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.
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video. Show all posts
Thursday, August 16, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Art Institute of Philadelphia
I was invited to be an evaluator in the portfolio review session at the Art Institute last night. Along with several faculty members, I had the opportunity to review the work of eight students in a session that ran from 6:00 to 10:00pm.
The students showed no fewer than three, and as many as five, clips. Some were countdown clips that ran for less than ten seconds, while the longest went for about two minutes. We provided written notes to the students, then spoke to them directly about their videos. Some of the students enrolled in the Art Institute directly from high school, while others were "adult learners", looking to enter the world of professional video as a new career.
One student's work really stood out from the others. Jonathan DeMuth's work was, for the most part, on a par with nearly anything I've seen from professionals. All the other students showed tremendous potential, which bodes well for our industry.
There was one scene in particular that amused me. One student included wedding clips in his montage. There was a scene of a bride coming down the stairs at her parent's home. Because it was shot from a low, side angle, and because the bride wore a strapless gown, we could see beneath her arms. This bride had gone to the trouble of getting a tan, but had neglected the white skin under her arms. So the lesson is that you'll never know the angles from which you'll be seen at a wedding. If you're tanning, make sure that you tan evenly.
The experience overall was not unlike the Artistic Achievement Awards program we have at the 4EVER Group. The production elements being evaluated were quite similar, and opinions were offered by several professionals. In the awards competition, you win or you don't. In these evaluations, you pass or fail.
I want to thank Craig Do'Vidio from the Art Institute for inviting me to participate. It was a real honor.
The students showed no fewer than three, and as many as five, clips. Some were countdown clips that ran for less than ten seconds, while the longest went for about two minutes. We provided written notes to the students, then spoke to them directly about their videos. Some of the students enrolled in the Art Institute directly from high school, while others were "adult learners", looking to enter the world of professional video as a new career.
One student's work really stood out from the others. Jonathan DeMuth's work was, for the most part, on a par with nearly anything I've seen from professionals. All the other students showed tremendous potential, which bodes well for our industry.
There was one scene in particular that amused me. One student included wedding clips in his montage. There was a scene of a bride coming down the stairs at her parent's home. Because it was shot from a low, side angle, and because the bride wore a strapless gown, we could see beneath her arms. This bride had gone to the trouble of getting a tan, but had neglected the white skin under her arms. So the lesson is that you'll never know the angles from which you'll be seen at a wedding. If you're tanning, make sure that you tan evenly.
The experience overall was not unlike the Artistic Achievement Awards program we have at the 4EVER Group. The production elements being evaluated were quite similar, and opinions were offered by several professionals. In the awards competition, you win or you don't. In these evaluations, you pass or fail.
I want to thank Craig Do'Vidio from the Art Institute for inviting me to participate. It was a real honor.
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