Mmmmm...PBWiki 2.0! Tastes Great!

I love doing video and my clients seem to like what I do for them. It's the most successful part of my work...but right behind it comes Wikis. People just can't get enough of them.

I've been using PBWiki for a couple of years now, and it's really taken off for me. I use it for government clients like LA County, and I use it for my friends like Tai Chi teacher Jennifer Hill and of course for my LA Leggers pals. I also use it for project tracking and project development. It's a great place to organize everything large and small...your most fleeting and tiny ideas all the way up to your next Major Motion Picture. Examples here are Top Secret...but I can say that it works very well for collaborations.

As a long-time user I was given a chance to Beta test 2.0 (now in general release), and it is deluxe. I've just begun to scratch the surface, but I know I'll be building more with PBWiki.

1099's, Unite!

Hats off to one of my unions (!) -- The Freelancers Union. They are starting a membership drive this month & in support I've added the button at left.

I think this group is filling a critical void in today's workplace: where else can the 1099er go for insurance, business and tax advice, networking...even advocacy?

Drop by the Freelancers Union Site to see what they are up to.

Inside the LA MARATHON 2008

NENIKEKAMEN!

OK, I am posting this with YouTube under protest...



...why? Because VIMEO has much better compression. Check out the same video here for a better time!

There's nothing like that feeling...congrats and thanks to all the amazing runners and Angelenos who turned out that day. What a terrific race! I got a little punchy going into Boyle Heights, but then I saw the view of downtown from the 6th Street Bridge...it's like that shot from the Wizard of Oz!


I shot this (and all the video here) using a simple Quickpod and my little Nikon. Next year, I'm going for a little more image stabilization. Or maybe I'll just shoot more stills. Either way, it's like the man said when he arrived in the city of Athens: "Nenikekamen!"



"We are victorious!"

It's Dick Sylbert's Hollywood...

...we just work in it!

Six years ago this month Richard Sylbert died of pancreatic cancer. He was amazing: one of the few true men of genius I ever had the pleasure to interview. His knowledge of story and of design was profound, and it gave us THE GRADUATE, CHINATOWN, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, ROSEMARY'S BABY, REDS, THE PAWNBROKER, and on and on and on.

I meant to put this out there before now: attention must be paid to this kind of skill. Here's a little peek into his genius through what is probably his most famous film: CHINATOWN. A short segment from MASTERS OF PRODUCTION, a doc I created for PBS a few years back.

I have two regrets about that doc: it isn't available for the many students out there who are struggling (as so many of us have) to understand the junction of story and design, and it's not out there to illustrate what people inside the movie business know:

It's Dick Sylbert's Hollywood, we just work in it.

LBO Time Lapse: second night

Well, here's the fantastic ORPHEUS AND EURIDICE that LBO turned out...in time lapse. You can even catch the pre-opera talk with Ricky & Andreas if you don't blink.

I did two others and will post one more in a day or so...after I get the footage of the Best Curtain Call EVER in order.

Wanna guess what we all did after the bows on closing night?

Orpheus and Euridice Tech...with life jackets!

We're coming down to the wire in Long Beach with one of the more interesting sets of challenges (technical and artistic) that I've seen in recent years: the LBO's production of Ricky Ian Gordon's ORPHEUS AND EURIDICE at the Belmont Shores Olympic Pool Complex.

That's Elizabeth Futral and Todd Palmer in the title roles...and in the water! The sound has turned out amazingly well, and tonight we'll get a look at lights and set. I was able to load in my video projections on Monday and things are looking good. The only problem (aside from the constant fear of water + electricity) is that much of the show has to be set up and struck every day. We've got three performances (Sunday-Monday-Tuesday 2/17-2/19) and three nights of tech and dress.

Elizabeth and Todd are both amazing artists and endlessly kind and pleasant in the face of 10,000 gallons of H2O...and I'm also having a great time working with Maestro Andreas Mtisek and designer Alan Muraoka (who got me into this). Links to press and video will follow in a couple of days, no doubt. Till then...More details here...

Beyond YouTube... Tudou? Or: Notes from a Small Web

Recently I've been reading and researching Bill Bryson's work, and in my travels I came across some interesting video of him from a most unlikely location: Shanghai.

That is the home of Tudou, China's largest video sharing website. I saw an episode of his BBC series NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND (based on his wonderful book and unavailable on this side of the Pond).

My Chinese isn't what it ought to be, but I was able to figure out the design of Tudou well enough to find five more episodes posted by a Chinese fan of Bryson's. They are a little trucated, but well worth watching. Bryson's idiosyncratic tour is entertaining, and he himself is a fascinating product of Iowa roots and British soil. Dry, droll, and yet a man from the heartland.

Best of all for doc makers is the cinematography: the interviews are often shot at a distance with a lot of foreground: there's a fascinating combination of physical distance and conversational initimacy throughout...and some of it's just flat-out beautiful even as it's being streamed from half a world away.

Don't let the Chinese charaters bother you...just wait for a minute and the show will load...

Episodes: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

INNOCENT at the Smithsonian

Ken's play is going to DC...and the video's going too.

Just got the press release...looks like INNOCENT will be performed on Feb. 23rd...here are the details...

To mark the 66th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which led to the incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II, the Smithsonian APA program presents the critically acclaimed new play, Innocent When You Dream, by Ken Narasaki.

Fresh from its Los Angeles world premiere, the cast arrives intact to present a staged reading of their production, which was named a "Critic's Choice" by the Los Angeles Times and a "Pick of the Week" by LA Weekly, and won the 2006 Kumu Kahua Pacific Rim Playwriting Award.

A Nisei father lies in a hospital bed, only partly aware of his two adult children who have arrived at his bedside, unsure their father will survive. While the father returns to his interned past searching for a lost first love, his children bicker and argue, not quite ready to let their last parent go.

Want to buy a ticket?

FFFFound It!

Thanks to my friend Karim over at Logicalnot for turning me on to FFFFound.com, a really great place to wander around and a great place to get design ideas.

Users can upload their favorite images, but the really interesting thing is that you can "favorite" images which will then lead you to more images along the lines of what you're interested in. For some reason I kept stumbling on young Darth here...interesting image, no? It works on so many levels...

FFFFOUND's in private beta right now, but you can still poke around. BTW: the photo originally came from www.alexbrownphotography.com

Michael Kidd, RIP

This is a tough one...Oscar Peterson and Michael Kidd, both gone within a day of each other? Sheesh.

I didn't know Mr. Peterson, but I did have the privilege of interviewing Michael Kidd on his work and that of Agnes DeMille for a piece on the DeMille family many years ago. Talking about dance with him was fascinating because he had such a snap and a wit...talking about dance is tough and he was endlessly ifascinating! He's one of the few I could have gone back to gladly for another hour (or ten).

I also loved his humor. At one point, my former partner Keith Lawrence popped off with one of his trademark, tasteless non-sequiturs (driven by only-God-knows-what impulse) when Kidd mentioned his wife.

"Gee, I thought you were gay," the absolutely unaware and uninhibitable Keith mused.

I gagged: not the first or last time that happened with Keith.

Kidd, ever the smart-mouthed Brooklyn lad, whipped out a comeback without even taking a breath.

"I used to be, but that was just to get into show business."

What a guy...read all about his life and times....

John Lennon's FBI File: DECLASSIFIED

THC continues to run the Declassified series...next up is one I wrote based on the great work of Jon Wiener...JOHN LENNON'S FBI FILE...

"From approximately 1956-1971, thousands of American residents and US citizens, from John Lennon to John Kerry to Martin Luther King Jr., were the subjects of COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program), the FBI's secret operation to target people and organizations viewed as un-American. Decades later, historians and the subjects of the spying themselves have begun to use the Freedom of Information Act to piece together the story of COINTELPRO. In this episode, we focus on the case of John Lennon and uncover the effects of the FBI's domestic spymasters on this pop-culture icon and the myriad of people who loved him."

Check out this page for a sneak peak...it's airing twice on 12/27/07...check your local listings for times. Next up: Godfathers of Havana.

Fun little time lapse, and premiere of new Story Tactics slate

I did this little piece in part to see what it would look like (I've always loved time lapse...I have a great one of a day in the life of a baby hummingbird around here somewhere), and in part to tip the cap to Ken Wong. He manages the Water Stations for my running club, which is one TOUGH job. He has to get up before the milkman, and carry a ton of water and snacks to the locations, and (worst of all) he has to get us Leggers to help him out. He also takes some great pictures. Bravo Ken...you do a hell of a job!

Also...more importantly for Story Tactics...I built a new slate for the end: a little Story Tactics animation. I remixed an old Devo tune (Timing X) which has haunted me ever since I first heard it. I remember picking it out on the piano years ago...I should see if I could do it today. Still working on the other Legger video (City of Angels Half)...but more importantly I've just started digitizing my first major project of 2008: the first two of what will eventually be six (and then as many as 20) videos for Los Angeles County. More on those soon.

Orpheus and Euridice at LBO

Ricky Ian Gordon, an Olympic swimming pool, and the Long Beach Opera...what's missing?

Video, of course!

I'm working with Maestro Andreas Mitisek and Designer Alan Muraoka to create a series of video elements for their upcoming production of Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice at the Belmont complex. Elizabeth Furtal and Todd Palmer will be revisiting the roles they created in 2002. The infamous Halloween Eyes will be transformed into Furies for starters, and somehow I'm going to get some fog projection in there...and maybe some live video mixed in with stills...hmm....

Best of all, water and light. This should be a VERY interesting project....

Congrats, Mr. Flynn: it's a Producer!

A new thespian threw on the Producer's cloak and hat this week: not content with the Halloween Eyes (see this space, this time, last year), Jack Flynn took over the back yard. Along with a dozen of his friends, he had the innocent and the doomed screaming for about three hours on Wednesday night. Herewith: the video

Good Samhain!

Welcome to 13.1 ... next stop, 26.2

You've gotta have a hobby...and you're probably going to make art about it too. Nine of the folks in my LA LEGGERS pace group ran the Long Beach Half Marathon last weekend & I made this little video in tribute to them and our amazing mentor Rosa.

Bravo to all the Leggers there last Sunday: you're an inspiration. I had a rough time at the end due to a pair of cramping legs (no pain quite like that), but I crossed that line and I'll be back for the City of Angels Half, and then (of course) the main event in March.

For now, in the immortal words of Pheiddipedes, "Nenikekamen!"

"We are Victorious!"

Pick of the Week! Critic's Choice!

The reviews on Ken's play are out, and they're excellent...so it's time to do a new version of the trailer! Check it out!

Darlene Miyakawa, our stage manager, mentioned that a couple of people had asked about the creation of the video. Much of the imagery came from either a collection of home videos shot by internees, clips from Lane Nishikawa's film ONLY THE BRAVE, or stills from the Library of Congress. I also shot some footage of Sharon in costume in her backyard and used some video effects to step all over it and make it look like the old camp footage. The sound I grabbed from a couple of different PD sources (like blowing on the mic to make wind-blown desert).

The whole magilla was edited on the home version of Sony's Vegas Studio, a $79 piece of software which (installed on my Dell dual core XPS) does everything my old $100,000 AVID used to do and more. Sony's DVD Architect stinks, so I authored the DVD with Nero.

So what are you waiting for? Get your tickets now!

INNOCENT Opening...and an online trailer!

I've done a bunch of little videos for the world premiere of Ken Narasaki's new play INNOCENT WHEN YOU DREAM now playing at the ultra-cool Electric Lodge in Venice. What a great cast! I've always loved Sab Shimono (the lead), but the rest of the cast is also first rate. The first cue is very interesting: about two minutes in, Sab's character has a stroke which we're trying to show with the video...flashbacks to past trauma that prefigures the action in the play.

After doing the second or third revision I started to think that it's too bad I can't share this more widely...out of context it makes little sense. But then it occurred to me that I had more than 50% of a theatrical trailer on my hands...add some titles and voila. And so I did. The company was thrilled...I have the feeling I'll be doing more of these....

Kosh-san, Yoku Dekimashita

Well, this is wild!

A little Japanese documentary about the art of my brilliant friend Kosh. He is, along with Susan Shearer, owner of 10 Worlds...but back in the day he designed for the Beatles, Stones, The Who, Marc Bolan, Linda Rondstat, ELO, James Taykor, and on and on and on...

Even if you're a henna-gaijin, this is a very watchable little doc. It has commentary by a faux-Kosh (wearing a jeans jacket, but lacking an English accent) in a language you'll understand...and the pictures are really all you need, anyways!

Innocent When You Dream

Yikes! And that's just the draft of the first cue!

I'm working on a new Timescape production that's going up at the Electric Lodge: INNOCENT WHEN YOU DREAM by Ken Narasaki. Sab Shimono is starring...Saturday's run was really terrific.

There are only a few video elements, but as you can see they're pretty dense. Should be cool! Drop by the INNOCENT page on MySpace for details.

Declassified on Demand

THC has added a bunch of Declassified Webisodes to their site...check here to view them!

Also, despite weekly rumors to the contrary, Fidel seems to still be among the living. HOWEVER, when he does shuffle off this mortal coil, tune in to History for a special episode of DECLASSIFIED.