Generation Why: A Damn Good Night

I recently shot some footage at a party and then slapped a trailer together using a new feature in iMovie that requires little effort and guarantees the cliche-est trailer possible. Some of the best stuff I couldn't fit in because the segments were longer than would make sense in a trailer. Maybe I'll find a use for them someday.

Either I don't know what I'm doing or Blogspot has an inability to embed videos without cutting off the ends, so here's a link: Generation Why: A Damn Good Night

Bison Bookend

I added a shelf on my wall a little while ago so I'd have a place to put the rest of my books, but I quickly realized I needed a bookend to actually keep those books up.

I got a couple pieces of scrap wood that I thought would make a good bookend from Arts and Scraps and just nailed them together. I then added a bison from Learning Express Toys in Ann Arbor just to make it rule a little harder.

The shelf was recycled from an earlier shelf I had in a closet in Chicago, having cut it in half for this, the wood was free for helping clean up from the car that ran into Arts and Scraps' building, and I got the bison at cost since I used to work at Learning Express Toys and still have an "in" with the manager. This made the total expense for shelf and bookend three dollars.

Holiday Blog

I started a blog for the holidays called People Taking Pictures of People at a Mall. I figured as long as I was stuck working in a mall this winter, I might as well start a blog about the obnoxious number of people taking pictures of their children in front of a mall holiday display. I will hopefully have a new photo each day until Christmas.

Production Shoot and Upcoming Projects

Last weekend I ventured out to Hartland, MI and worked as a production assistant on a Belle Tire commercial for Rare Medium Well Done, a production company based in Troy, MI. Despite having graduated over three years ago, it was the first time I was actually paid to work on a set.

There was not one time during the day when the back of the dolly didn't have snacks on it, including at one point a giant sausage the crew purchased themselves because they didn't think craft services had enough meat.

My duties on set included: holding a cable so the dolly didn't run it over, standing between the director and someone else and then repeating the director's commands more loudly so the someone else could hear them, putting tape over the make and model names on cars, strategically placing plants to cover up a sign, and taking dinner orders from the talent and crew. Overall, it was good experience, easy money, and I ate free food all day long. Also, this guy was there not doing anything other than enjoying the craft services.

He's that dude that talks to the tire. 

Otherwise, I've started a few projects, including a new script, a bookend, a top secret project, and probably something else I don't even remember starting right now.

In search of supplies for some of these projects I visited Arts and Scraps here in Detroit. Here's my favorite box from there:

Unfortunately, the contents were less exciting. It didn't even have mustaches inside.

What was exciting was the car that crashed through the building while I was there. It backed up through the building, shattering the window, knocking shelves and buckets of crafts all over the floor, and literally shifting the wall of the building. The driver came in after being told he had caused serious structural damage, looked at the obviously crooked wall, and said "I'm not an engineer or anything, but that looks pretty straight to me." They had to show him the door no longer could shut in the doorway to prove it to him. He then said, "Well, accidents do happen" and left. I didn't get any pictures as to not be a d-bag who takes pictures of an accident and then posts it on his blog, so I helped an old lady clean up crafts from the floor instead, thus degrading the quality of my blog, but making me less of a terrible human-being.

Anyways, got a little off track, but it was a great store with lots of cool stuff for super cheap. Go there and support them so they have money to fix their newly concaved wall.

New Bedroom

I recently moved into a house in Detroit and (mostly) have my room set up. Space was a big issue, but I managed to find some work-arounds. Since my bookshelf ended up being used mainly for office supplies, you'll find I have books in various places all around my room. I have one shelf to put up that will probably be mostly for books, as I still have some without a home.

The bed I built a couple of years ago, and though it takes up a decent amount of space and is extremely heavy to move, I refuse to part with it.

I bought a dresser from Salvation Army for $20 that was wide enough so I could also use it as a stand for my turtle.

Bar doubled as a night-stand.

I used my bookshelf to keep most of my office supplies on since I don't have a desk with storage.

Because I couldn't fit a desk in the room, I just bought a recycled piece of wood from The Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit and mounted it on the wall. The wood and brackets cost $2, the hardware and anchors to mount it properly were about $20.

Jamerson - Sunday Morning

Albeit not a real musician, this is technically my first stab at putting together a music video. I've been talking to Jim, a friend and local musician, for some time about doing a video for one of his real songs, but when he played me this and the ideas started flowing, we decided we'd use this as a sort of practice video.

It was fun just to shoot it, but I'd have to say I was most happy at finally having an excuse to use those slide, wipe, and iris transitions that are so wonderfully cheesy.

Exploring Detroit

In an awful limbo-mode this month both job and living situation-wise. Waiting for paper work to get processed for my job transfer is taking longer than I thought and trying to find an apartment that is affordable/in a good area/not ugly is harder than I expected it to be too.

Having apartment viewings today at 2pm, 4:30pm, 6pm, and 7pm, I had lots of free time to explore the city in between viewings. Above is the often photographed/filmed-in old abandoned train depot on Michigan Ave. Click below for some more.

Bison Painting

I'm not sure if I'm finished with this yet, but I remembered I'm going to be internetless for the next two weeks or so starting tomorrow, so I figured I had better post it now. Anyway, I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this past weekend and was disappointed to find a lack of bison art (though I was later corrected). I decided to make my own bison painting using a random piece of wood and the paint I had laying around the apartment. It's very simple and looks like a child drew it, but I think I'm ok with that. I used a bison cookie cutter I had as a stencil for the bison.

And that is a box it's sitting on. Currently in packing mode as I prepare to move to Detroit. So long, Chicago.

Re-Painted Cabinet

I bought this cabinet just over a year ago now and modified it a bit to become a TV stand. Basically, I drilled some holes in the back of it for various cables to go through (DVD player, VHS player). I had always meant to re-paint it, but never really got around to doing it. Now that I'm getting ready to move once again, I finally gave it a fresh coat of paint today.

Before

After

Transition

Going through a transition right now. I've been writing/recording some music recently, but nothing I feel comfortable posting yet so for now here's this video:

Photos from Home

I took a much needed trip home to Ypsilanti this past weekend and here are some photos documenting my trip.

Storage Boxes

For some time now I've been looking for a storage solution for the miscellaneous junk I have in my office and have had to resign to using an unsightly shoe box to hold it all. Recently I found a couple of nicer looking boxes at Salvation Army to use. They originally had some sort of built in calendar filing system, but I tore that out and just use them for storage.

Below is the box for "Office Supplies," otherwise known as random junk. I also created labels for them with a stamp set.

The second box I used for "Audio Equipment," like my XLR adapter, XLR cable, and headphones I have for my video camera.They also needed a home and had previously just been left lying out or shoved into my video camera's bag.

                                      

"The Missing Children" Improv Performance

I recently shot a performance of my friend's improv group, The Missing Children, at the Playground Theater here in Chicago. Below is the group's performance in its entirety. Soon, I will be editing it down to create a promotional video for the group to help them get more gigs.



The Missing Children- 5/3/2010 from Trevor Walters on Vimeo.

Web Page

I've been working on designing a web page to host my portfolio of video projects I've done and I guess I can say that at this point it's mostly complete. I still would like to register my own domain name and, of course, continue to improve the actual material on the site, but this is what I have for now:

Trevor Walters' Video Portfolio

Demo Reel

I had an interview for an internship earlier in the week, and while it turned out not to be what I was looking for, it did finally motivate me to put something together for a demo reel. Ideally, the purpose of having an internship would be to build a more impressive demo reel, but for now I slapped together a basic DVD menu with links to a film trailer made in Premiere Pro, an animated DVD menu created in AfterEffects, and a short film made using Final Cut Pro. If nothing else, the works show that I have basic competency in video editing, but putting it together really affirmed by belief that the works I have aren't going to be very impressive to a prospective employer.

Previously, I've always created projects where the focal point wasn't in how it was edited, so my new goal is to find a way to take existing footage and edit it in a more impressive way. Still trying to figure out how to go about doing that.