The Other Time Lapse Spot for News Thirteen

It took me forever to get these time lapse spots finished.  I shot these with my old Nikon D200, using an intervalometer (triggers the camera at the rate you set it for) and some times I triggered the camera manually to make the action flow the way I wanted it to.  Most exposures were 1 second long, with the night time shots, especially the star trails as long as 1 minute for each frame.  That means for some of these 3 second shots, I spent over an hour just letting the camera go.  It was a great way to spend an evening.  Sometimes my job is just awesome.

Katie

Coffee promo for News 13 Website

Last minute, end of the year promotion with Emmy entry potential.  They brought back the director short form category.  I'm definitely going for it this year!  Biltmore Coffee Traders was nice enough to let us shoot in their coffee shop and Rebecca Morris and Savannah Crespo are fabulous local actors who make this spot just awesome.  Also look for mom's antique coffee grinder I borrowed.  Enjoy the cuteness!

Katie

11pm Timelapse News Promo for WLOS, News13, Asheville

Here it is. My pièce de résistance. This promo was a long time in the making and was finished just before the year ended. Enjoy.

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

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.

Promotions

Here's a spot I just did to promote a news series called: Person of the Week. It's a great series all about people doing good things in the community. This is the news promotion side of what I do.

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xJCc89i0hs

Losing Weight Gaining Hope

I got a promotion! On April 1st I will be moving from the news department at the station to the creative services department where I will produce commercials and promos.

On one of my last weekends working in news, I decided to shoot a story on my own. I profiled a family who were in the middle of a journey to overcome obesity and the personal trainer who got them started. I've attached the link for the video that aired here. Enjoy.

Katie

Losing Weight Gaining Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6oU5ul3euU

The WLOS Bear

The news station has a bear. Well, we don’t exactly have it, but it’s shown up a few times and everyone gets so excited when it’s in the parking lot, they all run outside to see. Sometimes I think they get too close. I was standing in the bed of my truck with one of news photographers when the bear wandered down in our direction and we both got some great shots. We think it’s blind in one eye and might be sick. It was way too thin and didn’t seem to be bothered by the crowd near by. We called the park service and they said they couldn’t do anything so we stopped using the outside garbage cans in hopes it will move on.

For those who don’t know, my sister, Rebecca, is now working abroad teaching advanced English at a University in China. She is going through training where she teaches young students, but at the start of the new semester she will be teaching college students. She’s not very good at keeping in touch with people and I expect if you tried to email her, she wouldn’t respond. She just asked that the few people who are getting her emails pass them along to other people who are interested so here are some excerpts from emails she’s sent:

Katie

“First as I viewed the plane, it was like this big white bird thing with small narrow eyes and pilots for pupils.”

“The Beijing airport is pretty busy and thank goodness my new friends helped me get through all of the security lines and bag checks.”

“I have arrived and my place is on the first floor, there are neighbors who live up on the second floor, and they invited me for dinner, then the people who I will be working with invited me for dinner also. So I had two invitations on the first night, I feel like quite the social success.”

“I have an extra bedroom and one of my toilets [Western] flushes really good, so if you want to come and visit keep that in mind.”

“I have three new friends today. I can't pronounce their names so I just call them by the first letter A, B, and L. But they took me shopping and thank goodness because the grocery story is three stories.”

“On the first day the kids were so excited to see me, their new English laoshi. When I arrived, they all ran up to touch me and say halloo. I was in a swarm, holding their hands all the way up stairs to the teacher's office. And then under the desk, more children were hiding so that they could see me too. Once everyone was shooed out of the office, I had some hot water and went to class. Here the kids like to repeat every word that you say. And when I started talking, some of them looked so confused. Their little faces scrunched up as they were trying to understand the new English accent. It seems they can understand English, only if it is spoken with a Chinese accent.”

“Apparently if you want cheese in China, you have to go all the way to Beijing. My upstairs neighbor brought me back some today; I am very excited about it…I also never thought anything could be cheesier than Spanish soap operas, until now. The Chinese may not have a lot of cheese, but they certainly have a lot of cheesze.”

“My evening classes with the adults are the most fun… I gave them each a piece of Dove and told them to smell it, not eat it, and then I made everyone tell me a few descriptive words about the smell. Some people said that the smell made them think of sitting beside a peaceful river, some said that they felt greedy, and some said that it just made them smile. And I told them that there were no wrong answers.”