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Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2009

Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology / October 26th, 2009

- Megan McKenna

The Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing is by far the most jaw dropping experience I get to have at work, and this year was no exception. With record breaking attendance levels of 1600 women – and a few men – from all over the world, we could feel the excitement just by walking through the halls (which was slow going with that many people!).

The GHC is a conference for women in computing of all stages in their career and education, to meet and network, learn, revitalize, and share stories. I went out to interview as many women as possible throughout the event on a variety of topics for the folks at the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology to use in their video marketing efforts. I was honored to interview college students about why they came to the event, tenured teachers on the importance of retaining and attracting women in technical fields, CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies that support women in technology, and the research director from ABI on what their research means in working towards change.

I attended last year and in addition to asking questions of the attendees, Jerri Barrett, VP of Marketing at ABI asked me to help get every person we speak to say the phrase “I am a Technical Woman!”. The goal was to create a video that would help the stereotype of women in technical fields.

We put the video together, and it was unveiled before the keynote on the 2^nd day of the GHC 2009. I was floored at the response. There were cheers in the audience, and my crew and I were approached by many people wanting to be part of the video in the future. Moreover, the video quickly went viral, thanks to Jerri’s introduction of the video. She asked the attendees to “link to the video, Twitter it, post it on Facebook, and help it go viral”. They complied. Every hour more and more views were logged on YouTube. The excitement and enthusiasm surrounding this two-and-a-half minute video was amazing.

You can view the video, linked to the ABI YouTube site here, or go to the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology website at www.anitaborg.org.

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Documentary well received by Stony Brook Film Festival

Total Media Group / July 27th, 2009

- Aldo Panattoni

Life is a Banquet: The Rosalind Russell Story had it’s world premier on Sunday, July 26 at the Stony Brook Film Festival. The house was packed and anticipaton was high as the lights dimmed. The film looked and sounded amazing on the Staller Center’s huge screen. The audience laughed and cried at all the right times and erupted into thunderous applause as the credits rolled.

In attendance beside myself were writer and director Jonathan Gruber and Rosalee Russell Renfrow, Rosalind’s niece who was also interviewed in the film. Rosalee viewed the film for the very first time and she was quite moved by it.

After the film the 3 of us took questions from the audience. Jonathan was asked about his decision to have Russell herself narrate the film, as portrayed by Academy Award winner Kathleen Turner. Jonathan replied that he dislikes the traditional narration usually used in documentaries, so he decided he would have Russell tell her story in her own words.

After nearly 3 years in production, it was very gratifying to finally screen the film before a live audience. By their experience their response, I think we have a winner! Look for it on PBS in the fall!

http://www.rosalindrussell.com/

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Making Data Engaging

Genentech, Inc / June 6th, 2009

- Patrick Roche

How do you make forty-plus minutes of educational video content engaging? That was the challenge we were faced with recently while planning a project for Genentech.

The training video is designed to educate Genentech’s field representatives on the company’s reimbursement program, which assists patients in gaining access to medications.

While designing the piece, we wanted to find creative ways to get a lot of text information across to the audience, while keeping the piece visually interesting.

We designed a graphic template that we could easily modify for the required text. This would give the piece a unified look throughout the piece, while allowing us to streamline our post-production workflow to meet the tight deadline.

Since the majority of the piece was shot documentary style using a hand held camera, we also decided to shoot our host segments against pure white. This gave us flexibility in post to add additional graphics over the host’s shoulder.

After 9 days of post with both an editor and graphic designer, we finally had a piece that accomplished our goals and worked really well. More importantly, we had a very happy client!

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Sdan Francisco Video Production

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Designing Video to Accompany Hi-Resolution Audio

Creating Visual Furniture / June 4th, 2009

-Toshi Onuki

Neil Young takes great care and is very involved in all the work Total Media Group does for him. One of the big points for Neil is the audio quality. This is number 1 for him, and takes precedent over everything else.

One advantage of Blu-ray is the ability to play high-resolution audio and also have high quality video at the same time while also navigating through different menu spaces, and accessing notes etc…(This is not possible with DVD specifications). All of these features are available only on Blu-ray and thanks to BD-J and BD Live.

So Neil wanted the pristine audio, and we also wanted to really leverage this wonderful new technology.

For the Neil Young Archives Vol. 1, we included a “Main Program” which allows the user to play the high-resolution audio with visuals.

The idea for the main program was developed with Neil when we worked on Greatest Hits album CD/DVD in 2004. We came up with the idea of video as “furniture” because visual footage for the recording did not exist. I thought of each scene as a diorama like you would see in a science museum.

We set up the original player for when the song was recorded - reel-to-reel, vinyl, cassette, and set up surrounding memorabilia and photos that were carefully picked by Neil. We taped the diorama in HD here at Total Media Group. I believe each visual scene has significance to Neil Young specific to each song.

I think the video of moving turntable is really seductive and it feels like looking at fireplace to me. The quality of the Blue-ray disc is phenomenal. I can see Neil’s fingerprints and dust flying around in the space. Neil Young’s studio also made a replica of the original tape, re-spliced and put on the original reel. That’s why you can see VU meter moving in sync with Music.

A lot of care and attention was put forward by everyone for this project.

You can check out the interface on this online tutorial:

http://www.neilyoungarchives.com/tutorial/tutorial.html

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Designing the Neil Young Archives

Finding the perfect design to create an experience for the users / June 4th, 2009

-Toshi Onuki

I think part of my inspiration came when I was first introduced to the project. There was a sense of obsession.

In 2004, I had a meeting with producer L.A. Johnson and archivist / photographer, Joel Bernstein (who has managed Neil Young’s archives for decades). Joel handed me a binder as thick as a yellow phone book labeled “NYA Vol. 1 Disc 1” and explained about the project and his existing database. The conversation and descriptions went on and on for few hours I remember. It was just exhausting and overwhelming.

If the Blu-ray viewer can get the similar sensation like I had on that day, I think the Neil Young Archives are working the way they should be. Interactivity was the most important aspect in the design because we want the viewers to explore, learn and investigate without getting lost. I also wanted this to be as organic and realistic as possible. From the beginning, I was opposed to graphic treatments because I wanted to create a photo realistic environment with a sense of space so that you will feel the archives as they exist in front of you.

I really like the idea of the file cabinet with the exaggerated cabinet drawer (it opens about 5 feet out) because we can throw anything inside and maintain the integrity of the purpose of the file cabinet: organization.

To me, the Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 exists in a black box and we are opening only a potion of an endless expanding drawer. I like the humor and the idea of turning an ordinary object to an extreme object. I did not want to create anything new, I wanted to preserve the way things are.

That was my basic design concept.

I visited many museums to learn how documents and artifact are shown there. For the assets gallery pages, I used similar black fabric and placed the items on top because that’s what the museums use to display precious objects.

The song selection menu is an opened drawer with bunch of folders. On the tabs, you can find the collections of song titles, with Neil’s handwriting, taken from original manuscripts. This is my tribute to Joel’s collections.

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The Art of Creating Design

Working with Neil Young / June 4th, 2009

-Toshi Onuki

It has been important for me to learn and understand the culture and philosophy of Neil Young since I started working for him with not much knowledge about his work. He has been working with Total Media Group and myself for 8 years now, and I now know how he thinks and I‘m familiar with his process. I try to be in sync with his vision so that I can predict what works for him and then I can bring out the best of what I can do.

It doesn’t always work out - but that is part of the process.

In the recent CD / DVD project Fork In The Road, I was involved in the cover art design, however, I totally failed on this one. He wasn’t happy with the design, and ended up picking something else by himself, a heavily compressed video still from homemade Web video. It made it into the cover. It was quite shocking because it was the last image we might even consider to pick. (See below for a link to the album cover).

I personally love his decision like this. He is unpredictable and makes twisted decision with a reason behind them. It is like a peculiar piece of puzzle and I enjoy being a part of this.

I’m discovering him not only as a musician but also as a talented visual artist. He always has strong visions, image and clear statements. He also brings vague and unresolved ideas for us to develop and to experiment. This continues to push myself and Total Media Group to places we’ve never been.

I often try to think like Neil Young and come up with something he never expected. It is fun when I can surprise him.

There was a perfect combination of both in the Neil Young Archives project, and there were a lot of room for me to play. Stay tuned for more!

http://www.neilyoung.com/forkintheroad/forkintheroadpage.html

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NY Archives - Behind the Scenes of the Technology

A look at Blu-ray and DVD / June 4th, 2009

- Kris Kunz

Hello, my name is Kris Kunz and I have been part of the Total Media Group team for almost 5 years in a variety of capacities, most recently creative and editorial. In early 2008, not long after the end of the high definition format wars¹ (see wiki link at bottom) the Blu-ray version of Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 was finally green lit and I was given what has to date been the most rewarding experience in my career. I was brought on to Total’s design team to help create the Blu-ray discs.

My role was under production for the 3000+ menu designs and as a line producer. I got to work under TMG Creative Director Toshi Onuki and the Shakey Pictures team. It was not only an honor but also an amazing learning experience to work with the myriad of talented people who had been brought together to create the Archives.

Relative to a 20+ year long project, my role was comparatively minor, and I worked only on the Blu-ray portion of the job. However, I was able to learn a lot during my work on this project and I would like to share what I can and hopefully satisfy some curiosities of anyone who is interested in the Blu-ray volume’s creation.

Over the next few weeks I plan to post entries giving a behind the scenes description of the design process, what some of the major challenges were and how were they met. Stay tuned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_definition_optical_disc_format_war

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Neil Young Archives - Behind the scenes of the Technology Pt. 2

From Back to Front / June 2nd, 2009

- Kris Kunz

Most design workflows would insist on designing the Blu-ray (HD) version first and then simplify what you have to create the DVD (SD) version, but when design for the Blu-ray version of the Neil Young Archives Vol.1 began, the DVD version was almost complete.

The reason why it had been done in the reverse order was out of necessity not negligence. We were pioneers often operating in the dark working to create something that had no precedent.

From the beginning of the Archive’s design Neil Young and Shakey Pictures had always intended on releasing the set on an HD optical disc format. When design began, both Blu-Ray and HD DVD had already completed and released their respective specifications and both claimed playback ability of two channel 24-bit/192 kHz audio. All of the other benefits of the two formats were of course beneficial in their various ways, but audio was the primary concern for Neil Young. Once the possibility of having such high quality audio accessibel from a disc looked to be near, the choice was obvious for them.

But it was yet unknown which format, HD DVD or Blu-ray would be accepted as the consumer standard.

(Part 1 can be found here)

http://totalmediagroup.com/2009/06/ny-archives-behind-the-scenes-of-the-technology/

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Media Design

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2009

Documentary well received by Stony Brook Film Festival

Making Data Engaging

Designing Video to Accompany Hi-Resolution Audio

Designing the Neil Young Archives

The Art of Creating Design

NY Archives - Behind the Scenes of the Technology

Neil Young Archives - Behind the scenes of the Technology Pt. 2

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