With summer in full swing things have been hoppin’ at Digital Fridge and that is the way we like it. So what’s new?

We wrapped up shooting a music video for Bristol Motor Speedway featuring artist Colt Ford. We’ve been able to tour many new homes in the tri-cities area with Orth Construction producing a marketing video for them (our version of MTV cribs, but not quite). We’ve taken in some good ol’ storytelling at The International Storytelling center in Jonesborough, TN while producing all new video bios for their weekly storytellers. Thrown into the mix have been a number of photo and video shoots at Eastman Chemical company for their Operator Apprentice Program. And if that’s not enough we are currently working on the video for the pre-race ceremony at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Oh yea and Digital Fridge will be celebrating its 3 years of business this summer. Thanks to all of you for your continued business and helping us hit the 3 year mark.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Amanda Bracken from Bracken Paving about their series of commercials that Digital Fridge has produced. (BTW I owe a lot to these folks. They were one of the first clients I ever had. They are great people.)

I remember when I first met with them I was wondering how we were going to do a paving commercial and make it visually interesting

In the interview I ask her about this and we also talk about the response of the videos and how they have had affect on their business.

Interview with Amanda Bracken - Bracken Paving from Digital Fridge on Vimeo.

We headed out to Doe River Gorge in the hills of NE Tennessee for this shoot. Originally we planned on shooting everything outside but it decided to rain like buckets so we adapted and moved things inside into a bunkhouse. We made it work by setting up a black backdrop and shooting against it. Notice the way the camera is mounted/rigged above the light table. I was a bit nervous about mounting it this way but with enough gaff tape we got it secured The end result for the video was a more intimate feel than if we shot outside anyway. Thanks for another great shoot Joe!

Sandstory setup

Behind the Camera

Joe playing in the sand

The Crew

So things have been pretty busy the last few months. Between work, vacation and getting ready for the new addition to the family time has flown by. September 1st. was the official 2 year birthday for Digital Fridge. So this is just a note to stop and say thanks to the many people (friends, clients, family) for their help and encouragement along the way. Oh and by the way the pic below is a link to an article about Digital Fridge in Generation Next a local magazine for young professionals. Thanks goes to Luke Anderson for the stellar writing.

And here is the thank you list to the many people who have helped make the first 2 years a success. Thought I would go ahead and get the list ready in case the Oscars ever call me:)

Tim Siglin
ThinkJose
Bracken Paving
Tim Birchfield
Gotrybe
GeekSouth
Syndeo Alliance

and many more Thank You’s. I’m thankful to be able to enjoy what I do everyday and to have such great people to work with in this region.

I just got back from a video shoot with Dr. Kevin Leman up in NY for Revell Books. Dr. Leman is known for his expertise on the subject of birth order. He happens to be the baby of the family, but has much to say about the first-borns.

By the way, did you know that most presidents are first borns and many comedians are the babies of the family. I am the second child, but the only son, so I feel like I have a mix of all the best traits from the baby and first born behaviors:)

How do you get NHRA fans to watch a race on the circle track? You get Doug Kalitta, Gary Scelzi, and Tony Schumacher to provide some round and around action. The video will be shown on the MOTEL 6 vision screen during the NHRA event this Friday encouraging fans to hop over on the other track to watch all the events during Saturday Spectacular. Lots of fun working on this one with Jose and Ben.

Here are some recent pics from Carrie Underwood’s only college stop of the year which happened to be at ETSU. Thanks to AVI, Digital Fridge provided production support for her traveling crew.

Ben stranded up on the scaffolding running spots

Kevin assembling the truss system on stage

The entire Digital Fridge crew… yes this was an early morning pic. (Picture these guys singing along to “Jesus take the wheel”)

Lee working as a video cable page for this videographer

Carrie on the IMAG screen - Luke this is for you buddy!

Thanks goes to Lee for hooking Digital Fridge up with a gig at Bristol Motor Speedway. Thursday night we shot the Richard Petty Driving School. It is an experience that brings bright eyed wonder and a boyish grin to any mans face. In the shot below it looks like I’m constipated, but I’m actually wearing a steadicam vest with the camera attached to it, and trying not to get hit by the cars as they come down the pit row. Lee will be shooting all weekend long at the race and posting short clips on the BMS blog.

This is a video from a press conference that I shot today. It is for the official launch of Gotrybe which is an online fitness community for students. Its pretty exciting to see the launch of a local internet startup go statewide. There has been a ton of local talent go into this project. Digital Fridge has shot over 600 videos alone for the project. I’m sure the web developers for the project can quote you how many billion lines of code it has taken as well. The best part is it is all for a good cause.

As a business grows it needs to develop systems of organization. I have resisted this for a while because sometimes I feel like when systems and structures sneak in, creativity and personality somehow escape out the back door at the same time. But after being in business for over a year and half now and archiving all my footage I had to come with a system. The first step was to develop a tape labeling system so that each tape would have a unique label. The next step was to have a place to put all the tapes and that is where I had failed…. Until now!

I just purchased this MiniDV tap rack from Bryco Products and finished filling it up. The only problem is it holds 100 tapes and I still have probably over 100 just from last year still in various locations throughout my office. So I guess I will be purchasing some more real soon. I think this will be a happy marriage b/w organization and creativity.