"Video Production Kansas" Diary
Welcome to "Video Production Kansas," the creative diary of Wichita video production company, Ponder:Connect. While other parts of the Ponder:Connect website are designed to sell our services, this is where we share videos, behind the scenes photos, and creative thoughts as we pursue the arts of cinematography and post production on everything from documentary films to commercial projects.
May 6, 2012
On Friday, we shot at the Wichita Water Center, part of our upcoming video series on sustainable water strategies being developed in South Central Kansas. This is important work, and we're proud to be part of it.
May 4, 2012
This short clip is a bit of slo-mo test footage from a project we're
doing to promote sustainable water policiies in South Central Kansas.
It's also really, really cute.
May 1, 2012
We were shooting at A Box 4 U this morning with a real crash test dummy. Who knew these things cost $200,000? Very nice of the folks at National Institute for Aviation Research to leave this one in our care for a few hours of video production.
Mar 24, 2012
It's impossible to get new editing equipment without bragging, so here goes ...
The latest is our new edit suite, custom built from solid walnut by Andy Solter Woodworks. Wow, right?
Only slightly less recently acquired: the new I7, 27 inch iMac is no ordinary computer. It's a custom-built, quad core monster with 16 gigabytes of RAM and a terabyte hard drive. It screams along at 3.4 gigahertz. Top of the line and then some.
Also notice the new Mackie studio reference monitors, a Mackie mixing board and a huge collection of acoustic panels to make sure the sound mixes in our Kansas video production work are perfect and pure. The acoustic panels are placed in our new studio on East Central.
Not visible in the picture is our new 10 terabyte RAID backup server. What does all this mean to potential clients out there? Bring it on. We're ready to rock.
(check out our main video page here: Video Production Kansas)
Mar 14, 2012
One of the reasons Ponder:Connect shoots video on HDSLR cameras with prime lenses is that takes away our zooming option (prime lenses don't zoom). If you pay attention to the camera work in well-crafted movies versus not-so-well-crafted TV shows and videos, you'll notice that movie makers almost always move (or "track") the camera rather than zooming it.
Here's a video from Vimeo Video Lessons that's hokey, but it provides a good comparison between zooming and tracking shots:
Feb 29, 2012
When Optomen, a New York based production company does video production work in Kansas for one of its Discovery Channel or Travel Channel series, they contact Ponder:Connect for production assistance and crew recommendations. Below is a photo from our day working with them on the program "Mysteries at the Museum" at the Kansas Cosmosphere. It was a fun experience and a great crew to work with.
Feb 16, 2012
It was a windy day at Old Cowtown Museum and not particularly warm, but a
sizable crowd of steampunkers and other 19th century role playing
enthusiasts made it out for Steampunk Day last November. We shot this
sequence for the Livable Plains Initiative as a demonstration that
Kansans frequently step outside most of the stereotypes people tend to
tag us with.
Feb 13, 2012
Our involvement with sustainable communities initiatives in South Central Kansas led us to this video project with Scott Wadle of the Metropolitan Area Planning Department. Scott is working on Wichita's Complete Streets Initiative, which includes a Bicycle Plan that will help us become more sustainable, both environmentally and economically.
Feb 10, 2012
This video is the first of many we'll be producing for the Livable Plains Initiative, a communications group serving business leaders, elected officials and active citizens in South Central Kansas who are working together at the regional level to make this part of the state more economically and environmentally sustainable. The goal is to knock down the "silos" between efforts by creating a web platform for open dialogue and demonstrating challenges and successes with online video stories. Shared information has great value, and the purpose of Livable Plains is to make sharing easy. The purpose of this video was to help the Regional Economic Area Partnership of South Central Kansas acquire a $1.5 million planning grant, which was successful; they received it in January of 2012!
Feb 8, 2012
We finally finished audio sweetening on "Denial," a short film produced entirely in Kansas in cooperation with IMG Pictures (a Ponder:Connect affiliate). We shot this picture on a DSLR camera with prime lenses. We'll soon be taking this on the film festival circuit, beginning with the YouTube Film Fest. Also noteworthy: our star, Greg Yoder, will soon have a walk-on role in "Madmen."
Feb 7, 2012
We shot this time lapse last summer at Lake Afton Observatory with a Canon T3i and an intervalometer.
The dome was lit with a 1K on the far left and a 400 watt source on the near right side. Beautiful night for video.
Entry #5: Video poem (Video Production Kansas) We left the professional camera and lenses at the studio and recorded this entirely with a flipcam, partially for the creative challenge, but also because we had the camera VERY close to splashing water many times. Still, it shows what you can do with an idea and very little equipment.
Feb 3, 2012
We worked with Firefly Creative Company from sunny California to create
this profile of a Clearwater, Kansas, farming family to support
AgCredit's "Generations" campaign. Click the picture to watch the video
on our YouTube channel.
Jan 31, 2012
Ponder:Connect shoots instructional videos for Virobus, an educational
website for new and aspiring entrepreneurs. Click on the picture to
watch one of our studio shoots.
Jan 30, 2012
Here's a fun piece we did for the American Bonanza Society. We also shot
video, both on the ground and in the air for video components of this
training program; it's a tough life.
Jan 29, 2012
The Kansas Video Production page is Ponder:Connect's production diary. We'll share videos, thoughts for clients and creative insights for other Kansas video production professionals as we pursue the arts of cinematography and post production on everything from commercial projects to corporate videos to documentary projects.
To learn about our video production services, click here: Video Production Kansas.
Stay tuned!
VISIT OUR MAIN VIDEO PRODUCTION PAGE HERE
May 6, 2012
Video Production Kansas Entry #16: Water Conservation Story
On Friday, we shot at the Wichita Water Center, part of our upcoming video series on sustainable water strategies being developed in South Central Kansas. This is important work, and we're proud to be part of it.May 4, 2012
Video Production Kansas Entry #15: Summer Waltz
This short clip is a bit of slo-mo test footage from a project we're
doing to promote sustainable water policiies in South Central Kansas.
It's also really, really cute.May 1, 2012
Video Production Kansas Entry #14: All about safety
We were shooting at A Box 4 U this morning with a real crash test dummy. Who knew these things cost $200,000? Very nice of the folks at National Institute for Aviation Research to leave this one in our care for a few hours of video production.
Mar 24, 2012
Video Production Kansas Entry #13: New stuff to brag about
It's impossible to get new editing equipment without bragging, so here goes ...The latest is our new edit suite, custom built from solid walnut by Andy Solter Woodworks. Wow, right?
Only slightly less recently acquired: the new I7, 27 inch iMac is no ordinary computer. It's a custom-built, quad core monster with 16 gigabytes of RAM and a terabyte hard drive. It screams along at 3.4 gigahertz. Top of the line and then some.
Also notice the new Mackie studio reference monitors, a Mackie mixing board and a huge collection of acoustic panels to make sure the sound mixes in our Kansas video production work are perfect and pure. The acoustic panels are placed in our new studio on East Central.
Not visible in the picture is our new 10 terabyte RAID backup server. What does all this mean to potential clients out there? Bring it on. We're ready to rock.
(check out our main video page here: Video Production Kansas)
Mar 14, 2012
Video Production Kansas Entry #12: Why we don't zoom
One of the reasons Ponder:Connect shoots video on HDSLR cameras with prime lenses is that takes away our zooming option (prime lenses don't zoom). If you pay attention to the camera work in well-crafted movies versus not-so-well-crafted TV shows and videos, you'll notice that movie makers almost always move (or "track") the camera rather than zooming it.Here's a video from Vimeo Video Lessons that's hokey, but it provides a good comparison between zooming and tracking shots:
Feb 29, 2012
Entry #11: Travel Channel video production comes to Kansas
When Optomen, a New York based production company does video production work in Kansas for one of its Discovery Channel or Travel Channel series, they contact Ponder:Connect for production assistance and crew recommendations. Below is a photo from our day working with them on the program "Mysteries at the Museum" at the Kansas Cosmosphere. It was a fun experience and a great crew to work with.Feb 16, 2012
Entry #10: Steampunk Day at Old Cowtown Museum
It was a windy day at Old Cowtown Museum and not particularly warm, but a
sizable crowd of steampunkers and other 19th century role playing
enthusiasts made it out for Steampunk Day last November. We shot this
sequence for the Livable Plains Initiative as a demonstration that
Kansans frequently step outside most of the stereotypes people tend to
tag us with.Feb 13, 2012
Entry #9: Video production project for Wichita, Kansas' Complete Streets Initiative
Our involvement with sustainable communities initiatives in South Central Kansas led us to this video project with Scott Wadle of the Metropolitan Area Planning Department. Scott is working on Wichita's Complete Streets Initiative, which includes a Bicycle Plan that will help us become more sustainable, both environmentally and economically.Feb 10, 2012
Video Production Kansas entry #8: Livable Plains video for REAP
This video is the first of many we'll be producing for the Livable Plains Initiative, a communications group serving business leaders, elected officials and active citizens in South Central Kansas who are working together at the regional level to make this part of the state more economically and environmentally sustainable. The goal is to knock down the "silos" between efforts by creating a web platform for open dialogue and demonstrating challenges and successes with online video stories. Shared information has great value, and the purpose of Livable Plains is to make sharing easy. The purpose of this video was to help the Regional Economic Area Partnership of South Central Kansas acquire a $1.5 million planning grant, which was successful; they received it in January of 2012!Feb 8, 2012
Video Production Kansas diary entry #7: Short film "Denial"
We finally finished audio sweetening on "Denial," a short film produced entirely in Kansas in cooperation with IMG Pictures (a Ponder:Connect affiliate). We shot this picture on a DSLR camera with prime lenses. We'll soon be taking this on the film festival circuit, beginning with the YouTube Film Fest. Also noteworthy: our star, Greg Yoder, will soon have a walk-on role in "Madmen."Feb 7, 2012
Entry #6: Video time lapse production at Lake Afton, Kansas
We shot this time lapse last summer at Lake Afton Observatory with a Canon T3i and an intervalometer.
The dome was lit with a 1K on the far left and a 400 watt source on the near right side. Beautiful night for video.Feb 6, 2012
Entry #5: Video poem (Video Production Kansas) We left the professional camera and lenses at the studio and recorded this entirely with a flipcam, partially for the creative challenge, but also because we had the camera VERY close to splashing water many times. Still, it shows what you can do with an idea and very little equipment.
Feb 3, 2012
Video Production Kansas Diary Entry #4: American AgCredit Video for the Web
We worked with Firefly Creative Company from sunny California to create
this profile of a Clearwater, Kansas, farming family to support
AgCredit's "Generations" campaign. Click the picture to watch the video
on our YouTube channel.Jan 31, 2012
Video Production Kansas Diary Entry #3: Virobus series
Ponder:Connect shoots instructional videos for Virobus, an educational
website for new and aspiring entrepreneurs. Click on the picture to
watch one of our studio shoots.
Jan 30, 2012
Video Production Kansas Diary Entry #2: 3D Animation Project
Here's a fun piece we did for the American Bonanza Society. We also shot
video, both on the ground and in the air for video components of this
training program; it's a tough life.Jan 29, 2012
The Kansas Video Production page is Ponder:Connect's production diary. We'll share videos, thoughts for clients and creative insights for other Kansas video production professionals as we pursue the arts of cinematography and post production on everything from commercial projects to corporate videos to documentary projects.
To learn about our video production services, click here: Video Production Kansas.
Stay tuned!