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Author Archives: Burke
My postcard life
This is my first chance to post since coming to Hawaii. It’s been a great vacation. Some moments are so picturesque they seem suspicious. Here, for example, is a photo of Veronica Varlow taken at sunset along the Kohala coast.
That night I woke before dawn and drove us across the island to the west coast. It is very rare to see the sunset and rise over the ocean in the same night!
Posted in Photo of the Day
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Exposed · Feature Film · Behind the Scenes
I just found this on Rafa’s vimeo page. Its a little behind the scenes footage from Exposed. Rafa (Rafael De La Uz) was our cinematographer, said it was his favorite scene. I’ve never seen this clip before… fun to see all of us working together. I’m in the brown fedora. I don’t remember being so talkative.
Posted in My Videos and Films
Tagged behind the scenes, burke heffner, director, exposed, feature film, video
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The Bender · Uncensored Version · Director Burke Heffner
I have a lot to say about this video. I love it, and everyone who helped me make it. But if I don’t get just a little more sleep, I’m going to pass out on my keyboard. I’ll dream of a nice intro paragraph while you watch the video:
Download the MP4 (iPhone, iPad, Android)
Alright, I’m awake again. A little more about the bender…
Schaffer The Darklord, STD for short, is a nerdcore rapper. We know each other because we both host burlesque shows in NYC. Only so many people can work craigslist, typographical fonts, or having sex with your own clone into a song. STD is on this select list. He’s very refreshing. By STD standards the Bender is pretty straight forward, a song about going on a three day, life-ruining, drug-induced bender.
My concept for the video was pretty straight forward as well, lets pack in every hedonistic drug induced fantasy of mine… then make it all go horribly wrong. STD was charmingly cooperative.
Marshall Rose (the cinematographer) and I came up with a couple old school frills to spice things up. The X eyes, for example, are not a post production effect and aren’t contacts. We did that the old fashioned way, lighting and camera tricks. The shots of Schaffer flying through the city on the glowing box involved a lot of ratchet straps, a safety harness, and streets quiet enough not to ask for a permit. Cause who would give a permit to a guy strapped to the back of a glowing box?
What else… Oh yeah, lots of hot girls, cause who doesn’t like hot girls? I for one, like each and everyone one of the girls in this video. Even the ones puking in the bathroom. “Hey girls, I’m making this awesome video. I’d love you to be in it, so wear something really sexy and oh yeah, you’re going to be leaning over a toilet the whole time, are you cool with that?”. Boo Bess (who played the ‘swamp thing’ and got the longest uncut shot in the video) is actually very attractive… nothing some really bad make-up and lipstick on the teeth won’t fix. Troopers.
Posted in My Videos and Films
Tagged burlesque, music, nerdcore, rap, Schaffer the Darklord, video
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A Buck’s Worth · Short Film · DP Burke Heffner
If you’ve seen the feature film $9.99, you’ll recognize this immediately, sort of. A Buck’s Worth was the short Tatia Rosenthal made to raise interest in $9.99. It is basically the first 5 minutes of the full length script, but with different models and different actors doing voice. It was my first time doing stop motion cinematography. I had a lot of fun.
Stop motion is a very different creature than the rest of the film world. As the cinematographer I’d show up for an hour or two in the morning, light the scene and set the camera, then leave for the day. While I was gone Tatia would crank away into the wee hours of the night, one frame at a time. On a very very good day she could blast through 9 seconds of story! For me it was sort of a perfect job, for Tatia?… who knows, all stop motion animators are a little crazy.
Circus Bookazine · Editorial · Photographer Burke Heffner
Circus Bookazine is a printed not-quite magazine, not-quite book, not-quite blog… hence the slug line ‘bookazine’. Every article is written in both German and English, reminding me that I not only don’t read enough, I don’t speak enough languages. The first edition is focused on fashion.
How exactly I got involved is a little bit of a mystery… they really like the pin-up/burlesque aesthetic, but mostly I think Anke, their Editorial Office Darmstadt, has a girl crush on Veronica Varlow, my partner in crime, and was hoping I would get V involved… which I did.
I’m not really a fashion photographer, but they said they didn’t want regular fashion shots and what-to-wear articles anyway. They were trying to dig a little deeper, into the stories underneath the glitzy industry. So this is what they got from me, a gentle mash up of vintage burlesque fashion and that terrible 90s movie ShowGirls.
Much love to Gal Friday, Jenny Cest Quoi, Nelson Lugo, Olga, and Marshall for their help.
And thanks to the Slipper Room where we shot… probably the last shoot to take place before the demolition ball arrived. The Slipper Room was NYC’s longest running burlesque venue. Its currently a very sad constructions site, but promises to return in a few months with 2nd story balconies, rigs for aerial performance, and a stage curtain which the owner promise will close all the way, denying future audience members their usual sneak peek into the half-naked and frantic backstage world.
Posted in Random Tyrades
Tagged burlesque, fashion, gal friday, Jenny Cest Quoi, nelson lugo, photography, veronica varlow
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3 of my photos in a Chelsea Art Gallery
I have three pieces showing at the West Chelsea Arts Building. My friend, Joe the Shark has taken over the fog gallery with a show titled, The Unsung Heroes of Burlesque-the photographers. I don’t know how heroic I feel for photographing barely dressed girls (tough job, someone has to do it)…
The 3 pieces I choose are life sized prints, or larger. Everything just feels fancy when you see it that big.
One of my photos is composed of 96 small prints, which make one whole photo. I broke a large image apart and labeled each piece on the back, so it could be re-hung easily and quickly. Then I sent the pieces of to be mounted… covering the labels and giving me a 96 piece jigsaw puzzle. Turns out i kind of suck at puzzles. Fortunately, Joe loves puzzles, otherwise I might have given up and hung it randomly (I kind of liked seeing Betty Valentine half formed in a pile of loose body parts and dollar bills).
The show will be up for another week. If you are into art, photography, burlesque, or just pretty girls you should check it out. There are several burlesque photographers showing, everyone who’s anyone in a very small scene. Some really nice pieces have turned up. There’s a closing party on Dec 16th. I’ll be there.
West Chelsea Arts Building
508 W. 26th St. Suite 5G
Show closes Dec 18th.
…Joe tells me the same 96 piecer is curling off its mounts, so I guess I’ll be there before that as well. I should have left it flat on a giant table for the guests to complete.
Posted in Random Tyrades
Tagged art, burlesque, photography, pin up, veronica varlow
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Jim is the Man…
Wow… Just three days ago, my site looked completely different. I have been long over due for an upgrade. In my classic style, when i finally decided to make the change, it was only because a frantic deadline was looming.
But here we are 72 hours later, the site looks awesome… and functions. The charming transition happened thanks to Jim…
…whose own site is ironically modest given his capabilities. Its probably cause he’s working on other cool projects, like the one above.
I called to ask a few critically important questions, “like how do you type a (bullet) in a post?” But he was out scouting locations for a play that will only take place on the first day of snow… Try facilitating a large scale production based on that not-so-schedule-ready event.
Posted in Random Tyrades
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Exposed · Feature Film · Director Burke Heffner
Here are two scenes from Exposed, an independent thriller I recently directed. It was shot all on location here in New York City. The first clip is pretty gentle, the second is little more creepy. Weirdest of all… I just realized that one of the actors in both scenes is wearing a shirt of mine. Perhaps subconsciously that’s why choose these two scenes in particular?
Posted in My Videos and Films
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Revolver · Film Trailer · Director Burke Heffner
We created this trailer to raise interest in our cross-country road trip screenplay, Revolver. We wanted something to present to investors, and a picture is worth a thousand words. The Revolver trailer won at the Golden Trailer Awards in Los Angeles, officially making it the world’s sexiest preview for a yet-to-be-made film. Step inside my world…
Posted in My Videos and Films
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Veronica Varlow Reel · Director Burke Heffner
A sizzle reel for Burlesque Star Veronica Varlow (includes some of her footage from Revolver above). We shot it to send to clients, but since its been on YouTube its pulled in over 90,000 views.
She is fantastic performer. Even has her own army. Seriously. They call themselves The VKA short for Veronica’s Kissing Army.
Posted in My Videos and Films
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