We received a very nice note from Rick commenting on the DVD we produced while on board a cruise ship in November:
“Working with you David and Christie on the first cruise was amazing. I can’t believe the quality of what you did. Incredible. I didn’t even realize you were filming half the time and the dedication and time you put into the all night editing sessions should put you guys at the top of the heap. The whole DVD you made was musical, got what I thought were the best moments of the cruise and performances and the editing was seamless and highly professional. You both are brilliant at what you do. THESE GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!”
UPDATE JANUARY 10th, 2009: As promised, here are two clips from the DVD we produced for Rick & Company; the first is a montage from the opening night concert. We had four cameras rolling and two camera operators. There were many house PA issues that night which you can hear in this clip. Hey whaddaya expect, it was a full on rock concert taking place on a boat in the ocean! I really don’t think Carnival had done this before. But they got everything squared away for all performances after this.
This second clip is a montage of the rest of the DVD. It includes a little bit from the Lido deck concert (previously unreleased), a short bit from Rick’s and John Waite’s acoustic duo performance, a little bit from the Movie Night fun, a little from the Cozumel Beach Party, and a special ending note from Rick.
In all, the DVD was an hour and a half long and we produced nearly 700 copies while still on board the ship. In case you couldn’t tell, we had an absolute blast on this trip, as did everyone we came in contact with. In fact, I hear they are doing it again in 2009. Click Here for details on the second (annual?) Rick Springfield and Friends Cruise.
Click here to read a tutorial David wrote about the Color Correcting features of Sony Vegas, one of the software tools we use in our projects. The magazine has contacted us about doing a series of tutorials that are mostly on the technical side, so they may not appeal to the casual reader. But, there is at least an interesting picture of our cat Boots that was taken during the Hurricane Ike evacuation. 
When Grammy award winner, 80’s rocker, and General Hospital heartthrob Rick Springfield embarks on a 5-day Caribbean cruise November 13th out of Miami, David and Christie will be in tow – but not as cruise guests. Rick has hired McKnight Video to document the concerts taking place during his Carnival cruise in support of his latest CD Venus in Overdrive. Rick and his band will play host to 1,200 fans (the Rick Springfield and Friends Cruise sold out just weeks after it was announced).
Our friends Traci and Jill; Christie, Rick Springfield, and David
We were chosen specifically for our ability to film, edit, and deliver the finished DVD to hundreds of fans while still on board the ship. Though we have provided editing and pre-production support to Rick’s team in the past, we had no idea it would lead to this!
Here’s the scoop: we often produce InstantView productions at wedding receptions in the Houston and Galveston area. An InstantView, also known as a Same Day Edit, is where guests view a cinematic video highlight of the wedding that took place only hours before. In the course of working on the other videos, Rick and his team saw some of these that we’ve done and it started snowballing from there. We’re slated to produce a DVD of the three concerts and other fan events taking place during the cruise. We will be working around the clock to make this happen. We’ll pretty much have our whole stuido on board.
The limited edition DVD is expected to be close to two hours long and 600 – 1000 DVD’s will be delivered to Rick’s merchandising team on the final day of the cruise.
Hurricane Ike has thrown us a little off track & behind schedule, but the main thing is we’re still here! We now have Internet back to the office so these updates will occur more frequently. We were out of power for only six days. Or maybe seven. I lost count. I think Texas New Mexico Power and Comcast have done a great job in our area, and in the Greater Houston area overall. As of this morning there were still about 100,000 people without power. Yes, that is a lot of people but it’s a small percentage of what they started with. If you’re one of those without power and you (eventually) read this, we feel for you.
As we’ve said, we had some damage but it could have been much, much worse. Our editing workstations have been relocated to allow for drywall and carpet / flooring replacement in those rooms.
Thanks to everyone who has called, come by, or emailed. One step at a time, one step at a time…
Well it could be a whole lot worse. Like many folks around the Houston – Gulf Coast area we lost fences & trees. Some roof damage. Carpet damage as well due to water but we did not have any internal contents damaged. We still have no power and no business phone, very limited email / internet (I’m posting this from an external location). If you’ve been trying to reach us by phone, the best alternative is to email us at the email address on the Contact page and we’ll reply as soon as possible.
The main things is, Christie, Dad, the kitties, and I are all safe, as I said it could be a whole lot worse. But my gosh, what a mess.
- David
Kudos to Rick Springfield on his new hit record, “Venus in Overdrive” – here’s the abbreviated press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 6, 2008
RICK SPRINGFIELD HAS HIS HIGHEST CHART DEBUT IN OVER 20 YEARS WITH “VENUS IN OVERDRIVE,” HIS LATEST RELEASE
Grammy® winner Rick Springfield has secured his highest chart debut position in more than 20 years with his latest album, Venus in Overdrive. Coming in at No. 28 on the Billboard chart, Springfield’s first CD of all new material in almost 5 years is also his debut album on New Door Records/UMe.
The singer was highly visible last week with a string of national television appearances including: “Good Morning America,” “Live with Regis and Kelly,” “The Early Show,” “FOX and Friends,” “On the Record With Greta Van Susteren,” “Entertainment Tonight” and the week before street date re-airing of “Oprah.” Springfield also returned to “General Hospital” in the recurring role as Dr. Noah Drake, as well as the rock star Eli Love who performed the current single, “What’s Victoria’s Secret?”
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For more information visit Rick Springfield’s Website…and keep watching this space on McKnightVideo.com for related news…
We delivered two wedding projects and one civic project this weekend, as well as shot a wedding out of town Saturday – and made time to celebrate Dad’s 82nd birthday with family, friends, and neighbors.
We shot Brittany and Cody’s wedding in Spring; one project was delivered to Tomball, one in Texas City, and one shipped today to Colorado. Thank you Chris, Kevin, Beth, David, and Jenny. Making progress, whoo hoo!
If you are one of our wedding video customers, we want you to know we are working very hard to complete your video within 6 months from your wedding date. Depending on the specifics of the project, and the number of projects in our queue, some are taking longer than that. (You know who you are…)
Christie and I are taking a couple of months off this summer from shooting so that we can spend even more time editing some of these long-outstanding videos. (You know who you are…) In addition, we have raised prices and started being more selective about bookings for 2009 and beyond. For the foreseeable future we are going to shoot fewer weddings per month than what we did in 2007-2008.
The quality of experience we have with each couple is very important to us on the wedding day and beyond. Even if you don’t hear from us personally every week following the wedding, you can always check the Edit and Delivery Schedule page on this website to see exactly what we’re working on at any given time.
Eariler in May we had an email from a customer who had just received her video:
“I wanted you guys to know that Matt and I got the wedding videos. It is amazing, great, wonderful, grand. I am so happy to see it. It turned out better then we expected. We got it yesterday and I have watched it 3 times so far. I just wanted to thank you guys again for such a great job.”
So, for everyone who is waiting on your video, it will be worth it. Parents and family are especially prone to Not Liking to Wait. And we understand that, we really do. The only thing we know to do is reduce the number of projects we take on and raise our prices for future work, which we now have done.
(Note to future clients: we are just now getting to the average price points in the Houston area for the award-winning quality and style of work we do, so, we still won’t break your budget. We may even be cheaper than your chair covers.)
Last week we were very proud to be part of Santa Fe’s production of Shattered Dreams. This program involves the dramatization of an alcohol-related crash on or near a high school campus, complete with police and EMS response, emergency room treatment, family notifications, and the arrest and booking of the driver. Tuesday we filmed the crash scene drama, which was played out before the student body in real time. The next morning a wrap-up assembly was held featuring those who played roles in the previous day’s drama, including the “crash” victims, the drunk driver, their parents, and participating law enforcement and medical personnel.
In addition to the real time events of Tuesday and Wednesday, during the weeks prior we met several times with the students, their parents and sponsors, and filmed the additional scenes for the drama.
The final product is extremely moving and emotionally impactful. We entered a short clip from it in the bi-annual Houston Professional Videographer’s Association competion and was awarded a Distinguished Video award. As soon as we get an OK from the school sponsors we will upload the clip here.
For more information on the Shattered Dreams program, visit their website here.
Yes, this is not a misprint. We get calls and emails every week asking us to provide video services for weddings or events for this current season. With very few exceptions, we have no more availability in 2008. So, certainly, call or email to inquire but don’t be surprised if we’re not already booked.
And more importantly, if you are getting married in 2009, don’t wait too long to hire your videographer!
Here is a new heartfelt Christmas song from pop-rock star Rick Springfield. The song was co-written by Derek Hilland, and proceeds from the sales of the CD go to charity. For more information on the organizations, please visit – American Gold Star Mothers, who are mothers that have lost a son or daughter in service of our country: www.GoldStarMoms.com and Cherished Lives, a memorial website where soldiers’ families can create a free memorial website for their loved ones: www.CherishedLives.com.
We played a very small part in the making of this video and wanted to share it with our friends. We encourage you to buy the Christmas CD, available from RickSpringfield.com.
Bill Read, the chief of the local National Weather Service forecast office has been named acting deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
We filmed Bill a couple of months ago giving a hurricane-preparedness seminar during a Texas City town meeting. It is currently being broadcast on Comcast cable channel 16 through hurricane season.
You can read more about Bill’s story here – http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2007/08/local_forecaste_1.html
…and you can view a sample of his hurricane presentation here – http://mcknightvideo.com/download/corporate/SeminarWithPowerpoint.wmv
No, not certifiable, though people have been telling us that for years.
You can count on one hand the number of video companies in the Houston area that are trained and certified on the software they use. After using Sony Vegas for over three years, and having been a Beta tester for several related tools, we are proud of this accomplishment.
We became a Sony Certified Vegas Editor shop after completing two days of training, a written exam, and an on-demand edit session. Most of this took place during the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas in April.
David here, I am in Las Vegas this week at the National Association of Broadcasters annual convention – NAB. I’m excited to go through the certification training and testing for Sony Vegas, one of the pieces of post-production software we use at McKnight Video.
Regardless of the project, whether a wedding, corporate seminar or biography video, Vegas is one of our go-to applications. If you are interested in video editing on your home computer, Sony makes a consumer version called Vegas Movie Studio that is a good starter application.
Also at NAB I’ll likely do some work for my friends at VASST. These guys are experts in all facets of video production and distribution. They are Grammy and Emmy winners, as well as top-notch educators. They produce training books and dvds out the wazoo and I’m proud to be associated with them.