Well, just a month or so into my career at Georgia-Pacific and I got a very special treat this morning. Flying on the corporate jet. With over 200 operations across the US, it just makes sense that GP would have a couple of jets based in Atlanta.
Never Work with Animals, unless it's a Dog and Pony
There's a classic production adage that says never work with children or animals because they can both be difficult to work with. Well, this week we broke that rule by bringing in a dog, pony and monkey into GP Studios.
Get A Life!: Classic Pizzelles
In this "Get A Life" installment I'm talking Pizzelles! Classic Italian wafer cookies that are generally a staple of any holiday gathering. Often flavored with vanilla or anise, these cookies are made quite simply with, essentially, a waffle iron.
Georgia-Pacific is Tourney ready. Are you?
One thing about taking on a new role at Georgia-Pacific… you hit the ground running. March Madness is such a fun part of American sports and we have tons of certified sports nuts working at GP. Our Social Media team was looking for some way to have a little fun with the basketball tournament. So I quickly sketched out a storyboard and hatched a plan with lead on our intranet to recruit ‘actors’ for the spot. This turned out to be so much fun.
Price Waterhouse Cooper offers a lesson in responsibility
The 2017 Academy Awards offered proof of the classic television adage, “Anything can happen on Live TV.” And it did, in absolutely incredible fashion. The wrong envelope was presented to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, and while it’s obvious from the video that Mr. Beatty sensed it was the wrong envelope, the incorrect winner was announced. Confusion and chaos ultimately led to the category winner being corrected and “Moonlight” won Best Picture for 2017.
Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) offers a Free Writing "MasterClass!"
teven Moffat offers a free Masterclass on Writing. Don’t know the name? He’s the Executive Producer and Writer for some very small shows for television. “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock.” It’s offered as a free podcast download from the BBC.
The Start of my "Good Eats" Journey
This morning I'm going through my old, OLD emails to finally clean up a lot of the clutter that has remained over the years and I found a great trip down memory lane. The original email inquiry as to whether I could create animations for Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” or if I could refer them to someone else.
Get A Life!: Make Fun Over the Holidays!
The older we get, the more the Holidays seem to get stressful. Doesn't matter which Holiday you celebrate this time of year, there's so much pressure to have the "perfect party," get the "perfect gift(s)," "get everything done" and of course get stuck in traffic, especially on weekends near a shopping center. The Holidays are supposed to be a break from the stress of our "real work." So do something different and fun, like build your own gingerbread house.
I Can Do That! (How am I going to do that?)
I've been working on a new e-Learning proposal for the past few weeks. Didn't know I could do that? Well, I can and can't.
See it's a video centric learning program but just showing videos and scenarios isn't enough. We really need to test the employees at each step along the way to ensure they're getting the material. Years ago I established a relationship with a really good e-Learning partner for these very situations. For this project we're going to work together with them taking point on the educational design and me on the video production. We'll work together on the overall project management and development.
Moral of the story? Work on your network of connections for really good and really honest partners you can bring in so when you get a call that says, "Can you do that?" your answer can be "Absolutely!"
The Business of Hiding (behind emails and phone screening)
As a small business owner for 20 years now (wow, has it been that long?) I’ve seen a trend of unprofessionalism develop over the past 5 years or so that’s really accelerated in 2016. It’s the business of hiding (behind emails and phone screening.)
My "Video Budgeting" course is now available on Lynda.com
I'm proud to announce my first training product from Lynda.com (and LinkedIn Learning) Video Budgeting.
Whether you own a production company or you’re a freelancer, we’re all independent contractors and it’s important to understand and document the full scope of work and fees to be charged for a project. In other words, creating an accurate budget.
Could 2016 be the year Everything Changed?
In the same week of October, Microsoft and Apple both debuted new products. In past years, creatives, especially Professional Creatives, would drool over the latest slick and cool Apple products. But here in 2016, the bulk of the reactions I found online and through direct communications were all about Microsoft.
What Camera Should I Buy? New Course from Erik Naso.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in discussions with colleagues over what camera is worth spending money on. Well now, one very talented Director of Photography has a great new course to give you some guidelines on how to spend your money.
Mobile Video: Filmic Pro proves too buggy to use.
Well after singing the praises of Filmic Pro and my entire mobile video setup in my previous post, I took the iOgrapher on a 14 day vacation that included a NASA rocket launch, 7 day cruise and some time at Universal Studios, Orlando. Well, I’m sad to say the Filmic Pro experience was a major letdown.
Mac OSX Sierra. Proceed with Caution.
Thanks to a stupid user error on my part, I found myself unable to retrieve my photos in the Apple Photo app because another machine had updated the library. My Macbook Air was running OS Yosemite and my library had accidentally been attached to an El Capitan iMac. Unfortunately, El Capitan is already history from the App Store so I had to plunge into Mac OS X Sierra.
Taking Control of Your Phone for Better Videography
Prior to a recent cruise I picked up the iOgrapher for my iPhone 6. Having seen the product at NAB a few times, I knew it created a stable camera platform for the iPhone making the camera much more useable. I was more than impressed with the stability and ease of use of the system. In fact I shot a LOT more video than I originally intended on the cruise. While I was really happy with the with overall results, I felt that camera control and audio quality were lacking. The iPhone camera auto irises too much and the color temperature changes, sometimes at random. When the phone is mounted into the iOgrapher, the microphone is essentially blocked by the unit. So before my next trip, I knew I wanted to improve both areas.
"The Little Prince" An Animation Classic delivered by Netflix.
Streaming video services are just made for insomnia. As was the case this very morning when at 3:30am I could no longer lie restless in bed fearing I would wake my lovely wife. So it was that I found myself bringing up My List on Netflix. I was honestly looking for something non sensical that would lull me back to sleep. There was “The Little Prince” waiting for me on the third row, second from the right….. from the storytelling to the perfect blending of animation techniques this was one of the most beautiful and well orchestrated animation films I have had the pleasure of watching.
Managing Your Recipes: A "Get A Life" tip
One of the biggest problems for me in cooking is keeping track of all my recipes. Not only family recipes passed down, but even those I find online. Bookmarking online recipes and storing printed recipes in files and such, well it became frustrating to find anything when I literally have 1000’s of recipes around.
2 years ago I found the Paprika Recipe Manager and holy cow, did that bring a complete change to how we store recipes, cook and shop.
Why I use Rampant Design Tools
No, I’m not a paid spokesperson for Rampant Design Tools. I just love their products and when they asked if I would create a video telling folks why I use them, well of course I said yes. Beyond the awesomeness of the products, there the awesomeness of Sean and Stefani Mullen. Real creatives who make wonderful tools for the rest of us.
Talking Entrepreneurship, Cocktails and Cruising
Well, ok, it’s now tape replay, but I spent a wonderful almost 2 hours chatting with Sean and Stefani Mullen of Rampant Design Tools talking video production, entrepreneurship, 4k, 3D, the new Contemporary Living Network, Cruising, Cocktails and much more. It was a lot of fun and I thank Sean and Stef for the invite!