Secret Project Revealed!

So...remember in March when I posted about a secret project?  Well - the secret is out!  I got to operate camera for the Russell Wilson workout that was released on the Xbox Fitness channel last Friday!  The company I work for has other workouts through Xbox Fitness already but this one was, by far, the BIGGEST!
All the stress aside, it was a fun two days.  I mean, watching the set being built, the lighting rig go up, wardrobe...everything production-wise still excites me, no matter how many times I've seen it before.  There's just something so fun about watching crews make it happen because sometimes we all forget how many people it actually takes to complete the illusion that we know as "movie magic".

If you've got an Xbox One, try out the Athlete Fit with Russell Wilson workout and let me know how you like it!  During the R+D phase for it, I took it as many times as possible here at the office, and let me tell you - it's NOT easy but it IS fun!  And believe me, it goes by really fast and you'll feel so much better for it :)

Happy Tuesday!

**SPOILER ALERT: Russell Wilson is extremely nice :)

Behind the scenes: Work and home

I had been writing about some work-related anxiety on ye olde Tumblr and I think the two photos above are the only two that can legally be shared.  I say "legally" because you can't really see anything concerning the actual shoot - except for two silly camera operators!
Yes, that shoot was fun and super stressful and I'm kinda really glad it's over now.  Geez.  I'm hoping the end product turns out as well as we'd hoped!  More on that as it gets closer to release time...



On to less stressful things!  My old man has decided on a photo series for his blog.  That's right - he has a blog!  You should check it out!  On Saturday night, it stopped raining long enough for us to go on a little nighttime adventure in our neck of the woods.  The downside?  It was FREEZING cold and the wind was blowing majorly crazy!!  I got to stay in the comfort of my warm car while the old man got out and took some photos in the cold.  While he was shooting, I decided to join in and experiment with my Hipstamatic app.
I don't know if it's my old 4S or the lack of space on my phone for photos but I'm starting to get more and more disappointed with the performance of the app because it keeps crashing!  It doesn't work as well as it did before, which makes me sad because the Hipstamatic app was my go-to app for all things photo but because it crashes so much, I end up using the default camera instead.  Saturday night, I threw caution into the gale force winds and shot with the Hipstamatic - specifically, the Hongdae Hipstapak.  I even played around with the double exposure feature I keep forgetting about!  I think it turned out nice!

It was fun watching my old man getting all creative this weekend!  He did some new things and I'm so proud of him!  He even had a cup of coffee from Dulce Vegan.  WHAT?!  I'm kinda hoping to win the Currently List Starter Pack Giveaway at Campfire Chic because I would love to keep lists of all the new things my old man has been doing!  I've started him on a self-improvement journey so that he can see what it's like to live a happy and grateful life and after all the fun things we were able to do this weekend, I think he'll keep the momentum going!  Unfortunately, we had to miss out on a few things but I'm hoping we can make those up.  I mean, I have a kind of important birthday gift to deliver, after all!

How was your weekend?

My job did a thing...

So, we had a BIG announcement at work on Wednesday.  We rebranded AND we announced our super-secret partnership with XBOX Fitness!  Check out the video:



I'll give you a hint at who did the camerawork and lighting...LOL
Actually, I can't take all the credit on the lighting - that goes to my Production Supervisor. He's a BEAST when it comes to lighting! Check out this side-by-side we did while we were testing our lighting set-up for the announcement video shoot:


He did such a great job (and Heather was nice enough to sit in for us to get some test footage).  I'm so glad we can now green screen instead of fudging through it with some grey paper and and RGB Key.  Okay, okay, enough nerd talk.

I am really excited about the XBOX Fitness partnership, though.  The classes are AWESOME - and I'm not just saying that because I work there, I'm saying it because it's true!  They're only 30 minutes and time flies by while you're doing it!  If you're one of the lucky ones to snag an XBOX One, I urge you to try the Mossa classes!  I believe they're free for a year if you have an XBOX Gold membership...I'm not sure how the memberships work since my old man is the keeper of the XBOX at our house (it's just a Netflix / Hulu box for me! Ha!).

But seriously - try the Mossa workouts.  They're great.  I never thought I'd enjoy the Mossa Fight workout (because Group Kick always intimidates me) but Fight is so much fun and you'll feel AMAZING afterwards!  Take it from me!  It's the thing I needed to break my weight-loss plateau.

Who's getting an XBOX One?  Let me know how you like the Mossa workouts!

Halloween Shenanigans

I'm a bad blogger!  Things have been so busy at work and at home and they're about to pick up because we're into our *fun* quarterly filming at work now and NaNoWriMo starts TODAY!!
I'm pretty much going to keep going the way I have been for the last few days: work like a crazy person at work and then script write like a crazy person when I get home.  Go, go, go!  My goal is to get my script FINISHED by the end of NaNoWriMo this year.  It's a lofty goal, I know, but I'm hoping that will be the swift kick in the ass that I need to finally get it on paper and out of my head!

We had a party at work and even though it was a little hectic, it was still great to see everyone in costume.  Here are a few highlights that I can safely share:




Best camera operator / friends forever - Brad (Gold Prospector), me (Fionna) and Jeremiah (Robin)
I was trying to figure out poses all day and this one seemed like the best one :)
My niece Amaya as the Skylander "Hex" (I dubbed this photo "only in New York...")
Heather as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's (of course!)
Bobby as Paul Bunyan (with Babe the Blue Ox)
Hugh and Lisa as a couple of tourists
And the office party WINNERS: Kristin and Natalie as the Hump Day Camel

You will be missing out if you don't watch THIS VIDEO of Eric's (our audio engineer) costume!!!

**EDIT: Here's the YouTube video:



All in all, the office party was fun but any time we do stuff like this during filming, us crew members don't really get to enjoy it as much as everyone else because we're having to deal with other things.  Oh well...

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

That's a wrap: Team 1 Enthusiasm!

Today is the day! Remember when I posted about Spreading Enthusiasm Through Positivity?

We've been deep into it for the last 14 days and today is the day of the drawing! The posts have been tallied and the names have been prepped and ready for this afternoon.  I can't wait!
Check out the scoreboard I've been keeping!



I've learned so much about my team mates and co-workers during this whole process and I'm happy to say that, while I thought it was going to be super-weird and anxiety-ridden (on my part), it wasn't too bad.  Let me re-cap the exercise. People were asked to find the following six items:

• Favorite scene from a movie showing enthusiasm
• Favorite quote on enthusiasm
• Favorite sound that reflects enthusiasm
• Your enthusiastic alter ego
• Share enthusiasm with others via compliment cards
• Share something that you're enthusiastic about in your personal life

I linked to my posts on the Tumblr for my examples but be sure to check out everyone else's!  I even decided that my Alter Ego would be my Halloween costume this year!  And I think it's safe to say I'm a little obsessed with it right now...

 


Oh, and I'm waiting for THIS and THIS to come in the mail!! SO CUTE!!

Anyways - I'm hoping the drawing happens soon so that I can go home.  I'm not feeling the greatest but I'll try and remain enthusiastic for this afternoon!  ^__^

That's not a shelf. That's not a shelf at all...

At work, I've been waiting for a shelf to come in from the fine folks at Ikea for about a month now.  We tried to pick it up at the actual store downtown but they didn't have the right color, they didn't have the right size, the containers someone else wanted for me weren't the right colors and it was an all around disaster, apparently.  So, the executive decision was made to order it online.
I was waiting and waiting for this thing to come in because my office is still in shambles because that shelf is the LAST piece.  Why is it such a pain?!
Then, a box was delivered to my office with the announcement of: "You shelf is finally here!"
Awesome!!  Too bad it was delivered as I was leaving for the day.  No worries, I'd just assemble it in the morning, right?  Totally.

**SPOILER ALERT: It wasn't my shelf AT ALL.



I kept thinking, "Why is this box a little smaller than the shelf I wanted?" Because it wasn't a shelf at all - it was a damn anatomy skeleton.  What to do...what to do...I know - put it at the desk of the actual person who ordered it (and freak out the rest of my coworkers in the process)


Aptly titled: "The new guy did not last long..."

Long story short - my shelf is STILL not here (Thanks Ikea!) but we did make a new friend!

Have a good weekend everyone!

We have an office prankster...

Sorry for the extreme lack of posts!  It's so hard to do much of anything when you're preparing for the holidays!  Honestly, I've been updating Hello Avid more because that's taking up most of my time now.  This transition has been hard but I think I'm getting the hang of it now...Don't get me wrong - it's still a pain but I'm getting there!

Honestly, I had no idea this was a thing until they started talking about it at work so if you're familiar with the whole Elf on the Shelf thing, you'll enjoy this.  A coworker set up our new friend, Elvin, to be the office prank elf.  The whole idea is: if Elvin pranks your office space, you have to prank someone else and share the Christmas cheer.
Our first prank was a bit lofty since we went after...the President of the company.  Go big or go home, right?  Don't worry, though - it was harmless.



Just some naughty blackboard wall writing.

The next prank was on someone else's desk.  Again, harmless.


Image via the office FB page

Then I came in one day to find this



With a note that read: "I was trying to help you with video production but my nose kept running...don't mind my cooties.  Ha-choo...love Elvin"

Great...what on Earth was I going to do?!  I wasn't enthusiastic about the whole Elf on the Shelf thing so I wanted to take it and do something a little more...dramatic.  Like what?  Like take the little guy and send him on a bender on an unsuspecting desk.  I envisioned PBR cans and airplane bottles of booze all over the place but when I revealed my plan to the originator of the office prank elf thing, he scolded me and told me to keep it PG.  Rats.

SO - to keep it PG, I decided to prank one of my favorite coworkers - our Education Supervisor.  He's a music guy so I went the music route.



I wanted the silliest things I could find - hence the burger and fries headphones plus the drum set (and a little word bubble with favorite way of announcing class).  I was kind of upset that I was going to miss out on his reaction but luckily, another coworker had a computer problem and I was asked to investigate.  Lucky for me since I was able to watch the reaction to the prank!  Needless to say, he liked it.  Mission accomplished!  I can't wait to see who he pranks next - but has to be before the Christmas - New Year's break!

(I'm hoping the photos from my prank make it to the office FB page.  It's been about a week now...)

Good-bye Final Cut Pro...Hello Avid!

The last few days have been rough. We filmed part of our education pieces, feverishly packed releases and most recently, I had to disassemble my office (again) and rearrange it (again) so that my workstation can transition from Final Cut Pro 7 to Avid Symphony 6.



Hello, my name is Katzi and I'm...I'm...stumped.

I haven't touched Avid since their FCPX disaster known as Avid Xpress DV and that was...errr...roughly a decade ago. That's a long time out of the Avid game. Granted, ALL editing systems do exactly the same thing - well, almost - and now I'm having to undo all the "bad habits" I learned in Final Cut and transition to the industry standard. 
While it's great and everything, I'm super intimidated because once again, I'm thrown to the wolves on my own. Maybe I'll channel my inner Liam Neeson via The Grey and do some makeshift Wolverine claws with broken bottles and go balls to the wall (my usual way)



OR

I can get my shit together and just make it work, dammit!



My problem is that I'm impatient. I'm also a visual learner. I also need some kind of support system. And I also need someone to remind me that it's okay to walk away. I shouldn't have to go through this alone and I know some Avid savvy folks but it all comes down to time and money. They'll want to be paid for helping me since I'll be the one "officially" on the clock but we just don't have those resources yet and that makes me sad. I guess the only support system I have is the notepad I took bare bones notes on and my dear friend, Google.

To tell you the truth, I've been counting down the days until my office upgraded to Avid and now that it's here, I'm a nervous wreck. Sure, I want nothing more than to have the title of Avid Editor under my name but now, I'm wondering if I should stick with it or keep my focus where I've been keeping it - with my true love: After Effects.

Maybe I have cold feet. Maybe it's first day jitters. Either way, I'm nervous that it'll take me more time than I thought to break all my bad habits and time is something I don't have at work, unfortunately. I should probably calm down and collect my thoughts.

I'm grateful for this opportunity and I'm super grateful that the company switched to Avid so I just need to chill, reorganize my brain and take it one day at a time...

My old man said: Remember, you control it, it does not control you.  Well said.

When you're sick, sharing does NOT mean caring PLUS NaNoWriMo progress

Apparently after the Summit, my body wants to go into shut down mode so I've been home sick the last few days with a pretty bad sinus infection.  I'm back to work today for the first time since last Wednesday and let me tell you, I still feel awful.
It's no surprise that it's something I picked up at work since I've been running my body ragged the last month and all the parents I work with have been bringing germs to share with all of us!  Lucky for me, my body didn't go into shut down mode until after the main event, so...there's that.
Either way, it was a great opportunity to get cracking on my NaNoWriMo story for this year.  I'm up to 22,653!  My best and highest word count yet!  Go me!  I don't see me finishing it by the end of the month BUT this will be one story that I don't abandon.  I have a tendency to do that because since I started participating in NaNoWriMo in 2009, I've written a new story every year and every year, I tend to forget about the characters I've created for that year and by the time next year comes around, I have a new set of characters to hang out with.  This year will be different, though.  I can feel it.  The story I'm working on is really quite close to my heart and I'm hoping this will be the first story I will have ever finished.  EVER.
That's right - I've NEVER finished a story.  Sure, I've had writing assignments in school and all that but I never ended them with a solid "The End", it was always a kind of open-ended "The End...?" or maybe an unfinished extra credit script or short story here and there.   Nope, I've never been able to finish even a short story.  Why?  I have no idea but I am determined to finish this one - even though, technically, there's no ending. 
So why this one?  Why now?  One word: Closure.

Is anyone else participating in NaNoWriMo?

Post-Summit Hangover

What a weekend!  Actually, the last few weeks have been pretty hectic and I can honestly say that I am SO glad it's over.  What's over?  Oh, you know, just a *small* 3-day convention that my job holds for owners, managers and instructors from all over the world.  What is it?  Check out my promo video here!
Have I been stressing out about it?  Yes.  Have I lost sleep over it?  Of course.  Am I glad it's all over?  You bet your sweet ass I am.  And to prove it, I took the following three days off to recover.  Was it enough?  No but I am very grateful to have had that time off.  It feels as though last year was really easy and harmonious but I guess that must've been Beginner's Luck since last year was my first time and this year was quite the challenge.  Sophomore Slump?  Perhaps.  Either way, it was still a success.
Here are a few photos from the craziness...



1 and 2: Working on audio edits with Michael for the videos featured in 3 and 4 / 3 and 4: Class opener test run and class opener during class / 5. Set up for Power class / 6. The Testimonial Team gathering testimonials for me / 7. Event In Progress / 8. Kick class / 9. Holy crap - I actually posed for photos at the post-party! / 10.  A visit to Lady Rainicorn at CNN Center (there's a long, hilarious story paired with this but I'll spare you - unless you really want to hear it)

The videos in 1-4 are like my little babies.  I worked really hard on them and I was such a nervous wreck during playback for rehearsal and during class playback because all I ever really want is for people to enjoy the things I've made.  I got lots of compliments on it but as an artist, my work is never really done but these are going in the books as a success!

Quick Update!

Sorry for the blog silence the last few days!  This week has kicked me in the face - HARD.  Work is ramping up for our convention in less than two weeks and I have TONS of videos to prepare for that and we're filming on top of that so...let's just say things are pretty hectic and there's no sign of slowing down until AFTER the convention (which will be mid-November).  That means: no energy to watch Project Runway All-Stars (what the?!), barely being awake to watch American Horror Story, not realizing my other fave shows are back like Happy Endings and Modern Family and I don't have my Marceline fangs yet.  Oh well.  I'm too tired for this shizz.
So - in light of all this, I probably won't be updating this blog for a little while but I do regularly post on Instagram, so if you want more antics like this, follow me!

Photo post - All caught up!

My Grandma's clock that she let me bring home from Puerto Rico / This photo goes with this post / Capturing shots of Tiago with my new Nikon D90 at work / A cute flower bloom I saw on a walk around the neighbourhood / A little bee guy / Cash register in the storage area at work.  See J's short film about it here / Tiago's daughter drew the cutest picture for his birthday and this always makes me smile when I pass by / Shenanigans with Mike during filming (he kinda reminds me of Crixus on Spartacus) / Neon at the Marietta Diner / Belgian Waffle from the Marietta Diner (so good!) / Brad's awesome belt buckle / Cassie and Mark's gorgeous wedding invitation / A delicious (and strong) Tamarindo Margarita from Bone Garden Cantina / My mandatory quarterly photo of Michael, the Audio Guy / My Masquerade Hello Kitty / Mark is used to being behind the cameras during Education filming but this time, the tables were turned / Yummy Pinkberry / Experimenting with the Wonder Lens and W40 Film on the Hipstamatic (my new favourite combo btw) / At just the right time in the morning, the sun hit the neightbour's car at just the right angle to produce these pretty reflections / A pretty geode at Lauren's / A pretty purple and green bouquet