Check out the flyer above for DJ Seth Gold’s Birthday Bash.  The image was from our photo shoot last August.  Right click and “view image” to see the flyer full size.

Peace,
Melissa

Multo.com is currently editing a short dance film featuring The Vintage DJ and his dancers.  There are a series of great stills up on the Multo.com photo page up now!

Stay tuned for the edit!

Peace,
Melissa

dannyboome.tv launched today with great success!  I developed the branding and whipped up this site in under a week, with all the bells and whistles - full video player, complex blog with a variety of features, complete social networking accounts set up and linked back to the main site, and lots of user interactivity for Danny’s fan base.

Go check out the Food Network’s newest culinary star!

Peace,
Melissa

Broadway.tv is up and running!  Please check out the features and reviews.  The video production was done by Multo.com.

Peace,
Melissa

Alma - the Soul of Brazil in NYC

Great news! The above CD design is for a great compilation of Brazilian Soul recently released by Wave Music…hot and bouncy!

Joanne Jimenez and I designed the cover, worked it for a couple of weeks, and finalized this lovely visual treat. Our combined creativity made the design electric, to compliment the incredible tracks.

Purchase the CD here!

Besos mil,
Melissa

I recently finished a group of clips for the new site BMI.tv (Body Mass Index). Check out the sample below and the site here!

Peace,
Melissa

 

 BMI.tv - Underweight [1:36m]: Play Now | Download (255)

Featured Video on Gravel Site

The spots I directed and edited are getting great feedback online. From the reviews of viewers, to the amount of views on YouTube.com, the spots seem to have hit a nerve. They are also currently being broadcast in New Hampshire on WMUR and MCAM. And one of the spots is featured on Gravel’s website front page, helping bolster views well over the 2800 mark in under a week.

Peace,
Melissa

G Love

I uploaded all my recent event pix - the tour with The Sounds & The Bravery, Tristan Prettyman with G Love & Special Sauce, and of course, the holiday party at XS in York, PA.

Enjoy and happy new year!

Peace,
Melissa

My 2007 Xmas Tree

Happy holidays!  Xmas…Channukah…Kwanza…Solstice…whatevah…

Life is good - love my apartment, my art, my filmmaking, my joy of living!  It’s wonderful to realize happiness is a choice, and the easy part is choosing it.  (It’s getting rid of the things that don’t support my happiness that has been a long chore, near completion).

2008 - I’m looking forward to it, in more ways than one.

Ornaments Up Close

Blessings and peace,
Melissa

I recently did several spots about Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel. Check out more of them on YouTube.com!

Peace,
Melissa

 

 Mike Gravel 30 Sec Spot 2 [0:31m]: Play Now | Download (207)

I’m working hard on the first pieces of video for the new site Broadway.tv.  Its going to be a fantastic resource, full of reviews, interviews and entertaining pieces on the people who make Broadway tick.

I’ll have a link up when the site launches, later this month.

Peace,
Melissa

Gratitude 12 2 2007 - M. Ulto

Grateful…

I am grateful
Grated, crushed, reborn
Full of light, love, purpose
Struggle has polished me
Not diamond hard but
Soft like old jeans
Sweet smelling and lovely
Deep as down
Lightly substantial
Loosely connected
To all things, I’m understood

I am peaceful
Though storms tore me
Lies rend me still
Hate has been bile
Expelled by the Universe’s hand
Thumping my back
Each whack a lesson
Each cough a crime undone
Each tear forgiving forever
Wings brushed my wet brow
And blessed me whole

I am abundant
With dreams and visions
Comrades and friends
Who remind me when silence falls
That I am never alone
Money has no hold
Give me a mansion
And I will fill it with orphans
Give me a diamond
And I will sell it back
To fund truth and beauty

I am free!
I can sing, I can speak, I can dance
I can say things many want unsaid
I can feast on fruit
And wheat bread
And be sated by the blessing
Of my love, my art, my soul
Of course I’m crazy to many
Who cling to old things
And strive for old ways
And choke on words not their own

I am
I am the I am
I be, I see, I live, I love
Nothing holds me
For it all belongs
Sometimes for moment
All time for eternity
And in between
There is the music of voices rising
Eyes opening wide
And this world alive in me anew

Peace,
Melissa

Check out this short sample of animated backdrops for an upcoming tour.  Can’t say who its for yet…but check back to see who I’m on tour with this December!

Peace,
Melissa

 

 Tour Sample [2:56m]: Play Now | Download (393)

Here is the updated trailer for “The Art of Love & Struggle”.

Enjoy!
Melissa

 

 The Art of Love & Struggle Trailer [3:00m]: Play Now | Download (343)

Check out this trailer I edited for a fledgling project.  Not sure if the project itself is still happening, but the trailer I directed, animated and edited still stands up!

Peace,
Melissa

 

 Hip Hop For President Trailer [3:07m]: Play Now | Download (312)

Finished up the post production on an installation of four concurrently running DVDs for the Armory. A complex project, involving archival stills, video and a tiny design font, it took a little extra elbow grease to get it all working right.

The installation will be up for the next 6 months, so drop into the Armory (at Park and 66th St) to check it out.

Thanks to the folks at Pentagram Design for the opportunity.

Peace,
Melissa

I burn DVDs regularly from projects built in FCP, and have been doing this since the first version of FCP. DVD Studio Pro has its issues, but they are workable - the DVDs I build for clients - art installations, documentary rough cut reviews, screeners and video wallpaper - require the best out of the MPEG 2 codec. A recent project for an installation of 4 concurrently running DVDs had me testing codecs and encoders to get the best image from text and stills. Granted, the designers are print designers, and forgot the basics about images and text on video - keep it a fat font, keep on whole numbers for the x/y plane, keep it above 24 points, make sure its not WHITE white, use a keyline if you can, or deal with the faded edges versus jagged, pixelated ones. So I had work with InDesign Interchange documents, export as high res print PDF, import back into CS3’s Photoshop, exported several ways - high res JPEG, high res PNG, and finally, (what worked the best) Quicktime MOV files, using the animation codec setting.

(deep breath…slug back a coffee…sigh deeply, and…)

I then imported the files into FCP6, set the sequence codec to match (animation), and viola - tiny text that is readable when projected on a huge screen. At least according to my NTSC monitor. (more…)

I finished the design and blog setup for URBnews.tv, a new urban reporting site I am running with Vince Lee. We will strive to entertain, uplift and educate.

Check out the site here!

Peace,
Melissa

I modeled some Dickies wear for the Workstylz.com site I’m working on currently. (I mostly shot though - being in front of the camera gives me a frustrating lack of control and I don’t like it as much as taking the images). Surprisingly comfortable, I now live in my Dickies jacket and pants.

The site will include the other two models as well - Seth and Adja. It was a great shoot, and the resulting images are strong product work. I will upload the best of the best to the photography section soon!

Peace,
Melissa

This is a piece I did a few years ago - Tabla Animated - for an installation at the Chelsea Market Gallery.

Enjoy,
Melissa

 

 Miixxy - Table Animated [6:24m]: Play Now | Download (430)

Screen shot from Nielsen CGM Summit Video

Today, I completed a video for the opening of the CGM Summit, to be shown later this week in NYC.  Check out the “Filmmaker” section of my site to see the completed cut.  It’s hot and flashy.

Peace,
Melissa

This has been a very busy week, juggling an installation at the Armory and design clients.  Above is my design for Workstylz.com, so I am excited to build it out!

Other news - a couple of documentaries coming my way - more details soon!

Peace,
Melissa

We are reconfiguring our view of modern life, and that means re-framing how we look at ourselves and our impact on our environment - both the physical and metaphysical. Part of that re-framing is looking at the underlying conflicts in our lifestyles and how we are triggered on them, to the point of mass distraction. From food to porn, drugs to debt management, email to cell phones, we are distracted by a myriad of modern encumbrances that serve to keep us unfocused, our lives fractured by our minor obsessions.

As a country, we have been developing exponentially, and have been adding new elements to the process of industry building without consideration. Now, due to a combination of global warming, the internet and mass confirmation of the middle and lower classes worldwide that those running the show have made many inhumane mistakes, we are starting to understand how we can thrive collectively. Perhaps it took the horrors of war and poverty, of melting ice caps and dying bees, to wake us all the fuck up and slow us down finally.

The polarity of any cycle is the tension of the opposing poles - when one is too dominant, they flip, or snap back, or implode, to form again, in balance. Much industry has been created haphazardly, making it up as the industrialists went along. The way we eat, the way we work, the way we dress and the way we relax have all been dictated by industry, without anyone really sitting down and taking a longterm view of methods and practices. Now we are feeling the impact of that lack of mindfulness, the rush to compete and conquer, to be first and best and wealthiest. To have power.

The methods of progress have been to maintain an aggressive stance in order to control and use nature, man and ideas, without forethought or consideration of the potential impact. That stance can no longer hold back the tide of consequences from our collective choices. Nor can it hold back the multiplicity of voices that now make up the conversation - where race, class and gender no longer bar a more complex view of our world. And technology has helped us question, test, measure, discuss, and confirm the results of an aggressive stance, all which now have collectively allowed us to reconsider modern life as it currently exists.

So here we are, 2007, and we are finally waking up. One person at a time, then groups, then nations. Much good work is already in progress - Worldchanging.com, GOOD Magazine, NYC’s commitment to going greener, ethical fashion and embracing veganism. We are evolving, but finally, and foremost, we must mindfully chart our course and make a plan.

Plan2Evolve.tv is shooting content and developing a broadcast site for continued conversations on the reconfiguration of modern life. More great stuff coming, so keep waking up, keep paying attention and trust that polarity always requires re-balancing.

Peace,
Melissa

Click to view the whole image

More digital design - actually, this was on my hard drive for a few months and I just happened across it.  Its rather good.

Peace,
Melissa

Grown Ass Men Front Page

The GAM site is now complete! From design to technology, it’s a functional and fun site. The comedy troupe needed a way to show off their talents, in writing, photography and video. The site has a blog, a flash image gallery, and an extensive video player. With comprehensive backend technology, the group can update the content on the site without being a tied to a webmaster.

The design phase was fun - exploring the visual playground these guys wanted their user to experience as part of the GAM vision.  Once I had the front page and functionality down, we moved ahead quickly with the interior pages.  The result is a quirky website that is easy to use and full of regularly updated content.

Check it out here!

Peace,
Melissa

Daddie’s Shakti Flower  - M. Ulto 2007 (click for full sized image)

I am Daddie’s Shakti Flower

I am his moon and his stars

and his stain unclaimed

when the riddle unravels

first on my skin in freckled code

later in DNA stripped bare

petri me attached and new

Daddies are plenty

Fathers are rare

I in faith renew

my search for you.

- M. Ulto, August 2007

This poem and digital art came together fast, as I have started anew my search for my father.  I had given up, but stories have been coming at me fierce and fast since June.  I’ve been inspired by stories of people finding their fathers, their siblings, their family afar and once lost.  I know there is almost nothing to go on but faith.  I know I may never find him, but I can’t stop looking.  I took a rest, for a long while, and set aside my daydreams and expectations.  I no longer expect a hero, but simply a man who, with my mother, gave me life.  Gratitude mixes with anger and abandonment fears, each time I think of this man looking down at me as a baby.  Perhaps he never did, but a feeling I have says his eyes once looked into mine and knew love.  What did he pass to me, what lessons in momentary glimpses did he share?  Are there anymore stories he can tell me?

There is more than the DNA strand holding us close, yet anonymous.  There is the possibility of knowingness, belonging and family.  There is hope that his heart is the noble model for my own.

I cry still, but not often, for the loss of something never attained.  Father, find me, as I search for you.  Let the questions finally be answered, and the holes filled in my story and yours.

Love in absentia,
Melissa

Reel Life Studios Branding - Reellifestudios.com and Reellife.tv

Today was a branding blowout kind of day. Four different brands for different sites, yet all related, to one person - design client Bradley Gallo. A colleague and good friend, Brad ended up on America’s Next Producer this spring and we’ve rushed to get these sites up for the season’s launch. (more…)