In this line of work, we never know what the next phone call will bring. While I was in Iowa over the weekend (what, isn’t that where everyone goes?) I received a call from the owner of a restaurant in Warminster who wanted to see about having a camera crew out to his establishment on Tuesday, 11/20. Seems that the renowned chef Georges Perrier, along with his Le Bec-Fin team would be cooking up a special tasting menu that evening, and the owner wanted coverage.
Having grown up in Warminster, the concept of fine dining there was completely unnatural. When I lived there in the 1970’s, the boldest restaurant opening was a Burger King, and I’m not at all kidding about that. There was also the Sambo’s restaurant, until that racist name put that chain out of business. That place became a Denny’s.
Augusto’s of Madison Avenue is a Zagat-rated restaurant located, surprisingly, on Madison Ave., between Street Road and County Line Rd. Augusto, the owner, once worked for Chef Perrrier (there were four Chefs at the restaurant last night, so everyone is calling everyone else ‘Chef’) at Le Bec-Fin, so this was a pretty special evening for him. The tasting menu was limited to one seating, so fewer than 100 people got to enjoy the classic French cooking that is the Le Bec-Fin specialty.
So I’m not a French cooking guy, what with snails, sweetbread, and squab on the tasting menu. From the individual choice perspective, it was good to see that foie gras was on the menu. Nonetheless, I could still appreciate the great discipline that it takes to work in the kitchen. It’s really hot, there’s not much room, it’s loud and there all kinds of pressure. All of the staff, whether the regular Augusto’s team or the Le Bec-Fin crew, were completely professional and disciplined. And, according to every diner, they were incredibly skilled as well.
Chef Perrier was a celebrity on duty. He did some cooking, but he also did a lot of schmoozing. Twice, he opened champagne bottles using a saber. Apparently, that evokes some pre-French Revolution grandness. It seemed like he knew a lot of the patrons, who seemed to have at least one bottle of wine per person.
I don’t yet know what Augusto will want to do with the video, but I’ll make sure to link to it here.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Interview with Rebecca Mead
We routinely do podcast interviews with industry people for the 4EVER Group's web site. Earlier this year, a book was released about the wedding industry. Called “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding,” the book was an unreasonable and scathing look at the wedding industry. The author went on a book tour, but I was successful in landing an interview with her in October, at her NY office. You can download the interview here: http://www.4evergroup.org/podcast_page.shtml
In our conversation, her question was “why do we even need a wedding industry”. That’s the kind of question most often asked in college dorm rooms, at 3am, after a whole lot of beer, when you’re going to solve all of the world’s problems.
Please go and download the interview, which runs about 35 minutes, for a glimpse into the mind of the author.
In our conversation, her question was “why do we even need a wedding industry”. That’s the kind of question most often asked in college dorm rooms, at 3am, after a whole lot of beer, when you’re going to solve all of the world’s problems.
Please go and download the interview, which runs about 35 minutes, for a glimpse into the mind of the author.
Bridal Consultants Conference
This week, I’ve been in Orlando, representing The 4EVER Group in the annual conference of the Association of Bridal Consultants. This is the third time that I’ve been a part of the conference, and the first time since 2003. With about 400 consultants attending, it’s a great show.
I was included in much of the agenda, along with having a booth at their trade show. They do feed the attendees quite well, I’ll give them that. The conference was also held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, which is where we’re holding our own conference in January. That made it a great opportunity to see what the hotel was like, in action.
Because I’ve been involved with the ABC for so long, I knew quite a few attendees. The 4EVER Group had a couple of different DVD’s to share with the consultants, aimed at promoting professional videography. A couple of hundred DVD’s got distributed during the show. I also made new contacts, which will help move the relationship, and our two trades, forward.
Like most conferences, this was a whirlwind affair. I left home about 5am on Sunday, because the trade show started at 1pm that day. After the show wrapped for the day, it was time to grab a quick dinner off property, before calling it a night. The trade show ran from 9:30am to 5pm on Monday, with an official breakfast and lunch included. I then had a dinner meeting with a sponsor for our conference, before getting back to email.
Yesterday, I caught the official breakfast before heading off to two other meetings. I got back just as lunch was being served (perfect timing, right?), which led to the roundtable discussion that I hosted. The conference wrapped up with an off-premises dinner event.
So I’m off to two more meetings today, over in the Tampa area. I fly home tonight, shoot a corporate video in NYC tomorrow, and then head off to Iowa on Saturday for a weekend presentation. It’s another full, well-rounded week.
I was included in much of the agenda, along with having a booth at their trade show. They do feed the attendees quite well, I’ll give them that. The conference was also held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, which is where we’re holding our own conference in January. That made it a great opportunity to see what the hotel was like, in action.
Because I’ve been involved with the ABC for so long, I knew quite a few attendees. The 4EVER Group had a couple of different DVD’s to share with the consultants, aimed at promoting professional videography. A couple of hundred DVD’s got distributed during the show. I also made new contacts, which will help move the relationship, and our two trades, forward.
Like most conferences, this was a whirlwind affair. I left home about 5am on Sunday, because the trade show started at 1pm that day. After the show wrapped for the day, it was time to grab a quick dinner off property, before calling it a night. The trade show ran from 9:30am to 5pm on Monday, with an official breakfast and lunch included. I then had a dinner meeting with a sponsor for our conference, before getting back to email.
Yesterday, I caught the official breakfast before heading off to two other meetings. I got back just as lunch was being served (perfect timing, right?), which led to the roundtable discussion that I hosted. The conference wrapped up with an off-premises dinner event.
So I’m off to two more meetings today, over in the Tampa area. I fly home tonight, shoot a corporate video in NYC tomorrow, and then head off to Iowa on Saturday for a weekend presentation. It’s another full, well-rounded week.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Watchin' TV
Well, we weren’t exactly watching TV; we were watching videos in The 4EVER Group’s Artistic Achievement Awards competition. I moderated the panel of five judges, all of whom were experienced, professional videographers.
This was the second and final round of judging. The judges, who remain unidentified until the awards are presented in January, all gathered at a New York-area hotel to review the videos together. In the first round, the judges watched the videos in their own studios.
We had fifteen different categories in the competition, so that meant that judges had several long days of work. We started each day with an 8am breakfast meeting, so we could start work around 9am. The earliest we ended for the day 10:30pm, and we went to 12:30am one night. The judging went from Monday morning to Thursday morning.
There were some great videos in the competition, which will make for an outstanding banquet program at VIDEO 08, on January 21.
A word about the venue. This was the third year we’re hosted the final round near JFK airport. Tellingly, this was the third different venue we’ve used. We would return to a property if they met our needs. For a meeting with 6 people, you would think that the process wouldn’t be too complicated. Next year, we’ll be selecting our fourth venue in four years.
I believe that we run a pretty low-maintenance meeting. We have the room available all week, and we get breaks served at scheduled times. We ask for water pitchers, and that they get checked every 3-4 hours, along with the trash. We have lunch and dinner brought into the room as well. Even with the specific instructions I prepared for the hotel (having run this specific event several times, I know the routine), the hotel staff could not meet our needs.
Our meeting was held at the Hilton Garden Inn near JFK airport, in Jamaica Queens. While it was a clean and pleasant environment, my experience as a meeting planner was terrible. I outlined for the hotel staff, in detail, every day what the challenges were, and how to make our experience better. Even with daily coaching, they still could not get the details right.
That’s it for meetings that I’m running for this year, I believe. I hate to end up with a lousy venue, but the hotel industry has some clear challenges that they’re not meeting.
This was the second and final round of judging. The judges, who remain unidentified until the awards are presented in January, all gathered at a New York-area hotel to review the videos together. In the first round, the judges watched the videos in their own studios.
We had fifteen different categories in the competition, so that meant that judges had several long days of work. We started each day with an 8am breakfast meeting, so we could start work around 9am. The earliest we ended for the day 10:30pm, and we went to 12:30am one night. The judging went from Monday morning to Thursday morning.
There were some great videos in the competition, which will make for an outstanding banquet program at VIDEO 08, on January 21.
A word about the venue. This was the third year we’re hosted the final round near JFK airport. Tellingly, this was the third different venue we’ve used. We would return to a property if they met our needs. For a meeting with 6 people, you would think that the process wouldn’t be too complicated. Next year, we’ll be selecting our fourth venue in four years.
I believe that we run a pretty low-maintenance meeting. We have the room available all week, and we get breaks served at scheduled times. We ask for water pitchers, and that they get checked every 3-4 hours, along with the trash. We have lunch and dinner brought into the room as well. Even with the specific instructions I prepared for the hotel (having run this specific event several times, I know the routine), the hotel staff could not meet our needs.
Our meeting was held at the Hilton Garden Inn near JFK airport, in Jamaica Queens. While it was a clean and pleasant environment, my experience as a meeting planner was terrible. I outlined for the hotel staff, in detail, every day what the challenges were, and how to make our experience better. Even with daily coaching, they still could not get the details right.
That’s it for meetings that I’m running for this year, I believe. I hate to end up with a lousy venue, but the hotel industry has some clear challenges that they’re not meeting.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Am I Getting Old?
I think my son would answer the question by saying that I’m already old. Anyway, since I’ve been recording social events professionally since 1984, I’ve worked within the same family, or same circle of friends, many times. Over the last 5-7 years, some work has been what I call “second generation”. By that, I mean that I’ve worked with this specific guest of honor before (like a Bat Mitzvah), and now they’re coming to me for the next life cycle event, usually a wedding. Hopefully, there’s at least a 10-year gap between a Bar or Bat Mitzvah and a wedding.
Last weekend featured a different kind of second generation event. About 15 years ago, I recorded the wedding of Joan and Steve. That’s them in the synagogue photo above (Photos courtesy of Casual Candids, http://www.casualcandids.com/), with their daughter, Claire. I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve done the wedding of the parents, and then the Bar or Bat Mitzvah many years later.
To illustrate how we often work within a circle, there were several other clients in attendance. There were two couples whose weddings I had recorded within the last 10 years or so-along with their children, and the parents of another couple. That’s a nice environment in which to work, especially because I’m also friendly with their photographer and DJ.
Last weekend featured a different kind of second generation event. About 15 years ago, I recorded the wedding of Joan and Steve. That’s them in the synagogue photo above (Photos courtesy of Casual Candids, http://www.casualcandids.com/), with their daughter, Claire. I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve done the wedding of the parents, and then the Bar or Bat Mitzvah many years later.
To illustrate how we often work within a circle, there were several other clients in attendance. There were two couples whose weddings I had recorded within the last 10 years or so-along with their children, and the parents of another couple. That’s a nice environment in which to work, especially because I’m also friendly with their photographer and DJ.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
You Can't Get There From Here!
Had things run smoothly, I was in for a layover of about 5 hours at LAX on my way from Anchorage. However, with airlines these days, things just don’t run smoothly.
The Anchorage-LAX flight was pretty close to on time, and was blissfully about 60% full. I had packed pretty tightly on the way to Alaska, but I included a bunch of stuff that I was giving away at the association meeting. What I forgot to factor in was a) the stuff that I was going to buy, and b) the unexpected gifts from the association. So it was just dumb luck that my bag weighed in at exactly 49.5 lbs.
One side note about the Anchorage airport: I had not experienced an airport with so many dogs on hand. These were pets, or maybe hunting companions, not service animals. It’s was pretty surreal to see a woman just walking her dog through the concourse.
Here’s a good word about Alaska Airlines: I ended up with an exit row seat on all four legs of this trip. And another good word: they got me and my bags safely and intact to the same place at the same time.
With that being said, the layover at LAX was a miserable experience. At least my good friend Jay Stein was kind enough to meet me at about 8am on a Saturday to get me out for a while. We ended up taking a ride to Santa Monica for breakfast (I don’t do brunch, you see).The contrast between Friday at the glaciers and Saturday near the Santa Monica Pier could not have been more extreme.
Jay had me out of the airport for a bit over two hours. If the schedule had held, that would have left me with a little over two hours until the flight to DC boarded. That didn’t happen.
In hindsight, Alaska Airlines clearly knew that the plane had a mechanical issue before it even landed at LAX. Like most passengers, I’m in favor of them solving mechanical issues before flying. But, like most passengers, I also appreciate honest communication. Alaska Airlines failed on that account. It was a good two hours past the scheduled departure before they owned the mechanical problem. That came after we were told to go get lunch. Only when we returned did they offer lunch vouchers (a $6.00 value!).
Anyway, we kept killing time. We watched some football. We worked. We made phone calls. We got dinner vouchers ($8.00!). And then, finally, after about 6 extra hours (remember, that was on top of a scheduled 5-hour layover after a redeye flight), we got to leave LAX on a replacement plane.
There was a young couple on the Anchorage-LAX flight with me that also continued on the LAX-DC leg. They had their seven-month old baby with them. The TSA team at Anchorage made them open the food they had packed for the baby, contrary to current TSA policies. They were in danger of running out of food before the flight from LAX, and there was no place in the airport to buy formula. Fortunately, after they raised enough of a stink, the airline did send someone out to buy them formula. And the baby was great for the entire trip, including that extended wait.
The other challenge was that the plane landed in DC a little after 2am. Considering that I’d been on the go since about 8am Friday in Anchorage, I thought that safety demanded that I get myself into a hotel asap. And I did just that, because I was driving on to Chicago the next morning, for a corporate shoot on Monday.
The Anchorage-LAX flight was pretty close to on time, and was blissfully about 60% full. I had packed pretty tightly on the way to Alaska, but I included a bunch of stuff that I was giving away at the association meeting. What I forgot to factor in was a) the stuff that I was going to buy, and b) the unexpected gifts from the association. So it was just dumb luck that my bag weighed in at exactly 49.5 lbs.
One side note about the Anchorage airport: I had not experienced an airport with so many dogs on hand. These were pets, or maybe hunting companions, not service animals. It’s was pretty surreal to see a woman just walking her dog through the concourse.
Here’s a good word about Alaska Airlines: I ended up with an exit row seat on all four legs of this trip. And another good word: they got me and my bags safely and intact to the same place at the same time.
With that being said, the layover at LAX was a miserable experience. At least my good friend Jay Stein was kind enough to meet me at about 8am on a Saturday to get me out for a while. We ended up taking a ride to Santa Monica for breakfast (I don’t do brunch, you see).The contrast between Friday at the glaciers and Saturday near the Santa Monica Pier could not have been more extreme.
Jay had me out of the airport for a bit over two hours. If the schedule had held, that would have left me with a little over two hours until the flight to DC boarded. That didn’t happen.
In hindsight, Alaska Airlines clearly knew that the plane had a mechanical issue before it even landed at LAX. Like most passengers, I’m in favor of them solving mechanical issues before flying. But, like most passengers, I also appreciate honest communication. Alaska Airlines failed on that account. It was a good two hours past the scheduled departure before they owned the mechanical problem. That came after we were told to go get lunch. Only when we returned did they offer lunch vouchers (a $6.00 value!).
Anyway, we kept killing time. We watched some football. We worked. We made phone calls. We got dinner vouchers ($8.00!). And then, finally, after about 6 extra hours (remember, that was on top of a scheduled 5-hour layover after a redeye flight), we got to leave LAX on a replacement plane.
There was a young couple on the Anchorage-LAX flight with me that also continued on the LAX-DC leg. They had their seven-month old baby with them. The TSA team at Anchorage made them open the food they had packed for the baby, contrary to current TSA policies. They were in danger of running out of food before the flight from LAX, and there was no place in the airport to buy formula. Fortunately, after they raised enough of a stink, the airline did send someone out to buy them formula. And the baby was great for the entire trip, including that extended wait.
The other challenge was that the plane landed in DC a little after 2am. Considering that I’d been on the go since about 8am Friday in Anchorage, I thought that safety demanded that I get myself into a hotel asap. And I did just that, because I was driving on to Chicago the next morning, for a corporate shoot on Monday.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Final Day in Alaska
One of the quirks about dining out in Alaska is that there is no sales tax. I didn’t notice it until my last dinner in Anchorage, which means I scored high on the “duh” meter there. I also didn’t have a chance to explore the reasons behind that feature, but one might guess that the tax revenue from oil just might have something to so with it. Or the desire to be a business-friendly city.
My plan for the final day in Anchorage was to get out of town. I checked out of the hotel about 8am and drove to Whittier, to cruise on the Prince William Sound. The drive has some amazing scenery (no shortage of that in Alaska), and an interesting transportation choke point. Just outside of Whittier is a one-lane tunnel that’s shared by road AND rail traffic. For much of the day, road traffic gets through in one direction for a half-hour, and then switches to the other direction for the following half-hour. Late in the day, the schedule starts making room for the trains. Driving through a 1500 foot-long narrow tunnel is challenging enough, but add rails to the road bed, along with water (it had been raining), and you have one crazy ride.
Whittier is, from certain perspectives, just beautiful(see the photo). But it’s a remote town, and many workers live in dorms that look like they were designed by the Soviets. The cruise that I took ran about 6 hours, and the boat had about 75 people on board. There was a group of Korean tourists (ok, that’s redundant; we were all tourists) that arrived on a bus, and they made up more than half of the passengers. Nearly every passenger had at least one camera, and one couple had extra long lenses, a tripod, and a stylish garbage bag camera cover. That proved useful, as we were rained on a bit.
If you ever have the chance to take a glacier cruise, I recommend it highly. That’s just breath-taking. Some of that is because of the cold, so dress appropriately (I didn’t exactly). One of the cool moments was seeing a small black bear grab a fish from the water and snack on it. We also saw lots of birds, sea lions, and sea otters. And small icebergs.
After returning to shore, you have to decide quickly whether to see the small town, or get on the road. The cruise is timed so that you can get back through that one-lane tunnel if you depart quickly. Otherwise, you’re stuck waiting for a train to pass, plus opposing traffic. I chose to head on out, back to Anchorage for dinner, and last-minute photography.
One of the other cool features about Alaska (unnerving to those of us from the Northeast) is the overall friendliness of people. I had dinner alone that last night, and I was wearing a Penn State hat. The couple at the next table used that as an excuse to start a conversation, as they were from the Pittsburgh area. They were on a two week vacation, which included Alaska, British Columbia, and Seattle. And a ridiculous return flight, which took them from Seattle to Las Vegas to Phoenix to Philadelphia before finally getting them to Pittsburgh.
That’s a good way to segue into an essay about my return trip, which included a scheduled five hour layover in Los Angeles. But that’ll have to wait for another day.
My plan for the final day in Anchorage was to get out of town. I checked out of the hotel about 8am and drove to Whittier, to cruise on the Prince William Sound. The drive has some amazing scenery (no shortage of that in Alaska), and an interesting transportation choke point. Just outside of Whittier is a one-lane tunnel that’s shared by road AND rail traffic. For much of the day, road traffic gets through in one direction for a half-hour, and then switches to the other direction for the following half-hour. Late in the day, the schedule starts making room for the trains. Driving through a 1500 foot-long narrow tunnel is challenging enough, but add rails to the road bed, along with water (it had been raining), and you have one crazy ride.
Whittier is, from certain perspectives, just beautiful(see the photo). But it’s a remote town, and many workers live in dorms that look like they were designed by the Soviets. The cruise that I took ran about 6 hours, and the boat had about 75 people on board. There was a group of Korean tourists (ok, that’s redundant; we were all tourists) that arrived on a bus, and they made up more than half of the passengers. Nearly every passenger had at least one camera, and one couple had extra long lenses, a tripod, and a stylish garbage bag camera cover. That proved useful, as we were rained on a bit.
If you ever have the chance to take a glacier cruise, I recommend it highly. That’s just breath-taking. Some of that is because of the cold, so dress appropriately (I didn’t exactly). One of the cool moments was seeing a small black bear grab a fish from the water and snack on it. We also saw lots of birds, sea lions, and sea otters. And small icebergs.
After returning to shore, you have to decide quickly whether to see the small town, or get on the road. The cruise is timed so that you can get back through that one-lane tunnel if you depart quickly. Otherwise, you’re stuck waiting for a train to pass, plus opposing traffic. I chose to head on out, back to Anchorage for dinner, and last-minute photography.
One of the other cool features about Alaska (unnerving to those of us from the Northeast) is the overall friendliness of people. I had dinner alone that last night, and I was wearing a Penn State hat. The couple at the next table used that as an excuse to start a conversation, as they were from the Pittsburgh area. They were on a two week vacation, which included Alaska, British Columbia, and Seattle. And a ridiculous return flight, which took them from Seattle to Las Vegas to Phoenix to Philadelphia before finally getting them to Pittsburgh.
That’s a good way to segue into an essay about my return trip, which included a scheduled five hour layover in Los Angeles. But that’ll have to wait for another day.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Alaska: Day 2
If there’s a good thing about the time zone difference and body clock issues associated with being in Alaska, it’s this: when you’re up at 4 or 5am, you can get a lot of work done and still have much of the day to enjoy Alaska.
That’s how it went for me. I’d get up very early, do the usual morning routine, and work at my computer for a while. I took the afternoon and evening off on Thursday, and drove to the town of Talkeetna. Supposedly, Talkeetna was the inspiration for the town in the old TV show “Northern Exposure”. From Anchorage, it was a drive of roughly two hours.
Talkeetna has what can be best described as a smattering of businesses. There are a few restaurants, a number of souvenir shops, a couple of small grocery stores, a couple of eco-tour operations, and rooms to rent. It’s apparently home base for people looking to fish and hunt. Town was a good place to grab lunch (salmon quesadilla) and walk around while deciding whether to do an eco-tour.
The decision was more like which among the several to choose. You can’t go that distance and not venture into the woods. I did a jet boat tour (no propellers), where I accomplished one goal: I saw a bald eagle in the wild. On land, the tour took us to recreations of a Native American encampment and a trapper’s lodge. It was weird (as a city guy) to see the tour guide, a woman of about 20, toting a shotgun through the woods. It seems that the bears aren’t really tame.
Wildlife on this trip was scarce. We saw the eagle, and a few river otters. I still had live salmon on my checklist, but that would have to wait. After the tour, it was back to Anchorage for dinner and a little more work before it was time to call it a night.
That’s how it went for me. I’d get up very early, do the usual morning routine, and work at my computer for a while. I took the afternoon and evening off on Thursday, and drove to the town of Talkeetna. Supposedly, Talkeetna was the inspiration for the town in the old TV show “Northern Exposure”. From Anchorage, it was a drive of roughly two hours.
Talkeetna has what can be best described as a smattering of businesses. There are a few restaurants, a number of souvenir shops, a couple of small grocery stores, a couple of eco-tour operations, and rooms to rent. It’s apparently home base for people looking to fish and hunt. Town was a good place to grab lunch (salmon quesadilla) and walk around while deciding whether to do an eco-tour.
The decision was more like which among the several to choose. You can’t go that distance and not venture into the woods. I did a jet boat tour (no propellers), where I accomplished one goal: I saw a bald eagle in the wild. On land, the tour took us to recreations of a Native American encampment and a trapper’s lodge. It was weird (as a city guy) to see the tour guide, a woman of about 20, toting a shotgun through the woods. It seems that the bears aren’t really tame.
Wildlife on this trip was scarce. We saw the eagle, and a few river otters. I still had live salmon on my checklist, but that would have to wait. After the tour, it was back to Anchorage for dinner and a little more work before it was time to call it a night.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Alaska: Getting There & Day 1
Because I had a complimentary ticket on Alaska Airlines, I was limited on choices for my departure. With the tight window for travel, I ended up with only one choice: flying out of Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. Alaska Airlines also flies out of Newark, but that was not an option on this trip.
I had a 5pm flight to Seattle, where I’d connect on to Anchorage. Given the three hours or so that it would take to drive to National, I decided to meet up with my friend Ed in Baltimore, for lunch. Ed’s an old newspaper guy, and is currently the managing editor of the daily record, a business newspaper. Ironically enough, Ed and his family had just returned from an Alaskan cruise.
National Airport wasn’t hard to find or navigate through, but the Alaska Airlines ticket counter was all by itself, in a hard-to-find corner. Walking the entire concourse almost got me sweaty enough for the full TSA search that I had on my Philadelphia-San Diego trip.
The flight to Seattle took off a bit late, but was otherwise uneventful. It actually landed early, which gave me time to buy a real sandwich before boarding the flight to Anchorage. Unfortunately, that flight left late and arrived late.
There was no midnight sun when we arrived in Anchorage, although it was about 11:45pm local time. So, same as in so many other cities, I got the car and drove to the hotel. Given that my body clock registered 4am, and that it was dark, and I’d never been to Anchorage, getting to the downtown Marriott was quite simple.
Wednesday morning came pretty early for me, what with the body clock thing. After breakfast, the gym, and some email work, it was off to Anchorage. The downtown is pretty small, and very tourist-driven. I took a bus-trolley ride through town, just to get oriented. Later on, I took some time to but the items I knew I’d have to take home. I did meet up with the President of the Alaska Professional Videographers Association (Karl Augestad) for lunch, then it was back to the hotel to prepare for the meeting.
My presentation was well-received, and the meeting drew more than their typical number of attendees. The association generously provided me with a couple of very nice parting gifts of smoked salmon (see photo, with Karl), and one attendee gave me jarred salmon that he had caught. It had been a pretty long day or two, so after the meeting it was time to walk back to the hotel (that was convenient) and call it a night.
There were two more days in Alaska, plus an interesting trip back to Washington. Those stories will be coming up soon.
I had a 5pm flight to Seattle, where I’d connect on to Anchorage. Given the three hours or so that it would take to drive to National, I decided to meet up with my friend Ed in Baltimore, for lunch. Ed’s an old newspaper guy, and is currently the managing editor of the daily record, a business newspaper. Ironically enough, Ed and his family had just returned from an Alaskan cruise.
National Airport wasn’t hard to find or navigate through, but the Alaska Airlines ticket counter was all by itself, in a hard-to-find corner. Walking the entire concourse almost got me sweaty enough for the full TSA search that I had on my Philadelphia-San Diego trip.
The flight to Seattle took off a bit late, but was otherwise uneventful. It actually landed early, which gave me time to buy a real sandwich before boarding the flight to Anchorage. Unfortunately, that flight left late and arrived late.
There was no midnight sun when we arrived in Anchorage, although it was about 11:45pm local time. So, same as in so many other cities, I got the car and drove to the hotel. Given that my body clock registered 4am, and that it was dark, and I’d never been to Anchorage, getting to the downtown Marriott was quite simple.
Wednesday morning came pretty early for me, what with the body clock thing. After breakfast, the gym, and some email work, it was off to Anchorage. The downtown is pretty small, and very tourist-driven. I took a bus-trolley ride through town, just to get oriented. Later on, I took some time to but the items I knew I’d have to take home. I did meet up with the President of the Alaska Professional Videographers Association (Karl Augestad) for lunch, then it was back to the hotel to prepare for the meeting.
My presentation was well-received, and the meeting drew more than their typical number of attendees. The association generously provided me with a couple of very nice parting gifts of smoked salmon (see photo, with Karl), and one attendee gave me jarred salmon that he had caught. It had been a pretty long day or two, so after the meeting it was time to walk back to the hotel (that was convenient) and call it a night.
There were two more days in Alaska, plus an interesting trip back to Washington. Those stories will be coming up soon.
Monday, September 3, 2007
South to Alaska?
I know the cliche uses "north" as the correct direction for reaching Alaska. In order to get there using the about-to-expire ticket that I have, I needto fly out of Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. Since that's south of here, I've got to go south to go north. Well, west and north.
I'm off to Anchorage to do a presentation to the Alaska Professional Videographers Association (APVA) on Wednesday. So it's a 3-hour drive to DC, a 5-1/2 hour flight to Seattle and a change of planes, and another 3-1/2 hour flight to Anchorage. That's about 12 hours if travel. Fortunately, there's only a short scheduled layover in Seattle.
That gets me to the Anchorage airport about 11:30pm local time, which is 4 hours behind the east coast. It's a long day of travel (it'll be worse coming home), but it's a first: no outside organization has addresses the APVA before. And another first is that I've not yet been to Alaska.
It should be an interesting couple of days. I'll try to keep current.
I'm off to Anchorage to do a presentation to the Alaska Professional Videographers Association (APVA) on Wednesday. So it's a 3-hour drive to DC, a 5-1/2 hour flight to Seattle and a change of planes, and another 3-1/2 hour flight to Anchorage. That's about 12 hours if travel. Fortunately, there's only a short scheduled layover in Seattle.
That gets me to the Anchorage airport about 11:30pm local time, which is 4 hours behind the east coast. It's a long day of travel (it'll be worse coming home), but it's a first: no outside organization has addresses the APVA before. And another first is that I've not yet been to Alaska.
It should be an interesting couple of days. I'll try to keep current.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
An Attempted Scam
I got a call this afternoon from a translation service, telling me that they were communicating with me on behalf of someone deaf or hard of hearing who was using one of those special machines. Whatever. He’s asking about video for his daughters wedding on 9/1, in Philadelphia. After a brief “conversation” through the translation service, I was asked to send information via email. As you see below, I did that.
His reply, however, is the classic scam spiel. I've shared this with as many industry professionals as I could. My original email is at the bottom.
************************************************************************************
From: daniel collins [mailto:danielcollins777@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:24 PMTo: Steve@SteveWernick.comSubject: special favor needed from you
Dear Steve,Thanks for your response and kind effort,the quote you have provided is okay and i will like to book and make total payment with my credit card,i will like you to know at this point that i also hire the service of a African Traditional dancers who does not have a credit card machine to run my card for his payment,i was billed $3000 for this service and i have been able to send $1000 to him via western union money transfer and i do not have enough raw fund on me at present to pay his balance than paying with my credit card so i will like you to add up the remaining $2000 to your charges and charge my credit card details for the sum of $6000 and forward $2000 to him in return via western union money transfer at the nearest location,the excess fund will be for the western union charges and compensation for your time and effort i want you to get back to me with a response and let me know if you are okay with this arrangement so i can forward my credit card details for the payment,thanks for your co-operation in advance,stay blessed.RegardsDr Collins
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for contacting me regarding your daughter’s wedding. If you haven’t yet done so, please visit our web site at www.videoccasion.net. We have sample videos and more information there.
Our standard programming always includes two camera coverage for both the ceremony and reception. The videos are all fully edited, and you’ll receive three identical copies. My intent is one for the bride and groom, and one for each set of parents, but how you divide them is your decision. Our pricing, if the wedding is in the general Philadelphia area, is $3495.00.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. If you have access to Instant Messaging, you can find me at WernickSteve on AOL IM.
Regards,
Steve Wernick
Videoccasion, Inc.
His reply, however, is the classic scam spiel. I've shared this with as many industry professionals as I could. My original email is at the bottom.
************************************************************************************
From: daniel collins [mailto:danielcollins777@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:24 PMTo: Steve@SteveWernick.comSubject: special favor needed from you
Dear Steve,Thanks for your response and kind effort,the quote you have provided is okay and i will like to book and make total payment with my credit card,i will like you to know at this point that i also hire the service of a African Traditional dancers who does not have a credit card machine to run my card for his payment,i was billed $3000 for this service and i have been able to send $1000 to him via western union money transfer and i do not have enough raw fund on me at present to pay his balance than paying with my credit card so i will like you to add up the remaining $2000 to your charges and charge my credit card details for the sum of $6000 and forward $2000 to him in return via western union money transfer at the nearest location,the excess fund will be for the western union charges and compensation for your time and effort i want you to get back to me with a response and let me know if you are okay with this arrangement so i can forward my credit card details for the payment,thanks for your co-operation in advance,stay blessed.RegardsDr Collins
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for contacting me regarding your daughter’s wedding. If you haven’t yet done so, please visit our web site at www.videoccasion.net. We have sample videos and more information there.
Our standard programming always includes two camera coverage for both the ceremony and reception. The videos are all fully edited, and you’ll receive three identical copies. My intent is one for the bride and groom, and one for each set of parents, but how you divide them is your decision. Our pricing, if the wedding is in the general Philadelphia area, is $3495.00.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. If you have access to Instant Messaging, you can find me at WernickSteve on AOL IM.
Regards,
Steve Wernick
Videoccasion, Inc.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
More Adventures in Travel
This week I’m in the San Diego area, shooting video for a corporate client. We’re shooting interviews in three cities (Princeton, NJ and Evanston, IL are the others) that the company plans on using as part of their effort in recruiting college grads and MBA-types for their world-wide offices.
The company booked the air travel for me, and that became a bit of an adventure. First, we had the administrative error of flying me out of Philadelphia, but then returning me to Newark, NJ. Driving home after than would have been a bit of a challenge. Then we had the airport challenge.
I was booked on United, flying from Philadelphia to Denver, then changing planes there for the final part of the trip. As I usually do, I checked in at United’s web site the night before my trip, and printed a boarding pass.
When I attempted to check in at the Untied kiosk, in terminal D, I was told that I’d been switched to USAirways, and to go to terminal C to check in there. No big deal, I thought. So I walked back outside, in the hot afternoon sun, dragging my suitcase, with my backpack full of gear weighing me down.
USAirways, remarkably, had a pretty short line at the kiosks. However, once again, I was not able to check in. The customer service rep told me that I had to go back to the United counter and get paperwork from them showing that my reservation was indeed transferred, and then come on back. Oh and that plane is scheduled for 4pm, not the 4:30pm that would have been the departure time with United.
So it’s back to the hot sun hustle between terminals, deal with a United customer service trainee, and her trainer who was clearly having issues with the transaction. Then it’s back to terminal C, where the line is longer and the clock is ticking. I sort-of cut the line, but I’d been told to come right back to the counter. Finally, my papers are in order and I’m off to the security line.
What happens when you have to take several trips between terminals, in the hot sun, with plenty of stuff to carry, and under time pressure? If you’re me, you work up quite a sweat. And someone dripping sweat while going through an airport security line is probably pretty high on the list of red flag behaviors. And I got flagged. That meant full pat-down, and swabbing of all my carry-on gear.
In the end, I obviously got through. The USAirways flight was direct, non-stop, which is always a better way to fly. And although I was in a middle seat, between a father and daughter returning from Switzerland, the fact that I arrived in San Diego about 2-1/2 hours earlier than I expected made up for that inconvenience.
The company booked the air travel for me, and that became a bit of an adventure. First, we had the administrative error of flying me out of Philadelphia, but then returning me to Newark, NJ. Driving home after than would have been a bit of a challenge. Then we had the airport challenge.
I was booked on United, flying from Philadelphia to Denver, then changing planes there for the final part of the trip. As I usually do, I checked in at United’s web site the night before my trip, and printed a boarding pass.
When I attempted to check in at the Untied kiosk, in terminal D, I was told that I’d been switched to USAirways, and to go to terminal C to check in there. No big deal, I thought. So I walked back outside, in the hot afternoon sun, dragging my suitcase, with my backpack full of gear weighing me down.
USAirways, remarkably, had a pretty short line at the kiosks. However, once again, I was not able to check in. The customer service rep told me that I had to go back to the United counter and get paperwork from them showing that my reservation was indeed transferred, and then come on back. Oh and that plane is scheduled for 4pm, not the 4:30pm that would have been the departure time with United.
So it’s back to the hot sun hustle between terminals, deal with a United customer service trainee, and her trainer who was clearly having issues with the transaction. Then it’s back to terminal C, where the line is longer and the clock is ticking. I sort-of cut the line, but I’d been told to come right back to the counter. Finally, my papers are in order and I’m off to the security line.
What happens when you have to take several trips between terminals, in the hot sun, with plenty of stuff to carry, and under time pressure? If you’re me, you work up quite a sweat. And someone dripping sweat while going through an airport security line is probably pretty high on the list of red flag behaviors. And I got flagged. That meant full pat-down, and swabbing of all my carry-on gear.
In the end, I obviously got through. The USAirways flight was direct, non-stop, which is always a better way to fly. And although I was in a middle seat, between a father and daughter returning from Switzerland, the fact that I arrived in San Diego about 2-1/2 hours earlier than I expected made up for that inconvenience.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
I've Been Busy
This photo represents the entries from the competition that we’re hosting at The 4EVER Group. They all had to be sorted into the 15 different categories in the competition, and that was after each label had to be removed, and replaced with a control number. These videos will be shipped off to judges, and they’ll select the ones that will go to the final round.
The judges are all professional videographers, and they’re all volunteers. Judging in the upcoming opening round is done at the judge’s own location, and does take a considerable amount of time. We then all get together in one location for the final round, which takes the better part of four days and nights.
Videographers are deadline-oriented people. We accepted entries for eight weeks, but about 80% of the entries showed up on the two business days prior to the deadline. No fewer than 39 packages were delivered to my door on the day of the deadline.
The next couple of weeks will also be pretty busy. I’ve got a wedding, along with a corporate shoot that will take me to Evanston, IL and Carlsbad, CA. I’ll try to keep up with this blog throughout.
The judges are all professional videographers, and they’re all volunteers. Judging in the upcoming opening round is done at the judge’s own location, and does take a considerable amount of time. We then all get together in one location for the final round, which takes the better part of four days and nights.
Videographers are deadline-oriented people. We accepted entries for eight weeks, but about 80% of the entries showed up on the two business days prior to the deadline. No fewer than 39 packages were delivered to my door on the day of the deadline.
The next couple of weeks will also be pretty busy. I’ve got a wedding, along with a corporate shoot that will take me to Evanston, IL and Carlsbad, CA. I’ll try to keep up with this blog throughout.
Friday, June 29, 2007
One Wedding, Two Firsts
After nearly 24 years in the video production business, it’s rare that I have the opportunity for one new thing in a day, let alone two. That’s exactly what happened on June 23, with a wedding at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia.
This particular wedding was referred to me by Sheila Corbett, who is a full-service consultant (http://www.elegant-events.net/). Although this was the first wedding where we worked together, I wasn’t counting that fact. This was the first Persian wedding we’d ever recorded, and it was also our first event recorded in High Definition (HD) video.
The photographer (http://www.alwaysandforeverphotography.com/) promised to supply a couple of pictures, and they’ll be posted as soon as I receive them. (UPDATE: They're posted!) It really was a visually interesting wedding, as the bride and groom sat on chairs placed on a riser, with a spread of various items in front of them. Some were clearly non-religious, like the two stuffed animals, and the honey was part of a ritual, where each dipped their little finger in the honey, to share with the other. And with much of the wedding ceremony in Farsi, well, I just hope there was nothing said that we need to bleep out.
Overall, they had a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, so all of their outdoor photography/videography will look great. It turned out that their Persian ceremony was not also a civil wedding, so they scheduled the civil ceremony for earlier that same day. So I guess they were married before they were married.
Oh, yeah, that HD thing. We were using Canon A1 cameras, on loan as part of the Iron Videographer competition. We ran three cameras during the ceremony: manned camera on a tripod at the back, my camera was hand-held at the front of the room, and an unmanned camera facing the bride and groom. As usual, we ran two hand-held cameras during the reception. With only about 60 guests, it was a remarkably fun party. I’ll post a short clip on our main web site (http://www.videoccasion.net/) after we’ve edited the full wedding.
The cameras were fairly easy to use, especially given how thick the manual was. The few adjustments we needed to make (setting the input for external microphones was an important adjustment) were simple changes found in the menu. Both of us had used the camera before, which certainly helped. Still, the cameras offer something like a zillion things that can be adjusted, tweaked, or refined, and it’s easy to make a mistake if you're not careful.
Cheers to Ghazaleh and Jahan, who had a wonderful wedding day.
This particular wedding was referred to me by Sheila Corbett, who is a full-service consultant (http://www.elegant-events.net/). Although this was the first wedding where we worked together, I wasn’t counting that fact. This was the first Persian wedding we’d ever recorded, and it was also our first event recorded in High Definition (HD) video.
The photographer (http://www.alwaysandforeverphotography.com/) promised to supply a couple of pictures, and they’ll be posted as soon as I receive them. (UPDATE: They're posted!) It really was a visually interesting wedding, as the bride and groom sat on chairs placed on a riser, with a spread of various items in front of them. Some were clearly non-religious, like the two stuffed animals, and the honey was part of a ritual, where each dipped their little finger in the honey, to share with the other. And with much of the wedding ceremony in Farsi, well, I just hope there was nothing said that we need to bleep out.
Overall, they had a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, so all of their outdoor photography/videography will look great. It turned out that their Persian ceremony was not also a civil wedding, so they scheduled the civil ceremony for earlier that same day. So I guess they were married before they were married.
Oh, yeah, that HD thing. We were using Canon A1 cameras, on loan as part of the Iron Videographer competition. We ran three cameras during the ceremony: manned camera on a tripod at the back, my camera was hand-held at the front of the room, and an unmanned camera facing the bride and groom. As usual, we ran two hand-held cameras during the reception. With only about 60 guests, it was a remarkably fun party. I’ll post a short clip on our main web site (http://www.videoccasion.net/) after we’ve edited the full wedding.
The cameras were fairly easy to use, especially given how thick the manual was. The few adjustments we needed to make (setting the input for external microphones was an important adjustment) were simple changes found in the menu. Both of us had used the camera before, which certainly helped. Still, the cameras offer something like a zillion things that can be adjusted, tweaked, or refined, and it’s easy to make a mistake if you're not careful.
Cheers to Ghazaleh and Jahan, who had a wonderful wedding day.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wedding Industry Interviews
For some time now, I’ve been the host of podcast interviews that are found at The 4EVER Group web site, www.4EVERGroup.org. Generally, the content has been directed to professional videographers, as we spotlight the personalities is, and tools used by, our industry.
Because of the ridiculous new book about weddings (no plug for her!), we’ve started to branch out with our interviews, and include other wedding industry professional. When I was recently in California, we had the opportunity to do our first non-videographer interview, and that was also our first Vidcast.
I interviewed a wedding planner named Jeannie Savage, and her company is Details Details (www.aboutdetailsdetails.com). She’s a big proponent of professional video, maybe in part because she didn’t have a video at her own wedding. In the interview, she explains about two really crucial moments that happened (an extemporaneous toast from her father was one) that she just can’t remember fully, as her wedding was five years ago. In addition, she realized what a valuable memento the video would have been for her own children.
Anyway, if you want to take a look, please follow this link:
http://www.elysiumproductions.com/jkh/4egvidcast1selfcontained.html
Because of the ridiculous new book about weddings (no plug for her!), we’ve started to branch out with our interviews, and include other wedding industry professional. When I was recently in California, we had the opportunity to do our first non-videographer interview, and that was also our first Vidcast.
I interviewed a wedding planner named Jeannie Savage, and her company is Details Details (www.aboutdetailsdetails.com). She’s a big proponent of professional video, maybe in part because she didn’t have a video at her own wedding. In the interview, she explains about two really crucial moments that happened (an extemporaneous toast from her father was one) that she just can’t remember fully, as her wedding was five years ago. In addition, she realized what a valuable memento the video would have been for her own children.
Anyway, if you want to take a look, please follow this link:
http://www.elysiumproductions.com/jkh/4egvidcast1selfcontained.html
Monday, June 18, 2007
The Iron Videographer
So I’ve been a little busy, and I haven’t made the time to attend to my blog. One of the major distractions was my being a part of the Iron Videographer competition that we (The 4EVER Group) hosted.
The Iron Videographer is a send-up of the Iron Chef TV show. We’re doing this bracket-style, featuring eight combatants in four regional competitions in the opening round. I was the host of the program, and our events were in Detroit (June 6), Dallas (June 7), Long Island (June 12), and Orange County, CA (June 13). That meant three different airlines (USAirways, Northwest, and Jet Blue), and four different hotels (Wyndham Garden Hotel, LaQuinta Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and Fairfield Marriott). Airline service was barely average, although they got us to each destination safely, and the hotels all pretty much seemed the same.
Each combatant in the Iron Videographer competition used the same footage to create a wedding highlights clip. I provided the footage, from a wedding recorded in June 2006. One of the winning clips is posted here: http://blog.elysiumproductions.com/.
Once I’ve collected all of them, the bride will receive all of the clips on a DVD. In addition, they’ll be posted on The 4EVER Group web site, http://www.4evergroup.org/.
In the end, the competition was great fun. In three cities, the crowd averaged about 50, and we had about 100 at the Long Island event. Each competitor was given as much as four hours to edit the footage, and no one took less than 3 hours and 15 minutes. We interviewed each competitor during the session, and then again at the close. There was a panel of three judges in each city as well, but they were other wedding professional, not videographers. As we’ve seen in our Artistic Achievement Awards competitions, videographers and other wedding professionals can see things differently. The judges included wedding coordinators, photographers, and even recent brides.
The over-the-shoulder picture is of Julie Hill, from Elysium Productions in Irvine, CA. She was the winner of the West competition. The other picture shows me interviewing Terry Taravella, from Studio Vieux Carre in New Orleans, the winner of the South competition.
The next bracket in the competition will be the semi-finals, which we’ll host in late September or early October. I’ll blog more promptly then.
The Iron Videographer is a send-up of the Iron Chef TV show. We’re doing this bracket-style, featuring eight combatants in four regional competitions in the opening round. I was the host of the program, and our events were in Detroit (June 6), Dallas (June 7), Long Island (June 12), and Orange County, CA (June 13). That meant three different airlines (USAirways, Northwest, and Jet Blue), and four different hotels (Wyndham Garden Hotel, LaQuinta Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and Fairfield Marriott). Airline service was barely average, although they got us to each destination safely, and the hotels all pretty much seemed the same.
Each combatant in the Iron Videographer competition used the same footage to create a wedding highlights clip. I provided the footage, from a wedding recorded in June 2006. One of the winning clips is posted here: http://blog.elysiumproductions.com/.
Once I’ve collected all of them, the bride will receive all of the clips on a DVD. In addition, they’ll be posted on The 4EVER Group web site, http://www.4evergroup.org/.
In the end, the competition was great fun. In three cities, the crowd averaged about 50, and we had about 100 at the Long Island event. Each competitor was given as much as four hours to edit the footage, and no one took less than 3 hours and 15 minutes. We interviewed each competitor during the session, and then again at the close. There was a panel of three judges in each city as well, but they were other wedding professional, not videographers. As we’ve seen in our Artistic Achievement Awards competitions, videographers and other wedding professionals can see things differently. The judges included wedding coordinators, photographers, and even recent brides.
The over-the-shoulder picture is of Julie Hill, from Elysium Productions in Irvine, CA. She was the winner of the West competition. The other picture shows me interviewing Terry Taravella, from Studio Vieux Carre in New Orleans, the winner of the South competition.
The next bracket in the competition will be the semi-finals, which we’ll host in late September or early October. I’ll blog more promptly then.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
SAR Reunion
This past Sunday featured the 90th Anniversary celebration of Sigma Alpha Rho (SAR), my high school fraternity. I joined in 1974, while at William Tennent High School, and many of the guys I met back in the day are still my friends to this day. I’ll get some photos posted on this shortly. SAR is where I learned how to speak publicly, how to run meetings and events, and, through trips to Montreal, New Orleans, New York, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and many other locations, sparked my interest in travel.
For a long time, SAR was central to my life. I served on the various boards, and I was the national President in the early 1990’s. I’d been involved on the committees for other reunions, but not this one. There’s just too much going on in my world now to be able to take on another important task, and to do justice to that task.
The reunion was held at the Hilton hotel on City Avenue in Philadelphia. Although I didn’t get involved in the planning, I still accepted the assignment of projecting video at the reunion. There was a really campy film made in the late 1960’s, and we looped that video. One of the producers of that film was Alan Yasni, who went from filmmaker wannabe to a career in the TV industry. I met him at the reunion, and we had great fun deconstructing that film, which he hadn’t seen for years.
You never know what to expect at a reunion. I got to see two guys that I was friends with back in the 1970’s, but hadn’t seen in 30 years. One was a South Philly boy who became a successful lawyer in the Los Angeles. The other actually graduated with me from Tennent, but our lives went in separate directions. He now runs a restaurant in Jenkintown, PA.
I shot a wedding the night before the reunion, so I had less than four hours of sleep after a full, well-rounded Saturday. However, the energy that I picked up there was incredible. Even though I got to the hotel about 8am, and left about 2pm, that time passed all too quickly. We always tell brides and grooms that their wedding day will be a blur, and I had exactly that experience.
So I’m a little behind in blogging, and I need to catch up. I’m in Southern California right now, part of The 4EVER Group team at the Orange County Video Summit. I still have to write about the wedding from before the reunion, as well as this trip. Thanks for reading, and stop back soon.
For a long time, SAR was central to my life. I served on the various boards, and I was the national President in the early 1990’s. I’d been involved on the committees for other reunions, but not this one. There’s just too much going on in my world now to be able to take on another important task, and to do justice to that task.
The reunion was held at the Hilton hotel on City Avenue in Philadelphia. Although I didn’t get involved in the planning, I still accepted the assignment of projecting video at the reunion. There was a really campy film made in the late 1960’s, and we looped that video. One of the producers of that film was Alan Yasni, who went from filmmaker wannabe to a career in the TV industry. I met him at the reunion, and we had great fun deconstructing that film, which he hadn’t seen for years.
You never know what to expect at a reunion. I got to see two guys that I was friends with back in the 1970’s, but hadn’t seen in 30 years. One was a South Philly boy who became a successful lawyer in the Los Angeles. The other actually graduated with me from Tennent, but our lives went in separate directions. He now runs a restaurant in Jenkintown, PA.
I shot a wedding the night before the reunion, so I had less than four hours of sleep after a full, well-rounded Saturday. However, the energy that I picked up there was incredible. Even though I got to the hotel about 8am, and left about 2pm, that time passed all too quickly. We always tell brides and grooms that their wedding day will be a blur, and I had exactly that experience.
So I’m a little behind in blogging, and I need to catch up. I’m in Southern California right now, part of The 4EVER Group team at the Orange County Video Summit. I still have to write about the wedding from before the reunion, as well as this trip. Thanks for reading, and stop back soon.
Friday, May 11, 2007
GraVT Expo in Atlanta
One of the important missions of The 4EVER Group is our commitment to supporting industry events across the country. That’s what has me in Atlanta right now. One of the important vendors, the DV Shop, is having their Grand Opening today at their new facility. Their new space is in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, across the parking lot from another photo/video source, Showcase.
Together, both companies put together the GraVT Expo, with a combination of regional and national vendors. The Open House part ran from 9am to 8pm, which made for a pretty long day. They were nice enough to have morning coffee, plus lunch and dinner for anyone who stopped by.
Both the DV Shop and Showcase support the event video industry, so we had a table-top exhibit to answer attendee questions. Considering that Friday is an unusual day for an all-day industry event, the show was busy throughout. Maybe it was the food, or maybe it was the outstanding gear and workshops that were on the agenda.
I arrived early enough yesterday to take in the Braves-Padres game at Turner Field, before meeting with another half-dozen members of the Atlanta Videographers Association for dinner at an Italian restaurant that about killed us with the amount of food they served, and that was before the owner threw two giant slabs of dessert down in front of us, along with a huge bowl of strawberries.
We have a pretty busy schedule over the next few weeks, with events in Philadelphia, Southern California, Detroit, Dallas, Boston, and Long Island. Please keep checking back for more updates.
Together, both companies put together the GraVT Expo, with a combination of regional and national vendors. The Open House part ran from 9am to 8pm, which made for a pretty long day. They were nice enough to have morning coffee, plus lunch and dinner for anyone who stopped by.
Both the DV Shop and Showcase support the event video industry, so we had a table-top exhibit to answer attendee questions. Considering that Friday is an unusual day for an all-day industry event, the show was busy throughout. Maybe it was the food, or maybe it was the outstanding gear and workshops that were on the agenda.
I arrived early enough yesterday to take in the Braves-Padres game at Turner Field, before meeting with another half-dozen members of the Atlanta Videographers Association for dinner at an Italian restaurant that about killed us with the amount of food they served, and that was before the owner threw two giant slabs of dessert down in front of us, along with a huge bowl of strawberries.
We have a pretty busy schedule over the next few weeks, with events in Philadelphia, Southern California, Detroit, Dallas, Boston, and Long Island. Please keep checking back for more updates.
Monday, April 30, 2007
A Look At Other Business
It’s always fascinating to see how different businesses handle problems. Within the last couple of months, I’ve had problems with two businesses. One involved a significant amount of money, and the other one, not so much.
In late December, I had taken my Montero over to Peruzzi Mitsubishi, which was the closest factory authorized repair facility. I needed some scheduled maintenance, but there was a strange noise that was clearly related to the transmission that needed attention. To keep the story at a reasonable length, I felt that Peruzzi did not do right by me, and I complained. The Service Manager offered me a token amount of “free” service back at Peruzzi. The situation was such that I was never going to do business with them again, so that offer was worthless. When I went up the chain to the owner/GM, I received a reply from their lawyer instead, more or less repeating the offer that the Service Manager had made.
The existential question: what kind of business, when receiving a detailed, written complaint from a customer, replies through lawyers? Nothing they could have done would have better reinforced my decision to never do business with them again. There are lots of places to deal with in the automotive world, and I’d recommend anyone in the lower Bucks County area to find another facility.
When I travel, I usually fly out of the Philadelphia airport. I usually use the Aampco off-airport parking lot, and they’ve recently been bought out by PreFlight Parking. Recently, I had a problem with their service and I wrote out a detailed complaint to their General Manager. He responded with an apology, an offer of a complimentary service, and an invitation to try them again. They were, after all, in the midst of a change-over.
About two weeks ago, I tried the service again. For the longest time, as a frequent parker, I had the charges go directly to a credit card. Earlier this year, I followed their instructions and changed credit cards. That change didn’t make it into their system, leading to another problem as I was leaving their lot –at about 1am. I’d stayed six or seven days, and the charge was under $85.00.
I wrote an email to the GM, telling him about my experience, how I’d gone back to them without asking for any special consideration, and how it didn’t work out. He apologized again, asked me to try their service, and offered a refund of the last charge.
So here were two businesses where I encountered problems. One business, where I spent over $3000.00 on one transaction, made me feel like they didn’t care at all about my business, and came across like they were doing me a favor. Another business, where the transaction was under $100.00, (and I’d never spent more than maybe $300.00/year there), actively campaigned to keep my business, and made me feel like my business was valued.
In late December, I had taken my Montero over to Peruzzi Mitsubishi, which was the closest factory authorized repair facility. I needed some scheduled maintenance, but there was a strange noise that was clearly related to the transmission that needed attention. To keep the story at a reasonable length, I felt that Peruzzi did not do right by me, and I complained. The Service Manager offered me a token amount of “free” service back at Peruzzi. The situation was such that I was never going to do business with them again, so that offer was worthless. When I went up the chain to the owner/GM, I received a reply from their lawyer instead, more or less repeating the offer that the Service Manager had made.
The existential question: what kind of business, when receiving a detailed, written complaint from a customer, replies through lawyers? Nothing they could have done would have better reinforced my decision to never do business with them again. There are lots of places to deal with in the automotive world, and I’d recommend anyone in the lower Bucks County area to find another facility.
When I travel, I usually fly out of the Philadelphia airport. I usually use the Aampco off-airport parking lot, and they’ve recently been bought out by PreFlight Parking. Recently, I had a problem with their service and I wrote out a detailed complaint to their General Manager. He responded with an apology, an offer of a complimentary service, and an invitation to try them again. They were, after all, in the midst of a change-over.
About two weeks ago, I tried the service again. For the longest time, as a frequent parker, I had the charges go directly to a credit card. Earlier this year, I followed their instructions and changed credit cards. That change didn’t make it into their system, leading to another problem as I was leaving their lot –at about 1am. I’d stayed six or seven days, and the charge was under $85.00.
I wrote an email to the GM, telling him about my experience, how I’d gone back to them without asking for any special consideration, and how it didn’t work out. He apologized again, asked me to try their service, and offered a refund of the last charge.
So here were two businesses where I encountered problems. One business, where I spent over $3000.00 on one transaction, made me feel like they didn’t care at all about my business, and came across like they were doing me a favor. Another business, where the transaction was under $100.00, (and I’d never spent more than maybe $300.00/year there), actively campaigned to keep my business, and made me feel like my business was valued.
Friday, April 20, 2007
NAB Wrap Up
That week went by incredibly fast. It was an outstanding week for The 4EVER Group, as we met with many vendors and made plans for their participation in our events and activities. We saw old friends throughout the week, and made new ones as well. We even got to watch as vendors punked each other during their presentations.
Let’s start with a couple of random sports notes. Tony Gwynn was at the Sony booth on Monday, autographing baseballs and posing for pictures. Tony was pretty much mobbed during the time he was there. One of our well-known presenters, Randy Stubbs, is a huge Padres fan, so I was able to get an extra autographed ball for him. Last night, we saw Pete Rose at a table in a memorabilia shop. Other than the store employees who were having their picture taken with him, Pete was all alone. It made for an interesting contrast.
Clearly, The 4EVER Group has made an impact with the vendors. Going into our third year, we’ve been sought out by some, and others could not have been more willing to get on board with us. Keep an eye out for those new developments within the next few weeks.
The continuing growth in the relationships we have with the vendors is the best result from this conference. My business card pile is probably smaller than in years past, but it was very targeted: Adobe, Anton/Bauer, Apple, Audio-Technica, Avid Blackmagic Design, Canon, Grass Valley, JVC, NewBay Media, Panasonic, Sennheiser, Sony, the Vitec Group and Zylight were among the many vendors we met with. We can’t count on all of them participating in every part of The 4EVER Group’s programming, we’ll certainly see them involved at some level.
So it’s an afternoon flight home, to be followed by a weekend of catching up on stuff at home. I’m hoping that the airport lines are back to what passes for normal today.
Let’s start with a couple of random sports notes. Tony Gwynn was at the Sony booth on Monday, autographing baseballs and posing for pictures. Tony was pretty much mobbed during the time he was there. One of our well-known presenters, Randy Stubbs, is a huge Padres fan, so I was able to get an extra autographed ball for him. Last night, we saw Pete Rose at a table in a memorabilia shop. Other than the store employees who were having their picture taken with him, Pete was all alone. It made for an interesting contrast.
Clearly, The 4EVER Group has made an impact with the vendors. Going into our third year, we’ve been sought out by some, and others could not have been more willing to get on board with us. Keep an eye out for those new developments within the next few weeks.
The continuing growth in the relationships we have with the vendors is the best result from this conference. My business card pile is probably smaller than in years past, but it was very targeted: Adobe, Anton/Bauer, Apple, Audio-Technica, Avid Blackmagic Design, Canon, Grass Valley, JVC, NewBay Media, Panasonic, Sennheiser, Sony, the Vitec Group and Zylight were among the many vendors we met with. We can’t count on all of them participating in every part of The 4EVER Group’s programming, we’ll certainly see them involved at some level.
So it’s an afternoon flight home, to be followed by a weekend of catching up on stuff at home. I’m hoping that the airport lines are back to what passes for normal today.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
NAB, Chapter 2
What are the odds? On the shuttle ride from the Las Vegas airport to the hotel, I was talking with the guy sitting behind me. It turned out that he and I graduated from the same high school, although he was a few years younger than me. Today, I was preparing to conduct an interview with a representative of Adobe Systems. During that time, we were making small talk. It developed that he graduated from the school I attended during 9th grade, and we were in the same graduating class. I have to figure that, being this far from home, the odds were pretty long on that.
Today was a combination of meetings and sessions. There was a 90-minute session on venture capital that wasn’t all that informative. The keynote speaker was Bob Pittman, who was CEO of AOL back when that actually meant something. He had a key point about product development, using cell phones and microwave ovens as examples. Cell phone reception is nothing like that of a land line, and a microwave doesn’t cook as well as a conventional oven. However, both products offer convenience. That was the message for product developers: offer more convenience to the consumer. “Better” works when it’s combined with convenience.
One of the big projects we have here at NAB is presenting Product Innovation Awards. You can read about them at www.4EVERGroup.org. Of all the award-winning products, I thought Zylight’s was the most amazing. It was a camera-mountable video light that has the full color spectrum of filters built in. The product demo was just plain cool.
NAB is also the time to catch up with videographer friends, among many others. We’ve run into videographer friends from across the country, and quite a few vendors have sought us out. The 4EVER Group programming will get a big boost from this show. And we still have more important meetings on the agenda for tomorrow.
Today was a combination of meetings and sessions. There was a 90-minute session on venture capital that wasn’t all that informative. The keynote speaker was Bob Pittman, who was CEO of AOL back when that actually meant something. He had a key point about product development, using cell phones and microwave ovens as examples. Cell phone reception is nothing like that of a land line, and a microwave doesn’t cook as well as a conventional oven. However, both products offer convenience. That was the message for product developers: offer more convenience to the consumer. “Better” works when it’s combined with convenience.
One of the big projects we have here at NAB is presenting Product Innovation Awards. You can read about them at www.4EVERGroup.org. Of all the award-winning products, I thought Zylight’s was the most amazing. It was a camera-mountable video light that has the full color spectrum of filters built in. The product demo was just plain cool.
NAB is also the time to catch up with videographer friends, among many others. We’ve run into videographer friends from across the country, and quite a few vendors have sought us out. The 4EVER Group programming will get a big boost from this show. And we still have more important meetings on the agenda for tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
NAB in Las Vegas
I’m currently in Las Vegas with more than 100,000 industry associates for the National Association of Broadcasters convention. It’s the best opportunity in our industry to meet the people we need, to see the gear that’s new, and to have some fun with old friends from everywhere.
Before I go further, a quick note about the awful shootings at Virginia Tech. With a son in college, it hits close to home. Although I haven’t been able to take in enough of the coverage to develop any conclusions, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Virginia Tech community.
Back here in Vegas, I’ve already gotten to see some really cool new tools. NewTek unveiled a production switcher that has built-in virtual sets. That piece will be shipping by the summer. Sony introduced a camera that records to a flash card, priced for our market. Sony says the camera will be available late this year. Adobe continued to show its new CS3 suite, which is an amazing editing solution that’s been used in major motion pictures (The Departed) and TV commercials (the Chevrolet ads with the flying trucks).
We’re staying at the Sahara. I won tickets to see The Amazing Jonathan the other night, and he’s still very funny. The Sahara itself has seen better days.
Today will be all about meetings, starting with one at 9am (what was I thinking?). I even have a couple of podcast interviews scheduled for the afternoon. I guess that means I need to get out of here. Stay tuned for more from Las Vegas.
Before I go further, a quick note about the awful shootings at Virginia Tech. With a son in college, it hits close to home. Although I haven’t been able to take in enough of the coverage to develop any conclusions, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Virginia Tech community.
Back here in Vegas, I’ve already gotten to see some really cool new tools. NewTek unveiled a production switcher that has built-in virtual sets. That piece will be shipping by the summer. Sony introduced a camera that records to a flash card, priced for our market. Sony says the camera will be available late this year. Adobe continued to show its new CS3 suite, which is an amazing editing solution that’s been used in major motion pictures (The Departed) and TV commercials (the Chevrolet ads with the flying trucks).
We’re staying at the Sahara. I won tickets to see The Amazing Jonathan the other night, and he’s still very funny. The Sahara itself has seen better days.
Today will be all about meetings, starting with one at 9am (what was I thinking?). I even have a couple of podcast interviews scheduled for the afternoon. I guess that means I need to get out of here. Stay tuned for more from Las Vegas.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Bad Things Do Happen Sometimes
Early this morning I received an email with the subject line “Rudy’s House”. The circumstances were such that it clearly was not going to be good news. It turned out that a good friend’s house burned down overnight. Rudy, his wife, and their four daughters (all under 10) got out safely. The house was pretty much a total loss, and he’s not yet sure how much business material he lost as well.
It seemed that a wiring problem with a bathroom fan sparked the fire, which started around 3am. The smoke detectors worked, and they woke my friend and his wife. Each of them grabbed one daughter, and a policeman grabbed the other two. The fire was on the local news (Boston area), and it was pretty surreal to watch the video.
Although the smoke detectors did work, none of the kids woke up. Apparently, that situation is not uncommon. So please check your smoke detectors to make sure they work, and that they are loud enough (and located appropriately) to wake adults. Go ahead and check now; I’ll wait here.
So what do you do for a friend who has lost everything to a fire? Between family and the Red Cross, their basic needs were covered. But we’ve been friends for years, and we’ve traveled together for business many times. Given the business we’re in, the answer was obvious. I was going to enlist everyone else in our inner circle to reprint as many pictures as we could, and copy as many videos as possible. When you speculate about what you’d grab in the event of a fire, pictures and home videos are usually on the list right after people and pets. From there, we’ll see about their needs. For now, it’s something positive.
It seemed that a wiring problem with a bathroom fan sparked the fire, which started around 3am. The smoke detectors worked, and they woke my friend and his wife. Each of them grabbed one daughter, and a policeman grabbed the other two. The fire was on the local news (Boston area), and it was pretty surreal to watch the video.
Although the smoke detectors did work, none of the kids woke up. Apparently, that situation is not uncommon. So please check your smoke detectors to make sure they work, and that they are loud enough (and located appropriately) to wake adults. Go ahead and check now; I’ll wait here.
So what do you do for a friend who has lost everything to a fire? Between family and the Red Cross, their basic needs were covered. But we’ve been friends for years, and we’ve traveled together for business many times. Given the business we’re in, the answer was obvious. I was going to enlist everyone else in our inner circle to reprint as many pictures as we could, and copy as many videos as possible. When you speculate about what you’d grab in the event of a fire, pictures and home videos are usually on the list right after people and pets. From there, we’ll see about their needs. For now, it’s something positive.
Adobe Product Launch
The 4EVER Group has built an excellent relationship with Adobe Systems over the nearly three years that we've been active. That relationship led to a pretty cool invitation for me. Yesterday, in what was billed as the largest new product launch in the 25-year history of Adobe, I was among an elite group of 200 at the live roll-out in New York City.
Although I don’t edit video anymore, it was clear that the product upgrades were significant. Adobe also created better ways to maneuver between programs within the editing suite (called ‘bridge’). The one piece of Adobe software that I do use is PhotoShop, and they’ve improved that as well, by significantly reducing the time needed to load the program. As a non-editor, one of the cooler features of the product demo was showing how the program allows you to remove stray audio from a scene. It was like taking an eraser to the audio wave-form.
The product roll-out was simulcast on the Adobe web site. And, as can happen, about half-way through the demo, they experienced an equipment failure. The software was working fine, but the hardware—not so much. In the end, they had to stop the demo for about a half hour, while they made repairs.
Everyone in the room had experienced something similar, at some point in their careers. Stuff does happen. And while I would not have wanted to be one of the team on headsets, trying to trouble-shoot, I did enjoy being part of the audience, because that was when they opened up the bars, and started butlering some specialty drinks. Key lime martini? They were tasty.
In the end, the launch was successful. Adobe has some cool new tools for people in our trade, and everyone in attendance has a new story to tell.
Although I don’t edit video anymore, it was clear that the product upgrades were significant. Adobe also created better ways to maneuver between programs within the editing suite (called ‘bridge’). The one piece of Adobe software that I do use is PhotoShop, and they’ve improved that as well, by significantly reducing the time needed to load the program. As a non-editor, one of the cooler features of the product demo was showing how the program allows you to remove stray audio from a scene. It was like taking an eraser to the audio wave-form.
The product roll-out was simulcast on the Adobe web site. And, as can happen, about half-way through the demo, they experienced an equipment failure. The software was working fine, but the hardware—not so much. In the end, they had to stop the demo for about a half hour, while they made repairs.
Everyone in the room had experienced something similar, at some point in their careers. Stuff does happen. And while I would not have wanted to be one of the team on headsets, trying to trouble-shoot, I did enjoy being part of the audience, because that was when they opened up the bars, and started butlering some specialty drinks. Key lime martini? They were tasty.
In the end, the launch was successful. Adobe has some cool new tools for people in our trade, and everyone in attendance has a new story to tell.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Meeting in Houston
So I took a trip to Houston the other day. I had a presentation scheduled for March 14, to the Houston Professional Videographers Association. As usual, I took an early flight. This allows me to (mostly) miss rush-hour traffic, and allows for some wiggle-room in the challenging world of air travel. I’d been using a particular off-airport parking lot, so I also have to allow a few extra minutes for all that that entails.
The EZ Pass-style frequent parker system they have in place wasn’t working, so I had to use the regular ticket system. No big deal. The transfer was pretty smooth, and I was off to the airport. Since I was flying USAir Express, I went off to Terminal F. Turns out that my flight was in Terminal C. I passed through security in F, where I had to wait behind one person, and took a shuttle over to C, where the security line was considerably longer.
In Houston, I stayed at the airport hotel. Since I was being picked up for the trip to the meeting, staying at that hotel made sense. Shortly before I was picked up, however, rainstorms of Biblical proportions started. The storms raged on and off for 3-4 hours, making numerous freeways and surface roads close to impassable, due to the high water. I really did think we were going to have to swim to the meeting.
My presentation was “Do the Math”, which produced the same surprised reactions that it always does. What was a surprise to me was that there were three MBA-holders in the audience, which is three more than usually attend videographers meetings.
After the meeting, roughly half of the group went out to eat at a restaurant (I’ve forgotten the name) that had a giant, mirrored armadillo out front. Now, under normal circumstances, I seem to be a bad service magnet. With a group of 20 people, this was way beyond normal bad service. The waitress was nice enough, but the place was pretty much understaffed. And, being a bar-restaurant in Texas, people were free to smoke inside.
At least the rain had subsided, and the standing water had mostly drained off, making the ride back to the airport relatively easy. It became a very late night, however, due to the slow service at the restaurant.
This is a good time for me to thank the Houston PVA for inviting me to speak before their group. I'll be back there in October with another program, and I look forward to that. I also want to thank Sandy Buller for being my driver, which was made all the more challenging by the weather.
The next day, I was able to catch an earlier flight back to Philadelphia. USAirways was kind enough to only charge me $25.00 for making that change. But since I slept through the middle of the flight, I missed my bag of deluxe mini-pretzels. There was barely enough room to read a book in the seat, so sleeping seemed like a good use of my time.
There were issues with the jetway operation in Houston. I’m not really sure what happened, but the in-bound flight spent about 20 minutes at the gate while they tried to figure out how to operate the jetway. All that made our flight arrive a bit late to Philadelphia. That fact, however, didn’t mean that our gate was clear. We sat on the plane for over 20 minutes, waiting for the gate to clear. Given the troubles that other airlines have had, 20 minutes is nothing, right?
But the final indignity was at the parking lot. Using the ticket system, as a transient, one-time user, my fee would have been $19.90. My AAA membership saved me $2.00 off that. When I compared that to the trip I took in January, which was almost the exact same amount of time in the lot, using my frequent-parker discount, I actually paid more as a frequent parker, $23.90 vs. $17.90. That seemed a little absurd to me. By then, it was after normal business hours, so I couldn’t call to complain. I sent an email to the general manager, who has yet to reply. I will give him some slack, since it was the weekend. Meanwhile, I’m looking at other parking lots for future trips.
And there will be future trips, as I’ve been working on a variety of programming for The 4EVER Group (www.4EVERGroup.org) that will mean more road trips in the next few months. NAB (Vegas) is coming up next month, and there will be others. I plan on having pictures available for some of those trips.
The EZ Pass-style frequent parker system they have in place wasn’t working, so I had to use the regular ticket system. No big deal. The transfer was pretty smooth, and I was off to the airport. Since I was flying USAir Express, I went off to Terminal F. Turns out that my flight was in Terminal C. I passed through security in F, where I had to wait behind one person, and took a shuttle over to C, where the security line was considerably longer.
In Houston, I stayed at the airport hotel. Since I was being picked up for the trip to the meeting, staying at that hotel made sense. Shortly before I was picked up, however, rainstorms of Biblical proportions started. The storms raged on and off for 3-4 hours, making numerous freeways and surface roads close to impassable, due to the high water. I really did think we were going to have to swim to the meeting.
My presentation was “Do the Math”, which produced the same surprised reactions that it always does. What was a surprise to me was that there were three MBA-holders in the audience, which is three more than usually attend videographers meetings.
After the meeting, roughly half of the group went out to eat at a restaurant (I’ve forgotten the name) that had a giant, mirrored armadillo out front. Now, under normal circumstances, I seem to be a bad service magnet. With a group of 20 people, this was way beyond normal bad service. The waitress was nice enough, but the place was pretty much understaffed. And, being a bar-restaurant in Texas, people were free to smoke inside.
At least the rain had subsided, and the standing water had mostly drained off, making the ride back to the airport relatively easy. It became a very late night, however, due to the slow service at the restaurant.
This is a good time for me to thank the Houston PVA for inviting me to speak before their group. I'll be back there in October with another program, and I look forward to that. I also want to thank Sandy Buller for being my driver, which was made all the more challenging by the weather.
The next day, I was able to catch an earlier flight back to Philadelphia. USAirways was kind enough to only charge me $25.00 for making that change. But since I slept through the middle of the flight, I missed my bag of deluxe mini-pretzels. There was barely enough room to read a book in the seat, so sleeping seemed like a good use of my time.
There were issues with the jetway operation in Houston. I’m not really sure what happened, but the in-bound flight spent about 20 minutes at the gate while they tried to figure out how to operate the jetway. All that made our flight arrive a bit late to Philadelphia. That fact, however, didn’t mean that our gate was clear. We sat on the plane for over 20 minutes, waiting for the gate to clear. Given the troubles that other airlines have had, 20 minutes is nothing, right?
But the final indignity was at the parking lot. Using the ticket system, as a transient, one-time user, my fee would have been $19.90. My AAA membership saved me $2.00 off that. When I compared that to the trip I took in January, which was almost the exact same amount of time in the lot, using my frequent-parker discount, I actually paid more as a frequent parker, $23.90 vs. $17.90. That seemed a little absurd to me. By then, it was after normal business hours, so I couldn’t call to complain. I sent an email to the general manager, who has yet to reply. I will give him some slack, since it was the weekend. Meanwhile, I’m looking at other parking lots for future trips.
And there will be future trips, as I’ve been working on a variety of programming for The 4EVER Group (www.4EVERGroup.org) that will mean more road trips in the next few months. NAB (Vegas) is coming up next month, and there will be others. I plan on having pictures available for some of those trips.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Video Tape Does Not Last Forever
I’m just finishing up part 2 of a massive tape-to-DVD transfer project for a client. They had more than 60 hours of home videos of their kids and vacations, another 10 hours of old movie file that I’d transferred to a pro format for them about a decade ago, and their wedding video. That brings me to the point of this post.
This couple got married in 1992, at one of the premier hotels in Philadelphia. They had one of the leading videographers of that time document the day on tape. Although they may have had the choice of buying the Master tape (a professional video version of the VHS tape that they received), they only had the VHS tape to give me for the transfer.
In their wedding, the Best Man’s toast went on for quite a while. This couple did watch their video frequently and often skipped over the toast by scanning on fast forward. The “scan” mode allows you to see the video as you move forward, so that you can go back to play more readily. On occasion, they left the tapein the VCR for a day or two at a time.
I’m not going to give you a technical explanation of what happened, mainly because I’m not an especially technical person. When they dropped the videos off, they told me that they weren’t sure what was going on with the toast segment, but they were concerned that they “wore out the tape.” When I transferred their wedding video from VHS to DVD, I discovered that their concerns were completely justified. The Best Man’s toast had basically vanished. Sure, every few moments you could see something, but you couldn’t hear anything. When I opened the shell, the tape obviously had been damaged over the years. So now an important memory from their wedding is lost.
The problem had obviously been growing for years. Let me offer a few observations:
-Always fully rewind a valuable VHS tape after watching it.
-Always return the VHS tape to its container after rewinding.
-Always store a VHS tape on its narrow end, with the tape side to the bottom.
-Always store a VHS tape away from any electro-magnetic source, like stereo speakers.
Most importantly, get your VHS tapes transferred to DVD immediately. And when I say “VHS”, I’m really referring to any home video format, including Betamax, Video 8mm, and Digital 8mm video. The longer you wait, the greater the chance you’ll have a problem like I’ve discussed here. Remember, that wedding video wasn’t quite 15 years old and an important segment was gone.
If you send me an email (steve@videoccasion.net) by April 15, 2007, you’ll receive a special discount on your tape-to-DVD transfer.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Videographer Education - Series Finale
Sixth Trip: Cleveland
After so many flights in such a short period of time, I decided to drive to Cleveland. In part, airfares were ridiculous for the return flight, since it was just before Thanksgiving. In part, driving meant that I could pick my son up from college on the return trip, since his break was starting.
The drive to Cleveland was pretty uneventful. The highlight probably was passing the marker denoting the highest point on Interstate 80 east of the Mississippi River, which was something like 2200 feet. Considering the time I’d recently spent in the Rockies, that marker left me pretty unimpressed.
Without a doubt, one of my favorite features of this local association outreach was the opportunity to see old friends again. One of my old friends, Rommie Sebo, was serving as President of NOVA, the Northern Ohio Videographers Association. It was in that role that he took me out to a very nice dinner the night I arrived in Cleveland. And in the small world that exists in our trade, Michael Wolkis, who was kind enough to host me in Phoenix, has some connections to the deli where Rommie took me for lunch the following day.
“Do the Math” was the requested topic in Cleveland. Like many cities in the Northeast and Midwest, Cleveland has some economic challenges. Having a context for pricing and business issues was thought to be a valuable asset for NOVA members. And, like in every city where this program was hosted, the final results (where we calculate the true cost of producing one wedding video) were astounding.
The drive home from Cleveland gave me the first opportunity to buy gas for under $2.00/gallon in quite a while. And the trip through northwestern Pennsylvania also gave me the first taste of snow for the winter. Otherwise, I took the time to have lunch in State College (home of Penn State, my alma mater) before stopping to pick up my son at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
Seventh Trip: Orange County, CA and Jacksonville, FL
My final trip for 2005 made for an interesting triangle across the country, flying from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to Jacksonville and back to Philadelphia. For the first time on this outreach, both Tim and I were presenting programs on the same date. The PVN invited us to present all four of our programs in one day, and we were happy to be able to accommodate them.
We arrived two days prior to the meeting, with Tim connecting with family that night, leaving me time to catch up on some email. While we had discussed catching the USC-UCLA football game that Saturday, we spent the day on the road, conducting interviews for The 4EVER Group podcast series.
Our first stop on Saturday was the home of Julie and Alex Hill, which was located to the east of the mountains in Riverside County. The drive itself was beautiful, and the Hills’ live in a very modern subdivision. We conducted the interview in their den, before we all went out to lunch.
When those of us from the east think about California wineries, we think about the Napa Valley. We never knew about the wineries in southern Riverside County. With the cold back on the east coast, having an outdoor lunch at a winery (a first for both Tim and me) was a real highlight of the entire outreach time.
Following lunch, we had to find our way over to a southbound freeway, as we were off to visit with Randy Stubbs. Randy would be the second of three interview subjects for this trip. Since we were nowhere near Los Angeles, the freeway trip was pretty easy, and finding Randy’s house was only a little challenging, set back from the street as it is.
Randy’s Jack Russell terrier had recently had a litter, and he was in the process of selling the puppies. In fact, a couple were in his home as we arrived, inspecting the puppies in their playpen.
Once that inspection concluded (they didn’t buy that day, but they did come back later), we were able to move on into the interview. By the time this article is published, the interview will have been posted as a podcast on The 4EVER Group web site.
Unfortunately, Randy had other plans for the evening, leaving Tim and I to grab dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter, before heading back to Orange County. For Tim, the Gaslamp Quarter has two of his favorite places: The Hard Rock Café and the House of Blues. We settled on Mexican food, which still allowed Tim time to collect his memorabilia.
The PVN had arranged for a full-day 4EVER Group program on that Sunday. Tim and I alternated our programs, with both of us presenting one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The PVN sold something on the order of fifty tickets to this all-day educational event, with lunch included in the price of admission. It was strange, everything considered, for Tim and I to sit in on each others program. And, as in every previous city, the presentations drew focused debate from the attendees.
Following the meeting, Tim joined several PVN members for dinner, while I took the hour-long drive to Riverside, to interview John Goolsby. We spent the better part of an hour at his studio, discussing topics of interest, before wrapping up the interview. After the interview, we took a ride to visit Chip, who was in the hospital. Since we scheduled the interview at the very last minute, John did not have time to tell Chip that I’d be coming along to visit. I have to figure that I was not exactly high up on the list of people Chip was expecting to see walk into his hospital room that night. When we discussed that later, Chip confessed to wondering exactly what drugs they had administered, because my walking in to his room had to be a hallucination.
On Monday morning, I began the arduous trip from LAX to Jacksonville. This required a plane change in Houston, which allowed me enough time for lunch. The Pappas family restaurant chain includes a burger place at the Houston airport, which made for possibly my best airport meal of the entire outreach effort. That chain operates restaurants under no less than nine different names, and I’ve now eaten at three (Pappadeaux, Pappasito’s Cantina, and Pappas Burger), and enjoyed them all. By the time I finally had dinner in Jacksonville, I had one of those quirky days that I enjoy talking about: three meals on that day, each in a different state and time zone.
The Tuesday night Jacksonville Videographers Association (JVA) meeting was held in probably the most unique of locations: the garage/studio for the video department of the Jacksonville Fire Department. One of the JVA members runs the studio for the JFD, making access quite easy. And since we were pretty close to Christmas, the pizza boxes were spread out around a variety of home-baked holiday treats.
Merrill Moore, the President of the JVA, had been a judge during the first-ever Artistic Achievement Awards competition. That made the Video Critique a natural program or the JVA. And for only the second time on the outreach, my presentation was recorded (I’m still waiting for a copy, nearly two months later). After the meeting, we continued the discussion over at a local Denny’s. It was easy to follow Merrill’s SUV, since it had the most outrageous Christmas decorations I’d ever seen on a moving vehicle.
And then, once again, the morning came, and it was time to get on a plane for the trip home. I visited a total of 18 cities over the course of seven trips. We were able to include podcast interviews, a Video Summit, and several other meetings during the time of this local association outreach program. As I detailed earlier, I flew on nine different airlines, and I didn’t bother counting hotel chains or car rental companies. My two different presentations reached hundreds of videographers all across the US. We still didn’t reach every association, which means there’s still more work to be done. That means more time out on the road, as 2006 will bring more local association presentations, more Video Summits, the Artistic Achievement Awards program, and that all will lead up to the 2007 4EVER Group convention. It looks like an exciting time.
After so many flights in such a short period of time, I decided to drive to Cleveland. In part, airfares were ridiculous for the return flight, since it was just before Thanksgiving. In part, driving meant that I could pick my son up from college on the return trip, since his break was starting.
The drive to Cleveland was pretty uneventful. The highlight probably was passing the marker denoting the highest point on Interstate 80 east of the Mississippi River, which was something like 2200 feet. Considering the time I’d recently spent in the Rockies, that marker left me pretty unimpressed.
Without a doubt, one of my favorite features of this local association outreach was the opportunity to see old friends again. One of my old friends, Rommie Sebo, was serving as President of NOVA, the Northern Ohio Videographers Association. It was in that role that he took me out to a very nice dinner the night I arrived in Cleveland. And in the small world that exists in our trade, Michael Wolkis, who was kind enough to host me in Phoenix, has some connections to the deli where Rommie took me for lunch the following day.
“Do the Math” was the requested topic in Cleveland. Like many cities in the Northeast and Midwest, Cleveland has some economic challenges. Having a context for pricing and business issues was thought to be a valuable asset for NOVA members. And, like in every city where this program was hosted, the final results (where we calculate the true cost of producing one wedding video) were astounding.
The drive home from Cleveland gave me the first opportunity to buy gas for under $2.00/gallon in quite a while. And the trip through northwestern Pennsylvania also gave me the first taste of snow for the winter. Otherwise, I took the time to have lunch in State College (home of Penn State, my alma mater) before stopping to pick up my son at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
Seventh Trip: Orange County, CA and Jacksonville, FL
My final trip for 2005 made for an interesting triangle across the country, flying from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to Jacksonville and back to Philadelphia. For the first time on this outreach, both Tim and I were presenting programs on the same date. The PVN invited us to present all four of our programs in one day, and we were happy to be able to accommodate them.
We arrived two days prior to the meeting, with Tim connecting with family that night, leaving me time to catch up on some email. While we had discussed catching the USC-UCLA football game that Saturday, we spent the day on the road, conducting interviews for The 4EVER Group podcast series.
Our first stop on Saturday was the home of Julie and Alex Hill, which was located to the east of the mountains in Riverside County. The drive itself was beautiful, and the Hills’ live in a very modern subdivision. We conducted the interview in their den, before we all went out to lunch.
When those of us from the east think about California wineries, we think about the Napa Valley. We never knew about the wineries in southern Riverside County. With the cold back on the east coast, having an outdoor lunch at a winery (a first for both Tim and me) was a real highlight of the entire outreach time.
Following lunch, we had to find our way over to a southbound freeway, as we were off to visit with Randy Stubbs. Randy would be the second of three interview subjects for this trip. Since we were nowhere near Los Angeles, the freeway trip was pretty easy, and finding Randy’s house was only a little challenging, set back from the street as it is.
Randy’s Jack Russell terrier had recently had a litter, and he was in the process of selling the puppies. In fact, a couple were in his home as we arrived, inspecting the puppies in their playpen.
Once that inspection concluded (they didn’t buy that day, but they did come back later), we were able to move on into the interview. By the time this article is published, the interview will have been posted as a podcast on The 4EVER Group web site.
Unfortunately, Randy had other plans for the evening, leaving Tim and I to grab dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter, before heading back to Orange County. For Tim, the Gaslamp Quarter has two of his favorite places: The Hard Rock Café and the House of Blues. We settled on Mexican food, which still allowed Tim time to collect his memorabilia.
The PVN had arranged for a full-day 4EVER Group program on that Sunday. Tim and I alternated our programs, with both of us presenting one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The PVN sold something on the order of fifty tickets to this all-day educational event, with lunch included in the price of admission. It was strange, everything considered, for Tim and I to sit in on each others program. And, as in every previous city, the presentations drew focused debate from the attendees.
Following the meeting, Tim joined several PVN members for dinner, while I took the hour-long drive to Riverside, to interview John Goolsby. We spent the better part of an hour at his studio, discussing topics of interest, before wrapping up the interview. After the interview, we took a ride to visit Chip, who was in the hospital. Since we scheduled the interview at the very last minute, John did not have time to tell Chip that I’d be coming along to visit. I have to figure that I was not exactly high up on the list of people Chip was expecting to see walk into his hospital room that night. When we discussed that later, Chip confessed to wondering exactly what drugs they had administered, because my walking in to his room had to be a hallucination.
On Monday morning, I began the arduous trip from LAX to Jacksonville. This required a plane change in Houston, which allowed me enough time for lunch. The Pappas family restaurant chain includes a burger place at the Houston airport, which made for possibly my best airport meal of the entire outreach effort. That chain operates restaurants under no less than nine different names, and I’ve now eaten at three (Pappadeaux, Pappasito’s Cantina, and Pappas Burger), and enjoyed them all. By the time I finally had dinner in Jacksonville, I had one of those quirky days that I enjoy talking about: three meals on that day, each in a different state and time zone.
The Tuesday night Jacksonville Videographers Association (JVA) meeting was held in probably the most unique of locations: the garage/studio for the video department of the Jacksonville Fire Department. One of the JVA members runs the studio for the JFD, making access quite easy. And since we were pretty close to Christmas, the pizza boxes were spread out around a variety of home-baked holiday treats.
Merrill Moore, the President of the JVA, had been a judge during the first-ever Artistic Achievement Awards competition. That made the Video Critique a natural program or the JVA. And for only the second time on the outreach, my presentation was recorded (I’m still waiting for a copy, nearly two months later). After the meeting, we continued the discussion over at a local Denny’s. It was easy to follow Merrill’s SUV, since it had the most outrageous Christmas decorations I’d ever seen on a moving vehicle.
And then, once again, the morning came, and it was time to get on a plane for the trip home. I visited a total of 18 cities over the course of seven trips. We were able to include podcast interviews, a Video Summit, and several other meetings during the time of this local association outreach program. As I detailed earlier, I flew on nine different airlines, and I didn’t bother counting hotel chains or car rental companies. My two different presentations reached hundreds of videographers all across the US. We still didn’t reach every association, which means there’s still more work to be done. That means more time out on the road, as 2006 will bring more local association presentations, more Video Summits, the Artistic Achievement Awards program, and that all will lead up to the 2007 4EVER Group convention. It looks like an exciting time.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
More Videographer Education
Fifth Trip: Seattle, Los Angeles, Phoenix
Since I got home late on a Thursday, leaving early on Saturday meant that there just wasn’t much time to unpack, deal with snail mail, or anything else from real life. Well, this was the path we chose, so it had to be done. I did get to take a quick visit to Chicago again, as I had to change planes at O’Hare. The good news was that with all of my recent travels, I’d accumulated enough air miles to upgrade to first class for the Chicago-Seattle leg of the trip. I have a somewhat large laptop, and the extra room makes working so much easier.
On my only previous visit, the weather in Seattle was Chamber of Commerce perfect: sunny, warm, and dry. That was just a memory, as the weather was cold and rainy for this trip. That simply meant we had more time to record an interview with Laura Randall, for a 4EVER Group podcast.
The association meeting was held in a local library, which is an obviously popular choice among videographers. My topic was the Video Critique, and this was one of only two groups that recorded my presentation. With the meeting being on a Sunday, the late afternoon start meant that the meeting had to be over promptly. Of course, that left us plenty of time to engage in a favorite activity of many videographers: eating.
All too soon, it was time to get back to the airport for my flight to Burbank, as the Tuesday meeting was with the American videographers Association, in the San Fernando Valley.
That Seattle to Burbank flight was on Alaska Airlines, which was my first time using that carrier. Others had suggested that it was a relatively good airline, and I kept an open mind on that. Many of my flights were on Southwest, and the lack of assigned seating can get under your skin, especially when you can’t get that “A” boarding pass.
My experience was that Alaska Air was just ok. Of course, using no less than nine different airlines (American, Continental, USAirways, Southwest, America West, Frontier, Northwest, and Delta, along with Alaska), not counting the “Express” and “Shuttle” divisions for the Baton Rouge part of the trip, means that the experiences will tend to run together.
Jay Stein is the president of the AVA. By happy coincidence, I arrived in the LA area on Jay’s birthday. That meant that we got together with a number of Jay’s other friends (including videographers like Kirk Thompson and Beth Oslander) for a celebratory dinner.
Since the AVA meeting was held Tuesday night, that meant I was ready to spend most of the day locked up in my hotel room, doing computer work, as I had in other cities. But since the weather at home had been tending toward winter, and the weather in LA was so beautiful, I did take a walk to a nearby shopping area for lunch. Of course, I had an ulterior motive: buying the 30th Anniversary “Born To Run” package.
Some readers will know that I am something of a Springsteen fanatic. With the Best Buy being located in that shopping area, it made things easier for me. And it certainly made the afternoon’s work go faster, as I could listen to my kind of music.
The AVA meeting was held in the office of an association member, with pizzas and salads available as a light dinner (no one ever topped Baton Rouge, with their desserts). In addition to the nearly 30 AVA members in attendance, Larry Goldsmith (outgoing President) and Cathy Steffan (incoming President) from the PVN in Orange County were at the meeting. In part, the PVN crew was there to promote their own program with The 4EVER Group.
Some of the most creative videographers in our industry live in Southern California. That they were entertained and impressed by the work presented in the Video Critique is a statement about the quality of the winning work from the 2005 Artistic Achievement Awards.
Another trip to the airport awaited me the next morning, as it was time for the third of three meetings in four days, which meant I had to be going to Phoenix. Although America West was probably the least punctual of all the airlines I used on this outreach, the flight was at least relatively brief.
With a population in excess of 1.3 million people, the city of Phoenix has about the same number of people as the city of Philadelphia. Nearby cities add to that total, and Phoenix is also one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. Given all of that information, it’s still puzzling as to why Phoenix has two local associations, and why neither are doing particularly well.
We had reached out to both groups (CAPVA and PVCR) well in advance of our November 16 speaking date, in an attempt to offer assistance to both groups. In the end, our library meeting drew a crowd of fewer than twenty for the Video Critique.
Unfortunately, other obligations meant that I had to get on out of Phoenix early on morning following the meeting. We departed knowing that more work needed to be done in order to get videographers in the Phoenix area caught up with similar big cities.
Since I got home late on a Thursday, leaving early on Saturday meant that there just wasn’t much time to unpack, deal with snail mail, or anything else from real life. Well, this was the path we chose, so it had to be done. I did get to take a quick visit to Chicago again, as I had to change planes at O’Hare. The good news was that with all of my recent travels, I’d accumulated enough air miles to upgrade to first class for the Chicago-Seattle leg of the trip. I have a somewhat large laptop, and the extra room makes working so much easier.
On my only previous visit, the weather in Seattle was Chamber of Commerce perfect: sunny, warm, and dry. That was just a memory, as the weather was cold and rainy for this trip. That simply meant we had more time to record an interview with Laura Randall, for a 4EVER Group podcast.
The association meeting was held in a local library, which is an obviously popular choice among videographers. My topic was the Video Critique, and this was one of only two groups that recorded my presentation. With the meeting being on a Sunday, the late afternoon start meant that the meeting had to be over promptly. Of course, that left us plenty of time to engage in a favorite activity of many videographers: eating.
All too soon, it was time to get back to the airport for my flight to Burbank, as the Tuesday meeting was with the American videographers Association, in the San Fernando Valley.
That Seattle to Burbank flight was on Alaska Airlines, which was my first time using that carrier. Others had suggested that it was a relatively good airline, and I kept an open mind on that. Many of my flights were on Southwest, and the lack of assigned seating can get under your skin, especially when you can’t get that “A” boarding pass.
My experience was that Alaska Air was just ok. Of course, using no less than nine different airlines (American, Continental, USAirways, Southwest, America West, Frontier, Northwest, and Delta, along with Alaska), not counting the “Express” and “Shuttle” divisions for the Baton Rouge part of the trip, means that the experiences will tend to run together.
Jay Stein is the president of the AVA. By happy coincidence, I arrived in the LA area on Jay’s birthday. That meant that we got together with a number of Jay’s other friends (including videographers like Kirk Thompson and Beth Oslander) for a celebratory dinner.
Since the AVA meeting was held Tuesday night, that meant I was ready to spend most of the day locked up in my hotel room, doing computer work, as I had in other cities. But since the weather at home had been tending toward winter, and the weather in LA was so beautiful, I did take a walk to a nearby shopping area for lunch. Of course, I had an ulterior motive: buying the 30th Anniversary “Born To Run” package.
Some readers will know that I am something of a Springsteen fanatic. With the Best Buy being located in that shopping area, it made things easier for me. And it certainly made the afternoon’s work go faster, as I could listen to my kind of music.
The AVA meeting was held in the office of an association member, with pizzas and salads available as a light dinner (no one ever topped Baton Rouge, with their desserts). In addition to the nearly 30 AVA members in attendance, Larry Goldsmith (outgoing President) and Cathy Steffan (incoming President) from the PVN in Orange County were at the meeting. In part, the PVN crew was there to promote their own program with The 4EVER Group.
Some of the most creative videographers in our industry live in Southern California. That they were entertained and impressed by the work presented in the Video Critique is a statement about the quality of the winning work from the 2005 Artistic Achievement Awards.
Another trip to the airport awaited me the next morning, as it was time for the third of three meetings in four days, which meant I had to be going to Phoenix. Although America West was probably the least punctual of all the airlines I used on this outreach, the flight was at least relatively brief.
With a population in excess of 1.3 million people, the city of Phoenix has about the same number of people as the city of Philadelphia. Nearby cities add to that total, and Phoenix is also one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. Given all of that information, it’s still puzzling as to why Phoenix has two local associations, and why neither are doing particularly well.
We had reached out to both groups (CAPVA and PVCR) well in advance of our November 16 speaking date, in an attempt to offer assistance to both groups. In the end, our library meeting drew a crowd of fewer than twenty for the Video Critique.
Unfortunately, other obligations meant that I had to get on out of Phoenix early on morning following the meeting. We departed knowing that more work needed to be done in order to get videographers in the Phoenix area caught up with similar big cities.
Friday, February 23, 2007
More From The Road
Fourth Trip: Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Appleton and Madison, WI
This was one trip that I had been especially looking forward to taking, as I’d never been to either city. One thing that has always made business travel interesting was the opportunity to spend time with friends in different cities, seeing and doing things I may not otherwise. The first leg of the trip, to Denver, was perhaps the best mix of business and pleasure during this outreach time.
My visit to Denver just happened to coincide with a Broncos home game against my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Literally thousands of Eagles fans made the trip to Denver, so everywhere we went, we shared the town with lots and lots of Philadelphians. The picture on the bottom is me outside of the stadium, prior to the game.
Henry Mares, president of the local association in Denver, and Jay Wren, took turns showing me around Denver. Our first stop was lunch in the town of Black Hawk, which is at an elevation of about 8000 feet. Never having been at that kind of altitude before, I did find myself huffing and puffing as we hustled through town.
After lunch, a tour of the Coors brewery in Golden was on the agenda. As expected, there were a lot of Eagles fans sampling the variety beers on tap in the lounge. Since Henry had some business obligations, Jay and I spent the late afternoon and evening together, including dinner among dozens of other Eagles fans.
Although I did attend the football game, the less written about that the better, since, as I said, I’m an Eagles fan.
The Denver association is one of the few that have a daytime meeting. The meeting time schedule is designed to appeal to those videographers who prioritize their business in a way that allows them to attend such a meeting. That does present some obvious challenges, but it also makes for an enthusiastic group of attendees. And with a fairly limited amount of available time, it means that the attendees still can get in a pretty full day back in the studio. The meeting ends at about noon, which also gives attendees the opportunity to network over lunch afterward.
This offers the opportunity to go off on a tangent about local association meeting schedules. What is the best method for planning meetings in a way that will lead to association success?
If we consider the models of other business organizations, then daytime meetings can be effective. Chambers of Commerce and business referral networks often have breakfast meetings. On the other hand, groups that are involved in the social event industry, such as the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE), usually meet during the evening.
Obviously, each local association sets its own agenda and schedule. But our observations over these many years reveal the following;
-Successful associations tend to meet regularly (most often monthly).
-Successful associations tend to meet in the same location every time.
-Successful associations draw contributions from their members, and are able to attract outside presenters.
As we’ve stressed throughout this outreach effort, local associations truly are the backbone of our industry; everything positive starts there. Members trade job leads, share equipment and ideas, and formulate strategies for dealing with the public image of videographers. The 4EVER Group stands ready to continue assisting in the development of local videographers associations.
Following lunch with Henry Mares and Jay Wren, I spent my remaining few hours in Denver at the Mares’ home, trying to avoid the Halloween candy rush. Finally, it was off to the airport for the short flight to Salt Lake City.
Throughout this outreach, I’ve found it fairly easy to get a hotel room that included a Wi-Fi connection. That was a pleasant and important change from other extended road trips, where we considered ourselves lucky to find dial-up service. For both Tim and I, being out of the office for such an extended period of time would have meant missing vital communications, had it not been for the up-to-date internet connections now widely available.
Although I’ve seen many videos involving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), I knew practically nothing about LDS practices. After working on the computer for a few hours, in advance of a diner meeting, I went to the Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. In a compact area, the Salt Lake Temple anchors the history and future of the LDS faith. After taking a brief tour, I finally understood why I was not going to be able to enter a Temple (first, I would have to be baptized in the faith). The architecture is incredible, and the weather cooperated as well. In the ninety-or-so minutes I spent at Temple Square, I also saw two newly-married couples being photographed (no video) outside the Salt Lake Temple.
The meeting was in the rural town of Tooele (if you’re going there, it’s pronounced ‘Twill-ah’), where I got to share a barbecue dinner with Douglas Spotted Eagle, his wife Linda, and business partner Mannie Frances. We finalized the details of Spot’s participation in The 4EVER Group’s January 2006 convention. That we could meet was a happy scheduling coincidence, as Spot and Mannie were off on another leg of their VASST training tour the following morning.
I didn’t need to arrive at the Utah Professional Videographers meeting until late in the afternoon on that Wednesday, so I had plenty of time to work in my hotel room during the day. But I took another brief side-trip before the meeting, so I could get down to the Great Salt Lake.
Right off of a freeway, just past the airport, was a lake-front marina. Although the marina was closed for the season, it still offered access to the lake. The beach was an interesting combination of hard-packed sand and salt, and it was probably 100 yards wide. Set among beautiful, snow-capped mountains, the lake truly was impressive. Videographers from the Salt Lake City area have described the lake as having a rather unique scent. While I can’t explain their reactions, from my perspective, the lake smelled like the ocean, but just a little stronger.
With Salt Lake City being the major metropolitan area, the UPVA routinely draws attendees who drive two or more hours to each meeting. As a supporter of local associations, it’s gratifying to see that happen. The UPVA meets in a lecture hall at a local community college, which was the only such location I’d encountered. Interestingly, the college’s mission was to support entrepreneurial activities. Of course, most videographers qualify as entrepreneurs, making for a sense of belonging.
My presentation was “Do the Math”, and it was as informative for the UPVA as it was for every other association. Salt Lake City, perhaps the smallest market on this tour, had lots of questions about how the numbers might relate to their experiences. The point of “Do the Math” is to offer tools that videographers can use to establish their own true costs of doing business. Those costs do vary from studio to studio.
After the meeting, about half of the attendees went out to dinner, and continued the intense business discussions. Meetings are a great place to build a network of personal contacts within your own market, but the after-meeting meals are often where friendships are cemented.
Early Thursday morning, it was time to head off to the airport for a trip to Los Angeles. This was originally a trip being made in support of the LAPVA, but their meeting was rescheduled as part of a reorganizing effort. Instead, I used the time to continue developing other important business relationships.
Interestingly, I have a personal connection to with the publisher of an industry magazine called “Trade Show Week”. Through their weekly publication and web site, “Trade Show Week” is arguably the bible of the industry. I think that The 4EVER Group has a compelling story, in that we’re a start-up company taking on the 15-year old established entity in our industry. There are other obvious side issues that could be considered “inside baseball”, but that’s what “Trade Show Week” is all about.
In addition to working on the “Trade Show Week” relationship, I met with the owner and the editor of a major entity in the bridal industry. While this entity will remain nameless as this is written, the story may be very well-known by the time this is published. And the root of my meeting was the lack of growth and acceptance of video within the bridal community.
To date, little more than a token effort has been made to get high-quality video in front of large numbers of brides. Many brides remain convinced that what they saw years ago of both the process and the finished product still applies today. We know better. The 4EVER Group, in cooperation with some of the leading videographers on the continent, and in conjunction with this nameless bridal industry entity, are working together to get quality video in front of huge numbers of brides. In theory, as more and more brides see the outstanding productions that today’s videographers routinely turn out, demand will be created for quality wedding videos in every market. This will obviously lead to more work for many videographers, and provide an incentive for other videographers to improve their productions.
This creates a winning scenario for everyone. The brides get video more often, and learn about quality video. This will also create a buzz in the space where this entity does business, generating more interest in their products and services. If more brides are seeking video, that certainly means more work for videographers. And by being the catalyst, The 4EVER Group cements its role as the leader in this industry.
After three quick nights in Los Angeles, it was time to move on to Chicago, for our Video Summit. Because the Video Summit was not a local association event, we’ll leave that report out of this article. We’ll move on to the association meeting in Appleton, WI.
Appleton is not that far from Chicago, so I rented a car for what turned out to be a pretty routine drive. Passing through Milwaukee, I did take a little side trip to the Harley-Davidson engine plant, catching the last tour of the day (2:00pm). The time spent there meant that I got to Appleton around dinner time.
I arrived in Appleton on Tuesday, and since the meeting was Wednesday, there was not great sense of urgency. I was able to have a relaxed dinner at a local restaurant before heading back to the hotel to catch up on the day’s email pile.
My hotel did not have a restaurant, so I had to go find a place for breakfast on Wednesday morning. Fortunately, I noticed a locally-owned restaurant, called the Machine Shed, just across the highway from my hotel. The décor was sort of a tribute to farming. There were old milk jugs all around, along with lots of farm equipment and hand tools, and the waitresses wore bib overalls and trucker caps. Water and juice got served in Ball jars. But the place was very busy, and there were plenty of business-people there.
In talking with Lance Lewis, the association president, he decided to pick me up for that evening’s meeting. They meet at a restaurant near my hotel, I was assured. And as it turned out, the meeting was also at the Machine Shed restaurant. My presentation that night was the Video Critique, and it had the usual range of attendee reactions. Basically, videographers everywhere have been impressed with the well-done videos, and they’ve also been able to learn from videos that weren’t award-winners. Although the presentation is built around five videos (four excellent, and one that wasn’t), few videographers have been able to participate in a thorough analysis before this program was created.
Unfortunately, since the meeting was held in a restaurant, there was no extended after-meeting session. Of course, some people had a significant drive home, so it just wasn’t going to be a late night.
I was out at a relaxed hour the following morning for the drive back to Chicago. There was, however, another side trip along the way, this time in Madison, WI. The 4EVER Group had been invited to help assist videographers there who were interested in establishing a local association there. In addition, I met with Steve Nathans, the editor of Event DV magazine, to discuss critical industry issues. Because of the magazine’s interest in local associations, having devoted a cover story to the topic, Nathans sat in on that meeting.
Before getting back on the road to Chicago, I had to indulge in one of my quirky interests. Over the years, I’ve walked into many stadiums, and even out onto the field on occasion. Over the years, I’ve sat in the dugout at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia, walked onto the field at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, into Wrigley Field, and onto the field at the University of Michigan stadium, among others. When I was in Salt Lake City, I walked out onto the field there. In Madison, I took Steve Nathans with me to Camp Randall Stadium, and we both took a walk out onto the turf there. Steve took the picture that's on the top of the page. Like I said, it’s a quirky thing.
The rest of the ride back to Chicago was uneventful, except for the traffic. My flight from Midway was in the early evening, which meant that I had to drive across the city in rush hour traffic. You know, those of us that work from home are not missing a thing by not commuting.
After the trip home, I had just over a day to recover enough for the next part of the outreach: a journey that would take me to Seattle, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Videographer Education, Part 2
Third Trip: Orlando, Tampa, Baton Rouge, and Syracuse
My business trips over the last couple of years have often featured really bad weather at home while I’m on the road. On an earlier trip to Orlando, I was on the last plane out of Philadelphia before the airport was closed due to snow. That storm dumped about two feet of snow on my home town, and I just had to deal with setting up an outdoor registration desk in Florida.
This time, however, I was heading to Florida the very same day as Hurricane Wilma. When I’ve traveled to Orlando recently, the flights are always fairly full. Not this time. This day, there were only about two dozen people, including myself, who absolutely had to be on that flight to Orlando.
As we learned, hurricane Wilma raced across south Florida quite rapidly. Although it caused significant damage in the Miami area, north-central Florida was relatively untouched. The locals took most of the usual hurricane precautions, however, so that the school where the Orlando videographers usually meet was closed. To my surprise, the weather in the Orlando area during my stay was about perfect: cool, with low humidity.
Although the worries over the hurricane, and the eventual relocation of the meeting to a Perkins restaurant did have some effect upon attendance, at least the meeting was held. There were even a few videographers who came up from Tampa for the opportunity to network with their Orlando friends, and to hear the Video Critique (the Tampa program was “Do the Math”).
Since Tampa is reasonably close to Orlando, I decided to drive that night to my Tampa hotel. This was an extended road trip, so two nights in one hotel in Florida seemed to be a better alternative.
Road trip days are interesting in their own right. Since I didn’t arrive in Tampa until around midnight, I took the next morning as an opportunity to sleep in a bit. Then it was time to get back to work. Since I had my office calls forwarded to my cell phone, and I had full internet access, working at my hotel desk wasn’t much different than working from my home office. From there, it was on to the Tampa Bay PVA meeting.
The TBPVA leadership had chosen the “Do the Math” program, feeling that the membership would benefit from the business-oriented nature of the presentation. “Do the Math” gives videographers the tools to determine what their true costs are in producing an event video, and they can use these tools as an aid to properly pricing their services. While it’s a very detailed program, with mathematical formulas and such, the concept is vital to videographers. After all, a huge number of videographers entered the business because of the “cool” factor, and business considerations were often not a factor at all.
As happens everywhere “Do the Math” is presented, the attendees were surprised at the costs associated with producing an event video. It’s kind of fun to watch eyes glaze over a bit in the middle of the program, when costs are broken down into weekly and hourly rates, and to watch those same eyes widen dramatically when the final costs are tabulated.
There seemed to be no direct flights from Tampa to Baton Rouge, so I was out fairly early the next morning for the trip, with a connection through Atlanta.
Traveling into Baton Rouge so soon after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita meant that there were absolutely no hotel rooms available. They were all still filled with evacuees. After checking every national chain, and every local hotel that could be found, I received an offer of hospitality from Eddie Darbone, the association's past president. Eddie and I had been friends for some time, and I had to accept his gracious offer. He unexpectedly upped the hospitality ante by insisting on picking me up at the airport, driving me around town, and taking me back to the airport the next morning.
We went straight to lunch after I arrived in Baton Rouge. Having visited New Orleans many times over the years, I’d developed a taste for Cajun food, so Eddie took me to an excellent local restaurant. As we entered the restaurant, I was reminded of one difference between that area and my home town: there was a display case filled with about two dozen different guns and rifles. You’re just not going to find that at a restaurant in Philadelphia.
Eddie had hosted more than a dozen members of his family for a couple of weeks after the two hurricanes. Having just one house guest was, by comparison, no work at all.
The association in Baton Rouge meets in a local library, so there’s a definite ending time to the meeting. With an arrival time of 6:00pm, I had no idea how they handled eating schedules. Me, I like to have my meals at more or less traditional times. But since I’d had a late lunch, waiting was not an issue. What did catch me by surprise was the several members brought dessert foods. There was a variety of home-made cakes, brownies, and cookies available, and it was all very tempting. And it was all quite good.
Even with all the snacks, we still had a meeting. The “Video Critique” program was on that night’s agenda, and it was an entertaining program. Unlike Orlando, there were no local productions for me to review.
Dinner at a local Italian restaurant followed the meeting, and at least 15 people went there from the meeting. I think this kind of evening speaks to the best of what local videographers associations can do. They held a meeting with networking time and an educational presentation, and then followed it up by spending another hour or so together, sharing a meal. The friendships and business relationships that grow from nights like this are invaluable.
All too soon, it was time to call it a night. That set me up for one of the more challenging
Travel segments of this tour. I had a 6:00 a.m. flight back to Philadelphia, with a plane change in Houston. From Philadelphia, I was going to drive to Syracuse. With only thirty minutes to make the connection in Houston, and a little over five hours to drive from the Philadelphia airport to Syracuse (about 200 miles), there was virtually no room for any delay anywhere in that agenda.
The worst part of the schedule was that I needed to get up at 4:00 a.m., in order to get to the airport and go through the pre-flight process. And if I had to be up at 4:00 a.m., that meant that Eddie Darbone also had to get up at 4. That really was a shining example of Southern hospitality.
Fortunately, other than a little glitch in the directions when I was close to my hotel in Syracuse, I didn’t experience any delays. Let me say this about the flights into and out of Baton Rouge: they were on two very crowded, and very small, regional jets. A standard roll-on bag can’t be brought into the cabin, and there’s not enough room to open up most laptop computers.
Heading through Northeastern Pennsylvania in late October is usually a visual thrill. This ride was no exception. With lots of forest land, I spent as much time focused on the various shades of yellow and red leaves as I did on the road. Fortunately, it’s also not a particularly crowded highway, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only leaf-gazer anyway.
That little glitch in the directions cost me less than a half-hour, and that was about all the spare time available to me. Just a few minutes after I settled into the hotel, Syracuse association President Rod Salvilla was waiting to pick me up. Ironically, Rod served as a video awards judge together with Eddie Darbone several years ago, so I got to spend time with two old friends from different parts of the country on the same day.
Just like the group in Baton Rouge, the Syracuse association meets in a local library. Sadly, unlike the Baton Rouge association, no one at the Syracuse meeting brought any desserts.
Rod felt that the association would be best served by the “Do the Math” presentation. With some member being new to the video production industry, and some part-time videographers as well, this subject was an excellent primer on the important business issues all of us face.
Only a core group went out to dinner after the meeting, at a chain restaurant located in a nearby mall. As always, the talk turned to ways of improving the association by having informative presentations, and how to draw new members.
My business trips over the last couple of years have often featured really bad weather at home while I’m on the road. On an earlier trip to Orlando, I was on the last plane out of Philadelphia before the airport was closed due to snow. That storm dumped about two feet of snow on my home town, and I just had to deal with setting up an outdoor registration desk in Florida.
This time, however, I was heading to Florida the very same day as Hurricane Wilma. When I’ve traveled to Orlando recently, the flights are always fairly full. Not this time. This day, there were only about two dozen people, including myself, who absolutely had to be on that flight to Orlando.
As we learned, hurricane Wilma raced across south Florida quite rapidly. Although it caused significant damage in the Miami area, north-central Florida was relatively untouched. The locals took most of the usual hurricane precautions, however, so that the school where the Orlando videographers usually meet was closed. To my surprise, the weather in the Orlando area during my stay was about perfect: cool, with low humidity.
Although the worries over the hurricane, and the eventual relocation of the meeting to a Perkins restaurant did have some effect upon attendance, at least the meeting was held. There were even a few videographers who came up from Tampa for the opportunity to network with their Orlando friends, and to hear the Video Critique (the Tampa program was “Do the Math”).
Since Tampa is reasonably close to Orlando, I decided to drive that night to my Tampa hotel. This was an extended road trip, so two nights in one hotel in Florida seemed to be a better alternative.
Road trip days are interesting in their own right. Since I didn’t arrive in Tampa until around midnight, I took the next morning as an opportunity to sleep in a bit. Then it was time to get back to work. Since I had my office calls forwarded to my cell phone, and I had full internet access, working at my hotel desk wasn’t much different than working from my home office. From there, it was on to the Tampa Bay PVA meeting.
The TBPVA leadership had chosen the “Do the Math” program, feeling that the membership would benefit from the business-oriented nature of the presentation. “Do the Math” gives videographers the tools to determine what their true costs are in producing an event video, and they can use these tools as an aid to properly pricing their services. While it’s a very detailed program, with mathematical formulas and such, the concept is vital to videographers. After all, a huge number of videographers entered the business because of the “cool” factor, and business considerations were often not a factor at all.
As happens everywhere “Do the Math” is presented, the attendees were surprised at the costs associated with producing an event video. It’s kind of fun to watch eyes glaze over a bit in the middle of the program, when costs are broken down into weekly and hourly rates, and to watch those same eyes widen dramatically when the final costs are tabulated.
There seemed to be no direct flights from Tampa to Baton Rouge, so I was out fairly early the next morning for the trip, with a connection through Atlanta.
Traveling into Baton Rouge so soon after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita meant that there were absolutely no hotel rooms available. They were all still filled with evacuees. After checking every national chain, and every local hotel that could be found, I received an offer of hospitality from Eddie Darbone, the association's past president. Eddie and I had been friends for some time, and I had to accept his gracious offer. He unexpectedly upped the hospitality ante by insisting on picking me up at the airport, driving me around town, and taking me back to the airport the next morning.
We went straight to lunch after I arrived in Baton Rouge. Having visited New Orleans many times over the years, I’d developed a taste for Cajun food, so Eddie took me to an excellent local restaurant. As we entered the restaurant, I was reminded of one difference between that area and my home town: there was a display case filled with about two dozen different guns and rifles. You’re just not going to find that at a restaurant in Philadelphia.
Eddie had hosted more than a dozen members of his family for a couple of weeks after the two hurricanes. Having just one house guest was, by comparison, no work at all.
The association in Baton Rouge meets in a local library, so there’s a definite ending time to the meeting. With an arrival time of 6:00pm, I had no idea how they handled eating schedules. Me, I like to have my meals at more or less traditional times. But since I’d had a late lunch, waiting was not an issue. What did catch me by surprise was the several members brought dessert foods. There was a variety of home-made cakes, brownies, and cookies available, and it was all very tempting. And it was all quite good.
Even with all the snacks, we still had a meeting. The “Video Critique” program was on that night’s agenda, and it was an entertaining program. Unlike Orlando, there were no local productions for me to review.
Dinner at a local Italian restaurant followed the meeting, and at least 15 people went there from the meeting. I think this kind of evening speaks to the best of what local videographers associations can do. They held a meeting with networking time and an educational presentation, and then followed it up by spending another hour or so together, sharing a meal. The friendships and business relationships that grow from nights like this are invaluable.
All too soon, it was time to call it a night. That set me up for one of the more challenging
Travel segments of this tour. I had a 6:00 a.m. flight back to Philadelphia, with a plane change in Houston. From Philadelphia, I was going to drive to Syracuse. With only thirty minutes to make the connection in Houston, and a little over five hours to drive from the Philadelphia airport to Syracuse (about 200 miles), there was virtually no room for any delay anywhere in that agenda.
The worst part of the schedule was that I needed to get up at 4:00 a.m., in order to get to the airport and go through the pre-flight process. And if I had to be up at 4:00 a.m., that meant that Eddie Darbone also had to get up at 4. That really was a shining example of Southern hospitality.
Fortunately, other than a little glitch in the directions when I was close to my hotel in Syracuse, I didn’t experience any delays. Let me say this about the flights into and out of Baton Rouge: they were on two very crowded, and very small, regional jets. A standard roll-on bag can’t be brought into the cabin, and there’s not enough room to open up most laptop computers.
Heading through Northeastern Pennsylvania in late October is usually a visual thrill. This ride was no exception. With lots of forest land, I spent as much time focused on the various shades of yellow and red leaves as I did on the road. Fortunately, it’s also not a particularly crowded highway, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only leaf-gazer anyway.
That little glitch in the directions cost me less than a half-hour, and that was about all the spare time available to me. Just a few minutes after I settled into the hotel, Syracuse association President Rod Salvilla was waiting to pick me up. Ironically, Rod served as a video awards judge together with Eddie Darbone several years ago, so I got to spend time with two old friends from different parts of the country on the same day.
Just like the group in Baton Rouge, the Syracuse association meets in a local library. Sadly, unlike the Baton Rouge association, no one at the Syracuse meeting brought any desserts.
Rod felt that the association would be best served by the “Do the Math” presentation. With some member being new to the video production industry, and some part-time videographers as well, this subject was an excellent primer on the important business issues all of us face.
Only a core group went out to dinner after the meeting, at a chain restaurant located in a nearby mall. As always, the talk turned to ways of improving the association by having informative presentations, and how to draw new members.
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