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Biscardi started by bringing the spot into Adobe Premiere Pro and re-timing the spot with the new music from The License Lab.  “We love LOVE the License Lab both for their high quality music and their searches,” said Biscardi.  Matt Fischer and his team at the License Lab listened to the original spot and in short order sent 12 cuts with similar energy to choose from.   It’s huge to have a service like that because Walter was able to move ahead to start creating the new graphics instead of spending time looking for music.

With the spot re-timed to the new music it was on to the motion graphics and style.  Biscardi utilized a lot of elements from Rampant Design Tools.  “The spot is essentially comparing the golfer’s swing to an automobile engine revving up and then accelerating.  Rampant has oodles of great elements including light flares, sparks, smoke and light leak film elements that really enhance that metaphor of the the swing and the club as an engine,” said Biscardi.   Some 20 elements from Rampant were blended together to create the final look with the Rampant Impact Lights allowing for seamless transitions between the original spot and the newly created elements.
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The motion graphic elements were created in Adobe After Effects with everything built in 3D space.  Even though all the elements were 2D, working in 3D space adds tremendous creative options with the lighting effects and camera movements.  Text and other elements gain a sense of depth when lighting effects are applied.   Some grunge from Rampant Design along with texture effects were applied to the words to give them more energy.
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The biggest challenge was showing the acceleration of ball down the golf course fairway.  There was no actual video shot of a golf course fairway.  Breaking down the original spot, we realized that scene was built from multiple still images and then composited to look like it was video.  So Walter went back to his animation roots and created a new composite using nearly a dozen images from Pond 5.   “Pond 5 is our go-to stock library as they not only have a ton of images, but their still images are really high quality and so reasonably priced,” said Biscardi.   The scene was again built in 3D space using multiple layers of trees, sky and fairways.  Motion blur and camera shake complete the illusion of motion.
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Biscardi got a huge assist from Rampant Design’s Sean Mullen with making the ball shatter the screen.  “In the original spot you didn’t actually see the ball shatter the screen, so I wanted to make sure the ball came from behind the camera and shattered the screen on its way down the fairway.”  Mullen and Biscardi worked together to make the ball come through with a lot of energy as it powers down the fairway.

The final touches for the spot was adding grain and color grading to match the original along with a fantastic audio mix from Company 3 adding some great SFX to further enhance the automotive metaphor.

This was definitely a challenging but super fun spot for us to be a part of. Thanks to the strong production tools from The License Lab and Rampant Design Tools, the project came off flawlessly.  We were thrilled to not only be able to provide the spot for Dana and the Bridgestone Golf team, but to get the tremendous feedback from the clients really makes it all worthwhile.
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Final Tally for the Week:  5 days.  4 Principal Locations.  127 Scenes.   Yep, you read that right.  127 Scenes shot for three videos in one week.  That’s the nature of emulating Bill Nye’s show, a LOT of cuts and a lot of variations on the same shot.  We finished one hour early on Wednesday and Thursday and we finished 3 hours early on Friday.

How were we able to do that?  A young, energetic crew and most importantly, our host, Ian Gregg.  Ian was able to memorize complex dialogue so quickly we could roll through scenes and multiple takes in a hurry.     I’ll have a full article coming soon on the entire process from start to finish, but that will come after we complete Post.   For now, here’s more images from one incredible shoot.   If you missed the first blog on this shoot, check it out here.

Oh and if you need a versatile outdoor location for filming, Lanier Islands Resort was so accommodating and they have so many places to shoot from shoreline to forest types of places to the pools to the hotels to the trails, golf and so much more.   Definitely look them up for great outdoor and indoor locations.

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.

The post 5 days. 4 Principal Locations. 127 Scenes of Video Production! appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Studio Network Solutions EVO 48TB Online Media Storage (black) along with our original Small Tree 48TB system now operating as our near-line Archive. 96TB in about 6 rack units!

The Studio Network Solutions EVO line includes a ShareBrowser tool which allows us to manage the system quite easily and does away with a lot of OS X and Windows permissions issues we’ve experience in the past.   All User prefs are set via the administration tools and individual users can lock individual files as they’re working if need be.   This adds a whole new level of efficiency and control for us.

Here’s a look at the basic NAS and Project Sharing panel where we can set who has access to which volumes and even down to projects.

You can see we have broken the 48TB down into four partitions, EVO 1 – 4.   We do that to make it easier to manage the system and also from time to time we can wipe out a partition to completely erase it giving it a clean, fresh directory.   Over on the right you can see “Users.”   Clicking that brings up the main User Management controls.

Here’s the User Management controls for EVO 1 and how we can do a very simple, top level “Allow / Deny” access.  We can also assign whether the user will connect afp or smb depending on how your network is configured.  In our case all the Macs connect afp while the Windows system connects smb.   The user names you see here correspond to our systems and not individual users, however you can set up individual users if you’d like.   What this really does is takes away permission settings from the Mac and Windows OS where we have run into some stumbling blocks trying to get things to work cross platform.  In fact permissions issues just from Mac to Mac were causing some issues.   Now everything is set and managed within the EVO Browser.

Here’s the EVO ShareBrowser on Mac.  This gets installed on every client workstation and this is how you mount / unmount all the volumes and also do the tagging and keywords.

And here it is on Windows.

You can see they pretty much look the same and you can also see one of the locking features of the EVO Browser in the Windows image.  The Premiere Pro project file is locked and controlled by Edit 3.  This both allows two editors to use the file at the same time and ensures that they will not overwrite each other’s work.    You can read more about this in another recent blog “Two Editors, One Adobe Premiere Pro Project File.”

You’ll also notice on both the Mac and Windows systems, all the connected drives to the computers systems show up and can be indexed and managed by the EVO ShareBrowser.   The software is not wholly connected to just the EVO storage.  So we can Asset Manage all of our media through the EVO ShareBrowser system if we so choose.

Here’s a very simple example of tagging assets through the ShareBrowser.

I’ve got the folder selected and on the right side of the screen you can see the windows for Tags and Comments.   These are exactly what you think they are.   Simple asset management to tag and keyword all assets from folder level down to file level to make for much easier location and retrieval later.

Now the tags have been added to that folder and now those are searchable elements to retrieve those assets later.   The Tags and Comments can also be exported as an XML and brought into Adobe Premiere Pro and other NLEs.   This is a very high level asset management system.  In no way does this replace full asset management systems like CatDV or Axle which are both very in depth products.   There is also no way to generate a proxy directly through the EVO, this would be done with a third party software.  But for a first level, very simple “Tag the assets as they are loaded” this is an awesome addition with minimal training required.   With the coming of Contemporary Living Network and the sheer amount of data we’ll be dealing with when that launches, this will be a great first step asset management tool for the initial tagging of the assets.

The system runs on both 10GigE and GigE and we have it running through our existing Small Tree 10gig Switch to all our workstations.  For systems that have an internal 10gig card, we’re seeing Read speeds top 700MB/s.   For those with external boxes, like the iMacs with a 10Gig to Thunderbolt adapter, we’re seeing Read speeds top 300MB/s.  This is all in early testing as anyone will tell you, the Write / Read speeds off any test only give you part of the story.   The efficiency and video playback is wholly dependent on how the entire system is configured.   We’re good playing back and editing both HD and UHD on this system.

We’re pretty excited to bring this system online, not only for the boost in our storage capacity, but for the new way to manage the media across our entire network.  It’s going to really enhance the way we work with your projects.   There is a LOT of control for management of the shared storage and if you really want to know the nitty gritty, reach out to the guys at SNS for more details.    Better yet, if you’re going to be at the NAB Show 2015, you can find them at Booth SL12413.  In fact, BCM Founder, Walter Biscardi, Jr will be at the booth most of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday of the show.  So come on by,  say hello and let’s talk Shared Storage and Editing.

Of course if you’d like to see the system here, well give us a shout and come on out to the shop.  Molly the Wonder Dog would love to show you how the new system looks in person.

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BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects

The post New Shared Storage / Media Asset Management System Online! appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Adobe Creative Cloud Fosters Collaborative Workflow

July 17, 2014; Atlanta, GA; – Biscardi Creative Media (BCM) has begun post-production on a new web series called Arson Dogs for world-renowned dog trainer Victoria Stilwell and her Positively website. The series follows Victoria to southern Maine, where State Farm’s Arson Dog Training Program is conducted to train handlers and working dogs together to sniff out accelerants like gasoline and propane at potential arson sites.

Accelerant detection dogs are an essential part of the fire investigation team, working alongside law enforcement officials to alert their handlers of the presence of accelerants. Accounting for a 40-50% increase in arson convictions, these dogs undergo a rigorous training process that is based on positive reinforcement.

Victoria commented, “As a dog trainer on TV and in private practice for over 15 years, I’ve witnessed firsthand the power of positive dog training with everything from pit bulls to Pomeranians. There’s a pretty substantial debate raging in the dog world between positive trainers and those who believe in old school punishment and dominance, with those more traditional trainers saying that positive reinforcement is nice with puppies but doesn’t work with ‘red zone’ and high-drive working dogs.”

“That’s why I was so excited to learn about State Farm’s Arson Dog Training Program, which uses exclusively reward-based positive training techniques to train the canine Ferrari’s of the working dog world: arson dogs.”

Victoria and her crew spent five days at the school documenting many hours of raw material on up to five different cameras. While post-production continues on the show, a trailer was first completed on a tight deadline: about a week to craft a sizzle from over 3500 raw clips. BCM founder Walter Biscardi, Jr. led the edit with assistance from BCM editors R. John Becker and Kylee Wall.

“Victoria’s team uses the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, as do we at BCM, so we worked with them to show how best to log and organize the materials so we could use their notes to quickly turn the project around.  They did a beautiful job logging and organizing the bins in multiple ways so we could cross reference. Everything was loaded into our Small Tree Shared Storage system which proved a major key in the quick turnaround,” Walter said.

Victoria commented, “We’re very excited to be working with BCM on the post production for this Arson Dogs web series project, as their professionalism, quality, and love of the subject matter – especially dogs – shines through in all their work.”

“The Arson Dogs project is a perfect example of client collaboration at its best. This was a thrill for me personally because I’m a long time dog owner and I’ve admired Victoria’s style of dog training. It was also a lot of fun cutting this with my own Molly the Wonder Dog hanging out in the edit suite with me,” Walter added.

Arson Dogs will be distributed through Victoria Stilwell’s Positively website (http://www.positively.com) and YouTube page (http://www.youtube.com/victoriastilwell).  New episodes will be available in the coming weeks.

About Biscardi Creative Media

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.

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Media Contact: Walter Biscardi, Jr. | 770.271.3427 | walter@biscardicreative.com

The post BCM kicks off “Arson Dogs” for renowned dog trainer Victoria Stilwell appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

The trailer edit was led by BCM founder Walter Biscardi Jr., so I asked him to tell us about how collaboration, communication and Adobe Creative Cloud helped make this fast turn a success: “Without the collaboration of Victoria’s team, the shared storage storage system allowing us to work together, and all the new efficiency features in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, it’s doubtful the trailer would have been completed to the quality we were able to deliver.”

First, what are Arson Dogs?

Arson dogs are also called accelerant detection dogs. They’re an essential part of the fire investigation team. They work alongside law enforcement officials to alert their handlers of the presence of accelerants, usually marking a scent by sitting in front of it.

The Arson Dogs series follows Victoria to Maine where State Farm’s Arson Dog Training Program is conducted, one of only two arson dog training programs in the country.  The series will tell the story of handlers and dogs getting to know each other and learning to work together for the rest of the dog’s life.

That’s a lot of ground to cover for a three minute trailer. How did you get organized with all the material?

Victoria’s team uses the Adobe suite, as do we at BCM, so we worked with them to show how best to log and organize the materials so we could use their notes to quickly turn the project around.  They did a beautiful job logging and organizing the bins in multiple ways so we could cross reference.

Beyond that, we were provided with plenty of notes and the information needed not only for the sizzle but also for cutting the main episodes.  Everything was loaded into our Small Tree Shared Storage system which proved a major key in the quick turnaround.

How did everyone at BCM work together on this?

From a master Adobe Premiere Pro project, Kylee and John worked off sub-projects, organizing select elements into timelines while I was cutting the main sizzle. We were all working off variants of the exact same project, all using the same media from the server, and I would simply import their timelines into the master project.

The Marker Window feature came in huge on this project as well because John and Kylee put Markers throughout each timeline and via the Markers Window, I could quickly scan to see what was in there and grab elements.

By all working together, including Alex (on Victoria’s team), we were able to scan through five cameras of material in just two days. Throughout the edit, I would ask Kylee or John to grab some music or some element in the sub-projects so I could keep working on the cut.

When it came to the finishing, John mixed the final audio in his sub-project while I color graded in DaVinci Resolve.  We brought everything together in the master Premiere Pro project.

How was communication before post began important to the success of the project?

It’s so awesome when the client comes to us before we start post and we can walk through the project together. We came up with a plan and then executed it to perfection, allowing us to really deliver the project they wanted rather than “well this is all we could do with the time we had.”

It’s such a great feeling when you can collaborate with the client right up front before they get into the edit suite bringing so much more value to their project. The Arson Dogs project is just a perfect example of client collaboration at its best

How is the message of the Arson Dogs show important to you?

This was a thrill for me personally because I’m a long time dog owner and I’ve admired Victoria’s style of dog training.  It’s a very positive and non-domineering way of working with the animals, and that’s how it should be. It was also lot of fun cutting this with my own Molly the Wonder Dog hanging out in the edit suite with me.

Arson Dogs will be distributed through Victoria Stilwell’s Positively website and YouTube page. New episodes will be available in the coming weeks. Watch the trailer:

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BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.

The post Collaboration to Quick Turn a Sizzle with Adobe Creative Cloud appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Ben Lewin was seventeen when he started interning with us last fall. He’s mostly focused on the production side of things, so we tossed him more camera operation and project management tasks. He recently won CDAT’s male senior All-Star Student award (as well as the superlative “Most likely to THINK they’ll rule the world). He’s driven and has an entrepreneurial spirit, so we know he’ll be at the helm of his own company before long.

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My name is Ben Lewin and I am a senior at Lanier High School in Buford, GA. It is because of the school I attend that I got so lucky as to work as an intern at Biscardi Creative Media. Lanier has a technical program called the Center for Design And Technology (CDAT), which I have participated in since my sophomore year. When I heard what Lanier was doing, I was so compelled to participate because I have been looking to start my professional career as soon as possible and begin building an impressive portfolio early. I currently live in Lilburn and am a permissive transfer, so I have to drive 44 miles round trip to get to school every day, and have been doing that for 3 years.

Ever since I was young I have loved the art of storytelling. Not only do I have a passion for writing, but the process of film production has always appealed to me the most. I used to frequently make little short films with my friends and put them together in iMovie. Consequently, when I heard that I could use my passion of film to create projects and learn trade skills in my desired profession in school, I was more than motivated to participate. CDAT had a lot to offer and I was really able to strengthen my technical skills by learning and becoming proficient with NLE’s like the Premiere Pro and the Adobe suite.

During my high school career at Lanier, some film-related awards that I have won are the NATAS Southeast Student Production Award for outstanding excellence in the long-form fiction category; another award was a 1st place prize of $1,500 for the North Georgia Metropolitan Water District High School Video Contest. Since I am graduating in about a week, this fall I am attending Kennesaw State University where I plan on studying business. I want to own my own film production company and because of that I think that it would be astute to learn how to properly run a business. Stating film as my primary focus, my sights are not solely set on the former; versatile entrepreneurship is my blanket ambition in which I wish to aspire as a large-time investor and business owner.

My mentor and teacher, Mike Reilly, was connected to Walter Biscardi, Jr. and was looking for seniors, like myself, to reach out and attain an internship in their desired field of work. Because of my passion for the film industry, I jumped at the opportunity to acquire work experience at Biscardi Creative Media. Walter came over to Lanier one day and sat several students down, including me, for an interview and later hired a peer of mine, Mariah Campbell, and I.

I wasn’t unfamiliar with working for a production company. I had done some freelance work for BCM as a PA over the previous summer, but had never worked on the back-end as an editor or post-producer, much less produced an entire project from beginning to end. The first project we worked on was the latter; the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services needed a promo for its community service program called the Gwinnett Great Days of Service.

Walter had put Mariah and I in charge of the entire production from beginning to end. We contacted the client, wrote the interview questions, conducted the interviews, filmed on site, edited, and colored graded. Since the video was unscripted, I found it difficult to piece together a story that was both compelling and entertaining and, at the same time, maintained the integrity of the story itself. I really loved the way Walter handled us in regards to the project; we weren’t just these lowly, ignorant interns that we there to shut up and take notes. He, metaphorically, gave us the keys to the car and said “drive”. Of course, he would be there to catch us if we fell, but he wouldn’t hold our hands. This was a very conducive learning environment for me because, personally, I thrive under heavy responsibility and learn way more from experience than from hearing about it in a lecture.

The studio itself is extremely aesthetically pleasing. The floor plan enables a productive work environment and keeps in mind the needs of the various roles in production. One thing of value, in particular, that I have taken away from my experience is that organization is key. One ends up making it more difficult for themselves and wasting more time than necessary if they are reluctant to keep a tidy and organized project. Having every single resource and scratch disk in its exact location, all labeled and in order, makes working on the project faster and with clarity. That is just one out of many, seemingly small, but extremely important lessons that are not only applicable to the film industry, but to life in general.

I believe that it is essential that the youth start their work experience at a young age. It teaches them a trade skill and how to behave in a professional environment as well as giving them an idea of what they want to do with their life and, more importantly, what they don’t want to do. I was very privileged to have a real-world experience like this, especially in an environment like BCM, and I would recommend it to everyone.

 — Ben

The post Meet the BCM Interns: Ben Lewin appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Mariah Campbell was seventeen when she started as an intern with us. She’s mostly focused on post-production for her career path right now, so we threw a few more editorial tasks her way, like assisting on broadcast work hands-on and crafting her own story from a pile of raw (multicam) material. She recently won CDAT’s female senior All-Star Student award and will graduate with honors. She’s quick to learn and a natural storyteller, so keep your eye on her: she’ll be an editorial force of nature.

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I’m absolutely terrible at introductions so I’m just gonna get right into it and give a little context as to who’s writing. My name is Mariah Campbell and I’m 18 years old. I was born in Ohio and moved to Georgia in the first grade. My main interests include writing, drawing, watching TV (strictly for research purposes) and cuddling little puppies. My favorite foods include tofu pad thai, dark chocolate (aka the chocolate for the sophisticated), and really good pizza. I have six sisters, one brother, and seven grandparents. Last but not least, I’m really bad at transitioning from introduction to body. So, uh, yeah.

Mariah winning all-star CDAT student!

My sophomore year I moved from my old district and changed schools (as I did often). I told myself right then and there that I needed to decide what it was I would work toward becoming for the next four years. At the time I was in love with HGTV and thought architecture might be something I’d enjoy. I visited Lanier High School’s website and found a program called CDAT, The Center for Design and Technology. I thought this was perfect and requested to be in the program when I signed up for classes. What I didn’t do was request was just what I wanted to be studying in CDAT. On the first day of school I followed my schedule to the video broadcast room. My first thought was “NO! I can’t become an architect with video broadcast on my transcript! I need 3D design or something!” So when a teacher came in and told the class that some of the kids in the room needed to follow him to the 3D animation class, I bit my lip and crossed my fingers— but to no avail. I was stuck.

If I was going to waste my time there, I certainly wasn’t going to allow myself to enjoy it. I was going to be an architect and architects don’t run around with cameras. So I moped around with my arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed for a couple weeks.  After a while I met some kids who eventually became my best friends, and the projects we worked on together were actually fun: scripting, shooting and especially editing.  Video Broadcast had become my favorite class of the day. In the following years I assisted in the editing of the class’s YouTube channel and submitted a few videos into contests. This year I was given the opportunity to intern with Biscardi Creative Media.

I’ve been interning with my classmate, Ben Lewin, at Biscardi Creative Media since the beginning of my senior school year. What was my first thought when I began interning with BCM?

“OMG A BASKET OF CHOCOLATE!”

Candy bowl before and AFTER interns.

Actually, my first thought upon starting my internship was how awesomely designed the place was. (Nothing like the set of The Office, as I might have imagined.) Bright colors, a conference room with corkboard and clear dry-erase paint, a 50s diner in the kitchen, themed editing suites, a theater for viewing work, and decorative references to just about every movie and television show in existence. This had to be video production paradise. I mean just look at it!

As our first project we were given the opportunity to produce and edit a video for The Gwinnett Great Days of Service, a local volunteer group. This meant setting up and filming interviews, capturing b-roll and natural sounds, bringing the media into Adobe Premiere Pro, editing and exporting by a certain date. Of course the task seemed completely daunting at first, as it would to any 17 year old, but with the help of the Biscardi Creative Team we were led onto the right track and got it done.

Presenting at the CDAT awards.

We were given the opportunity for each of us to direct at two sites. Ben was to Direct the shooting of volunteers working on the garden of a rehabilitation center, and I was to direct at a co-op. We were given guidelines on what we should capture: people working, smiling, and cooperating. Seemed easy enough. Until we actually started. At first I wasn’t quite sure how to go about getting certain shots, and had a hard time walking up to the volunteers and asking them to “smile at the camera” or “hand the shovel to him” without both of us feeling awkward. Eventually I learned that If you at least pretend to be comfortable behind the camera, the subjects will follow suit.

We then interviewed some of the people involved with the Gwinnett Great Days of Service. We emailed the interviewees, set up interview dates and times and created questions to ask them. During the interviews we wrote down timecodes of important parts for the video. Then we began to edit. Two people editing with conflicting points of view can get frustrating, but none the less, we created a great video.

Through the process I began to realize that editing really is something to be done one step at a time. Instead of letting the thought of “a whole project? That soon!?” seep into my brain.  I now think along the lines of “first I’ll do this…. Good.  Now on to the next thing.”

Another major project I got to work on was the demo video for “Our Story Media”, a documentary-style video wedding album that clients can get made, highlighting the details of their story of love and marriage. Working on this project has provided me with a good chunk of my learning experience at BCM. Especially in the area of understanding the background, telling a story and pleasing the client.

Mariah’s multicam timeline!

When I started working on the project I was given a background interview of the couple and videos to log. My first run around I had a 15 minute long rough. After showing it to another editor, I was given tips on what to fix. Tell more of the story, trim clips, don’t edit to the music, don’t show a shot of him when he’s talking about her and so on. After several more pass throughs, I began to see just what a big impact the little changes had made. The story made sense, the audio fit the visual, and the overall impact was much stronger. I am currently down to color correcting and stylizing a 6 minute final. The hands on approach of the work allowed me to see what exactly it was I could do and I’m happy to say that it’s a lot more than I thought.

Walter made sure that we learned the entire process of production. We assisted with the shooting of some of his WalterBiscardi.com videos, in which we were given lessons on shooting, lighting and capturing audio. We got to edit some of the videos learning story telling, timing and the difference between 1080i and 1080p. We learned how to convert a video from digital to tape (which I had no idea was necessary, but apparently very much is). We spent a lot of time shadowing team members as they went about editing and explained to us the editing process. We were introduced to a Good Eats actress (Yes, I met an actress. Now bow before me~), Widdi Turner, who was more than happy to explain her experiences and advice in acting and being on set. I can’t think of a single production subject we didn’t touch on.

Shooting WalterBiscardi.com videos with Molly.

The BCM team are some of the nicest people I’ve met. It really is refreshing to go from negative teachers and students just wreaking havoc on my mood, to an entire building full of people who say hello and ask me how my day was (and a dog who wags her tail and licks me in excitement). They are the type of people I can ask to help with my i’m-an-intern-why-isn’t-this-working? oh-it-was-just-turned-off… problems 20 times a day, and don’t stomp off in frustration. They are always willing to show me how to do something and over-explain the subject as needed. I don’t think you could find a friendlier group of people anywhere else.

On May 22nd, I will be graduating and my time with Biscardi Creative Media will be coming to an end. When I reflect on my time spent here I am reminded of the amazing opportunities that Walter Biscardi and his team have given me. Because of my work here, I am now confident and comfortable enough with the video production process that if asked to produce or edit a video, I no longer shrink under my desk and have a panic attack. (Which is entertaining for some but horrifying for me.)

CDAT awards – CDAT student Bethany, Mariah, and Kylee.

I want to use my little soapbox here and let everyone here at BCM and my teachers over at CDAT know how thankful I am for the opportunity to have worked with you guys. I never knew that so many people could have this much confidence in me and what I can do. But it’s what drives me everyday to wake up, do my best and crush my own expectations. I truly appreciate each and every one of you and everything you’ve done to help me realize and advance towards my goals.

– Mariah

——–

Mariah and Ben featured in the BCM 2014 Christmas Card!

Good luck Mariah! Leave some advice for college and her career in post-production in the comments below!

The post Meet the BCM Interns: Mariah Campbell appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

John and Anthony setting up the audio and camera equipment for the first scene.

In particular the first scenario involved 6 on camera talent all talking at the same time.  Marion brought 6 microphones and a 6 channel audio recorder so each person’s audio can be individually adjusted in the editing process.    This makes it a lot easier when trying to trim a 45 minute raw recording to the 15 minutes required for the training element.    We can extract and remove individual audio elements when we have 6 individual audio recordings rather than all 6 people in a single stereo file.   That will give IAC much more flexibility in creating the final interactive training product.

Marion giving John and the on camera talent some direction during the shoot.

The crew utilized one large conference room space to set up both the 6 person discussion and a one on one scenario making for greater efficiency in the one day shoot.  All the equipment was kept in one room minimizing the amount of time it took to re-set everything for the two scenes.  Also the use of fluorescent lighting eliminates the worry of high powered lighting tripping circuit breakers.

All those video and audio cables coming from the cameras feed two virtual video recorders in perfect synchronization allowing for easier editing later.

All video and audio was fed to two virtual video recorders allowing very high quality video recording and easy synchronization of the two cameras during the editing process.  Ever the “gadget guru” Marion had clips, ties, straps and every other device to hold microphones, lights and even cables cleanly in place.

Marion is a perfectionist at keeping his cables and his equipment clean.

All in all it was a very successful and very efficient day.  The IAC team provided excellent direction to ensure the video elements will work seamlessly in the interactive final training product.  The SACS COC team was an absolute blast to work with, they had us in stitches in between takes.  Now it’s on to Post Production and working closely with IAC to bring all the elements to life in a very large interactive training product.

The two virtual digital recorders can be seen on the left side of the photo.

Some technical nitty gritty in case you want to know:

Cameras used: Panasonic P2 HVX-300(2) and a Sony EX-1

Virtual Recorders: AJA KiPro and the AJA KiPro Mini, both set to record at ProResLT

Lighting: Assorted Lowel Fluorescents

Audio Recorder: 6 Channel Zoom

Post Production: Will be performed with the Adobe Creative Suite.[hr]

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.

The post BCM Crew Completes Interactive Scenes for Interactive Advantage Corp. appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Photographer Heather Hamilton, Kelly Kearney and BCM Principal Walter Biscardi, Jr. practice Safety First at Heraeus

We met the great folks at Heraeus through our work with the Gwinnett County Public Schools on the M2+G=Magic of Manufacturing in Gwinnett promotional video project.  They loved our work originally suggested sending us to England to do the production both there and at the local Buford, Georgia facility.   We were all in favor of the ultimate Road Trip, but the decision was made to have a local crew shoot the raw scenes in England and ship the material to BCM for the edit.   While we were a bit bummed to not have the road trip, in reality it was much more practical to have the local crew do the work since we had a very quick turnaround deadline on the project.  Essentially we were able to shoot in both locations simultaneously which was great for the tight deadline.

Because of the size of the Buford facility, the ground we had to cover,  and the sensitive nature of both the equipment and products produced, Walter kept the crew and equipment to a minimum, without sacrificing video quality.    Director of Photography, Heather Hamilton utilized a Canon digital camera with beautiful lenses to create stunning depth in the imagery.   Walter used his GoPro camera techniques to add life and movement to lifeless objects.   What looks mundane and ordinary to the human eye takes on artistic property in moving video when captured with the right lenses, lighting and techniques.

Heather conducting an interview with the Canon camera and a single fluorescent light. We kept the equipment package to a minimum for ease of movement around the facility.

Heather took great advantage of her camera slider which allows the camera to easily move side to side or forward to back very smoothly.   When used on top of a tripod, it allows her to easy reposition the camera without the need to always move the tripod.   It’s a very versatile tool and some of her most stunning work came from the camera placed down on the floor and low angle photography.

Heather utilizing the camera slider to move the camera horizontally across the scene. The slider adds very smooth and dynamic movement to otherwise static locations.

We conducted about 20 interviews that day and walked away with about 5 hours of assorted raw footage from the Buford facility.    Working directly with the Heraeus Buford team, with input from the England team, Walter and BCM Artist Kylee Wall created a really clean and effective overview of the efficiencies practiced in both locations in a very fast turnaround.   BCM has perfected the art of working remotely with clients all over the globe so including the England and Germany offices was business as usual for the team.  For us it’s no different than having the client sitting right in the edit suites with us.

The final project was uploaded digitally to the home offices in Germany for presentation.  This was a really fun project and we’re proud of what we were able to deliver with a very short turnaround deadline.   Quality and creativity were not sacrificed, we still deliver to the same standards.  It’s just part of what we do.

Equipment Nitty Gritty in case you want to know:

Cameras Used: Canon 6D with assorted lenses and GoPro Hero 2

Lighting Used: Impact Fluorescent Fixtures with Soft Boxes.

Post Production: Adobe Creative Suite, Red Giant Color Suite, ProTools Audio Sweetening, Small Tree 100TB SAN.

Remote Client review and collaboration via our secure client review system.[hr]

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.

The post Talking Efficiency in Global Manufacturing for Heraeus appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Biscardi Creative Media recently celebrated with Environment News Trust on the completion and wrap-up of Season 3 of “This American Land”, an original conservation series on public television stations nationwide.  The series delivers engaging stories on America’s landscapes, waters and wildlife – and takes viewers to the front lines of conservation, science and outdoor adventure.

Kylee served as the designated editor at BCM for the project and I have to say, the newest addition to our BCM team rocked it! I found Kylee finally coming up for air this week and thought – this is the perfect time to bombard her with questions about her experience editing a broadcast project.

See our interview below. And then scan to the bottom to see Kylee’s photo-op… let’s just say the effects of 3-4 cups of coffee a day for the last few months may be beginning to show!

{View official news release and season three photos HERE}

Was this your first time working on a series?  

Yes, my main focus previously was corporate and web-based work with a couple indie films and DVD projects.

How was this experience different from previous projects? 

Honestly, it was more stressful. I’m pretty anxious by nature (thanks, coffee) and not having past experience editing a series to draw on was a hit to the confidence. A lot more detail goes into broadcast projects. PBS has very specific requirements and you have to take great care to ensure the projects you deliver them meet those specifications. On the web, anything goes. Not so for television — quality television, anyway.

What editorial tools did you use?  

Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC mostly.

What post production aspects were encompassed in this project – that you were responsible for? 

I was responsible for offline editing, which involved crafting the story itself, and also online editing because some segments were brought in from outside editors. Outside of the stories themselves, show assembly included host stand-ups, introductions and teases for each episode — all the stuff in between each segment was all on me. I did the graphics throughout the show including the series’ main title graphic which needed an update. I also did rough mixes of audio for producers and voiceover work with former CNN anchor Bobbie Battista.

How did you work with producers? 

I sometimes physically worked alongside producers to craft the stories and other times our collaboration was done remotely. Sometimes I had a script to work from, and sometimes nothing at all.

What was your favorite story in Season 3? 

Most of the stories on this season were about people dedicated to preserving wild lands. One of my favorite stories was working with Producer Bruce Burkhardt on a piece that showcased a group in West Virginia working to designate a national monument in the Monongahela National Forest. It was beautifully shot and highlighted a really interesting part of the country where 7 rivers begin in the mountains.

What learning lesson has come out of this experience? 

Don’t assume anything about anything. Always check your work and ask questions for clarification.

What was your favorite thing to do?

I really enjoyed working on the unscripted stories that were somewhat of a new concept for the season. I loved getting a lot of footage and a rough outline of the intended message and then given free reign to do my own thing and craft a story out of what I was given. In fact, doing just that for one of the stories landed me my first producer credit!

Walter Biscardi is known for his industry insight. How was it having him as a resource? 

I learned a lot from Walter that helped with this project, but a lot of the lessons are going to help me with every project I work on moving forward as well. He taught me about broadcast specifications, preparing timelines for sound and color, laying projects to tape and the difference between an insert edit and assemble edit. . . they’re different! Other than some dubs as an intern, these are the first tape deliveries I’ve ever done in my life, and I can’t say that I’m a fan… but you can’t love everything I guess!

Would you like to continue with broadcast? 

Working in broadcast is a lot more complicated but I like it a lot and definitely want to continue working on these kinds of projects. This project helped me to learn a lot more about the nitty-gritty: field order and how to up-convert media for delivery, stuff like that I never really had to worry about before.  Overall, it was interesting to learn directly from Walter after having done so online for so long. He was patient and I appreciate him trusting me with a television show within days of hiring me, when I had no such credits before!

That’s right you started on this project soon after joining Biscardi Creative. How was that?

It was an experience. I moved to Georgia on Thursday and started working on the show on Monday. On an unscripted story with no notes! And I got super sick too! I have to say that “hit the ground running” fully applied to me that week. But I survived and I think I did okay.

Any additional thoughts or comments?

This was a unique project for me not just because it was broadcast but also because of the structure. An episode is made up of multiple stories. I had to craft each story and then bring the stories together to create a full episode that was engaging and compelling. It was important to regularly keep the larger message and goal in mind. Other than films and stuff, my daily work has been very short — 30 seconds, maybe 5 minutes. Duration never really mattered much. But working on a show and telling these stories in just 26 minutes 46 seconds and not a frame more — that was actually really fun. I love constraint as a conduit for creativity, and you don’t get much more constrained than “if you go over this time we just won’t show it, the end.”

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.  www.biscardicreative.com

The post Interview with an editor: “This American Land” appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.