WATER FALLS: THE DAY IT RAINED

THE DAY IT RAINED

This week's blog post was going to be something of a fist pump, a shout-out, a cheer. But life is what happens after you make plans.

This Thursday evening at The Space Foundation in Colorado Springs was supposed to be a sparkling world premiere for our newest movie called WATER FALLS. Hands down the most complex, sophisticated spherical movie ever made, I think I speak for all those who worked on it when we say we were geeked to release it into the world. 

But the government shutdown changed things. WATER FALLS was commissioned by NASA; it's a NASA project, about a NASA mission. As a part of the federal government…well, you can see where this is going. The premieres at The Space Foundation and then again  two days later at The Wild Center in upstate New York have been cancelled. Cause? The government shutdown. Without a functioning government, NASA cannot engage in active release of media products, even if made by contractors. 

But let's not dwell on things we cannot control. WATER FALLS is beautiful! It's the most recent in a string of spherical movies we've made, dating back to the world's first in 2006. Making movies for spheres is not like making rectangular movies just wrapped around a curved surface. Many of the fundamental rules of cinema go out the window. We've developed a substantial and rather radical list of our own photographic, animation, and production techniques, and ever time we get into one of these things there never seems to be any limit to what's possible. But that's the soul of the creative process, isn't it? There are always new vistas, new horizons, and new observations, even for the most familiar things in the world.

But you know what? Exasperated, frustrated, even (to be honest) a little MAD!…we're pros. The movie is finished, and even though it isn't going to be released with all the hoopla we hoped for, we look forward to the day when we can invite you to the show. 

And hey, guess what? 1AU is a busy place these days, with new, exciting projects in the hopper and lots of dynamic, creative energy bubbling. Here on the blog you can always expect to find ideas and inspirations about the creative world, as well as news of our latest public exploits, of course. We're working on great new pieces with all sorts of exciting potential, and we look forward to sharing news as they develop.

We'd love to hear from you, too. Have questions or thoughts about WATER FALLS? Drop us a line! Have questions or ideas about media or communications projects you're thinking of pursuing? Visit our contact page or write to us at

info@1auglobalmedia.com

Get in touch and let your ideas…go farther.

--MS

Twitter    @michaelstarobin Facebook    facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

SPEAKING AT THE FRONT OF THE ROOM

Public speaking can focus the mind in a singularly powerful way. In preparing for a public talk, a speaker must not only organize his or her thoughts, but must do so in a way that makes them crystal clear to an audience who hasn't heard them before. If the speaker prepares properly, that process will reveal flaws in logical arguments, examples that may not convey proper authority or power, and dramatic beats that do not make audience pulses quicken on cue. Preparation and rehearsal are vital to the enterprise because the goal, of course, is to move your audience.

Public speaking can play with your head, too. A great talk given once can convince you that you're the keeper of something profound, a seer, a visionary. A great talk given repeatedly can gradually inure you the hard work it takes to keep presenting it afresh each and every time you present it. Remember, the next audience has not yet heard what the last audience heard. The job of a speaker is to make it fresh and new each and every time.

I'm reminded that so much public speaking relies on electronic media these days. It's probably an unavoidable phenomenon. In a visually structured world, the power of images to amplify a message cannot be ignored. But to cede all of a message's power to smart pictures usually dilutes the message itself and disrespects the process of designing those images. If you're going to use pictures, develop them in concert with your talk, lest you bolt them on as an afterthought and start to believe that "giving your audience something to look at" is a good idea. Once your audience thinks that your pictures at least give them something to do while you drone on, you can safely count yourself among the walking dead at the front of the room.

Which leads to the most obvious thing that so many, many speakers miss. Say something that matters. It's not enough to be an expert in a subject. Whatever you do be sure to think hard about what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. If you're message is ordinary, boring, irrelevant, or otherwise not very engaging, it will mean even less to your audience. That's why, to bring this blog back to the beginning, rehearsal matters so much. In rehearsal you uncover the merits of what you want to communicate and the way you plan to do so. When you practice it like you're doing the real thing, you can't hide the sour notes, and you can savor the parts that sing out.

--MS

HEY: ONE MORE THING! Our new movie WATER FALLS opens on October 10th. Check out all the latest on the movie at the website http://gpm.nasa.gov/waterfalls

Or follow the movie on Twitter at #waterfalls

Or, y'know, follow me on Twitter @michaelstarobin

Or, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

PPS -- Does this make you smile? Make you think? Make you wish next Monday were one sunrise away from arrival? If so, you may be ready to become one of our loyal outreach team! How do you assume that lofty role? Tell your friends! Tell your colleagues. Share our link on your Twitter and Facebook page, and let people know where you turn every Monday morning for a blog of a different color. You were expecting horses?

BODIES

BODIES

You have one. I have one.

The subject of human bodies carries high voltage. For some the subject provokes an electrical jolt of distress; for others it's an electrical surge of energy. As raw material for creative consideration, bodies bring the sun for an infinite set of opportune days.

Some people have bodies like road-weary Studebakers. Other have bodies that shimmer like rain-kissed Italian sports cars. Fast or slow, sleek or not, they propel us through space, through time, through life. They torment us with aches and pains, and sometimes far, far worse. But don't think about this too hard: look at the next body you see, even if it's your own standing in front of the mirror. No matter whether it treats you well or badly, it's still an astounding thing.

Sages have spent ages trying to separate body from mind. Speaking as someone who spends huge sums of his day blissfully immersed in pursuits of mind alone, this separation makes some good sense. The intangibility of our thoughts do not demand our ability to life heavy objects, nor process oxygen across the alveoli in our lungs. But as we all know, there's no such thing as a life of pure intellect, nor should we ever aspire to such. Even literalism here suggests that the ordinary act of thinking requires respiration--oxygen transfer--to facilitate the alchemy of thought.

Philosophers have also spent great energies trying to reconcile mind and body--to place them in direct contact. Breath is the fuel that powers Zen meditation, an active pursuit of achieving emptiness. Aristotle and Hippocrates both espoused the values of body and mind. Two thousand years later Thoreau similarly didn't separate physical experiences from intellectual considerations of ethics and values.

But bodies: what of bodies?

Science cannot produce them, even as modern science continues to improve our ability to maintain them. Art continues to reinvent them; culture finds endless ways to present them. Taken as geography, bodies are any archaeologist's dream. In their folds there and mountains and hills; there are wide-open expanses; there are areas exposed to the sun. Skin stretched tight over muscles or skin hanging loosely  over bones tell stories. Time develops scar, tattoos of experience unique to every single body that has ever lived. Scars are inevitable, and the roadmaps of time that each of us wear. We live in these shells, and in these shells we act in the world, each similar, each slightly different, just like the narrative threads we all tell.

No doubt there's the potential for prurience here, for slightly salacious implications of objectification and judgmental evaluation. If all that is corporeal of our humanity is only to be evaluated endlessly, baubles in a market, we become nothing but bodies of judgement rather than entities for marvel. That's why I'll suggest the following: it's fine to regard some people as more beautiful than others, some people even more attractive than others. But beyond superficial aesthetics, consider the deeper possibilities. Every body you've ever knows will return to it's constituent elements soon enough. You only get to inhabit your own body for a short time. Therefore, when you consider different bodies as the starting point for endless moments of invention, superficial aesthetics don't  get you nearly as far as knowing the people who inhabit the bodies themselves.

--MS

HEY: ONE MORE THING! Our new movie WATER FALLS opens on October 10th. Check out all the latest on the movie at the website http://gpm.nasa.gov/waterfalls

Or follow the movie on Twitter at #waterfalls

Or, y'know, follow me on Twitter @michaelstarobin

Or, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

PS -- Yes, yes, here's where the good people of 1AU ask our dear readers to share what you've read with friends and colleagues. And here's the place where you think, "Oh, sure, one more imposition of my precious time." Well, we're asking. It's something we value above rubies, above gold: if you like an idea enough to give it a moment's thought, then consider giving it a measure of freedom. When you share an idea with another person, you release an idea to grow freely in the world.

Like what you see? Set it free.

Welcome to our new website!

Loyal friends and visitors to the 1AU site will immediately recognize that everything old is new again. We've made some changes around here! As you know, any company in the throes of a major IT change is bound to bounce over a few bumps in the road. We trust you'll bear with us for the next couple of weeks as we smooth out the ride. Will also kindly ask that you please send your comments, good and bad; we'd love to get your feedback!

Next week our blog returns to its weekly considerations of the creative world, with smatterings of news about major events and undertakings from the team at 1AU GLOBAL MEDIA. Keep an eye out for updates on our latest film commissioned by NASA. It's called WATER FALLS, and it has its world premiere on October 10.

--MS

WHADJA EXPECT?

What time is it?

I expect a lot, actually, especially of myself. I get frustrated when I know I've merely phoned it in, scratched the surface, written two cliches in a row.

Expectations can lead you to treasure and they can lead you to the abyss. They can build respect and they can cause calumny. Expectations define goals and calibrate presuppositions. They can also tie you in knots.

The thing about doing creative work is that expectations are simultaneously your best armor and your worst enemy. If you've done well before, people expect high quality next time. That tends to instill loyalty among fans, and help you continue doing what you're doing. Of course if you don't deliver something sublime, dashed hopes can shatter a reputation in no time at all. Positive expectations that fail to deliver can prompt death spirals of doubt, friction, and poor judgement.

But nobody's great all the time. Even your best friend acts like a jerk once and a while. Michael Jordan had bad games from time to time. In terms of expectations that I believe should hold particular sway, it's vital always to expect integrity among those closest to you. Honest appraisals and honest effort matter more than perfection of craft in almost all cases. To expect less is to live in a house with a leaky roof. Gentle rains may not destroy the furniture, but come a bad storm and your risks rise.

At 1AU we hold these values close. While everyone on the team has some degree of cross-applicable skills, we all specialize, too. The great synergy that emerges from cross pollination of ideas demands honesty and effort. That leads to expectations of mutual respect and of probity in pursuit of solutions. Without it, we're working at cross purposes.

Is it fair to expect excellence from colleagues all the time? Not at all. Is it fair of myself--or anyone, really--to assume that all creative output will be sterling, that nothing short of superb work ever deserves to be done? Of course not. But the expectation of an overall pursuit of quality defines fair and reasonable expectations, in my opinion.

Should we simply presume that everyone believes this, that everyone want to pursue excellence? Nope. We all know lots of people who choose to bump along, to get by, to slouch. That's fine, but for my part I choose to steer a polite distance around.

Consider this: without reasonable expectations, everything we did every single day would be left to the vagaries of whims and chance. Expectations force us to bring our best selves to our work and to each other. Expectations provoke honest dialogue and thus honest efforts because we understand the rules of the field. When we bring our best selves to creative work and to those with whom we create that work, we expand the potential for us to bring similarly positive values to the broader domains of our lives, too.

Next week, we continue this train of thought with a look at politics in creative work.

--MS

HEY: ONE MORE THING! Our new movie WATER FALLS opens on October 10th. Check out all the latest on the movie at the website http://gpm.nasa.gov/waterfalls

Or follow the movie on Twitter at #waterfalls

Or, y'know, follow me on Twitter @michaelstarobin

Or, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

PS -- Like this? Share it! Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn...hey! It's internet kismet, donchakno? We'll smile broadly, and so will you. Why? It's good to share!

COMING SOON: WATER FALLS

This week we're focusing on some production news from the team at 1AU Global Media. As many of our loyal readers know, we do a lot of work for NASA, and this fall marks one of the most substantial projects we've ever designed for the Space Agency. It's called WATER FALLS, and it's coming to Science On a Sphere theaters around the world in just a couple of weeks.

If you aren't familiar with it, Science On a Sphere is a remarkable video playback technology developed by NOAA. It presents still and moving images on a completely round screen, viewable by anyone in the room. The team at 1AU is one of the world's most experienced and most successful in producing movies for this extraordinary surface. (You can see a number of examples in our demo reel.) Our first movie called FOOTPRINTS was named one of Time Magazine's best inventions of the year.

On October 10th of this year our latest film will debut. WATER FALLS opens at a world premiere party at The Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colorado, followed two days later by a launch event at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York. Immediately following these events, the movie moves into the public domain, released worldwide to the sphere community. NASA commissioned the movie to engage audiences with the upcoming launch of one of it's largest Earth science missions ever. Called Global Precipitation Measurement, or GPM, the multinational research initiative will study global precipitation worldwide. As precipitation is a key aspect of the world's water cycle, as well as circulation of energy in the atmosphere, GPM promises to gather vital data about major aspects of Earth's changing climate.

We're breaking ground with the release of WATER FALLS. The movie will demonstrate new live action shooting techniques, animation techniques, editing solutions, all wrapped in a muscular storytelling wrapper.  The movie will also be released with a thorough set of educational materials, a robust website and more.

Want to see it? You can find a complete list of theaters on the official website, and of course there's a social media component, too. The movie's Twitter hashtag is #waterfalls, and you can keep up with the NASA mission it's about at #GPM. Expect to see more about the movie's release in this space in the next few weeks.

Spherical surfaces are striking and beautiful and useful in all sorts of compelling ways, from movies to video signage to fine art and more. But spheres are only one part of our portfolio. If you're interested in exploring how we can make something spectacular for you, get in touch, and let your ideas…go farther.

--MS 

PS      I tweet from time to time. You can follow me @michaelstarobin if you'd like to see what I'm thinking about.)

PPS      We also have a Facebook page. Visit (and "like us") at facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

PPPS    Like this whole blog thing? Like what it does for your day? Do you ever mention ideas you encounter in this blog to someone else in your life? If so, share the link! Sure, it sounds like a ploy for free, crowd-sourced advertising, and guess what: it is! If you do spread the word, we'll simply appreciate. We might even bake you a batch of your favorite cookies. (Just ask!)

COMET

When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are.

If someone's light that shines so bright-- lights up your life like sun at night-- it's hard to keep a level head if you wished it yours instead.

Songs, and films, and books, and deals: are you stuck just spinning wheels? Those who finally ignite, should not be pilloried by spite.

Instead, the measure of their due reviewed-- inspiration: refreshed, renewed.

Chance success for some, it's true: perhaps those odds are not for you. To beat The House by chance is rare, but labor's love can get you there.

Thus tales of other's success should stand as forward-leaning fetch toward land. Grab the light and ride the air and by example you'll travel there…

…because…

It makes no difference who you are when you wish upon a star.

--MS

@michaelstarobin facebook.com/1auglobalmedia facebook.com/michael.starobin

INTENTIONALLY IGNORING A BIG OPPORTUNITY

We work with high tech gear, smart creative thinkers, and influential clients, but that doesn't mean we've seen everything! Much as we believe in our abilities to deliver high-end work, I'll admit that Hollywood class budgets are not generally our daily bread.

So when the opportunity presented itself recently for us to use a high-end cinema camera--free of charge!-- for a few days of production work, our collective pulses started galloping. It's good to have friends in the world who want to share their toys. What's more, hands-on experience with high-end gear is always a chicken-and-egg dilemma for media teams looking to elevate their games. Access to the latest and greatest equipment is usually expensive and hard to coordinate. Practical knowledge about the latest and greatest makes creative teams like us more desirable. Why on Earth let the opportunity pass?

Have you ever been on a backpacking trip? When you're packing your gear, do you hold items in your hand wondering if they're worth the extra weight on your shoulders, space in your bag, whether you'll want them miles down the trail, if they'll be essential to your journey? Ultimately you make your decisions and set off.

And what happened? Good trip or bad, you clearly returned alive. (You're reading this blog, aren't you? You must have survived.) Unless it was a complete disaster, you came back with stories to tell, and while you may have wanted whatever it was that you didn't ultimately bring, the chances are it didn't make the difference in the trip. (Seriously, though: send us a note if you were on a trip and things really DIDN'T go as planned due to some packing or preparation error before you departed!)

The point is, adding one extra thing, even a valuable, useful thing, is sometimes not what's most helpful. Often focusing narrowly on those things you know you'll need differentiates between great success and middlin' mediocrity.

It's that way for everything.

When our colleague called and offered us three days use of his fancy camera for a big sequence we were planning, the inner geeks in our souls started salivating. It would be top-end gear, a great learning opportunity, probably a lot of fun. It might even enhance the shot!

But we let the opportunity go, and never looked back. What's more, even the camera's owner had to agree when I gave him our explanation.

Having more stuff means managing more stuff. Our production calendar was jam packed and our work plan was equally filled. Integrating this camera would take a mighty effort just to get tooled up for the specialized procedures necessary to make it all work. The learning curve was steep; the ancillary requirements substantial. If the shot looked spectacular, it wouldn't match the look of our other (totally terrific!) footage. (Just calling it like I see it…) The great opportunity to use the great gear would become a fools errand, an albatross, a prized sports car we couldn't even use to run to the grocery for fear of dinging a door.

Am I frustrated we couldn't take it out for a spin? Totally! Did we make the right choice? Absolutely. Our first loyalty is always to the client we're working for at the moment, and to distract ourselves with what seemed like a great opportunity would have turned out to be a huge mistake, especially in service to our client. Knowing when opportunities genuinely present themselves and when they offer nothing but distraction can be all the difference in the world. Creativity requires deep understanding of techniques and technologies, no matter what the discipline. But having the discipline to stay focused on a particular task can help keep a good project on course and ensure success.

--MS

PS: You know you can follow us for more info, right? Try these cool links, and share them with your friends:

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PROJECTS IN SLOW MOTION

Everything is faster these days. Faster than what? Faster than it was a moment ago. Project schedules of all types no longer abide by 40 hour work weeks. Design cycles barely give consumers enough time to even get comfortable with changes in product lines. Books come to market about major current events only weeks after they happen; follow-up films to Hollywood blockbusters come out like the changing of the seasons. Major retailers are starting to experiment with same-day delivery solutions.

That's why, when it really counts, when reputation and big money is on the line, I almost always turn to the file folder of ideas I've been gathering for years.

Sure, sure: when it's time to put ideas into action, I like to think we move like lightning. But as a general rule, faster isn't better in much the same way that lethargy won't ever get you where you're going either.

Do you ever eat a salad? Intellectually, you know that those vegetables took weeks if not months to grow. There's simply no way to grow them faster, even if you consume them in mere minutes. Were you ever a child who wondered about his or her grown-up life, years away? It took you years to become that grown-up. Sometimes the most meaningful projects happen in slow motion.

What I find interesting here is that slow motion does not have to mean boring. If you've ever watched the countdown for a rocket carrying astronauts, it takes place with deliberate, almost tedious precision. On the way to the big boom, the rocket masters even pause for built-in holds. The clock stops while lengthy checklists and evaluations take place all over the launch facility. No doubt the process could be expedited, but when human life is in jeopardy, the need for speed clearly pales. Perhaps it's not nearly as vital as that mortal component, but you might feel a similar feeling if vast sums of make-or-break capital are on the line, too. Go too fast, and you risk calamity. Failure is generally not an option.

My point is this: feel free to go quickly at whatever game you're playing. Go fast to compete; go fast to impress; go fast to get it done and out of the way. But go too fast at your own peril. Some things are supposed to take time. You can make a bottle of wine in just a few months, but most varieties benefit from appropriate aging.

--MS

PS: You know you can follow us for more info, right? Try these cool links, and share them with your friends:

Twitter         @michaelstarobin

Facebook      http://www.facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

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VIDEO IS DEAD. LONG LIVE VIDEO.

The teenager next door is doing it in his bedroom.

The grandparents up the street are doing it in the park.

The school guidance counselor is doing it in the auditorium.

They're shooting video, and sometimes even editing it.

But who cares? Video plays everywhere. It's ubiquitous. It's so omnipresent as to be ordinary. It's about as surprising as a text message, as novel as a horseless carriage.

This never used to be the case, but as with all things technological, the extraordinary becomes ordinary faster than milk sours at room temperature. Is anyone surprised that you can add electric light to your dark living room with just the barest finger pressure against a plastic switch? Perhaps not, but if you lived in the middle of the 19th century, you'd be totally amazed.

Video has mutated into new, strange forms of micro-modernism and also harkened back to older forms that have been transmogrified into contemporary dialect.

Let us not even speak of embedded YouTube links. There's no point in deconstructing the value propositions for different creative groups to choose Vimeo over Vevo, Dailymotion over The Daily Show. The issue is that as the new lingua franca, video will eat itself if it cannot remember its origins.

Remember writing? Photography? Music?

What's interesting is how much those disciplines and countless others continue to play essential roles in the modern video lexicon, even if their cultural pedigrees are often buried under push-wipes and snap-pans and other electronic filigree.

The lament is that video's ubiquity has dampened the power of the medium. Like the thrill of seeing electric light for the first time in a world's fair pavilion, lightbulbs have no thrill at all when you're stumbling for one in the middle of a twenty-first century night. Video has only become omnipresent in the past decade.  Insofar as it's a tool available to millions if not billions of people, I have to wonder if the trend going forward is not the evolution and development of newer, better videos, but irrelevance. The moment we are inured to the power of something -- lightbulbs, for example--the moment they lose their hold on our consciousness. Video isn't there yet, but it was only a few years ago when it was an extraordinary thing to click on and play a video link in your web browser. Now it's ordinary to gulp down entire seasons of episodic television on a wireless tablet sitting on your couch or a stiff airport lounge chair. Sometimes I even catch a glimpse of people doing this in traffic, stopped at a light. (Put that phone down, please.)

Clearly there will continue to be new stories and new storytellers who bring all sorts of invention and power to this rapidly changing medium. But the era of amazement and thrill stemming from the medium itself has long since past. What's left to separate signal from noise, as it's always been throughout the history of creative enterprise, is the value of the content. Content is always king. Now that the dawn of the video era is over, no one can foretell what the long day of video's ubiquity will bring.

--MS

PS: You know you can follow us for more info, right? Try these cool links, and share them with your friends:

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