This is a time-lapse from LA to the Nevada State line played in reverse. I wanted to get the entire time-lapse from LA to Vegas but the battery died on my GoPro Helmet Cam before we made it there. A friend and I were driving out there for CES so we left around 5:00 in the morning which allowed me the rare opportunity to see the sun rise. Please play full frame!

5387 frames: 1 shot taken every 2 seconds

Music: “Night Drive” by Chromatics

A while back, I submitted a tv show treatment to my boss and the girl in charge of development at my work. The basic concept stemmed from an email conversation I had with my friend Casey about an article I found online that was about Ashrita Furman, the man who holds the world record for most world records. I showed Casey an image of Ashrita in a heated sack race against a yak and Casey responded with his disapproval and overall distaste towards this man and his feats.

Casey has never been known to hold back his opinion, and after seeing the pictures of Ashrita competing for his titles, he basically called Ashrita out and said that he could demolish any of his records. Knowing what a stubborn competitor Casey is, I thought it would be a fun and hilarious show to watch Casey attempt (and fail) at breaking as many of Ashrita’s 100+ records.

After a short while, my boss and producer told me that their agent requested a quick and simple homemade video reel of Casey to see how he was on camera. So rather than shoot a basic video on an iPhone, I decided to toss together an impromptu demo reel for Casey. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to beat any records, let alone come close to breaking any records. Here is the video that made. There is probably around an hour or so of unused footage of Casey acting the fool, that if I ever find enough time and motivation, I might toss online.

Smile, You're On Camera

Today at work, I was killing time during a render, when I stumbled across a great use for the Back To My Mac function of MobileMe. Essentially it is a feature that allows you to remotely connect to your Mac over the internet and see your files as if they were attached to your local computer as an external drive, or see your screen and control your computer from within a window. It works great when it works, but there have been several times where it won’t work due to incompatible routers or networks. I’ve actually read a few stories online about how people have recovered stolen MacBooks and MacBook Pros by watching the thief log into various sites and then reporting it to the authority. But that’s all besides the point of this post.

Since I knew that my roommate Jesse was home because I had just spoken to him on IM, I decided to play a little joke. I launched MobileMe’s screen sharing option and opened up iMovie and launched the capture window and set it to record from my built-in iSight camera. Once I had that set, I opened up my iTunes library and picked a song that would be funny when played at a high volume. The theme song to Family Matters seemed like it fit the bill. (Don’t ask why I have that song). Next, I launched Text Edit and typed a quick message to Jesse. I wanted to make sure it was large enough and obvious enough for him to see when he walked in so he knew it was a joke, and not my computer malfunctioning. The final step was turning my volume all the way up on both iTunes and my computer and pressing record on iMovie and play on iTunes.

In hind sight it would have been more funny if I could have figured out a way to hide the capture window and then just kept doing this over and over again until Jesse figured out what was going on.

The image at the top of this post is a screen capture of the whole set up, and if you watch the video, you can actually hear the screen caps firing off. I was quite pleased with the over all performance of Back To My Mac. I am sure I used it for the opposite purpose of what they had intended when adding this feature to MobileMe, but there’s nothing wrong with stumbling onto an accidental feature. They should turn this into a selling point. Anyhow, here is the video. Enjoy.

I have been sitting on my URL of derekdoi.com for quite some time now. For the past 5 years or so, it has just been cloning whatever was on goodbyemailbox but I figured it was about time to use it as a portfolio site. If you follow the link, you will find stuff I have worked on, old and new, videos and photos, and maybe some random graphics from time to time.

Photography, Motion & Design | The Creative Portfolio of Derek Doi

If you haven’t been going to Eric Koziatek’s Comedy Collision show in Santa Monica every 1st Friday of the month, then you might have missed the greatest time traveling movie since Back to the Future III. We wrote this pretty much on the fly and shot it in about an hour. Jesse was a good sport and by channeling his high school acting coach he was able to turn in the performance of a lifetime. There has been talk of turning this into a trilogy, just like any other good intellectual piece, but for now, you will have to just keep hitting replay at the end of the video. Enjoy.

The incredibly bizarre and hilarious short film “Darling Darling” by Matthew Lessner is now available for downloading from the iTunes Store. I went to school with Matt and was lucky enough to view this movie several times both at school and at film festivals and it never gets old. Like a fine cougar, it only gets more sex-thirsty with age. What?

It stars Michael Cera from Arrested Development and the upcoming movie Superbad. If you are a fan of this actor, or just a fan of laughing, do yourself a favor and download this movie. It’s less than what you would throw at a dirty pole dancer, and it’s ten times* less likely to give you a disease that will make your wiener turn green.

Here is a link to the short film on iTunes (it will launch iTunes).

*Actual odds may vary

Tags: Matthew Lessner, Darling Darling, iTunes, iTunes Store, Michael Cera, Arrested Development, Superbad