Harley Davidson buys our promo!

A few months back I found an awesome website called Poptent which hooks up filmmakers with brands that are looking for creative content.  Harley Davidson held an Open Call on Poptent for videos that promote the new Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.  Milwaukee’s only a 2 hour drive for me so I figured why not take a road trip and do a little mini-documentary about the museum?  Well, I just found out that Harley bought my video for a VERY nice amount!  The plan is that the video will be shown on the museum’s website and it will even run on the TVs in Harley Dealerships.

I’m really, really proud of the way this video turned out.  It might be the most challenging thing I ever edited.  As fate would have it, my Crapbot associate, Rodney Simale and I went to the museum right in the middle of Milwaukee’s annual motorcycle fest.  That meant the museum was full and lively and that was great….but outside there were hundreds of bikes revving all…day…long.  The grounds of the museum are really cool looking; there’s a huge area where riders park their bikes so everyone can look at them.  I thought we’d do a bunch of our interviews in that area.  But when we got there the noise was loud I figured we’d have to do most of our filming inside.

But guess what you hear inside the museum?  Audio recordings of revving motorcycles!  As Nelson Muntz would say, the ironing was delicious.  Still, we were able to find some spots that were quiet enough.  It took a lot of work but I think the final spot turned out really nicely.  If my work has a “style” this is definitely a perfect representation of it.  Check it out, won’t you?

Buggin’ Out! music video

Buggin’ Out by MC Router. Created for Axo-soft’s “Geek to Geek” marketing campaign in summer of 2007.

Current view count on youtube:  300,000+!

Talk Derby to Me

Our on again, off again web series, In Your Face, Chicago is on again…at least for one more episode!  This time, host Chris Biddle rubs (and throws) elbows with the ladies of Chicago’s Roller Derby League, The Windy City Rollers.  For this episode we headed to the UIC pavilion to catch a WCR double header; The Hell’s Belles VS. The Fury and the Double Crossers VS. The Manic Attackers.  In between the action, the In Your Face, Chicago crew got to learn some of the finer points of the game from the derby girls themselves.  Sure, Chris might have gotten a few bumps and bruises in his quest to once and for all figure out exactly how the game of Roller Derby is played but you can’t put a price on knowledge.

Huge thanks to everyone at the Windy City Rollers for being such great hosts and for putting on an awesome show.

“Why Chicago?” 2016 video

The city of Chicago is one of the four finalist cities competing to host the 2016 summer Olympics.  In the fall of 2008, The Chicago Olympic Bid committee announced the “Why Chicago?” video contest.  Entrants were to create short films explaining why Chicago should get the 2016 games.

The winners were determined by public online voting.  Out of the scores of videos that came in from around the US, our entry, “Chicago =Awesome” by Dan Lamoureux went on to take 2nd place and a prize of $5,000 in new production gear.

Watch our winning entry here:  http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as_seen_on/Chicago_Awesome_Chicago.html

More info:

LINK:  http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as_seen_on/Finalists-Named-in-Why-Chicago-Video-Contest.html

LINK:  http://www.chicago2016.org/contest/entries.aspx

‘Chicago = Awesome’ = a winner!

Hey now!  Did you vote for my entry in the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid video contest?  If you did, THANKS!!!  I placed second which is actually kind of just what I hoped for.  Second prize is $5,000 worth of video production gear!!  I’m a glory hog and wouldn’t have minded winning the whole thing but man oh man can I use that equipment.  I even get to pick my own stuff so Crapbot Productions will soon be getting a full gear upgrade!  Looks like my call to Rod Blagojevich to ask him to pull some strings for me in exchange for a piece of the prize really paid off.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about you probably aren’t from around these parts.  The Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee sponsored a video contest and they promoted the thing like crazy.  Everyday as I walk through the loop I pass at least three advertisements encouraging people to enter.  So it’s hella exciting to win something that’s so high profile.  More details about the contest can be found here: http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as_seen_on/Finalists-Named-in-Why-Chicago-Video-Contest.html

And you can watch my entry “Chicago = Awesome” here:  http://www.nbcchicago.com/station/as_seen_on/Chicago_Awesome_Chicago.html

If you’re in the Chicagoland viewing area on Thursday be sure to set your alarm for 6:40am to see me and the other winner on channel 5 be introduced by an “Olympian.”  I’m hoping it’s Aphrodite.

Thanks for hooking me up....douche.

Interested in entering some video contests?  Check out this website for contest listings and this site for general video contest news:  http://videocontestnews.com