That's right. We've been jamming on some tunes, and thought we would make them accessible to our fans via the rad team over at Marmoset. We've brought a Southern California vibe straight to your earballs. If the tunes are hitting you just right, perhaps you will consider licensing one of them for your next video project. You can check out our profile here.
Wow. We are incredibly proud to be recognized alongside the most hard-working, gifted people in our industry. Our reel was singled out from a pool of more than 40,000 submissions sent in from all over the nation, and took home a Silver ADDY at the 2016 National American Advertising Awards.
To be awarded this honor for OUR REEL, or collection of work that represents who we are and what we represent... leaves us with the warm and fuzzies as it validates our efforts like no other piece of work could. It's not about getting caught up in winning an award, it's about being validated by our peers that our hard work is paying off. All of the blood, sweat and tears, all of the relationships we've made along the way, they are all building toward something more important than us, and more important than an award. We are building toward a will to explore, to challenge ourselves to improve everyday. To be fulfilled.
Go West. That's what they once said, that's what they once did. We promise to continue in that spirit of exploration. Onward.
-Saint West Team
After a whirlwind year, we were very much looking forward to this year's ADDY awards, where "Winning Fixes Everything". It was great running into old friends and meeting new ones. As usual, the San Diego Ad Club, or SDX put on another stellar production. We only had a few months to create work we could submit to the ADDY's, and decided we would enter our 2016 reel, "Go West" as well as our latest branding mantra, "Making a Mark". We are pleased to announce we took home 2 Gold awards for "Go West" in the Self Promotion and Cinematography categories, while "Making a Mark" took Silver for the same categories. Go West will go on to Regionals and if we impress the judges with another Gold, will head to Nationals for our second appearance on the main stage! Congrats to everyone who came out this year with some amazing work, it's always a treat to be inspired by our fellow creatives!
Photos by the lovely Brogen Jessup.
We intend to make a mark on this world of ours. We don't shoot content for content's sake. We shoot life. We make things you feel. It's at the core of who we are and what we do as filmmakers. We chase stories and light with passion. But sometimes you need some help along the way. So, we engaged designer Jordan Stark and metal artist Michael Leaf to help us bring our mark to life. This video is our way of saying thanks to these guys for connecting our mission, culture and passion to a mark in a digital and tangible way. Now it's up to us to deliver on those ideals.
A very special thanks to Sennheiser for creating the AVX, Freefly Systems for the MoVI M15 and Marmoset for such a rich music selection. We couldn't do what we do without folks like you.
Day 5 saw a gathering of dusty, dirty, tired dudes crawling into the Story & Heart studio in Portland, OR. We had one last plan to finish this roadtrip out with a bang. To see more about our antics, check out some of our tutorials we shot with them on their awesome Academy. Also, Vimeo has been sharing some of our work on their Video School. Cheers to those amigos, we love us some Vimeo. Oh, we also smashed some stuff in slo mo. But we are still waiting for S&H to send us that footage...
Photography courtesy of Sean Horton @ www.hortonvisuals.com
Day 4, we found ourselves waking up in Chiloquin, OR which is just north of Klamath Falls in the Southern end of the state. This sleepy little town is surrounded by the Winema National Forest and has many rivers and lakes in the surrounding area.
We hooked up with a local sporting goods store owner and friend of a friend, Harry. Harry would be our fly fishing talent and guide for the day. Our goal was to capture some stunning fly fishing footage in the morning and hit the road to make it to Bend by sunset to meet up with the fine brewers at Crux Fermentation Project. Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be any brewing taking place, and we had to pull the plug on Bend at the last minute. We licked our wounds and engaged the MoVI and RED Epic to capture Harry in all his fly fishing glory. His backyard happened to be situated at the very spot were the Sprague and Williamson rivers meet. Needless to say, this collision of freshwater aquatica created one hell of a fishing hole. After spending some time with Harry’s beautiful and welcoming family, we grabbed lunch and headed to our second location, one which Harry hoped we would like. Boy did we ever.
We have chosen not to divulge the name of the location we were taken to, as the thought of making it any more popular than it already is just tears us up. This river bend had the most beautiful turquoise, crystal clear water we’ve ever seen. We grabbed a canoe and our DJI Inspire 1 and took to the water and the skies to film some incredible footage of South Central Oregon in all her glory. We wrapped the day with Harry catching a few fish at Sunset on yet another beautiful river bend.
We rolled back into Chiloquin pretty late, dog tired again and ready for our final leg to Portland. Day 5 coming soon!
Photography courtesy of Sean Horton @ www.hortonvisuals.com
Day 3 allowed us to sleep in a little bit and grab a solid breakfast at Red Hut Cafe in South Lake Tahoe. After buying a couple of Keep Tahoe Blue stickers for our Pelican cases and downing some pancakes, it was time to head up to Angora Lake.
Angora may be one of the most beautiful best kept secrets in the country. With limited parking and nearly no signage, it’s very hard to find and if you don’t arrive early you will not get a parking spot for hours. We were lucky enough to have some local firefighters give us dibs on their spot as they were leaving, and we were off. The hike up is about 20 minutes with decent inclines, so hiking with 30 lbs of gear was less than ideal. But the view once we arrived would more than make up for the effort. We wanted to capture the fun of jumping from the granite cliffs into the crystal clear alpine lake water. There is a small audience of tourists and locals that line the small granite sand beach to the west of the small lake, cheering people on as they conquer their fears and jump. After lugging our gear across half a mile of huge granite boulders and steep hillsides, we finally made it to the 20 ft jump on the south end of the lake and set up our MoVI and RED Epic to capture the action. We also rented a rowboat to give ourselves a perspective from the water. This proved a fantastic decision, doubling as a gear cart for our return trip. Once we wrapped, we had to hit Big Daddy's Burgers back in South Lake Tahoe before making the long drive north to Chiloquin, Oregon. Luckily, the drive afforded many creative opportunities that we took full advantage of, including a sunset flight over a Nevada valley and long exposure star photography from the middle of the highway in the pitch black night. We rolled into Chiloquin around 1am, dog tired. Day 4 coming soon!
Photography courtesy of Sean Horton @ www.hortonvisuals.com
Day 2 found us waking up pretty early and hitting the road from east L.A. Our first destination was lunch in Lone Pine, CA on our way to Mammoth Lakes. On the way, we saw a sign for beef jerky, 75 miles ahead. We thought, must be pretty good jerky. For the next hour, every ten miles, we were reminded of this jerky shack. By the time we were 10 miles out, it was a forgone conclusion that we had to stop. And stop we did. In between Inyo National Forest and Death Valley National Park in a little town called Olancha, CA, lies an unassuming if not well marketed Jerky joint called "Gus’s Really Good Fresh Jerky”. Here you will find some of the best road trip jerky of your life. You are offered samples immediately upon entering this crazy little place in the middle of the desert. We took our samples, bought our sweet and sour packages and went on our way. But not before we threw a couple of Saint West Filmworks stickers on the wall, an obvious pastime of visitors through the years. If you are ever in the area, and find our sticker, take a picture of it and we will send you a free Saint West TShirt. Because that would be awesome.
On the way up to Mammoth we decided to call an audible and go further to Mono Lake. Located in California’s spectacular Eastern Sierra mountain range, Mono Lake is an oasis in the dry Great Basin and a vital habitat for millions of migratory and nesting birds. It is a wild, beautiful lake like nothing you’ve ever seen before, almost like another planet with it’s extremely high salt content and tufa rock formations. We filmed our own crew as hikers exploring the lake’s ecosystem. The video production options in this area were as abundant as the black flies that lined the lake’s muddy waterfront. Once we finished up, it was PB&J’s and Turkey Sandwiches for dinner and it was really starting to feel like a road trip. Once we had our fill, it was back in the van’s on the way up to Lake Tahoe for an overnight in a mountain cabin. Day 3 coming soon!
Photography courtesy of Sean Horton @ www.hortonvisuals.com
We decided the best way to kick off Saint West Filmworks would be with a good old fashioned road trip. We invited our friends at Story & Heart to join us, and when they agreed, we thought we might as well make their office our destination! So it was set, San Diego to Portland. Our first day on the road found us in La Jolla, sharing the San Diego sun with some Sea Lions and waves splashing up onto the rocks. We made sure to keep our gear dry as we captured these stunning creatures in 5K and 120 FPS. From there, we hit a favorite Mexican spot for lunch, Las Olas in Cardiff. There, we met up with Greg and Lauren, our surfers who agreed to shoot with us for the afternoon. After some fish tacos curbed our appetite, we were off to Encinitas to find our secret surf spot. The resulting footage was some of the most fun we've shot to date, chasing surfers from the ground and the sky. The surf was surprisingly cooperative and the sunset was spectacular, making production a breeze. We packed up our video gear in the dark, and said goodbye to some new friends. We decided a quick stop at Pizza Port in Carlsbad would be the perfect way to end a perfect day. Stay tuned for details from Day 2!
Photography courtesy of Sean Horton @ www.hortonvisuals.com
After nearly a decade spent growing our first production company, we decided it was time for our 3 founders, Matt Jensen, Matt Mangham and Scott Rieckens to start something fresh. Something new and exciting. So, we sold the old the brand and started a new one: Saint West Filmworks.
For us, Saint West represents the culmination of everything we've learned over the last 10 years. It was a chance to hit the pause button, reflect on our past work and plot a course for the future. In the end, we boiled it down to one simple mission: to create uncommon films for the common man. We want to bring an uncommon level of production value, artistry and depth to every project, big or small. Above that, we want every piece to connect with our audience on an authentic, human level. It should resonate deeply with everyone who is interested enough to press play.
Stay tuned. Lots of awesomeness to follow!
