Since we last chatted:
I finished the family photo archive, and it can be browsed at leisure on the tv. Victory! Apple really locks down their world, so it’s not the wireless dream I wanted piped direcly through the Apple TV, but the archive drive lives on the Mac Pro, and after rebuilding the iPhoto library on the Mac Pro specifically for the purpose, it’s all working seamlessly enough. And it should be easy to maintain. That’s nice. Our current screensaver is several hundred photos from our Italian Honeymoon. That’s very nice!
Lee, Tom Concordia and I managed to shoot (most of) the pilot for MTS, a web series which promises to bring something new and fun to our industry. More on that when we get closer to a release. The shoot day was a blast. Loads of laughs, and tons of great shots.
Then the three of us lit off to San Diego to shoot L’Oréal Professionel Foundation 2014. The event hosts 800 design and color artists in a five-day long education celebration, and this is our third year with them. Over the last couple months we built five segue videos for their Grand Opening. Beautiful. On site, Tom and I shot color and design step-by-step videos with the artists while also catching B-roll of the preparations for the Grand Opening. More beautiful. Then we shot the actual Grand Opening event with three cameras. Spectacular. Then, in what was perhaps an unnecessarily ambitious move, we built a video from that for everyone to see first thing in the morning at the keynote. Not sure we should do that again. As editor, Lee got zero sleep. But they loved it. Lovely. Then Lee remained exiled in his room to keep up with the footage from our roving cameras as it started rolling in. Tom and I were capturing the spirit of the event, with no shortage of a-ha moments and everyone’s genuine love of being there. After five days of shooting almost non-stop, the whole thing was distilled down to two minutes and ten seconds of video for the big finale. They also loved that. Job well done, and sleep was again a real possibility on the horizon.
Speaking of possibility, we had a great (really great) meeting that could lead to a lot more production work with a brand new client. This particular connection could be all sorts of interesting. Hope to tell you more later.
Tom’s flight was cancelled, and though the rest of the AV team had gone home, J Thor and Jeff were still around, so we all enjoyed a richly deserved afternoon at the patio bar. And evening. Yessir we did. And then a fantastic steak dinner at the Gas Lamp Strip Club. Delectable.
In the morning, with Tom safely on his way back to New York to dive straight into shooting Fashion Week, Lee and I loaded up the rental car and set course for Malibu. Because Malibu. Well, obviously more than Malibu. Also a fantastic seafood restaurant called Reel Inn. Also a meeting with a producer about our genre-busting zombie project. Mr Byrd lives on an artist’s compound. It’s both rustic and awesome, though it has to be said that the half-mile long driveway lined with five foot tall cactii gave us pause to wonder if we were about to vanish in the hills without a trace. The conversation went very well, though we wished Matt could have been there with us. We reckon we’re all on the same page. The wheels, as they say, are in motion.
You know, I really look forward to being less vague about all this stuff. I hope to get edited (rights-friendly) versions of the L’Oréal videos up for you. And MTS should be hitting the edit suite sometime soon. And the zombie project is officially in pre-production. We start shooting in mid-March. So there will be more. Hang in there.
In other news and since the last time I updated you, Avery’s command of the language grows by a word or two nearly every day now. She still demands her Daniel Tiger by shouting Yaya Yaya, but if that doesn’t get immediate results, she tries very hard to wrap her face around “tiger”, and I’m sure it’s going to click very soon. I missed her terribly while I was away. Almost an entire week! And her momma too. Marjorie and I had to postpone our hotel getaway because she and Avery have bad colds, but we’re both doing our best to be mindful of each other. To appreciate. To not take for granted. To help. I like to think we’re both lucky in each other. It takes… not work, exactly, but… awareness. Mindfulness is the buzzword these days. So that. And love. She said it very well not long ago – lead with love (and the rest will follow).
Life is good. How are you?