This is a piece I executive produced (along with Lt. Col. Bob Grass and Shanon Glezen) for the Marine Corps Mobilization Command (MOBCOM). The goal of the piece is to help further educate Marines, Sailors, and their families about the Return and Reunion process associated with being an involuntary recalled reservist.

Directed and written by Greg Smith

Jacob, Dominic, and Ciani from Whirlwind Action came by the studio to discus an upcoming project. Bill had the RED ONE set up on the stage, so of course we had to see some moves in 120 frames per second!

A few caveats about this footage: we just turned on whatever lights happened to be set up, so the image is under lit (the RED was set to 1000 ISO), and if anyone ever sent me video like this and asked me to key it, I would beat them over the head with a KinoFlo.

Groovy Like a Movie has had some fantastic clients, including several of the most interesting non-profits in San Diego. This is a sample of projects we completed for Jr. Achievement, Boys & Girls Clubs and Jump for Life.

Every month on the second Tuesday Groovy hosts the San Diego Filmmakers group in our Burbank Sound Stage. It just so happened that the subject matter of last nights meeting had to do with properly lighting a green screen…

hmm.. coincidence or just wonderful planning on the part of an amazing Stage Manager?

Ok.. It is coincidence.

Local Director of Photography Michael Brueggemeyer took us through a lesson about green screening and the studio! We spent the entire day setting up for the event. For me it was a lesson in patience because we were running a line from an HD signal down to SD for the Anycast and then back up to component RGB for the monitors. With a little trial and error (mostly error) we managed to get it working though.

Usually when San Diego Filmmakers comes in we set up chairs and the group sits right on the studio floor. But for Michael’s presentation he wanted to show exactly what it may look like on a working set. So instead we had people stand in the balcony and surrounding floor while Michael gave the demo. My favorite part was handing out the blue booties for the people who wanted to walk on the stage.

There have been some changes in our Burbank Sound Stage! In the past we have maintained our stage as TV white but we started to noticed about 80 percent of the calls we have been getting for stage rentals have been for green screen. That meant every time a customer called to rent the stage we (and by we I mean me) had to paint the stage green, charge the client and then charge the client again to paint it back to its original TV white. Obviously not a very attractive way to do business. So we can provide a better service to our customers Brent and I decided to take our going green initiative..well… literal.

Stage Manager Michael Callahan paints the stage.. again.

I was not exactly sure how much paint it would take to cover the entire stage so we ended up getting about 25 gallons of this specialty paint from Rosco (times that by 80 dollars a gallon :0 ) Luckily I was happily surprised to find the Rosco brand spread very nicely meaning I only needed 6 gallons for the entire stage.

Tuesday night we are hosting a San Diego Film Makers meeting on the subject matter of properly shooting a green screen. Local Director of Photography Michael Brueggemeyer will take the group through methods on how to do it right including a live key!
So if you are in need of a green screen studio give us a call or come on by!

A client wanted to see a specific sample of what our RED One camera could do, so we Bill and I grabbed an intern, set up and shot this sample in a couple hours.  Often, giving the client something to look at can really help explain a concept.  While we can’t always shoot a proprietary sample for a client, when we can do something like this, it really helps!

What was my “take away” from the experience? Man I love what Bill can make this camera do!

In AdAge’s Small Agency section this week, I came across a great article that reminded me of an important concept.  Even when working in the Business to Business market segment, you have to remember that you’re marketing to PEOPLE.  I love the line Milan Martin uses:

No matter how many times I see the phrase “business to business” I can’t get the image out of my head of someone shouting at a large, faceless corporate HQ building.

When you’re doing B2B marketing, you’re not markeitng to a business.  Businesses don’t make decision.  People make decisions.  People think about problems.  People feel pain and look for solutions to that pain.  Ultimately people take action.  If your B2B marketing message isn’t as powerful as any consumer marketing piece, you are selling youself short and you will simply not be as successful!

B2B Advertising Can Be Sexy – Small Agency Diary – Advertising Age.

Very excited that I’ll be one of three speakers at the Studio Daily webinar May 12, 2009 at 10AM PDT on green production practices.  The entire Groovy team works hard to be sure we’re doing the right thing when it comes to our impact on the environment, and now I get to share that message and try to bring other production people along!

You can sign up for the webinar by clicking here!

The talented folks at Brand New School created a fantastic 50′ wide x 17′ high sculpture in the iconic Spencerian script for actors to interact with for their client Coca-Cola.

What I find amazing about this project is the commitment to “real” both on the part of Brand New School and Coca-Cola.  Could they have accomplished a similar effect with CG?  Maybe.  However, no matter how real the CG is, there is something compelling and rich about having the actual object.  The challenges are large, but the rewards for production value are incredible!

I first heard about this large-scale project via Motionographer.

To learn more about the project and watch a documentay on how they pulled it off, visit Brand New School’s site: BNS – Coca-Cola installation at LA Live.

the latest version of groovy like a movie’s demo reel.  this piece shows our capabilities and attempts to explain a bit of our philosophy.