What a night!
First off was a going-away party for both our Associate Dean, Brian Antonson and his administrative assistant Janet Wadsworth. Plenty of good stories, good friends and good food. Thanks to everyone who was involved both planning and holding this event. I’m sure it left everyone with fond memories.
Also tonight (as if the party wasn’t work enough), we had our Big Info Session, where all of BCIT’s programs show up and show off to the general public. The broadcast department had some great displays up (would it be too much to say we stole the show?).
Part of the Television Booth at the BCIT Big Info Session
This was the first public performance of our Broadcast Pix production system in combination with our iMac edit stations and Panasonic HPX-300 P2-HD cameras.
This was also the first time that we had an end-to-end digital workflow.
- Footage was shot on the Panasonic HPX-300 P2-HD cameras
- After aquisition, the footage gets loaded onto the iMac Final Cut Pro edit station via P2-reader and a USB interface
- The finished edits are pushed via ethernet to the clipstore on the Broadcast Pix system and into our live show.
For the most part, it worked flawlessly – just a few hiccups when the power went out (note to student editors: “save often”). Looking forward to our next live event in the second week of April when we take our class out on location to do a live show for a client!
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CTV Vancouver Station Tour
Our first-year students had a chance to get downtown today to visit CTV Vancouver’s station on Burrard street (apologies for not getting photos behind the scenes of our Global BC tour last week, I’ll get some ASAP!)
Looks like some of the beautiful CTV Olympic setpieces got saved and are now being put to good use in their studio, including a gorgeous 150″ Panasonic plasma set that was being used for the Olympic studio.
One of the really enjoyable experiences about visiting stations around town is meeting all of our grads – they’re working everywhere! It’s one of those unique aspects of the Television and Video Production program that really allows us to get students industry placements to get their “foot in the door”.
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More HD production this week!
First up was a commercial for Gold’s Gym – the “under glass” part comes from the location – in the racquetball courts at BCIT (the gym was busy). Inner (and outer) strength can show itself in many ways, and a bench full of cheerleaders (who are eyeing the athletic hero) feel the earth move from an unlikely source.
Shooting on-location offers some unique learning experiences. Shooting on location in poor weather offers additional learning experiences… While we didn’t get much in the way of snow for our Olympic experience, mother nature is making up for lost time with rain. And a lot of it…
Today we ventured forth with a production for “The Running Room”, which illustrates a strong motivational factor for a lonely athlete to encourage him to do more running. Extra points if you can guess the concept!
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Well, we don’t usually treat our own students this way, however we have no problems putting other kids in cages. Particularly if we’re working to create a Public Service Announcement!
First up this week, and a first for our new P2-HD production cameras is a PSA for the Delta Community Animal Shelter.
Some people are unwilling or unable to deal with troublesome pets, and their first choice is to get rid of them – but you wouldn’t do that to your own children… Would you?
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More commercials this week – our last batch before we move on to our second set of commercial spots for real clients (and shot in P2-HD on our new HPX-300 cameras).
First up this week was the classic story of a poor guy that gives his girl an “unfortunate” gift on a special day. The end result is that he ended up in the doghouse. Check the image gallery to see if you can spot the ill-advised gift…
Our second commercial of the week was actually a public service announcement to try and encourage people not to drink and drive. Although you won’t see it on the gallery photos, the idea is that everyone has a “life clock” that shows how much time they have left before death.
Of course, drinking and driving would cause that number to be shortened rather quickly…
If you look carefully at some of the photos, you’ll see CG tracking dots on some of the actors where the students will be using After Effects to composite-in tracked countdown clocks. Should be interesting!
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The first-year class had our first field-trip of the term and got to tour through CBC Vancouver’s new digs. The recent construction did wonders for the newsroom and production facilities. Very nice!
