28 Day Song Challenge: Rollercoaster (Day 3)

Song 3 for your listening pleasure. Today was kind of a tough day – I was stuck banging my head on the keyboard for 3 hours before I got something that sounded like music. But today I also got my hands on AUTO-TUNE! Trust me, my singing skills aren’t quite up to par, so a bit of this T-Pain magic will make this a lot less painful for you. And it’s just fun as hell.

In other music news, got to see the house DJ duo Dada Life – and they killed it! Non-stop dancing for 2 hours. At least I got my cardio in today. If you want to get a tiny idea of how kick-ass guys are live, watch this video:

More cowbell! But seriously, how awesome is that beat drop? A tiny, tiny preview of how live these guys were tonight.

Read about my 28 Day Song Challenge here.

28 Day Song Challenge: Drunk Dial (Day 2)

Song 2, Day 2 – my little ode to our favorite phone calls.  Making this song was pretty fun, I learned a few small Logic Pro tricks (Ultrabeat, recording on a loop) but man, it’s kinda hard to put together nice sounding chords when you don’t have much of a music theory background.  I spent at least an hour pouding away on the keyboard just trying to find chords that would work.

I also spent a while trying to figure out what melody I wanted to go with for the vocals.  The chorus finally hit me at midnight and I had to run out to record in my car since my roomies were sleeping by then.  So much fun, but something tells me I’m not gonna get much sleep in the next few days.

And in other music-related goodness, today my friend Stef gave me a private salsa dancing lesson in my own living room!  Thanks Stef, and yes, I’m gonna work on that inside spin.  Scout’s honor.

Read about my 28 Day Song Challenge here.

28 Day Song Challenge: Hands Up (Day 1)

I stayed true to my word peoples, here is Song 1 of Day 1!

It’s the first song I’ve ever created and my first time messing with Logic Pro – so go easy on me ok? I apologize for the atrocious lyrics ahead of time. Man, this stuff is way too much fun though. Just wait till i get my hands on some autotune…I warned ya… 27 more songs to come.

And I also got to catch my friend’s band last night, Vintage Trouble. And man, do they know how to put on a show! My friend Mike summed it up best, “You can’t NOT dance!” True, true. Looks like my Month of Music is off to a good start.

Read about my 28 Day Song Challenge here.

Month of Awesomeness: My 28 Day Song Challenge

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be a film guy.  But all my life I’ve dug music – from the oldies in my dad’s car to my high school guitar days.  But since high school, I never really made time for music in my life except for the occasional non-sober freestyle.

And even worse then that, I’ve always been too scared to actually write my own song.  The fear of being unoriginal, stupid, or just downright shitty has always held me back.  Well, not anymore.

I’m dedicating this month, February 2011, to my first official Month of Awesomeness.  What is that you ask?  Well, for the entire 28 days of February, I’m focusing this entire month on my passion for music.  More specifically: I’m pledging to create ONE song a day, every day.  And I’m going to document this on my blog, Twitter and Facebook so all y’all can hold me accountable.

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Planned Parenthood +PSA feat. Kathleen Turner

Planned Parenthood contacted me and said they needed a Youtube-ready PSA in one week’s time.  It was gonna be a challenge for sure – a project like this usually needs 2-3 weeks minimum – but always up for a challenge, I decided, “Why not?”

Immediately we launched into planning and writing.  The writing part is always the most crucial for me, especially for a PSA, where a message needs to be communicated very specifically and in a short time.  I spent several days going back and forth with Planned Parenthood, getting constant political messaging feedback from Gabe Rose, and cutting down the script as short as possible while keeping all the parts necessary to get the message across.

While this writing madness was going on, I was working with my motion graphics artist (the uber talented John Hwang) on the tone and feel of our piece.  I knew I wanted to go with a clean, modern feel to match with the Planned Parenthood branding.  The video should be empowering and make you smile, but not at the risk of being cutesy or undermining the serious message.  And while I wanted it to be fresh, I didn’t want it to be too slick – it should have a tangible, accessible feel just like Planned Parenthood itself.

After talking this all out, John created a mood board that captured exactly what I was going for.  And he came up with a concept revolving around crumpling paper, lending to the clean but tangible feel.  Awesome.

mood

From there, it was intense few days of lots of work and little sleep.  We basically crammed in 2 weeks of work into one packed weekend! While John put the motion graphics into action, I got Kathleen Turner’s (Californication, Romancing the Stone, and my favorite, the voice of Jessica Rabbit) voiceover and began chopping it up.  When the voiceover and music had been cut up, sweetened, and every single beat was perfect, we locked down the audio and began timing the motion graphics to it.

On Tuesday afternoon, the video was finally finished, approved, polished, and uploaded to YoutubeAhhh, just in time for Thanksgiving…and for the best night of sleep ever.

Client: Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Title: ‘Stop Stupak!’
Length: 0:49

Director/Writer: Jaemin Yi
Motion Graphic Artist: John Hwang
Voiceover: Kathleen Turner
Music: Chris Muir

Vestara +pharmaceutical video

Working in partnership with Two Jumps Media, we were asked by Vestara to create a video that would help facilitate sales of their pharmaceutical waste management system.

Our main challenge was to take a very dense and complex issue – pharmaceutical waste management – and clearly communicate how Vestara’s system would tackle it head on.

Even though our target audience was directors of health care facilities such as hospitals and pharmacies, we wanted to make the video clear enough for anyone to understand.  The best way to get this information across simply and effectively was to use motion graphics, so we teamed up with talented VFX artist John Hwang to bring it to life.

In a whirlwind month, we integrated motion graphics, live action footage, a product demo, and effective copy writing into a four minute video that we’re all proud of: a piece that clearly communicates Vestara’s value to health care industries and their commitment to preserving our environment.


Client: Vestara
Title: ‘Vestara’
Length: 3:59

Created by: Andrew Oh & Jaemin Yi
VFX Artist: John Hwang
Voiceover: Lita Lopez
Crew: Kassie Funcell

So who’s this ‘Jaemin’ guy?

Alright, so let me clarify some name confusion.

From this day forth, I am now going by my original Korean name, Jaemin (pronounced jay-min), instead of Chris. No, this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. I’ve been wanting to make this switch for several years now and I finally decided that there ain’t no moment like the present, so why not now?

I just never felt like ‘Chris’ was a good fit for me. It’s such a bland name that says nothing, not to mention everyone already has 10 other Chris’ in their phonebooks already. I always felt more of a connection to Jaemin especially as I got older and became less worried about blending in and more comfortable with blending out.

But you can still call me Chris if you like. Or Jaemin. Or anything you want (but please, no CJ or Jay haha). And yeah, I switched up my whole website too (JaeminYi.com), my e-mail addy ([email protected]), heck even my Facebook page (you’ll find Jaemin Yi on there). So I got the hard part over with already.

Now I just gotta get used to shaking hands, looking people in the eye, and saying “Hey I’m Jaemin” without blinking. After 23 years of Chris, that part’s gonna take some getting used to.