2014 Jim Draper Video Production Highlights
Jim Draper
The Leviathan cruises through the CES audience
Seems like most years start out either in Las Vegas or Detroit. This year it was Vegas, directing for World Stage and Pedersen Media on Intel's Keynote at CES. One of the demos had a whale swimming in the audience!
Multi-viewer screen shows how many ways you can shoot a camel!
East to Orlando and the Citrix Summit. Directing for Bellwether, the animal theme continued, this time we're talking camels. Yes, it was a hump day gag...
You'll notice the occasional pictures of the multi-viewer screen on my posts. These photos give me a reference as to the type of camera angles, staging and lighting we had on the show. (And perhaps to blackmail my producer who'd rather not bee seen with a camel).
Third production of the year was in the Nation's capitol. As there had been no winter in the SF Bay Area it was nice to have snowfall in D.C. Boeing executives met near the National Harbor, highlights included a Keynote by former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and by a panel discussion hosted by Gwen Ifill of the PBS News Hour.
January productions ended with a McAfee employee meeting in San Jose, produced by Pedersen Media Group.
February started with The Kenwood Group and their Production for Seagate. Staged in the former Solyndra building that Seagate purchased, the future R & D facility was introduced to their employees. Shows for Pederson on Intel's Developer Forum in San Francisco and Creative Technology for Boeing in Seattle rounded out the month.
Hey, remember snow? Got to ski one day in March (which turned out to be my only ski day that year) with my good friend and colleague Doug Murray. Left the GoPro at home so this footage is all hand-held Android.
Who needs a Go Pro!?
Safilo Fashion SHow
March projects included productions for Walmart and one of my annual favorites: Sparks' production of the Safilo Eyewear fashion show in Manhattan. Three shows a day, then it's of to Broadway to catch the plays!
Sparks & CT Crew with Host Bobbie Thomas
April brought a couple of new shows. First was the Marketo conference in SF, directing for Creative Technology. Keynote speaker was Hilary Clinton - as yet to declare her candidacy. Here's my view from the director's station:
The following week was the Red Hat Summit, the conference where open source folks get together. Also in SF, directing for Word Stage.
The month ended in Los Angeles with another of my favorite shows, the Milken Global Institute; directing for World Stage. Always a great variety of topics and speakers. Matt Damon was on this panel discussing the global water crisis.
May kicked off with Citrix Synergy at the Anaheim Convention Center. Directing for Bellwether, we had two shows in one. A Citrix TV broadcast bookended the general sessions each day. Had a lot of fun with a crack crew and a little back stage fun on one of the shows:
I seem to be including a lot of videos in this blog - well that seems appropriate doesn't it?! Here's another multi-viewer look; I'm calling a six-camera shoot with Imagine Dragons...
Right on the heels of Synergy (after doing a load of wash at home), was the Informatica show at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, directing for Pedersen Media Group. Walk Off The Earth played at the close of the show. Ever see 5 musicians play one guitar? Don't have our show video to show you but the you can watch here: https://youtu.be/tgd85czNp04
The Draper Creative Group crew
Second half of may included productions for Google, produced by Group X and the New York Times, staged by Magnetic Image Video. The NY Times "Health for Tomorrow" event was especially enjoyable as the panels discussed solutions to heath care issues AND my daughter, Alyssa was part of the tech crew!
June started out with the trek to Northwest Arkansas, directing the Walmart Shareholder's & Associate's meeting for Proscenium. This show has an amazing cast of talent - especially the Proscenium & CT crew! This year's headliners787 dreamliner included: Harry Connick as host with performances by Pharrell,, Robin Thicke, Florida Georgia Line, Sarah McLachlan & Aloe Blacc. On the way home, I got one more treat (after missing my connecting flight in Houston). Upgraded to business class on the 787 Dreamliner. Stopped by the cockpit on the way into plane, mentioned I do some work for Boeing (see earlier post) and the crew invited me in for a photo op.
Testing the jump-seat on a Dreamliner
Wrapped up the 1st half of the year with another NY Times show; Adobe for Carlstrom and The Google Developers Conference (I/O) with Group X.
Orlando in July???!!! It's only hot if you're not in a ballroom. Directing for CMS Communications and the Stella & Dot Hoopla fashion show.
Most fashion shows highlight clothing but the stars of this show were the jewelry. That required camera angles able to get close up shots at various spots on the runway.
Two long lenses at the end of the runway, a camera at the end of the "T" (top photo) and a jib tracking the models and getting a medium shot on the other "T" (bottom photo).
Cisco GSX during rehearsals
Keeping with the hot locations theme, one of the productions I directed in August was for TenCue and Cisco in Las Vegas. 15,000 attendees filled the MGM Grand. Amazing staging: Four curved screens - projected on both sides gave all seats in the house a great view of the media. Shot in the round with 6 cameras.
September saw jobs for CT & Alibaba; Carlstrom & Adobe; InVision & Oracle Open World.
October was the 2nd year of Cisco's Internet of Things World Forum - this year in Chicago for InVision Communications. Linked-In's event for TenCue and WWMITO with AVT ended the month.
Bellwether, Harris Creative and Carlstrom Production shows ended quite a busy year.