One of my favorite work projects in awhile is the “Save Our City” promotion for 105.7 the Point and Shapiro Metal Supply. I’d been looking for a creative project for our video team that would break away a bit from the usual documentary style of our productions.

Shapiro didn’t lend itself easily to typical promo ideas outside of your basic radio spots. What can you do to make a metal supply yard exciting for a male 18-34 demographic?

Being a lifelong fan of sci-fi and cartoons, the first thing that came to mind was the construction of a giant robot, Asian b-movie style. And why would you need a giant robot? Why, to stave off the attack of a giant monster!

I proposed a pretty crazy promotion, led by an in-house created video (see YouTube video above) shot to look like an amalgam of 50′s sci-fi noir and Sin City style green-screening. The client loved the idea – turns out they have a nice niche business selling scrap and parts to guys building Battle Bots. There was a thematic fit, and we were off and rolling.

The video was shot in a make-shift studio with green screen fabric drops. Documentary portion was shot on location. Filmed on DV tape in 1080i HD, edited in Final Cut Pro. Key Art backgrounds designed in Photoshop.

Special thanks to my co-conspirator Nathan, who really busted his hindquarters on the editing and learning the chroma-key and desaturation techniques on the fly for this project.

• Written, Designed and Directed by Adron Buske (me)
• Videography, Motion Graphics and Editing by Nathan Cowen
• Narrators: Ed Brown and Drew Patterson
• Costumes and Props courtesy of Jason Heeren and Lisa Foiles
• Featuring: Sammy Caputa, Ashley Elzinga, Katie Sorensen, Nathan Cowen, Patrick and myself

Click here for the promotion page on the 105.7 the Point’s website.

I used to hate Hugh Grant in every movie he appeared in. Then he was a part of the fabulous ensemble cast of ‘Love Actually’ and his suckage rating went way down. Today we saw him with Drew Barrymore in ‘Music and Lyrics’, which was a helluva lot of fun. Drew is as cute as I’ve ever seen her (and that’s pretty darn cute) and Grant’s character is likable, funny and altogether someone you’d be pleased to know. It’s a light movie with a ton of laughs and personalities you actually believe in and want to root for. Check it out.

New Hotness

We got the new hotness in a work. About 8 months back I put in a request for phatty-boom-blatty HD camera and editing system, with little hope of it happening. Found out right before we left for NYC that we got it. Received all the pieces and set it up on Friday. We’re talking tricked out Mac Pro system with a freakin’ huge monitor, a really nice video camera and the Final Cut Pro editing suite. It’s all so sexy!

I’ve never gotten around to really blogging about the NYC trip, out of pure exhaustion, and it’s not likely that I will. So I’ll try to share a few photos here and there. You know, for continuity.

Gene at the New York City Comicon

NYC sandwich shop with an awesome name.

Signature of Brian K. Vaughn, writer of Y: The Last Man, new story editor on Lost and number one super guy.

Animated Batman bank, purchased at the con. Nine dollars and 99 cents of awesomeness. (For some reason, you can't see his mouth in the photo...)

For every fifty days I spend sitting on my ass in the office glued to the computer screen futzing with pixels and endless lines of code, I get the out of the ordinary, kinda wacky day. If you’ve read my entry about the porn store excursion, you have an idea how wacky.

Our titular character, Cornbread, next to the trailer and in front of a storage shed destroyed by our recent midwest storms.

One of my goals with our Interactive (ie web) department at Emmis has been to move us into the realm of video. We haven’t had much opportunity to do this before, lacking equipment and training and budgets and those sorts of things. Fortunately, in another department we have a talented guy named Jim who has some pretty excellent video production skills and has also been pushing to do some film work in house. We joined forces to work on a project tentatively titled “Cornbread’s Big Pointfest Adventure”.

This Saturday is my Station’s biggest show of the year, Pointfest. We’ll be following around our nighttime jock, Cornbread, with a video camera, recording his entire day – band interviews, crowd meet and greets, stage announcements, and all the stuff in between. Jim, Cornbread and I, along with our account executive Lora and new Interactive team member Keri, cooked up some ideas to add to the entertainment value of the production. Today, we went out on location to shoot the opening scene of our little film. I have been filling the role of “producer” for the piece, I guess, but today it was all onsite work – picking shots, setting up props and manning the reflectors and filters to control the lighting.

Our set? A dilapidated mobile home (or rather, a pair of them) in a small village near Dupo, IL. Our props? Empty beer cans, and a yellow motor-scooter provided by our little film’s sponsor, Pop’s-Cycles. Our extras? A little neighbor girl and an aging but sweet and beautiful pit bull. Our goal? To present our hero – Cornbread – in the glory of white-trashy rock ‘n roll ridiculousness.

Jim setting up the shot, while Keri stands by to assist.

It was so much fun doing this kind of work again (I did a lot of video work in high school and college), especially with some decent equipment. But it was very hot and sunny, and after four hours of shooting we were all sweaty, stinky and drained. I’m a bit sunburned on my nose and forehead. But the dailies (if you will) looked really nice, thanks to Jim’s eye and skill with the camera, and we even got some great bloopers, such as Cornbread getting locked in the trailer on the first take, and some difficulty getting the cycle started up at first.

And in the end, I got to ride the scooter to the village’s hair salon, where the proprieter (Cornbread’s mom) and the chief of police (Cornbread’s dad) gave us all Dr. Peppers and let us hang out in the AC for a bit, while the locals looked on silently. The way people reacted to seeing us shooting in their town, it struck me as the kind of thing they’ll be talking about for a week.

Big guy on a little bike.

I should note that riding the scooter was a bit of an unnerving experience for me, but fun. I’ve always been a little uncertain on small powered vehicles. I don’t even like driving go-carts. I don’t know why. It took me a few minutes to get adjusted to the way the pops-cycle worked – that odd blend of bicycle and motorcycle with a bottom-heavy center of gravity – and I drove it in overly-tentative fashion. But, if you’re a college student or townie that drives limited distances to get to work or school or whatever, look into these things. They’re way cheaper than Vespas (around $1,500), and a full tank (about 2 gallons or so) will take you 100 miles. Cornbread managed to get this model up to around 55 mph, but it seemed most comfortable going about 40mph. Ten or less and I thought I was going to fall over, but all bikes are like that, I guess.

I like the weird days. Saturday – 12 hours of shooting concert photos, taping Cornbread and running around UMB Bank Pavilion like a madman. Wish me luck.