It has been a couple of months since I’ve posted anything, but I have been a little busy with work; I have had the pleasure of working with NFL Films, MTV, and several local production companies. Anyway, back in June the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced our Student Emmy WIN. Needless to say I am THRILLED! I was truly fortunate to work with an amazing group of people for this project and I hope to work with them again in the future. That’s all for now, until the next one.
Is it me or is this year just flying by? I must be getting old because that’s what my parents used to say when I was a kid (and now I’m the parent). To be honest, I was a bit nervous after graduation because it meant I would have to start looking for work (I am sure I am not alone in this). I was already working two different jobs on campus, but unfortunately I couldn’t keep them because the positions were for students only. Now, several months after graduation, I feel lucky that my internship and continuing relationship with CSUSM has flourished into several job opportunities. I have also been busy doing freelance editing for Strategic Operations down in San Diego, as well as shooting a commercial in Orange County. So all I can say is that I hope to keep staying busy. Below is the latest video I shot and edited for CSUSM’s annual convocation event. It was a daunting task because it ended up being twice as long as what CSUSM had originally planned (they wanted a ton of people in the video), but I must say that it flows nicely and feels shorter than it is. I did have a couple of hiccups with the audio in this one because of a bad microphone and some mischievous wind, but it was an excellent learning experience because I had to remove tons of static and background noises in both Premiere and Soundbooth. Many thanks go out to my partner Ryan Smith who helped out during the shoots as well as with the audio clean-up and coloring.
The last video I shot and edited was one of the most demanding videos I have ever created, but it was an absolute pleasure to work on because of the diversity of shoots and the emotion it delivered. The purpose of the video was to create a captivating and emotional video that would help California State University San Marcos raise money for scholarships during the annual Gala event. It definitely put my skills to the test because it involved multiple cameras, tons of “b-roll” footage, and a great deal of collaboration. Of course I cannot take all the credit, my partners Matt Unwin and Armand Gutierrez had vital roles in the making of this video, but I spent hours upon hours editing the project making adjustments and tweaks, so I feel a bit like it is my “baby.” All of the hard work definitely paid off because I just received an email praising the video; below is the text of that email as well as the video itself:
“Happy news to report…
On Saturday night at the University’s gala, we debuted your video (titled Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders) and the response was incredible. As you may recall from our discussions, the video is played just before our “Raise the Paddle” where we ask our guests to raise their live auction bid cards and make a donation to support student scholarships. Last year, to give you a comparison, we raised $30,000 after the video. This year… drum roll please… we raised more than $70,000!!!! The video inspired our guests to more than double their gifts from last year, and in fact , it is the highest amount we’re ever raised for “Raise the Paddle” in the history of our fundraiser. And in so many ways that is because of you and your work. Nastassja and Temet were brought up following the video just before the bidding began… and because of the connection and heart that you captured in the video, they received a standing ovation! People were moved, some even to tears. Your video allowed our donors to connect with our students in a way that was powerful and purposeful. More students will have access to scholarships at CSUSM because of your ability to share the lives of our students in meaningful ways.
Each of you had a strong hand in making our video standout in exceptional and powerful ways. Your enthusiasm, expertise, creativity, skillful attention to detail and collaborative team approach produced a masterful video for us. You really listened and delivered what we needed. Communicating the lives and personal impact of scholarships for three of our students in just 5 minutes is a tall order, but you perfected it beautifully. From the interviews and diverse yet engaging broll shots, to the music that guided the story, to the hours (and hours) of editing that perfected our vision, the final product was spot-on. Thank you!
I encourage you include the fundraising dollar amount, as well as the increase, in your portfolio along with the video. It’s proof that your work can inspire action and deliver results in incredible ways. I’ll be sure to pass along additional feedback as I hear it. The video will be going up online (on the homepage, YouTube and NewsCenter this week). Kudos again, and I hope you have a great day, week and summer.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently involved in 4 video projects; 2 of which are finally done. This semester I was enrolled in a class called “Video in the Community” and I have been working with a group of people to create a video for the North County Food Bank (San Diego County). The objective of the video is to help the Food Bank attract more donors, suppliers, and volunteers. As usual, I am posting my handy work below, but I cannot take all the credit, my group was awesome and they made this project a breeze; thanks Kevin, Heli, Patrick, Heidy, and Stephen.
A couple of weekends ago, I went down to San Diego with some friends and shot a music video; the pictures from my grid (previous post) were taken during the shoot. The artist is AR15, A.K.A. my buddy Aaron… Anyway, he obviously worked on the music, but we both shot, edited, and worked on the effects for the video. Check it out below.
I wanted to mention that my grid was influenced by some of the techniques that Julianne Kost spoke about in the video we watched during class. My aim was to guide the viewers eyes through the picture, so that one could easily lead to the next through the use of lines and shadows. The two top-left pictures were taken in my garage; it is certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing thing to look at, but I just love the way the light shines through in the morning. The rest of the pictures were taken in downtown San Diego during a music video shoot, which was a blast.
I have probably taken more pictures in the last three months than I have in my entire life. As a person who has been involved mainly in video production, I must say that I have really fallen in love with photography. I will definitely continue to learn more about photography and will certainly incorporate it more into my video projects. In the meantime, take a look at some of my handy work below.
I finally decided to stop by my neighbor’s house this weekend and talk to him about my digital photography project. As I mentioned in a previous post, we usually wave hello to each other whenever we pass, but I was a little nervous because I had never really spoken with him and I was not sure how he would react to my request. I decided to bring some cookies along with me and thank him for taking care of my dog after he had escaped a few months ago. I also gave him a DVD of a documentary project I had recently made to show him the type of work I have done in the past. I figured that I should share a bit about myself since I was asking him to share a glimpse into his life.
It turns out that I have an incredibly interesting and friendly neighbor. His name is Harry and he has worked at the San Onofre nuclear power plant for over 29 years. Being that we just had a major power outage a few weeks ago, I had to ask about it. He mentioned that, like most of us, he had no power, but went on to explain some of the safety procedures at his job. After the incident in Japan I felt a little anxious about living so close to San Onfre, but I feel better knowing that there are measures in place to cope with emergencies.
In total, we spoke for about half an hour and I actually ended up helping him with something while we talked. He was moving his van from his driveway to his backyard to do some maintenance on it, but he had to drive it through a slim carport where there were only inches of room on each side. It was a definitely a tight squeeze (check out the pictures below). He also told me that he has been trying to use up all of his vacation days before he retires, which is why he has been working on his personal projects (cars, motorcycle, etc.). All in all, I am glad that I finally walked over and spoke with my neighbor and now friend Harry.
When I think about recycling, I tend to think about the side that I see. I don’t actually see the entire process of recycling, I just know that I put my plastics, cans, and paper in the correct bins they get picked up and taken away by waste management. I am glad we watched Manufactured Landscapes because I had no idea that so much of our “e-waste” ends right back up where it was manufactured: China; it only seems fitting. Seeing the blocks of waste stacked up reminded me of the Disney film WALL-E. I really liked how the film transitioned from scene to scene, especially from the hot iron factory to the landfill and back to the factory; I may incorporate a similar technique in my future projects.
Anyway, I would like to switch gears and think about recycling in a different sense. I thought back to what Aaron R. said in our class (at least I think it was him) about recycling ideas or themes and I began to think about recycling one of my ideas. I wanted to revisit the spiders at my house because I enjoyed taking the first round of pictures. Additionally, I am a person who loves nature, but also loves technology; I saw this as a chance to put them together.
In terms of recycling, I have noticed that the spiders that hang out by my front door re-use parts of their old webs; at least that is what it looks like. They do not re-use their entire webs because see them spin new webs each night, but the spots where they attach their silk threads remains the same for the most part. I have literally walked into what I thought was a single piece of thread, but when I followed it to the base it was more like 8 pieces of silk wound up together. I didn’t even break the thread after running into it; it was so strong that I could pluck it like a guitar string and it would not break (needless to say the spider was already gone before I started to play). So without further ado, check out more spider pictures from my personal nature reserve (A.K.A. my house). I have also added a few of my favorite “non-spider” pictures that I took over the last two weeks. Enjoy.
Sebastian Maselli 