Tuesday, September 29, 2009

looking for work at a time like this

my friend alex posted the video to his blog. also, washington bus posted my video to their blog. excitement all around.

today i spent the day applying for jobs.

has anybody heard of northwest marketing, inc? the google search results for the company show nothing but job listings. also, the website looks like it was built in 1998. sketchy.

also bizglimpz seems like a fishy program. they are looking for a freelance videographer and self-marketer to sell videos to local business. here is the deal: videographer brings the gear and the skill. bizflimpz supplies the web hosting and sets the price. videographer pulls commission. sound like a good deal? you tell me.

Friday, September 25, 2009

our money where his mouth is

have you seen the controversial gm commercial with ed whitacre?



people don't like that gm chose the ceo as the face of the ad when people are distrustful of people in suits now more than ever. to me, the controversial part is where whitacre says we're putting our money where our mouth is. politics aside, there are more problems with the ad.

vp & social media lead at razorfish shiv singh offers some insight into gm his blog that you might not get anywhere else. basically, that gm is missing an opportunity to start dialogue.

the problem is, how does gm regain america's trust after going bankrupt? the question of whether or not gm has any hope of turning over a profit is certainly subject for hot conversation. how do we divert the conversation back to cars? more specifically, how do we divert the conversation away from politics and onto something that will encourage consumers to buy cars?

pj orourke (take him or leave him) says in the wallstreet journal:

The American automobile is —that is, was— never a product of Japanese-style industrialism. America’s steel, coal, beer, beaver pelts and PCs may have come from our business plutocracy, but American cars have been manufactured mostly by romantic fools.

many have suggested, america's love affair with the car is over. i think this metaphor might be a bit unfair. i think america's relationship to the car is listed as 'its complicated' on facebook but it certainly is not over.

the problem with witacre's ad is that he fails to acknowledge the rift in the relationship. i don't expect him to get down on his hands and knees and beg, such as the entirety of the reinvention campaign, because that would look desperate.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

holy fuck from kexp music lounge

the name of this band is well deserved. i hid away on stage and you can tell my shots apart because i focus on the drummer and the bassist from the side of the stage while zeek and jim filmed the stage more head on.

the films of sean dunne

sean dunne is a filmmaker in new york. i found him through the little films blog. i like sean dunne's attention to detail. he is not afraid to get the camera in close and show us the texture of someone's life.

Man In Van from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.



man in a van makes me think of what i wanted to do for random. i can think of a million excuses for why i never made that film and none of them are suffice. maybe i ought to revisit the idea and take some notes from sean.

Buckles from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.



buckles moves a bit slow here and there but it retains gravity because of its historical value. someday even this will be a piece of history.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

songwriters shack

every man with big hair who picks up a guitar looks instantly like bob dylan. its a true story. and i've seen many of these singer songwriters buy into the persona and follow in bob's footsteps.

i stole this video from a big time dylan blogger. this is typical bob dylan-esque impressionistic storytelling and i don't think it is a minor detail that the 'dylan' character is reading kafka.



i like the soundtrack. is that the weight by the band?

Monday, September 21, 2009

cover letter to razorfish

I am applying for the assistant media planner position because my unique background in film and video will provide me with insight into how to best engage people with innovative media. In my experience working in the film and video production industry, I learned that behind every successful creative decision lies both quantitative analysis and real human relationships. Bringing my experiences to Razorfish, my goal is to continue to build on these lessons while gaining a buyer’s perspective into media production.

Last summer, I made a documentary about Pike Place Market singer-songwriter Tommy Dean. I played Pennebaker to his Bob Dylan in my homage to landmark music documentary Don’t Look Back. Making The Tommy Dean Show taught me so much about harvesting a valuable second-hand experience from hours and hours of footage.

Currently, I am working with Rys Fairbrother. He sells video advertisements for vacation rental homes in central Oregon. Successfully completing these videos while working remotely, I have had to build strong communication skills, while organizing a systematic workflow and displaying initiative. Success on this project requires patience and clarity to develop a systematic workflow to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction that we often take for granted in business.

My most valuable experience was an internship with Guy Roadruck at Media Plant, a creative services group downtown. Media Plant taught me the value of systematically plotting the progress of multiple accounts, enabling all team members to quickly identify projects ready for action or waiting on assets.

Volunteering with KEXP and The Northwest Film Forum, I saw a despairing gap between what artists want to produce and what clients want to pay for. I read in an interview with Shiv Singh in which he comments on media professionals who task themselves with “educating and enlightening our clients” and I like how Singh counters this mindset that the relationship should be more symbiotic, that “we learn equally from each other even about new phenomena…”

If Singh’s remarks reflect the sentiment of the company, then I am happy to submit my application to Razorfish. I look forward to developments to come. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

service and client, growing together

I am applying for the the assistant media planner position because my unique background in film and video will provide me with insight into how to best engage people with innovative media. In my experience working in the film and video production industry, I learned that behind every successful creative decision lies both quantitative analysis and real human relationships. Bringing my experiences to Razorfish, my goal is to continue to build on these lessons while gaining a buyer’s perspective into media production.

Last summer, I made a documentary about Pike Place Market singer-songwriter Tommy Dean. I played Pennebaker to his Bob Dylan in my homage to landmark music documentary Don’t Look Back. Making The Tommy Dean Show taught me so much about harvesting a valuable second-hand experience from hours and hours of footage.

Currently, I am working with Rys Fairbrother. He sells video advertisements for vacation rental homes in central Oregon. Successfully completing these videos while working remotely, I have had to build strong communication skills, while organizing a systematic workflow and displaying initiative. Success on this project requires patience and clarity to develop a systematic workflow to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction that we often take for granted in business.

My most valuable experience was an internship with Guy Roadruck at Media Plant, a creative services group downtown. Media Plant taught me the value of systematically plotting the progress of multiple accounts, enabling all team members to quickly identify projects ready for action or waiting on assets.

Volunteering with KEXP and The Northwest Film Forum, I saw a despairing gap between what artists want to produce and what clients want to pay for. I read in an interview with Shiv Singh in which he comments on media professionals who task themselves with “educating and enlightening our clients” and I like how Singh counters this mindset, that the relationship should be more symbiotic, that “we learn equally from each other even about new phenomena…”

If Singh’s remarks reflect the sentiment of the company, then I am happy to submit my application to Razorfish. I look forward to developments to come. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

a bit too dramatic for a cover letter

I graduated from Seattle University with a degree in journalism. From the graduation ceremony, you could actually hear the walls of Post-Intelligencer caving in on it self. For four years, we studied the art of collecting and contextualizing daily trivia, listening to professors lecture us about how television and now the internet have corrupted what was once the practical skill of objective journalism, never to ask the important questions. That is, maybe we were wrong all along? Maybe we were naïve to think that journalism is the truth and that the public, who prefer to get daily news, filtered through partisan channels and marketing agencies, is wrong? Maybe the time has come, to rethink what we think we know about how people hunger for information and how they consume it? Time to let this failed dream die, wake up now to the reality of what consumers want, the value content providers imagine they provide, and the disparity between the two ideas.



I like the Thomas Jefferson quote in the picture above: Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

the valule of viral video and the second hand experience

viral video is a pretty cool idea. make a video on a low budget. maybe shoot it on your flip camera and post it to the web. the idea is, its not the production that brings value to your story but something else.

my friend fransisco said to me that he likes how you can experience something in real life and capture that moment on your flip camera and take it home with you. you can open the video on your computer and re-experience that moment in a new context and you can share that experience with other people.

i think that is great! but what is the value of that experience?

how about this experience? i bet you always wanted to hang out with a couple of microsoft testers and geek out with them about bing! well, now you can:



i don't know how long the video is because i didn't watch the whole thing.

i found this page through a link on a blog critiquing the marketing strategy leading up to bing! launch.

i bet these guys had a lot of fun when they were making the video. you can tell by the jokes they tell each other and how they laugh. i bet they're great pals. but something seems to be lost in re-contextualizing that moment for second hand experience.

i met today with fransisco and we explored the possibility of making some viral video for his website. website design aside, how might i create a video that will be able to transcend that re-contextualizing process? as a local seattle video artist i want to know, is there a way to instigate a moment that might even benefit gain new meaning through going viral?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

filmmakers with blogs

i don't understand why so few seattle film makers are putting together blogs. every time i meet a film maker, i ask about their blog and they look at me like i'm crazy. they say they don't have enough time.

i found Jeven's blog today. looks like he was up in seattle recently and he made a music video for fun:



he has two feature films in the hopper. the scripts are: steven king's cain rose up and 1-800-Suicide by Michael Lamio. he's just as busy as anybody i've met in seattle and yet he has a blog. two or three entries a month.

now, to find some local seattle film makers with blogs. i want to see what people are doing in this town!

edit: i met a girl at the northwest film forum the other day who calls herself purple. she was with her dad and they were looking for someone who could help them cast a film.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

parking in the neighborhood

sdot will be hosting a community open house september 17, at first baptist church. please come and voice your opinions.

parking on capitol hill is a longstanding issue. are there too many people and too many cars to all park happily in the area? do more people need to ride the bus? do we need to tear down some unwanted buildings and put up a parking lot?



frankly, nobody can answer these questions better than the people who live on the hill, the people who bring value to the area. what city organization knows better for capitol hill than the residents and small business owners who live and work there? if sdot does not get your input, how will they know what to do?

i will be there to ask for an expansion of the zone 21 permit. i think anybody who buys a parking permit should be able to park anywhere on the hill and not worry about 1hr restrictions or putting money in a meter! so i hope to see you there and maybe afterward we can all grab a drink at rosebud!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

raphael saadiq live at bumbershoot

i volunteer with kexp once a week. most of the time i log tapes or catalog the archives but once in a while, online content cordinator jim beckman will invite me along to watch some live performances and shoot some video. i am grateful for this opportunity because it is a fun learning experience to record live performances.

raphael saadiq's old school rhythm and blues band was a surprise for me because i had never heard of them prior to the show. if you read his wikipedia page or allmusic profile, you will see that he's been around for a while.



for those shoots when a tripod is too much, it might be wise to invest in a monopod. no man can hold a camera that steady. i don't care how strong your arm is. you can never hold a shot for too long.

if you have the full final cut pro studio, you might be able to fix shaky clips in post. at kexp, we use the express copy so we don't have this luxury. but if you do have the full version, you can apply a 'smooth cam' filter. you can plan ahead for using the 'smooth cam' filter by keeping your shot a little loose. this way, when the filter enlarges your image for processing, you won't loose any information off the edge of the frame.

for a long time, i was obsessed with keeping one camera wide. here i will publicly denounce that initial philosophy. i learned my lesson. for live performances, wide shots are overrated. unless a performer is using the space in an interesting way, it is best to use tight shots. most performers do not move around too much and if you show them in a wide angle, you will only highlight the boring aspect of their performance. rather you should do the opposite and focus in on the little movements.

it might be wise to decide which camera is going to get which shots before you start. camera one focus on performer a and b. camera two focus on performer c and d. if two cameras agree to share a single subject, it might be wise to decide upon different focal lengths. this way, you keep your options open. you don't want to set yourself up for jump cuts in the edit studio.



try to minimize the noise in the shot. this is another reason to keep away from wide angle shots. the depth of field in video is too deep and if you throw in too much motion, you will only draw attention to the faults of the medium. keep it tight and try to keep the background bland and boring. black is good.

i love shooting video and i don't think i could ever grow bored with it. my biggest challenge is acquiring experience. every time i shoot video i make new mistakes. and with every mistake comes a lesson. and with every lesson, i am only more excited to go out and shoot more video.



thinking back to my work on the tommy dean movies, i would love to have a chance at that kind of project again. a subject like raphael saadiq would be a dream come true because his scene is neck deep in nostalgia. the question i would ask through a documentary about him would be, how does he capture the spirit of the original scene and how does he make it is own? pretentious stuff like that! anybody out there have any ideas?