Shooting Saturday

"Aaaaand... Action!" Much to my pure enjoyment, this was my most common phrase over the weekend. After a short break, it was time to pull out the cameras once again only this time, it wasn't for a "side project". This time it was part of my regular job. So what exactly were we producing? Sorry, I can't fill you in on all the details, my company may not like me spilling the beans on an upcoming campaign on my personal blog. So here's the story in a nutshell.. without really telling you anything.

Early last week, we began talking about how to promote an upcoming show. As my job deals with online marketing, I naturally started pushing the powers that be to do something big for the web. I have been pushing for a long time, trying to make my case to the company that we need to do better at harnessing the power of the internet. It's quite simple, really. We create some kind of inexpensive video that no one has seen before in our industry. Something totally different from what we'd normally do, so that when people see it, they'd be so surprised that this video was somehow connected to us, that they'd just have to pass it on to their friends. You stick something like that on YouTube (totally free), or you stick it on the right internet message boards (totally free), you send it out in e-mails (totally free) and then you watch it go. Assuming you don't spend a ton on the production, and it can get some legs on the internet, then you can potentially create a very wide reaching marketing campaign.. for next to nothing.

With that as the goal and my boss giving me the line that always fires me up "We'll use this as a test of your creativity", I was off. Before long, I had written a quickie story line that I thought was intriguing to me, I had written the script and I had my video producer signing off on the concept. This was also an easy sell as I conceived the thing to look like a youtube style video. Leave home the tripods, the dolly tracks and wireless mics, this was just a down and dirty, run around and shoot style project. This allowed me to get the right look, and to keep our costs down.

So after a very quick pre-production cycle, the weekend came.. time to actually film. Due to our quick schedule, we didn't have time to really cast the film, we just ended up with what our casting agency sent over. We all met yesterday morning, scripts in hand, props ready, costumes done (yes, I had to create a costume for one character) and we began to film, working through the day to get it all done. To me, this was just great fun. For once, I didn't have to be a one man show. I could direct the film and concentrate on what I was after and, with the exception of a few shots that I just had too visualized in my noggin, I had a cameraman to do the filming. Add in a production assistant and suddenly I begin to realize why it is nice to have a big crew. This wasn't a Saturday of work.. this was a Saturday of fun!!

So.. now what? After reviewing the footage today.. I am.. actually.. scared... to.. death. Like I said, this is something we have never tried before.. so how will people, especially those higher up, respond to our little experiment? And in reviewing the footage... I am not too pleased with how my actors delivered. It comes across as cheesy and painful to watch.

And so begins the challenge... take all this footage, create something from it that will work... produce the film, create the website and have it all done by next week (and get both execs and legal to sign off on it) and get it live on the web by the end of the month. Yikes. I love these challenges!

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UPDATE: JANUARY 25TH: Finished the film today. It was quite the little puzzle to put together. In the end, the film is totally different than what I scripted last week... funny how that happens. We ended up shooting new footage several nights this last week thanks to a last minute creative idea. But, I have gone from scared to feeling a little better. I finally had the guts to begin showing it around in my own department and to a few down at the studio. They all laughed through it. Good sign!

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UPDATE: JANUARY 29TH: Today was my scariest thus far. The video is done and locked. The site is now done. Next, I submitted the whole thing to my boss, who has known I was working on something, but still very fuzzy on exactly what. For a few minutes after sending the e-mail.. I got to sit there and sweat, wondering if he would think this was the stupidest thing I had ever done, or if it was ok. With him.. you just never know...

Luckily, he loved it. And suddenly things exploded. Next thing I know, there is talk of future installments, trademarking, t-shirts, etc. And the site that was all set to go live on Friday... had to be launched early so that we could begin spreading the word early. To further ease my worries.. it actually passed legal. And when the video was shown to the CEO... "He laughed his a$$ off" was the official quote. Ok... I can suddenly sleep a little better now.

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UPDATE: FEBRUARY 1ST:
Now the site is live and we begin to promote it across the internet, I can safely add my link here. Now.. will the site perform over the next few weeks? I get to sit back and track it, and hope it spreads. Time will tell.

Letter To The Tooth-Fairy

Dear Tooth-Fairy,
Ok, winged one... enough is enough. My kid is getting rich from you! While I understand it is nice to reward kids for losing teeth, I think you are starting to spoil my child. First, Tuesday night, your second visit to our home (and how'd you get by the security system, by the way?!), caused Little Calvin to excitedly run from his room, money in hand the next morning. One visit this week? Ok. I can handle that.

But then came Friday night. After spending several days working on two more teeth, Little Calvin decided he'd had enough of the discomfort and agreed to let his Mom pull his top two teeth out, as the new teeth were already coming in. And what did you do to reward his bravery? You added more money as a reward! So that's three teeth this week, plus a bonus buck!

Now, several years ago, I lost the last of my baby teeth (yup, I'm weird). I had been dentist phobic for years, and finally had to work up the courage to go back, only to end up having a tooth surgically removed... Well, ok.. maybe that wasn't actually considered "surgery", but they put me under so I wouldn't remember anything.. or bite the dentist.. so that's close enough. I was brave!!! I lost a tooth! And what did you bring me for my bravery? Nada. Nothing, ZILCH!

So what gives? I get left in the tooth lurch while you spoil my child... That just aint right...But at least you are giving us lots of opportunities to see Little Calvin's cute, although very temporary toothless smile and grin at his lisping all weekend.

But give me a break.. any more teeth and Little Calvin will be outspending even me with his new found riches. Since we are trying to slow down his growing.. it's all happening way to quickly... you need to not be visiting quite so much!!

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Quick side note.. I was just doing some internet surfing, checking out the sites I frequent and discovered I won a small Disneyworld contest. While It's nothing earth shattering, it was at least fun to stumble upon it pretty much by accident. The contest, held by the WDW Radio podcast allowed listeners to submit a name for the various mile markers for this weekends Disneyworld Half and Full Marathon, while also answering trivia questions. I had entered the contest to name the final mile of the Half Marathon race, mile #13. As I was keeping up with the events of this weekend's races and festivities, I found a course map and sure enough.. the name of mile 13.. was mine.

Now.. have I been notified yet? Nope, and the podcast episode that announces the winner won't even be out until next week. But considering I stumbled across it and there's my name.. I am taking that as a good sign that I'll be getting an extra cool package in the mail soon. So I'll eagerly be waiting for several new books, some Pirates of the Caribbean swag and my official mile marker naming certificate. This will all come in quite handy for this summer's family vacation to Disneyworld!

2007 in 5 Minutes

Happy New Year! Now I just have to recover from our late night last night. Yes, Little Calvin did make it to midnight... barely, and then he conked out immediately afterward. The house was even shaking like World War 3 had just started, what with all the firework mortars going off on all sides of our house.

Now that it is New Year's Day, and I have the day off from work, I (of course) have a new project to work on, whose goal is two-fold: 1. Make sure all my video footage taken this last year is safe and preserved so I can burn it out to DVD, thus taking away the chance of accidentally erasing it. and 2. Once that footage is all together, I make a montage of our memories from the last year.

Now, after making a DVD of the last few years worth of these montages last year, some who saw them asked me why I do this... It's not like its a quickie project. It does take time to sort through a years worth of video footage and condense it down to five minutes. Especially when we have shot footage on 4 different cameras (in 3 different formats) and on two cell phones.. let alone sorting through all the photos to augment into the video, select music, create opening graphics, and label everything so that when we are old and gray with our memories gone we'll have some sort of clue of what we are looking at. So... just a little New Years Day project...

But as to why.... several reasons actually. First and foremost, it's fun for us to watch. In just 5 minutes we can watch our kids grow over the course of a year. We can see them participate in sports, have fun, and remember the fun times. It's a fast paced way to see what we have done. The second reason is a little deeper. In a world of negativity, where every day we have challenges, lots of things to do, jobs, responsibilities, stresses, etc. it can be difficult to remember the bigger picture of life. What I record is not like a reality show.. I'm not recording when my kids do something stupid and get it trouble. I am not recording the break downs, the temper tantrums, or the disagreements.

A show my wife and I like to watch on the cable network TLC, is "John and Kate Plus 8". If you ever think you have a hard time with your family and its challenges, just watch this show. The family has 2 6 year olds, and 6 3 year olds. It's just nuts. Only with this show, the cameras catch everything, Parents John and Kate do bicker and fight, and then have those quarrels broadcast to the country (to be fair, they seem to get along great and that aspect is also shown). If that were my life, I don't think I'd want THAT much shown.

What I am doing is recording the fun stuff (well, mostly... I do show Dawn's broken arm, but that was a biggie moment for the year). So when I go back now and look at 2007, or any of my previous years, its like just watching the blessings. As a church hymn says "Count Your Many Blessings", well this videos help me do just that.

So I don't show these to brag... or to say "Look at all the cool stuff we have done", I do them to remind myself of my great kids, my wonderful wife and the opportunities we have been given to learn, grow and improve ourselves each day. And what better day to drive that home than on New Years Day.

So for those that are interested... here's my 2007 recap... a quick look into the fun times of 2007. Here's to remembering the good times, and remembering the bigger picture, as we head into 2008!