Hi All,

Last week, we did a l'il video to help promote a pretty terrific cause.  The indie music cancer drive is the brain child of Josh Whelchel, an indie videogame music composer.  It's a CD fundraiser featuring a super-diverse collection of artists.  All money raised goes to the American Cancer Society.

Two of those artists were our friends Alec and his sister Eileen Holowka.  Alec is an independent videogame developer whom we met as part of our New Media Manitoba Showcase Project.  He's a guy who seems to be a talent at pretty much everything.  This was the first time he and his sis (also super talented) collaborated on a song.

The shoot was fun, and it was great to watch the two work and record.

Below is a snippet of their recording session.

Do check out the CD (and/or digital download), it's a great deal (tons of music) for a great cause

 www.cancerdrive.org

-james

Earlier this year, we were asked to produce a series of New Media company profiles for New Media Manitoba. These profiles were to be used individually for a variety of purposes. But they made their debut at the Winnipeg IMAX on Dec 2nd to a packed house. (See the all New Media Manitoba's Business Showcase company profiles here.)

In order to bridge the gap between profiles, and make the presentation seem more like one larger, more cohesive piece, we create a series of small transitional pieces to be placed in between the profiles and bookend the show.

These transition pieces were interview-based, topic discussion vignettes shot in various locations around Winnipeg - from the Winnipeg Public Library to Red River College to Hoopers to Yuki Sushi at the McClaren Hotel.

In these segments, we covered a range of topics including; a look at the New Media Community in Manitoba, What is New Media?, New Media, New Company: Advice for Start-Ups, What is New Media Manitoba?, and a look at the Future of the Industry in Manitoba.

And, to tackle these lofty subjects, we got some key leaders in the industry in Manitoba to weigh-in, including;
Kevin Hnatiuk, New Media Manitoba, newmediamanitoba.com
Jeff Peeler, Frantic Films, franticfilms.com
Chris Lobay, Handcraft, lovinglyhandcrafted.com
Ryan Fitzgerald, Fortune Cat/Rogue Nation Studios, roguenationstudios.com
Coree Francisco, Girlone/Advisory Chair, girlone.com
Norm Lee, Mindset, mindset.mb.ca
Ed Suzuki, Destination Winnipeg, destinationwinnipeg.ca
MLA Jim Rondeau, Former Minister for Science, Technology, Energy, and Mines, Government of Manitoba

So, take a look. We think these pieces give a good snapshot of the spirit and the industry here in Manitoba.

-Lisanne (& James)

Earlier this winter, we received a call from our friend Ian McCausland, a commercial photographer here in Winnipeg, asking if we'd be interested in pitching in for something called 'Help Portrait'.

Help Portrait is a global movement within the photographic community, in which one day each year (before Christmas), photographers take pictures, print them out and deliver those photos to people who otherwise wouldn't have access to such an experience.

As soon as we heard the concept, we gave an immediate 'Yes'.  In my opinion, Help Portrait is a brilliant example of charity done right.  It is such a beautifully simple idea -  people using their abundant & available skills to help those less fortunate. 

The inaugural event took place last month on Dec 12th.   What Ian and Jim Todd (Wpg's Co-Organizer) were looking for was some video coverage in order to help tell the story of the day.  Also, the video will give them some nice illustrative visuals at-the-ready to help promote next year's event.

The day was really special and a great success, we met some fantastic people, got to talk gear with a whack load of city photographers, and of course, took a lot of wonderful family portraits.

To see a sampling of what the day was like, check out the video below...

Hi All,

Well, below are the eight main company profile videos we recently completed for New Media Manitoba (NMM).  The goal was to capture not just a standard profile, but also the personal stories behind the various companies.  Ultimately, NMM wants these videos to help play a role in shedding some light on Manitoba's exceptionally active, but relatively quiet, new media community.  

Initial reaction has been really really positive, and we are so thankful to New Media Manitoba for letting us work on this with them.  Also, a big thank you must go out to all of the companies and individuals that told us there stories and let us run with it!

These videos will soon find a more permanent Internet home on NMM's new website coming soon and on the various blogs and sites of the companies involved.  But until then, here they are...

(oh, in the upcoming weeks, we plan to write a little more about each video, perhaps include some additional content - there was soooo much good stuff coming from these guys.  So do check back)

For the past 4 months, we have been hard at work on a project for the awesome folks at New Media Manitoba.  New Media Manitoba came to us looking to create a series of unique, story-based profiles on a eight different new media companies within Manitoba.  In addition to the profiles, we also conducted a large number of interviews with other industry members, getting their views, opinions and advice on various topics within the industry.

The main goal was to create an exposure tool for these companies and the industry on a whole.  In this arena of New Media, Winnipeg has some really exciting stuff going on, but not nearly enough people know it.  That sentiment was the basis for this project.

So, 4 months, 28 interviews, and 3.5 terabytes of data later, we have a highly produced, jam-packed 45 minutes of New Media goodness (along with oodles of additional content) that is going to be unveiled on the IMAX SCREEN this Thursday!  All the seats are sold; its going to be a packed house and a fabulous evening!

The material will later find various homes online and of course will be making an appearance here.

If you're in Winnipeg, hopefully we'll see you at the IMAX theater this Thursday!  And if you can't make it, check NewMediaManitoba.com for the videos...and of course, we'll be writing up some blog posts on the experience here.

So check back soon!

Hey all,

We recently completed a documentary for the University of Manitoba - "Pride of Place: The History of Alumni House at the University of Manitoba". It's a retrospective look at the former Practice House, now the Alumni House, that will be taken down and become the home of the new ART Lab on campus.

Throughout the piece, we tell story of the homeʼs initial use as a Practice House for Home Economics students in the 40s and 50s, we explain its function as a private residence for university vice-presidents; and finally, we capture its significance as the Alumni House from the 80s until now.

It was an exciting project for a few reasons;

1. We had the chance to speak with some amazing women and with some amazing stories. Each of the ladies had a unique perspective on the house and such clear memories. It was remarkable the kind of detail they brought up!

2. We shot the documentary with our new camera - Canon 5D Mark II. With this new cool tool, James was able to capture the beauty of the building and our interview subjects. He created an airy, bright and somehow warm effect that I think really complimented the story.

A Big Thank-You to the Alumni of the Practice House as well the people at the Alumni Association including Laird Rankin, Jana Thorsteinson, and Julie Miskuska. And, finally, our awesome client and collaborator, Wendy Parker.

This building touched the lives of so many, and we feel really honoured to have highlighted some of those stories. (There were so many more to add! It could have been feature length. Seriously.)

Enjoy!

Lisanne

Hi all,

James here.

A little while back, we got a new camera here at BlinkWorks - The Canon 5D Mark II. It is a beautiful DSLR camera that takes amazing video footage in addition to outstanding stills. The camera's footage actually surpasses many of the cameras that we've been using recently. All from, what would looks like, a traditional DSLR.

The Camera does many things right, but alas, it also does many things wrong (horrible audio, wobbly shutter, bad editing codec, etc.). The trials and tribulations of making this camera work as a full-fledged video tool are well documented on sites such as cinema5d.com, dvinfo.net and planet5d.com.

So, the camera takes some getting used to. I decided that I'd do some casual shooting at my nephew's 3rd birthday party, to see how the 5D handles in a event coverage-like situation.

It's a fun little montage video, but lots of things learned from this day (and edit) that have already paid off when we shot two projects this past week using the 5D.

But here is the result of that little trial...

(All footage & audio straight out of the camera)

Hi All - James Here,

Recently while filming an episode of Dirt Time, we had a lot of lulls in shooting (some major earth moving going on...which is a big time killer).

I used the opportunity to shoot some pretty neat timelapse footage with the intention of applying a 'Tilt Shift' technique to it. It's a trick that I've been wanting to play around with for a while now and this project was the perfect opportunity to do so.

So, here is a fun little piece showing us moving dirt and building a low water crossing just outside of Sacramento.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

Photo Courtesy: Achilles Media

As we mentioned in this blog a few weeks ago, I was accepted to be part of the Telefilm Canada TV 360 Program held last week during the Banff World Television Festival and the next/MEDIA conference.

The TV 360 Program is a training program, designed by Achilles Media and Lisa Osborne of AFI Digital Content Lab, to train Canadian producers (like me) how-to develop and pitch multi-platform projects for existing TV shows.

This year, three teams of 10 worked on a creative brief to create a digital content & marketing strategy for Westwind Pictures' hit CBC TV show Little Mosque on the Prairie. (If you haven't seen it, you can watch all of season 3 here.)

We developed our strategy over 3 days and then pitched to our ideas to a panel of industry heavyweights, including Claude Galipeau of Rogers Media, Rob Sockett of Westwind, and Brett Wilson, Venture Capitalist/Dragon on CBC's Dragon's Den.

In a nutshell, it was like 'The Apprentice' for TV producers - with all the group work, intensity and deadlines - except there's no job at the end and no there was no filming. Although, I'm sure it could have made a great mini-reality series!

Lindsay Hamel and team in TV360 brainstorming session.My team included all these super talented people (be sure to check out their sites!)...

Lindsay Hamel, Producer/Host, Buffalo Gal Pictures, buffalogalpictures.mb.ca
Jana Lynn Writer, Producer/Host/Talent Coach, janalynnewhite.com
Julio Munroz, Documentary Director/Producer, Chronopia Communications, chronopia.ca
Kyoko Yokoma, Documentary Filmmaker, Gorica Productions, goricaproductions.com
Felice Gorica, TV Producer, Gorica Productions, goricaproductions.com
Mona Grenier, Reality/Lifestyle Field Producer & Writer, Exclamation Films, exclamationfilms.com
Paul Christie, Producer/Actor, Seven24 Films, seven24films.com
Andre Le Masurier, Creative Director, MacLaren MRM, maclaren.com

In addition to the participants, each team had a professional lead. We were guided by a real pro, Anthea Foyer the Training Programs Manager at CFC Media Lab. She was an excellent leader in the brainstorming process. Anthea knew exactly how to guide the group and honour everybody's ideas. You could definitely tell that she's had lots of experience working with groups of creative people.

While working on our pitch, we had mentoring sessions from a number of multi-platform professionals. We learnt about the the nuts and bolts of creating interactive projects from Kaz Brecher of Schematic. Mike Kasprow of Trapeze gave us digital marketing tips and expelled the virtues of SEO. We also had a great session with two gaming experts - Dante Anderson of Kuma Games who talked to us about the use of machinima as a interactive tool and Tony Walsh of Phantom Compass, who told us about integrating games and playful interactions.

Our team pitch was heavily influenced by 2 mentors in specific - cross-media specialist Mark Hand (maker of one the first social networks) and Invoke strategist Dario Meli (maker of the Twitter application HootSuite). When we met with Mark, we had an ambitious plan of building a whole new social media network for the show. He reigned us in and helped us keep our goals (and budget) in perspective. With Dario, we refined our plan. He helped see the value of all the social media networks/tools already out there.

Our group settled on a "Super Fan" strategy for Little Mosque on the Prairie. Here's a synopsis;

Instead of creating a new social network for Little Mosque & competing with the existing Little Mosque communities out there, we suggested making the Little Mosque community page a place to collect the conversations that are already happening. To ensure this page would be monitored and stimulated, we proposed holding an interactive contest to find a Little Mosque "Super Fan". This person would already be big fan of the show and active in social media. Once elected by fan votes, the Super Fan would become a paid community manager and brand ambassador. They would listen to existing fan communities, provide connections between these communities and create blog/video content that would provoke more conversation about Little Mosque.

Overall, I believe "Super Fan" was a very cost-effective strategy that built both community and publicity for the show. It's a strategy that could be used for any TV property or any brand with an existing following.

We received lots of positive feedback for our proposal and presentation. (Most notably, Venture Capitalist/Dragon Brett Wilson said our proposal was "a lighting rod approach and I like that.")

Lisanne Pajot, Dragon Brett Wilson and Lindsay Hamel

In the end, another team won. The winning team was led by Stitch Media's Evan Jones. They had an awesome, very focused presentation about some actionable ways for Westwind to build on the site they already had. Congratulations again, Team 1!

I learnt so much in the TV360 program! I learnt something from each of my teammates, from the mentors and from the whole experience. Driving away from the Rockies, I left feeling energized, inspired & ready to go! So inspired, we're already making plans here.

Look for a new cross-platform project from BlinkWorks in Jan 2010!

-Lisanne

Spent the week in sunny/rainy/sunny Sacramento.  Met up with the always great John McCullah to shoot a really neat project for Dirt Time.  It was a restoration/erosion control project at a 'Off-Highway-Vehicle' Park.  Basically, it's a haven of hills, valleys, jumps and relative ruleless-ness for Dirt Bikes, 4x4's, ATVs, etc.

The week was filled with a lot of neat construction techniques, some equipment breakdowns, decent weather and a great group of people.

4 days.  15 hours of footage.  And I'm going back for more!  I'll be back at the site next week.

A lot of the work involved long stretches of equipment work and land-moving.  Something which can only be filmed and viewed for a certain amount of time - how long does a viewer want to watch a bulldozer work.

But the big upside to these stretches was that afforded me the chance to climb some hills and try a technique that I've been wanting to do for a long time.  The old time-lapse, Twilt Swing lens trick.  It's basically a timelapse that makes whatever you're filming look like little toys/miniatures.  

I fell in love with the technique by watching the work of Keith Loutit.  On Vimeo, he has an impressive collection of TL/TS videos.  I think this is my favorite...

Beautiful, brillant stuff.  I'm hoping mine, done on a lark, is 1/10 as cool.  We'll see.  I'll post some footage as soon as I get a chance.

Until then here are some stills from the shoot...