Curator in McMichael Art Video Name order of Canada

We just finished and posted a 5 minute video promoting the Challenging Traditions exhibit of Contemporary West Coast First Nations art at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection featuring curator Ian Thom when we learned that Ian has been named to the Order of Canada. Definitely an honour to have worked with him.

The video was shot in HD, edited in standard definition wide screen and then up-converted to HD again for YouTube upload. Backgrounds and music from Digital Juice. Some of the shots were keyed in Adobe Ultra, without any advance planning for keying, just working with enough of a difference between the walls behind the art and the art itself to pull a key. More planning might have produced cleaner edges, but the effect achieved works well for the intended medium. Probably would not have gotten permission to stick a green screen behind the art anyway.

Horizontal and Vertical Plasma Digital Signs

We produced 2 matching clips for playback on a horizontal and a vertical plasma display for a conference reception. The videos were played back on two DVD players. One clip was shorter than the other to create a bit of randomness to the viewer once they started looping. The clips were composed entirely of stock footage, stock photos, logos and text. Play reformatted version.

We add Juice to conference presentations

We have just added thousands of Digital Juice's motion backgrounds, motion design elements, sound effects and royalty free music to our library. These lush visual and audio elements make presentations more eye-catching and engaging. They can be used to build complete presentations and stage backgrounds visuals to be played back on BluRay, DVD, solid state media players and even in a PowerPoint presentation. And because there are so many elements in so many styles, it is a relatively inexpensive production process to raise the graphics at your next conference, tradeshow, AGM, celebration event to the next level.
See YouTube HD demo.

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beachdigital photos on Flickr

We are again posting random photos on Flickr Some of our previously posted images are starting to show up on other websites. They are more than welcome. These were uploaded under a Creative Commons licence, and are free to be used with attribution. Hi res jpegs are always avialable at stock photo prices. And custom photography of course.

Some of these photos were taken from public helicopter trips out of the Toronto City Centre Airport (Island Airport) That service is an economical way to get general downtown waterfront still and video aerial shots. Even more economical are shots from the CN Tower.

Charles Taylor Prize video clips on Bravo TV

The Charles Taylor Prize 2009 finalists video clips were featured on Bravo Television in February, 2009, and now on the Bravo website. Thanks to Stephen Weir who had a big hand in arranging for that distribution. The original HDV video, edited in wide screen SD, was dubbed to DigiBeta at International Multimedia Corp on Queen's Quay, Toronto. The resulting video quality looks amazing.

Graphics Canada trade show testimonials video

5 minutes of exhibitor testimonial video will help convey to Graphics Canada exhibitors some of the benefits of participating in Canada's largest graphics, printing and converting trade show. The video was shot during the previous show at the International Centre in HD and published in Flash.

Open BookToronto website features Pachter Atwood video

Open Book Toronto features our video about Charles Pachter's illustrations for Margaret Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie.

Open Book Toronto is a great source of news and commentary on Toronto's vibrant literary scene, with author blogs, book release updates and the latest on book related events, such as the Pachter Atwood exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Collection in Kleinburg in July 2009.

We are also on the McMichael website for this exhibit.

Artist Charles Pachter and Poet Margaret Atwood Art Gallery video installation

Artist Charlie Pachter's bold illustrations for poet Margaret Atwood's collection of poems "The Journals of Susanna Moodie" are the focus of an exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in July 2009. We shot the YouTube and McMichael.com promotional video in the artist's downtown Toronto studio with 2 Sony HD cameras and the fluorescent light system blogged about earlier. To bring the written poetry to life, we keyed the footage of Atwood reading live into images of the book pages. Beautifully typeset words became beautifully spoken words. A longer version of the program will become part of the McMichael exhibition to provide visitors with background on the production of the art.

The project was edited in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Backgrounds and music from Digital Juice.

Book Videos for Canadian Authors and Publishers

We have created a special focus on consulting, producing and managing book and author promo videos to help publisher stake advantage of the OMDC Book Fund Digital Enhancements program. http://www.omdc.on.ca/ This program would see the Ontario Government pick up 75% of the cost of digital initiatives by publishers.

We can help realize that by creating podcasts, video cats for YouTube and publisher websites, blogs, micro sites and interactive website top support publisher sand authors. Read more at the bookvideocanada.com website.

Live switching Leonard Cohen at Copps Coliseum

When I grow up ;-) I want to live switch a concert like this.

We saw the Leonard Cohen show in Hamilton earlier this week. He still has an amazing voice, and his songs and poems resonate as much today as in the 70's. Hamilton, the city, is like a small town in many ways. Even the misaligned imag projector and the echo from the mid house speakers felt good. And Copps is a much cosier venue than the ACC or Skydome. Somehow we beat the Ticketmaster system and sat close enough to feel like we had the ensemble on our back deck. The sound, echo and all, was wonderful.

The switcher operator had wiped Cohen and Sharon Robertson, singing at opposite sides of the stage, together on screen at the same time. Breathtaking. As if they were singing only to each other, not to the audience. Only other time I felt this way about imag was at a Bruce Springsteen show at the Skydome on a warm summer night in 2003. The dome was open and there was a full moon. The moon must have been visible from the camera area in front of the stage. The switcher operator had Bruce and the full moon on the screen at the same time. Absolutely, breathtakingly, beautiful.

Web site graphic for VE Group

We created a new website graphics to revitalize a tired corporate brochure website. Centered around a client supplied photo of a new factory and showroom building, logos and text, the new graphic is an eye-catching focal point of the website. Multiple Adobe After Effects generated lens flares hint at the high tech video conferencing, audio and television production furniture that VE Group manufactures. Wide angle photo by Mike Skinner.

The website is at http://www.vegroup.net/

YouTube HD for Sharon McKay Writer Interview

We have been shooting HD for years now, but have posted to YouTube in SD because that is all that YouTube handled. The new YouTube HD features provide a better viewing experience, and we posted a recent interview with Sharon McKay about her war related children's book in HD. The original 1080i video (edited in Adobe Premiere) was resized to 1280x720 and encoded in the Adobe Media Encoder into the h.264 codec for upload. The 2:30 minute, 101 mb, encoded file was further encoded by YouTube to end up as a 35 mb file. Looks great within the YouTube web page, and not bad at full screen on a 22 inch monitor. Interestingly, the cached mp4 (not flv by the way) looks absolutely amazing when played through the VLC Media Player. See the HD version here.

New fluorescent video lights greener for interviews

We recently purchased 3 SLS fluorescent light banks to use on video shoots. The daylight balanced fluorescent lights reduce white balance problems caused when daylight creeps into a setup lit by standard incandescent lights, and keeps the setup cool enough to be comfortable in front of them. The two 55 watt tubes in each fixture appear much brighter ( still need to verify this with a light meter ) than a 250 watt Lowell Pro with an umbrella. And the soft light seems to fill the room and be much easier for the subject to look into. We used one with diffusion clipped to the big barn doors on a green screen interview shoot to light the green backdrop, but that seemed superfluous in the end. And, at 110 watts per fixture, the current draw is a lot less than incandescents and much more eco friendly.

There is a downside. Compared to a Lowell Pro and umbrella, the SLS light is heavy and bulky. It needs a heavier light stand as well. Nevertheless, these lights have become part of our interview video light kit. It seems only 5 years ago that we lugged 800 watt and 1K Redheads around.


Photos by Francis Fougere. Photos 1, 2, 3 taken in Charlie Pachter's artist studio and gallery. Photo 4 taken in Ben McNally Books in Toronto

Digital Sign and Stage Projection for Charity Event

Our favourite charity ran another successful fundraising dinner, and we created alternatives to the usual dreary PowerPoint shows with pixellated transitions and jumpy graphics.

A digital sign based on sponsor logos played off a DVD player on a 50 inch plasma in the registration area. Video segments, based on supplied still photos were synched with the MC's announcements of individuals in attendance. These videos were played from a PC using Adobe Premiere as show control software. Simple, inexpensive and foolproof. Both the digital sign and the projected video made use of Digital Juice motion backgrounds and motion elements. Music came from DJ's Stack Trax music collection.

Photographer Karsh and War Art the subject of videos for McMichael

The McMichael http://www.mcmichael.com/ has 3 new exhibits that we created web promos for. Yousuf Karsh, photographer, is featured in 2 of the exhibits, and curators Chris Finn and Cassandra Getty discuss the artist and his work. Canadian military and war art is the subject of the third, and curator Lauran Brandon and two war artists talk about the role art played in war in the last century. All three videos were taped at the gallery The format of these videos departs from the more traditional talking head layout to a multi windowed presentation with backgrounds and music from Digital Juice. The wide screen format takes advantage of YouTube's support for 16x9 video. For the first time, Flash video versions were prepared for the Gallery website as well as Windows Media. All videos are on YouTube -- Karsh Portraits -- Karsh Industrial -- A Brush with War.

Building photo used in press release

Audio Video Metals used one of our photos to promote their new facility in Professional Lighting & Production magazine. This photo is one of many on the http://www.audiovideometals.com/ website, a beachdigital production.

Charles Taylor Prize Finalist Author Videos

The Charles Taylor prize is Canada`s foremost prize recognizing excellence in literary non-fiction. We produced three brief video clips for TV and web distribution of the three 2009 finalists talking about, and reading from their books. Ana Siljak, Tim Cook and Elizabeth Abbott were interviewed in the gorgeous surroundings of the Ben McNally Bookstore in downtown Toronto. Shot in HDV, with music and backgrounds from Digital Juice. Greenscreen shots were keyed with Adobe Ultra. All of the clips at YouTube Globe and Mail OpenBookToronto TV distribution planned for iChannel and Book Television.

CityHousing Hamilton - Custom asp.net CMS

CityHousing Hamilton, Hamilton ON's social housing division, wanted a website that would be easily managed by staff, that would also integrate with existing internal databases. http://www.cityhousinghamilton.com/ is the result. A custom developed content management system written in asp.net Visual Basic, with a SQLserver back end, it allows text, graphic and photo content be readily copied from internal systems for publication. An existing property management database feeds information regarding housing inventory. Google Maps, the City's transit planning system and an internal GIS system are linked to property data. Property data is augmented by linked photo, panoramic virtual reality tours and video galleries.

Photography and VR tours by Francis Fougere

Daphne Odjig, Canadian Native Artist Interview

Daphne Odjig is one of Canada's First Nations best known artists. Her exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art collection covers the span of her entire life, and a wide range of styles as well. In this video clip, taped at the opening of the exhibition, Ms. Odjig and curator Bonnie Devine discuss her work and her life. Background music is based on Digital Juice tracks. The clip is also hosted on the gallery website, www.mcmichael.com.

Caroline Alleslev Political Campaign Video on YouTube

Caroline Alleslev is featured speaking about issues that are important to her in several YouTube clips. Shot in HDV on green screen, they feature various themes to support each topic. Keying was done with Adobe Ultra.

More at AlleslevConservative YouTube channel

See Caroline Alleslev's video on the Sexy Candidates 2008 list

Tom Smart Author website live

The beachdigtal designed website for Tom Smart, Author, Art Historian, Curator is now live with links to YouTube for Tom's book discussions. A WordPress blog is coming next.

http://www.tomsmartart.com/

SexyB website images

Beachdigital is working a new website featuring clothing and accessories with the SexyB label The home page splash images is a composite of client supplied photography, some 3D furniture and a lot of Photoshop magic. Zen Cart based ecommerce is coming.

http://www.sexyb.ca/

http://www.sexybwear.com/