Travis and Presley in finals for Greatest American Dog
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Devon gains approval for Jackfish 2
Devon Energy gets approval for a second oil sands project known as Jackfish in Canada.
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Buy 4 Less: Bread
I mentioned last week that Todd Fraser and I shot four Buy 4 Less commercials, or advertorials. Here’s the first. And it ranks in the top five of most videos watched on NewsOK today.
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Thunder seats going quickly
Demand may outweigh supply at the Ford Center. Mike Baldwin talks with me earlier today about the remaining Thunder seats.
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Boone Pickens met with Obama and McCain
Boone Pickens met with McCain and Obama recently about his energy plan.
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Cold Case: Black Muslim case
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OU Pre-Game Football show
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Chesapeake investing in promotion
You’ve seen the commercials on TV and online. And you’ve seen the print ads. Chesapeake is promoting its clean energy efforts. In today’s Energy update, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon provides the quote of the day:
“We’re the guys with the gas. We’re the guys who have gone out and spent billions of dollars to develop reserves that are out there.” – Aubrey McClendon
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Pancakes anyone?
Somehow I wound up on stage. With a spatula. Flipping pancakes. Miraculously catching them.
Another 7 am shoot today. The second of three in a row. Again paired with Todd Fraser.
This morning’s scene was among around 1,000 citizens at the Bricktown Ballpark for the 2008 Campaign Kickoff for the Central Oklahoma United Way.
Todd and I are working on an upcoming commercial for The Oklahoman. We had previously decided to shoot various sunrise scenes downtown, including construction and the skyline.
As it turned out, griddles were being fired up around the block at the same time, so we stopped by to shoot a quick package.
While shooting footage of various celebrity types flipping pancakes, the friendly United Way volunteers asked if I would help participate in the Pancake Flip-Off.
I mean, why not? Sounds fun. I figured one flip and I’d be off the stage.
Instead, Alex Cameron of NEWS 9 fame and I went to a flip-off sudden death and then another. I have no idea how the pancake found my spatula, but I did bring a classy plaque back to the office. Good to see Alex again, he does a great job and was always great to work with when I did the NEWS 9 gig.
United Way announced its Central Oklahoma chapter’s campaign goal would be $18.5 million for 2008. It raised a then-record $16.5 million in 2006 and topped it with $18.1 million last year.
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Behind the scenes of a Buy 4 Less commercial
Todd Fraser and I loaded up the gear and met the always cheerful Sean and Cathy Cummings at Buy 4 Less at 3501 NW Expressway this morning.
Along with OPUBCO account execs Alan Hicks and Chris Carpenter, we were there to shoot four, two minute advertorials. Buy 4 Less sponsors the Gourmet Grille bi-weekly segments with Sean and Cathy. In two minutes, they prepare quick and easy dishes, often using nothing more than a George Foreman grill. And some Italian dressing.
The commercials are produced for NewsOK’s food page and for the Buy 4 Less web site.
Cathy is owner of Vito’s Ristorante, a great Italian restaurant at 7521 N May. If nothing else, enjoy a glass of wine and try the house bread. It’s amazing. She also claims to have invented the panini, along with her brother while growing up.
Like Cathy, Sean has many ventures in progress. Last month, he opened Sean Cummings’ Irish Restaurant and Pub just up the street at 9610 N May. I haven’t been there yet, nor did I ever visit Boca Boca, the restaurant it replaced. Sean says last weekend the place was packed, which is good news to me. I’m all for the locally owned establishments. Nothing against the chains, I spend my share of coin there too. But the local places have a certain charm and often feature tremendous items on their menus.
So, for this shoot, we used two cameras, basically side by side. The shot is set up in the food court area of Buy 4 Less. We used an elevated table to showcase the ingredients and the actual mixing or grilling, depending on the segment. Sean and Cathy have the ingredients prepared ahead of time and in convenient little dishes for the tapings. It’s your basic three light set: two light boxes from either side with a key light for back fill. One camera remains static on the two-shot as Sean and Cathy explain what ingredients they are using and why.
Todd used the other camera to get cutaway shots of the ingredients in use. For example, a close up of the vegetables being mixed into the egg sandwich.
We shot four commercials in 90 minutes this morning, including set up and tear down. The editing process now begins, with the videos online beginning next week. Since the video editing format has been templated from our earlier shoots, edit time for each of the new commercials will be reduced.
