Author: Doug

Say Hello To Gustav

After losing our old cat “Lucky” aka Psycho Cat, Brat Cat, Spawn of…  we adopted this new Kitty.  Say Hello to Gustav as in Hurricane Gustav.  I picked the name for two reason’s, he was born right around the same time Hurricane Gustav was born and I could not think of a name and I was busy working on some Gustav production stuff this week so I thought what the hell, Gustav is perfect.  Gustav aka Goofy since this little guy likes to play and play and play.  Eat, Sleep, Play and then do it all over again. 

Gustav is more like a Parrot since he likes to climb up and sit on my shoulder while I’m working and just chill out and even fall asleep there. 

In other news, been hella busy working on stuff here behind the scenes and even got a storm chase in this week.  Saw some cool stuff for a November storm chase in South Dakota and SW Minnesota and will post some of those photos when I get some time tomorrow. 

Ok, I’m back home in Minnesota and back to work for me in the office.  I have a ton of emails to go through and stuff to take care of for the next few days.  I’ll post the trip photos later tonight.

Photos from my trip out to Burbank and Los Angeles. I timed my trip wrong for the plan to intercept some wild fires to shoot stock footage and ENG footage of the fires.  But it was not a total loss as I had more time to hang out with the crew putting together the show I’m with Original Productions.  Here is some of the behind the scenes photos from the trip at Original and out checking out some of the burn areas with Bill Reid.

Nighttime shot of the LA area.

Bill Reid showed me around some of the cool spots off the normal tourist trap paths.

Lizard Weather

The crew looking worn out.

Me and the man with the plan

Shots around OP

And what trip to Los Angeles would not be complete without stopping by the Manns Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd and make some Blazing Saddles jokes.

Just a quick update while I’m wrapping things up before I head home.  In LA for business and everything was hella cool.  I’ll be home tomorrow and have a lot of stuff to update everyone with but it’s pretty cool.  I got to hang out with the Storm Bruiser, Bill Reid yesterday and had lunch and he showed me some of the sights out there on the west side of town that were burned by the recent wild fires and how the area is pron to the wild fires with the layout of everything.  I also got lots of cool photos overlooking the ocean and made it down to the beach for a few minutes so yes Neva, I made it too the beach .

It was great to meet all the people working on the show and seeing how things are coming along.  I can’t say much except for it is that show that all the people bitch about in storm chasing saying they wish someone would make about storm chasing. 

It was also pretty funny meeting all the editors and producers because I was having a Truman Show like moments where they have seen hundreds of hours of footage of me and seems like they know me.   It was pretty shocking but I’m glad I stopped by to say hi to everyone.  It gave me a real eye opener to what life will be like in a few months when the show hits.  

Well, I need to get going so I will update more tomorrow when I get back home.  Oh yeah, just looked at the forecast it looks like it will be in the 30s when I get home which is going to be a shock because I have been in Lizard Weather for past few days.

I’m updating the blog from LA.  Here is a photo I took up along one of the hills over looking the city.  I didn’t have my tripod with me for my still camera so this is a point and shoot at night photograph.

Ok, I know the blog updates have been lacking but that’s because I have been hella busy with stuff.   Found a new standard for HD stock footage codec to use to get all the footage into top of the line quality but the size of the files is also hella huge.  

I came out here this week to take care of some old business and some new business.   Not going to say much more so I don’t jinx it but it’s more big news coming next spring.

I did stop by the Original Productions to hang out with the guys for a while this afternoon.  It was cool to meet some of the people I have been talking to over the phone for the past several months.  We were able to take care of a bunch of stuff for post production in a matter of minutes with me there in person vs. emails and phone tag.  After I met up with the crew at OP, I went and did the tourist thing for the evening and had dinner by myself (wish you were here Neva) on Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Strip. Well, I have to get up in the morning to go take care of some more business and even with the west coast time change, 7AM comes too early.

Just working on some of the past videos to get things caught up on the video catalogs.  I’ve been editing the Hurricane Gustav footage and found a ton of funny stuff that I know will never see the light of day on the show. 

My cameraman Thomas walked in front of my camera while I was doing a time-lapse shot.  The way he responded was priceless.  One of the major Enigmas for the show was having me on it as cast when I should have been part of the crew since I was always doing b-roll work.  As I go through all the video from this spring and summer, I will be posting more outtake footage on BNVN.com

Oh you just got to love some of the a-holes out their during the political season.  The party that is suppose to unite is the party that is behind the mortgage melt down and is in my opinion, almost so left their between Nazi and Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin.  That’s right, your everyday Tax and take YOUR MONEY to buy votes, I mean help those in need because you don’t need the money right? 

The same people that love to fund ACORN or what is now being called RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations).  ACORN, I mean RICO, who also tied to OBAMA in Chicago, is the same group trying to help steal the election with all the bogus voter drives.  Oh wait, they would never do that, because their for OMAMA and he is a going to UNITE the country…

Yeah, this is what you get when you deal with that party that is suppose to UNITE…  These signs are on Interstate 94 near mile marker 182. 

So this is how the left wing nut political party attacks the political free speech?  Whoever did this must have seen one too many Michael Moore or Oliver Stone movies.

Now get this crap, yes CRAP, that is going on.   This is why I think the rest of us that are working our ass off to try and make it should take a few days off and back lash on the left wing liberal nut jobs out their to GET A FUCKING CLUE AND JOB!   Were not saying anything because were too fucking busy working our ass off to pay the high taxes to fund some lazy fuck or deal with people like the POLITICAL SHIT FOR BRAINS!

http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008110170020

A St. Cloud man was ticketed Wednesday after he admitted to police he had been placing dog feces in the back of a neighbor’s truck because it sported stickers supporting the McCain-Palin presidential ticket, Sgt. Jerry Edblad said.

David Vandelinden, 45, received a $183 ticket on suspicion of littering and illegal dumping.

Donald Esmay, 19, who lives on the 2300 block of 27th Street South, told police he had been finding dog feces in small blue baggies in the back of his pickup for the past two weeks. On Wednesday, Esmay’s mother told police she saw Vandelinden putting the feces in the truck.

Ahhh Yes, the party that is suppose to unite.  The party that is suppose to be eco friendly.  The party that is suppose to be for clean living.  The party that is for coming together and talking to the other side.

I so hope that all rumors about all the people lying about voting for Obama because they don’t want to deal with CRAP from people that are really for him are true and when we go to vote in a few weeks it will be a landslide for McCain and a SHIT STORM for the left wing radical fuck nuts. If Obama wins a second term, WTF is next, a President Trump? With the way this country swings from right to left and then back to the right, it could happen.

Wow, a week has flown by and it seems like only a couple of days.  Not much to report about this week for doing anything really interesting except for on Saturday Night with Neva.   This week was just reviewing footage catalogs, working on footage workflow with the P2 Editing setup at home and at Conus and just working on clearing out a ton of projects off my white boards.  To top it off, Neva’s back has been really hurting here and I took her to the Dr. this week to how bad she messed up her back at work.

Saturday night we did go over to St. Joseph and Neva showed me a cool spot to take some fall colors photos and we ended up making a little chase out of it with a small thunderstorm that fired a few miles away from us. 

I need to get back to work and finish up for the day.  Speaking of time flying by, I can’t believe that Tuesday is our one year anniversary.  So much has happened in the last year that it still seems like a dream come true.

Another busy week has come and gone.  I can’t beleive it is Friday already when it seem’s like it was just Sunday Night yesterday and Neva and I just got back from the North Shore.

Well here is the quick run down.  I went back up to the north shore for the fall colors and to shoot a ton of stock footage.  More about that at the end of the post.

Today was pretty cool because I was helping Neva out this afternoon with some charity work.  It was something that she signed up for that one of the carpet cleaners the Twin Cities setup last year.  It is pretty cool gig because they donate their time and equipment to help out DARTS for a clean-a-thon for DARTS.  “DARTS provides transportation and supportive services to older adults and their families in Dakota County, Minn., and beyond.” http://www.darts1.org/index.htm

And what does this have to do with Carpet Cleaning?  A bunch of the local carpet cleaning business owners get together to help out with a Clean-A-Thon to help raise money by cleaning area rugs and smaller rugs for $1 a square foot.  The normal rate is about $2.50 but they discount it and all the money goes to DARTS.  I thought at first, that’s crazy but when I saw what they were doing and how many people were bringing in area rugs, car and truck floor mats and throw rugs, I was freaking amazed.  It turns out this crazy idea works because there were a ton of people bringing in their stuff this afternoon. 

This whole thing was put together by the gang and Ultimate Carpet so if your in the cities, give them a call or stop on by Darts in West St. Paul before the Clean-A-Thon ends later today. 

Below are some photos from the Clean-A-Thon.

They are working through the night and into tomorrow.  This is a non stop 36 hour Clean A Thon that last year set the world record for the longest non stop carpet cleaning with a time of just over 36 hours.

Ok, about the trip back up to the North Shore.  I made the trip back to the North Shore to catch the Fall Color’s before they were gone for the season.  It was a fun trip but it was all work with me heading out Tuesday to get everything ready after being gone for the last three days.  On top of it all I had to do more voice over work for the production company asa soon as I got back last night so from Tuesday through Today (Friday) I think I got about 10 hours of sleep but it was worth it.

Now I have a ton of images and video to sort through but the video this time is something special.  This time I had the P2 camera with me to test out.  OH MY GOD, the image quality of the Panasonic HVX 200a is freaking insane.  The local Panasonic dealer let me test drive it this week and when I compare the P2 image quality to the EX1 or even the XD CAM from Sony I just have to laugh now because the true HD of this camera is just perfect. 

Just how good does it look?  The image quality on my 22″ HD Monitor on the NLE system looks like you could just step into the image.  It’s like looking out the window and seeing the world outside as it really should look in video.  It is better then film!

Ok, but here is the downside. for 1920×1080 full resolution, were talking ONE GIG PER MINUTE for the video or 100 Meg Per Second.  Yes it is a lot but it is the best of the best of the best, SIR! 

So 16 minutes of video in full HD Quality will fill up a 16 gig card.  To give you an idea of the size and image quality vs HDV, if your using HDV, 16 gig is an hour of video vs. 16 minutes of video. 

Editing computer has got to be powerful to handle the needs of true HD.  No POS computer will do the trick for editing the video from this camera.  You need a computer with one of the fastest and powerful processors you can get your hands on.

Price, it’s not cheap but if I was to shoot something insane like a tornado or hurricane with this camera, the image quality would no longer be an issue with some customers saying it’s not a high enough bit rate.   So the price would be at a premium for customers looking for True HD Quality.

Here is the spec data on the camera from Panasonic. 

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/sales_o/p2/hvx200a_series/index.html

Now, am I going to buy one tomorrow?  No, because the HVX200a now has a replacement coming out which is the new Panasonic 170 and I want to test drive that camera before I buy the HVX200a.  The difference is that their is NO TAPE DECK, yes, the HVX200a still has a tape deck in it for users to record to Mini DV tape in SD quality but the new 170 does not which will make it a lot lighter and only for use as a NLE setup. 

Ok now for some more images and the two videos that I shot for The Weather Channel.

Okay, this last image is not a fall color’s image but I thought it was cool and was a quick stop and shoot the image before it was too late setup.  This is the new moon over Duluth.

Here is the video from this trip.

Part 2

Here is the from this weekend.

Okay, it’s late and I need to get some sleep since I have to be up early in the morning and take care of a ton of stuff.

Here is some photos from today. The first one I know you will laugh your ass off at. I saw it on a garage next to an overlook of the downtown area and harbor.

After last weekends great fall colors project with Neva, I’m back up along the north shore today and tomorrow (sorry Neva) to film the Fall Colors peaking and shooting some stock footage projects for clients.    This is a once a year thing and if your not here when the colors peak, you will miss it.

Below is a screen grab of one of the scenes I was filling with the colors and contrast just making for a painted scene.  I am heading up north towards the USA and Canada boarder tomorrow for some more stock footage requests, fall color requests in the morning and then do some exploring along the shoreline for some new footage for archive stuff before I go home tomorrow night.