Uriah Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anthemofsilence

About: Anthem of Silence came to us through a friend of Ann’s. After meeting with the band several times, a style and theme was chosen. We tracked down a pretty neat looking location and we were in business to shoot.

The shoot was over the course of a single day and we brought in two actors for our ‘relationship’ segments of the shoot. Both actors were great at what they did and it was effortless to work with them. The same could be said for the band. Each time we finished setting up for another take, the band was ready to go.

I’m really excited to share the music video with all of you.

Starring: Bill Oberst Jr., Vincente DiSanti and Caitlyn Sabrio

About: Assassins came out of my desire to do a short with a larger focus on dialogue then my previous efforts. That, and I wanted to do something with some mean-spirited violence.

Starring:
Bill Oberst Jr…..Nathan
David Pesta……..Christopher Collins
Andre Tenerelli….Detective Berger/Simon Orano
Dove Benari……..Tommy Collins
Katie Molinaro…..Erin

Synopsis: Life changed for Chris that Thursday evening. The brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend has left him shaken. More than that, he is haunted by the face of a man he doesn’t know, just a stranger Chris saw walking down the street moments before he opened the door to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment. Moments before a large part of his world came crashing down.

And it is not about to get better.

Only a week later, Chris finds himself faced with yet another stranger, a man who claims to know who his ex-girlfriend’s killer is. The stranger’s name is Simon and the explanation he gives to Chris makes his blood run cold. The man who murdered his ex-girlfriend is an extremely dangerous man, a contract killer, and the fact that Chris has seen his face can only mean one thing: he will be coming back around to make sure Chris doesn’t share what he knows.

He will be coming soon to kill him.

Simon, a bounty hunter who has been tracking the mysterious killer for nearly a decade, has a plan. As he has never laid eyes on the killer, Simon will lure him out into the open so that Chris can identify him. Then he will take him down. But Simon might not be as helpful as he appears to be and Chris quickly finds himself becoming a pawn in a very deadly game of retribution between two savage men willing to do whatever it takes to see the other man dead.

Shooting dates: Assassins will be shot in August 2012.

Director/Co-Writer/Producer: Michael Bonomo
Story/Co-Writer: Dave Grant
Producer: Ann Nguyen
Exec Producer: Kyle Klein
Cinematographer: Noel Maitland
Composer: Kristen Baum
Sound Designer: Joe Iemola

Synopsis: Jeff is a struggling screenwriter. He has one successful film under his belt and a deadline breathing down his neck. As the days slip away, Jeff finds himself more and more at an impasse, staring helplessly at a due date he fears he will not meet. Out of desperation, Jeff hires a writing assistant, an enigmatic woman named Lorne, to help him overcome not only his fear of failure, but his fear of success as well. Their collaboration quickly leads to great progress, not only with the screenplay, but also with Jeff’s slowly evolving relationship with his beautiful neighbor Anabelle. But Lorne may be more than she appears to be and soon Jeff finds himself being led down a path that may end up costing him everything.

A piece of claustrophobic imagination, Muse explores what happens when the wall between fantasy and reality begins to crumble, a dark morality tale that looks at how desire for something more, something better, can sometimes cost more than you’re willing to pay.

Shooting dates: Muse will be shot in May 2012

About: This is the trailer for my completed short film, Assassins. For now, this is all you’re getting, as we cannot post the short for everyone to see online, until after it’s festival run is complete. I know, you’re all so sad.

This was the first time I’d worked with Bill Oberst Jr. (Take This Lollipop / Nude Nuns With Big Guns / Dismal) and it was a treat. The guy is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, but on camera he’s downright terrifying.

I’ll get more into what went into this film when the short itself is uploaded. For now, enjoy this little glimpse into the short and I hope it peaks your interest.

About: Girl Trailer for Unsaid

About: Boy trailer for Unsaid.

Official Selection: Silicon Valley Film Festival 2011
Official Selection: Anchorage Int’l Film Festival 2011
Short Film Finalist: Back in the Box Competition 2011
Award of Excellence: SkyFest 2011

About: Echo was an interesting idea from the start. In fact, what you’re seeing on the screen is not what was written in the first few drafts at all. The very first draft had the man killing himself to be with his wife. The second had him stopping in front of the tree that they had crashed into a year early (as was shown in the flashbacks). The third was supposed to imply that life had moved on, and so should the man, by having the actual tree cut down and him realizing everything from before was over. It was time to start anew.

The best part? What you’re seeing is something that came out of mistakes made that day. We were rushing not to get in trouble with any officers at Griffith Park and we couldn’t get what we needed to make the ending work. It fell on me, dragging my buddy Kyle, back to the park and using him as the man’s legs to imply a completely different ending, which I leave to the viewer’s discretion.

Echo was shot over a week and truly pushed me to try new things when shots didn’t work as they were supposed to, or, on the first day, when the entire SD card wiped itself and we lost the whole days shoot. That was a good time. But, we stuck with it, and here it is, for everyone to enjoy.

Most Original ‘Shortest’: Columbia Gorge Int’l Film Festival 2011

About: Unsaid was a unique short for me. It was a little story, that floated in my head, but I’d never written down. It was the first time I’d worked with my current cinematographer. And, it was the first time we’d filmed in someplace other than a friend’s house or apartment. That, and it was shot the same week of Never Again, and of the two, this was the only one I was supposed to actually be in. It brought up a new set of challenges. Namely, sleep deprivation.

Unsaid was shot over a single night, starting in the early evening, the team squeezed into my tiny apartment (at the time) and we filmed the make-up sequences where the audience sees Elizabeth’s character getting ready for the night ahead. We all then caravanned over to the Gelato Bar (which is an awesome place to get a coffee if you’re in the area) and proceded to shoot the sequence between myself and Elizabeth for almost three hours. During that time, we did no less than eight setups and shot that single moment a slew of times (of which I only used two quick medium shots and the single take from across the street). After that, it was getting late and we knew we still needed the driving shots and the shots of my character returning to the apartment. Finding ourselves in downtown LA at two in the morning, we grabbed the tunnel shot and the driving shots as fast as we could. By the time we shot the smoking sequence and the closing sequence it was around three thirty in the morning and I think only Noel was still awake at that point. We managed to wrap up before four AM.

I’d also like to say that I do not smoke, so I didn’t feel so well after that scene.

Official Selection: Canterbury Short Film Festival 2011

About: Porcelain was my first short film, my crash course of film school and where I first learned how much people actually care about filmmaking.

Porcelain was written over a dark and windy winter night back on the east coast. I was determined to write a short film that I could finally direct. It turned out that the first draft of the script was interesting enough that I was able to get a crew interested to help me simply because they were my friends and wanted to help me ‘achieve the dream’.

Like I’d said before, Porcelain was a crash course. Everything on set I was doing for the first time. We managed to grab a location from my cousin (who’s house worked rather well) and we even managed to convince my good friend to let us use her niece for the little girl who meets an untimely end.

The first day of shooting came and we did what we could. I learned a lot about preparing for a shoot that day (and how, if you don’t do it properly you’re going to waste a ton of time and money). We managed to only get through about half the script. This was a major problem, because everyone was about to get very, very busy on their own stuff.

It would be almost five months later when we shot the second half of the script. In that time, we’d switched out our female lead and I’d noticed a few major problems with the transitional scene between Kenny coming home from the accident and the first time he sees the doll in the living room. We did a rewrite to make sure that, not only did it flow properly, but that we could actually shoot it in a timely manner. That said, we managed to complete the day’s shoot early (I think) and there was a small celebration for our first short film being wrapped.

Of course, there was still a day set aside to pick up some extra shots, about a month later. Then back and forth editing with my friend. And, what had started why back in December ’09 as a small little writing assignment in an attic became a finished short film in November ’10. And, to say the least, I learned A LOT.