My production company, David Albright Media, is the Video Partner for the Seattle Storm WNBA Team. We produce all of their videos, ranging from in-arena entertainment to marketing videos to viral web videos.
Smells Like Money is an oral history documentary that I produced, shot and edited about the controversial pulp mill on Bellingham's waterfront. It won a Silver Telly Award, and an Award of Excellence from the Videographer Awards. It is currently for sale at Village Books in Bellingham.
Starting today you can buy ads on CHS-V through CHS's ad service. New CHS-V videos are consistently some of the most viewed stories on CHS, both because of the CHS traffic, but also because they're often linked to and embeded by other sites like Seattle PI, The Stranger, and many others. This means if you advertise on CHS-V, your ad will reach far beyond just CHS. So what are you waiting for Seattle businesses?!
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Side note - I don't love the idea of having advertising on screen at the same time as my video. But this is the best way we could think of to a) give the advertiser good placement, and b) not make the viewer have to sit through an ad to get to the video. Obviously I would prefer to have post-roll ads, but who honestly sits through those... if the video is over, you can just go on to something else. Pre-roll ads are just annoying and I would never use them*, so I thought this was a good compromise. Plus as long as it's local businesses ads it's not so obnoxious as a Clorox ad or something. Since I shoot widescreen, I just have to move the image down in the frame to make room for the ad, rather than actually placing the ad over part of the image.
*This is not legally binding, so don't hold me to it.
On Tuesday I covered Michael McGinns announcement of his candidacy for mayor for CHS. KIRO was the only TV crew that was there, the only other camera there besides me was the McGinn Campaign’s crew. It was funny seeing how much the KIRO crew stuck out, all the journalists asked questions like normal people, and then Essex Porter in his suit talks all loud in his trained journalist voice... he just seemed out of place since he was the only one. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with a huge camera like theirs and all that gear, although I was definitely grateful for their light. It still seems odd to me that the people putting on the press conferences don't set up lights, even at the Sonics we'd rely on the TV crews to light the press conferences.
I got some great feedback on my use of ‘tweets’ and blog comments in the video…
"Sweet Tweet Touch on the Vid! Your use of Tweets in the video is very clever...innovative, appropriate, and definitely made me overlook that McGinn should've shaved. I'm stealing this idea now."
Eli Sanders called me “ever present” on Slog. I guess that’s a good thing…? And Monica Guzman of seattlepi.com wrote about me on the Big Blog, the post includes a rambly, semi-coherent quote from me… I definitely should’ve had my morning coffee before I called her back.
I also got a comment from Paul Balcerak, of PNWlocalnews.com, who I quoted in the video as saying that he liked McGinns idea of fiberoptic networking. Here’s what he said
On second thought... I have to reconsider what I said (and was quoted as saying). Yes, at first the idea of Internet infrastructure seemed cool ... but as so many have mentioned, it's not as if Seattle has an Internet problem or anything.
The economy sucks right now and it seems like kids are getting shot in the CD and South Seattle on a weekly (if not more frequent) basis. I agree with Uncle Vinny: "I would be much happier if he'd drop the 'fiber optic network' thing and put the social safety net front and center.
So anyway, consider "paulbalcerak's" video comment redacted.
This points out that including the tweets and comments in the video is not meant to be analysis, it’s just commentary… immediate reactions. The value of having these comments is to give some context to what McGinn is saying by showing how others in the community are reacting to his statements. For some it may be useful to see other people’s reactions on screen. For others, I’m sure it’s distracting and unnecessary. Personally, I think it can be useful to see other people’s reactions because it can help you see where your own biases and preconceptions are, I think it is also a great way to engage the community by giving them a chance to be part of the conversation instead of just observing.
My first two SeattleIAM.com videos are up today. Here and here (or you can just watch them below). I'm not that happy with the Streets For People one, besides the fact that I hate hearing my own voice... it just feels like it's missing something. It needs a stronger central character, or something, I don't know what exactly. The other one (David Montgomery) is much simpler and I think came out much better, although it's probably less interesting to most people.
For those of you that don't want to sift through all of my pictures that I posted on Flikr, of my trip to Spain, here's some highlights of what you're missing.
Dumb Shirt
You can take the monorail to the Kentucky Governors Cup? -- Seen in a Barcelona clothes store.
Cadaques
Cadaques - a perfect little coastal town. And yes, I was standing on the water to take this picture.
Sagrada Familia
Sagrada Familia - crazy looking gothic cathedral that's been under construction since the early 1900s.
Carrer de la Portaferrissa
A street with no cars?! that's crazy talk.
La Rambla
La Rambla - more like a highway with no cars.
poop
There was lots of poop on the sidewalks, and it smelled like it a little too often for my taste.
Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 7:17PM 
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