Marc Benioff interviews Eric Schmidt

72 hours onsite in 5 days; split shift crews over the week; massive set change 2 days before show; 8 cameras, 2 jibs; Metallica. Must be Dreamforce! The Salesforce.com show at Moscone Convention Center has a reputation for  last minute changes and the costs be damned! Lolipop thrust off the stage required more than the usual number of cameras: 3 long-lens at 3,6 & 9 o’clock; a jib near the stage and one in the back of the house; wireless handheld camera and a couple of robo-cams. Rarely have so many worked so hard; Jack Morton Worldwide and VideoApplications kept the ship sailing.

1st trip out of the country in 2011 was Directing for Creative Technology at the SIBOS conference in Toronto. Most challenging part of the job was clearing customs and hoping the reams of paperwork that allow foreigners to work in Canada were in order.

Video Village at SIBOS Conference Room

Our video setup included 5 robo-cams surrounding a boxing-ring style stage with raked seating for 200. Lots of discussions by business, financial and technology leaders – I found the mobile banking segments most interesting.

Off to the desert of Arizona for Google’s Zeitgeist. One of those TED-like conferences where Google and their Partners come together to hear leading thinkers of our time. One comes away from these talks feeling better knowing there are people out there striving to make the word a better place.

Maria Bartiromo interviews Sir Richard Branson at Zeitgeist

Produced by Group X, speakers & performers over the two days included: Eric Schmidt, Robert Reich, Sandra Day O’Connor,  Dean Ornish, Gilberto Gill & Son, Sal Masekela, Jane McGonigal, Tony Hawk, Sir Richard Branson, Cindy McCain, Ted Koppel & Arianna Huffington (click here to watch video), Celine & Fabien Cousteau, Chelsea Clinton, Tim O’Reilly, Ray Kurzweil, Deepak Chopra and Mark Cuban. Pretty impressive line-up!

Oracle Open World and Pay Pal X conferences leveraged the 1st half of October.

The 2nd half was my 2nd trip out of the country: Citrix Synergy & Summit shows in Barcelona. Half of my excellent video crew was from France, the other local. As the camera ops spoke very little English and I, no Catalan, I directed the show in Español.

Barcelona Video Crew on Citirx

The north coast part of town, where the convention center is located, was totally redeveloped for the 1992 Olympics. One evening I went to the other side of town – with a couple of my French crew (and 90,000 fans) – to see a futbol match between the Host city and Seville at Camp Nou stadium. A great treat to see the top FC in the world. At the end of the show, my wife joined me for a mini vacation. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in this great city!

November went from coast to coast. An executive conference in Pebble Beach for Harris Creative and a Cisco event, produced by InVision in Miami Beach.

Much of the rest of the year was spent on the 27″ iMac, editing Optimal Life a series hosted by Dr. Christine Lee. Last year saw the release of The Essentials of Diabetes and The Essentials of Breast cancer. In 2012 we’ll finish a Spanish version of Diabetes plus the next Series: The Essentials of Asthma. Anyone you know who is dealing with these conditions should watch these videos.

2011 was a strong year, I feel very fortunate to be connected to so many talented production companies, producers and video staging companies. 2012 looks to continue on that path. Let it roll!!!

Ray Manzarek & Jim at Wind+River show

Highlights from the 1st half of 2011:

The year started in Las Vegas directing live studio broadcasts for RJO (NY). Educational seminars for Novartis spanned two days with three cameras, crew and talent crammed into two small studio spaces. Later that month, back in San Francisco for Wind River. Their products are used in cellular phones, auto braking systems, routers, digital cameras, projectors, set-top boxes, traffic signals, and even the Mars Rovers! Theme of the conference was “Break on Through” so naturally Ray Manzarek – keyboardist for the Doors – was there to play a few tunes.

North to Seattle for a Boeing meeting, produced by Goalen Group and staged by Creative Technologies. As I fly United most of the time, it was interesting to hear the keynote speaker, new United CEO Jeff Smisek, talk about the recent merger with Continental.

Playing for Change Band featuring Grandpa Elliott

A little ski break then it was down to New Orleans for the annual Cisco Partner Summit. Great staging and some excellent music featuring the Playing for Change band and local street musician Grandpa Elliott. The Playing for Change program is one of the best uses of video bringing musicians from all over the world together – in the cloud.  Thanks to Stage Manager extraordinaire, Gretchen Van Horn for the picture! Mardi Gras was in full swing so some of the crew and I celebrated on Canal Street and caught quite a few beads…

Safilo Fashion show host Carson Kressly & Model

Next in New York, I directed the Safilo Fashion Show for SparksEvents. Always an enjoyable show, hosted by Carson Kressly and featruing the latest in fashion eye wear.

What a winter we had; off to Tahoe for some more skiing!

A few more shows… while I continued editing for the Optimal Life series on Diabetes. Editing a Spanish translation version soon then start a new series on Asthma.

April in Beverly Hills for the Annual Milken Global Institute - detailed in previous blogs. Back up to Seattle for another Boeing event with the same crew & producer. Home to SF for the Citrix Synergy & Summit (also  detailed previously).

Steve Balmer Announces Skype Purchase

Microsoft announced their $8b purchase on Skype in May. The press conference was basically an “all-nighter” with an 11pm end of rehearsal and a 3:30 am call time for the satellite broadcast to Europe.  Gail & Rice produced and CT provided the staging – I got to switch the record, screens and clean camera feed on the new Barco FSN 150. Basically a “one guy can do it all” HD switcher.

Summer was fast approaching and time to take the 1st “real” (read at least a week) family vacation in quite a few years. Big Island of Hawaii is my favorite of all the islands - so far… If your a fan of vacation slide shows, go nuts here.

One Night With Pele

Thanks to former InVision Production Director, Ken Goodrich for a great tour of the Volcano Area and this awesome photo of Kilauea!

2nd half of the year started with the Sunrider Conference for Harris Goldman Productions and Video Applications. Show day was 15 hours, the show’s entertainment included: Celine Dion, Franki Valli, Cher, Elton John and Michael Jackson (did I mention they were celebrity impersonators?). Actually great acts, staging and a great crew.

Stay tuned for the 2nd half of the year report – have some great shows “on the books!”

Finished editing the trailer for “From The Crew” with producer Doug Murray. Hope to get the series on the air this decade!!!

What followed was quite a busy fall and some exciting baseball!

Early September, back at Moscone Center for Oracle Open World,  San Francisco’s largest convention - produced by InVision Communications.

Video Crew on Citrix Berlin

End of September into October was the Citrix Summit & Synergy shows in Berlin. Did a similar show in SF last May (as mentioned in an earlier blog ). Video crew came from the UK and were a pleasure to work with (pictured on left).

The Giants clinched the division angainst San Diego – but as the game was on at 2:30AM Berlin time, I got the news at breakfast the next morning.

Had one day to tour downtown Berlin – a city of almost 4 million people.  Did the tourist thing on a bus and saw most of the usual sites (Bundestag, Brandenburg Gates, Berlin Tower & The Wall (or what’s left of it – quite a bit, actually).

Always amazed at how easy it is to get around on the train in Europe.  Going to cost billions now to upgrade rail service in California – Hi Speed Rail and SMART (in Marin County) have an uphill battle.

Back in the USA the following week on a Google Sales meeting for Group X - Confidentiality agreement in place – can’t say a thing! In between sessions the crew huddled backstage to watch the Giants take the Atlanta Braves in the divisional playoffs!

I started shooting a video series for American Health Care in the middle of October.  The ongoing  web videos will serve to help their  patients control their diabetes while living their lives to their fullest.

Schwab Town Hall, Chicago

It’s still October and I’m off to Chicago for a Schwab Town Hall Meeting:  Bumpy Road Ahead; Please Invest Carefully, produced by TenCue. Live webcast took place in the original flagship of the Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue. If you want to watch some insightful conversation, click the photo on the left to watch the webcast.

Not too many Giants fans in the Chicago hotel bar as I watched San Francisco beat up on the Phillies!  Got home in time to see them win the Pennant!  Maybe I’ll get to watch the World Series at home…

Wait, no, there’s a PayPal show in San Francisco for Creative Technology. I can recall watching many playoff games over the years while working backstage – obviously the shows are booked way before anyone knows whos going to be in the game.  Fortuitously, the PayPal show ended the day the World Series started!

After a great weekend of Baseball, it’s down to Silicon Valley for the Google Global Sales Conference, once again with Group X.  One thing I will say about the show is that Google puts great effort into it’s search engine to make it work as seamlessly as it does. Try misspelling a word when you do a search – you’ll most likely see the “did you mean this?” suggestion. Lot’s of amazing coding goes into getting you the results you are looking for.

Yeah Giants!

Of course the World Series is in full swing and once again I’m backstage in a small room, rehearsing and watching base ball on my laptop during breaks. Rehearsal ends, I’m driving to my hotel, it’s the 8th inning of game 6 and  I’m looking for any bar or restaurant that has the game on.  I’m somewhere in downtown Mountain View and spy a plasma in a restaurant with the game on. Make it for the bottom of the 8th and watch something I’ve been waiting for all my life with a group of people I’ve never met before. I’ll remember that night the rest of my life!

My wife and daughter went to the Parade a couple of days later – while I watched backstage on my laptop.

Camera ops Anne Lakota and Paul Peralta review video with me on PayPal

November continued with some very creative productions: VISA show at the tony Inn at Spanish Bay for Harris Creative;  Audio Visual Technics‘ production for  Novartis at their spectacular office building in Emeryville and the  Safeway Foundation’s annual Gala and Fundraiser with Huey Lewis and the News, produced by DaVinci Fusion.  Ended work for the month at one of my favorite hotels: The Arizona Biltmore. Known as the “Jewell of the West”, its design is influenced by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Ironically the weather was about the same as in San Francisco as we collaborated on the InVison produced show for Cisco.

Thanksgiving is over and 2010 is approaching it’s end.  December starts with technically challenging and beautifully designed shows: InVision for Oracle and Group X for Google.  Seems like the theme for a lot of the shows in 2010 was cram as much equipment as you can in a small backstage and try and stay out of the way of the projection image.

The year finally came to an end with Stage II’s production of the Adobe Global Sales conference held at the Aria hotel at City Center in Las Vegas. This hotel had the most hi-tech bells and whistles of any hotel in which I’ve ever stayed. Touch screen displays at your bedside to open drapes, turn on lights, AC, TV or set an alarm. My favorite button is the “goodnight” icon.

Lights out, TV off, drapes close, goodnight.  And Happy New Year!

May started out with a local production for Citrix at Moscone Center in SF.  One of those “Let’s rehearse the demos before the show and save the executive rehearsals for showtime!” Using Creative  Technology’s (CT) Kayak 350 HD switcher, most of the show content was delivered to web in an HD Pip (picture in picture) window. The 16×9 camera image cropped to a verticle slice. Kudos to my TD, Bob Hines who had his hands full with all the different sources to the PIP windows.  Watch a bit in HD – click on the above photo.

Then it was off  to the airport: Directing a “Talk to Chuck” Schwab Town Hall Meeting in Washington for Ten Cue Productions.  A late start the 1st morning gave me a chance to take a run (slow jog actually) around the National Mall and White house.

The evening show was hosted by Bill Griffeth, CNBC anchor and host of Power Lunch. Click the photo to watch the webcast.

Back home to do the laundry then off to Fayetteville, AR for the Walmart Shareholder’s conference.

Similar to last year there were two nights of concerts – free to the public and two days of meetings. And, as last year, there were many stars on the program.  Jamie Foxx hosted the show with appearance by Josh Grobin, LeeDeWyze (American Idol winner), Mariah Carey & Mary J. Blidge. That’s Mariah on the 30 ft high LED screens (below) which could be configured in a number of different layouts.

Another trip back home to do the laundry (and see the family), then a flight to Chicago to direct a Beltone dealers meeting for CT. The City was hopping as the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup and I was hopping mad because I was doing a show while the US Soccer team was taking on England. I actually got to see the last half hour of the game live. Here’s hoping Team USA makes it to the next round!

Off to Seattle at the end of the month for my next gig & birthday!  Cheers,

Jim

Jim in Touring Video Truck

Hard to believe I have been running my own business for a decade now. 2000 was the year I ventured into the freelance world and it has been a most rewarding experience!  My goal was to broaden my work expreiences and grow my netwwork of colleagues and clients.  Over the last 10 years, I’ve worked on productions in the far corners of the world and my database has grown exponentially – I consider myself a fortunate person!

Speaking of fortunate, it has been quite a busy start to the year:  In  January, I did my first show at the CES in Las Vegas (I was available as the shows at the Detroit Auto Show where I have worked most of the last decade have cancelled).  Directing for Carlstrom productions, we did a reprise of a show for NVIDIA in San Jose last year. Video control was in an HD truck provided by Touring Video. Show was streamed in 720HP:    (Click on photo to view webcast) .

The following weeks included productions for HP in Santa Clara and Boeing in Seattle. The Boeing show also included 3D clips of the 1st flight of the new 787 Dreamliner – can’t wait to fly on that plane!

In March I was in Orlando with Creative Technology and TBA Productions directing the Walmart Annual Sales Meeting. Later in March, I directed a designer eye-wear fashion show for Sparks in New York. (Sames as last year, see Eyes on New York.)

April was busy with a Hyundai Dealer meeting in Montgomery, Alabama; Facebook Developer meeting in San Francisco and for the 5th year, the Milken Global Institute in Beverly Hills.

Working for GoVision out of Texas, I set up an Elvis system at a San Jose State football game. EVS (hence Elvis) is the manufacturer of the instant replay system used on most sports broadcasts. 3 cameras were interfaced with the Elvis which then fed an HD switcher in the GoVision truck. Graphics and video rolls were the other sources that were fed to the mobile LED video board GoVision brought in. From the audience perspective, the 18 x 32 video screen looked like it was part of the stadium.

3 ½ hours, 54 acts and no commercial breaks. That was the 60th anniversary special for CCTV (Chinese Network Television) at the Cow Palace. Technical directing in the Magnetic Image truck for producer Van Jarvis, we had a wild time – Chinese producers yelling instructions to a Chinese director who called the 6 cameras in English. Wish I had some video to show you!

The GPU is here – in 3D!  Directing for Carlstrom Productions at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, I saw some amazing new CGI demos and live 3D presentations by NVIDIA President & Co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang (Right). Click photo to watch the video (on the NVIDIA website, the links to the videos are a little ways down the page). It’s some of the best quality Flash streaming I’ve seen yet!  You won’t get the 3D effect but when you start with HD, the quality of the end video can be pretty impressive.  Schizophrenic directing! In a first for me (as well as I can remember), I directed two shows at once. During breakouts, the main room was dived by an air-wall. I had camera 1 in one room, camera 2 in a second room. Using two busses of the switcher, I mixed each camera and the speaker support graphics of two different presenters at the same time.

Talking With Chuck. Directing for TenCue Productions on a Talk with Chuck event, there was a live audience in the new conference center at the downtown offices of Charles Schwab as well as several thousand watching the webcast. The conference center is outfitted with four, Hi-Def robo-cams, touch-screen lighting control, wireless audio, projection and a 103” plasma monitor. The control room video switcher was a Panasonic AV-HS Hi-Def series. We added two Panasonic AJ-HDX-900 DVCPRO HD cameras from Magnetic Image Video; recording on tape as well as Firestore hard drives. Carl Quintanilla, Co-Anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” moderated the event that covered changes in the economy and the market’s likely response. View Webcast: http://tinyurl.com/yccjydh

I usually end up with 3-4 projects in the desert every year, this time at the MGM grand. As is usually the case for shows in Vegas, the production values have lots of sizzle and entertainment. Tsai Chin, one of China’s biggest stars electrified the mostly Asian audience. Cirque-style acrobatics, celebrity impersonators and the antics of the Blue Man Group entertained. A posthumous holographic speech by one of the Amway co-founders was pulled off with technical perfection.This “Pepper’s Ghost” effect was seen at the 2006 Grammy Awards in the Gorillaz & Madonna segment.

It’s a good feeling to leave Las Vegas with money in my pocket! (Work schedules don’t usually allow time for gambling).

DP Kevin Braband & Jim on the set

Before heading out on the road again, I had one day to do laundry and one day to direct a marketing video for Peet’s Coffee & Tea. Without a doubt, Peet’s is the favorite brew of crews on most productions I work on (especially when the alternative is convention coffee). We shot with a Panasonic Hi-Def camera on P2 cards at Peet’s roasting plant in Alameda, CA.  Peet’s Training Department specialist Kristen Nelson demonstrated the “Fresh Truth” about coffee: Did you know that many people don’t realize they are buying stale coffee before they bring it home? Not if it’s Peet’s!  The finished video will be playing on the Peet’s website later this summer.  Needless to say, we enjoyed the perfect cup of coffee – several times!

With the video safely “in the hard drive,” I jetted off to Fayetteville, Arkansas to direct the Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting, held at the University of Arkansas’ Bud Walton Arena. Produced by TBA Global and video staging from Creative Technologies, this show had tremendous production values: A nine camera, Hi-Def video production system; 40′ wide LED screen, flanked by two, 15 x 26 RP screens and 12 delay screens. The stage was on a large turntable so the many bands that performed could be preset and rolled out.

Chris Allen & Smokey Robinson close the show (Click to see a webcast of the day two meeting)

The 1st two nights had concerts by Sugarland, Brad Paisley, Foreigner and Daughtry. The meetings included presentations and performances by Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguci; Country artist Julianne Hough, Ben Stiller (who hilariously hosted the day two meeting), Latin Grammy winner Paulina Rubio, Miley Cyrus, Michael Jordan, American Idol winner Chris Allen and a closing performance by Smokey Robinson. The energy level on the show was needed – Thursday was a 17 hour day (show and rehearsal), followed by a 4:30AM call time on the final show day.

The rest of June has me back in Las Vegas, then San Francisco for two shows with a vacation sandwiched in between. Have a great summer!!!

The day the show ended I hopped a flight back to SFO and drove down to Palo Alto to direct for InVision Communications on a VMware event. VMware (the name combines virtual machine and software) is one of the tech companies that offer software and hardware in the cloud. VMware hosts other operating systems in such a way that each operating system behaves as if it were installed on a self-contained computer with its own set of programs and hardware resources. Now you’re more confused that ever!

The presentation took place in the basketball gym on the new VMware campus. This show’s video elements were even more complex: One switcher to do the screens (two in the gym and an LED screen outside); I ran the video switcher for the record cut and a third switcher was used for the webcast. . Good exercise for the brain: directing the cameras to the screens, all elements to the records and dual picture in picture (pip) to the webcast. John Chambers and Michael Dell made short presentations. (Screen shot of the webcast)

In between celebrating my wife & daughter’s birthdays I directed the video for the Bay Area Council’s Outlook 2009 program in San Francisco. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was interviewed on Heavy Lifting: What’s Next for the People’s Governor?

A couple of days later and it was back to LA for the Milken Global Conference. (check out the link for videos). I’ve done this show four years running and hands down, it has the most star studded list of presenters of any one show I’m involved in – well it is in Beverly Hills. There are over 100 presentations in three days. Panelists on shows I directed included: Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (that’s the Governator twice in one week!), John Huntsman (Utah) and Edward Rendell (Pennsylvania). A panel on Sports Philanthropy included Andre Agassi, Mia Hamm, Chris Waddell (paralympic athlete who will attempt to become the first paraplegic to summit Kilimanjaro unassisted later this year), skateboarded Tony Hawk, and golf legend Annika Sorenstam. The second days political panel was a left vs. right discussion with former SF Mayor and Speaker of the House Willie Brown & Rush Limbaugh. Fights were breaking out in the audience – not on the stage! (Screen shot of the webcast)

Heading East in May: Las Vegas, then my first ever gig in….. Arkansas.

The event was a fashion show for Safilo, manufacturers of designer eyewear. Safilo is licensed to produce eyewear for some of the world’s leading labels, including (take a breath): Alexander McQueen, A/X Armani Exchange, Balenciaga, Banana Republic, Boss by Hugo Boss, Bottega Veneta, Diesel, 55DSL, Dior, Emporio Armani, Fossil, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Hugo by Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, Jennifer Lopez, Juicy Couture, Kate Spade, Liz Claiborne, Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Max Mara, Max&Co., Nine West, Pierre Cardin, Saks Fifth Avenue, Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent. Most of these lines were represented at the show.

Two cameras were operated on 8′ Platforms behind the walls in one corner of the exhibit booth (along with two, locked down “spycam’s”. The photo quality from my phone isn’t great but it gives you an idea of how we shot incognito. You can see the runway (surrounded by an espresso bar) and the screens in the background.

Over three days, I directed nine, 20 minute shows with models walking a short runway, six feet above the floor of the exhibit booth. Four widescreen videos projected IMAG and supporting media. Video production was coordinated by Creative Technology and graphics and animation were created by Sky Creative.

Up next this month, The Milken Educator Awards, VMware and the Milken Global Conference – Stay tuned!

First jobs of the year were for AT&T and Seagate. The AT&T show was in Dallas at the Hyatt Regency not far from the infamous Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated. I’ve stayed at this hotel a number of times and last year took a trip to the Sixth Floor Museum. For those of us who were alive in 1963 and have memories of that day in November, a trip to the museum is guaranteed to bring it all back. Most amazing display are some of the actual film & movie cameras that documented the shooting.

After the show, I flew back to SFO, got in my car and drove down to Santa Cruz for a Seagate employee meeting. Seagate is emblematic of what is going on in these tough economic times. They replaced their CEO and will have layoffs to combat the slow sales of their hard drives. (I did my part to help by buying a 500gb Seagate drive for my edit system). These meetings, produced by The Kenwood Group,  happen 3-4 times a year – it’s great to have a reoccurring show these days! This show is especially enjoyable as Kenwood employees the latest technology to get the information to the Seagate employees around the world. We have a satellite truck to distribute the show and for the first time, recorded in 720p for distribution via the web. Creative Technology provided the HD rig and I directed (and switched) the video record, screen switch and satellite feed. Video juggling!!!