Watch the teaser trailer for my upcoming documentary

This is a film I shot this past September. I hope to have it completed in the next few weeks and enter it into many film festivals throughout the country (possibly the world!) next year. If all goes well, maybe it'll pop up on TV some day.

Shots from a family portait session in Hoboken

Some shots from yesterday's wedding

They Did It! - Matty and Bobby break the world record for longest continuous kiss

Photo credit: Dena Lake

Last night Matty Daley and Bobby Canciello achieved their goal of breaking the Guinness World Record for Longest Continuous Kiss. The record was last set last year by a couple in Germany at 32 hours, 7 minutes and 14 seconds. Matty and Bobby, the first homosexual pair to ever attempt the record, kissed continuously without separating lips or even sitting down (the rules wouldn't allow it) for a total of 32 and a half hours exactly.

Most amazingly of all, the entire event was broadcast live via webcam on uStream.tv, where thousands upon thousands of supporters from all across the globe showed their love and support in the stream's chat room. Some told us they cancelled their plans for the day or skipped work just to continue watching Matty and Bobby make history at The College of New Jersey campus. The two were surrounded by friends and family who tended to their every need -- feeding them juice and water through a straw at regular intervals, holding up a fan to cool them down, talking to fans on the uStream channel and collecting donations from spectators for the Trevor Project, a suicide hotline for gay and lesbian youth.

Through the miracles of technology, Bobby and Matty were able to communicate with their fans on Twitter and Facebook via texting while they held their kiss. Meanwhile the story spread like wildfire throughout the online gay community and was picked up by The Advocate and Out in New Jersey Magazine, making the front page of their websites. Celebrities such as Hal Sparks and gay House Representative Jared Polis tweeted about the event to their fans, dubbing it "The Kiss Heard Around the World." Today the story was mentioned on CNN, and perezhilton.com. Though we tried our hardest to get the attention of major gay activist celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Ellen Degeneres, our tweets and emails went unacknowledged. Matty did receive an email from someone claiming to be Gaga's stylist, mentioning that she's been told about the story but she has yet to say anything about it. We are sure she will acknowledge the event, but she is currently busy rallying to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. News 12 New Jersey said they would show up but never did, however reporters from Out In New Jersey Magazine were present and asked Matty and Bobby some questions after the event for their October issue cover story. We are hoping that more media attention will follow this, and expect to see the record-breakers appear on Ellen or Oprah soon, though this is just speculation and wishful thinking from us.

The story made perezhilton.com today, and so did my face there on the bottom!

I say "us" because I was there live to film the event for an upcoming documentary. The process for breaking a record is a bit more complicated than most realize, and actually flying a Guinness representative in costs about $4000 from what Matty told me, so the alternative is to have designated witnesses to watch the entire event and then fill out paperwork confirming that they followed all the rules. Because I was planning to stay the entire time to film the event, they had me be one of the official witnesses. In between filming, I got to know Matty and Bobby's friends and family who were there to help, and had a wonderful time with all of them. Our only source of entertainment was the uStream chat, where dedicated viewers quickly learned all of our names and rejoiced when their favorite "host" came back on camera to chat with them. The original stream hit over 100,000 unique viewers, but other streams were set up by fans to get around uStream's server limitations, so the amount of viewers who actually saw the event is incalculable. Several have since posted clips on youtube taken from the stream, and Perez Hilton linked the entire last recording segment (we recorded the webcam while broadcasting, but in chunks). Watch it here, and skip to the 41 minute mark to catch the emotional finale.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone that participated in the event and supported us online and in person. It meant so much to Matty and Bobby, and the helpers like me were flattered and amused by the love you guys showed for us in the chat room. We are truly in your debt for making this event an international moment and not just a local passing news story. I will update you on the progress of the upcoming documentary I am making of the event, entitled Our Lips Are Sealed (after Matty and Bobby's campaign name) on my Shoot The Freak blog. In the meantime if you have questions about the logistics of the event itself, many of them are answered on the campaign's official website.

"Advocate love baby! Advocate love!"

- John (a.k.a. Red Shoes Guy)

Away this weekend to shoot a new project

Tomorrow, September 18th, 2010 two gay students from TCNJ are going to try and break the world record for longest continuous kiss. The current record is set at 32 hours and 7 minutes by a hetero couple in Germany. The record has never been attempted by two men or two women before, nor has it been held in the US since 2001. Matty and Bobby hope to change that tomorrow morning at 10AM at The College of New Jersey campus in Ewing, NJ. The rules state they must remain standing, never break lip contact, nor be supported or held up by anyone or anything for the entire time. The two have come up with a clever sign language to communicate to each other when problems arise, and have been preparing physically for the event for several weeks.

I’ll be there filming the event for a new Shoot the Freak short documentary film entitled Our Lips Are Sealed, named after their campaign. Shoot the Freak is the name of a new organization I have just started with other talented and creative friends. Our goal is simply to work together to make great films and other works.

I’ll be bringing a friend, Katie Sutton, with me to help with the filming and we plan to stay there as long as the kiss goes on, which will likely mean camping out overnight on the grass of TCNJ.

You can show your support for the event and the project by telling anyone you know who may be interested. Also, you can watch the whole event live via a UStream channel the guys set up at  http://mattyandbobbykiss.tripod.com/the-kiss-live.html

Hey I'm a Juggler!

The next few months will be some rough ones. I will be simultaneously starting my last year of college, trying to turn 30 hours of my amazing trip into a watchable film, and running the regular photography business. It'll be a challenge, but I've never been one to say no to a challenge.

Before the year is up, I hope to establish my new side project, Shoot The Freak Films. StF is sort of a dream project of mine. I can't make my films alone, but I have many talented friends who can make great music, or draw or animate or edit or all sorts of things. StF will not be a tangible entity, but a coalition of young and talented people with one goal: to make great films.
However, films don't pay the bills, so of course I'll still be shooting events the entire time.

But no, I will not film your wedding or party. Not yet anyway. My equipment is not professional enough for me to be okay with charging people for that. For now filmmaking is just a hobby and a passion, but I will gladly be your photographer =P

Photography moves to the backburner as I try to make my first documentary

My bags are packed. I hope five pairs of underwear is enough. In just eight days I'll be embarking on a month-long journey with about twenty other people I barely know. Many people have studied abroad, but few like this.

From July 13th to August 14th, I'll be travelling by van through six states in the American Northwest. Led by an experienced natural science professor who's been taking students on this trip for over twenty years, we'll be touring through the greatest natural landmarks the area has to offer including Mt. Rainier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mt. St Helens, and the Grand Tetons just to name a few. It'll be the longest time I've ever been away from home, and I'm sure it'll be a life-altering experience.

So why not film it? For the last several weeks I've been preparing in all kinds of ways to make a documentary of this trip, and particularly the people involved. I've never made a documentary. In fact, ironically I'll be taking an intro to documentary film making course this fall semester immediately after returning from the trip. But I've been teaching myself on my own time, studying films and reading books about documentary structure and storytelling and I think I can do it.

With barely any real knowledge of the experience that lies ahead, I don't really know what kind of movie I'll come back with, or even if there will be a story worth telling at all. I'm mostly interested in documenting how a trip like this affects the people involved, myself excluded. This isn't gonna be a Michael Moore or Supersize Me type film and I'm not interested in being in front of the camera for this one. Instead I want to be an observer as friendships, cliques and other interactions develop among the trip-goers. Will there be arguments? Fights? Danger? Jealousy? Relationships? I sure hope so. If not, there may still be some Kodak moments in the stories told around the campfires, or in the phone calls to friends and family back home. Heck, this may even turn into an environmental film.

As you can tell, I know very little about what lies ahead, but I'm going to try my best to make a movie worth watching. Never know. It could be my big break.

If you'd like to keep tabs on my experience, you can bet I'll be tweeting about it at twitter.com/johngallino
I've also spent some time mapping a rough itinerary of the trip to Google Maps which you can view here:

View American West Road Trip 2010 in a larger map