This post contains some majorly-widescreen videos, so if you’re viewing this post on the homepage, I suggest clicking the article title to view things properly. Not mandatory, but better-looking for you!

I’ve been letting the blog languish quite a bit, unfortunately. Without something new and exciting like a trip across a major ocean, I just don’t seem to have the energy to write the lengthy blog entries that people came to expect from me. I’ll be going camping for a 5 day weekend at the end of the month, right before Halloween. I’ll be rejoining my old friends from Jordan who have all since returned stateside, like me, for a little bit of Appalachian mountain hiking and camping.

A little bit of fun that my friends and I have been having over the past couple months are Lords of the Trident music videos. My friend Ty is the lead singer of this amazing metal band, and not only does he sing like a guttural, insane, metaltastic songbird, he also does most of his own mixing, artwork, back-story writing, and now – music videos.

Here’s the first one that he did – his most recent album’s title song, “Chains on Fire.” Both my brother Josh and I are in it – him you can recognize with the axe and venomous look on his face during the crowd shots. You can’t recognize me because I’m wearing a robe and death’s head mask.

Today’s shooting, however, is for “Face of the Enemy,” and is going for a more story-based video instead of melt-your-face rocking like “Chains on Fire.” We spent three hours rolling about on the concrete getting some great shots (and “shot” at), with Ty acting as our director. Making an action video is so much easier in the 21st century for a bunch of young folks – you don’t need blanks, fake blood, or questionably legal explosive compounds – just a high definition camera and Adobe After Effects (please note in the previous video: Ty did not actually light a stone building on fire, or disintegrate those people (including Christine, one of the poor vaporized victims)).

It took 3 takes of me pulling off my shades and sprinting towards Bookman, our hero in the khaki trenchcoat. I destroyed my black shades on the first take when they hit the ground, then Ty gave me his to use, which I promptly scuffed against the concrete on the second take. Two casualties in less than five minutes! Some soldiers never go home…

So, enjoy the first rough cut! And of course, I’ll be posting the final as soon as Ty completes it. He tends to work himself to the bone on these videos, so I expect we’ll see the entire thing shot, edited, and with special effects within 3 days. Just kidding, Ty. 😉