September 20, 2013

2013 Emerging Pro Julian Guzman

By Lisette Rose
Published in Posts

Julian GuzmanJulian Guzman
Location: New York

Julian GuzmanHow to Make a Viral
Twenty-seven-year-old filmmaker Julian Guzman was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, and now lives in New York City. As soon as he finished college, he enrolled at New York Film Academy for a two-year filmmaking program. Between the first and the second year, he took a break for an eight-week intensive program on screenwriting and another eight-week program on still photography, both at New York Film Academy.

For How to Make a Viral, Julian Guzman took a satirical look at trendy video spots. His tongue-in-cheek "ad" was part of a school project for a class at the New York Film Academy.

Tell us the story behind the project.
The film was a school project for the New York Film Academy. My professor was Thomas Barnes. The assignment was to make a commercial for any product. For this project, I wanted to explore the concept of virals and web advertising. I used the school’s camera, but the footage looked too good. It was over-beautifying the standard viral aesthetics. So I came up with the idea that it doesn’t matter what I do, I just couldn’t fail, and I made the "commercial" about the camera itself.

What equipment did you use?
I used the RED EPIC MYSTERIUM-X with a full kit of Zeiss Compact Prime Super Speed lenses and a Zephyr camera stabilizer by Steadicam. No filters.

What do you think made this project stand out to the judges?
I think it’s simplicity. I’m a former designer, and everything I do is based on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s ideas of "Less is more" and "God is in the details." And also I think they liked it because it’s funny. People like to laugh.

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