Once again, this year, STM Bags sponsored our podcast, Neo-Fight.tv, to head to Las Vegas to cover CES 2010.



For those of you unaware of CES, it's the Consumer Electronics Show, and is one of the largest exhibitions in the US, with nearly 2700 booths showing off their wares.



Master Producer Jay Lee, Co-Host Tiffany Young, and myself jumped in the Explorer and headed out on Tuesday morning. One great thing about Arizona is that it's close to major centers like LA, San Diego, and of course, Las Vegas. Driving is not only cheaper (and far less stressful) than flying, but it affords the luxury of bringing a ton of gear, and being able to easily cart it around to the various hotels and ballrooms that we'd be shooting..



Case in point, here's Tiffany covering a nifty new gadget at a 'mini-show' held at the Venetian Hotel and Casino. If it weren't enough that there are miles and miles of booths at the show itself, other PR companies hold these press-only mini-shows. As they are only for the media, they're a lot of fun (and the free food and drinks don't hurt). The exhibitors are ready and expecting to give interviews, so we can get a lot done in a short period of time.



Eventually, of course, we have to get to the show floor itself, which is VAST. Here's Jay and Tiffany covering a new NAS product from Verbatim. I thought Jay's cargo pants and belted-tunic look gave him a definite 'Luke Skywalker' feel here...



Another great thing about CES is it allows us to meet all of our friends and colleagues in the media. Here's Andy Walker (with his shooter, Peder Pederman) from the podcast LabRats.



All in all, a great time was had by all, and we're all looking forward to covering next year's show... To catch our coverage of CES 2010, point your browser at www.neo-fight.tv over the next four weeks. Let us know what you think.

-Ben

(Reposted from Electronic Retailing Magazine Blog)

It’s not a far stretch to say that everyone that attended the ERA Networking Reception in San Diego on Monday, October 19, had a FABULOUS time. With 200+ direct response pros in attendance on the rooftop of Stingaree, the vibe and overall buzz of the evening was upbeat and optimistic. The drinks were flowing, the atmosphere was perfect and the conversations were flowing! Many people said they were making more connections during the two hour reception than they had made all day on the conference in town!

Having Andi Barness and Ben Freedman from PrimeImage Media at the reception also created a lot of buzz – they managed to get more than a dozen interviews with attendees asking why they were planning on coming to The Great Ideas Summit 2010 in New Orleans. Check out the video they produced below and the pictures that Kim Lewis with ERA snapped. www.ERAGreatIdeas.org



For all of you that attended – we hope it was a worthwhile and successful networking event for you!

We've all seen the recent kerfuffle over Ralph Lauren's photoshopped model photos (in case you haven't, they're here), but there are definitely times when a little photoshopping is in order.

Take, for example, a recent aerial shoot we did of a gorgeous home here in Paradise Valley, Arizona. This is really a stunning estate, but due to the time of year and absence of the owners, the lawn was less than perfect. You could actually pay a lot more to get a far better photoshop result, but these images, while far from perfect, do a pretty good job of conveying the look of 'grass', and we were able to turn the project around in a single day, without breaking the bank.

Here's a few examples, with the 'before' following the 'afters'. Let me know what you think...

Again, our goal is to produce something that conveys the right emotion on a tight timeframe, even if it can't stand up to the closest photographic scrutiny. If you have a project that you'd like to photograph, but might need a little sprucing up after the fact, drop us a line at 480.240.9270.

One of the most common questions I receive is how I manage to schlep an entire studio-worth of production gear around the country and stay sane... My answer: It's all in the bag. The right kind of baggage can really help make traveling with production equipment manageable. Here's what I bring:

This is my only check-in bag. It's an Eddie Bauer rolling duffle -- the largest they make. It's so large, in fact, that I almost never fill up the top section, which is where my clothes go. You'll notice there is a separate bottom compartment, though, which is where the utility lies. Inside, wrapped in a thick production blanket are my two tripods.. One is for my video camera, and one for stills (I've yet to find a tripod that is light enough for my dSLR, but rock solid enough for my video camera, and could do double duty). The two tripods make up most of the weight of this bag, which, when added to my clothes and toiletries and such, comes to around 45lb, just under the 50lb check-in limit on most airlines.

This is the jewel of my luggage system... The Think Tank Airline Roller, which I carry on with me whenever possible (I have to gate-check it on small aircraft). Let's take a look inside...

Here we have everything a portable studio kit could need. From top-left, there's an on-camera LED light (made by Zylight), my dSLR lens, Sony EX-1 XDCAM camera, rain cover, charger, Sennheiser Evolution wireless microphones, cleaning supplies and batteries, and finally my Nikon D300 SLR camera. The lid flap has room for cards, flyers, etc...

Finally, there's my backpack of choice, which is currently the Skooba Designs Check-Through bag. This bag is cool in that it's TSA approved so you don't have to take your laptop out at the airport. Saves a few precious moments...

Inside is my MacBook Editing studio, a portable HD, Sprint AirCard, iPhone, and a few other essentials. This is the bag that stays with me under the seat so I can edit on my flight home...

This combination has served me well for a couple of years now, but I'm always looking to find news ways to pack light and still carry everything I need. If you have any suggestions, drop me a line at ben@PrimeImageMedia.com

One of the things we pride ourselves on at PrimeImage Media, is thinking outside the box. So often, videographers are taught that there's one way to do something, and that becomes a dogmatic stance that prevents them from seeing other solutions that might otherwise present themselves.

Case in point, our recent trip to Asheville, North Carolina to shoot a 315 acre estate. I took along professional presenter Andi Barness (www.andibarness.com) as the host. Normally when I work with Andi, we have a teleprompter for her, but working in a vast, outdoor windy location made setting up a teleprompter impractical. In other, similar situations, we've just taped paper to the bottom of the camera's lens, but this has its own problems, as the paper gets blown around in even the slightest breeze, and it requires printing before hand (not good for on-the-spot changes).

As it happens, I have an Amazon Kindle DX e-book reader which we recently reviewed on our tech-podcast, Neo-Fight.tv (www.neo-fight.tv). It struck me that it might make a good in-the-field teleprompter... so why not 'think outside the box' and give it a try!

So here's where our scripting process starts... on the plane with my laptop, where Andi and I review the details from our client, and proceed to craft the script. Not all of it will be on-camera (which would require a full-blown teleprompter). Rather, the snippets of on-camera that Andi does will be teleprompted, and the rest will be read as voice-over, and then we'll shoot "B-Roll" to cover her dialog.

This is usually our next stop... :-)

Here we are on-site. You can see the Amazon Kindle mounted on top of the XDCAM camera we're using. I used an old iPod windshield-suction mount screwed to a cannibalized flash shoe to attach the kindle to the camera. Let's take a closer look...

Here you can see the Kindle hanging above the lens. While most teleprompters use a mirror to sit right in front of the camera lens, we didn't have that option, so we mounted it directly above. As long as the talent is more than 10 or so feet from the camera, it's hard to tell they're looking slightly up from the lens.

Here's Andi reading from the Kindle. The great thing was that we could easily make changes to the script right on site on our laptop, and upload them wirelessly to the Kindle. That sure sped things up. No printer required.

Finally, here's Andi reading her voice-over from the Kindle back at the hotel. Once again, nothing to print, and easy to make changes. Of course, she could just as easily have read from the laptop, but really, how cool would that have been?

Got an innovative video product that comes from out-of-the-box thinking? Drop me a line at ben@PrimeImageMedia.com