WOW…it’s been almost 2 years since my last blog post on this site. In the days of twitter, pinterest, tumblr…do people still actually run and maintain a blog??? I have too many updates to even begin but for people who know me (or even those that don’t) follow me below for some more up-to-date info:
twitter.com/@wiimix
vimeo.com/wiimix
www.thewiimix.com
www.linkedin.com/in/wiimix
See you in another 2 years! 🙂
I’ve been playing Starcraft 2 a lot lately… because I’m not in front of my computer enough as it is. I have a serious problem.
I need more colors!!
🙂
Cheers to new beginnings! Hello Rokkan. 🙂
Spent a free day working on another small animation for GSG’s 5 second projects. Check it out here:Â http://vimeo.com/11884092.
Just some random thoughts and happenings…
1) I was featured on ReelRoulette’s Top 20 reels. I came in at #7. Nick Campbell continues to do wonderful things for the design and mograph community. Loving it.
2) Twitter has easily become my #1 visited website each and every morning. It gives me behind the scenes, fascinating news, advice and inside scoop on people/companies I actually care about. I have some pretty interesting people following me as well (@stinkdigital, @Attik_US, @nailguntv, @motionographer, @juxtinteractive, @razorfish, @b_reel, @struckaxiom, @click3X, @snowboardermag, @driftlab…) to name a few. 🙂 Go follow them!
3) Wrapping up some freelance projects and hopefully jumping back on a project I started with ToyNinja a couple weeks ago. Great brand and clothing.
4) I got a dope iPhone case from Nailgun, a motion studio in NYC. http://twitpic.com/1nau3e
5) Go check out my friend’s website: http://www.writingthepine.com for some entertaining sports insights.
6) Did a small interview with a student from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. I actually learned a bit more about myself in the process of answering his questions. Will share that on another post.
7) I’m making a big move next week and really excited. More on that later… 🙂
The inner geek in me came out last wednesday as my friends and I congregated to Times Square for the big NYC DSLR meetup hosted by the master himself, Philip Bloom. It was cool seeing like minded professionals and hobbyists take over Times Square with their cameras hanging around their necks and talking the latest tech talk. When the man himself finally showed up, we swarmed around him like vultures. Tourists and passerby’s were asking if he was someone famous and Philip said it best by telling one young girl, “if you’re not into geeky technology, you won’t know me.” Anyways, I’ve followed his blog for quite some time now so it was nice to finally see him in person. © Photos by good friend and flash wiz Chi Gao
I recently came back from a 1 week trip to Utah. It was everything you can ask for in a snowboarding trip. The grins on our faces coming out of powder stashes got larger and wider as each day went by. Park City. Snowbasin. Powder Mountain. Snowbird. Solitude. Thank you snow gods for letting me end the season the way it should be.
The annoyance of carrying around a backpack with lenses, batteries and memory cards soon became forgotten as the amazing conditions and picture perfect scenery turned into endless opportunities to capture footage. I shot over 500 clips and have been busy making notes, editing, sound mixing and everything else. An epic trip deserves an epic video.
This past weekend was our first snowboarding trip of the year. It’s been a very late start to the season due to the erratic weather. It’s nice to get out on the mountain and it feels really good to finally get behind the camera after months of waiting.  I had a bunch of shots in mind that I wanted to try and get. Of course, my ideas on paper looked drastically different through a lens. Regardless, I think I came pretty close in what I wanted to achieve with a few surprises and luck thrown in between. It’s essential to tell the story through each frame and I really wanted to capture the excitement of snowboarding as it is to myself and my friends. Everything from waiting in the chairlift line to strapping into your bindings represents what the sport means to us. Nothing else makes you feel as free and detaches you from the “real world”.
I really wasn’t sure what kind of results I would get so I used this weekend to experiment.  There’s been numerous complaints about the weak codec but everything seemed to hold up fine for me, probably due to the fact that I shot entirely in 720 to avoid the dreaded ‘MUD’ that I’ve read on countless forums. I should really aim to shoot with a lower shutter but with the snow and bright sun, it was a bit unavoidable, even with an ND9. I don’t get as much grading flexibility in post either and it’s tough to get the fine detail in the shadows and highlights. Either that’s a technical limitation or I need to work harder in properly exposing my scenes. Also, my $50 “steadicam” isn’t very steady so a lot of footage looks like I’m shooting during an earthquake. Slowing it down in post helps but a lot of my footage I found unusable. Oh well.
After finishing my final edit and watching it countless times, I can say I’m pleased. Does the quality compare to that of a full sensor? Definitely not. Does it look like film? Perhaps. Does the camera perform exactly how I expected in those conditions? Absolutely and it actually exceeded my expectations. I purchased this camera for its size and versatility, knowing I’d have to carry it around while snowboarding. I’d much rather have that flexibility than compromise size and a few other luxuries like a more robust codec.
Screengrabs below. View the final edit here on vimeo.
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