Oh Look... More TV Magic

I got back from shooting a Midwest Regional Ballet production of CATS last night and realized that I missed five new episodes of the HPT had dropped a while back. Lucky you!

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Quick Update...

Before I hit the road for Colorado this weekend with the HPT, I just wanted to share a quick update. More of my work is popping up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. I've posted them below so you don't have to go searching for them.

First we have two new episodes from the Heatland Poker Tour. These are from nearly the end of season eight when I joined the crew full time last year. We'll be shooting the second event of season nine this weekend.





We also have my most recent work for SPEED at the Sprint Center up in KC. I shot an Arenacross event which marked a few firsts for my career, most notably my first motosports event. I have to admit, it was tricky to keep up with at first because it's the fastest thing I've ever covered, but we had a few practice races to get acclimated and I was good to go when it counted.



Definitely more coming around the corner, so stay tuned.

Thanks!

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That Time of Year...

         

Well, like the title says, it's that time of year again. Time to dust off the carry-on bag, grab some magazines, and get ready to hit the skies for another season with The Heartland Poker Tour. It's been 3 long months since I last worked with the crew, so I'm looking forward to making TV magic with them again. Speaking of the crew, the HPT was kind enough to add all our bios to their website. You can check them out at this link here. Now, in hindsight, mine needs a new picture and to be reformatted, but that was because of a misunderstanding on my part, so know that going in.

        

We'll be starting off season nine with one of our biggest events on the tour, Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado. It's typically one of our largest prize pools, so we like for it to go smoothly. Of course, one of the reasons I love working in TV production is because of all the hidden factors that nobody ever sees in the final product. Of the many small challenges that come with setup at Golden Gates (and every venue big or small has their own), the biggest one has nothing to do with the venue or our equipment. What is it? Altitude sickness.

This was a minor problem for a couple other crew members and myself last year when I traveled to Black Hawk for the first time. Coming from an area of Kansas that sits at about 1000 ft above sea level and ending up around 10,000-14,000 ft above sea level over the course of about 5 hours doesn't exactly acclimate you gradually. You literally feel like you have a mild case of the flu and want to throw up. Luckily it does start to fade after being up there for a while, but you could imagine how much it might effect a production if the entire crew were still feeling the effects of it during setup or even when cameras started rolling. But you still have to end up with a good production every time, because that's television.

Thanks for reading, see you in Colorado!

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The Times, They Are A Changin'...

Well, for those of you that don't already know, things are changing quite abruptly for myself and the ZiF blog this weekend. Around the middle of August I was approached by one of my regular clients, The Heartland Poker Tour, and asked if I would be interested in working for them year-round instead of just two or three events a year. After a phone call to my wife where I begged like a 5 year old in the toy section of Walmart, I gladly accepted their offer. Why was I so excited? Well, allow me to explain what getting this position means to me.

I'll be good, I promise. -Yahoo search

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A Trip To Vegas and The Return of Howard Photography...

Wow! Way too long without a post, but it's not without good reason. I landed a cool gig the week before last, but it came with a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), so I couldn't talk details. I'm pretty sure that I can say I worked for the production company that shoots MTV's Teen Mom. However, I think I'll leave it at that until the show comes out. I think the NDA applies mostly to show content and I would be fine talking about my work, but I don't need any legal grief at the moment and the show is still in production so I don't want to jeopardize future work over the coming months.

Moving on to something I CAN talk about, I'm excited to be picking up another shoot with the HPT. I found out earlier this week that they'll be flying me out to Las Vegas for their tournament at the Palms Casino. Yes, it's cool to be flown out for a job, and yes, it's cool to be going to Vegas, but this job means a little more than that to me. This job culminates four years of building a working relationship with a company and earning their trust as a freelance employee. In the last year, it has evolved from me only working a local casino, to me traveling on my own to St. Louis, to them flying me out to Vegas. Not bad for something that started with a cold-contact email to the co-owner of the production company. It's been awesome getting here, but I'd be even happier if it lasted a great deal beyond this point.

Lastly, you've probably noticed that I haven't been doing much on the photography front lately. That is because I have been fortunate enough to be busy with production work so far this year. Should things start to slow down, or on the less likely chance someone requests photos out of the blue (since I'm not advertising), I doubt that will change for the time being.

OK. I left that above paragraph in this post because up until the point where I typed the last period, it was true. My phone rang before I could start another sentence and now I am booked for a senior photo session. Just more proof I have no idea what I'm talking about. :)

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

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A Little Drama Before St. Louis...

Well, now that we've had our first tornado (depending on who you ask), I suppose winter is over and spring has sprung. That typically means business is about to pick up. In fact, I've already been talking to my friend Bogac with Digital Odeon Productions about some jobs. The first of those jobs is actually very soon... as in tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow night I'll be headed to my alma mater Pittsburg High School to shoot their rendition of Legally Blonde The Musical.

Photo Courtesy Pittsburg Morning Sun

While I may not be thrilled with the play they've selected, I'm actually looking forward to this job. The last two plays that I have taped for them have been excellent and I'm sure this one will follow suit. This job actually represents everything I love about event videography. While anywhere from dozens to hundreds of people are paying to come see an event, I not only am getting paid to be there, but I sometimes get the best view in the house. While a local high school play might not be the most illustrious example of this, I still enjoy every minute of it.

Of course, taking in a bit of theater isn't the only thing on my agenda this weekend. Saturday I'll be heading to St. Louis for my second stop this year with the Heartland Poker Tour. The first stop was at Downstream Casino just across the Oklahoma border. I've been working that location for the last couple years, but this will be my first time working another city with them. However, I'm especially excited because this shoot will mark the HPT's 100th event. That's a pretty huge milestone, so naturally, it's looking to be a quite a party. There are six poker pros already slated to attend including Phil Hellmuth and Chris Moneymaker. If you aren't familiar with poker celebs, let me just paraphrase a little Ron Burgundy for you. They're kind of a big deal. As if that wasn't enough, we'll also be shooting at not one, but two locations this weekend. I'll only be shooting the final table, but qualifiers and the main event will be taking place at both the Lumiere Place and River City casinos. I'm sure it's going to be a crazy weekend, I just hope it stays on the good side of crazy.

Thanks for reading.

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A Day (And Night) With the HPT...

Well, now that I have retrieved yet another left-behind piece of camera equipment, I can tell you about my great weekend working with the Heartland Poker Tour. Yes, that's right, I let a HPT crew member take production pics with my camera and I didn't check that the SD card was still in it. I'm an idiot, I know. Anyway, that still didn't take away from another great work experience.

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Braggin' On the HPT...

On this blog, I usually get to brag about some of the cool production jobs I do from time to time, so it's probably a nice change of pace for my readers (yes, plural. My mom and my wife both follow it... sometimes) to hear me brag about someone else instead. One of my regular employers, The Heartland Poker Tour, have teamed up with actor and comedian Brad Garrett to raise money to benefit victims of the Joplin Tornado. The HPT will be making one of their regular stops at the Downstream Casino in October and Garrett will be traveling with them to perform in a benefit show with all proceeds being donated to Tornado relief efforts. You can see the promo video below.

 

The, "Over $50,000" that is mentioned came from an earlier Epic Poker League event held in Las Vegas in early August. The HPT, EPL, Operation USA, and Garrett all teamed up to put on a charity poker tournament.



With all the negatives that people sometimes associate with gambling and casinos, it's nice to see people in that community putting together a great fundraising effort for a community that has gone through so much. Props to HPT and Mr. Garrett! Be sure to keep an eye on the Downstream website for ticket information.

Thanks for reading!

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A Busy Weekend...

Living in the middle of nowhere (as far as production environments go) you take anything and everything that comes your way. That means as long as job dates don't overlap, I'm going to keep adding them to the calendar. So when two jobs that were originally weeks apart got shoved together into one weekend because of a schedule change, that meant covering 322 miles of highway and working over 16 hours. Luckily both jobs are with regular clients that I always look forward to working for, so I knew roughly what to expect outside of some random surprises.

Hey! That's me, over there!

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Giving Thanks...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got to work on some cool projects over the course of 2010. So going with the holiday spirit, I thought I would share some of those projects with you as a way of giving thanks for friends made, opportunities gained, and money earned over the last year.

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