This is the first of 3 short films around the idea of Rapture, that I have created within the confines of the recently launched SFCA (San Francisco Creative Alliance) along with fellow conspirators Paul Trapani and Anthony Laurino.

Traditional roles blur (in a good way) within the collective but my strengths came to play in concepting, art direction, and post production.  I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of making something underwater and it was really interesting dealing with the challenges of the environment.  Having said that, I’m absolutely in love with the medium.  I could spend months exploring different techniques with underwater shooting, it’s so much fun.  Big thanks to Robin and Brooke from Ford and Jenna from Artist Services. You can see a cut of the film below.

Wow so much going on with the visualization of data these days.  With new semantic protocols coupled with archive API’s and real-time data sets being set free by their respective owners, there is an incomprehensible set of numbers being generated and parsed every second… and we are only at it’s infancy.

Some nice stuff out there from the BBC and Aaron Koblin from google and one of my own sf neighbor’s Stamen.

As we become dwarfed by the sheer numbers of our lives, data visualization will be the only way much smarter machines (who can run and understand the numbers) will translate meaning and emotion to our increasingly puny human brains.

Now I’m not an evangelist for the Singularity like a Ray Kurzweil but I can see the writing on the wall with how technology will influence culture.  In the process of controlling these numbers through apps and services we will also be entering a new age of art between data and design.

Spent a weekend in Port Costa California, shooting and co-directing a motion lookbook with friend and co-collaborator Paul Trapani. It was a great shoot with terrific styling. Liz and Alexandria really delivered the goods in front of the camera. It was a perfect fit against the eclectic style and energy from Sophia Amoruso’s vintage collections. Don’t let this brand’s name fool you, a healthy dose of fashion feminism + historical taxonomy of style + fake leopard fringe = pure class. Check em out on the TODAY show.

So nice to push into this hybridized sphere of still and motion for a complete brand experience. Alot of this stuff going on but it’s still early days, with the right creative vision small and mid size brands can really run circles around their larger competitors.

Alexandria, Port Costa 2009

Many more hybrid productions are starting to line up in the pipeline with some surprise news to be delivered in a few months. The complete video went viral to the tune of 45,000 hits in 6 months, and was picked up by countless fashion and styleblogs around the world. All in all it added up to thousands upon thousands of unique brand impressions, conversations, and finally it contributed to a significant bump in sales during it’s release. You can check out the completed video below.

Nastygal Lookbook Small from hiawatha bradley on Vimeo.

Seems like a lot of players are moving into the mobile/augmented reality arena.  There’s the early attempts  that are slightly cool like GE’s smart grid work. Or the rather literal and clunky approach ala Metaio (I’m mean who wants to get chased down the street by an invisible dragon?).  There’s also brands like foursquare who are front runners in location and technology, but what happens when apps and brands really increase their sophistication within this space?

When the entire built environment is mapped with horizontal layers of information and meaning. Signal to noise, as well as privacy issues will arise but so will fantastic communication opportunities. For print publishing, a subscription to a magazine won’t just mean receiving an issue in the mail. It could mean the unlocking of a variety of different experiences and stories based on your preferences and location in a certain city.  Imagine if Cool Hunting became aware of your location and could delve out premium content in immediate, surprising, and inspiring ways.  Moving narrative and interaction out of the browser and into the streets really does promise to be the next big thing.  I’d be curious to know your thoughts on the impact of ubiquitous computing.

The San Francisco Creative Alliance is new venture between Stylefight and Paul Trapani Photography.

Recently shot Danny Glover as part of a larger branding campaign I executed for a new video platform designed by Method and funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called ViewChange.org. The semantic web platform is focused on using the power of video to change the world.

Danny was terrific and from what I understand the perfect presenter as he has over 1 million twitter followers.  Was a very large project to tackle and took multiple sign off stops through Gates, Fleishman-Hillard, Fenton Communications, and Link TV.  Whew.  However, the proof is in the pudding and this project is racking up major partners as well as Ngo’s and government agencies ready to purchase the technology as a turnkey system for their own “cause” video initiatives.

From the official PR page: Viewchange.org is a a digital media hub that highlights progress in reducing hunger, poverty, and disease in developing nations. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ViewChange.org combines powerful video stories with the latest Web technology to make videos, articles, blogs, and actions readily available to key audiences working in global development.

Below is a series of posters I created for Film Festival and magazine use.

Beta Begins in August, until then you can learn more here

An 8 spot campaign I created for Link TV. Concept and words by the wonderful Kasey Foster at Wieden+Kennedy NY.

“We used to have an intellectual ideal that we could contain within ourselves the whole
of civilization…through wide reading and study, you could have a depth of knowledge
and could make unique intellectual connections among the pieces of information stored
within your memory. Richard Forman suggests that we might be replacing that model for
both intelligence and culture- with a much more superficial relationship to information
in which the connections are made outside of our own minds through search engines and
hyperlinks. We’ll become pancake people, with wide access to information but no
intellectual depth, because there’s little need to contain information within our heads
when it’s so easy to find it with a mouse click or two.”

So I’ve just completed the packaging for an 8 film series of Romanian Films.  A joint production of the New York Romanian Cultural Institute and Link TV, it’s 8 weeks…8 films…world cinema at it’s best.  Romanian film has really stormed Cannes along with the rest of the festival circuit.  This project was a great chance to do some good work and get acquainted with some fine film makers.  Ingrijit!

Recently Shot at the Palo Alto Four Seasons for the beach brand Samba Glow. The heavens parted for just one day to give us a warm brazilian inspired afternoon in the bay area.  The very talented Taylor did the make-up.   Paul Trapani shot still. I shot motion.