Steve Lackmeyer doesn’t like me
A few weeks ago I interviewed Steve Lackmeyer about the 2009 business storylines of downtown OKC. We conducted the interview on top of a downtown parking garage with the streetscape canyon behind us. Throughout the interview, Steve drifted away from me. We started the interview in one parking space and ended in another. In fact, you can watch Steve get his gangsta lean away from me in the video below.
Just kidding around here. This year we launched the video component to OKC Central. Steve has taken on his weekly video segment with seriousness, something I appreciate. He does a great job finding interesting interviews with the top movers and shakers around town.
Somewhat fun fact: Mike Koehler appeared out of nowhere (actually the nearby elevator) by the end of the interview. He was parked just behind David Jones who was shooting this segment.
Christmas Eve roads in NW OKC
David Jones offered me a ride home yesterday and I gladly accepted. My car is worthless to begin with on the snow and ice, so my wife had dropped me off earlier in the day. Jones’ ride meant she didn’t need to get back out into the snow and cold and risk getting stuck somewhere.
As you can see in the above video, there were abandoned cars and some not-abandoned cars everywhere along the streets and highways.
Broadway Extension was the worst stretch of roads. Tons of snow and cars everywhere. Britton, for a snow route, was deep in snow. So was Kelley between Britton and NW 63.
Skirvin
We worked on this video off and on over a two week period. Tony Thornton from Devon Energy got us terrace access, third floor of the Chase building that overlooks the Skirvin entrance, for the interview with authors Steve Lackmeyer and Jack Money, formerly of The Oklahoman.
We actually planned to do the entire shoot up there, but suffered equipment failure (batteries died).
The interview and standups were shot using the Canon 7D, capturing audio with the Zoom. A few days after the interview we shot the standup and we shot it a little earlier in the day. I wanted a “downtown street” feel and look. Note the cool red Viper in the background on some of the standups.
Also, I’m always amazed how many people work downtown. In fact we ran into The Oklahoman’s Jim Beckel on the interview shoot. He was carrying boots, headed to the Underground, where apparently there exists a cobbler. Who knew?
I read the book a couple weeks ago. Steve advanced me two PDFs. It’s a good read. The boys did a great job covering the time-line of Oklahoma City’s history as it related to the Skirvin. Or maybe how the Skirvin has changed as Oklahoma City has grown.
And of course I took a few iPhone pics too.
I check my rear view mirror. A lot.
As previewed earlier on this blog, Steve Lackmeyer and Tanner Herriott hopped in the Wimgo PT Cruiser for a tour of downtown as I drove.
Steve talked about his favorite subject – Oklahoma City. Tanner had some coffee. A lot of coffee. Actually it was hot chocolate from Java Dave’s. Details…
This idea for OKC Central was we would drive around downtown and Bricktown and discuss upcoming changes to streets, streetscapes and parking. We used a Vado HD to capture the video with audio running through a Zoom. Tanner edited the piece together and added some sweet photos throughout as illustration.
Steve does a great job of explaining details upcoming, from one-way streets to the various lamp posts.
I check my rear view mirrors a lot. And side mirror. And oncoming and passing traffic.
Tanner drinks a lot of hot chocolate.
Art on Tap
I shot this video using two camers: the Sony HVR for the interview with Leslie Spears (bad lighting, blame the videographer), the Vado HD for most of the b-roll, cutaway shots and soundbites from Dave Cathey and JD Merryweather.
The Vado is a little darker and loses audio quality with interviews. But ease of use for HD is hard to argue.
Mayor announces MAPS 3 proposal
Caught up with two of the hardest working reporters I know earlier today – Steve Lackmeyer and Bryan Dean. We were at city hall in downtown OKC to cover Mayor Mick Cornett’s announcement about the MAPS 3 proposal.
I interviewed Dean after the announcement to explain what we’ll see over the next three months as the proposal makes its way to voters.
We also have the entire announcement by Cornett and soundbites from Dean’s interviews with the mayor and council members.
