PHOTO NIGHTS BOSTON

Mike Pecci: More Than Just Pictures

09 Sep 2013

Mike Pecci will take you on a journey back and forth between still photography and filmmaking, blurring the lines enough to ask 'is that a still from a movie? or a movie packed into one single editorial frame?' Using a DSLR to create it all, Pecci is a Boston-based photographer, director, artist combing passion and talent in everything he does, whether for personal or corporate, documentary or grindhouse, it all shines and screams Pecci. 

READ MORE HERE 

- See more at: http://photonightsboston.com/blog/2013/mike-pecci-more-than-just-pictures/#sthash.gyMJMLvb.dpuf

STOP & STARE GIFS

By Alice on My Modern Met

A few days after we wrote about Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg's gorgeous, cinematic gifs, we received an unexpected email. It was from Mike Pecci who said someone had shared our cinematic gifs link with him and that he was "in shock!" As he explains, "This was a theory I have been working on for a few years now, and 'Bam!' these guys are doing the same thing! Insane!" Rather than beating himself up about the fact that he didn't release his gifs first, Pecci was happy for Beck and Burg's success. "My friend asked me if I was sore about not breaking them first," he says, "and I said hell no man! It’s all about the photography!" (How can you not love that?)

After about two years in development, Pecci just released his very own set of gifs he calls Living Images. "They are more than gifs," he tells us, "they are high definition images that can fill your screen and high concept poses and actions the really make you stop and stare. We are using all sorts of cutting-edge technology, and working hard with the new HTML5 testing a new technique that hasn’t been done yet. Really cool stuff." (We agree!)

PODCULTURE REVIEW

A bunch of wonderfully awkward folks review the Grindhouse DVD

"Today’s flavor of Guilty Pleasure is Grindhouse. Glenn gives us a history of the genre and shares his new screener copy of Mike Pecci’s Grindhouse Shorts. Glenn enjoys the comic book style of the multiple-covered DVD.  Everyone loves the mood and style of the intro shot and opening menu of the DVD from this gritty photographer-turned-moviemaker. Glenn appreciates the composition and the artistry of this impressive presentation. Christina’s favorite part is the Mommentary, the commentary with his mom."

The clip is large might take a second to load 

ART NOUVEAU - BOXED LYNCH

Drawing for most artists is a warm up to a more elaborate work. For Dave Lynch it is his version of a highly realized end result. Dave has been drawing since he was a child and recently he set out to fill a blank sketch book with over 400 cartoons. This mini art film, shot and edited by Mike Pecci, gives insight into the man behind the sketches. Take a closer look  and find out about his work, and what some might call his therapy.

THE AV CLUB - KSE DOC RELEASE

Watch a mini-documentary about the making of the new Killswitch Engage album            

                          by Marah Eakin                                     March 25, 2013                    

Massachusetts-based metal act Killswitch Engage has a new record on the horizon—Disarm The Descent, out April 2—and is offering fans an evil little glimpse at life inside the recording studio. Shot by directors McFarland And Pecci, New Awakening is a five-part, 30-minute documentary chronicling the making of the record. Featuring interviews, rehearsal and studio footage, and the return of original singer Jesse Leach, New Awakening aims to show fans what life in the studio is like, which is to say both musically enthralling and mentally exhausting.

READ MORE HERE 

ADOBE CREATIVE SPOTLIGHT

By: Jennifer Kremer on Adobe.com

Twisted, dark and awesome. Three words that describe the work of the creative team and visual artists that make up McFarland & Pecci. Still relatively new Creative Cloud members, these fellas have wasted no time utilizing the broad range of tools and programs to create one-of-a-kind work. A documentary film for well-known “metal core” band, Killswitch Engage? They’ve done it. High concept cover art for the Boston Phoenix? Sure. See what we mean about twisted, dark and awesome?

We engaged in a lightning round Q&A session with them to get more details on why Creative Cloud works for them. The diverse amount of products offered, the seamless syncing, constant updates, and bug fixes are just a few reasons why this duo takes creativity to a whole new level.

Adobe: Describe a project you are currently working on or have completed with Creative Cloud.

Pecci: We signed up for Creative Cloud a few months ago and jumped right into a few projects with Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. McFarland & Pecci is a creative team of directors and visual artists. We create everything from high concept photo shoots to feature films and documentaries. The past few months have kept us busy in post-production on the new Killswitch Engage documentary called “New Awakening”, the new music video for CZARFACE featuring Inspectah Deck from Wu-Tang, one of the final high concept covers for the Boston Phoenix, and an upcoming ”double secret” comic book film.

What was your inspiration behind the project?

We love to tell stories, and we tend to be drawn to darker subject matter and artists that are obsessed with their craft.  The film on Killswitch Engage was a fun project that allowed us to focus on the guys as a family unit and we kept our gear tight and our crew small. The CZARFACE video is deeply rooted in our love for Grindhouse flicks and Shaw Brothers films, and the ‘End of the World’ photo shoot was completely influenced by the epic magic of Michael Bay!

How has the Creative Cloud changed your creative workflow?

We switched to Premiere Pro to simplify our workflow. Plain and simple. We shot CZARFACE with the RED EPIC in 5K with Hawk anamorphic lenses.  The piece required a lot of compositing in After Effects and color grading. The fact that I could bring the raw files right into my timeline and directly export to After Effects made our lives so much easier. A competitor’s program has really dropped the ball when it comes to professional editing these days so we were looking for a smart move. Just the time saved by not having to transcode footage from the RED and/or DSLRs was enough of a reason to make the jump to Premiere Pro.

What tools specific to Creative Cloud enable you to work more efficiently?

As mentioned earlier, all the new benefits of Premier Pro were our big draw in the video side of things, but the new version of Photoshop and its retouching tools and amazing smart layers really helped us composite these giant “End of the World” files. We have always been Adobe fans in one way or another, but having it all in one spot really helps us.  The cloud helps us keep both systems identical in our edit bays, and the constant updates have fixed a lot of software bugs already.

Describe your style of work in three words

Really F$#Kin Awesome!

Fill in the blank: I couldn’t create without _________.

Our twisted minds and the tools that can keep up with them.

What advice would you give to an individual who is considering Creative Cloud?

If you are a video editor, make the jump to Premier Pro.  Just do it. Creative Cloud is the smart choice; you sign up and download everything you need. It even runs on two systems. Makes having a post house a lot easier.

COMIC BOOK MOVIE - TDBCD RELEASE

Teaser For Fan-Made PUNISHER Movie Inspired By Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto's Critically Acclaimed Run
Read more at http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=80607#kPvtJ2AObKOW15JY.99

COMIC NEWS INSIDER AT COMIC CON

Listen to the interview with Mike about his Grindhouse work at around 51:30 running time. 

VIDEO STATIC WATCH IT - RETROSPECTS

To every rap fan who dreams of living the gangster life: It's probably much more like what you see in this gritty, violent and insane 7L & Esoteric video than the flossy depiction usually found in music videos.  It's a similar vibe to photographer Ross McDonnell's Joyrider series —  which apparently inspired the visuals here — but with a twist that has the Boston rapper Esoteric abducted by a Russian crew that's not afraid to get as depraved as they wanna be.  --> watch "Retrospects"

Revolver Magazine Interview

The soon-to-be-released video for Fear Factory’s  “Fear Campaign,” off this year’s Mechanize (Candlelight), lives up to the song title: Cops pushing dogs into a helpless man’s face, the band’s frontman being strangled, a creepy interrogation room. The men behind such atrocities, video directors Ian McFarland—who owns the Boston-based Killswitch Productions and has directed clips for God Forbid, Meshuggah, and Agnostic Front—and Mike Pecci fill us in on how they made the band more fearful than ever.

Read it all here:

http://www.revolvermag.com/uncategorized/web-exclusive-interview-the-directors-behind-fear-factorys-fear-campaign-vi.html

REVOLVER How did the concept for the video come about? How involved was the band in that?

IAN McFARLAND Mike and I met Burton back in 2007, when he was on tour with Ministry and Meshuggah. We talked for quite a bit and from that point on every once in a while… One day, out of the blue, I got an email from Burton telling me that Dino along with Byron Stroud and Gene Hoglan were in the lineup, and that they had just recorded a new album and that they wanted to work with Mike and me on a music video for it. I can’t tell you how excited we were to get that email.

MIKE PECCI  Burton is an extremely creative person, and he had some very specific visuals in mind. He said that he wanted to bombard the audience with rapid images that supported his lyrics.

McFARLAND Our goal was to make a video that was inspired by all those really cool stock footage ’90s music videos, but rather than using stock footage of the atrocities of the world, we decided to shrink those things down to single images and objects that can be identified as the tools used to create those problems. Essentially we wanted to make an ad campaign for fear. One of the other things that Burton really wanted was to figure out a way for him to play a role in the video. He wanted to play a character that represented some sort of authoritative entity and would represent the word fear to the fullest. That’s where the cop/priest character came into play.

PECCI Both Ian and I agreed on one thing right from the start, no stock footage!   It’s cliché. With my photography background, and our relationship with photographer Heather McGrath, I proposed that we take all original photos, and instead of shooting big, we should break down each issue addressed in the song down to one object that would be shot on a stark color. We spent a lot of time researching symbols and objects that would best represent each lyric or idea… The best part of working with Fear Factory is that they wanted to look original, fresh, and new. They said that they were willing to put themselves out there to make this thing that much better. We decided that we wanted to use vibrant primary colors—yellow, blue, and red—and that the video be lit with strong and revealing light.

DESIGN FESTIVAL- PHOTO RETOUCHING

If you don’t know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish within a photograph, you could spend many hours in Photoshop trying filters, masks, adjustment layers, and other tools, and you could still end up with no improvements. In fact, you might even end up with a lesser image than you started with. Photo retouching is a very subtle craft that requires not only Photoshop expertise, but also a more general attention to detail and an eye for color and contrast.

In part 1 of “Photo Retouching and Color Grading,” Mike Pecci of McFarland & Pecci

shows several techniques (as well as his thought process) during the retouching on one of these photographs. He uses the healing tool and the blending of layers to add some subtle improvements to his carefully composed image. Rather than polishing away all of the human imperfections of the model, Mike uses methods that preserve the authenticity of the image while making careful augmentations to color, contrast, and tone.

HDSLR Artist Spotlight – Mike Pecci

I first became aware of Mike Pecci when we worked together on the music video for As I Lay Dying’s “Anodyne Sea.” Mike and Ian McFarland were co-directing the video for the metal band, and what struck me was their commitment to their craft, and their unwavering dedication to their ideals. In the video, the band takes a stand on free speech and pay the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the video when they’re murdered by the local warlords. Not many directors would have the courage to murder their artists on screen, but McFarland & Pecci pulled it off in grand style.

In addition to being a music video director, Pecci is a brilliant photographer who has invented a new way of delivering visuals online that he calls Living Images. Living Images are a hybrid of a still image and video, and uses a secret formula of the latest web technologies to deliver the characters in a suspended animation. The technology (which Pecci personally developed) coupled with Pecci’s talent for creating truly high-concept photography makes the Living Images a stunning and truly unique experiential web-deliverable.

Via Pecci “Water streams down the hardened face of a rock god, snow lightly drifts behind a gleaming product, a skateboarder is frozen doing a hand plant but his wheels are still spinning.  Moments captured in more than a photograph.  Moments captured in a Living Image.

Creating a Living Image requires a special type of shooting discipline and the use of cutting edge color grading, compositing, and encoding skills to create a seamless moment.   The Image is then delivered in either a standard or high definition image that has been sized for quality and loading time.  The average high definition is about the same size as a full resolution photograph, and each image can be easily intergraded into you existing web design.  This way you are giving the view of exciting content without the loading time of flash.”

Pecci’s Living Images are compelling enough that, in my mind, they thrust him to the forefront of creative commercial photographers in the twenty first century. But, as Steve Jobs is famous for saying, “There’s just one more thing.”

That “one more thing” is Pecci’s Grindhouse Shorts DVDs. Pecci has an affection for ’70s grindhouse films and has created a series of short films featuring women in highly charged (and very sexy roles) as both the heroine and the antagonist. I sat down with a glass of Oban and enjoyed all three of the Grindhouse films one evening. They’re definitely worth a watch, but definitely not for the kids! The DVDs are well executed, with tons of easter eggs. The highlight are the “Mom-entaries”, as Pecci does a director’s commentary with his mother. Brilliant!

I was lucky enough to interview Pecci about his work when I passed through Boston this summer. Take some time and explore his website. You will not be disappointed. And if you’re wondering who the next David Fincher is … wonder no more.

PECCI AT WORK

by Loren King Boston Globe

Framingham native and Boston resident Mike Pecci directed the short film "Autumn" as part of the recent "48 Hour Film Project," in which teams were required to shoot and edit a 10-minute film within 48 hours. At a Nov. 21 reception and screening for the films, "Autumn" earned the audience award as well as honors for acting, sound design, and visual effects.

The film stars Garth Donovan and Pete Giovine and was shot in Chinatown, at the Ritz-Carlton, and at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill. Pecci and his team -- producers Louis Scheel and Amy Loeber, editor Benjamin Oliver, and sound designer David Schwartz -- have polished the short film and are readying it for submission to film festivals. Pecci's first short, "Torpor," played the Woods Hole Film Festival and the Boston Underground Film Festival in 2002.