Playing with New Technology

Around then, we started experimenting with the new Red camera at work, as the first few prototypes were released.  We had tested the first HDV cameras from Canon and Panasonic the year before, but the Red camera presented a whole different set of challenges.  That provided a series of topics for me to discuss in posts on my website, further securing my position as a known expert in media technology.  We did a number of commercials using workflows I developed, using tools from Cineform and Adobe.  I also started doing more visual effects work, as my company took on more projects that required those types of skills.  My biggest VFX project was a Ford commercial, but after that we found ourselves needing a dedicated person in that role, as it was very time consuming, and my other talents were needed elsewhere.

For our next project, I worked with a company in Orange County to engineer a solid-state high-definition recording system for helmet mounted cameras, which we used for a series of stunts for Mt Dew commercials.  In the days before GoPro, that was quite a challenging endeavor.  I got to travel to the shoots to operate the systems I had assembled, which was my first time on location for our larger projects.  We did windsurfing in the Mojave Desert, skiing at Mammoth Mountain, and railway skating in the Chicago subway, so it was quite the adventure.  There were a few moments when it looked like the systems might not work for us, primarily from heat issues, but we ended up getting all the shots we needed.

There was some further discussion about the potential Navy SEAL movie, and the idea going around at the time, was for Mouse and Scott to film actual missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I anticipated that if they went, I would probably go with them, to keep the equipment in running order, and manage the footage they were shooting.  I anticipated staying on the bases to hold down the fort when they were accompanying the teams out on missions, but that idea never went far enough to work out the specific details.

We did one other project for Ford before I headed out for the summer, back to camp.  This time we had started planning for my departure earlier, and recruited a number of people to fill my various roles at the company.  We hired a visual effects artist, who we had used on one of our projects, as well as an IT guy from CLU to manage the infrastructure, and one more intern to work on projects we were doing.  Two of them stayed on when I returned, as the company was growing.