The Bike Happening - Part 1

Three years ago I met with my friend Todd at Linnaea's Coffee Shop in the heart of downtown SLO. I had just come from a filmmaker's forum at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLOIFF) and I told him that I had resolved to make a documentary.

We discussed an idea that he'd been kicking around for a while. He told me he'd always been fascinated by a much-loved local event known as Bike Night. We decided to start filming the monthly ride…

…in December 2008 we completed the final edit of our documentary, which we named The Bike Happening, and submitted it to the 2009 SLOIFF. I was pretty confident that it would get selected, because I thought we'd done a good job of capturing the atmosphere and emotion of the happening, but you can never be sure. Then, a couple of weeks ago we heard the news…

The Bike Happening has been selected for screening as part of the SLOIFF Central Coast Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Doesn't that sound fancy?

The showing takes place on Monday, March 9th at 6pm at the Downtown Brew (right across the street from Linnaea's) and is followed by a short question and answer session. Come on down and check it out!

Rick Teed, Napa Consultants and Red Canary

It seems like 2008 was a good year for collaborations, which actually makes me feel pretty good, as one of the aims of seven and eight is to be part of a community.

For our first project together, I was hired by Napa Consultants to make an extended series of video shorts for their client, Rick Teed. Rick is a dynamic and creative real estate agent and developer, based in San Francisco. As his focus is the luxury real estate market, I knew that the project would require high quality footage.

With this in mind, I turned to my friend and colleague Todd Peterson of Red Canary Productions. Todd and I have worked on a number of projects together over the last two years (including a half-hour documentary that we wrote and directed - more about that soon), so I knew he’d be able to deliver.

We traveled to San Francisco for the shoot and after filming at five locations were able to complete 28 short video clips with custom titles and a theme tune (written by another top collaborator, Darren Clarke of Modern Music Academy).

Here’s one of them.

Jim Irving - Interactive Map

When Jim Irving - a realtor based in Paso Robles - asked 3i Design to include a content-managed, interactive map on his new website, it meant we had another chance to collaborate. However, this project was going to be a little more challenging on the technical side, as I had to build a flash movie that could interact with a server and provide users with information about a number of property listings.

If you understood the previous paragraph, you can probably skip the next section, otherwise, read on.


OK, so at the risk of getting too technical and/or too simplistic, I think it’s worth trying to explain a little bit about how the map works.

Basics

The internet is essentially a huge network of computers that can be accessed using browsers (programs that read and interpret web pages) over an internet connection. When you visit a website, your browser is reading files stored on a server – a physical computer in a climate controlled room somewhere – and displaying them on your screen.

In many cases, the information stored on the server is static – it doesn’t change or get updated often – and the website is pretty much the same each time you visit it. However, an increasing number of websites are being updated on a regular basis, using a variety of methods to change the information stored on their servers.

Content Management

Many newer websites use a Content Management System (CMS) to allow their owners or administrators to edit and replace text, images and other data. Jimirving.com uses a custom CMS built by Clever Concepts and the items on the map are managed using the same system that controls their listings pages.

When a user (someone like you) loads the map page into their browser, the most current data from the server is loaded into the map and the listings appear in the appropriate places. When the user clicks on a listing, it accesses the data a second time and displays the text and images associated with that listing.

Interactive and Dynamic

The piece of the puzzle you don’t get to see when you visit jimirving.com is the administration interface. This is the tool that allows Jim and his team to position the listings on the map in the first place. Each listing is dragged and dropped into its precise position and its co-ordinates are sent to the server ready for use. The listings can then be updated or re-positioned at any time, should any information change.

Take a look.

Firestone Walker and 3i design

It’s always a pleasure to work on a collaborative project with like-minded professionals, so when 3i design approached me about some flash video work they were doing with the Firestone Walker Brewery I had to get involved.

3i are a very open, committed and humorous bunch, so I knew that working with them on comedic shorts intended to sell beer, I’d be destined for fun. The most ridiculous part was when Wyatt and myself had to improvise some of the sound effects for the videos. We basically locked ourselves in a conference room with a laptop and tried to not to laugh whilst we took turns recording a range of dirty laughs, appreciative groans and other silly noises (including Wyatt’s star-turn as a woman scorned).

Here are the results.

Cass House - from Bed and Breakfast to Luxury Inn

I first met Jensen Lorenzen and Grace Wingett when they were about to open Papillon Restaurant in Baywood Park. When the pair decided to direct their creative energies towards a new project; the recently restored Cass House Inn (and restaurant) in Cayucos, they asked me to redesign their website.

Before

The historic inn has been painstakingly renovated and sumptuously furnished, so we felt it was important to define the Cass House brand in ways that reflected this. We drew inspiration from the Art Nouveau movement and employed a rich chocolate and coffee palette and elegant serif fonts to bring a touch of early 20th Century glamour to the project.

After

TekTegrity - Identity Update

One of my favorite clients is a local computer network company called TekTegrity and I've been working with them pretty much since I got my green card and started seven and eight. Maybe for this reason, I feel a sort of bond with them - because our businesses have developed side by side. Over the past few years TekTegrity has grown up quite a lot.

The first job I did for TekTegrity was a large flash animation for the home page of their website. The layout was based on their logo, which had been designed for them by Red Canary Productions (more later). The logo had strength; it effectively communicated a number of key themes, including the nature of TekTegrity’s business and some of its core values.


However, as the business grew and began to focus on marketing to a more executive clientele, it became time to re-evaluate their brand from the ground up. We submitted their identity design to the following tests (among others).

1. Is the design sustainable? Will it age favourably?
2. Is the design easily legible? Does it retain clarity in a variety of sizes?
3. Is the design versatile? Does it retain clarity across a range of media?

To summarise the conclusions of our research, it became clear that there were a number of things we should keep and a number we should change. The key strengths of the logo were identified as the boldness and character of its colour scheme and the “molecule” icon. However, the design had proven to be limited in its versatility and some of the stylistic elements were perceived as too “techy” and thought to be unsustainable.

Here’s the web version* of the new logo we came up with.


*the web version contains elements that are not suitable for many print applications, the use of gradient fills, for example.

Super8 wedding films and Cameron Ingalls

It's not always the best idea to mix business with friendship, but sometimes there are exceptions, such as my work with Cameron Ingalls. Cameron is not only a great friend, but also an outstanding wedding photographer on the California scene. We’ve been working together since 2005, mainly on his weekend shoots and custom album designs, but more recently we’ve broken into the movie making business.

Using super8 film (the same kind that people used for home movies before video) we’ve been creating fine-art highlight movies for the couples Cameron works with. There’s something magical about working this way – super8 has a unique way of catching the light and adding a sense of timelessness and emotion to the scenes that we shoot.

I hope you like it.