Posts Tagged ‘Producing’

Special Presentation at the Blu-ray Disc Association Meeting

Total Media Group Creative Director Toshi Onuki and Neil Young’s Shakey Pictures were invited to introduce the highlights of Neil Young’s “Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972” at the Blu-ray Disc Association annual meeting in Los Angeles in March.

Creative Director for the project, Toshi Onuki, and Ole Lütjens engineer for MX Entertainment presented on behalf of Shakey Pictures at the general assembly. Onuki shared why he and Mr. Young determined that Blu-ray is the perfect format for showcasing Neil’s archives. The 10-disc set spotlights such technology as 24bit/192kHz stereo PCM audio and the ability to browse photos and documents while listening to the music—arguably the most coveted feature. “We wanted to preserve the ambience of the analog era and designed visual imagery to compliment it. The music comes first and visuals should not distract listeners,” Onuki said. Lütjens explained the technical side of production, demonstrating BD-Live™, which enables users to download additional content to their players or to external drives. Lütjens shared how hundreds of encoding tests were performed in order to accommodate the super high quality audio along with 1920 x 1080 HD resolution videos.

Shakey Pictures and Total Media Group worked over three years sorting through the massive amount of archive material used to create the menu design and page structure under the guidance of Neil Young and his executive producer, L.A. Johnson. The team first revealed a preview of the project at the Sun Microsystems JavaOne Conference in May 2008. Sun Microsystems develops Java, Blu-ray’s programming language.

The 10-Blu-ray disc set includes 128 tracks, 43 unreleased recordings, three live concerts, the feature film Journey Through the Past, and a 236-page full-color hardcover book. The set is also available in DVD (24-bit/96kHz stereo PCM audio, 720×480 SD video) and in CD (16bit/44kHz stereo PCM audio). The album is scheduled to hit stores on June 2 nd, 2009. Pre-order price of Blu-ray is $299.99, standard DVD set is $199.99 and the CD set is $99.

BDA is the industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray disc technology. The organization is responsible for establishing format standards and promoting business opportunities for Blu-ray development. Member companies include Apple, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Walt Disney and Warner Brothers.

More information about the Neil Young Archives is here.

Chicago Sun Times: SXSW 2009: Neil Young’s archives, finally here and absolutely amazing!

Rolling Stone: Neil Young’s “Archives Vol. 1″ Set for Release June 2nd 2009.

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“CSNY Déjà Vu”


Posted by Total Media Group, Neil Young’s film production company premiered its latest project “CSNY Déjà Vu” at the Sundance Festival 2008 in Park City, Utah in January 2008. The Shakey Pictures film, a 96-minute documentary about political and musical connections between Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and their concert audiences during the band’s Freedom of Speech Tour of Summer 2006, closed the festival.

“CSNY Déjà Vu” contrasts the politics and protests of the Vietnam War era with stories of soldiers and families who are affected by the War in Iraq. Highlights of the concert footage include performances of songs from Neil Young’s album “Living with War.”

Post-production by Total Media Group consisted of twelve months of Avid offline editing by Mark Faulkner and one month of Smoke online editing by Mike Derrossett and Toshi Onuki under the direction of Neil Young. The film was created from 200 hours of multi-camera concert footage and behind-the-scene interviews in HDCAM. Sound design was done at Total Media Group by the Magic Shop.

The Sundance Film Festival is an international film showcase held each January in Park City, Utah as the core program of the Sundance Institute, a non-profit cultural organization founded by actor and environmentalist Robert Redford in 1981. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival included 125 feature films from 34 countries selected from 3,624 submissions.

“CSNY Déjà Vu ” credits:
Director: Bernard Shakey,
Screenwriters: Neil Young, Mike Cerre,
Producer: L.A. Johnson,
Cinematographer: Mike Elwell,
Editor: Mark Faulkner

More information about the film is found here.

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Stryker National Sales Meetings

Total Media Group wrapped another series of National Sales Meetings for 13 divisions and over 2500 attendees in 3 cities in January and February this year for Stryker Corporation. This is Total Media Group’s 14th consecutive year partnering with Stryker.

TMG provided all production. design and thematic development, staging and media production, including pre-produced videos, on-site videos, PowerPoint presentation design, collateral and signage for all of the meetings, staged in Orlando, Palm Desert and Sarasota.

At the Gaylord Palms in Orlando, the Med-Surg Group consisted of 10 Stryker divisions: Surgical, NSE, Navigation, Interventional Pain, Communications, EMS, Endoscopy, Imaging, Medical, and Stryker Canada. Each division conducted its own general sessions, breakout sessions and awards banquets while sharing and modifying a main stage and set each day. In February, Stryker Tech Services returned to the Gaylord for their National Sales Meeting. Total Media Group produced all sessions and banquets.

Highlights from the meetings included a spectacular pyrotechnic opening session for the Medical division, a product launch consisting of the featured product landing onstage amid supporting video, and other theatrical special effects. TMG produced all videos for the meeting, in advance and on-site ranging from tributes to Stryker employees to humorous sketches capturing the celebration and fun of the meetings.

While the weather in Orlando remained moderate for the meetings, the temperature inside the Gaylord Palms Convention Center was hot. Every night - another celebration, as Stryker sales reps, managers and VIPs took the stage to revel in a successful 2007 sales year and to kick off 2008.

Stryker Spine held their national sales meeting in Palm Desert, California. The meeting themed video “We Ride Together” featured Spine sales reps in a three-part western epic, shot on location in a California Gold Rush town and on a sound stage in New Jersey.

The Western theme emphasized the importance of teamwork, and was carried through the entire meeting. Stryker Spine’s internal team was able to craft their message around the central motif for their breakouts, off-location events, and internal communications. Participants were treated to a bucking bronco and Will Rogers look-alike within their breakouts which not only enhanced the message delivery but made for some memorable moments.

Stryker Biotech held its National Sales Meeting at the Ritz Carleton in Sarasota, Florida, with the theme of One Team, One Vision.

The awards banquet opened with a video that was created and produced on-site with participating reps and the executive team from Stryker Biotech. The video highlighted the culture of Biotech, with stories and sound bites, and ended with forward-looking statements to the future. The video received a standing ovation.

Terry Lee and Chris Carleson of Total Media Group were Executive Producers for the Stryker MedSurg Group. Megan McKenna was Executive Producer for Stryker Spine and Stryker Biotech.

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