Bad Blogger, Going Mad

What?! A new blog post on Calvin's Cosmos?!

I know... I know... I managed to take what was once a successful blog, with active readers and kill it due to months of inactivity. The single best way to kill a blog is to leave it sitting dormant. And I have been feeling guilty about it. Especially this last week as I finally found a gold mine of old friends I had been searching for on Facebook for a long time. I know each could be visiting my blog, to read of all my adventures, and seeing that there had been no update since last July. And so, as busy as I am right now, I vowed to try to get a posting up.

But my lack of recent blogging isn't due to my sitting around being lazy! Quite the contrary! I have been going out of my mind nutty lately! Let me use this post as an explanation and I think it will make sense why the Cosmos has been neglected.

When I last posted in blogland, it was July of 2009. I was unemployed having lost my awesome job of the last 12 years when the economy tanked and people abruptly stopped buying half a million dollar RVs. I was keeping plenty busy with freelance work, but still needing a good job to keep the bills paid consistently. In August, things suddenly trend around. One of the vendors that I worked with a lot (the group that printed all my DVD covers) called to tell me they had an open position for a graphic designer and wanted to encourage me to apply. The position was just part-time, but I figured this was ideal, as I could spent time in my job, then spend the rest of my time building up Steve Barth Media Productions. As it turned out, I got the job and within the first month I went from working part time hours to full time, as that is what the job demanded. And so, at last, I was back to work.

About this time, I began what I can only call "My insanity"... Something I will not do again: attempt to produce 2 films, on 2 different subjects, simultaneously. Note to self: doing 2 very mentally intensive films at once is a Baaaaaad idea. I had filmed "Last Week" back in April of 2009, and while the principal photography portion was done, it still had to be edited and produced. Then, in mid-August, I began actively filming my next sport movie called "4A Foray". Half my brain was tied up in a film about a musical, and half my brain was tied up in filming and editing a volleyball film. It just about made me blow a head gasket. Soon, I had to postpone "Last Week" to the spring of 2010 in order to not go crazy and learn to just focus on one major project at a time.

One of the fun things about continuing to produce my fall volleyball film, is that I constantly have to do things differently.. to avoid just making the same film each season. And this year was no different, as I had some of the most ambitious plans ever for this film. One of my crazy ideas was for what I called a "spin cam", a camera rig that would hang from the gym ceiling, and spin around the players as they practiced. After a lot of brainstorming, I am proud to say, I built what my brain was thinking and I successfully filmed with it. Although it was fun explaining this to my wife and hearing her reaction... "Let me get this straight... you want to take your super expensive camera, suspend it upside down high above a super hard gym floor and spin it in circles?!" But like I said... we did it!

Here's a little peak at this years film (and it's the one I am most proud of, out of all my volleyball films!) If you wait for the second half, you can even see some of my spin cam footage (my favorite shot is at the 5:37 mark... Thanks Merc, for looking like a bad ass..)



And if you only have a minute.. Here's a quick promo video. Yes, I was doing more of these this season:



So... working full time, and attempting to edit one film while simultaneously shoot and edit another one, with all the travel that goes into it... what does my life really need at this point? Yup.. one more super time-consuming challenge. From 1999 - 2002, I taught early morning seminary and LOVED IT! I considered it my favorite calling in the church. So last summer when my Bishop approached me about returning to start teaching again, I jumped at the opportunity. Even with all I knew was going to be happening in the fall, I jumped at the opportunity. And so, in early September, I began teaching my class of 12 freshman and sophomores each morning at 6:15 AM and adding class prep to my lightly to-do list.

And you wonder why I slacked on the blog... Some days during the craziest part of this whole schedule played out like this: Teach seminary at 6:15, be to work by 8, work 8 - 5, go film a volleyball game from 5 - 9, go home and edit from 9 PM - 5 AM, prep seminary from 5 - 6 AM, then repeat... Who needs sleep, right?

So.. let's see.. what else have I missed reporting on? There was a trip to Disneyland in August (the weekend before volleyball filming began) to celebrate Little Calvin's birthday...



There was Halloween (and Little Calvin's awesome Legolas from Lord of the Rings costume):

There was Dawn's Birthday...

And Christmas...

And New Years, with my traditional "Year in Review" video that I put together over the New Years holiday weekend:



Even Valentines Day:

And that brings me to March of 2010. Have things gotten any better? Not quite. Take this weekend for example, where I will be:

-Continue to edit "Last Week" as it finally has a premier date of April 17th, where I am flying to Colorado to premier the film for those that helped me make it.
-Produce a video for a client that is due on Monday.
-Try to finish producing 2 websites, for local clients patiently waiting their completion
-Film 2 games of the state basketball playoffs tomorrow for one of my upcoming projects.
-Shoot family photos (another service added to my business offerings in 2009) for a local family, before their father is deployed next week.

And so... yes... I have neglected my blog just a touch. Not because I have lost interest in writing or communicating, just for pure business reasons. Plus, Facebook makes it so easy to quickly update my status....

Its amazing, I know.. to have a blog update done! With so many stories ready to share and so much that is happening in my media world, let's just hope I can continue to find time to keep this going. Calvin's Cosmos is a good thing for me, I need to keep it going!!