I admit it. I spend a lot of time on the internet.
All day it is available, though we need our bandwidth at work for uploading stuff to our client server, but at home all bets are off.
So what do I do with all this free wifi? Do I read wikipedia on the porch, sipping a mojito with the sun on my face?
Hardly. I sit in my pleather desk chair staring at my 24" HD computer monitor. Nothing like a change of pace from the office!
(speaking of leather-like materials, when I first got out of college, I found a cool bachelor pad in Naugatuck, CT. Naugatuck was made famous as the home of United States Rubber, later known as Uniroyal. As you have probably guessed, everyone's favorite fashion accessory, Naugahyde, was created there. In fact my apartment was just off of Rubber Ave. Oddly, there were a number of adult bookstores also located on Rubber Ave. I'm sure this was just a coincidence!
Another interesting note about Naugatuck was the presence of the Peter Paul factory. Up until 2007, the official town slogan was "Some times you feel like a nut, 'mounds don't" I never liked that expression.)
Ok, back to our story.
So I sit, and I stare and my eyes go fuzzy. Occasionally I find the unexpected surprise.
You can see the International Space Station zip by at a gajillion miles per hour on a clear night. I dutifully went outside with my binoculars, let my eyes adjust, looked 13 degrees past North and lo and behold I saw a twinkling light moving West. Then I realized this was dust on my eyeglasses. I really need to clean those more often. Then, all of a sudden, moving faster than any airplane. In the binos it was a slightly larger twinkle of light, but I know it was the station given its high rate of speed and the multi-colored world flags flapping behind it.
Speaking of the Space Shuttle, when I was in 4th grade we took our first non-Disney trip to Florida. This was the early 80's so a Space Shuttle launch was still a pretty big deal. We went to the beach, moved closer to someone who had a radio (people used to bring boom boxes to the beach) and listened to the countdown. I should mention we were in Deerfield Beach, about 200 miles south of the Cape. People were pointing in every direction at all the wrong things, when suddenly we saw the faint streak of smoke as Columbia moved up and out over the Atlantic. I dutifully snapped a picture with my 110 instamatic camera. The negative for one picture is about the size of the fingernail on your ring finger, so when we picked up our prints from Fox Photo in the Valley West Mall, all you could see was blue sky and beach. Oh well, I remember being there anyway.)
Speaking of the Space Shuttle (again) - years later while visiting one of the Orlando area attractions, I saw the Columbia launch again - this time, I'm afraid, on its final journey. Luckily I had since upgraded my 110 Instamatic to digital.
Another fascinating web diversion is the various mapping services. Satellite maps and streetview is cool, especially for planning a driving expedition in a strange city (like Naugatuck). I have discussed this before in my travel related blogs.
Here's a little video I made when Streetview was first released:
Google Earth is even cooler. I like going to, say, Disney World, where there is a full 3D version of the theme parks actually created by Disney. You can't go on the rides, but there are enough home videos on the webs if you desire a trip through Mister Toad's Wild Ride. And you save yourself $150!
The Live Maps is pretty cool also. My favorite activity is checking out all the houses I have lived in. Apologies to the current residents.
My formative years in West Des Moines. Malls. Highways. TGI Fridays. Life was good. We had previously lived in a sleepy little town in Western Massachusetts which, at the time, had no highways, no mall and a once famous restaurant called the Busy Bee.
This 2nd film is by Dr Blalock. If surgeons are Hollywood directors, he was Cecil B DeMille. Check out the movie "Something the Lord Made" for more.
Lucky for me I get to work with modern day equivalents - the Scorsese, Spielberg, DePalma, Kubrick and Fincher of surgery.
Back to our tour:
Board Room
Snack and Coffee Station
Lunch Room
Production Dept
Home Base
So, this concludes our tour of my childhood homes, a historic glimpse at the rubber and almond candy industries and of course the medical education headquarters. Please visit the gift shop on your way out and come back and see us soon.
Oh, and I nearly forgot - thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Jul 10, 2009 at 8:32:40 pm
When a particular piece of software is acting up (ie, unstable, crashing a lot) a good rule of thumb is Save Often and Frequently.
However when things are running smoothly, which is most of the time, one must also remember to save one's work.
And I don't just mean hitting the save button. I am talking about archiving.
Here are some of the habits I am trying to get into the habit of making into habits.
(for the sake of argument this will concern Premiere)
1. Save your project frequently.
2. If you get an error message (ie, Premiere is running low on memory), save, exit and reboot.
3. If you get a program crash, pray.
3. (the real one) - You should have set your auto-save to a reasonable interval, so a crash should not bag you too much. Just open the last auto save. Remember the auto-save does not save the project file you are working on - it saves its own backup file in the auto save folder.
However these frequent saves only go so far. What if an asteroid hits your computer? Ok, technically it would be a meteorite, and a right tiny one with perfect angle of attack to take out your computer but not kill you.
In other words, backup.
4. At the end of the day, copy and paste your project file and anything new that would be difficult to re-create (artwork, one-of-a-kind compositions) to another drive or a usb thumb drive. I keep a folder on my desktop (system drive, separate from project drive) where I drag project files. Video, audio files (narration, music) and artwork created by another person are generally easy to recreate.
I am not working in the RAID world (not yet), in case you are wondering.
It is up to you how worried you want to be about separating the backup drive from the computer. I tend to eject the external drive from its bay when I shut off the computer, just in case of a lightning strike or previously mentioned meteorite. Not sure if a meteorite strike causes any electrical disturbances. Perhaps the static electricity from the displaced air, if there is not too much humidity, could have a capacitive effect. I'll ask Professor Hawking next time I see him.
5. Up until this point, a project is generally in progress. Again, whenever something is imported into a project that does not exist anywhere else, it is a good idea to make it exist somewhere else, even on another drive in the same system. What are the chances that all drives will die at the same time?
C3-PO: Approximately 325,000 to 1
Han Solo: Thanks Threepio. Chewie, take the professor and plug him into the hyperdrive.
Chewie: Grawrrl!
6. Once your project is finished, or anytime before that, make sure you have your project backed up in its entirety. It is, again, up to you if you archive the raw video, a project managed (trimmed) copy of the project, or just the non-video assets assuming you can confidently keep track of the tapes. If you are tapeless, make sure your original media (ie, Mp4/MOV/MPEG/MXF) files are doubly backed up.
Hard Drives = Cheap
Time = Not cheap
7. What about the potential to have the backup drive fail?
It could happen. Depending upon the project (one-off, never to be seen again vs. Your annual mortgage payment) you may want some additional redundancy. For example, I have a 1.5 terabyte drive with backups of really really important projects that are already backed up somewhere else. You never know.
8. Keep track of where everything is. Use Excel, Word, a TXT or HTM file, or go so far as to create a web-based mSQL file (aka, ask someone who knows how to do this do this for you), MS Access or an off the shelf asset management suite. At present, I am using Word. Sometime down the road we may go to a web-based database. Luckily, we have an in-house guy who knows how to create web-based things from scratch.
9. If it is every man for himself as far as backups go, share your list of file backup locations with your team, in case someone needs something of yours when you are not around, or you need something of someone else's. Murphy's Law states that things will go badly when it is least convenient, and that you will need a particular file when the guy who knows about it is on a plane to China.
10. Remind others you work with, such as folks who do not have mountains of data, to make periodic backups. 100 lost word docs could be just as bad for a book project as 1 lost Premiere project file is for a video project. There are open-source and paid backup software apps you can install on your network for this exact purpose. We use such a thing on our in-house servers for backing up in-house databases. I may investigate adding this to our overall network, for example to backup everyone's My Documents folder once a month. This would need to be done at the appropriate time of day so as to not bring the network to a standstill.
In summary, saving your work is important, but backing up your work, which is a form of saving, is vital. Granted, many projects are in fact one-off projects. But for the important and really really important stuff, it is in everyone's interest to back it up, and back that up. Automation can help, but determination to make a habit out of backing up in a timely organized manner is the first step.
Thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Jul 8, 2009 at 9:57:30 pm
This may sound like a circus, but we are trained professionals. The lions and tigers remain completely under our control at all time...Simba! Back! Put that box of BetaSP tapes down. Mmm, look what I've got...a nice juicy steak. Yumm (rubbing my tummy)...that's a god boy.
Sorry, I was saying.
Ladies and gents, boys and gurls, welcome to our show.
In the ring to your left we have the Magnificent Mike the juggling sensation. He has at one time the planning for up to 5 video shoots, client communications for many more important projects, all in the air at once. Even on this slow motion replay you cannot even see his hands touch these tasks. It is..as..if..they are alive!
In the center ring, surrounded by vicious wild animals, smelling to them like a juicy cheeseburger, is Boris the Brain. Yes folks, inside this brain, on loan from the Magnificent Mike, we can see swirling around in the grey matter any number of ongoing project management tasks. While helped along by Bertie Blackberry, this cranial conundrum does just fine on its own. Phone calls, webinars, blogs, tweets and the pervasive conference call each has a home in the frontal lobe of this spectacular spongy specimen. Add to this mix a flurry of text messages, voicemails, e-mails and the elusive game of phone tag...YOU'RE IT!
If the human brain is powered by electricity, then this medulla oblongata is a nuclear reactorata. To keep this many things on its plate there must be a constant supply of adenosine tri-phosphate. If this alliteration continues this ring master may just light the wrong fuse.
Folks, let me calm down a moment. The energy is intoxicating, wouldn't you agree?
There. Now, calmly I will draw your attention to the third and final ring of our show. What unbelievable feats do I dare you to decline? Why this ring is the most complex of them all as it is the domain of MAC the Daddy-o of Instructional Design.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is in this domain that our fearless hero faces the unknown. Indeed the stress can be downright stress inducing in and of itself. A typical assignment is not for the weak at heart, yet it is all heart once he gets going. You see, to take a box full of seemingly unrelated materials - videos, PDF documents, Powerpoints - make sense of it all, create an instructional design document, a CD-ROM script or website template, then hitting the medical textbooks to fill in the missing information...why it is...just..too..much..to..bear. Yes, MAC the Daddy-o of ID must become one with the material, recite the intricacies of pancreatic resections, parastomal hernias and such dinner table showstoppers as colorectal cancer and, well, you can only imagine (hey, it's science) all the while being able to carry on a conversation about environmental sanitation, review and sign legal location agreement contracts, negotiate pricing with video conferencing vendors and, indeed, keep tabs on Boris the Brain, Bertie Blackberry and his alter ego the Magnificent Mike.
Deep breath...Ahhh. When you turn your head from ring one to ring two to ring three, you see that this is indeed no circus. It is no chaotic jumble of unrelated tasks, to-do lists and conversations.
No ladies and gents this is a well-oiled machine. If the stress seems like it would drive you batty then do not dare look up, because the next act of our show...the high wire act...is about to begin.
But first, please take this opportunity to visit our concession stands. Enjoy a refreshing cup of soda. Buy some cotton candy for the kids and treat yourself to some SxS media for your XDCAM camcorder. Don't forget to pick up a commemorative book so you can always remember the fun and amazement you had today here at the Creative COW.
Thanks for reading.
Ringmaster Mike
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Jul 1, 2009 at 4:55:39 pm
Live blogging is fun, but kind of hard to do when you are going 60 miles per hour or in a moving vehicle. So I took detailed mental notes instead. I will try to get that same stream of consciousness language that is all the rage in the blogosphere.
Tuesday - 12:30am (Wednesday technically)
Although I have to get to work early tomorrow, I nevertheless stayed up to my usual lights out time. Tonight I was working on a budget for a future shoot. Rent something 6 times and you might as well buy it, I say, I hope. This is true for camcorders under a certain price anyway, not so much for BMW's. Too bad.
With this done, I e-mailed the Excel to myself and hit the sack.
Wednesday - 6:00am
See my previous post to see my odd waking procedure...Got it? Great.
I manage to roll out of bed at 7am, feed the cats, shower shave etc. No time for breakfast, so I grab a promotional box of raisin bran I got in the mail and a bowl of pasta from the fridge, leave my wife a note and bail. My car is a mess, inside and out. It has been raining in CT since last November, so there is plenty of mud and grime on the car. Luckily Saturns are plastic so it will never rust. The inside, while I cleaned it over the weekend, still contains lots of trash.
Who cares, right? It's a live blog. Not everything is meaningful. This reminds me of college. I was a DJ at WSAM, the carrier current AM station on campus - I think we had 1 watt. I got an award for talking too much. About nothing. Also I played a lot of Van Halen, when I was supposed to be playing songs by then unheard of bands like Phish, Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler.
Speaking of a mess, I realize I have the old timey version of the iPod, but it is really difficult to navigate songs while driving without an abrupt meeting with a guardrail. So I try to make a playlist. This week I am listening to new episodes of the Bowery Boys, NY City History podcast; TED Talks; and of course the latest episode of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me. One of these days I WILL get Carl Cassel's voice on my home answering machine.
7:45am
Pulled up to the office...now the fun begins.
The reason I intended to go to bed early last night was because I have an appointment at 2pm to demonstrate a DVD. Yesterday I made all the DVD menus, imported them into Adobe Encore 1.5 on my laptop. While CS4 is a great improvement, 1.5 is pretty stable...and portable. More on this later.
8:00am
With fresh cup of coffee in hand, I fire up three computers:
1. Laptop. Open Encore and Photoshop. Import pre-made animations (rendered to MPG2 yesterday)
2. Edit station in my office. Start capturing a DVCAM tape needed for an ongoing edit that our PA is working on this week, so it is ready when he arrives later on.
3. Edit station in another office. My colleague had done the initial final edit yesterday, pending my review and tweaks. I sat down to review and tweak.
9:00am
My, where did the time go? I have been reviewing the edit, making slight adjustments as I go. As an experiment, I export one sequence to MPEG2, just to see how long it will take later in the morning. It took about a minute, so that is good news, as there are 14 sequences going into this not-yet-authored DVD project.
10:00am
Email from my client - can I move our meeting up to 2pm from 2:30? Of course.
10:02am
Darn. I needed that extra half hour.
11:00am
Editing seems to be done. The original footage for this project is a combination of HDV 1080i and SD 4:3 DV. Options for the final edit are either HDV 1080i, but then the DV looks bad, or 16:9 SD DV, so the 1080i shots are full screen and the 720x480 4:3 SD DV is centered over black or in any number of split screen positions, or 4:3 SD DV with the 1080 footage letterboxed and the SD footage full screen. You never know what type of monitor the end user will use, so you pick the lowest common denominator, which is usually SD DV 4:3. Even though you can do 16:9 SD DV and know that the MPEG2 will play back correctly off the DVD, not all DVD players are setup correctly for 16:9 televisions.
For this project, for now, it is 4:3 SD DV, however I may switch to 16:9 SD DV for the final edit, once I know if the end user will be using 16:9-ish computer screens.
Setup Media Encoder with all sequences and hit Start.
11:05
Darn - forgot to eat breakfast. Oh well, it will have to wait.
Sat down at laptop, and started setting up the DVD navigation. With a complex project, it helps to have either a diagram, flowchart or a good memory. I find that if I logically name my DVD menus in advance, this becomes flow-charty by its nature.
A DVD project has a sequence - how you perform this sequence is up to you, but make sure you do everything:
Turn text or button objects into buttons. I find it easier to make text as text and buttons as objects in Photoshop, then convert to a button in Encore, which automatically adds the (+) symbols in the layer sets.
Check the button navigation - remember not everyone uses a mouse. Also add extra button areas so the user does not have to click the text precisely.
Assign button links - either to other menus or to timelines. Since most of the MPEG2 files are rendering, I can setup the menu navigation and the limited animations which are timelines.
Set timeline end actions. I like the end action to return to the last menu. Or if ambitious, to return to the next option on the main menu - lead the navigation.
Set menu color set colors and the color set used on each menu.
12:10pm
Ok, got the new MPEG2 files from Media Encoder in the other room. Transfer over the network to the laptop. I keep a shared folder called INBOX where everything goes, then move it as needed once you have the files.
Import the new files into Encore then make timelines for all, set end actions and link everything up.
12:40pm
Navigation, links and testing complete. Given the rainy weather and typical traffic on the Merritt Turnpike, I need to get outta here. Still need to export an ISO file burn and test the DVD. What to do...
12:45pm
The reason I put this project on the laptop is because I knew this would come down to the wire. I grabbed the mouse, mousepad, power supply and threw these and some blank DVD-R discs in plastic clamshell cases into my satchel, left the laptop running and took everything to the car. I set Encore to compile the ISO file and hit the road.
The ISO actually finished in about 10 minutes. I pulled over (you think an iPod is dangerous in the car - try a laptop) and shut down. Burning can wait.
12:50pm
Stopped at the mini mart for coffee and I have to get some food. Of course this is the one mini mart in America that does not sell prepackaged sandwiches. I wound up with a cookie dough flavored energy bar. I see why this particular mini mart is always surrounded by kids on BMX bikes. Note to self, add BMX Bandits to Netflix Queue. Nicole Kidman was a cute teenager.
1:15pm
Got on Rt 8, next stop Merritt.
1:28pm
Merritt Pkwy - right on schedule...for now. Suddenly the sky opened and traffic ground to a halt. Note to self, pick up some gopher wood on the way home.
1:58pm
The traffic and rain over, I arrived at my destination, checked in, got an ID badge and went to my client's office. Fired up the laptop to burn the DVD. Meanwhile they showed me the all-in-one PC/Touch Screen they are evaluating for this project. I knew this was a possibility, so I intentionally made the DVD menu buttons big enough to use your finger.
Disc burned, inserted into touch screen, and all is good.
3:05pm
Meeting complete, time to get back onto the slip and slide...er..Parkway, for the ride home. There was a tree down so once again it was a parking lot.
Whenever I leave the office, some secret Bat signal must get illuminated, because suddenly I get a lot of phone calls and e-mails. Well if you think an iPod and a Laptop are difficult to use while driving, a Blackberry is even worse. Even dialing the phone is a challenge if you are not using a speed dial button.
This made me think of the Operating Room. Many OR's now have voice controlled functions for such things as CO2 pressure, light illumination, camera position and even iPod controls (seriously). Why can't cars have some kind of head-up display with voice activation? We must have the technology.
One day perhaps.
Speaking of one day, one day I made this video of driving through Waterbury and up Rt 8 into the Lichtfield hills. Exciting isn't it.
4:30pm
Arrive home safe and sound. Oh yeah, the dishes. At least I unplugged the toaster this morning...oh wait, i didn't have breakfast. Which reminds me I am hungry. What ever shall I eat?
How about some pasta with clam sauce. I think this calls for another grainy home video, don't you? Sometimes non-HD, point and shoot poorly exposed video of our pets is just what the doctor ordered.
Thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Jun 24, 2009 at 6:57:45 pm
Lately, for some unknown reason (caffeine) I have been staying up late. Too late. Oddly, after stumbling to bed around 1am I manage to wake at 6am, hit the snooze bar exactly 4 times, allowing my body to wake up on its own schedule, and still get to work at a reasonable time. A cup of extra bold from the K-Cup machine, a bowl of bran flakes (watch enough colon cancer videos and you'll tolerate the woody texture), and hit the road to the office.
Usually the last thing I do before bed, after my continuing search for the "end of the internet" is to check my work e-mail. This way I offload any of the unknown unknown worries until morning. Sometimes this check-in shows someone else's pending emergency, so I can be ready in the AM, or even fire off a quick note saying "no worries, we'll get it done" or whatever.
This particular evening, there were no such emergencies. Rather, just the knowledge that Friday was an easy few hours in the office then out on the road for a quick narration session.
Friday - The Wee Hours
Rusty, the Abyssinian, does laps around the pillows. Occasionally he puts his nose to mine, and gently taps my cheek with his paw. Cute. Meanwhile my dreams progress in the usual fashion. Namely, totally bizarro. I'm in high school, no wait, that's college...now I'm at the hospital for a shoot...but it's the wrong hospital, I was given the wrong address...I go into the OR and it is my wife having surgery...but she's not sick...I turn the corner and there is my beloved Grandma Hilda...she doesn't seem to know that she is not alive, but that's okay, it is always good to run into her in my dreams...we chat often, it brings me peace and restful sleep.
And then, just past the lucky charms tree...BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP...THWACK! as I hit the snooze bar.
Friday - Wakey Time
I drift back to sleep, sometimes dreaming about whatever random thought was in my head, sometimes just tossing and turning...my body knows when it is ready to move into a non-prone position, and that time is not here yet....BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP - damn, another 9 minutes has gone by...KERTHUNK, take that snooze bar. Amazingly the GE clock radio I got for high school graduation is still ticking. That alarm has helped me get to dozens of classes, lectures, exams, shoots, weddings and funerals on time....more pseudo-sleep passes. BEEEP, you get the idea...Was that 3 snooze cycles or only two. To tell you the truth in all the tossing and turning I've lost track myself. It's either 6:18 or 6:27.
"All I ever wanted, all I ever needed, is here..in my arms. Words are very, unnecessary, they can only do harm..." My wife's ring tone circa 1985 tells me it is 6:30, followed by "Mike, it's 6:30, you have...wait...menu, calendar, view week...a shoot in the Bronx. Oh and when you get a chance, can you make me a coffee, and toast me a muffin, and feed the cats, and slice me an apple and mail that package by the door."
Yes, of course. Amazingly, I do all of these tasks, and get out of the house by 8am - no coffee today for me.
Usually, the first thing I do when I go downstairs to feed the boys (cats - you take what you can get) I grab the Blackberry and check for messages. This is a slippery slope, because like this particular day, things can get complicated. Before bed, I was content to know that the next morning I had only to do some quick edits to a video then get on the road. After the cursory message check, "not so" became the order of the day.
Emergency 1 - we need a location contract for a shoot in a few weeks. No worries, I will simply modify the last such document we had to create, get it approved by legal and off it goes - hopefully. But that is an additional task to complete before 10:30.
Emergency 2 - the CD-ROM interface sent out for approval is no right. Again, no worries, that's why you send out mockups before moving to programming.
Emergency 3 - help our intern finish a draft of a DVD, to hopefully send out. This is not really an emergency, but just something else to do. Give him a template for DVD case slipart, a label and show him how to troubleshoot the Encore DVD project and then burn an ISO.
With these things done, I still had to do those edits. Well, I know the material pretty well, and I can easily differentiate a gastrojejunostomy from a jejunojejunostomy, so all is good in the world again.
10:35 - 5 minutes behind schedule - damn.
Hit the camera room, make a quick mental checklist, then grab each item and place on the floor outside the door:
PD-170
Shotgun mic
camera case
power supply
Sony Lav mic
2 25'XLR cables
microphone stand
small tripod with camera plate
orange extension cord and power strip (you never know what kind of room you are going to be in)
Laptop, mouse, power supply mousepad
Pen and paper
hmm, that seems like everythi....TAPES!
Ok, grab a small luggage cart, carry everything to the ION and get on the road. No time for gas, coffee or lunch, gotta be in NYC at 12:45.
Stopped in Danbury for gas, gas station coffee (I love that whipped hot chocolate/capuccino machine) and a couple of donuts form the drive-through donut kiosk, then back on the road.
84 to 684 to the Saw Mill. Windy road, hairpin turns, and the lady in front of me was either on the phone, doing her makeup or drinking coffee, because she kept hitting the curb and very nearly drove into the Saw Mill River in Chappaqua.
Got to my destination just in the nick of time. Get the gear, leave the keys with a man who claims to work in the garage, get the elevator and head inside.
Went to the conference room, setup my makeshift recording studio/editing suite (a laptop and microphone - but that sounds so lame!).
Shotgun mic gets the best sound in a noise room (uncontrollable HVAC, shut off plasma screen and any fans I can locate), plus a lav for backup. My job is to monitor what is being spoken, and make suggestions for re-reads, knowing what material I will need for the edit. Sorry I can't get into more detail on the content.
Once setup, got the material I needed, packed up, and reversed the process.
Only problem is, Friday + 5pm + Greater NY = Gridlock. After the split to the Hutch it cleared up a bit, but then the 684 interchange was busy. Smoother sailing until Brewster, then the Danbury gridlock from the NY border up to Newtown was a nightmare. I stopped at Trader Joe's(good food cheap) and Stew Leonard's(animatronic animals + groceries) for some quality food, and to get out of the car for an hour.
Home finally around 7pm. Cook dinner (spicy orange chicken with stir fry veg and rice noodles), then sit down at the computer, not to relax yet, but to do two more tasks that didn't so much creep up earlier in the day, but that would never have fit into the schedule. Download 7 videos edited by a colleague, review them before sending the client a download link. Then download another video from another project, review that and send to the client.
Finally at 10:05 I can relax. Watch some HD videos on Vimeo (check out Philip Bloom's videos) then remember that I wanted to write a blog post before bed. And now it is 1:34am and I was wondering what I could possibly have to do late at night on the internet. Maybe I'll search for a video about fitting a round peg into a square hole. In other words, fitting more into a short period of time than there is actually time to do. Or at least trying.
Seems there are 217 results. None very interesting or relevant.
So now I will brush the pearly whites, hit the hay, and close my eyes, touch noses with Rusty, then see where my dreams take me, as this strange journey continues.
Thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Jun 19, 2009 at 10:00:33 pm
If you are like me, you have a list of things to do a mile long.
I have made numerous efforts over the years to Get Organized.
Over time however I have learned that the real secret to Getting Organized is...drumroll please...STAYING Organized. Big difference.
Ok, so I'm organized and staying organized...whoop-dee-do.
However that's great as long as you actually Get Stuff Done, and not spend all of your time on organization.
While my workstation is simply a collection of office supplies, project management tasks are not physical objects, so you need some way to keep things orderly, and a way to not have to spend a lot of time doing it.
Didn't I just say that?
Now that I have a spacious office with two distinct work areas, I have the opportunity to really get on top of project management, rather than being buried as used to be the case.
First, we have the Command Center:
I know what you're thinking - another one of Cohen's pictures of mundane subjects...
Well..yes...but...let me explain:
The markerboard + gaffer tape = something not in the office supply catalog!
I have a field for each category of project, or client, or for a specific project. The calendar covers 2.3 months, just enough time for most project schedules, plus a field for the following two months.
Could I setup an Excel spreadsheet with the same fields? Of course. But just like with file drawers, it is out of sight, out of mind unless you remember to look at it daily. This way, I cannot help but to look at it.
On the desk we have a large stack of blank note cards, which I use for daily or weekly to-do lists, telephone notes or brainstorming. These are actually the back side of a postcard that we had printed several years ago and never mailed out due to a client decision. So rather than throw away 10 pounds of 50% blank paper, I went green...or half green.
To the right we have some file folders - these are in hanging file folders. While I do not like using file drawers, if I should choose to save a folder at the conclusion of a project, the file is ready to hang. I do a folder for in-progress projects.
Immediately to the left of the Command Center is Mission Control:
Yes, I just posted a picture of my laptop. Real exciting. Let's break it down.
Two monitors on a Premiere or Final Cut workstation is a no-brainer. But two monitors on a office computer is priceless. E-mail is always active on the right, Word, Firefox or even Premiere can sit on the Laptop display.
The rest is self-explanatory - but the goal here is to avoid piles of stuff. Neatly organized stuff, including e-mail folders, goes a long way in helping to STAY organized.
Finally we have The Warehouse:
You got it - a wall unit. The shelf below is the visual file. I have never been a fan of file drawers. If I don't need something accessible easily, I probably don't need it at all. Most paper falls into one of three categories:
1. Garbage - throw away immediately
2. Short-term - Use it today, then save until project ends
3. Long-term but not urgent - Contracts or business matters - save indefinitely but generally do not need very often
I try to print little, but inevitably you generate some paper.
So the visual file is for category 2 or 3 - unless the project has a file folder. Generally once paper goes in it stays in. Thus the previously mentioned file folders are for in-progress paperwork - papers I refer to on a regular basis as a project inches along. Using the visual file for this purpose would be impractical, unless of course you store the file folders in the visual file, but you can't fit a square peg in a rectangular hole.
Finally on the next shelf up are the project drives. We save everything. That's all well and good, but you need to keep a list of where to find everything, otherwise you have a bunch of paperweights. I try to keep this updated and saved on the desktop of all computers.
Well, thus far I have merely described the way to get and stay organized.
How do you actually get stuff done? Easy - get organized and stay organized, then all you need to do is update very small pieces of the puzzle - schedules, appointments, delegated tasks - freeing you up to actually do project tasks, delegate what you do not have time to do yourself, and of course devote time to developing new projects to add to the mix.
In other words, if you offload the burden of remembering project management details from your brain to a system, then you can naturally use this extra energy to Get Stuff Done. In theory.
Thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Jun 12, 2009 at 2:18:04 pm
When preparing for a shoot, a trip or a trip to a shoot, one must visualize the known knows and anticipate the known unknowns. A little bit of planning plus confidence in your abilities and you are off to a good start.
Recently I have discovered Live Maps - a more detailed online mapping service - excellent when planning a driving route in unfamiliar territory. Normally Google maps with and without the satellite view is adequate. But sometimes it is hard to tell where highway exit and entrance ramps are - fairly important to have nailed down before getting in your rental car in a strange town. See the following examples of the same location to see the difference:
This week was a quick 24 hour trip to Toronto - just as much traffic as New York but more spread out. I flew out of LaGuardia in NY - a trip I can do with my eyes closed. No sign of any geese so that's a good start. An Air Canada mini jet makes for a quick 1 hour jaunt across Lake Ontario - wait for the tripod tube, and hit Canadian customs. When carrying commercial goods, even if they are not for sale, you need to declare your items to customs. There are two ways to do this: 1. Purchase and properly use a ATA Carnet, or 2. Get an invitation letter from your client and hope that is enough. I went with option 2 since all I had with me was my operating room tripod - I rented the rest of my gear locally. If carrying my own camera I would go to customs in the US before departing, get the Carnet stamped or whatever, and do the same in my destination country, then reverse the process for the return trip. Next time you have an international trip here you go: http://www.atacarnet.com/
Speaking of customs, I get a bit paranoid about losing my passport, so a trip like this calls for my travel pants. The Zippered pocket is roomy enough for wallet, passport, phone, pen and plane ticket.
Now for the exciting part. 1 hour of flying + 3 hours of driving = not much fun.
First stop, downtown Toronto to Vistek, the Bexel equivalent of Canada. Picked up a HVR-V1U and a JVC 9" monitor.
Next stop hotel about 15 miles North of downtown. The maps made it look pretty easy. The maps did not however depict the wall-to-wall traffic in all directions. Oh well, good thing I left plenty of time in the schedule. One advantage of traffic congestion is the opportunity to drive around neighborhoods and check out the local architecture. Toronto as it turns out has some pretty classy areas, with lots of brick.
As usual, I choose a hotel with free coffee in the lobby, and within walking or short driving distance of shopping/dining. Since it was only 6pm, I had some time to kill and no laptop. I found a bookstore and then a wine bar/restaurant. Drumroll please...and here as expected, is one the famous Mike Cohen camera phone food pictures:
Now to the hospital for the shoot. 6:30am - a late start! Three patients on the schedule, huge operating room, helpful nurses - we like nurses! - life is good.
This I can do with my eyes closed - the "known knowns." Change into scrubs, setup the camera and monitor, get the right angle, ask questions, follow the action, drink coffee. This particular institution offered complimentary coffee, snacks and lunch for not only the staff but for the patients. Nice!
I reversed course - gear in car, drive back to Vistek, return the gear, browse the 3-levels of photography heaven...Turns out the EX1 and EX3 are a lot bigger in person, and very poorly balanced for hand held use.
I don't get too much time to visit B+H in NY, so any time I can browse such a showroom I'm a happy camper.
...then gas up the rental car, find the rental facility, van to the airport, and check-in. I generally book late flights home, not knowing the actual schedule until a few days before the shoot - too late to book tickets a reasonable rate. No worries. Air Canada has a pretty fair pricing system - $50 to change to an earlier flight to the same destination.
You actually go through US Customs at the Toronto airport - presumably there is such a volume of US bound passengers the NY airports would be overwhelmed. Thanks Canada, always thinking of us!
With an hour to wait I spent my remaining Monopoly money on food, got on my plane - this time an Airbus - read a little, slept a little - landed 3 hours earlier than originally planned - luggage, car, yadda, yadda yadda...
Home by 9:10pm as opposed to 12:30am. Very nice indeed.
Having had a shoot on Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, I shall now return to the office after a week to capture and edit and then continue planning the next shoots wherever that may be - one thing's for sure, it won't be anywhere near home!
In summary, adequate planning combined with actual feet on the ground experience makes the knowns confirmed and the unknowns into known knowns. You know what I'm saying?
Thanks for reading.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on May 27, 2009 at 8:24:47 pm
If I am waiting for a plane or waiting for the distance between Connecticut and California to shrink, I sometimes recall past experiences. This was supposed to be the goal of this blog, but the present seems a lot more interesting. So we'll take a break from the hustle and bustle and recall a few unique experiences. One can always learn from the past. I am somewhat methodical in my, er, methods, so I'll go sequentially...
1994
My first solo shoot. Having accompanied several shooters on about a dozen trips both in the OR and other settings, it was time to be the lead guy on a trip. We were doing a video about the immune system. Driving on the New Jersey Turnpike was a new experience for me, but it is basically a very busy road which passes through some really polluted landscape. Interestingly, ballast from ships returning from WWII was dumped in the swamps near the Meadowlands.
Anyway, I arrived at my location in Southern New Jersey. Setup One was a hospital room. A child was about to receive an infusion of intravenous immunoglobulins - basically a treatment for immune diseases such as Kawasaki's Disease or Guillain-Barré Syndrome. As it turns out, this was rather uneventful - took about 30 seconds. Next setup was a laboratory, where I threw some orange light on the background and shot various angles of a lab technician mixing the IV solution. Slightly more interesting. Finally on the ride home I stopped for a tour of my dad's office in Edison. Most interesting of all!
1995
Cincinnati. Growing up, the only thing most kids knew about Cincinnati was WKRP and Loni Anderson. As it turns out there is more to this town than meets the eye. My particular shoot was at, get this, a hospital! Seriously, it was the first Ob-Gyn surgery I had filmed and it was a doosie. People often ask me if I get queasy. Usually the answer is a resounding No. On this occasion, the answer was Yes. Since kids and moms read the blogs, I will just say that there was a lot of blood, and you the reader can use your imagination.
1996
Around this time we started going to Philadelphia a lot to work with two different world-renowned surgeons. One was another Ob-Gyn surgeon specializing in reconstructive surgery. Again, without going into too much detail, he is a specialist in fixing problems with incontinence and other problems in that region. But the best part about this surgeon was his personality. He had some funny stories to tell about his patients. Knowing there are some comedians here on the COW, see what you can do to setup the punch line "I need you to water my lawn!" During one operation, this surgeon said, "This ovary is really calcified. Mike, you gotta feel this." So I dutifully put on some gloves and was handed the excised organ in question. It was indeed the most calcified ovary I had felt (up to that point anyway.)
1997
The week after my honeymoon, I was off to South Bend, Indiana. You get off the plane and there in the airport is a shiny new Hummer - the big Ah-nold version. South Bend is home to AM General and of course the University of Notre Dame. This particular project was about Cryosurgery. Not quite as cool as it sounds. There is an opportunity for a Mr. Freeze joke here, but I have already mentioned the Governator once, so I will let it go. Basically, for two days we were setup in a local doctor's office with a camera. Each patient that came in had some form of wart to be removed. Technically, not all growths on one's face or neck are warts. There are plantar warts, moles, skin tags, and other exciting appendages. Amazingly, a liquid nitrogen spray freezes the little devil and after a few treatments it will fall off. Hasta la vista, baby. We also did a video about using the cryo spray gun, venting the excess liquid nitrogen, and learned how to make a fun fruit punch for Halloween parties!
1998
LA. Although I visited LA once during college on a family vacation, this was my first trip sans-Griswalds. We were shooting hernia surgery. The surgeon asked that we shoot with two cameras. May I remind you this was 1997. Video cameras and operating room tripods weighed in at about 90 pounds each at the time. So my colleague Mike and I took some fly by night airline out to LAX and checked into the Riot Hyatt on Sunset Blvd - the hotel where Led Zep was known to tear it up back in the 70's. We hit Hollywood Blvd, went to the Ripley's museum and stuck our hands in the various imprints on the Walk of Fame. Thinking back, this is a good way to pick up an unwanted souveneir. Should be called the Walk of E. Coli. Anyway, the next day we arrived at the hospital setup our two hulking towers of stainless steel and BNC cables, cameras (HL35(?)) tube camera with dockable MII deck on one side, HL55 2/3" CDD camera with portable BetaSP deck on the other. Lock and load! This video remains a top seller, if hernia surgery is your cup of tea. It is one of the most common surgeries performed in the world, so it is the cup of tea of a lot of people.
1999
Detroit. Cue KISS music. I visited the Motor City a few times this year, just the luck of the draw I guess. For the first trip, I stayed at the Omni Hotel, a glass structure reminiscent of the Bonaventure Hotel in LA - a hotel I always wanted to visit since seeing the 1980 Michael J. Fox classic "Midnight Madness." This futureworld was complete with a Ford display, monorail and a direct link to GreekTown for all the lamb chops and souvlaki you can eat. The next morning I arrived at the hospital for a planned C-Section. The doctors had determined that the full-term baby had gastroschisis - a disorder in which the intestines have herniated through the umbilicus during development and stayed there. Having never seen a baby being delivered, this was very exciting. What was not exciting was seeing the baby rushed to another OR, while I had to break down my gear and move it all to the other OR before they did the surgery without me. No worries, I think one of the surgeons helped carry the tripod (the big 70 pound one) One of these days I will post a picture of the beast. For now here is a cartoon.
Once in the OR, the surgeons reduced the bowel back into the baby's abdomen and used some mesh to reinforce the skin until it grew large enough to accommodate the contents. In other words, the baby grew inside the womb with some of the bowel outside of the abdomen, so there was not enough room to put it all back where it belonged.
2000
The New Millenium. High tech was upon us. We had recently started using the Media 100 XR for most of our projects, but we kept two online edit bays up and running. Since LVD SCSI drives were very expensive ($3500 for 9 gigs) the long form projects remained on 1" tape.
One particular long project was the creation of a 25 tape video library. A surgeon has previously recorded about 50 DVCPRO tapes worth of live cases. So it seemed we were starting out with good material. However, the switcher feeding the DVCPRO deck was not synced to anything, so every time there was a cut there was a loss of picture sync. Oddly the audio continued. So first we had to dupe off the tapes to a new reel, in order to be able to use the source tapes for online editing. Once that was sorted out, we sat with the surgeon for a few days editing all the cases down to length, then a few weeks later recording hours of narration for final editing.
2001
While we were in fact in the 21st Century, the world had not yet caught on to this fact. We went to Baltimore to document a conference, basically consisting of 2 days of slide lectures. In 2001 Bill Gates had not yet convinced the whole world to start using PowerPoint. Thus, as each speaker presented his slides, we had a guy in the back of the auditorium scanning the carousel of the previous speaker.
However because it took 60 seconds per slide scanned, it became a bottleneck. Well, the conference ended, we managed to return all slides to their rightful owners, and we journeyed back home to begin editing the slides into the video. Each lecture became a 400x300 Sorenson Quicktime file to be integrated into an Authorware CD-ROM. Seemed so high tech at the time!
End of BCE - Before Computerized Era
2002 - The Computerized Era - in other words, the time by which everything was digital, and the 1" machines died. It was a long time coming. With that I will sign off for now. The fact that I can recall such details from BCE is pretty incredible since I don't recall what I had for breakfast today. I will pick up this trail in a future post tentatively entitled "Tales of a Fourth Grade Editor."
Thanks for reading. Sorry about the graphic story....Ah yes, it was eggs!
Mike
Posted by: Mike Cohen on May 19, 2009 at 6:06:45 pm
Mother's Day weekend 2009 - sorry Mom, I will see you soon! Duty calls.
Two weeks ago, or whenever my last blog post was, er, posted, I did a site survey and client meeting in advance of this past weekend's trip. After months of editing on a new crop of videos, we made a detailed list of pickup shots needed to complete these videos, and shots to cover some new scripts recently green-lit for production.
As usual, the locations for our projects are far from home. But thanks to modern air travel, it is mostly easy. i say mostly because modern air travel has a few problems:
Airplanes. Faster than driving, probably safer. But I like to know what I am flying before I book my ticket. Airbus A320 or 737 - good. MD80 or Turboprop commuter plane - not so good. Mini-Jet such as the Dash 8 or Embraer 90 are good choices for short flights. Preferentially I pick an aisle seat behind the trailing edge of the wing on the right side - supposed to be the safest spot on the plane.
I listen to the safety lecture and reach under my seat to see if there really is a life vest. You never know.
Lost luggage. Lost luggage is ok if all you are missing is your electric razor and iPod charger. Lost luggage is a big problem when it includes tripods and DVCPRO tapes. Last time I checked, my neighborhood big box store was out of stock on DVCPRO tapes. Thus, it is a good idea to arrive early enough in the day to give your airline time to locate and deliver your luggage.
Luckily on this trip, we all got all of our bags.
Carry On Luggage. A shoot like this has a lot of luggage. There have been debates on the Business and Marketing forum about Shipping vs Checking gear. We always check our gear, but sometimes I think otherwise. Checked bags cost a lot each way, meanwhile carry-on restrictions are getting...restrictive.
Hotels. While I have stayed in many spectacular hotels over the years (Fontainebleau Miami, Ritz Carlton New Orleans, Sir Francis Drake San Francisco, and of course the grandiose Washington Hospital Center Guesthouse) the more you pay, the less you get. Let me explain. Luxury hotels give you plush bedding and nice toiletries, but you also get the privilege of buying a cup of coffee whenever you feel like it and the $19.95 breakfast buffet in the morning. Oddly, table service at fancy hotels is especially slow.
On the flip side, budget hotels designed around business travelers, such as Hampton Inns and Holiday Inn Express, the less you pay the more you get.
Free coffee and tea 'round the clock in the lobby and in many cases a free breakfast buffet for all guests.
Free in-room and in-lobby wi-fi is a rarity in a fancy hotel(wired/expensive), but at the previously mentioned variety of hotel, it is expected. A nice business center featuring comfy chairs, computers and free printing is another bonus of the budget hotel. Certainly there are super-budget hotels like La Quinta or Super 8, but I have seen free buffets and wi-fi and pretty low prices.
Dining Options. When booking a hotel, with or without a car, it is important to scope out restaurant choices ahead of time. In an effort to save costs, finding decent dining within walking distance of your hotel is a good idea. A nice meal plus round trip cab fare is less nice. On this particular trip, we picked a Hampton Inn on the edge of downtown Denver, just a few blocks from the 16th St Promenade, similar to the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica.
In other words, closed to traffic, decent selection of restaurants, and a smattering of street performers and homeless guys begging for coin. We actually saw a robbery in progress at a 7-Eleven with police in hot pursuit. Better than Southland, that's for sure. Only problem with walking to dinner, after a 12 hour shooting day on your feet, is walking BACK from dinner. Well, the beer helps you fall asleep in advance of the next day's 6:30am call time!
On the flip side, some downtown areas are pretty scant when it comes to restaurants. A recent trip to Phoenix for a convention produced limited options for dining without a cab ride. In all fairness to Phoenix, I have had some very good meals east and west of downtown - no offense. Sometimes after a day standing up at a convention center, the last thing you want to do is travel far to get some grub. Room service, hotel dining, or a local dive is sometimes a better choice.
People make fun of me, but if I get a good looking meal (hopefully good tasting) I snap a photo on my handy phone cam.
The Shoot Itself. We have a unique location - a hospital.
Depending upon the shotlist, we may be in the OR, patient holding areas or central supply. A helpful crew of volunteers, use of supplies and the ability to start and stop with the exception of surgery (I have occasionally asked a surgeon to pause what he is doing for a tape change) are all important elements. Also important is of course knowledge of your capabilities. Look at a setup, know where to park the cameras, and know if when you stop tape you have what you need.
Another part of being prepared is being prepared for anything. It is a long walk back to the office for a missing piece of kit, so on these trips we take everything. Thus the trusty blue Porta Brace bag is packed to the gills with extra mics, XLR cables, AC cords, camera power supplies, blank tapes, a portable mixer and the trusty wireless kit. Just make sure you keep track of the wireless transmitter before someone goes to the bathroom or worse - home.
Safety is also important when you have smooth tile floors, lots of cables and lots of people wearing floppy shoe covers and face shields.
Monitoring what you get and occasionally checking playback is good peace of mind.
With the shoot complete, a celebratory meal, and a brief night of sleep, it is time to wake up early for the flight home. I am well past the age of taking a red-eye home. Although LAX at midnight is a nice trip back to 1960. Sometimes my eyes play tricks on me.
Return the rental car, check luggage and stock up on pre-packaged sandwiches and bottled water for the flight home.
Call the valet parking hotline, take the shuttle bus, pack my gear in the car and drive home.
Next day return to the office, fire up the Falcon and check voicemail.
After a shoot like this, we have a lot of tapes to digitize.
But before that, just like looking at your double prints after a pre-digital vacation, you check the tapes and see if you actually got anything on tape.
Good stuff. The AJ-D700 is still a great camera after all these years. And the V1U speaks for itself.
In summary, as discussed ad infinitum on this blog, travel is wrought with details and potential problems. But with careful planning, teamwork and a little bit of luck - and a good night's sleep, free coffee and good meals - you can look back and smile. Thanks for looking back with me on this one. It was fun.
Mike Cohen
Posted by: Mike Cohen on May 13, 2009 at 5:57:57 pm
The usual edit bay (we used to call them edit bays back when an online editing suite resembled the bridge of the Enterprise. Today an edit bay resembles a computer desk - results may vary - consult your pharmacist)…The usual edit bay may or may not have a window. Very often the only light is dimmable track lighting, perhaps a lava lamp and the soothing red glow of the mouse.
My particular office is just that - an office - in which we happen to do editing.
Office Half of my Office
Edit Bay Half of my Edit Bay
Lately my colleagues have been using my editing station for their HDV projects, since I seem to be caught up in non-editing work and the computer seems pretty stable. To clarify, much of my non-editing work is planning for future projects in which I may or may not do the editing, as well as all the other stuff that goes into a multimedia project besides the actual production work - this is called Project Management and is in fact my primary job function. Thus an office with a window, task lighting, an overhead fluorescent that is never used, a potted plant or two and a generous drawer full of snack products makes for a more productive work environment.
As also described in almost every post, one thing my job does include is not being in my office very much! While my days away, excluding excessive amounts of travel time, are scheduled pretty tightly, the travel time itself, hotel time and time spent in a fuel tank with wings suspended seemingly by magic 7 miles up afford the opportunity to actually be productive…maybe.
The ability to use a laptop for anything more than watching a movie depends upon several factors:
1. Leg room - this may sound trivial, but the ability to extend one’s legs fully makes the experience much more comfortable.
2. Seat reclinability - along the same lines as leg room, the more you can recline your seat, the better. Even an extra inch or two frees up your elbow joints so that your hands rest in the proper position on the keyboard. This is where keyboard shortcuts in your editing app are really important.
3. Tray table extendability - some seatback tray tables extend away from the seat on rails, some don’t. Although your elbows need to be crammed into your neaghbor’s kidney, the extending tray allow you to extend the laptop screen to a viewable angle. Given the high reflectivity of my Dell’s screen, viewability is key.
4. Timing with cabin service. You must be skilled in handling a hot drink with one hand while protecting your electronics with the other. A good strategy is to boot up the computer as soon as the bell dings, then when you see the drink lady(or guy) coming, close the laptop and place it, get this, on our lap, then lower the tray table to protect the computer. When your drink arrives, grab the cup not with your hand in the usual cup-holding position. Rather, place your pinky and ring finger under the cup, your middle finger and thumb on the sides of the cup, and your index finger on the rim of the cup. This affords the most stability against spillage for a cup filled to an unknown level with any beverage.
Once you have the drink in hand, drink it as fast as possible then stash the empty cup in the seat pocket, and retrieve your computer from its protective zone.
5. Extra battery - if it is a long flight, or if it is a short flight and you are doing something that is battery intensive, such as editing or rendering, extra juice is important. My Dell Vostro came with a small battery. I added a 2nd larger battery and try to keep both topped off at all times. Make sure you set your battery alarm so you know when you have about 10% left, giving you time to shut down and change bricks.
Once you are situated, hydrated and ready to work, aside from the T-Rex arm syndrome, you can go about your business. While I usually choose an aisle seat for easy access to the snack counter (what, you don’t fly Emirates Air?) a window seat lets you occasionally have a look out at the heavens above and the clouds below. You can indeed be both productive and relaxed in your edit suite with a view.
Thanks for reading. It is time to turn off my portable electronic device. Good thing I fully charged my
Posted by: Mike Cohen on Apr 20, 2009 at 7:10:47 pm
I have a passion for my job, which entails training for medical professionals such as surgeons, nurses and administrators, not to mention various industries.
Technology is great, but know how is what pays the bills.
Years ago I canceled my Media 100 support contract upon discovering what a treasure trove of helpful advice can be found on the Creative COW website. I am proud to be a part of this fantastic community.
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