Speechless

I am 100% behind the writers when it comes to the current strike. Studios are trying to screw them over. As much as I hate to miss out on new episodes of my favorite shows (or see some of my new faves not get renewed as a result) the writers still have my full support. That's why I absolutely love the messages several high profile actors are putting out there. This is one of my favorites...



And be sure to check out some of the other clips from the site as well. http://speechlesswithoutwriters.com/ It's nice to see the actors getting behind the people who put the words in their mouths... ;-)

A cool new spot

Has anyone seen the new promos for the Sarah Conner Chronicles on FOX? I was only mildly interested in the series until catching one the other night. I have to admit the promo did what it was supposed to do. I am so watching the premiere. I especially loved that creepy shot of the Terminator sans skin there toward the end. Nicely conceived and edited.

Here's another spot I came across while browsing YouTube. Can you imagine the time this one took? Yikes!

Thank God...

It's over. Another November sweeps has come and mercifully gone. A lot of the aggravation was washed away when our promotion manager treated us to a nice celebratory dinner at Ruth's Chris, however. I recommend the upside down chocolate souffle. I'd put up with twice as much sweeps irritation if I could have two of those at the end of it all.

So I'm wondering if any stations out there had some new, really ground breaking investigations or stories. Something we've not seen before. And if the news departments didn't deliver what about the promos? I saw our competition picking up their game a little bit. They had some really nice spots that made me stop and take notice. They also goosed my competitive nature a bit. Always a good thing.

Two of our biggest stories revolved around sports figures. We did a very interesting interview with Colts' punter Hunter Smith who chose our station to confess his battle with depression. The other was the big 3 interview I've mentioned in previous posts. The story did in fact pull in some big numbers and we held our quarter hour with both part one and part two. Tackling these interviews like they were stories instead of sports pieces made all the difference. My former news director who has moved out to California caught my spots for the Big 3 when our sports anchor sent them to him. He sent along a very nice note that just made my day. And I must confess that I've never done a spot that had more people talking. It was weird, and very gratifying, to get that much feedback.

We also did a story that's gotten us sued. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Our station, and our parent company, are standing by the story.

Our other big stories? You can never go wrong with stories about the state wasting your money. And property taxes have been a huge issue here in Indy. We did more on that. We also had a few stories about air travel - specifically people stealing from your luggage and air traffic safety. That was about it.

Anyone out there with some sweeps stories to share? That includes stories that didn't work. That info is gold.

On to year ender promos and the next big image campaign for the AFC Championship game...

Inspiration... and where to find it.

There is nothing worse for a promotion producer than when the well of creative ideas runs dry. I'm not talking about writing the script. Staring at that blank computer screen is a different kind of hell. I'm talking about coming up with a "look" for your promo. Something you haven't done before. Something that pushes your skills to a new level. Perhaps you had a boxes phase. Then maybe you moved on to your circles phase. Then maybe you got really creative and did a boxes AND circles phase. Now you're bored with your work and you need some knew creative inspiration to get your imagination kick started again.

I usually keep the list I'm about to post here a guarded secret - something I only share with co-workers and a select few other stations in our broadcast group. But with so many people now sharing their creative ideas and talents with us on the world wide web I started to feel a little selfish. So now I'm going to share the love... or at least my list of inspiration...

Art houses and post houses have the coolest ideas. In my spare time at work (what little I have) I always look out for new sites. Over the years I've collected a bunch. Whenever I'm in desperate need of a creative kick in the pants I've found it on one of these sites. I hope they're useful to someone out there. If you have any to share that aren't on the list I'd love to see them.

Without further delay... the list.

#
http://www.602communications.com/
http://www.72andsunny.com/
http://www.168designgroup.com/
http://www.1741films.com/
http://www.2000strong.com/


A
http://www.a52.com/
http://www.activateyourimage.com/
http://www.aerodrome.com/
http://www.attik.com/
http://www.autonomy.tv/


B
http://www.beehive.tv/
http://www.belief.com/
http://www.bigstudios.com/
http://www.blur.com/
http://www.brickyardvfx.com/
http://www.broadwayvideo.com/
http://www.buckla.com/
http://www.bungalow3.com/


C
http://www.ca-square.com/
http://www.charlex.com/
http://www.citizenpictures.com/
http://www.click3x.com/
http://www.computercafe.com/
http://www.conceptfarm.com/
http://www.crash-sues.com/
http://www.creativebubble.com/
HTTP://WWW.CROSSROADSTELEVISION.COM/
http://www.curiouspictures.com/
http://www.cuppacoffee.com/

D
http://www.d-kitchen.com/
http://www.devastudios.com/
http://www.drfilmdesign.com/
http://www.dzpusa.com/


E
http://www.eargoo.com/
http://www.edgeworx.com/
http://www.editionaleffects.com/
http://www.elevate.tv/
http://www.eviltwinproductions.com/
http://www.exopolis.com/
http://www.eyeballnyc.com/


F
http://www.filmworksfx.com/
http://www.filternyc.com/
http://www.freestylecollective.com/
http://www.fueldesign.com/

G
http://www.ghostmilk.com/
http://www.giantoctopus.com/


H-I-J-K-L
http://www.homenyc.tv/
http://www.hothauscreative.com/
http://www.iamelement.com/
http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
http://www.impossiblepictures.com/
http://www.industrialcreative.com/
http://www.interspectacular.com/
http://www.interfacevideo.com/
http://www.kachew.com/
http://www.light-borne.com/
http://www.loopmedia.com/


M
http://www.makinestudios.com/
http://www.mfactor.com/ (seriously cool snipes)
http://www.moceanvenice.com/
http://www.montgomerycreative.com/
http://www.motiontheory.com/
http://www.moving-picture.com/


N-O-P
http://www.nailgun.tv/
http://www.newspeak.tv/
http://www.nthdegree.tv/
http://www.oceanvisualfx.com/
http://www.perceptv.com/
http://www.phoenixeditorial.com/
http://www.picturemill.com/
http://www.primalscreen.com/
http://www.prosceniumpictures.com/
http://www.psyop.tv/
http://www.pwny.com/
http://www.pyrocreative.com/

Q-R
http://www.radium.com/
http://www.red8studios.com/
http://www.ringoffire.com/
http://www.riotmanhattan.com/
http://www.riverstreet.net/
http://www.rudehoney.com/
http://www.rushes.co.uk/


S
http://www.shilodesign.com/
http://www.smashpoint.com/
http://www.splicehere.tv/
http://www.stardust.tv/
http://www.studiocity.com/
http://www.steelevfx.com/


T
http://www.t-a-g.com/
http://www.teamgroup.tv/
http://www.the-archipelago.com/ (this is the website for Lee Hunt and Concrete Pictures)
http://www.the-mill.com/
http://www.thestudioupstairs.com/
http://www.thinkc.com/
http://www.trancedesigns.com/
http://www.transistorstudios.com/
http://www.troika.tv/
http://www.trollback.com/
http://www.twistfilm.com/


U-V
http://www.unioneditorial.com/
http://www.uvphactory.com/
http://www.verbmedia.com/
http://www.videoboxstudios.com/
http://www.viewpointstudios.com/
http://www.vidiots.tv/


X-Y-Z
http://www.yuco.com/
http://www.zapcast.com/
http://www.zonadesign.com/

The Big 3

So I've found myself in a bit of a dilemma with a recent special report. Our sports anchor landed an impressive interview with Tony George (owner of the Indy Motor Speedway), Herb Simon (co-owner of the Pacers) and Jim Irsay (owner of the Colts). All three men sat down for one interview together. Truly a moment in Indiana sports history. We wanted to start generating buzz early in October so I put together a POP of sorts reminding viewers of all the exclusive sports interviews the guy has landed before. We tagged it out by saying wait till you see who he has November 5th. It worked. We had radio stations calling us, athletes asking the reporter, even our own sales staff was begging to know who it was. So what's my problem? Do three team owners in one room together justify the buzz or would we let people down when they finally saw who it was?

We did switch to promos for the actual interview last Thursday where their identities were revealed. Radio stations still wanted interviews and people who aren't normally sports fans admitted to being more than a little curious to see what these guys had to say. The interview airs tonight so we'll see if our strategy pays off. If it fails it certainly won't be from a lack of promotion. The spot aired on the DomeVision at the Colts/Patriots game as well as airing during the broadcast of the game itself. The game had a freaking 65 share. Too bad it had such a bummer ending...

Next up for me is another sports related special report. Then I'm off to work on a few things for sister station WNDY. I hope to experiment with getting some videos up on here in the near future. Wish me luck...

Here we go again...

Another sweeps month is now upon us. I'm coming out lucky this month since I only have two special report promos to edit. One is already in the can. The other should be completed tomorrow. Of course something always pops up during sweeps months so I'll probably have at least one more in there before it's all said and done.

A link for you... http://youtube.com/user/wish. We now have our own YouTube page for all our stations. There should be user pages for WNDY and Indy Univision as well. At least now I'll have a place to put my promos, as will the rest of the staff. The quality of the videos isn't the greatest but we're working on it.

The Indiana Broadcasters Association is having their Spectrum Awards this weekend. All told I believe the department is up for four (a record). None of us has ever won this one so we'll see if we can finally add this trophy to our department awards shelf. Of course if we do win one I'll have to lose a Family Feud or Bernie Mac bobble head doll to make room for it, but I suppose some sacrifices must be made...

Finally I have to share a superstition with you. I've been with WISH for almost 7 1/2 years. Over those years, I've learned that any time we're doing very well ratings-wise going into a book we usually wind up tanking the first several nights. Conversely the opposite is also true. When we're completely sucking going into a book we suddenly pull huge numbers when the book launches. Right now we've been doing very well as we head into tonight. That makes me nervous. We've got great stories and good promotion, not to mention a nice lead-in in Without a Trace, but you just never know. Viewers can be very fickle as we all know.

I'll be back in the next day or so to chat more about the promos I mentioned in my last entry. After tonight the cat will be out of the bag as to the identity of the big interview.

Hello again...

I've apparently been neglecting my blog. I realized my last post was over a month ago so I thought I'd better check in. There is nothing major to report on the work front. November sweeps will be upon us soon as will winter weather in Indiana. As such I'm working on special report promos and a winter weather image. We do have some great special reports this month so I'm hoping that will translate into even better ratings. Fingers crossed. As for the weather... it's supposed to get to 83 today. Seems odd that I need to swing by the office later to log snow footage. Bleh.

So have you been following the latest goings on in Hollywood lately? No, not Brittney and her custody crap... the possible impending writers' strike. I can't say that I blame the writers for threatening to walk. We're no longer just a TV and multiplex world. We've got I-Tunes, DVDs, online distribution... the entertainment product is making its way to viewers in a multitude of new ways. It seems only fair that the writers get a nice slice of that money pie. But the thought of what a strike could do to everyone else with a job in the entertainment industry... ouch. I'll be watching closely to see what happens in the coming week or so. I just wonder what the networks will do once they run out of programming. Will they switch to British shows as some have suggested? Will they simply opt for cheap and lame reality programs? Their choice, if it comes to it, will be telling.

I guess I do have one little thing to talk about when it comes to work. I finished a promo that teases a big sports interview we have for November. We don't say who it is in the spot and that approach seems to have revved up people's curiosity. It's fun to do promos like this but also a little odd. The spot serves to get the public talking but it's also obviously designed to be a little of a mind game for the competition. I feel so devious... I'll talk more about this when I get to a point where I can identify the subjects of the interview. This one has been a wild project to take on.

I'll try not to let a month go by before my next post. See ya.