It’s that time of year again – the leaves are changing, the temperature is dropping and Hobby Lobby has Christmas decorations in stock… all of which means one thing, another intro video for the Wichita Thunder! This was an awesome project to work on this season, as it is the celebration of the team’s 20th year. With such history and tradition rooted in this organization, I wanted to pay proper respect to those players, and fans alike, that have worn the Thunder sweater proudly.
I really wanted the beginning of the video to highlight past Thunder players, victories and, of course, the 2 CHL Championships! The Thunder front office provided some photos to work with and I began piecing them together. I decided that creating a montage of the photos would be the best visual way to highlight the team’s rich history. I was able to animate the photos and give them life. Another aspect of the intro video that I wanted to improve, and focus on, was my use of the camera features within Adobe After Effects. After a few attempts, I was able to slice together the montages and make them come alive to create an atmosphere of excitement.
When this intro video shows for the first time inside the darkened Intrust Bank Arena, mere minutes before the first game of such an anticipated season, I hope I will have given all Wichita Thunder fans something to be proud of.
While I can’t show you the whole thing… I’ve managed to sneak a peek of the opening video into my blog post. So to all the great Thunder fans out there, get pumped up for the first puck drop of the season, tonight at Intrust Bank Arena!
This morning, I set out to astound you with my thoughts about the Elton John & Billy Joel concert I saw the other night. I figured what a great thing this is to blog about; two ROCK LEGENDS live on stage, “Face 2 Face,” turning out classic song after classic song, sending every fan into their own nostalgic musical frenzy. After completing what I thought was going to become my blog entry, I passed it on to my lovely wife (the true writer of our crew and whom I dearly respect and love) to get her always honest opinion. “It sucks”, was the response I received. “Too much like a review”. So I sat back down and thought hard about what I was really trying to do. Explain the experience of a concert of this caliber, a musical experience, something that you need to experience with your senses, with a few words on a blog. IMPOSSIBLE!
Unable to bring my usual plethora of equipment into this venue-precision lenses, tripods, etc.-I was forced to use my wife’s point and shoot. Once again, I turn to my passion for photography and leave you with a photo from the concert.
If you listen real close you can you can still hear the sound of 15,000 strong belting out “Piano Man”.
With Christmas a few days away, I’ve survived the sea of humanity crashing over the halls of Towne East, the parking garage otherwise known as Rock Road and electronics glut that permeates the gift market. This doesn’t imply that I’m not a techno-junkie, but as a kid, Christmas was always a time to revel in the latest-greatest innovations from the toy industry – real tangible toys! One of my all-time favorites was the now-obscure Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle that I received from Santa in the Christmas of 1973 (not to date myself or anything…I always celebrate the anniversary of my 29th birthday!).
Time warp…back in the 70′s, Evel Knievel was at the height of his popularity and was a marketing machine. Ironically, he built his daredevil legend not from a successful jump, but one of history’s most famous un-successful jumps, the infamous Caesar’s Palace jump over the fountains in 1967. The result was a crash for the ages, with Evel famously twisting head over heels down the landing ramp. The other irony was that his other most famous failed jump, the Snake River Canyon jump, signalled the beginning of the end of the Evel Knievel era.
Not discounting his motorcycle prowess, he really was a master at his craft, he built an image and mystique that led to an entire Evel Knievel industry and product line. Which brings us to the toy…
This was a gift that was completely out of the blue. I had no clue that it even existed and Santa was on top of his game when he picked this one out for me. I ripped the gift wrapping off, set GI Joe aside (see earlier post), snapped the launching kit together, strapped Evel onto his bike and it was go time! My brother and I made a makeshift ramp from a shoebox lid and stacked some Encyclopedia Britannicas neatly together to resemble the buses that the real Evel would jump. I grabbed the handle, started turning the wheel, and the bike make an evil whirring noise. Turning the wheel faster, the deafening roar of the bike soon drowned out the Mills Brothers Christmas music playing softly in the background. And then it happened… the bike shot off the launcher, went screaming down the hall, hit the ramp and shot over the Encyclopedia’s – ending in a perfect landing. SWEET!!!!
I quickly retrieved my daredevil and launched off two more jumps. Then I discoverd the true ‘nuance’ of this toy, the design flaw that a generation of boys would come to call “the knuckle buster”. As you can see in the photo (taken by yours truly) the handle isn’t very large, and after a few exhilarating launches, we would grab that handle with our now sweaty hands, crank the gyro, then WHAM! The hand would slip off the handle and…CRUNCH! A little hydrogen peroxide, a band-aid, a kiss on the knuckle from mom, and it was back at it! A busted knuckle wouldn’t keep Evel down, so it would’t stop me either.
So now here we are in the electronic age, the games are everything that we wished existed when we were kids, but the games come and go quickly in this highly competative market. They might be really cool, but nothing can compare to the toys of my youth like my Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle and a lifetime of fond lasting memories (and scars!) .
Thanksgiving is a couple of days away and, as with every year, I look forward to spending a day with the family, doing what I can to help with the massive task of the meal preparation (which mostly involves consumption on my part), throwing my elbow out playing on the Wii with my niece or re-hashing family stories and having a laugh while playing the various board games that we have dusted off.
I was flipping through the various collections I’ve accumulated and I came across one of my favorite works of art that echoed my Thanksgiving sentiments, the immortal Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want”. One of the “Four Freedoms” paintings, the work was part of a series that was inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address and is generally recognized as the “Thanksgiving painting”.
I am drawn in by the nostalgia of this work, its idealistic setting and the strong image of family. I am always struck by the power the work invokes thru sheer simplicity, timelessness and masterful use of color and depth. It reminds me to take pause of my surroundings and to give thanks for what we have in this country, to lend my hand to those in need, to appreciate those that we love, and to protect the ideals and freedoms that define our unique land.
He was a role model, a protector, a man of action, a man’s man – GI JOE! No, not the mini-smurf sized abberation that came later, but the real McCoy. 12 inches of the American Dream!
He was the first action hero. Yeah, plenty of girls out there will point out that Ken was around long before him, but Ken was never a Sailor, a Marine, a Sergeant or a Pilot. He never went into space in a Gemini capsule, nor did he ever drive a tank or fly on a jet-pack. GI Joe was the personification of action – true grit!
A few things always puzzled me though…the guy could not hold his pistol correctly and couldn’t aim his rifle if his life depended on it. But I’d do my darndest to wedge the pistol on his index finger or twist his torso into an un-natural position in order to get the shot down-range. But that didn’t really matter much, because when push came to shove, GI Joe always got the last laugh.
I was fortunate to have been able to spend a few years growing up abroad in London. Their version (err…RIP OFF!!!) of the action hero was called Action Man. My dad bought me one…once. Once was enough. This dude was the epitome of cheese, made from paper thin plastic and limbs that would break off like brittle twigs. Nope, there’s no replacing good old American quality. There was only one GI Joe.
Now years down the road, as we approach the holiday season, I fondly look back to the many Christmas mornings when my brother and I would toss every other gift aside in search of that rectangular shoe-box shaped bundle of adventure. Ralphie might have had his Red Ryder, but it could never compare to my Real American Hero!
