Houdini, the magical music video for indie rock troubadour Jim Camacho won bronze at the 27th Annual Telly Awards in the Music Video catagory!

It’s an exciting accolade for those of us who worked on the video, a crew made up of:

Steven Fischer, Director
Craig Herron, Visual Effects Animator
Joe O’Ferrell, Director of Photography
Pipo Bonamino, Editor
Ryan Foster, Key Grip
Johnny Sullivan, Hair Effects
Anastacia Anderson, Actress
Thea Maichle and Gregg Landry at BlueRock Productions LLC

My sincere thanks go to the crew for making Houdini what it is: a highly imaginative and effects-heavy work of art.

Joe O’Ferrell is a busy director/shooter based in Bel Air, Maryland. (Click on his name to visit his web site and read about his feature: Franky’s Heaven which had an impressive premiere at the Senator Theater.) Joe’s camera and grip package (which included a dolly with curve track) gave the video its high quality look. He also brought Ryan “Hippie” Foster, a fellow I’d not met before, but who proved easy to work with, knowledgeable, friendly, and dedicated to his projects.

NOTE – On March 23, a new movie Joe shot, Holler Creek Canyon, about a group of friends embarking on a camping adventure to an idyllic location in the mountains only to fall prey to a horrific attacker, premieres at Gardel’s Supper Club in Baltimore, Maryland!

Craig Herron’s highly competitive animation and composite work (we shot green screen) gave the video it’s wonderfully creepy aesthetics that contributed so much to the emotion of the piece.

Anastacia Anderson’s wonderful ability to be wickedly beautiful on screen brought the perfect quality to the story’s antagonist. Check out her page on My Space: http://www.myspace.com/AnastaciaAnderson

Thanks to Johnny Sullivan we were able to give the convincing illusion that Jim was hanging upside down. Johnny came all the way from West Virginia to deliver a can of Ice Spiker Blast … a powerful concoction of hair spray and glue which allowed him to spike Jim’s very long hair about a foot off his head. (We then shot Jim standing upright and when Craig flipped the image, Jim looked as though he was helplessly suspended upside down.) Johnny is also a certified stunt coordinator (studied in Australia) and a martial artist. His fight scene choreography is amazing!

BlueRock Productions LLC, as always, is a fantastic place to shoot. Thanks to Thea for being there for us and helping us out at a moments notice. And many thanks to Gregg Landry for his friednly hospitality and generous deal on their 40×60 foot sound stage!

Pipo! I only recently met Pipo Bonamino in person (though we’d talk on the phone while he was editing the video). I’d never relinquished like this before, but I sent all the footage to him in Miami and let him have at it with his own gifted storytelling sensibilities (guided by my storyboards and Jim’s creative input). Pipo is a generous host, a friendly fellow to work with, and a strong storyteller.

You can see the Houdini video at the film/video page of Right Cut Media

Houdini appears on Jim Camacho’s 2005 CD, Stalker Songs. For details, check out Jim Camacho dot com

~Steven