5 Emmy Nominations!

I've just been nominated for five Southeast Regional Emmys! The awards gala isn't until June 18th, so I have to wait a whole painstaking month to find out if I won or not. The news guys had a Emmy nomination party at Dave's house and everyone was on some digital device following the twitter feed to see who was nominated next. Here's what I'm up for:

Writer - Short Form
Editor - Short Form
Craft Specialty - Makeup (with Brian and Cindy from Homeward Bound)
Promo - Image - News (with David Saich and Paul DeWitt)
Promotion - News Promo - Campaign (with David Saich and Paul DeWitt)

The Promo Image News is really Dave's. I'm in that one because I helped with that spot. The campaign has some of the time lapse spots I did and Dave's one big spot and Paul did our graphics. So in about a month, I'll be off to Atlanta to find out if I get to take a trophy home!

Katie

Road Trip to Miami

I went to Miami on a whirlwind road trip to attend the Miami International Film Festival for the 48 Hour Film Project's Filmapalooza. Back in July the film I directed (Touched by Angels) for the 48 hour film project won the city award for best film in Asheville. That put us into the international competition (Filmapalooza.) Even though none of the other team members were able to make it, I managed to get my friend Ashley to drop everything she was doing and come along for the trip. She's just that awesome. So here is a little video I put together. Enjoy.

Katie

ADDY Award Winning PSA

The PSA I made for Homeward Bound just won two ADDY Awards! The ADDYs are given out by the American Advertising Federation for many different aspects of advertising. They give out Gold and Silver awards, plus Best-in-Show and a Mosaic Award for multiculturalism and diversity in advertising. We took home Gold and the Mosaic Award! All Gold winners are automatically sent to the regional competition and if it wins Gold there, we'll be sent on to the national competition! Attached are some pictures from the Awards Ceremony published by the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Katie

P.S. - here's a link to the PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-waS0ZxaDRo

Rebecca's Visit

Rebecca finally came home for a visit from China, with her husband and one year old baby. We had lots of family over and a great wedding blessing at the house. It was so good to see Rebecca again and meet my brother-in-law and new nephew. Hopefully it won't be long until they come back for another visit.

Katie

Asheville Hot Air Balloons Commercial Footage

Here is the hot air balloon ride I took.

Katie

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Sometimes, I really love my job. Today I went on a hot air balloon ride. Asheville Hot Air Balloons needed a commercial and when they came asking, I jumped at the chance to shoot it. If you've ever had a dream about flying, probably the closest way you can get to that sensation is in a hot air balloon. Whenever I dream about flying, the wind never factors into it. When I was skydiving, I definitely felt the wind and it was a huge rush. Riding in a hot air balloon was more like levitating. It was peaceful and incredible. I'll have a video posted soon from the commercial footage I got. What a trip!

Katie

Ryan and Estee's Wedding

I shot Ryan and Estee's wedding back in October and it was awesome. Their ceremony and reception were held at on Broadway in Asheville. Dave Saich did an action movie trailer of them for their wedding video. They are such a sweet couple. I had a great time shooting their wedding.

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

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