CityLife News Team #1

The above still is from the original version of the first CityLife video segment. It was part of a sequence that was cut from the final version because it was "sending the wrong subliminal message." I loved the sequence, but removing the teardrop-like melting ice sculpture close-ups was the right decision. I also had to remove some wide shots of the room because they showed that the event had low attendance, despite that fact that I was already short on cover and needed every shot I had. Such is the life of an editor. It's not a good idea to get too attached to anything; you never know what you'll have to toss.

That said, the video turned out better than I expected, and it's been getting a very positive response from a lot of marketing people in Wilmington. We definitely still have room for improvement on future videos, but at least it looks like we'll be getting that chance.

Watch the first video in the series here:

http://www.citylifewilmington.com/CityLifeVideos

Life in liquid crystal

I have a love/hate relationship with television. Quality shows like Lost and The Office are a great escape, a chance to tune out my moderately stressful reality. I really enjoy them. However, if a show on my list is not airing, the last thing I will do is turn on the tube and channel surf. I'd much rather read or go online for my entertainment fix. Also interesting--when it comes to watching TV, I'm a completist. I can't watch 24, even though I know I'd love it, because I didn't see the first episode. The shows that I do watch, I've been watching since day 1 (except for House M.D. -- R pulled me into that one during the second season), and I never miss an episode once I start. If a show is poor enough for me to miss an episode, I'll probably stop watching it all together.

We entered the age of digital television last weekend when we bought a 40-inch Sony Bravia. The thing stands like a black monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey in our living room. Its grand beauty marks our evolution in entertainment. This is quite a step up from the 20-inch tube set we've been watching until now. Frankly, it is too big for where we have it positioned at thte moment. We are working on mounting it on the wall, which will give us some needed distance.

The HD picture quality is very impressive to say the least. So much that it is exposing television shows for the facades they are. Now we can see the make-up on actor's faces. In some scenes you can clearly tell the action is taking place on a sound stage. There was a blaring example of this on the last Desperate Housewives: two characters were supposed to be sitting on some steps outside a restaurant--well, you could definitely tell they weren't actually outside. Lost does pretty well, however, because it's filmed on location in Hawaii. We've only watched one episode of it in HD so far, but it was quite spectacular.

It was surprising to me that HD broadcasting actually has a crisper picture than DVD. The real reason we wanted a new TV, after all, was for watching movies. I'm finally starting to see the reason for those new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players. Still, the larger screen size alone, makes the viewing experience more thrilling. We are definitely noticing more detail in each shot. The higher production values in movies versus television are evident. Sometime soon we will be buying a new sound system as well, and then I will be re-watching a little movie called Star Wars.

In memoriam Chase

A friend of some friends died this week. I've only met the guy a few times, so maybe I'm not in the best position to write anything, but it fills me with sadness to acknowledge the premature end to his life. His name is Chase Korte. He was an aspiring actor in Los Angeles. His talent and energy were boundless. Watch the commercial above to see something he wrote, directed, and starred in (he's the driver of the station wagon). That kind of work puts mine to shame. I would have been jealous, but he was too nice of a guy to wish him anything but the best. I don't usually open up to strangers, but the first night I met him was at a party where we sang through Rattle & Hum at the top of our lungs together. Maybe alcohol played a part, but more so I think he was just the kind of guy who was fun to be around.

There's been an outpouring of emotion on the web (on his friends' blogs and his own MySpace page). It's a great tribute to Chase... but it would sit better if he had had the chance to live another 60 or so years first. My thoughts go out to his friends and family as they mourn their tremendous loss.

Kissing the Liberty Bell

Of course we didn't actually kiss it. The security guards would have freaked out if we had tried. They are pretty protective of the thing; you even need to go through a metal detector to get into the building. But we saw it. Up close. And it was magnificent.

Actually, at the risk of upsetting the ghosts of our founding fathers, it was just a big bell, broken too. That being said, I'm glad we finally made the pilgrimage, a short drive up I-95, on Saturday. We also toured Independence Hall, had a quote about wine printed for us in Ben Franklin's printing office, and walked through various historic squares.

It was a busy weekend all around. On Saturday night we attended a party at some friends' house and had a good time. On Sunday I shot another web video. This one is not for the Bud Light Film Crew, but some of the same people are involved. We sort of covered a bridal show, while advertising for the restaurant where it was held. The host of our video is a guy who will supposedly share screen-time with Mark Walberg in an upcoming movie (albeit brief and non-speaking, as is usually the case with most "famous" people I've met). I believe this video we are putting together will be playing on the CityLife Wilmington website eventually, and if the first one turns out okay, we will have a bi-monthly web series to produce. There's a lot of pressure to make this one more professional and more serious than the Bud Light videos. We even had a script this time! Unfortunately, I have some worries about the results, although I usually do. My equipment is starting to show its limitations. I'm beginning to realize there's a reason professionals in this business use professional-grade lighting and cameras.

So I've been finding some video work. Finding the time to do it is the problem. This week, for example, I'm not going to be able to edit at all until at least Thursday night. I'm going out with coworkers tonight, shooting the next Bud Light video on Tuesday, and dining with my valentine on Wednesday. It also doesn't help that February is a short month. We're not in a leap year by any chance, are we? I need every day I can get.

Super Bowl weekend

How about that game last night? Yes, we gave in to the hype and watched the Super Bowl this year. I'll admit the game had a few exciting moments. I also enjoyed Prince's performance in the rain, and of course we got a kick out of the commercials. R went so far as to hush me if I talked while they were playing. She didn't want to miss a second. The whole time I kept thinking, I should post the Bud Light Film Crew videos on YouTube. The play count of the Rock, Paper, Scissors Bud Light ad that aired last night is up over 39,000 already. I wonder how many views my videos could have picked up just by having a Bud Light tag attached to them. Anyway, I passed on the opportunity because I didn't know if the people at the magazine would approve. I guess fame will have to wait a little longer : )

Our bigger night out of the weekend was on Saturday. We had three other couples over at our house for a Mexican-themed dinner party. Between cooking and cleaning, it's amazing how throwing even a small gathering can take up most of a weekend. It was totally worth it, however. We had such a great time. It feels good to know that we have made such interesting, fun friends since moving to this new town.

The only other thing we did over the weekend was take a hike through a local park on Sunday afternoon. Our intention was to burn off some Mexican calories and also to take some photos with the new wide-angle and telephoto lenses we recently purchased for our Sony Cybershot. I don't think these lenses will quite give us the results we could get with an SLR, but they should at least get us by until we are ready to invest in a higher end, but less portable, camera. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to show you from Sunday because we pretty much ran out of battery power as soon as we got there. Just think of the vistas of bare trees and frozen streams you'll never get see.

Speaking of photos... I scrapped the old album I had attached to my site and put this one together over the weekend because it will be quicker and easier to update. There's also a permanent link to it in the right column on this page, for future reference.

I need to get to bed. Buenos noches.

Bud Light Film Crew #2

My second video in the series is now posted at

www.BudLightFilmCrew.com

You'll see it follows a similar format to the first one (intro -> montage -> interviews), but I guess that's because the format seems to work. There will be chances to mix things up in the future. My main goal this time was to get the job done more efficiently than the first time. I shot less footage (18 minutes versus 52) and didn't spend as much time on the editing. As a result, the final product looks less ambitious than the first, but I think that's okay. Nobody said these were supposed to be the next Godfather films. I'm pleased with the final product though. It has a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment feel, yet enough polish to make it very watchable.

Bush in town

President Bush visited R's work site in Wilmington this morning to tour a greenhouse where researchers are working on alternative fuel sources. R did not get the chance to see him firsthand, but it sounds like there was a lot of commotion around her office due to the short visit. R quotes, "They totally re-did the greenhouse in only two days -- cleaned all the windows, replaced the carpet, installed new stairs, and re-mulched all the landscaping around it. I've never seen our contractors work so fast. " She also encountered the Secret Service on her way to a meeting. They probably placed her on their list of suspicious persons after she peaked inside one of their cars. Read this article from the local paper for more details about the visit.

Raisin Bran rant

I had Raisin Bran for breakfast this morning. We're talking about a generic Raisin Bran here, not Kellogg's or Post. Get this: there was not a single raisin in the whole bowl. It was the bottom of the box, and sometimes crazy things do happen at the bottom of a box, but usually with Raisin Bran it's a matter of finding too many raisins. It's the top of the box that is typically short on raisins, although even in that first bowl you expect to see at least a few. This box was the exact opposite from what is normal. Maybe it was packaged backward or at least stored upside down (although not in our pantry, I can tell you). Is it too much to expect to have raisins distributed evenly throughout a box of cereal? Maybe it's time to switch back to a name brand Raisin Bran or, possibly, give Honey Nut Toasty O's another run.

Off topic

How about we talk about something other than my video projects today?

The "Wrong Number Project" is almost complete. Dang it--there I go again. I'm having trouble with this.

What else is there to write about? I can't offer any unique perspectives on politics. If you want to read about that stuff, check out CNN.com. Sports are out of my knowledge base too. I could probably give you some more movie reviews (we recently watched Volver, The Illusionist, A Scanner Darkly, and Sweet Land), but I don't want you to think I'm too obsessed with movies (although I am).

Is it narcissistic to write about one's self on one's blog all the time? Probably. But if this is meant to replace my written journal, then I shouldn't feel guilty about it. It serves a purpose. Part of the reason I write in here is so that I have a record of events in my life and also to chart the progress of my video projects. When I decide to look back on my past, that's the stuff that will be interesting to me. I may have one or two regular readers out there, but I am my own audience more so than anybody else.

January is a month with a history of inspiring creativity in me. I like having the cold as an excuse to stay in and dream up what I will work on next. This year, between editing three projects at once, writing a screenplay, updating a blog, and the always-fun surfing of the web, it's possible I have too many things to do on my computer. I don't want to neglect social events or cut into my time with R, so I am trying to keep it all in moderation. I do enjoy other things too. Maybe I'll try to explore some of those other interests in replace of some of my computer time. That might keep me from getting burned out and also give me something else to write about.

Yeah, maybe I'll hook up the ol' Super Nintendo again : )

One last thing for the night--check out these splendid trailers for the new Lynch film. My anticipation is building for a second viewing.

French trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6CIhk_AMRw&eurl

Italian trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtzSSG8X9e0&eurl