My First Corporate Film

Well, kinda.

One of the great events my company has is called Hax Day. You work with people from outside your team on special projects. Something I’ve always wanted to do was create a video that could be shown to prospective employees to show them what a day here is like. Luckily, our Director of Engineering was also into this idea. After spending the morning at the vet with Cheech (uuf another story) I rushed to the office to get started. Working with one of our Research Analysts, we had a list of questions to ask employees to get them talking. As expected, most were not very willing. Using my quirky nature and comfort in front of the camera, I handed my rig to Adolfo to capture the footage. Koushalya braved her own camera-shyness and jumped in for some shots. At the end of the day we had a good number of interviews, and had a lot of laughs.

That night I got to the duty of encoding and synching audio. The video was shot with my 60D using the LCDVF loupe. Adolfo shot using a monopod which helped him stabilize, especially for a first time shooter. Syncing 12 clips took me most of the night. I use the sound and wav form from clapping at the beginning of each clip, but the process takes time. I’ve thought about giving Plural Eyes a try, but for now I’ll wait to see if I decide to pick up FCPX. Clips synced I was able to edit pretty quickly, using stock music Adolfo and Koushalya choose. It’s silly and kooky and really hit the theme.

The next day, after multiple computer issues, we previewed the video to the company. Rousing laughs and even some ‘awws’ went round. The video is making the rounds and I’m happy with the results. We’ve talked about making a more formal video to be used for recruiting, and I’m already thinking of ideas. This is my first project that has been seen by more than friends. The first project I had to prepare for, the first project I had a deadline for. Considering I had an afternoon and about 20 mins of prep, I think I did alright. Bring on the next one!

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XLR iPod Hack

What do you get when you cross an iPod and an Alesis Protrack sleeve? An XLR audio recorder, apparently. While not exactly a “hack” since this is new equipment, it’s a pretty cool thing for most of us on tight budgets. This roughly $80 unit works with your iPod to record audio in a similar way the H4N and others do. From Thomann UK’s site:

Combo XLR-1/4″ inputs for connecting mics, mixers and more, stereo mini-jack headphone output, 48V phantom power, records 16-bit/44.1kHz or 22kHz stereo digital audio, onboard stereo condenser microphones (XY configuration), switchable limiter, threaded mounting point, AC/DC operation via 4x AAA batteries or AC adapter (included).

The sleeve is compatible with older iPods, 2nd generation iPod Touchs, and even an iPhone 3 or 3GS.

I’m super curious about this, and if I didn’t already have two H1’s I would pick one up to try it out. $80 is not much less than what the H1’s are going for, but they lack the XLR inputs for mics. Super special thanks to Cesar Quintero for this link. If anyone buys one and gives it a try, let me know!

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Lavalier Tests in the Danger Zone

Jets! Blackhawk helicopters! United! Oh my! And also, a very quick and simple test of the Audio-Technica ATR3350 lavalier mics I recently bought. In attempting to test the sound with and without the windscreens, I ended up losing the screens before the test. The quality is still really good, which is promising. It was really windy out there.

I also took a lot of pictures that day, so those should be posted soon as well.

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