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Monday, October 20, 2008

Red Bull Soapbox Race SF building Projection


Pixel Bombing SF!!!
Red Bull asked me to do a building projection campaign around San Francisco for it's upcoming Soapbox Derby race on Oct. 18th For 4 nights I bombed the city's Castro, Mission, downtown and Hayes Valley with footage of previous Soapbox events.
I used my spanking new Sanyo 6.5k projector and Modul8 to do the job.
I can't tell you how excited I am about this projector. It's easy to throw on top of the van and hit a building. Combined with Modul8, I can be up and running on a building in less than 3 minutes.
Basically, I use Modul8 to scale, rotate and fit the image into the perfect spots on a building. I can even mask out a window so I'm not blowing light into someone's living room.
In one particular spot, all the people coming up to me weren't inquiring about the race, they were asking me about the projector. Every single person!
I've bombed a lot of cities, San Francisco numerous times.. However, this one was the most fun. The weather at night was perfect, people were in a mood and everyone was excited about the Soapbox race.
On Sat. Red Bull held an after party at club 1015. I was given footage of the day's races and remixed it during the after party.
At the same time I had the van parked outside the club and we were projecting the highlight reel on the side of the club.

TED Wish James Nachtwey Projections

www.vjculture.com
Oct. 12th

Last year, acclaimed war photographer James Nachtwey was honored with the 2007 Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Prize for his work documenting images of war, disease and political unrest across the globe for over 25 years.
James' wish was to share an under-reported worldwide story, prove the power of news photography in the digital age and raise awareness about a global health issue that has the potential to become a worldwide pandemic — Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB).

Through Phantom Galleries I was asked to help spread the word with building projections in downtown Los Angeles during the monthly Art Walk.
I purchased for this occasion a new Sanyo 6.5k projector. Wow, I was blown away by the brightness of this small form factor projector. I was under a street light and the projector cut right through it.
The following night with Phantom Galleries we setup two screens in the window of a store front in Pasadena. It was Pasadena's art walk.
Special thanks to TED Conference, Liza from Phantom Galleries and of course James Nachtwey.
The video I was projecting can be viewed here.

San Francisco LoveFest 08

www.vjculture.com

Well for the past 4 years I've been at LoveFest but I've never been outside to experience it.
The schedule goes like this.
9:00AM Load in
9AM-8PM install screens, run cable, setup cameras, projectors and video suite.
Do this in 2 to 3 rooms and don't stop until doors open at 8:00PM
8:00PM VJ the show.
4:00AM strike the video suite
5:00 Leave
10:00AM Strike until 2:00PM
3:00PM Drive back to LA.

This year we used a waterfall screen behind the DJ. Two 6.5k projectors mirrored on the 20x40ft water screen. photo by mischief photo.
Above the water screen was a 15x60ft screen offset in 5ftx12ft strips (built by inflatabill) Hitting those strips were 3 DL1 projectors that were run off my laptop and triplehead2go card. Modul8 was controlling the content and the lighting designer was controlling the movements of the DL1s. Panning, the stage and crowd a 4th DL1 panned the crowd.
We also had 2 15x20ft screens flanking the stage. Each set of screens could have interchanging images. (meaning what went on the water screens could be swapped with what was on the flanking stage screens).
The DJ line up included Armin Van Buren, ABT, Deep Voices, and others.
I animated the Lovefest flyer by breaking the fyler's layers into separate files that could be animated in modul8 and after effects.
In the side room Sean Cooper held down the fort with 5 screens, one of which was a circular screen.
Like every year, it was bust yer butt getting everything setup just before the doors open.

Create Fixate

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I was invited to do visuals on Sept 20th for Create Fixates AMP show here in Los Angeles.
One of the few times I actually perform in LA.
The show featured politically themed art with 3 rooms. One of which was a outdoor area with t-shirt printing, DJ's, installations and myself.
It was a difficult set for creating a 3 screen installation. There weren't any good mounting points for the projectors where all 3 projectors could create a seamless image.

I opted to separate them but still do 3 screens.
I used modul8 a triplehead2go card, a DFG converter and ran the V4 mix into Modul8 as a single channel (or layer) in modul8.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Facebook @ Advertising Week NYC (Nokia Theater)

www.vjculture.com


Facebook hosted the closing party with Ziggy Marley at the Nokia Theater in Time Sq.
We brought in two photoboof designs and rerouted them through the Nokia's video display system.
One design was the standard photoboof where the guest walk in and have their pictures taken. The photos are published online, on print and also broadcast throughout the venue.
The second design by Justin of Photoboof was a, "Step and Repeat" style. Meaning the guest stepped in front of a media wall. (See photos), pushed a button and the video screen gave them a countdown and 3 pictures were taken. This design allowed everyone to see the process of the photos getting taken. It also allowed more people to be in the photos and it branded each photo. The photos are available on facebook for users profiles and blogs.
We used two LCD displays back to back so guest could see the process on both sides.

Hennessy Tour

www.vjculture.com

Xarene and I were asked to create content and VJ the Hennessey Art of Mixing Tour.
The dates.
September 17 -Los Angeles Ne-Yo L.L. Cool J
September 25 -Chicago ft Ashanti
September 27 -Detroit ft Eve
October 1- Miami ft Ne-Yo
October 4 - New Orleans ft Musiq SoulChild

We plugged into a 18mm LED screen and plasma displays for each city.
Pretty much a walk on gig. We used the Edirol V4, PR-80 as a media server and a laptop running modul8. Since the LED screen was a different size at each venue, I was able to shape and size the content running it through Modul8 with real time control.

It really helps when the brand has clear guidelines for content creation. In Hennessy's case they did. We were able to execute with very little back and forth with the client.

Monday, October 13, 2008

VMA's after party w/ San Disk and Flavorgroup @ House of Hype

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San Disk hosted a VMA pre and after party over the weekend of the VMAs.
Saturday night, the pre-party was rockin. The location was a mansion in the Hollywood Hills over looking Sunset Blvd.

Flavorgroup asked me to create an immersive environment around and on the house.
In addition to the projections we incorporated a photoboof and Octamasher.
Around 1:00AM the police arrived with helicopters and billy-clubs. No one got clubbed but it was a show of force for LA.
I thought for sure Sunday night would be shutdown. I arrived in the afternoon thinking I was just going to go through the motions. Just the opposite, the party rocked all night long. Breakfast was served around 5:30AM
In these photos I used 3 projectors to seamlessly stitch the images together. In Modul8 I used masks to mask out the balcony so that I wasn't projecting on the people. Essentially, my screen became a 4ft by 60ft image.


Here is a day/night of my VJ booth location looking out over the city