video) – 4 min. 44 sec.
  20. Steadycam Tutorial (instructional video) – 8 min. 20 sec.
  21. Stephen King Freestyles (music video) – 5 min. 09 sec.
  22. Taste of Culture (documentary) – 30 min. 37 sec.
  23. Zaza Slider (short video) – 3 min. 09 sec.
  24. What Happens Behind Closed Doors at FNS (7 video acts) – 35 min. 32 sec.

So I didn’t quite do 12 movies for every month in 2010, but I was very busy nonetheless.  See you in 2011 for some new movies and videos.  Let’s push the envelope…over a cliff…then base jump off of the clip, find the envelope at the bottom of the canyon, and then push it some more.

Director Jimmy Nguyen and star Andrew Lind team up to bring you the most thrilling Israeli Spy Movie ever in 2011. Picture from Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel

Julia Harris at the Bahai Gardens in Israel

Julia Harris gives a power-packed performance in the most thrilling Israeli spy movie of 2011. After this movie, people will be wondering, "Angelina Jolie, who?"

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