musings on good work in media, marketing, management and ministry

Panera is great. Free wi-fi, free coffee refills, superb music, and those amazing cinnamon crunch bagels.  But tonight (as the incredible Concerto for Two Violins by J.S. Bach is playing) I’m having the Greek salad, with no hot peppers, no olives, no onions and dressing on the side. (Some would argue: “so how’s that a Greek Salad?” — my reply:  It has feta.)  But I digress.

I came here because I couldn’t write in my office. As soon as any spark of inspiration would come, a distraction drowned it out.  And voila… I just finished writing a show.  I think it’s pretty good, and it got done in near record time.  But just as I was feeling great about it and refilling my iced coffee, it dawned on me…

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I recently had the great privilage of being the director of photography and assistant director on a major video production. I wish I could tell you all about it, but it’s forbidden. You know, strict secrecy… very hush-hush.  But I can tell you about the technical stuff (and half the fun is playing with the toys).

I selected the camera package, and ended up doing a shoot out that I’d long wanted to do, and the results really surprised me.  Because of the fast schedule (we didn’t want to keep the talent waiting around) I had two complete camera packages. One was a Sony CineAlta EX1 with a Letus Ultimate and a full set of Zeiss T* primes. The other was a Sony CineAlta EX3 with a Fujinon 2/3 adapter and a full set of Zeiss DigiPrime lenses. (I love the DigiPrime sales line: Imagine a set of prime lenses so precise, they redefine the concept of High Definition.) But hey, at a cost of $135,000 or so, they’d better be good.

Before I get to my findings, let me tell you about the crew… [Read more →]

I have no idea how the redneck title on this post came about.  Yeah, we lived in Tennessee for a spell, but never in a trailer… but I digress.

Kat (my marvelous, talented and beautiful bride) tells me that it’s a natural law - when I’m out of town, something breaks, and the further away or more out of touch I am… the greater the likelihood of something major going south. (I can’t recall what died while I was in the Guatemalan rainforest - but trust me… something broke.)

So on Friday I’m back home after a week on the road and the screen on the sliding door had fallen off the track (simple fix) and the TV had given up the ghost.  It did so in a most asthetically pleasing way, or so I was told. During the opening animation of Sleeper Cell there’s a flash, but this time it was much brighter with a very high pitched noise, mixed with that sweet burnt electronic smell.

Well, that’s good news and bad news.  Bad, because now we can’t watch anything on TV (unless we wanted to walk all the way downstairs to the rec room area - yeah, as if!) and good because hey, let’s be honest, if you’re going to buy a new TV you just have to go 1080p HD!  And of course, I need new 5.1 speakers, and…

I was honored to lead two workshops at the recent National Religious Broadcasters convention. Thanks to my fine friends Jenni Catron, Matthew Paul Turner and Michael Buckingham, the workshop UnChurched was both intellectual fun and tremendous motivation.  And my fabulously talented and beautiful wife Kat shared the teaching and motivation responsibilities with me for our Digital Storytelling workshop. Thanks everyone!

Getting tons of new ideas from workshops (like mine) is one of the great benefits of really good conventions. There’s a real downside, however…

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My right shoulder has been proud to hold a wide array of cameras — first were the CP-16, Eclair ACL2 and Arri-BL film cameras, then the RCA TK-76 and Ike HL-79. Finally came the death of 3/4″ and a long series of better and better Sony Betacams. Then digibeta cameras and various DVCPro configurations. Now I use a Sony XD HD that makes pretty pictures but it has something in common with all of the other cameras I have traveled the world with:  they’re big.

Today I just worked to get a small high-def camera for an upcoming shoot. It’s amazing… low light capability, tape or flash drive recording, a real lens. Pop that baby on a carbon fiber tripod and slap a micro led light panel on the hot shoe; attach a mini wireless receiver and you’re set to make great broadcast TV and everything can fit in a carry on bag!  I love it!

My shoulder can still support the big cameras, but for all of my international and disaster stuff - give me the small camera, please.

You’d think, growing up in New England, that I’d be used to the cold. I actually used to love winter… spending hours cross country skiing on the old logging roads in the forests surrounding our 200-year old farmhouse.

Since then I’ve lived in mostly warm and temperate areas, and have gotten used to it. But in God’s divine humor, I’m living in Michigan and this weekend it snowed every day.  Real winter is only a week old, and I’m tired of it already.

How does this relate to media, marketing, management or ministry?  I’m open to gigs in Florida, Texas, Southern California, Hawaii, Fiji — you get the idea!  Email or call me - I’ll give you a special winter getaway rate!

I spend a ton of time traveling, both in the air and driving (when can I please start sailing again?!) and most of the time I have my iPod on.  Only rarely am I listening to music, although I have a nice collection ranging from Eva Cassidy to the Rolling Stones, from James Taylor to J.S. Bach.  No, I’m catching up on Podcasts, mainly sermon series from Rob Bell, Mark Batterson, Andy Stanley… and about ten others.  I do this in blasts, waiting for a pastor to finish a series and then I listen to the whole thing in one shot.

I did that today, listening to Kent Dobson filling in for Rob Bell, then jumping over to Andy Stanley on the will of God.  If you have anything to do with podcasts here’s some advice I’ll pass on from today’s listening:

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Cindy McCain and my wife, Kat, have something in common (besides both being beautiful, capable women)… they have both been active volunteers with the Norfolk, Virginia based charity Operation Smile.

I was watching Mrs. McCain’s speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, during which she mentioned Operation Smile. This fine group of plastic surgeons, ENTs, dentists (and many other medical specialists) did the work on Bridget McCain’s cleft lip and palette, John and Cindy’s daughter whom they were entrusted with by Mother Theresa.

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Not long ago I blogged about Twitter [click here to read it] and wasn’t really all that complementary.  But what a power peer pressure is!  Some of my best friends are active twitters, or is it tweeters… check out what Michael “Holy Cow” Buckingham and Mark “Hardly Normal” Horvath are up to [ @holycowcreative and @hardlynormal ].

So scroll down the page a bit and glance over to your right and you’ll see a new feature… a Twitter box where you can read my latest Twitter post, which I think is really called a Tweet.  In fact, click at the bottom of the box and you can follow me and see what strikes me as interesting throughout the day.

My Twitter highlight so far is having Guy Kawasaki, one of my marketing / evangelism heros, reply to my comment about the high frequency of his excellent tweets. (I’m just learning this stuff, I didn’t know the tweet would go to him just because I listed his contact name in my message! Sorry Guy!)  Who knows, maybe next he’ll comment on one of my blog posts!

I have produced thousands of hours of live and live-to-tape television, and the majority of all problems have come from IFB (interruptible foldback- that ear piece allowing a mix-minus feed of audio) or the prompter (the screens that allow the speaker to read the script whilst looking out at the cameras).

Last night at the Republican National Convention, the prompter demon reared its ugly head during the magnificent speech by Gov. Sarah Palin. [Read more →]