2.21.2013
• So, the new year has brought new opportunities and various other
new things to me. I just purchased a brand new high-definition camcorder,
the Sony HDR-CX580V, which does full 1080p HD as well as a film-like 24 frames
per second presentation. I hope a lot of new video content will be
made with this camcorder for
RavensFilm
Productions. I launched a
few new things on
YouTube including
Leftover Junk where I spotlight
scenes and other footage from film projects that were either never finished
or simply have some interesting unseen footage that's worth presenting,
with a certain amount of context. I've also started doing select video
movie reviews on YouTube as an extension of Forever Cinematic. The
first two films reviewd were the excellent 2012 action film
Dredd and
the rather enjoyable Stallone picture
Bullet to the Head.
Speaking of
Forever Cinematic,
the reviews I have posted up in the last two months include
Transformers:
The Movie, Fire
in the Sky, The
Empire Strikes Back, Deception, Punisher:
War Zone, Dredd, Bullet
to the Head, Urban
Legend, and Savage
Streets. I
am also working on reviews for
Return of the Jedi and
The Terminator with
a
Terminator 2: Judgment Day review planned as a follow-up.
I've also obtained a new live performance videography client, who is
of no familial relation to me, the
Mike
Michalak Band. They are having
their album release party on March 2nd at the Penny Road Pub in Barrington,
IL, and I will be video documenting the event for them. It will be
put online and I will be producing a commemorative DVD exclusively for
the band. I am very excited about the opportunity. We'll see if the
new HD camcorder gets any measure of a test run at this event.
I've alsomade some additions to the Video Editing section of the site,
too!
First up was me taking the Announcement Trailer for
Star Trek
Into Darkness and
replacing its music with that from James Horner's
Star Trek II: The Wrath
of Khan. It's a stunningly perfect fit, and you can watch it in
full 1080p HD! The other two videos are ones I made a few years ago
as a fun little thing. Since we shot so much driving montage footage
for my feature film
The Fixer,
my director of photography and friend
Eric Woltman made his ring tone for me the
Knight Rider theme. So,
when I obtained the first and last seasons of the show on DVD, I edited
together two main title sequences marrying footage from both my movie
and
Knight Rider in a nice little edit. I've been wanting to
share it for a long while, but all those pesks copyright notices kept it
away. So, I uploaded it to my
Vimeo Plus account
where usually people aren't bothered by that sort of thing.
While I haven't been able to resume my comic book reading since some
finances became tight halfway through last year, I still am eager to
revisit C2E2 and Wizard World Chicago depending on how might be there.
If I go, it's to see something or someone I did not get to experience
last year.
A lifelong friend of mine, Jason Dvorak of
Game
Rave and the Official Biggest PlayStation Fan, will be at
Anime
Central in Chicago on May 17-19th to promote his children's book series
The
Boy With a Dreaming Key. Jason's an amazingly talented artist, and
I couldn't be prouder that he's finally finding some success from his talents.