Wow. It's hard to believe it's the end of January already. I started off the year working with an editor friend, Chris Cole on a motion graphics project at his house for about 4 days. We did some really neat sci-fi screen animations and sliding glass doors and stuff that was a lot of greenscreen compositing work. I ended by showing him the video I filmed for SOZO, with Jamie and Matt Moore. He said it would have been good for a sociology video if it weren't for the religious content at the end. Eh. But he called today and has another job for me.
I recently downloaded a couple dozen ebooks and have been glancing through them. Two of my favorites so far are How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer, and How to Persuade People Who Don't Want to be Persuaded. The first is obviously about being in your own service business, and the second is a story of a master entertainer/storyteller/magician that is sharing his crowd-winning secrets with the world.
Also, I recently finished my demo reel. I've been meaning to get that done since late december. Other things on the agenda are starting a podcast, and having our logo printed on some t-shirts. The latter might be a closer option than I previously thought, as Tree and Leaf Clothing recently contacted me about doing some videos for them.
The Trail Dance film festival was a huge success. Anthony contacted me about doing some motion graphics intros about 2 weeks before the event. It took me about 3 days to make a 15 second intro from a template. At the event I got to see a lot of film that Adam and I were severely underwhelmed by. Our aesthetic is better than 90% of the films that showed, and it was very encouraging, but a little depressing that we didn't end up entering anything. Anyway, we ended up meeting a lot of other filmmakers and gave them cards and showed them our demo reels. It was quite impressive how well people responded to our work, one guy even sent us his idea for a pilot tv episode that was a comedy about alien fashion. We also got a couple requests to do music videos within a week of posting. My friend Ryan Dunlap ended up winning an award for his short film Leave Me, which I accepted on his behalf.
A couple nights ago I found out Caleb Vetter is going to be shooting his second feature on the RED this summer, it seems a feature he worked on last summer got him in good terms with a few of the right people. It's hard to believe it's been two years since his first feature, and my *amazing* motion graphics I did for the titles. Heh.
Paul Rogers invited me to come up to edit on his documentary for Not For Sale. We'll see. It'll be a couple weeks worth of work, but we haven't got to hang out since his wedding last August.
In other, more pressing news, our family is stuck inside during this bad icestorm. No electricity to speak of but Amos and most of the rest of the family is watching a Chuck Norris movie. While Adam and I are both working on our laptops until our batteries run dry...
Good night, and good luck.
-Andrew
This past two months has been nonstop for me. Adam and I moved into our new house in Duncan, Reggie spent almost 3 months with us. He left 2 days ago. Miss that guy already.
It feels so lame to work on free projects like Meg Guess' promo work until the day I went to Todd Ballje's photographer meetup and have him introduce me as the guy who made this video. People there were like, "Oh, you're Smith Pixels? I didn't know that." Note to self, put up more personal headshots on the website.
We also did an animation for Dennis Johnson, our representative. We worked on it for 4 full days, Reggie and I. We worked with cutouts of celebrities, which is as close as we've ever been to working with real celebrities. Crazy times. Check out the Vimeo page on our website to see it. www.smithpixels.com
I'm pleased with the amount of work we're putting out, and I do see us growing leaps and bounds in the quality of our work since last year. It seems like just now I'm starting to be proud of our work, whereas before I was almost embarrassed to show it to anyone not friends or family. I hope to see even more improvement when we start shooting with Abby's new 5D Mark II, or the Scarlet, when it comes out. Here's hoping.
I finally decided that I need to get my butt in gear and update this blog.
If you haven't already, watch this video:
Josh McCullock 2009Promo from Andrew PC Smith on Vimeo.
One of these days I'm going to take people through the process of getting amazing color. Then you'll see, you'll see!
It would be ideal if this blog updated itself once a week, but it would likely be cluttered with junk and frankly, a lot of words from it's sponsor that nobody really cares about. Like about how in the last couple weeks I finished a dance video and a turkey banquet and a promo video and this week is looking a little grim. But nay, that would be tiresome to read about. Much less write about. ;)
Much love. K, thx bai.
-Andrew
"I feel like I've been on vacation, but I don't know where and it wasn't any fun..." - My grandma, after spending a week in the hospital upon the first day of being back home.
It's been a long month. It feels like I've been on vacation and it was a lot of fun, my brother, sister and I went to WPPI in Vegas. WPPI is a worldwide wedding and portrait photographer's conference and it was really fun to meet and share ideas with other creative minds there. Along with seeing so much talent and people putting themselves to good use. We stayed in the Motel 6 across from the MGM Grand with a friend Jacob Preedin.
At the end of last month my brother and I shot a highlight video for a robotics competition in OKC for FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Acrostics seem on par with puns, both are often of the Dark Side. Anyway, it was fun, there were some awkward interviews, as my friend said, "It seems like those are the first words they've spoken in months." It's true, if you have the gift of gab and gizmo brainology then more power to ya. It reminds me of a illustration Dane Sanders used in his workshop at WPPI:
Portrait of Albert Einstein with Other Noted Scientists
Dane asked the audience, "Who do you recognize in this picture?" of course the answer was, "Einstein!"
Then he explained that Einstein was a leader in his field and the other guys, though also very smart were just "Props" in the picture. He was saying that if you aren't going to be a innovator in your career then you should keep it as a hobby so you can be happier and more fulfilled. (Oh, and wild, crazy hair is a sure way to establish your personal branding.)
That's all folks! If you want to see some of the work we've been putting it up on vimeo.com/smithpixels and be sure to leave some comment love either here or there. =)
God bless us, everyone!
-Andrew... and some other guy.
Ever work on something for so long you doubt if you'll ever get finished with it?
Well I've felt like that on this new logo my brother Adam and I designed. It's so ready to be out. We travailed over it for months and you start to wonder why it doesn't just 'click' for you like you think it does for other professionals. It'd be so much easier to make the 50th design first, wouldn't it? Sometimes I get caught up in the Magic of other people's work, but in reality, they might have just had a little more perseverance than I do.
Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity. — Lou Holtz
Every person has the battle of speed over quality and I'm thankful that this was a personal project so we were able to spend a little more time on it. But sometimes it's the personal marketing that you must be a warrior to deal with. It's easy to try and justify inner-compromise because, "Well, it's just for me, so it's not that important." Au contraire, my friends, this crux will help divulge deep, personal thoughts about your work, whether it has turned into drudgery or if it's still your passion. This is the resumé of your soul.
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
It brings me great joy to have this logo done, and to have confidence that I'm doing what I love. =)
It's been a fast & furious couple of months, I've been all the way from LA to Orlando, and many places in between.
The highlights of things made the "New & Exciting List."
6-month-old adopted brother!
Dad got another bus!
Trapcode!
EX 1!
I drove a stick shift from Inverness to Duncan after not having driven one in 9 years. Then made a detour to Atlanta meet a director I admire from Whitestone Motion Pictures. I've been swing dancing, spelunking, got addicted to iced lattés from Dunkin' Donuts at Happy Hour and have already been through caffeine withdrawal, this month has really been a trip. So glad to close out this year with a bang and I'm already excited to see where God will take me next year.
My brother just started work as the field rep for the local republican party, our family helped with the grand opening in which we held a free car wash sign. I remember a time when I was trying to help a friend, Justin Parker in Florida, raise money for a missions trip by doing a car wash. All fine gentlemen we were. Across the street were some not-so-finely dressed young women having a car wash. They stayed busy all day. Our group washed 3 cars the whole day in the hot, hot sun.
So consider yourself in the inner circle of People that Know the Essentials for a Successful Car Wash. It must be either be free or have at least a few fine young ladies. Hopefully modestly clothed. =)
My Logitech noise cancelling headphones broke last weekend, as I was taking them off. Flimsy plastic. Pssh. They were a nice pair, Logitech is not making them anymore, but they said since I purchased them this year they would refund the full cost. Here's a funny story about their warranty policy.
Last night I spoke at a Final Cut Pro users group in OKC, about my Canon HV-20 camera. Even though I covered my topic well, I fumbled for eloquence a couple times but also made everyone laugh a couple times too. It was a good experience. Next month Canon is coming out with several hard drive based cameras that will blow mine to obsoletision.
Lastly and bestly of all, I finished a video that is so funky-fresh you won't know what hit you! Woohoo! But DON'T you dare watch it here. GO here to watch in HD. After that you can pass go and collect 200 dollars or whatever it is you were doing before you started wasting time on the internet. haha.
Shyla's Photoshoot from Andrew PC Smith on Vimeo.