Days like today, I love my career. Scratch that, I LOVE my career. 1:30 this afternoon I was requested to pull together a national, public facing project that will debut in about 6 weeks. Requires filming both in Atlanta and in Tennessee. 2 hours later, concept is completed, film crew is booked and research is underway. This is on-top of the other 20ish projects I’m already managing. The beauty of having a right and left brain that play very well together. My left brain works quickly to come up with the creative and a narrative. Then the right brain kicks in to plan out the technical, scheduling, crew and travel to execute that creative. Doing all that in less than 2 hours, well that’s what makes me LOVE what I do. Telling amazing stories. Stay tuned for more blogs from the road once we get going. ————– In a progressive career with renowned creative agencies as well as up-and-coming and well-established brands, Walter Biscardi Jr. has conceived and implemented numerous successful and often award-winning creative campaigns. Guiding all aspects from media, video, print, and animation, he consistently delivered premiere, revenue-generating solutions that surpassed result forecasts. He is known as a […]
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We brought the iOgrapher out again today for a great Facebook Live chat with Georgia-Pacific CEO Christian Fischer hosting Major Bob Parker and wife Captain Kathy Parker from The Salvation Army Metro Atlanta‘s Angel Tree Program. Georgia-Pacific participates in the Angel Tree program each year to make a difference for Metro Atlanta kids and elders each holiday season. This is my first holiday season with GP and it’s incredible to see the community outreach from my fellow employees. We’re fortunate to have a CEO who is so comfortable in front of the camera and Christian did a great job with this interview with very little prep. The only tricky part for this Live webcast for me was walking backwards without tripping or shaking the camera too much. Shout out to colleague Karen Cole for operating the LitePanels Lykos light and keeping me from bumping into anything! Watch the replay here. By the way, that huge Christmas Tree you see in the opening scene is real, as are several other trees in the Georgia-Pacific Center lobby. If you’re in the area, you should stop by and check out the trees. You can grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate from the […]
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In order to sell a product well, you need to understand the manufacturing process. The entire manufacturing process. GP Studios was tasked with creating an immersive experience to showcase how Dixie products are made to the internal sales teams. Originally it was planned to start with the papermaking process, however I proposed starting at the very beginning, in the forest. That segment introduced a vital message to the sales team, the sustainability of forests is first and foremost in everything Georgia-Pacific does. Sustainability is a buzzword that can be tossed around, but to visually be reminded that this is more than just a word, turned out to be a key takeaway from the presentation. Before the scripting even began, I followed my normal plan of attack, working backwards from the end. How the film would be displayed influences how the project would be produced. Video framing, camera movement, sound design, graphics design and more are all affected by how the viewer will experience the presentation. Because the idea was to immerse the audience into the presentation, I proposed filming in a super wide format, akin to the original 1960’s CinemaScope 2,55:1 aspect ratio. We would film in standard 4k 23.98 […]
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“Folks, here’s the snake chaps, be sure to put them on so the rattlers don’t get you.” Now THERE’s a phrase I’ve never heard in my 25+ years of storytelling. And let me tell you, that phrase wakes you up in a hurry. Of course my response was, “I make these look good, don’t I?” So why was I wearing snake chaps in the first place? Well it was just another day in the life of a Creative Director running around the woods of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Each year Georgia-Pacific is audited by an independent auditor to ensure we source our natural fiber in a sustainable manner that meets rigorous environmental standards. I was tasked with bringing that story to life, but of course it could not be told wholly by GP. A company saying “we’re good stewards of the land and forest” is not nearly as strong as independent third parties speaking freely about the company. I developed a storyline and production plan that would create a natural sound piece with no scripting. The people would tell the story in their own words. In pre-production meetings two of the key messages that came out are that there is more forest […]
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As a small business owner for 20 years now (wow, has it been that long?) I’ve seen a trend of unprofessionalism develop over the past 5 years or so that’s really accelerated in 2016. It’s the business of hiding (behind emails and phone screening.) Here’s the scenario, I’m sure all of you business owners have been through this. New client calls asking to meet and discuss a potential project using my services, which happens to be media creation and creative design. Meeting goes great, runs well past the original scheduled time, good discussion all around. I promise a proposal for the project. Proposal is sent, client responds with thanks and……………. radio silence. Instead of telling me “no we’re not going to use your proposal” the company simply goes radio silent. Not only is this behavior unprofessional, it’s just plain rude. You called ME. YOU asked me to come in and give you a proposal. Now that you have the proposal, the very least you can do is respond with a simple yes or no. Many of my colleagues say it’s a result of the younger generation now moving into positions of responsibility that’s degrading the professionalism from companies. In my experience, I don’t see that. This […]
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I’m proud to announce my first training product from Lynda.com. Video Budgeting. Whether you own a production company or you’re a freelancer, we’re all independent contractors and it’s important to understand and document the full scope of work and fees to be charged for a project. In other words, creating an accurate budget. In this course, learn how to plan and create professional budgets and proposals for video projects. I provide detailed information and advice that’s applicable to the various types of projects video professionals handle in their business operations. Learn how to tackle client assessments, develop a working concept, put your budget together using Showbiz Budgeting, and present your budget and proposal. The ability to properly budget time, people and materials will help to make sure you don’t get stuck paying for all those “little things” that can turn profit into loss. Topics Include: Completing a client assessment Discerning between client needs versus wants Developing a working concept Creating time and crew assessments Coming up with the budget Presenting the proposal Revising the budget Knowing when to walk away Duration: 2h 15m This course is built upon my over 25 years of experience in the video production industry […]
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In the same week of October, Microsoft and Apple both debuted new products. In past years, creatives, especially Professional Creatives, would drool over the latest slick and cool Apple products. But here in 2016, the bulk of the reactions I found online and through direct communications were all about Microsoft. It seems that Microsoft has decided to take advantage of the current stagnant nature of Apple in the computer world. Oh sure Apple introduced a “touch strip” calling it “new” but PCs have had a version of the touch strip for a few years now. And of course, Windows PCs have been available with full touch screen displays for years now as well. But Microsoft sees an opening to not only the creative world, but the general public through some very innovative and “Mac-like” products. Apple has, rightfully, become a lifestyle company built around “things” with the centerpiece being the iPhone. The iPhone put Apple on a completely new track arcing away from computers and towards consumer goods. The iPad, the Watch, the AppleTV. All consumer goods designed to make the lives easier of those who own them. They’re all mini-computers to be sure, but they’re consumer items with more […]
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Thanks to a stupid user error on my part, I found myself unable to retrieve my photos in the Apple Photo app because another machine had updated the library. My Macbook Air was running OS Yosemite and my library had accidentally been attached to an El Capitan iMac. Unfortunately, El Capitan is already history from the App Store so I had to plunge into Mac OS X Sierra. Now this is my PERSONAL MacBook Air so I didn’t mind being a guinea pig for this new OS. It would not affect my paying work. I would NOT install Mac OS X Sierra on a professional workstation or any machine you use to make a living at this time. Observations so far: Overall operation of the entire MB Air is slower and hotter. One fix Apple Support suggested was to restart in Safe Mode to force the machine to clear out a lot of cache and it sounded like it did a bit of cleaning up on the startup overall. After doing that and then restarting the machine it does seem to work marginally better. The machine continues to run hot for no apparently reason. That area of […]
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Well after singing the praises of Filmic Pro and my entire mobile video setup in my previous post, I took the iOgrapher on a 14 day vacation that included a NASA rocket launch, 7 day cruise and some time at Universal Studios, Orlando. Well, I’m sad to say the Filmic Pro experience was a major letdown. First off, the software does NOT retain any settings when you quit the app. Zero. So every time I launched the app, I had to set my frame size, resolution, destination, audio input, etc…. That was super annoying. The app just quit constantly. I could generally shoot 2 or 3 movies and then the app would just disappear. Or would I hit the Home button on my iPhone to use another app, then double click the Home button to retrieve Filmic Pro and it would be gone. Then of course I would have to reset everything on the app. I found the focus drifting a lot even when I would manually set and locked it. Almost seemed like the Camera was competing with the App for control of the focus. The exposure worked as expected but the focus was problematic. When using […]
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