For those that can’t get enough of the YouTube playback on our homepage, please feel free to click on, and forward the link below!
Our creative director, Toshi Onuki designed the HTML layout - and if you look close, you can see glimpses of each character.
We had a fun time putting this together, and everyone in the facility had a hand in a part of the project. We hope you enjoy it!
-Megan McKenna
Total Media Group and Creative Director Toshi Onuki were recently highlighted in a 6-page article for Creative Cow Magazine - a popular industry “go-to” magazine for resources, tips, and to learn about the technology that shapes our world of communications.
The article mainly focus’ on the nuts and bolts; how the project came to be, and ultimately, how it was managed by a project standpoint (how did we manage over 3,000 assets?). It’s a pretty interesting read (if I may say so myself. I ended up writing it). It was great to step back and look at the project from a birds-eye view, and really nice to sit with Toshi and just talk about the experience. Toshi has some great viewpoints that I rarely get to hear.
The online article is not as pretty as the magazine spread…….but there is far more information contained in the online version. Go figure. I’m thinking of the beauty and the image of the darn thing…..
http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/designing-the-neil-young-archives
If you would like to see the magazine spread, you can download the 6MB file here - just select the “Download Read Friendly Spread”.
- Adam Sturgeon
One challenge that we always encounter is the crossover between the newer digital technology and the older but still popular analog technology.
We take pride in our abilities to work with most formats, whether it is for a simple tape duplication or for a large event production where we provide project management and design, produce, edit projects for our clients to use on a national stage. Because today’s media technology is rapidly evolving and our clients are interested in using this new technology, we are continually transforming our media capabilities to handle more High Definition media production and editorial within our facility.
As Total Media Group shifts gears to prepare our clients for the future of media technology, we still have requests that are from an analog source such as Beta SP, VHS, 3/4 “ and hi-8. As a technician here at TMG, it is my job to take these variable sources and complete the job with the highest quality possible. Usually the types of requests that go along with these sources are DVD dubs, conversions to WMV or QT files, or digitizing. There is a little more work involved to get these older analog sources prepped and ready to be used for our digital machines. Although it is a challenge to integrate much older media technology with the latest and greatest technology, Total Media Group has continued to own and operate equipment old and new in order to give our clients the best variety of work possible.
- 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!
- Patrick Roche
I just returned from Cisco Live 2009, Cisco’s premiere user conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco.
For the last four days, we had 2 camera crews shooting HD footage and covering all aspects of the event, including a concert by Devo and The B-52s.
We delivered daily montages that were displayed on a 20 x 40 foot video wall as well as shoot and edit a candids module that opened today’s General Session.
For post, we had 2 complete Final Cut Pro HD systems.
This year we were shooting tapeless, which was great but did pose it’s own set of challenges. We had to come up with a system to track and log the large amounts of footage that the crews were bringing us.
We had some really long days and I got very little sleep last night but at the end of the day, we had a very happy client, which made it all worth wile.
Now, it’s time for me to take a nap!
-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
-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
