I heard an interview with George Carlin once where he was talking about his early, suit-and-tie days when he'd play nightclubs and casinos and the audience was filled with hippies - except back then it used to mean people who thought they were hip and acted like Sinatra.

You should make a web series out of these mini docos - Bloom's People. I'm not sure whether I like this better or just equally to Booths and Bodies, but this is marvelous - and I guess is a more artistically satisfying version of the kind of pieces you'd sometime produce back in your news days?

...so gooood phil!!!

good as always !!

Lovely piece of work Phil! Definitely one of the portraits I've enjoyed the most lately!

Excellent work!

Ha ha! Great work. I swear I met his son once.

Looks amazing, nice work dude!

My favorite film of yours yet! Great work.

hi there !

From you blog post you say:

"I also used the Heliopan Vari ND to keep the shutter speed to 360 degrees."

Why did you use a 360 degree shutter instead of 180 ?
Thanks

The slow motion segments of the casings being ejected from the different handguns/rifles were quite amazing. Felt like I was in a nicely stylized action film. On top of that the interview subject himself was very interesting. Great work once again.

Watched this a second time, gotta love the sun flare shot at 4:03, which was an incredibly fantastic shot! Great work!

Hahaaa, awesome. Nice window into his life. Classic Bush joke, love it :) Beautiful slo mo gun stuff! Camera envy is...

"Co-existence of rednecks and hippies, man, that's what a Willie Nelson show is all about." - What a line!

Love this piece, the subject is amazing. He tells his own story perfectly.

Good stuff Philip :) One of the most impressive visuals I've seen from you yet, especially the slo-mo stuff, great angles. Interesting way of life too, thanks!

Philip, every movie is a masterpiece that gets better and better with each post. You did an amazing job of keeping the story about Pierce and using the flex footage as the wow factor. All of the gun scenes are so calming. Thanks for sharing so much of what you do behind the scenes.

amazing quality!
Love it!

This was my favorite PB work. I like how you kept the focus mostly on Pierce and your decision to keep the other shots to a minimum including use of slo-mo. The slow motion shots were absolutely incredible though.

So amazing!

Amazing short documentary into this man's piece of life. And as much as I want to ask questions about the camera gear, I know I am no where near being able to use those cameras, so the question seems silly. I would however, like to ask about the audio gear and issues you where having with that.

First off, what audio set up do you use to capture such clear precise audio? And secondly, what do you think was the reason behind the audio hum on this shoot?

All the best, enjoy your time in the States, and I look forward to your next video!

Is he taking a 'wee' in the background at 1:03?

Very nice! love the close ups on him! Would like to have seen his gun collection!

Lots of fun, and great reference footage for shell ejection vfx. :)

Love the Phantom Flex shots. Congrats !

I'm generally a bit afraid of rednecks! But he seems to be very sympathic. And you did some great slowmo-shots of really cool guns. But I would never own a gun myself because I would stay in prison for the rest of my life. I would shoot each guy who pisses me of or kill myself cleaning it. This is why I don't think guns are good for people.

great work, didnt' think i would like it, but it pulled me in. I have a new found appreciation and respect for 'rednecks' and 'hippies'. And the Phantom Flex is INSANE!! Amazing footage.

WOW, loved this. He is quite a character. Did YOU get a chance to shoot off a few rounds Philip?

If not, you should try it sometime. Just at a range of course.

One if your best pieces yet! Loved the speed ramping of the shells. Could watch that all day.

Composition is impeccable. Lovely stuff.

Phantom flex woo! Great Piece. You're so good at directing interviews and getting such good stuff out of your subjects

Way to go Phil weaving the Flex footage into his story.

beautiful!

A fantastic fly on the wall documentary. The RED Epic and Phantom Flex compliment each other beautifully!

Good job philip. I used to live in Texas and characters like these you'll only find there.

Excellent shooting !

Wow, damn sharp footage! Much sharper than our semi high res DSLR Videos. May I ask what lenses you used?

Haha, I loved that this guy was smoking a J the whole time. Amazing work with the gun footage. Really dig how you sped up the footage of him chambering another shell.

A great piece! What aspect ratio is this? It's shorter than 16:9, way better also!

Love it Philip. Everyone has a story to tell:)

You really have a great Talent to do Documentaries. I love those Razor-Sharp Close-Ups on Faces. Each Face has so much to tell (even if they would say nothing). And the Phantom Footage is f****** awesome ;-)

Nice piece! I miss my hometown of Austin, but I'll be there next week!

I'm dying to see this guy tear it up on a BMX! I know people like this. I too hate guns, but there are lots of people in the US who are just like Pierce. They just want to fire off some rounds, hang out and enjoy themselves. It's not about killing and hatred. They just have a good time.

Awesome piece. Did you use twixtor or something like that for the speed changes?

nice I like the close ups!

very nice philip !! i really like the footage that comes out of that camera, is it your red cam or have you just borrowed it ??

Hello. Can someone explain why the heck almost in all Epic footage the extreme highlights are tinted with terrible pink-magenta color? Is it a bug or just the nature of camera sensor?

really liked this

Great directing!
The slow motion shots are working out perfectly, very impressive!
Also like the ending a lot, when the titles get "shot away".

Can´t wait to see your next video!

It seemed the intent was to do some camera tests but the gunshots took me out of the man's interesting description of the community.

Great character find Philip! Those teeth! Taking a pee too! :)

A shell seems to disappear at 6.25... sorry if you knew that :)

Thanks as ever for sharing!

The great thing about this film is that regardless of what side of the issue you are on, you connect to it! It asks more questions then it answers. Thats what a good doc should do, and this hits the nail on the head!

Awesome edit, loved how it came out :)

So dope! Makes me wanna hang out with a Redneck Hippie like Pierce. Very engaging and hilarious dialogue. The slo-mo clips are smashing excellent. My best PB "People" piece so far. LMAO.

fantastic image

Wow. This is incredible Philip!! Slow mo is flawlessly beautiful! The whole film is very detailed and high def on the MacBook Air screen! Keep up the awesomeness!

Phil. I love all of your work and think you had a lot of amazing shots in here. However, I felt like it dragged on a bit for me. My favorite is still Booths and Bodies.

Also. Phantom shots looked crisp.

Well, you've done it again, sir. Masterful storytelling. Bravo PB, bravo!!

ja, man, amerika. great one, Philip!

Fabulous work. Beautiful.

Philip, quite an inspiring piece! so inspired in fact that I just cleaned my guns then walked out the back door and peed in the bushes! Great story, the images are outstanding.

Yes, the complexity belies its beauty. Everything is well integrated and the slow mo is just seamless. Being a Texas transplant see what kind of fun lawyers, doctors, business folks, rednecks and hippies have shootin: vimeo.com/19682964

Great documentary and approach - although I don't like guns too...
It is amazing to see that you do the whole thing by yourself.
Thanks for posting!

I love the framing choice you made! Straight on would have been the un-obvious choice in my mind but it worked SO well! Thanks for sharing

Pierce is the MAN!

It looks great but I was left a little unsatisfied considering you call it a doc: the title promised more than the clip delivered... I would have liked to see more of this guy, his home, his surrounding... there is no context except for the slomo gunshots, which, however beautiful, do not add anything after the third or so insert. (these were your 'darlings' that you should have killed, 'shot' preferably...)
A while into the interview I would have liked to see him in a different setting (see him move, see some body language) because you want/need to take distance to be able to 'see' the guy, literally get a different perspective on him.
I find the redneck-hippie interesting as a concept but in the end he seems just a redneck in a hippie body. I would have liked you to ask him what the hippie-side in him represented. In what does he truly differ from a redneck?
Just a few notes and I understand you had little time, too little time for the extra shots to make it a real mini-doc. I liked the way you sat him down on the porch, letting him sit on the rocking chair was brave(!) with that DOF. Liked the empty chair with the pee in the background. All in all nice pace and looks. A grateful subject.

chuckled at the shot where he is taking a leak. Good mini doc

Did you use a shotgun mic for the interview?

Can't get enough of your new 'controversial' mini docs.
I feel your finest skill may well be your ability to convey the subject's character so well. Just wish your detractors would quit trying to 'shoot' the messenger.
Found the Phantom shots fascinating.
Thanks Philip.

This is so GREAT!

Really nice work, looks great!

Great slow motions - wow...this is the opposite of time lapse, you can see stuff that you never thought was there.

The quality of the Vimeo render is perfect. Can you tell us what settings you use on the codec and if you use special software to encode it from the raw footage?

Great work, Phil!

Love it. The Slo mo is brilliant.

Can't stop watching it.... reminds me of home.

The re-edit is great. My favourite shot is 6.27, its a thing of beauty.

Nice work as always. Great to have you in Texas. Shoot more!

I met Pierce about 11 years ago when I lived in Austin Texas riding BMX & to see you do a feature on him was amazing but also reminded me of what a truly small world we live in.