Exciting film project about to happen - really!

So there I was shooting for 12 hours at the Long Beach Grand Prix in California last Friday when I got a unique phone call. A friend of mine out of the blue called and asked if I wanted to be DP for a potential new show. At first I thought, he is pulling my leg as a birthday joke. But this was not the case. It actually is turning and moving very quickly into something pretty darn real. How do I know this? Well, assuming all goes well, I will once again be hitting the road next Tuesday to start this new project. So I ended up filming a race car driver a.k.a. the "Steering Wheel Guy" on Saturday in the OC of CA, drove back Sunday early, shot some stuff on the way too.. got back to Tucson about 2:30pm, took a quick power nap and then off into the editing bay. Here is the preview of what's to come and what we will be doing for the next couple of weeks.. Talk about "run and gun".

If all goes well, we will be putting up "dailies" and blogging about the whole event as we go. So stay tuned. :)

Update 04/22/11 - 6:00pm: It' ain't happening! At least my part. The sponsor decided to NOT go ahead with the project. I wish I would have known that sooner, then I would have enjoyed shooting stock at the beach instead of wasting time on this. I suppose the upside is I did make a pretty cool friendship with Ed Dellis. So it wasn't all a loss. :)
Update 04/25/11 - 8:00am: It may yet still happen. Sports marketing - go figure. :)
Update 04/25/11 - 2:00pm: It isn't going to happen. This leads to what will be a whole new blog entry about sports marketing, or should I say marketing in general.

Poptent.com contest for Wonderul Pistachios - #2

Yes, I submitted an entry for this as well.

Poptent.com contest for E-Trade - my submission

Poptent.com is one of those fun places where one can compete with real commercial productions on behalf of their clients. This client, E-Trade, basically is looking for new E-Baby scripts. Hence, they provided a ton of footage (raw) of the babies for use. Of course this was for visualization only and would never be perfect. More along the lines of  "story boarding" as opposed to a finished production. But it works and helps make a point. The assumption is that they would shoot the final version themselves once the winning script is announced. So of course, I just had to compete for several reasons.

1. It is always good to exercise the brain and write. Particularly when it comes to time restrictions in not only competition deadline time, but also production length time. This one is 25 seconds (30 seconds total is my guess for the final - but I followed the rules and gave them 25 including their logo goods.)

2. Hey, it's a competition! Who knows, I might win. (Big bucks on this one too!)

3. Doing any production for any purpose is always great practice and really helps in honing the skills.

4. Hey, I compete to win. And maybe, just maybe I have a chance.

5. Regardless of the outcome, it always feels good to have accomplished something.

6. Did I mention that there is a possibility of winning?

In any case, this was challenging to say the least. I worked my brain for a couple of weeks and well, could only say; "I got nothing". 25 seconds of nothing. A challenge that should be so "easy" and I got nothing. Frustrating to say the least.

Then on the last day of the competition... lo and behold.... I got something. Maybe it was all my wife's fault for putting up that sign in the bathroom. Figure it out. It was one of our inside jokes for a couple of weeks. And yes, she is the female voice for this entry. This is not a "public vote" type of competition. The client makes the winning choice. But that could also be a good thing in my favor. :)

Moby's new hit - Wait for Me - Music Video Contest

Just a quick piece of shameless self promotion. My music video entry, check it out and vote (hopefully for mine!):

(clicking on these links will open a new window for you.)

http://genero.tv/watch-video/2386/

And they're off!

Just have to post this.. after all, I need your vote. Actually, it's not so much me that needs your vote, but rather my clients. You see, our favorite powerhouse Google is now getting into the TV commercial syndication game. Imagine being able to bid for TV commercial time just as you bid for keywords, ad placement on the net and all those wonderful services offered by Google on Adsense. - Well, now that is becoming a possibility. Google decided to start this new service with a really cool contest. A video contest.. It is called TV FOR ALL CONTEST (clicking here will open a new window). Of course I used this opportunity on behalf of my clients to get them exposure and a chance to win. Not only could they win a whopping $25K of national TV advertising, but via the contest there will be lots of eyeballs on their stuff. It's a win/win. Of course this also helps me and my company a bit. It helps build credibility to my market place. Ok, this is purely shameless self promotion. Enjoy! So please vote when the time comes. Here is the schedule:





PUBLIC VOTING PERIOD Starts 12:00:01 am ET on October 16 Ends 11:59:59 pm October 27!

EVENTS	START Date	END Date
JUDGE’S SELECTION OF FINALIST VIDEOS (“Video Selection Period”)	Starts 12:00:01 pm ET on October 6	Ends 11:59:59 pm ET on October 8
FINALIST/ALTERNATE NOTIFICATION & CLEARANCE	Starts 12:00:01 am ET on October 9	Ends 11:59:59 pm October 15
PUBLIC VOTING PERIOD	Starts 12:00:01 am ET on October 16	Ends 11:59:59 pm October 27
WINNERS ANNOUNCED	October 30

By definition, what is a professional?

Here's a question that has plagued me for years. What determines if someone is a "professional" cameraman/videographer or photographer?

I have heard many answers to this along the lines of; "years of experience" to "the minute you get paid for a shot".

I suppose now that I have actually received my prize from LG Electronics for making the top 20 in their contest with my little 30 second clip (see VaderVideo site is finally coming to life... in this blog) which from what I understand will be used at various events of theirs, I am a pro! :) Heck, the prize, an LG Chocolate Cell Phone has a value of at least 1 dollar. Nanner, nanner, now I am a pro!

Of course in all honesty, that might be an overstatement. Personally, I believe as in anything else one does, the pro comes out after many hours or even years of experience as well. For someone to simply state that they are a pro in my personal opinion may be very deceiving. I for one have a real hesitation when someone asks me if I am a pro. Here's why, and again, remember, this is my opinion;

• things move very rapidly in the industry regarding technologies and standards - my belief is that a real pro keeps up on that.


• a real pro will experiment a lot! On their own time.


• if a real pro contracts a job, and knows going in that there is no familiarity within the scope of the job, they should be upfront about that. Perhaps even make a special offer/deal with the client. I have done photo-shoots on the basis of a fair trade (get stuff for my portfolio) to create a win-win.


• know one's limitations - sometimes you just have to say "I don't know."


• leave the "I am an artistic attitude" at home. Don't be a superficial wannabe with that egotistical garbage flowing from your pores. The true artists that I have met, never flaunt it, rub it in your face, nor do they brag about it. Many times when I asked that above question, they respond with "I really don't know as I am so far from being one myself, I never thought about it." - Humble people are very easy to get along with.

In any case, for me this is not a real issue, just a question that may have many answers. So feel free to chime in and offer your opinion.

P.S. Here is the official prize from LG that I received just last week. Does this make me a pro?

VaderVideo site is finally coming to life...

This is the very first of what will most likely be many entries into this here blog. ;D

Yup, the day is finally here where I can somewhat launch my new website "VaderVideo - where imagination and imagery meet."

I hope to keep this site informative, entertaining and inspiring.

• Informative - I hope to discuss tips, tricks and other such information as I discover them. I learned that there really are no rules to shooting video or photographs. I have also found that some so called "professionals" are only that in their mind. So I will be honest and never claim to be a pro. I'm just a guy that loves to experiment and sometimes really gets lucky.



• Entertaining - My writing will most of the time not be boring (I hope). I love to use humor and exhibit or draw pictures when so needed. This is why I put up some galleries. They speak for themselves.



• Inspiring - I hope that I can inspire all age groups to exploit the wonderful image technology of today and not be afraid to go for it! I did, and look what happened. I created this! :)

I do not plan to bore you with long drawn out descriptions of new products, but rather show you. I do not want to keep so called "secrets" to my self, but rather share them in hopes of helping you have a great and successful time.

So what are we talking about? We are talking about creativity with cameras, software and your mind. Truly, we must remember, this is where imagination and imagery meet.

As a first entry, I figured that I should at least exhibit just one thing that explains the above.

This is simply a 30 second spot that I submitted for a contest on You Tube. The contest was/is sponsored by LG and the theme was to produce a "Life's good when..." message. I literally threw this together from an idea I had and figured, what the heck. I made it into the top 20 and finals. Winners to be announced on Dec 3rd, 2007. I never expected to get as far as I did but rather did it for the experience and practice. One can never practice and experiment enough. In any case, having made it to the top 20, I at least won a cellphone from LG. Not bad.

The point is, anyone can do this, just keep it legal. Don't infringe on any one's copyright, ever! Whether it be video, photo or music, stay clean and be creative.

Enjoy:

Andreas (Vader) Hohl - Imagineerest ;)