Science Stories for NSF
Shot three feature stories for the National Science Foundation recently. Not many stations or networks are doing science these days so it is nice that NSF is doing a fine job of putting out good science videos.
Worked with producer Marsha Walton on these stories. She is an old colleague of mine when we both worked at CNN.
Frog Research
Universe Quest
G4 – Fire Arts Festival
Fire Arts Festival Coverage for G4’s “Attack of the Show
The Crucible is an Oakland, CA based organization that teaches classes in blacksmithing, welding, glass blowing, and a whole host of other interesting industrial arts skills in a way that is nothing like your old high school shop classes. They do it with flair and with style. Each year they put on a couple of fund raising events to keep the doors open. One of the is the “Fire Arts Festival” where they take over a ten acre parking lot in West Oakland and basically let fire roar. Artists bring their sculptures and art work that literally breathe fire and show them off for an adoring crowd.
It makes for quite and evenings entertainment. G4 came to town for this years show for a segment on their “Attack of the Show”. We lived fire with their host Blair Herter who even dared to swallow fire on camera….
This was a Beta SP (Ikegami HLV55) shoot for this client.
From Solar to Science to Fire to Style
It was a busy few days of shoots last week for Rockk Video as it was one of those times when all the shoots happen in a space of a few days.
Monday began with a shoot for Blue Turtle Roofing documenting their install of a cool roofing system for a client in Santa Rosa CA. They were installing cool roof shingles and a solar attic fan that can reduce summer home temps by as much as 17 degrees. Should make a big dent in energy costs for this client. Then it was off to BR Cohn Winery to shoot stand ups for our wine program. Great day in the wine country as temps were high and the breeze was just right.
Tuesday brought the first of three days shooting stories for the National Science Foundation web site. We started off in Oakland at the ASA Academy summer program for girls where they teach wonderful science curriculum to young women. The camp consists of mornings in classroom getting hands on education about astronomy, computer game building and more and afternoons spent on science field trips.
Wednesday was frog day. Over at SF State researcher Vance Vredenburg is looking into the extinction of frogs and particularly the problem of frog populations dying off in the Sierras of California from a fungus infection. This problem could be reflective of our global climate change issues and what we are doing to the Earth. We shot in his lab and then out in the field as he gathered samples in a pond east of SF.
Thursday we hopped over to UC Berkeley to do a story on researchers there who are building small helicopters in the lab and creating new algorithms to figure out the thorny issues of collision avoidance in air traffic control as well as flight control innovations.
Then came the fire.
Literally.
The Crucible is an Oakland based organization that teaches classes in blacksmith, iron work, glass blowing, wood working and more. Industrial arts taught in a cool way and not the dorky way of high school classes. Every year they put on a fund raising show called the Fire Arts Festival. They set up in a ten acre lot in west Oakland where artists can come and shop off their best fire breathing, turbo charged sculptures and performances. It is a wild night of music, fire, art, and creative folks. You have never seen anything quite like it. The image below is of the installation called the . They literally shoot liquid propane into a fire and with fans creating a vortex of wind they sculpt the fire live and from only a few feet away from the incredibly hot flames. We were shooting for the G4 network show called “Attack of the Show”.
G4 Talent – Blair Herter
Friday we wrapped the week up with two shoots that featured style and comfort. A business shoot at the Hotel Vitale, a boutique hotel on the SF waterfront owned by Joie de Vivre Hospitality entailed interviews with the CEO about his use of psychology techniques to better his employee relationships and hotel ambiance. Then it was off to shoot stand ups for KaylaCookson-dot-TV, the cooking and food show for college students and young adults. We shot stand ups and broll at a local farmers market in Oakland CA to illustrate the bargains to be had if you shop wisely.
Willie Crawford Seminar-Orlando Florida
We just got back from four days in Orlando Florida shooting a very exciting business seminar held by world famous Internet Marketer Willie Crawford. Willie turned fifty last week and to celebrate the event he held a three day long Birthday Bash with some of the top marketers in the business coming to speak and celebrate his birthday in style.
Rockk Video was brought in to shoot the entire event and do the post production on a series of DVD’s for Willie. In addition we shot interviews with each of the top marketers at the event for a special DVD product to be released by our company. This product will feature insights to business success from marketers who have achieved success and know what it takes to make it.
Here is a list of some of the terrific presenters at the seminar:
David Preston
Lynn Terry
Mark Hendricks
Felicia Slattery
Ron Davies
Laura Fenamore
Sam Crowley
Dr Ron Capps
Shel Horowitz
Rob Canyon
Kathleen Gage
Kevin Johnson
Stephen Pierce
Here is a clip from Willie’s Birthday Roast (coming soon)
And how about a testimonial from Willie himself for my services:
The Birthday Boy
Edge of Discovery – CNN
Recently we worked on several pieces for the CNN series “Edge of Discovery” with producer Jennifer Wysocki (you have to check out her show that she is developing).
This one was about the underwater planes developed by a very smart guy out here in California. Check it out.
Twist and Shout To End 2008
Well a nice week to end 2008 for Rockk Video Productions. We spent two days this week shooting for our UK client Twist and Shout Communications as they prepared a corporate video for McAfee. Their creative director Jim Shields was jumping on a short turnaround request from McAfee to produce a key video for their Annual Kickoff event. We shot on our Sony Z1 camera in 1080i HD at locations in Santa Clara, CA and Mission Viejo, CA. We worked with location director Robert McCollum who is based out of Texas. While we were shooting in warm Southern California Jim and crew were over in freezing Warsaw Poland shooting the other interviews. Robert and I were happy to be in California. (Not to mention the easy availability of good Mexican food)
Shooting on the Z1 was done in conference room environments with white backdrops, which as you know can be challenging but it was part of the look for the video so we used the backlight feature of the Sony Z1 and let the backdrops blow out while maintaining solid exposures on the faces of our interviews.
Next up is more cooking videos for a new membership cooking web site that will debut in 2009 and is aimed at young adults and college students.
ISARF – Feature – Rockk Video
Rockk Video shot this feature on ISARF for ATI. This organization is devoted to protecting humans from shark attacks as well as protecting sharks and other sea creatures from harm in their environment.
Shot in Monterey CA using the Sony F900 HDCam
Shark Victim Survives To Surf Another Day
Rockk Video shot this feature for ATVI in Monterey CA.
This surfer was attacked by a Great White shark and severely bitten. He was saved by his fellow surfers and dolphins who came to his apparent rescue. An engaging story.
CNN Special Projects
The last two production days have been for CNN Special Projects. Day one was spent shooting Dave McGinnis from Expedia.com doing several segments for CNN on travel ideas and holiday travel tips. We shot at SF’s Dolores Park on a marvelous sunny fall day with perfect visibility and sunshine. [Had to hide Dave under some scrim to keep the heat down...]
Day two we were over at Genentech doing a profile on Susan Desmond-Hellman who is a senior VP and Doctor at the biotech giant. CNN producer Aikeem Hunter and I spent a nice afternoon getting the tour at Genentech and interviewing Ms Hellman. This is for a Fortune series on the “Most Powerful Women In Business”.
Week before that we were at On24 in SF to do a science and technology shoot about their virtual conference technology that lets trade shows create a virtual version of their exhibits to expand the audience and to help companies cut costs to participate and interact with show exhibitors.
HD Shoot For A&E Biography
Well we are just back in off the road after shooting a Biography show for A&E. We spent three days shooting in HD (Panasonic HDX 900) for a show on a serial killer named Ed Kemper who terrorized Santa Cruz CA in the early 1970’s. He is sitting in jail for life and we should be glad of it. He did some nasty murders in his day, specializing in killing hitch hikers.
Producer Neil Alford conducted interviews and planned out the extensive b-roll schedule for this show while sound man Adriano Bravo captured the creepy details of this serial killers story from police and law personnel in Santa Cruz.
Kevin Rockwell and producer Neil Alford
“courtesy a. bravo“
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