Back From Florida!

(Last drive through Orlando, FL)

This morning I cataloged the fifty-five product videos from ICAST. I’m back to the screen, hunched over a laptop and thinking about sunshine. (I’m also thinking about getting one of those balance ball things to sit on while I work. It would make this side of my work much more dynamic, to say the least.) Every video needs to be synced camera to camera, video to sound, and chopped into neat little packages. Fortunately, editing is the easy part. But my work with Fishwire.net won’t end with this little series of projects.

I’m learning that when in comes to making media, subject and content are central to any given piece. Sure, the technical and aesthetic side is significant—and that part of the job is my specialty—but in the end, great stories, relevant ideas and intriguing concepts win every time. And really, the ideas are what matter, not the packages that they come in.

Where am I headed with this? Next month I get to shoot my first online half-hour show that will, Lord-willing, continue as a monthly series on fishwire.net. Am I excited? You bet! Am I nervous? “Yes” would be an understatement.

While scraping together my arsenal of creative visual ideas, I’m taking into account how beautiful visual pieces will fit into a larger story, and posses enough depth to fuel a compelling narrative. Images speak louder than words, and a well composed visual montage can tell a story far more powerful and memorable than a series of spoken words. I intend to use story to propel my imaging, and ideas to motivate the visual flow. Technical geek mess needs to meet the flowing aesthetic. The story will tie it together. Every project should be better than the last; we have to climb one step to get to the next. This is my starting point, let a new adventure begin!

Oh, and if you’re hoping to watch another video from ICAST, check out the video I got to shoot with Buzz Ramsey himself! Click on the image below:



And now, my friends, I am off to do one of my favorite things in the world, away from the computer, and taking a break from the camera. I’m washing dishes. Oh yes.

Welcome to Florida!

Yesterday work began in Florida, driving all over Orlando, getting as many shots as we could during the day.

In the evening, we attended the ICAST new product showcase.

After the day’s shooting, we got back to the condo at 7:30pm and I set to work logging and transferring clips. By 3:00am (my poor computer almost overheated…) the day’s video was ready to upload to the internet.

You can watch the introduction I created by clicking the image below (embedding is disabled on all of our Fishwire.net content):

Today we shot at the ICAST show 9-6, meeting with nine different companies to get the scoop on their new products. We picked one of the product videos to get online today, and for the rest of the week I’m getting a minimum of a video a day edited and ready for the internet. I may need to sleep for a week after this…

ICast Adventure Begins…

This week, work takes me to sunny Orlando, Florida for the world’s largest sportfishing trade show! Getting to the airport at 4am is definitely the un-fun bit. It’s difficult to explain being so tired and so excited at the same time… mrkfrgmffdYIPEE!

(3:30am)

Working on a Boat

My behind the scenes content thus far is sparse, consisting of unintentional screen captures and cell phone pictures snapped at random. Still, I hope you can enjoy my humble gallery of fun memories:

New experiences make my job awesome!

Even in heavy boots and plastic bib overalls, there’s something wonderfully beautiful about sitting alone on an sandy island, filming from shore. Keeping my equipment clean proved to be a challenge, but the scenery was amazing. There’s nothing like the sun peeking through the Northwest clouds, water lapping closer and closer along the shoreline, and soft sand stretched out in both directions with not a single footprint but my own.

Though I tend to be a night person, I managed to get up at unmentionable hours for amazing fishing trips. Isn’t it beautiful?

At the same time, making everything work at a moment’s notice (i.e. when a fish gets caught and splashes water on the lens just as it is being reeled in) is far from glamorous. Here the lens had just suffered one of many encounters with water droplets. The only immediately available cleaning device was the rag shown here. Yes, the red stuff is what it looks like. And don’t worry, it’s from a fish. You do what you gotta do.

Lead and Bearings

This week has been a whirlwind of work and preparing for next week’s trip to iCast in Florida. I’m excited to finally have the opening and closing Fishwire video graphics completed and polished. Over the last few days, I’ve shot and edited a handful of short pieces for Fishwire.net. It’s definitely not subject content I’m familiar with, so these projects were adventures!

If you want to check out the first two videos, click on the pictures below: