Covering the President is always a big deal as a news cameraman. If often entails extra effort and early calls in order to clear the stringent security detail. Twice this year Motion Video has been hired to cover Presidential visits and speeches. In June, Gulfport Mississippi, President Obama came to assure the citizens of Mississippi that the government will be there to help them overcome the oil spill. The video below shows the motorcade whipping down the highway en route to Air Force 1. In Late July, Obama came to the newly retooled Ford Motor plant in Chicago to address the workers and ensure them the American auto industry will be back on top again.
NBC hired Motion Video to go to the Gulf region to help cover the tragedy. In the 3 weeks i spent there, we traveled 4 states, seeing the devastation first hand. There were many challenges bringing the story to you, including 110 degree heat indexes and feeling the pain and frustration from interviewing the locals, who were seeing an important way of life being slowly destroyed. Thanks to our team, Reporter- Kristen Dahlgren, Producers JoEllen Ruvoli and Jodie Nichols for being such professionals and making my job as ENG camera crew easier.
Oil soaked dead pelican on Pensacola O
Oil soaked dead pelican on Pensacola Beach, Fla. 6/2010
Fox NewsChannel’s Greta Van Susteren came to town last sunday and hired Motion Inc. to shoot a 2 camera interview with former Il. Governor Rod Blagojevich.. We decided on doing the interview in the Blagojevich home on the northside of Chicago. The ousted politician said we were the first TV crew allowed in the family home. The Blago family members were very friendly and accommodating to the needs of the 3 person crew. The interview can be seen in its entirety at http://vodpod.com/watch/3501423-blago-greta-van-susteren-blago-there-is-a-smoking-gun-transcript-and-video. To contact Motion Video for video services www.motionvideo.tv
We were contracted to videotape Natalie Merchants acoustic performance for The Poetry Center, Chicago,on Saturday April 24, 2010. Natalie debuted the songs from her new album” Leave Your Sleep” which is based on lyrics put to music from her favorite poets in literary history. She bantered to the audience in between each song to their delight. At the end Natalie had the crowd rockin with some of her classic hits. All in all it was a delightful evening for everyone in attendance.
To contact Motion Inc. for professional video service @ www.motionvideo.tv
NBC Newschannel hired Mike Kaufman from Motion Inc, as cameraman to travel to Fargo, ND. to cover and report on the flooding devastation that is taking place on the banks of the Red River. This is the second year NBC has chose Motion has their production partner in covering the tragedy. Along the way we found an incredible story about a family who refuses to give in to the rising waters.
American Quality Schools liked the DVD we produced earlier for them so much they asked us to create a sixty second spot for air in the South Bend, Indiana market. The spot is to run throughout the local news programs, encouraging the community to fill out an application to enroll in the new charter school AQS is bringing to the area. Dr. Michael Bakalis, President of AQS, asked our creative people to give the spot a political commercial type feel. I think we accomplished this and more. We were bound to use existing footage we had shot for the AQS promotional DVD we completed earlier.
We have worked with the Mercedes-Benz Golf program for the past 6 years. Though MB isn’t the title sponsor of the Kapalua Tournament any longer, they still host their Dealer Championship tournament at Kaanapalli. Motion Video was there to cover the action and all of the excitement the 250 attendees were treated too. With 2 camera crews following the action packed 5 day agenda, we had a editor stay back and edit a 7 minute compilation video to be duplicated(dvd) and distributed to the 250 guests upon check out.
We were hired by AQS to produce a recruitment video that they could use as a sales tool for bringing their product, charter schools, into communities that need educational alternatives. We had 3 shoot days at existing charter schools, ran by AQS. We were greeted by a friendly staff, polite and intelligent kids. I was really struck by this positive learning environment . I fully support the charter school movement as an alternative educational source for kids to get a quality education. With the help of this video, hopefully, AQS can bring their educational system to more communities around the midwest.
Disney hired Motion Inc to cover the festivities for their unveilng of the “Princess and the Frog” promotions at the Disney Store on Michigan Ave., in Chicago. The animated motion picture will be released in theaters on December 11, 2009. They chose to do a window display in Chicago to tie in with the “Fesival of Lights” parade on Michigan Ave. on 11/21. We videotaped the events surrounding the event along with a time lapse video that shows the 8 hours it took to build the display, in a 10 second clip. After compiling the elements we sent out takes of the footage which ran on local news affiliates as well as CNN.
Yesterday, Clark Michels and I traveled to the home of legendary rock guitarist Rick Nielson of Cheap Trick fame to shoot a promotional spot for thier upcoming concert at Landshark Stadium. To Be hosted by the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 27th after the game. We won’t soon forget the 3 hours we spent with Rick. His house is filled with classic pictures and memorabilla from his 30 plus years of rock and roll decadence. I got to tour his guitar vault where he has over 400 guitars in his collection, with one from Elvis, John Lennon and even a Les Paul that tunes itself! He also has aquired a collection of over 200 apple computers, starting as early as 1978….and my wife thought I was bad with 5! Rick is really a great guy and a pleasure to work with, I wish they were all this fun.
