A BEAUTIFUL MIND
Following Matty's Past, Present, and Future

This blog is about my son Matty's journey into his filmmaking career. Through his triumphs and challenges, his experiments and adventure, I will give insight into his creative process as well as delve into specific stories from his childhood that helped trigger him to become the amazing artist he is today. This is my attempt to learn about my son, to bond with him more, and to understand as much as I can about what is in his beautiful mind. How amazing it must be to see the world in such a rich, imaginative way.

 In 1989, 
there was an earthquake in San Francisco that shook the surrounding Bay Area. It was the largest earthquake in California since the turn of the 20th Century. It killed dozens of people, set entire districts of San Francisco on fire, collapsed a portion of one of the largest bridges in the world, and disrupted Game 3 of the World Series between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants. Matty, who was 5-years-old and a naive, creative child was right in the middle of it all. I was on my way to pick him and his brother from daycare when it occurred. 



When we got home, Matty kept asking questions about the earthquake. He was visibly shaken and enthralled. His imagination was flowing great that day trying to figure out how something like that is even possible. Weeks went by, and he still talked about it and asked "why?" and insisting that he experience it again to understand it more. I told him that the only way he would be able to make an earthquake happen is in the movies, for pretend. 

Matty, 6, looking over and judging his creation.

Meticulously denting his hot wheel cars and staging a big freeway accident on the carpet in our living room one day was the first sign of Matty's mind going into the cinematic realm. He would make sounds of helicopters and pretend that his eyes were the news chopper's cameras fixated on a landslide that toppled into the freeway causing a major pileup. 
At the age of 7, I let him use my 35mm camera to start taking photos of his little scenes he made with his toys and bugs, whether it was a hiking expedition with ants, an acrobatic limo/monstertuck wreck, or gravy erupting from his mashed potato volcano, Matty would take dozens of photos of each scene and flip through them quickly to see the story he just told in images. He had no idea that he was in fact making movies already. 
Soon, Matty would have a chance encounter with a video camera for the first time, which would thrust him deeper into visual storytelling to show the world through his eyes...

THOUSANDS OF WORDS
Matty's Still Photography

Twilight in Gdansk, Poland

High up in the Italian Alps 

As with his videos,  Matty's eye captures emotional moments in a dream-like style that shows the most  stunning instances of everyday life.  He started off only taking photos for fun, but started taking it more seriously in the last year when his photography started being licensed for use in international commercials,      

        billboards,

                 magazines,   

                            websites....

Salvador, Brazil

Copenhagen, Denmark

Salvador, Brazil. A favela in the middle of the night. 

Photos from Norway, Italy, Iceland, and Poland

Seattle, Washington

Horses of Iceland

Country road in Montana

National Monument, Utah. 

Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Porto, Portugal

Whibey Island, Washington

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone, Wyoming

MATTY CONQUERS POLAND!

Over the last two years, my son has been going back and forth from Poland as a hub for his adventures in Europe. On his last journey to Poland he was sponsored to make an observational video of the cities and concentration camps of Poland. He took his leftover footage and made his own compassionate tribute to the country called BIPOLAND.  The film went viral, with over 500,000 views in just three weeks, between Youtube and Vimeo. He captured the past, present, but most importantly, the hearts of the Polish people. 
Matty received hundreds of messages from people all over the world, including the Polish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, congratulating him for his work.  Now, he will soon sit down with government officials from Poland to discuss his work and ideas of the world. He has been offered to be moved to Amsterdam to direct commercials and music videos in and around Europe and Asia this summer. 

BIPOLAND

BIPOLAND from Matty Brown on Vimeo.

Love The World Through Matty's Eyes

Whether diving into darkness in the Bahamas, getting lost in the Alps, trekking the deserts of Israel, soaking in the culture of Portugal, creating killer pianos, or observing sensual ballerinas, Matty has a very unique and poetic way of seeing the world around him.  Shaping and choreographing each of his shots as if the viewer is seeing into somebody's mind to experience their memories. His blend of editing and shooting style, layered with sound FX and music choices make for an amazing treat. Here are a few examples of the world through Matty's eyes...  


HECTOMETER 

Matty ventured deep into the wilderness of the Bahamas to Dean's Blue Hole, (the deepest blue hole in the world), to document famous New Zealand freediver, William Trubridge, attempting to dive the deepest that any human has ever gone without any assistance, in a plight to raise awareness of the near extinction of the Hector's Dolphin in New Zealand.

HECTOMETER - World Record from Matty Brown on Vimeo.


THE PIANO
Steinway and Sons piano company asked Matty to create a dark, moody music video as their first music video for their new record label to match the terrifying classical theme behind Franz Schubert's "Der Erlkonig". Matty wanted to film it deep in the bowels of the Steinway Factory in New York City to show the birth and power of these ominous beasts known as pianos.

 
The Piano. .||.|.||.|.|.||. from Matty Brown on Vimeo.


THIS ISREAL 
 Israel is smaller than the size of New Jersey, and Matty wanted to show how this tiny nation still packs a punch like a bustling beehive with culture, technology, progress, and life.


This Isreal from Matty Brown on Vimeo.


DEAR JAPAN
With his long-time collaborator, Nate Miller, they created a visual feast of the emotion and beauty of the Japanese nation. Mixed with the subtle sounds of whales and trains, Matty orchestrated seemingly random shots into a story of wonder and energy.


Dear Japan from Matty Brown on Vimeo.


BALLERINA
The first commissioned work Matthew received, shot with his cheap, handheld camera, but with his talent, the thoughtfulness and passion still shines right through.


BALLERINA! from Matty Brown on Vimeo.

My son, the filmmaker

My son, Matty (Matthew), has come a long way in his life... From a shy, hidden child, to a blossoming, award-winning, world-traveling filmmaker. His work includes everything from commercials to documentaries, music videos to tourism, museum installations to short films. Matty's unique style has caught the eye of people from all over the world. He has been praised in The New York Times, multiple times in The Atlantic Magazine, and many other magazines and newspapers across the globe. His work presented in various schools like Temple University, Harvard, and Lisbon University. Governments of countries such as Poland, Portugal, and Brazil, and Italy have commended Matthew for his artful and beautiful contributions to the world. Soon, he will be having lunch with diplomats of other countries in New York City to talk about his work. Matty started uploading videos onto the video-sharing site Vimeo just three years ago and has been featured on the front page and in the Staff Picks 12 times, making him the 2nd most featured person on the site of over 14 million users. He has been directing full-time for only the last two years, and his career and popularity has been growing exponentially ever since. This is a journal of my son's journey into his blooming career,  with the challenges and processes along the way.

To start off, here is Matty's film, 'Dreaming It{aly}', which has won multiple awards, including an Italian tourism award for best tourism film. Along with a few of his other pieces, it was the centerpiece of the Nacional Festival 5 Minutos in Brazil (http://tinyurl.com/afj32k2).   Since he made 'Dreaming It{aly}', he has made three more exciting adventure films for different areas of Italy and has been offered to direct the National Tourism Campaign of Italy this summer.
                                                              

Dreaming It{aly} from Matty Brown on Vimeo.