A DOC'S JOURNAL by Scott Solary

From an email from MoveOn.org:

Yesterday was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

- She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.

- Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

- She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000.

- Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.

- She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.

- She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.

How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.

Oh yeah... did I mention she kills baby seals?

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Lots has changed on the site. We have a new player, new blogs and lots of community tools. Come check it out HERE. We re-launched with this Papa John's music video. This was so much fun to make. Guy is played by Aaron Nauta. Check out Aaron's hilarious web show, Braxton Price I don't even want to talk about how much footage we generated to get all the elements. Enjoy!

Watch CBS Videos Online

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Republished from the Good Hard Working People blog, written by Luci Westphal:

Patron Saint of the Wedding Ring

On June 29th at Robin De Bois, in Carroll Gardens, I watched the Soccer EURO 2008 finals with some interruptions due to the rain in Brooklyn causing the satellite to go out a few times. To top off the somewhat unnerving experience, Spain beat Germany and the last few moments I had to watch at the Irish bar next door which was filled with singing Spain fans.

Yet before I had to ride my bike home in the rain, fate started to turn... most magically: During the last few minutes of the match I met Scott Frederick through my friend Katie. Somehow he mentioned the bar Buttermilk and I told him that five years ago my wedding ring had suddenly flown off my finger, bounced on the floor and rolled into a crack and disappeared into the sub floor. After some creepy explorations of one of the basement's rooms (cavernous, dark and empty besides a white bucket, an empty pack of Marlboro Lights and a hatchet), digging around with a grabby car mechanics tool in the crack of the floor and a few attempts to track down the owner of the bar, we gave up the search and made peace with the fact that at least I knew where my ring would rest and that after all it was a cool bar. Then Scott Frederick tells me that he is one of the owners of Buttermilk (and also my all-time favorite Great Lakes) and that I should come by in the following days to see what could be done. Oh, did I mention that the next day was our 12 1/2 year wedding anniversary? Or how about the fact that I hadn't been to Buttermilk in a year or two since I had moved, yet two different unrelated plans came up that brought me to the bar a few days before.

So a few days later I meet Scott Frederick at his bar and show him where the ring went down five years prior (possibly to the day, I'll have to check that sometime). I told him if they'd ever renovate and tear up the floor to get in touch with me. After all I don't see how else we could get to it. He makes an attempt to saw a hole into the floor - but the battery dies. He says he'll be back in touch.

I take off. Have a wonderful time at the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art with John J. and Jessica G. followed by drinks in the garden of Soda. An almost perfect day... until I get the call. Scott Frederick has sawed open the floor of his bar and after 5 years of laying amongst playing cards and poker chips my wedding has been unearthed by the man who I'd like to call from now on the Patron Saint of The Wedding Ring. He even delivered it.

To be honest it would have been great to get the ring back right away after it was lost. It would have been a happy ending to a sad story. But having it returned after 5 years and right in time for our anniversary feels like a miracle and makes it even more special.

I'm not sure yet how I can thank enough the man that already gave me one of my favorite bars with the best jukebox in NYC (Great Lakes, that is) but now also gave me back my wedding ring!!! But I hope one day I'll figure something out.

Thank you so much, Scott!

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When the U.S. Open came down to an 18-hole playoff between Rocco Mediate and Tiger Woods, MobLogic had no choice but to cover the story.

Roman Bodnar and Nick Paley whipped this out today at the studio:

Go to our YouTube channel and subscribe. Thanks.

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While Luci put together multiple festival submission packages, I made this:

After viewing the video, you'll see a series of suggested videos load into the bottom of the player. Hold your cursor over them to see their titles. Find the video titled "Why every girl should buy their boyfriend Wii fit". Click it. It used to be when you did this, you'd be transported to the YouTube page of that video, but now you stay on the page that you want to be on and watch other videos. Really cool! Someone's understanding something about embeddable distribution. That's Amanda Elend, MobLogic blogger and Wallstrip writer with hip-swingin' editor, Sean Smith. It was a light-hearted video response to this video:

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Here's a couple videos we did over the past few days to test the viral waters. Enjoy!

Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones are selling videos of themselves "chatting" about their sexual encounters with Bill Clinton. Huh? What else could this kind of wierdness need? A commercial, of course.

Buy them all at $1.99 per download at their website: www.genniferandpaula.com

I cut this one today in response to E.D. Hill, host of the freshly canceled Fox News show, America’s Pulse, connecting presidential candidate, Barack Obama’s hand gesture to terrorism.

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Of course, the embed code is disabled, but click here to see the video

The mind-blowing thing isn't the trick, it's the viewers ability to choose the path of their viewing experience.

The possibilities are endless. I can't wait put them to use at MobLogic and Wallstrip.

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MobLogic took a crew down to Georgia to get a first-hand look at the Death Penalty and the execution of Samuel David Crow.

We've posted five shows so far, three of those were today(!) and we'll continue to post multiple shows daily through the week! They've sparked a great conversation on our site. I encourage everyone to come be a part of a very important issue and a landmark event in web video.

Here they are:

Execution Day: What Would You Do?

Lindsay Vlogging to the Airport

Georgia Covers the Death Penalty?

For or Against in Georgia?

and an awesome inerview with the Southern Center for Human Rights President and Lead Counsel, Stephen Bright

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This is an awesome piece the regional network, SNN was running through the weekend of our screenings:

Here's an inciteful podcast from Noralil Ryan Fores who interviewed us for her excellent site ShortEnd Magazine: thoughts on independent film. To listen to the interview please click here: shortendmagazine.com/content/view/536/71
or find ShortEnd Magazine on iTunes.

From the Good Hard Working People blog:
She asked some really great questions, not only about All God's Children and our process, but also about other projects and our thoughts on documentaries and changes in that market in general.

We talk rather candidly about some of the obstacles and frustrations in making this film. It makes it sound a bit worse than the experience really was. At first I wasn't sure if it's such a good idea to talk about the struggles, because it may make us or our film look bad. But then I think that it's important to be honest with other makers and the audience: it's not all just fun or easy and we all go through difficult times with our projects. It's probably one of the bigger frustrations when you think to everyone else it's a piece of cake and you may be the only one struggling.

When talking about how "ill-prepared" we were or how difficult it was to conduct the interviews with the abuse survivors because of how emotional it would be for us, I missed to emphasize that a lot of the difficulty came from realizing that this was causing pain to the interviewees and that we were lacking the psychological training to know if we were handling this and their stories well.

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Lindsay makes journalism personal. There's a great conversation happening on the comment board at MobLogic. After you watch the show, read Adam Elend's, one of ML's executive producers, blog post about the episode.

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I got my hands real dirty on the edit for this one and I'm very proud. We sent 4 cameras out on Wednesday that shot about 7 hours total The editors had selects picked by late Thursday morning. Roman, Adam and I pulled a 24 hour shift to get all the best B-roll into the cut before posting the show. I hope you enjoy it. There's lots of love in this one.

The follow-up episode is sure to spark a heated conversation about the boundaries of journalism. It'll run Sunday and Monday, so watch the show and join the conversation at www.moblogic.tv

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Our first interview on MobLogic and it's with the superstar blog aggregator and founder of the Huffington Post (the blog aggregator I'm referring to)!

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Sean Smith's animation talents really shine in our first animated episode of MobLogic. Our newest editor, Nick Paley, assisted.

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We found out today that this episode of Wallstrip that I produced and directed is nominated for a Webby! I blogged about this twice when we first posted it, because I was so very proud.

This was truly a collaborative effort. I'm sure I'll forget someone, but I'll try to remember how it all went down. The idea for a "We Didn't Start the Fire" parody came from the Executive Producer, Adam Elend, then his sister, Amanda, wrote the lyrics using only stock ticker symbols (deserving of an award in itself) and her husband, Jason, scored the music. Then I came up with the news anchor idea inspired by the brilliant R.E.M. "Bad Day" video, Lindsay and I decided what props would be best, Katie Ainslie bought them and wrote the cue cards (you can see her playing the make-up artist in the time lapse segments as well as the then newly hired, Clark Caldwell as the stagehand). Clark also served as our gaffer, confetti consultant and all-around, do everything guy. Terrence Elenteny, our badass, uber editor shot the scenic New York footage for time lapse, resident senior shooter/editor extraordinaire, Appolos Laurient ran camera and last but not least, the talented and freakishly proud K.U. graduate, Sean Smith, did all the editing, motion graphics and special effects. Go Team!

It's among five other videos in the "Best Editing" category for online video. Not to sound cocky, but after sizing up the competition, I think we have a very strong chance of taking it home. Just to make sure we go home with something, we would love for you to vote for the audience award. Once there, go to "Online Film and Video" and then to "Best Editing." Thanks in advance! Unfortunately, you'll have to register, but I'm sure it's to control the number of votes by any one individual.

I was trying to get as many things going on in the frame as possible. Let your eyes roam around and watch it again and again. I guarantee you'll see something different every time. Enjoy!

Two of our other entries received "honoree status." They are "Cal-Maine" for "Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics" and "U.S. Dollar" for "News and Politics: Individual Episode". They are posted below respectively. U.S. Dollar rings even more true today.

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At last the mystery is revealed:

That explains this classic video from Black20:

Happy Easter Everybunny!

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It's the Iraq war's 5th year "anniversary" today (March 19). Check out today's MobLogic show, "5 Years in Iraq."

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One of my favorite political online shows, "Political Lunch" showed me some love last week by listing the mash-up videos as their #1 story. I sent him a link to the videos through FaceBook. I love when the love goes around. Almost makes me believe in Valentine's Day again. Not really. Here's the show. Watch to the end:

Here's the URL for the YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/YouChooseCandidates

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The empty messaged and overly emotive, Barack Obama video, "Yes.We.Can" by the "can you believe they take themselves seriously" Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am has been poignantly spoofed:

Here's the "original":

Apparently, the band is ripe for parody:

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YES!!!

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Check out this new channel on YouTube called YouChooseCandidates. Here's the first video:

I'm no fan of Ron Paul, but I love this video. I highly encourage you to rate it high, make it a favorite and if you have a YouTube account, subscribe. There will be more coming.

Check them out on Facebook .

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The first of hopefully many more projects to come out from under our studio roof. Sign up and receive updates: www.moblogic.tv

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It's striking how little has changed.

and now for something completely different:

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It's been quite a great week at Wallstrip. Nearly every show has had amazing responses, comments, views and online coverage.

Our Facebook show made Michael Arrington's blog, TechCrunch. FB is one the blog's favorite topics to write about and with nearly 700k viewers daily, I was happy to be the daily pick. Silicon Alley Insider gave us some love too.

This was very difficult to direct, because we never had 2 actors in the same space except for the vampire gag. Green screen is so much fun!

And then there's yesterday's show. I'll just say I am very proud of this piece as well as the team that made it possible and now I'll let it speak for itself.

I have to give a big shout out to New TeeVee for doing THIS. Please go there and vote for us. The Huffington Post included us today as well.

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Look closely. I'm rockin' out with the best of them. Our Lower East Side neighbor, Pianos (as well as a slew of other bars across New York) host a weekly Guitar Hero "party." This was fun... and a little weird.

If you listen closely, we have three of my favorite bands playing in the background. That'd be (in order of appearance) White Stripes, Bloc Party and the Beastie Boys. This was another one that we all got involved with. You'll see Adam Elend, our Exec Producer, myself, Terrence (as Val Kilmer doing Jim Morrison doing Jose Cuervo) and of course, Lindsay. Does it make anyone else hang their head in sadness that we ran into "brokers" and "traders" at the venue? Sigh.

Guitar Hero, like most games these days, is all about finding the "sweet spot" of the game's responsiveness to succeed. Honestly, it did nothing for me. I think I might be in the minority with this one. Judge for yourself:

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Karina Longworth, author of the Spout blog and New TeeVee's, feature series, "Karina's Capsule", had this great analysis of the "Speechless" videos being hosted on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog over the Thanksgiving weekend. "[...] Speechless, a series of short videos starring A-list talent that was produced and conceived by B-list talent and designed to promote United Hollywood’s position by dramatizing the impact of the writers’ strike on the art form."

The "Speechless" videos achieve many things on many levels and are definitely worth a quick look. The series has an exclusive deal with Deadline Hollywood, so I couldn't embed the videos. Instead, I decided to do my part of the blog chain and provide links to all them below:

#1: Holly Hunter

#11: Laura Linney

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I directed this Wallstrip homage to a favorite SNL skit, "Bill Swerski's Superfans." This was green screen madness at it's best. Oh yeah, and beer, beer, beer. Is it obvious I'm having a blast?

From left to right, there's Jason Hall, Roman Bodnar (our post-production supervisor), John Behlmann (who also wrote this episode) and Sean Tice our Web Producer on the far right.

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I was lured in by this spectacular ad for Sony. Who can resist bunnies and the Stones?:

Which led to another amazing ad from the same campaign:

Which then led to the inevitable and hilarious spoof:

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I'm now a proud owner of an autographed copy of "Don't Hassle the Hoff" thanks to our new friend at St. Martin's Press.

and...
I'm only 3 Pups away from having the entire collection of 12 Hood Pups! I'm starting to amass doubles and even triples if anyone wants to strike a barter.

Photos taken with the Curve.

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I haven't blogged in a while because I've been working incredibly hard to kick off a couple new projects. First, I have been hired to produce another series for Magnet Media. Whereas the first series is about the tech behind post-production houses, this one spotlights the hottest producing talent of the music industry. I'll have more details when we get closer to launch.

I was also recently approached by my friends over at CBS Interactive to edit some mash-up videos of their TV shows. So far, I've concentrated on David Mamet's foray into television, "The Unit". I have total freedom to be as creative as I want. So far it's been great to just let my imagination run wild. I'm not sure how these will be promoted or what the master online plan is, but stay tuned.

Here are some of my latest online favorites:

"Don't Tase Me,Bro!" - or - what I like to call, "Celebrating the First Amendment: Southern Style!"

John Kerry was speaking in Gainesville, Florida where Luci and I met and were married. This is the same University where I saw Spike Lee and Timothy Leary speak.

CLICK HERE to listen to the kid's entire rant and here's another link if you want to see the aftermath.

I still don't understand why the cops were there in the first place. And while his rant is a little annoying, convoluted and aggressive, if you're giving a lecture at a state university and provide an open mic for audience questions, freedom of speech is kind of on the table.

The funny thing is, I don't think he was speaking out against Kerry at all. This kind of fascist behavior by police makes my stomach turn. They actually charged him with inciting a riot! Escort him out, ban him from lectures, but a TASER?! Come on.

I wish I could embed this video, but the proprietary people over at Cadbury, won't allow it. CLICK HERE!

I don't really get the connection between the video and chocolate, but damn that gorilla sure does commit to a scene!

Sir Ian McKellen breaks down the acting process for Ricky Gervais in a scene from "Extras".

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Welcome to the first installment in a forthcoming series featuring my favorite online shows. I'm going to call it: "My Favorite Online Shows" (genius, huh?)

blip.tv is a video hosting site that we try to use to it's fullest. If you're in the "business" of doing shows for the web, they're the closest thing to 1-stop shopping for your web uploading and distribution needs. blip's a favorite for people like myself because they don't restrict you to 100mb files like most (if not all) video sharing sites AND they'll host the Quicktime file (almost unheard of). They have a plethora of online series. Many of them seem to share the same regard for clean compression, high production values and quality content that we at Good Hard Working People strive for.

I figured I should start sharing some of my favorite quality online shows instead of showing yet another viral video that's received 1,000,000+ views. Like this guy:

Don't get me wrong, I'll be posting plenty of those as well. They don't call them "viral" for nothing. And we are far from perfect in our shooting and encoding process, but we're quickly improving and have been since we started.

Because of the shear size of YouTube's audience/users, you kind of have no choice but to syndicate there. But if you want the video to look good, you don't make YouTube your only host. What differentiates our aesthetic from the typical "YouTuber" is the care, knowledge, technology, money and sweat we put into our online video. The shows I'll be featuring will do the same and you guessed it, they all host their shows on blip.tv. Coincidence?

#1 Wallstrip. Where stock culture meets pop culture.
For those of you who know me, you know I've worked closely with Adam Elend and Jeff Marks since they began this show. They've been doing this show DAILY for nearly a year and were recently bought by CBS. They've produced, written and directed everything you see. In other words, I've seen them first-hand busting their butts and they deserve all the success they've had. I'm sure the outstanding acting chops of their host, Lindsay Campbell had a little to do with their success as well. Check it out :

#2 Make. The Makezine Podcast shows you how to make things! Bre Pettis makes something every week and shows you step by step how to do it. This is one of my favorites.

And one more. Goodnight Burbank A short, smart comedy set behind the scenes of a local channel's newsroom. Really funny stuff. Jet Set's Zadi Diaz has a cameo in this episode. Jet Set is one of the most popular and well-produced online shows, but more on them later.

Click To Play

Hope you enjoyed the shows! Just remember online video doesn't have to mean big, chunky pixels.

Maybe I should call the segment, "Shrinking the Pixel" or "Sharpening the Internet" Suggestions?

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I just had to show this little jewel off. After all, this is all supposed to be about movies, right? I promise this will be the last posting about "Chocolate Rain". Like all great memes, they need to fade away to make room for the next one.

Blame Society Films is responsible for the "Chad Vader" series. I love Vader Vlogging about his "girlfriend". Enjoy.

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The old T.V. looks to the new T.V. for it's leads. I guess if they can't beat us, they're going to join us. SIGH.

What's the difference between then and now? He says, "9.11"!!! And he NEVER equated 9.11 and Iraq, right? The lies and contradictions never end. And with such a straight face.

The original video:

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Can 5,518,225 people be wrong?

Tay Zonday's performance ran long on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and bumped Matt Damon. It's a great day when a Hollywood superstar gets bumped by an internet grad student celebrity. Sometimes I really love the here and now. I think what made this video so ubiquitous is trying to figure out the meaning of "Chocolate Rain".

Whereas, the meaning of "Vanilla Snow" is a little clearer:

"Chimney sweeping Prada marmalade"