Anyway, I was part of the project and as you can tell, I’m really thrilled with the outcome. My role included launching a CMS, creating/packaging the video content and a handful of HTML. I’m also a participant in the company blog. Feel free to drop by and participate in our social media marketing conversations. And, congratulations to the rest of the team who had their hands in this project. Great Job!

Dear Sister is an SNL parody of the final scene of The O.C.’s second-season finale. In the original O.C. scene Marissa shoots Trey to save Ryan. The scene is over the top drama with using a called Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. In the SNL parody a series of violent act are repeated using the slow motion and the aforementioned song. The popularity of the parody inspired 1000s of double parodies to be posted. To get the full affect watch the following in order:

Original O.C. scene:

SNL Parody – Dear Sister:

Likewise I was inspired to create my own double parody. But I quickly found all the obvious parodies had been done. Yup there’s, Sopranos, Scarface, Matrix, and even the Lion King. The list is amazing. That left me with no choice but to seek fresh content. Thanks to an well timed ad on YouTube I found no one had used the Hancock movie trailer. My edits took < 10 min, far less than I spent thinking about what to parody.

Enjoy: 

Details include:

When I caught wind that Dan would be stopping by to interview Reggie, I grabbed my video camera in hopes to archive the event for Vitrue. More on that later… Dan covers many topics with Reggie including his background, Vitrue’s platform and the importance of brand safety.

Dan also recently interviewed Paul Stamatiou whom I worked with at Skribit.com, the creation of Atlanta’s first Startup Weekend.

Nice work. Keep it up Dan!

This week I have to do a video shoot at the office. During our test shots, I decided I didn’t like the audio quality I was getting from the camera and the wireless mic. So, I decided to incorporate my home studio gear and run some additional tests.

The gear: 
Canon VIXIA HV30 (HDV to tape with microphone input)
MOTU Traveler (multi track mixer/firewire interface)
Numerous Microphones (condensers, bullets and wireless lavalier)
Audio-Technica ATR288W (wireless tx/rx kit)
MacBook Pro

My intentions were to mix the audio from multiple microphones using the MOTO as a mixer and piping a cable back into the camera’s microphone input. I know you recording pros are probably asking why I didn’t take each mic to a digital track via firewire? After all that’s what the MOTU does best. Well, I don’t have the software tools necessary (limited to iLife ’08) to capture video and multi audio tracks at the same time. I guess I could attempt to simultanously record in GarageBand and capture video in iMovieHD (or ’08), but syncing would then be an issue. You get the point.

For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why the audio sounded great via the Headphone on the MOTU, but crap from the Headphone on the HV30. After hours of fiddling with knobs and levels, I had just about given up, when I decided to take the mixed audio and run it into the wireless trasmitter/receiver then into the HV30. Bingo! Everything sounds great, but why?

As it turns out Line Level is not the same as Mic Level. Line level (technically +4dBu) is a standard level used by many pieces of audio equipment like DVDs, Tape Decks, and in my case a Mixer. Mic Level on the other hand assumes the signal is much weaker and boosts/amplifies it. This explains why my line level audio was so distorted. Apparently the wireless kit accepts both Mic and Line Levels, and then outputs the correct Mic Level.

If you are in need of piping mixed audio into your camera’s Mic Input, you will likely need to convert the signal. There are sources for this like BeachTek (no affiliation and never used them) or a wireless kit like the one I used.

BTW, I don’t claim to be an expert at this I’m just a mass consumer of technology. If you see an error, leave a comment. If you have something to add, leave a comment. If you have read this far, leave a comment. If you are alive, leave a comment. 

http://gallery.mac.com/strutton1/100179

The video was well received, and I still hear comments about it around the office. While, it didn’t help me land the job, it did make a good impression with everyone before I arrived. 

Obviously the tools and methods we use to communicate are evolving exponentially. Kids present book reports with PowerPoint or web pages. Teachers post progress reports on the web. Multi-participant conversations take place over Twitter. Meetups are happening inside virtual worlds like Second Life. Dave Coustan recently redefined the business card. I accepted a job with a home movie. And, everyday I witness consumers talking back to brands with some form of UGC.  

Do you have an example of creative forms of communication? Have you done anything out of the box to land a job, or make an impression? Leave a comment and tell me about it. 

I’m not a new comer to the blogosphere or social media. My past includes authoring to the now vanished EarthLink Protection blog (2005), and I recently helped cofound Skribit, Inc., a community engagement tool for blogger. In recent months, I helped setup my Wife’s company blog. Actually 10+ years ago (1998 to be exact) I started my first “web log”. Yeah, I’m no Dave Winer, but I did maintain a webpage that logged the pregnancy and arrival of my first child Cameron.

Today I work for a video-centric social media company called Vitrue, (for the record: the views and opinions on this site are my own and not those of my employer). I have 12+ years working with software, web, and internet technologies and there’s bound to be some overlap between my blog and career. But if you are interested in Vitrue’s position check our their blog.

What to expect from me? Well that’s going to evolve over time. My passions include technology, gadgets, anything Apple, UGC video (YouTube & .Mac Gallery), and music (guitar). I’m not an avid gamer, but own the major consoles, RockBand is hot right now. I wired my home with gigabit ether to stream video to 5+ set-top boxes, audio too. I setup a homegrown NAS with 3+TB of storage. I use Macs, and love my iPhone. Given my recent employment, I imagine I will be spending more time in the social side of the net, videos in particular. In the end, I hope this blog will engage a readership, promote healthy conversations and impress some friends and family.

In addition to the personal interest above… I have two boys Cameron and Ryan, a beautiful wife Michelle, and her two kids Nick and Kara. We’re a modern day Brady Bunch minus Alice, although Michelle really wants to hire Alice. This summer we will celebrate our 2nd anniversary. My wife created this family web site with iWeb and a .Mac account (I think it’s a little outdated).

So if you made it this far, drop me a comment and say so. If nothing else say hello. Until next time…