Barbie & Ken wedding photography

Wow, this is super creative, and the fact that I have a 5 year old girl means I’m sure we’ll be setting up something like this soon. Barbie & Ken’s wedding shoot.

New Apple IIe drum sequencer

How cool, a NEW piece of software for an OLD computer. More details “>here.

Reactable

If you’re looking for something to get me for Christmas, this is on my list.

Remix a dry cleaner.

Why not.

I still dig the monome

I haven’t written much about it recently, but I still really dig the monome.

monome at moma from tehn on Vimeo.

Context sensitive to-do list

Artists tend to get the reputation of being forever forgetful. I’m under the conviction that we as Christ followers should manage our time well and use that resource to His glory. And with that, here’s a tool I learned years ago that may help you.

The context sensitive to-do list.

I recommend that your to-do lists be based on your current context. If you are at work, don’t have a list of chores for the house. If you have a bunch of things to tell your boss don’t have it piled in with things you need to talk to your teammates about. The context sensitive to-do groups information so that you are reminded at the right time to do the right thing.

I lead a team of artists, and I report to a boss, so my lists look like this:

• 01-Home
• 02-Work
• 03-Boss
• 04-Team
• 05-Creativity meeting
• 06-backlog
• 07-Grocery

List 1 is for things I need to take care around the house and in my personal life. Fix the drain, return the DVDs, etc. List 2 is for things I personally need to do in my job. Projects, tasks. I don’t open up my 02-Work list at home unless I remembered something that needs to happen in the office tomorrow. I add the task, and know that it will be waiting there for me when I can do something about it.

List 3 and 4 are my communications lists. 03-Boss contain items I need to discuss with my boss. We have a standing weekly meeting so I’ll reserve things until then to talk about unless they’re time sensitive. If anyone on my team wants me to mention sometime, if I want to brag to him about one of my team members I’ll jot it down when the thought hits me, assured that I’ll do it when I have his attention. List 4 is the same, anything I need to communicate to someone on my team goes here. This list is noted with the person’s name as such:

“Bob – Make an awesome video due:2 weeks” so that the person’s name is the first thing I see. I even include things for the entire team to share at our team meeting; “All – Read some awesome books due:1 month”

List 5 contains items I’d need to bring up in our creativity / service planning meeting. Again, best not to bother people with a question if I know I’ll see them in person at a certain time and can get a better answer. Unless it’s time sensitive I’ll hold the question here.

List 6 is for those tasks that don’t fit elsewhere, but I don’t want to forget. Having a back burner space allows me the freedom to keep my other lists very focused. And list 7… well, I don’t walk to forget the milk or that jumbo bag of Reese’s when I get to the store.

Have as few lists as necessary, and tailor them so you don’t drop information. Look at your week and look for your information interchanges. Maybe you have a weekly meeting with volunteers and don’t want to forget to tell them some things. Create a “Volunteer Meeting” list to hold all those thoughts until the right time.

This works regardless of your personal favorite to-do list application. Maybe it’s a note card. Maybe it’s Google Tasks. Maybe it’s one of 1,000 iOS apps… it’s not the specific application but how you use it. (But personally, I’m a huge Remember the Milk fan)

Project File Organization

It is essential for creatives to maintain discipline when working on projects. First, it allows you to be more productive and use your resource of time more effectively. Second, if there is any sort of collaboration it’s essential to organize something logically to save copious amounts of time.

“Where is (file x, or project y)?”
“It’s in the logical place, of course.”

I’ve heard that conversation more than once, which is why we try to organize all of our media projects similarly. It makes it easy to pick up after someone with less fuss and time wasted. Each team member may have a slight variation and that’s OK, it just needs to be close and have a logical structure. How to I personally organize my media? (click for larger image)

In general, most projects are structured like this. Under the Project name are five folders.

Assets
This is where the “stuff goes,” and depending on the complexity of the project, may include subfolders. The “stuff” includes video footage, stock artwork, textures, fonts (if the project is to be shared or archived), and music or audio. Purchase a voice over? Put it in Assets. Buy images from iStockPhoto? Put it in Assets.

Finals
The final rendered videos go here.

Inspiration
This folder isn’t always necessary, but if there are some specific inspiration pieces that need to accompany the project (clips of video, some still images, whatever) there’s a place for it to live.

Projects
This is our master working folder. Every major project file lives here including After Effects files, Final Cut Pro files, potentially a Photoshop document (if it’s a major part of the work).

Renders
A folder for all rendered elements. Render a piece of video from After Effects that is headed to Final Cut? This is the place for that. If I’m working in Cinema 4D I’ll create subfolders under this render folder for each TIFF sequence.

So that’s it. Nothing fancy, just practical project organization. I follow this 90% of the time. Don’t let the system rule you, but let it help you.

Archie Pelago

Nice groove from Archie Pelago. It’s a creative blend of DJ, looping, and organic sounds.

Hagrid and “the coolest inventor”

This past week I traveled to Chicago with a few guys from NewSpring to attend the Story conference. You may remember in my previous travels I routinely take along a travel buddy, assigned by my son, and use this object to document the trip. This time my daughter sent along Hagrid to join the trip. G’s contribution was a dude he refers to as “the coolest inventor.” As I’m on the road I send them quick snapshots of what I’m seeing. So much fun. Here are my favorites.

NLC speaker intros

We decided to try our hand at some motion tracked light painting for the NLC speaker intros. Fun stuff, and it turns out you get pretty fast at tracking with repetition.

NLC Counter / Opener music

A breakdown of the music used for the counters and openers of the NLC conference.

Counter 1

1. DJ Shadow – “I Gotta Rokk”
2. Linkin Park – “New Divide (Instrumental)”

Counter 2

1. Glitch Mob – “Warrior Concerto”
2. The Beastie Boys – “Fight for you right (Meaux Green Remix)”
3. Powerman 5000 (covering Quiet Riot) – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”

Counter 3

1. Moby – “Lie Down in Darkness (Bassjackers Remix)”
2. Foo Fighters – “All My Life”

Openers

1. The Beastie Boys – “Make Some Noise”
2. Glitch Mob – “We Swarm”

Rdio karaoke

Ever since jumping on to Rdio several months ago I’ve been looking to using it for one thing… road trip karaoke. And that just happened this past weekend with my beautiful bride as we headed down to Atlanta for a wedding. I will now list for you our entire playlist, in order. It is not a cohesive mix, but we can certainly sing along, and loudly, to 95% of the tunes. Most of these are certified 1991-1996 high school era.

1. The Bargain Store – Dolly Parton
2. Fly Me Courageous – Drivin’ N’ Cryin’
3. All my Ex’s live in Texas – George Strait
4. Road Movie to Berlin & Birdhouse in your Soul – They Might Be Giants
5. This Can’t be Love, L-O-V-E, Route 66, & Paper Moon – Natalie Cole
6. Punk Rawk Show – Mxpx
7. Psychedelic Super Jesus – Bride
8. Unchain, Say the Word, Desert Rose – Whiteheart
9. Pieces of You & Who Will Save Your Soul – Jewel
10. Stars – Hum
11. Come In, Tuesday, & Break Hard the Wishbone – Sarah Masen
12. 6 Underground – The Sneaker Pimps
13. Anybody Out There? – Burlap to Cashmere
14. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
15. Black – Pearl Jam

Deadmau5, Tabernacle

This past Thursday I had the great joy to follow an entire day of the NLC Conference at NewSpring with a trip down to Atlanta to see Deadmau5 perform at the Tabernacle. It was both audibly and visually arresting. While the iPhone’s camera doesn’t convey the full experience I was able to capture some of the visuals. There was an interesting stage / lighting display that I would gladly see again. The level of production and creativity was inspiring.

What follows are a series of clips I pulled directly from the show.

29 Ways to be creative

I can personally relate to all 29 of these.

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Doodle Flix

I suggest you take some time and enjoy Doodle Flix, a site dedicated to the drawing and sketching on Netflix envelopes. Makes me a little sad that I went to streaming-only. Maybe I can start taking screen shots of my Roku and using Skitch to style it up.

Nice.

I can appreciate the creativity behind this.

Columbia campus, August 20

This past Saturday night Perry decided to preach one live service at our Columbia campus on a Saturday night to help free up seats for the following Sunday. The response to the Gospel was awesome (more than 50 accepted Jesus) and the attendance was 900+, what an amazing evening.

Context sensitive to-do list

More in the life of a productive creative. Consider the idea of the context-sensitive to-do list.

I’ve been a obsessive fan of to-do lists for quite some time. They’ve taken on various forms from a giant whiteboard to a small pack of note cards to umpteen different digital variations. At the moment I use a combination of Remember the Milk Wunderlist (primarily because of its well tailored iPhone app and its price of free) and Evernote (via the Egretlist iPhone).

The form you use really doesn’t matter as long as it enables to you capture the to-do when it’s presented to you and divvy it out when appropriate.

Enter the context-sensitive to-do list. The idea is that you create any number of to-do lists to match up with the environment you’ll be in when you need to execute the task. For example, creating a list for  WORK and HOME allows you to shuffle off ideas to the appropriate spot to be reminded when you’re in a place where you can actually do something about them.

Take that a step further. Create lists specific to the weekly meetings you sit in. For example if you lead people create a TEAM list to bring into that meeting. In that list include things you intend to share with your entire team, and include individual member conversations as well. Example “Don’t forget we’re off next Monday” or “Bob – status on your project” Train yourself to put everything, even small items, on this list to create an airtight system of passing around information.

Personally, I have 3-4 of these master lists that directly relate to a meeting I’m in. I use these various lists for my team, my boss, and other groups I’ll be around and it’s a great way to connect the dots of information.

Beyond that, you can fine tooth comb it as much as needed. I have a list of restaurants that have been recommended for my wife and I to try out. It’s noted by the city (in case we find ourselves in a nearby town). It eliminates the “oooh, I know someone said something about some place… what was that?” Tailor your context-sensitive lists to your needs. Assess where it is that you need to empty information and create a list for that environment. You could go overboard, of course, so try to limit it to the most important spots first.

Makeup and Vanity Set | Never Let Go

Makeup and Vanity set, one of my favorite homemade electronic bands covered in NES-esque blips and VHS saturation, have a new EP out on Bandcamp. You need to get in on this if anything from the afore mentioned sentence piques your interest.

Makeup and Vanity Set | Never Let Go on Bandcamp

Revelation; series promo

I’m a sucker for movie trailers and here’s one we built to promo our upcoming series; Revelation.