Happy Christmas

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family. We woke to a magically white Christmas this morning and shared our gift unwrapping with our neighbors, who are like family, and had baked brie and champagne! So decadent and so wonderful. Every day is a gift, but this one came wrapped up special. I hope we all will take a little time to give generously not only to others, but to ourselves as well. Now, off to do some sleding.

Katie

Baby Finn

I just had the luckiest baby portrait session. The plan was for Finn to be asleep for the potrait session, but babies are unpredictable and Finn decided he didn't want to sleep when he usually does. So we just kept to cross our fingers and hoped he didn't fuss. Boy, did we luck out. He gave us a full twenty minutes of happy cuteness! The result was great awake baby photos with Finn and mom, Brie.

Katie

PSAs for Homeward Bound

I just finished a new Series of PSAs (Public Service Announcements) for Homeward Bound, a local non-profit in Asheville that helps move homeless people into permanent housing. Check out the one minute spot below:

Katie

Homeward Bound PSA from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

Drift Off 10pm promotion

Okay here is the underwater spot.

Drift Off from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

A promotion for WLOS News13 at 10pm. Shot in Asheville, NC. Featuring Chris Hamilton, Coranna and Eruch Adams, and Jenny Wrobel. Shot entirely with a Nikon D90. Underwater footage acquired with a homemade rig. Special thanks to Leigh Lewis for letting us use her pool.

Katie

Underwater Videography

I just had my first adventure in underwater videography. I wrote a script for our 10pm news where people are falling asleep in front of the TV and then drifting off...literally. So to do the floating, drifting off shots I put my actors and my camera underwater in a pool. I used the blue of the pool as a giant blue screen and keyed them over background plates of the living rooms.

I have a still camera that shoots HD video in 5 minute bursts. So I had dad cut me some windows in an army ammo can and glue Plexiglas to the front and back. Then I would set my camera to roll, wedge it in the ammo can and seal it up before sinking it underwater. It worked out really well and my makeshift underwater rig didn't leak a drop. That video will be coming soon. In the mean time here are some photos of the underwater housing I used.

Katie

Jason's Head Shots

Anyone need a good actor? I just did some head shots for Jason Garcia. He has a great voice too!

Katie

Estee and Ryan

I work with Estee and Ryan at WLOS. They're engaged and getting married in mid-October and I was thrilled that they asked me to shoot their wedding. We did an engagement session recently at Dave Saich's house, or rather his barn. They are such a cute couple. I'm so happy they found each other.

Katie

Wilmington, North Carolina

I visited Wilmington, North Carolina for the first time ever and I loved it. I hadn't realized how much I missed the beach. I got to stay with my good friend Ashley who I worked with on ships. She rents a room in a gorgeous house in the Historic district. We just played all weekend and it was fantastic! I can't guess what one of the plumbing fixtures is. Do you know? The faucet was labeled "F" and "C" and I did figure out that that is French for hot and cold: Froid and Chaud.

Katie

Time Lapse AM News Spot

Morning News Promotions for WLOS from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

A time lapse spot that I shot for WLOS in Asheville, NC.

Continuing with the year of awesome videos, I've started dabbling in time lapse. This is my favorite spot so far. I went out and shot night after night, experimenting with settings until I had something I really loved. I plan on doing another time lapse night time shoot to promote our 11pm news, but that won't be for a while. I have another spot that I'm working on now that will take a while and I need to get my camera professionally cleaned before I shoot more nighttime stuff.

Katie

P.S. - if you have a good Internet connection and want to see this spot in high definition, you have to click on the link to take you to Vimeo's web page. Then click on the 4 little arrows in the bottom right corner of the video to make it go full screen.

Weather Promo

Continuing my journey through videos of awesomeness. I made a weather promo for WLOS to promote our web page.

Spring Weather Spot from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

A spot I produced for WLOS to promote our weather. Shot at the New French Bar in downtown Asheville and featuring Don Brodie of Hendersonville with Nikki of Greenville, and Tess and Jack of Asheville. Thank you everyone for making this an awesome shoot.

Just Won Best Film at the 48 Hour Film Festival

The movie that I just directed, shot and edited with the team "the young adults" just won the Best Film award at the 48 Hour Film Festival. That means we're going to the national competition!

In addition, we also took home Best Sound Design, Best Actress, Best Overall Line of Dialouge, and the Audience Award. I'm still on cloud nine! If we're chosen as one of the top ten in the next competition, our movie will play at the Cannes Film Festival. I can't imagine what the competition will be like, it's just so exciting to be in the running.

So where can you see this amazingly awesome film? Check it out on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXuVGiLguUU

Katie

48 Hour Film Project shoot

I just wrapped up work on the 48 hour film project. I joined a team already assembled, save for a cinematographer and editor. A friend of a friend got in touch with me and I joined forces with the team "The Young Adults." It was an amazing experience. In the end I wound up directing as well as shooting and editing. Our team was wonderful and very well organized. Our movie came out great and I will share more soon.

If you want to see it watch my movie ("Touched by Angels") with some of the others from the 48 hour film project they're screening at the Asheville Pizza and Brewing on Merrimon on Tuesday @ 4pm, Wednesday @ 10pm or join me Thursday @7pm. Get tickets in advance, I'm told these screenings tend to sell out. These pictures are of us shooting the last scene of the movie on a rooftop downtown. We crashed my friend Dave's surprise birthday party and gave Dave a cameo. It was perfect!

Katie

LEAF

The Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) is an annual event that happens in Black Mountain. I had been meaning to go for years and hadn't been able to until this year. It was a bizarre and interesting mix of everything having to do with art. There were performers, crafters, musicians, even the healing arts were represented. The areal artists who do flying trapeze lessons that Becca and I did a long time ago were there and when I glanced down at one of their signs I saw ME! In the photo at the top right, that's me grabbing that dude's arms. Cool event.

Katie

My heros

It occurs to me that I haven't introduced the team of creative individuals I work with on a daily basis. So here's a group shot of us at the office. Actually, we were hanging out in the break room with Spiderman and the Flash. Then, I'm not sure what happened. I think someone made a comment about spandex and that was it. All hell broke loose. Anyway, this is my team in the Creative Services department at WLOS.

Katie

The Oscar Party

The Oscar Party was by far the most exciting yet. So many costumes, so much fun. We had a full house, and were wishing it was larger so we could fit more people! Those that came were all decked out. Here's just a small sample. My new roommate, Carie, is the one with the kimono.

Katie

Videos of Awesomeness

There are two projects that I’m attached to for the South East Regional Emmy Awards, which take place in June. They’re both station image promotions. Really Dave did them and I helped, but because I helped I get to get an Emmy statue if we win. I also had two commercials in competition for the local ADDY awards, but I found out this week that neither of them were even nominated for those awards. I’m really bummed about that, and I was disappointed that I didn’t have enough work from this year to enter anything in for an Emmy on my own.

So I’ve decided to redouble my efforts through out the year so that come next Emmy season, I’ll be ready. And to kick off my coming year of amazing work, I did two College Basketball Opens. These are the opening titles that played before our televised basketball games. There’s one for the men’s games and one for the women’s games and they’re both posted on vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/user2464102/ videos So feel free to check them out and look for many more videos of awesomeness to come.

Katie

Cookie Bake

I forgot to post the Christmas cookie bake. Back before Christmas we had our annual cookie bake party. Lots of dough was eaten, lots of sampling done, and some cookies were finished in the process. And yes, Mae is wearing a doggie snuggie...not my idea.

Katie