The same day the City of Indianapolis announced a multi-million dollar plan to demolish abandoned homes, 6 News went out and did a story on “the city’s dirty secret.” Winona Memorial Hospital.

So the other day we were flipping through channels and came across Will Smith and Vivica A. Fox staring at an alien spaceship hovering above Los Angeles.

It was Independence Day running on A&E, Smith’s second outing as a lead in a major motion picture (Bad Boys came out the year before).

I’m a big fan of brain rot. The movie was on, I didn’t feel like flipping or checking what we had recorded on the DVR. But it wasn’t complete brain rot because we learned that Commander, now Colonel, Casey (Adam Baldwin from Chuck and Firefly) had a major role as a Major in Independence Day. I didn’t even remember that!

Anyway, there’s a scene where Jeff Goldblum is drunk inside a basement lab at Area 51. He’s complaining about how we’re all going to die because of these aliens. Talk about a pity party (and a sure Buzz Killington). So Goldblum’s yelling at Judd Hirsch about all of this, then trips over a bunch of equipment. We’re probably supposed to the infer the crates are to hold top secret equipment, yet they look like field cases for cameras. Movie magic.

Wait. That might actually be a case to the camera and the gear from the people producing the movie.

Want to know where I got that from?

Read more…

It’s been one of those weeks.

What exactly do I mean by that?

Well, let me put it this way: On more than one occassion this week I walked in to the men’s bathroom, put my hands under the faucet and waited more than the appropriate amount of time for water to begin flowing. Note: We don’t have automatic faucets at the station.

Despite that awkward moment occuring more than once, I did manage to get some work done this week.

One of the quickest turnarounds in a long time was our new Recession Survival Guide spot. I think I only spent 4 hours on this spot that’s going to run more than a dozen times over the weekend.

By the way, the answer to your question is “Yes.” And the others are all co-workers.

Things have been a little busy around The Big 6 over the past few weeks. With the end of February/March sweeps and the week of fun that was Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, there hasn’t really been time for anything else.

But I did have a chance to go out and visit the Extreme Makeover site; and I must say it was quite an impressive experience. We were out on Oxford, temporarily renamed McFarland Drive, for the big reveal when Bernard McFarland and his three sons saw their new home for the first time. Talk about an emotional experience.

It’s no wonder the show has found a way to capitalize on those “moments.”

After spending the week dealing with all of the extreme-ness, it was time to throw a Proof of Performance spot together for the 6 News coverage of the event. Enjoy (it’ll be running for the next few weeks).

And, here’s just a few of the photos I managed to snap on the ground at the site:

The Inauguration is closing in quickly. In just a few short weeks, Barack Obama will officially take office as President of the United States of America. And 6 News will be covering it, live in Washington, D.C.

Of course, there’s promotion to go along with a story of this magnitude. I put about 10 bench hours into this spot, but that’s mainly because the After Effects render of the :15 took more than 30 minutes.

Here’s the :15 version of the promo that starts airing Saturday evening on RTV6.

With the end of 2008 closing in, we had to prepare our year-end promo. Basically a highlight reel of big stories for Central Indiana over the last twelve months.

This spot really came together in the edit bay. I was provided with a script that had the big words for the spot (“challenges,” “controversy,” “change” and “hope”) and the desired cut of music. I dug up the soundbites and did the graphic work. This spot debuts Christmas Day on RTV6. Enjoy.

Next spot: Obama Inaugration. Starts airing Friday.

Our “Happy holidays” promo that starts running this Friday evening. You’ll see it through New Year’s Day, so I doubt you’ll miss seeing it on television.

Tomorrow night is the 42nd Annual CMA Awards live from Nashville at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

We’ll hit the air at 7:30 PM with the RTV6 CMA Countdown, our live pre-show special from the red carpet. As part of the pre-production for tomorrow’s special, I was asked to put together the open for the broadcast.

Here’s what you’ll see tomorrow at 7:30 PM following 6 News at 7:00:

The CMA Awards are closing in quickly.

Every November you can count on ABC to pull out the “country’s night to rock” line. The awards are Wednesday night in Nashville, and aside from the actual awards show, we send a crew down for our live CMA Countdown from the venue.

Here’s an early look at the promo we put together. It starts running tonight during primetime. My boss produced the spot, Steve shot Paul Poteet and the gang from WFMS, Kirk designed the 3D logo and I edited and added effects. Take a look:

Should be a good show this year, I don’t even like country music, but the awards broadcast is usually pretty fun to watch.

I did my civic duty today. And boy, did it feel good.

It wasn’t even painful.

In Indiana there had been a lot of talk about how long it would take the typical Hoosier to vote. Some people have waited in lines for as long as 3 hours, just to get inside the polling place. I would have been glad to wait that long to make sure my voice was heard, but I didn’t have to.

My wait didn’t even come close.

I walked into Indianapolis Fire Department Station 5 around 9:50am; and walked out at 10:00am.

Easy. Simple. Painless.

Then I got to work.

Sweeps is always hectic at a TV station, but Election day at the beginning of ratings is especially crazy. I fully expect to put in 12 hours today, if not more. It’ll all be worth it in the end, though.

Instead of the typical “here’s what’s coming up at 5:00pm” promo, I took a different approach.

Here’s the spot that starts running in about 15 minutes:

We’ll see how long we’re on the air, and how long before we know who the President-elect will be.

(Some are betting we’ll know the next President by 11:00pm, I’m saying 2:00 or 3:00am)

Feel free to share.

Full images are 4500 x 6000 (approximately 10.5MB).

Barack Obama wins

John McCain wins

Sweeps is upon us, and that means not only are political candidates vying for your vote, but so are television stations.

November sweeps and elections go hand-in-hand. All the local TV stations try to out perform the competition by promising “the most experienced news team,” “accurate reporting,” or “trust.”

I could talk all day about my competition’s position on such issues, but why would I want to? Instead, I want to ask you: “This November, can we count on your remote?”

Well, sometimes you really do need a montage. They don’t always have to be the Rocky kind of montage; but those are pretty cool, most of the time. I think Forrest Gump running across the country is a montage. Do pornos have montages? Oh, and any time Santa delivers presents it’s in a montage.

Anyways…

We needed a nice montage to wrap up a presentation to a bunch of representatives and clients. The network put together a fantastic opening montage (which I cannot share here, unless I want the “Mouse” to come and smother me in my sleep).

Their piece highlights all of the popular returning shows and new series for the fall, and also reminds you how much you both love and hate Meredith Grey and her whiny attitude. “Boohoo, McDreamy doesn’t love me-Yay! He loves me again.” Get over it, he’s going to end up with the Chief at the end of the series. Just wait. You’ll see.

We needed to put together our own montage for a nice little bow on the whole pitch. The creative process was… well, odd on this one. My boss wrote a quick script, with a bunch of throw-away lines. We knew that we wanted to show the big events, but had no idea where the piece was going.

By the way, I spent hours keyframing track mattes to make the ribbons and bubbles go behind the people and objects. This is what I came up with:

Every year the networks bring in big advertisers to showcase what’s coming next year and where there will be great improvements. They’re called the “Upfronts,” and each network holds their own. There’s a lot of bull that gets tossed around usually, but you can get a great idea of the new shows coming in the fall.

Locally, affiliates invite their big clients in to watch a closed circuit feed of the “Upfronts,” which take place in New York. At most stations a special video is then produced to hand out to advertisers, to show them what’s coming this fall.

We receive a lot of content from network for this presentation, but sometimes logos have to be covered up or changed. And sometimes you need elements that don’t exist. Here’s just a sampling of some projects from today:

Network Upfront ID
Since sometimes our clients are national, we needed a transition device that would cover a big jump cut and remind people where we are.
http://www.sethkeever.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/network_upfront_id.flv

Network Upfront Endtag
ABC’s “Black Pearl” is pretty, but we wanted to use our ABC/RTV6 logo at the end. This took a while to fake…
http://www.sethkeever.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/network_upfront_entag.flv

That’s where we’re at right now. I’ll be updating this post as I finish more elements, including a pretty awesome daily program lineup, if all goes as planned.