Visiting London

Emily and I spent a few days in London earlier this month. Actually, she was there for over a week and I only came for the last few days. FSN sent her to train their London staff how to shoot and edit video. I figured it would be a good opportunity for us to have a little vacation, considering her company was paying for the hotel and her food.

I arrived Saturday morning, took a little nap, then went out to see the city. We had been to London three times before, but had never been to Covington Gardens, Westminster Abbey or Buckingham Palace. We spent a few hours walking around the shops in Covington Gardens. They were nice, but had many of the same stores as we have in the malls around DC. Next, we walked down through Trafalgar Square and the park near Buckingham Palace, before stopping at the palace itself. From there, we walked to Westminster Abbey. The royal wedding was a few days away, so the place was packed. We sat in the grass and relaxed, instead of waiting in the long line to go inside. We went back to Covington Gardens for dinner.

Sunday, we did more sight seeing. The highlight of the day was seeing the Tate Modern. Many of the exhibits were that kind of weird modern art that leaves you more confused than inspired (or however art is suppose to make you feel). I don't see how 2"x4"s hanging over piles of dirt is art. But there were some really interesting exhibits like the photography, Russian propaganda posters and the huge paintings by Rothko.

Monday Emily had to work, so I spent the day walking around shooting stock footage. That night we met up with David Walton from the Sudan Volunteer Program. We had a nice dinner and caught up on SVP news.

Tuesday, I went with Emily and the FSN staff to shoot an interview with the designer who made Princess Diana's wedding dress. I have fun doing video shoots even if they aren't for my job! We arrived at her studio and got to work moving the mannequins around to make room for the interview. There were wedding dresses hanging on all of the mannequins, so we had to be extremely careful when moving things. I really didn't want to ruin anyone's dress. The CCTV correspondent was conducting the interview and he seemed to know a lot about fashion and this woman's life. She actually said that it was the best interview she had ever done, because he was so well informed.

That night, Emily was busy editing the interview, but I met up with some of my friends from Sudan. We had dinner at  little deli near Leicester Square that is famous for their salt beef. I had never had a salt beef sandwich before, but it was pretty similar to pastrami. After dinner we went to what's know as the 'cheapest bar in London'. It was great, the upstairs was set up like someone's living room and there was no music playing. It was the perfect atmosphere to hang out and catch up with friends. I wish they had pubs like that in the US. It's hard to find somewhere with such a quiet, relaxing atmosphere. Emily finally made it to the pub as they were closing, but at least she got to say hi to our friends. The next morning we woke up extremely early and flew home.

The last few weeks have been very buys on the shooting and editing front. The most fun thing I've done was a promo / music video for the creative agency where I work. One of our print designers wrote the song and the company gave us a few hundred dollars to buy props and rent some additional camera gear.  On the shoot day, we had guys dressed as spacemen running around annoying everyone and singing the song. Half of it was shot around the office and half was shot on a green-screen. The company used it at some kind of industry conference, but I can't show it publicly yet.



Last month, I worked on the Intel STS science fair (pictured above), which takes science fair winners from across the country and brings them together to compete for college scholarships. It was a fascinating experience for everyone involved. We followed the students through the entire process and really grew to know and like them. I was almost as excited as they were to find out who won!



One of the goofier projects I've worked on recently was for a video where the client wanted to paste real mouths on still photos of J.P Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and FDR for a funny video about credit card swipe fees. The biggest challenge was trying to keep the actors from moving their heads as they said their lines. I came up with the idea to have them lay on the floor and put sand bags on either side of their heads. They must have been pretty uncomfortable, but it really cut down the amount of motion tracking the editor had to do!

I was also fortunate enough to get some time to visit Florida and see my family. I met my mom's new boyfriend for the second time and my dad's new girlfriend for the first. It's very interesting (and a bit creepy) to see how they act around their new loves. Oh well, I'm glad their happy.