Sandcastles / Tanlines

POST-PRODUCTION / EDITING

From the very talented Amy Harrity. Inspired by Calvin Seibert's modernist sandcastles, this film—featured in Schon magazine—explores the concept of creation and destruction.

Photographer & Director Amy Harrity / @amyharrity
Director of Photography Joachim Zunke / @joachimzunke
Production Willson Project / @willsonproject
Set Design Gabriela Cobar / @gabriela_cobar
Stylist Carlee Wallace/ @carlee_wallace
Stylist Assistant Desiree Arriaga / @rad_dez
H+MU Fee Steinvorth / @fee_steinvorth
1st AC Dmitry Shorin / @cine_dima
Editor Dan Mancini / @dan_mancini
Stills Retouching: Ink Retouch / @inkretouch
Colorist Kaitlyn Battistelli at Ehtos Studio / @ethos_studio
Casting Vision Los Angeles / @visionlosangeles
Talent Sandra Diola / @sandradrifter
Kira Rothbard / @krothbard
Saoirse McNamara / @saoirsem__

Naddy Boys

Starring the two youngest Mancini siblings, Naddy Boys is a passing of the torch to the next generation of stupid internet comedy series.

Sneakyboy contributed their mockumentary camera work and editing experience to see the dream of three talented up and comers in the LA rap game realized. Big things coming.

EPISODE 1

EPISODE 2

EPISODE 3

Slayyyter x LadyGunn

SET DESIGN / BUILD

Set design and built for a photoshoot with musical artist Slayyyter for a feature in LadyGunn magazine. The shoot was used in the promotional material for Slayyyter’s 2022 Club Paradise international tour.

https://www.ladygunn.com/music/slayyyter-spins-her-unique-weave-of-cotton-candy/

Adventure is Calling

The world is a big place. Millions of tourists travel to the farthest corners every year. What if there were more to see than the sights? What if there were more to find along the way? For travelers of all ages to do together?

Presenting ADVENTUROUS, an Augmented Reality experience that brings some new life to iconic destinations. Choose your adventure, follow the story, and discover clues while you see the sights.

Explore, Learn, discover,

Together

Produced, Directed, Edited by SNEAKYBOY

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There were various sequences needing Special Effects. We drew up plans and executed them from Storyboards & Previs to Post-production. The result was a mix of preconceived blocking and controlled improvisation.

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Extras & Behind the Scenes: Every project has its own unique challenges. This project was no different. Any number of things can happen on the days of production. Weather, health, acts of God. When problems arise you have to think on your feet, be quick and decisive, and always have the bigger picture in mind.

We worked with an amazing troupe of horsemen, and traveled all around the world.

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Sneakyboy Series Trailer

Presenting, SNEAKYBOY the show!

Sneakyboy is the 70% true story of a couple scrappy young filmmakers and the misadventures we get into trying to run a freelance film company and stay above the poverty line. 

Every episode is comprised of real unscripted footage of our sneakiest endeavors, like investigating Bill Nye's secret society, escaping a wildfire, or TP'ing VICE headquarters, strung together with absurdist dramatizations that tie the story together.

It's a meta-show about making a meta-show... ad-infinitum, ad absurdum.

And it involves lots of sneaking into things.

Watch the first episode here...

⋈ Guys of Science ⋈

⋈

Presenting, SNEAKYBOY the show!

An episodic web-series that combines real unscripted footage from our sneakiest exploits with absurdist dramatizations of our lives as broke-ass filmmakers trying to stay above the poverty line.

Every episode is created entirely from start to finish by the two of us, with occasional generous help/patience from friends and family.

In this episode:

To avoid being audited we'll need to sneak into an exclusive event and meet Bill Nye The Science Guy.  

UNTIL... we unwittingly unearth the existence of a secret society of "Guys of Science" with Bill at the center, and must infiltrate their ranks to, dare we say it... SAVE THE WORLD!!!

⋈

⋈ s c i e t i a - p o t e s t a s - e s t ⋈

World Surf League

Airbnb's partnership with the World Surf League connects surfers of all ages and skill levels with locals who know when where to catch the best waves.

Find a secret spot in Malibu...

Learn to sculpt a board with a pro...

Or catch your first wave in Oahu...

Airbnb Concerts

Airbnb Music Experiences pairs curated live talent with intimate local settings around the world.

AFROHAUS Brunch takes you on a musical journey across the diaspora. The.WAV has curated some of LA's most talented and respected artists in the community. Featuring both acoustic and hi energy music performances, poetry, art and dance from diverse cultures. Their concerts are electrifying sonic journeys, equal parts scripted and unscripted, full of diverse voices.

Demons In The Night

Featuring some custom production rigs, hand-drawn animation, and general spookiness. The official music video for Demons in the Night, shot and edited by Jimmy Gable and Dan Mancini for our boys, Modern Suspects.

Airbnb Trips How-To

This internally distributed instructional video goes out every day to the hundreds of regionally sourced DP's who attend and shoot thousands of "Magical Trips" offered by Airbnb around the world; everything from culinary experiences, to outdoor adventures, to locals only insider guides. These are then cut into mobile-friendly cinematic docu-trailers which can be seen here on Airbnb

Magical Trips Trailers

Bringing together where you stay, what you do and the people you meet all in one place, Trips is a people-powered platform designed to make travel both easy and magical.

Discover the hidden gems that only locals know about via personal recommendations; and socialize with other travelers and locals at exciting events.Get unprecedented access and deep insights to local passions and interests, like violin making in Paris, marathon running in Kenya, or Truffle Hunting in Tuscany. 

AYAOTD? Making a Remake

Submitted for the approval of the Internet, we’ve reimagined the 90s Nickelodeon classic "Are You Afraid of The Dark?"

Back in the day we loved watching reruns of the cozy Canadian horror anthology series. Those days are immortalized in this page from the graphic novel “The Adventures of Jonas” where we and our friends gather round to watch the show in all it’s 4:3 greatness.

View fullsize

That’s why, for Halloween of 2015, we decided AYAOTD deserved a modernized homage. 

One of the main directives diving into this was to preserve the campy coziness that’s made the show age so well to this day. We wanted to avoid going full dark-and-gritty reboot, and instead tried to strike a chord somewhere between modern and nostalgic.

For us that meant beginning with imagery that might appear sinister and threatening—menacing silhouettes darting in and out of view, ghosted or distorted by aging VHS tape—but as the imagery progresses, slowly revealing those figures to be something much more innocuous—a bunch of kids gathering at the edge of town to tell stories.

Everything was shot at night and almost entirely in naturally-occurring lighting. To accomplish this from a technical standpoint we used a Sony a7s which forgoes the trendy more-megapixels mindset in favor of fewer but larger megapixels that absolutely drink in the light. We then hooked the Sony up to an Atmos Shogun external recorder which allowed us to accomplish that same light-sensitivity in beautiful 4k resolution. Those two pieces of gear together have become one of our favorite combinations.

One of the more interesting aspects of shooting in this way was scheduling our shoots around the full moon. Our large group shoot—during which all the bicycle scenes as well as the ending campfire scene were shot—was given priority moon time, and some of the b-roll was shot during that spectacular blood moon eclipse of September 2015.

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Primary shooting took place on location in our suburban hometown of Colorado Springs as well as one of our regular haunts, the neighboring Manitou Springs, (witchcraft capital of the US as several semi-reputable rumors have it). 

A lot of scenes—specifically any that feature a body of water—were shot in the Bay Area, either at the amazing Sutro Baths ruins, along the docks in Sausalito, or in Colma. Colma, CA… also known by its other nicknames "City of the Silent”, and “City of Souls”, is the only place legally zoned for burials in the Bay Area and as a result the entire city is nothing but sprawling cemetery, with dead residents outnumbering the living 1000 to 1. The city’s motto is “It’s great to be alive in Colma." The below photo was taken inside a clown cemetery where I shot a few scenes alone at night. 

All-in-all we wanted to create the feeling of a sleepy, spooky little seaside/mountain town where a bunch of bored kids might meet in the woods for a weekly campfire circle.

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Costuming was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the production. Come the weekend of the shoot, the instructions we sent out to our actors went something like, “Dress like a Canadian teenager in the 90s sneaking out of the house.” They didn’t disappoint.

Shout out to our Midnight Society members who I bribed with s’mores: Alexandra Farr, Ann Gable, Christine Flores, Drew Bauer, Harmony Nield, Isaac Anderson, Jonny Mancini, Mike Searle, Sami Kelso, Sophie Miller, and Timmy Mancini.

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We had to approach a lot of scenes with the guerrilla shooting style of our earlier days behind the camera. Everyone bombed through the busy outdoor arcade on their bikes, and for the football field shot were even going to roll through a HS football game mid play and make a break for it before we thankfully decided it looked much better deserted.

Those gorgeous drone shots were done with the help of our good buddy Steve Moraco who operates the aerial photography company Lander.

The titles at the end were designed by Jeany Ngo who helped us accomplish a contemporary version of aged spooky lettering with an arrangement that harkens back to the show’s often ridiculously structured episode titles.

When it finally came time for post-production we reached out to our boy Slow Magic who covered the show’s truly haunting theme song in that special Slow Magic way. I have to get him to play this at one of his shows one day.

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After its release on Halloween my favorite piece of coverage we got was this really great story from The A.V. Club that totally got what we were going for. My favorite line from that was:

"The SNEAKYBOY version does a great job of conveying everything that made the show great—the combination of the joy of being a middle schooler away from adult supervision and the spooky sensation of walking through the woods at night and so on—without all the ’90s cheese. Frankly, if Nickelodeon decided to reboot the show just based on this video, it would be a totally reasonable call."

And the cherry on top, a bunch of the original cast liked our remake including Ross Hull and Daniel DeSanto—leaders of both generations of the Midnight Society respectively, as well as Elisha CUTE-bert who was one of the Midnight Society kids as well before her rise to fame.

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Awwwww....

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Behind-the-scenes photos by ghost.dive

GALAXA - Photo Comic

I was inspired by how far down our news feeds reach, going infinitely lower, if only we could scroll that long. What effect does that have on our small, fragile dreams and phyches? What is it like to live constantly faced with other people's (curated) personal lives? What is it like to feel like you are in-between life's stages of school, career, family? What is like to never forget or be forgotten, to have a digital record of all mistakes and mundane moments? How do you grow? How do you hold together your internal collection of impulses, sensory information, and inspirations long enough to get anything done?

I only wanted to accomplish two things with this project: try my hand at writing, and experiment with the formatting of online media. I absolutely love the story-making process, and I hope to actuate that dream any way I can, hopefully to bigger, better (and truer) things.

In early spring '16, we heard about this place called the Paint Mines in Colorado, and on a nice warm day, we shook off the deep freeze of winter and went to check the place out. It was a colorful little canyon with a small stream running through the middle of it. Walking around the paint mines, an idea hit us. So, we grabbed some clothes from our costume chest, some spanish-pyrite stones (these wild naturally-occurring cubes), came back to the canyon the next day with our 35mm camera, and left right as the sun was setting. Then we got the pictures developed, and in my free time, I wrote part one and ever so slowly put the photos together. Also, I ended up learning shodo, the practice of Japanese calligraphy, and had a couple month stint painting kanji in the morning. That was nice. 

-Jimmy, Sophie

Sneakyboy Demo Reel

SneakyBoy's demo-reel showcasing a collection of some of our latest projects. For more information visit our Facebook page.

Are You Afraid of The Dark

Submitted for the approval of the Internet, we’ve reimagined the 90s Nickelodeon classic "Are You Afraid of The Dark?"

Back in the day we loved watching reruns of the cozy Canadian horror anthology series. Those days are immortalized in this page from the graphic novel “The Adventures of Jonas” where we and our friends gather round to watch the show in all it’s 4:3 greatness.

View fullsize

That’s why, for Halloween of 2015, we decided AYAOTD deserved a modernized homage.

Take a look behind the curtain in our "making of" video...

One of the main directives diving into this was to preserve the campy coziness that’s made the show age so well to this day. We wanted to avoid going full dark-and-gritty reboot, and instead tried to strike a chord somewhere between modern and nostalgic.

For us that meant beginning with imagery that might appear sinister and threatening—menacing silhouettes darting in and out of view, ghosted or distorted by aging VHS tape—but as the imagery progresses, slowly revealing those figures to be something much more innocuous—a bunch of kids gathering at the edge of town to tell stories.

Everything was shot at night and almost entirely in naturally-occurring lighting. To accomplish this from a technical standpoint we used a Sony a7s which forgoes the trendy more-megapixels mindset in favor of fewer but larger megapixels that absolutely drink in the light. We then hooked the Sony up to an Atmos Shogun external recorder which allowed us to accomplish that same light-sensitivity in beautiful 4k resolution. Those two pieces of gear together have become one of our favorite combinations.

One of the more interesting aspects of shooting in this way was scheduling our shoots around the full moon. Our large group shoot—during which all the bicycle scenes as well as the ending campfire scene were shot—was given priority moon time, and some of the b-roll was shot during that spectacular blood moon eclipse of September 2015.

View fullsize

Primary shooting took place on location in our suburban hometown of Colorado Springs as well as one of our regular haunts, the neighboring Manitou Springs, (witchcraft capital of the US as several semi-reputable rumors have it). 

A lot of scenes—specifically any that feature a body of water—were shot in the Bay Area, either at the amazing Sutro Baths ruins, along the docks in Sausalito, or in Colma. Colma, CA… also known by its other nicknames "City of the Silent”, and “City of Souls”, is the only place legally zoned for burials in the Bay Area and as a result the entire city is nothing but sprawling cemetery, with dead residents outnumbering the living 1000 to 1. The city’s motto is “It’s great to be alive in Colma." The below photo was taken inside a clown cemetery where I shot a few scenes alone at night. 

All-in-all we wanted to create the feeling of a sleepy, spooky little seaside/mountain town where a bunch of bored kids might meet in the woods for a weekly campfire circle.

View fullsize

Costuming was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the production. Come the weekend of the shoot, the instructions we sent out to our actors went something like, “Dress like a Canadian teenager in the 90s sneaking out of the house.” They didn’t disappoint.

Shout out to our Midnight Society members who I bribed with s’mores: Alexandra Farr, Ann Gable, Christine Flores, Drew Bauer, Harmony Nield, Isaac Anderson, Jonny Mancini, Mike Searle, Sami Kelso, Sophie Miller, and Timmy Mancini.

View fullsize

We had to approach a lot of scenes with the guerrilla shooting style of our earlier days behind the camera. Everyone bombed through the busy outdoor arcade on their bikes, and for the football field shot were even going to roll through a HS football game mid play and make a break for it before we thankfully decided it looked much better deserted.

Those gorgeous drone shots were done with the help of our good buddy Steve Moraco who operates the aerial photography company Lander.

The titles at the end were designed by Jeany Ngo who helped us accomplish a contemporary version of aged spooky lettering with an arrangement that harkens back to the show’s often ridiculously structured episode titles.

When it finally came time for post-production we reached out to our boy Slow Magic who covered the show’s truly haunting theme song in that special Slow Magic way. I have to get him to play this at one of his shows one day.

View fullsize

After its release on Halloween my favorite piece of coverage we got was this really great story from The A.V. Club that totally got what we were going for. My favorite line from that was:

"The SNEAKYBOY version does a great job of conveying everything that made the show great—the combination of the joy of being a middle schooler away from adult supervision and the spooky sensation of walking through the woods at night and so on—without all the ’90s cheese. Frankly, if Nickelodeon decided to reboot the show just based on this video, it would be a totally reasonable call."

And the cherry on top, a bunch of the original cast liked our remake including Ross Hull and Daniel DeSanto—leaders of both generations of the Midnight Society respectively, as well as Elisha CUTE-bert who was one of the Midnight Society kids as well before her rise to fame.

Awwww...

View fullsize

View fullsize

Behind-the-scenes photos by ghost.dive

Authentica In India

During the summer of 2015 we were invited to accompany the immersive educational travel company Authentica along with The University of San Diego for a month long tour across India culminating in a private audience with the Dalai Lama. Visiting different cities and exploring some of the country's greatest temples and landmarks with a touring student group, we documented the experience on camera to produce this promotional piece.

The journey began in the urban center, New Delhi. Arriving a couple days earlier than the rest of the group, we spent our time jet lagged and going out at night to climb the tallest roofs we could find and try to get shots of the city.

Next we arrived in Varanasi, a spiritual mosaic and center point of religious pilgrimage for so many Eastern religions. Considered by many to be the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth; Mark Twain said upon visiting Varanasi, it is "...older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." Running through Varanasi is the Ganges, the holiest river in Eastern tradition. Today was Dan's birthday and we'd spend a portion of it floating down the river and even taking a hesitant dip in the water.

Upon arriving at the river's ghats under a setting sun, we found a beached shipwreck and Jimmy promptly climbed on top. I hope he had his tetanus shots. Kids with baskets passed out little candle flowers to float on the water.

We were led down by the banks of the holy river where some locals invited us to join in for our first ever game of cricket. Even though I think Jimmy was holding the bat the wrong way, the kids were tossing the ball slow enough to let him hit whatever the cricket equivalent of a 'home run' is. After piling into the wooden vessel we set off, the sun had just set, and the stretch of river ahead of us was full of the crowds of people who had come to bathe in Mother Ganges.

Here along the Ganges, at the Manikarnika ghat, the dead are carried to the water and burned on funeral pyres around the clock, their ashes given to the river. It is believed that to die in Varanasi and be burned at this most auspicious place is to achieve moksha or freedom from saṃsāra, the cycle of rebirth. In the shallow water children can be found diving to sift through the sediment for gold jewelry left behind with the dead. Of all the things I've shot, this is among my favorites. It was truly something to behold.

We learned that if somebody were to die on the streets as a beggar, penniless and without family, the people who found that body would take it upon themselves go around asking for donations to buy the wood necessary to burn the dead at the banks and see them off properly. 

Further down the river was a celebration. Attaching our boat to the many other boats all gathered to watch. The whole connection forming a little boat island of sorts bumped up against the shore. We sat and watched as fire twirlers, drums, and fireworks went off, and I learned that this celebration happened every night, not every year. I couldn't believe it. It was here that we were instructed to light the candles we were given and float them out into the water.

After a period of time visiting some of the most ancient and historically significant sites around India, our trip came to the mountaintop city of McLeod Ganj. Built at the seat of an 18,000 foot peak, it has become the Indian refuge of the Tibetan government-in-exile and home to the Dalai Lama temple where we'd have the honor of a private audience with His Holiness.

The air up here was thin and cool, and more like the Colorado climate we're accustomed to. We spent a lot of time in the hills and trails around the area exploring with new friends we had made. 

Climbing higher and higher up the pass, past the pack animals, the temples, the tarp-covered tea-houses, ascending even through the cloud layer, we reached a valley called Triund. Up here the surrounding fog captured all sound and cast a placid quietude over its green hills. Cows wandered about grazing contentedly and ravens disappeared in and out of the mist. Every so often a portion of the clouds would thin and reveal a length of the jagged snow-capped Himalayas that surrounded us. 

It seemed to me like a hyperborean paradise hidden away from the world, a liminal temperate clime between the heat below and the icy peaks above.

By the trip's end we'd seen so much and developed a deeper respect and understanding of one of the most diverse and richly cultured places on earth. We had somewhere around 24 hours of footage to look through and now we're proud to present the finished product.

Breakpants with Sip E Cup

Ya boi SipECup breaks it down with step by step instructions on how to put on your pants with a little hip-hop flava in this brand new edutainment VHS. B-boy, Motivational Speaker, Youth Pastor, Role Model, SipECup.

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Originally developed for Betabrand as a tutorial video, "Breakpants" was re-released for April Fools. Sip E Cup is the hip-hop alter ego that I take on whenever some rival b-boys need a good schooling. He's more or less an embodiment of the church culture of the early 90s co-opting hip-hop for a youth audience. Simpler times. 

Shot right outside the Sneakyboy HQ warehouse which actually features the work of tons of great street artists including internationally famous El-Mac.

All stunts featured are real as can be, 100%

Stay Tru,

Sip E Cup

Everlane

Everlane is a cool clothing company with a novel approach to sourcing and manufacturing their products. We edited this short piece from footage which featured their fascinating overseas manufacturing properties to reflect that forthright approach to full accountability from factory to closet.

Slow Magic - Girls

From early 2013 to 2014, we accompanied Slow Magic on several North American tours as Tour Managers. What we saw traveling around the continent with the masked musician is captured here in the official live video for the song "Girls" premiered here on Vice's Noisey

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Checking into hotels under the name Mr. Magic, or forgoing hotels altogether and relying on the kindness and hospitality of strangers in each city for a place to stay or at least another misadventure to mark each night, we experienced the country in a way few get to do.

We foraged for late night meals, talked our way out of fistfights, talked our way into parties, drove marathon distances--waking up morning after morning to new climates, new accents, new people and places. We played drums onstage each night in masks of our own and even designed and ran live visuals like we had originally come along to do. 

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The strangest thing about traveling as a touring band is the way time dilates on the road. Each month away can feel like a fast paced year's worth of experiences. When you get home you've aged so much and yet for everyone else, only a month has passed. It's practical time-travel.

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Photo Journal - Asia

In 2014, we had a gig scheduled in the Philippines, but very quickly realized we needed to expand that trip into a fun-sized tour through South East Asia. So, we broke open our piggy banks and did just that. The plan was to head to the Philippines to tag-team a job as cinematographers on a feature length film. The shoot lasted 3 weeks and had a fantastic cast/crew to show us around the beach town of Boracay. After wrapping on that project we extended the trip and took a ship to Caticlan, then a plane to Manila for a few days, then Hong Kong, Kyoto, and then, finally, an overnight bus ride to Tokyo.

The extended part of the trip was jam-packed and honestly a struggle at times without a crew of locals to lean on, especially as we took on cities with a much starker cultural rift than that of the Philippines (culturally the unofficial 51st state). When we landed in China, we felt very much alone, and the few days we had in each city went by at a break-neck speed. We both knew, however, that just by being in these cities of South East Asia -- these places that we had both seen as icons of culture inspiring us for years -- we just had to just try to take in everything a day at a time, and if we did that, we couldn't lose. It turned out we didn't mind so much being alone either.

I think experiencing cultural rifts and individual rifts; the ideas of permanence and impermanence; authority and submission; expectations and reality; identity and the recursive nature of society, are all running themes from the trip that I was dealing with while working on these photos. 

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