A few quick things

I love how colorful the main page of my blog has been lately with all the stills from my backdrop project. I'm afraid to post anything that doesn't contribute to it. The sunset above should do. There are a few more shots from that incredibly scenic evening as well as some other recent events in my Santa Barbara 2010 gallery. I'll be adding to that album as the year goes on, so check back once in a while.

You may have noticed a new link labeled "Questions?" in the menu bar above. It will take you to my page on a social networking site called Formspring. I think it's a cool idea. Everybody likes to be interviewed, right? It makes us feel important (sometimes invalidly so :-). If you've ever wondered something about me but were too afraid to ask, now's your chance. You can do it completely anonymously. Just keep in mind, if I don't like your question, I don't have to answer it.

I was off to such a good start with blogging in January, and then I let it slide when our schedule filled up. Plus, I started editing a wedding video in my free time. Those sons of guns are a lot of work; it's still going to be a while before I have anything to show you. But I did take a break from it to put together some additional ThreadSpinner clips, so you can expect the backdrop series to continue again soon. The next two should be pretty epic.

That's about all I'm going to do for today. We've got a lot of fun stuff coming up soon: the SB film festival, wine class, a few trips. I'm also feeling inspired to start on a fresh video project. Up next I want to make some kind of narrative short film. It'll probably be a while before I get to it, but I will enjoy dreaming it up.

Video backdrop series, part 5: "Liar's Chair"

We're halfway there. Are you still with me? Ah, that's okay -- I'm mostly doing this for myself anyhow.

The backdrop for "Liar's Chair" attempted to with ceiling fans what "Summer Storm" did with sprinklers (it didn't quite work, however... more on that below). There are also some flashes of purplish light (sped up horizon tilts through trees at a slow shutter speed), bursts of almost unrecognizable freeway traffic rushing by, and an electrical current running through the second half (one of the few effects I used that was not captured in-camera but rather taken off the Adobe Premiere effects shelf and tweaked to look more explosive). The still frames you see here don't do the actual results justice because this backdrop is all about patterns of unrelenting motion and timing to the breakneck pace of the music.

The bummer part of this particular backdrop is that the first minute or so could barely be seen on the theater's screen. There just wasn't enough contrast in my ceiling fan footage. Add to that bright stage lights and a projector that wasn't great with subtle shading/color, and you're limited to subtle background movement when you wanted something audacious. Luckily, by the time the lightning bolt showed up, the visuals were complementing the band's energetic performance nicely. That's the section captured below.

Video backdrop series, part 4: "Summer Storm"

The backdrop for "Summer Storm" was one of my favorites. It's one of the few ideas from my initial brainstorm session that made it from concept to completion relatively unchanged. What I did was take about 20 shots of the lawn sprinklers in our courtyard up close and at a really high shutter speed so that the individual droplets of water were visible and appeared to hang in the air. The video starts off in slow motion, so that the frames change to the beat of the music, and as the music picks up tempo and builds, the droplets become a flurry of color and motion. It was quite a sight when scaled up to the large theater screen (in my own humble opinion).

I like that there is some ambiguity as to what you are looking at in this video. It does look kind of like a rain storm, which fits with the song's title and lyrics, but there's an awful lot of sunlight where you would expect gray and there are flowers and other objects in some shots that are clearly not getting wet. What is it then, confetti? There are a few hints along the way, like in the shot below were you can vaguely make out a key shape in the background.

But we decided to cut the more obviously revealing shot (below). Seeing the sprinkler at the end felt like a twist that cheapened the abstractness of everything seen before it. So maybe the audience was left wondering... or maybe they didn't care... I don't know.

As usual, I'm also posting a clip from the concert. You actually don't get to see much of the backdrop in action here, but I really like these shots of the band members, so this is what you're going to get.

Feliz Navidad

Our Christmas vacation was pretty incredible this year. It started with six days of visiting family in Minnesota followed by seven days of touring Costa Rica with our friends S&Q. We went from freezing cold to sticky hot; from flat, barren land to lush volcanic jungle; from feeling native to we-don't-even-speak-the-language alien... Yes, the two places are quite a contrast from each other. Our home in California falls somewhere in between, and I think it's safe to say we were ready to return to it by trip end.

I'm really glad we were able to see our families. (Photos here.) It just wouldn't feel like Christmas without them. We're lucky everything worked out travel-wise considering the massive snowstorm that hit the day we left. The drive to the airport was a slow one and we doubted the timeliness of our itinerary every step of the way, but we made it, flying away just before the weather worsened even more.

I could probably write about Costa Rica all day, but perhaps it's best left in our travel journal. In short, the trip was fun and adventurous. We went canyoning, ziplining, and rafting; saw a bunch of animals in the wild; toured a chocolate plantation (sampling the product at every stage of making it); relaxed in hot springs and in hammocks... Maybe you should just check out the photos. All of this talk about vacation is making me lazy.

2009 holiday letter

We didn't send out a holiday letter this year, but if we had, it would have looked something like this...

Happy holidays, everybody! It's been another memorable year and once again we're so thankful to be healthy, employed, and blessed to have all of you as family and friends.

This year has had its share of professional developments for the two of us. Jeff recently took a position as a Technical Analyst for Ameriprise Financial. He continues to work from home but makes occasional trips to the office in Minneapolis. He's grateful for the additional opportunities to visit family and friends while he's there.

Raia remains with DuPont and is excited to see the display technology she is helping develop move closer to fruition. She recently submitted some of her work for possible publish and presentation at a national conference. One day you might be watching an OLED TV with a good chance that Raia helped make it possible.

Work keep us pretty busy, but we still try to get out and see the world when we can. This year we camped in Joshua Tree, Yosemite, and Sequoia national parks; skied at Mammoth Mountain; attended weddings in Massachusetts and Minnesota; and wrapped it up with an adventurous vacation in Costa Rica (blog entry still pending).

Other than that Jeff has been working on some music videos, Raia has been taking some pottery and cooking classes, and both of us have been enjoying life on the sunny coast of California.

Have a great 2010!