ALL EYES ON TAYLER MALSAM

Just launched the full length video about NASCAR driver Tayler Malsam that we've been working on over the past few months.

We started last November by going down to Charlotte and shooting Tayler working with his crew at the Randy Moss Motorsports garage.





Then we flew down to Miami - met up with our boy Stebs - and shot race footage at Homestead. Plus more interviews and B-roll on the beach.






We went out to Vegas in December and shot the last round of interviews.

Came home and started working on editing, the script and narration.


My boy Marc Chester handled the score. Here he is making some last minute changes in Logic over lunch.


We also just re-designed and re-programmed Tayler's site from scratch. Check it out.

Anyway, here's the finished product. The goal for the video was to simply introduce Tayler and begin to tell his story. We watched a lot of the HBO's 24/7 series and tried to approach it much more like a sports documentary versus simply another 'web video'. We're really happy with how it turned out and it's leading to a lot of other sports video opportunities for us. Stay tuned.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Matt and I moved into a new office this weekend.

To be honest with you, we've run this entire business over Skype for the past 4 years or so. And for those of you that use Skype, you know how glitchy that thing is. Even when we had the office in Long Beach, Matt still lived in San Diego. But, not anymore.



Now we're both working in the same spot. All day, everyday. I'm guessing it's going to be somewhere around 25-1,000% more efficient.



More pictures later - when everything's unpacked.



Our new info:
0484CREATIVE
16100 VALLEY OAK DRIVE
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA 92618

The office phone line is 949.333.2951. My cell is still the same.

GARY V

Week in review.

TUESDAY.
Couldn't make the Lakers/Suns game that night so I offloaded the tickets via Craigslist at the last minute. Of course the game went to triple OT - I should've known. A few years back Matt called and asked if I wanted to go to a Lakers/Raptors game. The Raptors are always so bad - I just laughed at him. Matt went and that happened to be the night Kobe dropped 81. It's like I'm cursed.

Booked a flight to D.C. for next month. Let's hope the snow's melted before I get there.

WEDNESDAY.
Up at dawn and Matt and Ryan and I went up to Pasadena to go hear Gary Vaynerchuk drop some social media wisdom.
(If you haven't already, watch this video. Trust me)


Part of the same speaker series as the Seth Godin event I went to recently. Only this time the room was way smaller, only about 40 people or so. And we were, by far, the youngest people in the room. No big deal.


Dude is a very engaging and energetic speaker. Also knows what he's talking about. This guy is the truth.


All about the humanization of business and ROI on social media. What he preaches seems like common sense until you realize how many businesses are grossly abusing/misusing Twitter and Facebook.

THURSDAY
Finished up the initial branding for a new company we're helping Ryan start up. Ry booked us tickets for Denver in July. Started working with Spellman on the framework behind our upcoming 4th Annual NBA Super Bracket for next month. Stay tuned.

INDY WELLS

Few flicks from last weekend.


Oak Creek, the golf course down the street from my place.


Sami and Robert analyzing swing videos.


Drove out to the desert on Saturday.


Went to see Donald Young, this 21-year-old American lefty take on Andy Murray.


Murray's been slumping since Australian Open Finals loss and Young, an unseeded qualifier, ended up winning in straight sets.


Robert does not get starstruck and he does not care about autographs. But, after the match the crowd was stunned and everyone was cheering for this kid. He was super humble in his interview and Robert told me that Donald was his new favorite player. At a lot of tournaments the winner of each match will sign 3 balls and hit them into the crowd before leaving the court. Robert said 'I want one of those balls'. There were thousands of people in the stadium - his odds were not good. Nevertheless, 30 seconds later he reached out and caught the one ball that was hit toward our side of the court. He and I then both went berserk for about a minute and acted as though he had won the lottery.


85º in March - you can't beat it.

COMING SOON

Just put the finishing touches on our mini documentary about NASCAR driver Tayler Malsam.

The full length piece is 5-minutes long and will premiere on Tayler's site next week. Here's the 90-second trailer for now. Have a good weekend.

BIG SEAN

This skinny kid from Detroit is legit.

To be honest, I don't like most new rappers but this kid has a unique flow and a very authentic feel about him.

This video - shot by some guys who call themselves 'The Work' - is really well done. All the backstage/behind-the-scenes footage feels really genuine and there's a lot of really nice moments captured. They're using this sort of blown out cross-processed effect on all the exterior Detroit landscape shots - normally I think effects like that come off as cheesy but it's used here to evoke a really nostalgic mood and I think it works. These types of videos make me want to make more videos.

Speaking of Detroit, did you hear about that guy who works for Chrysler's ad agency who got fired for the tweet he sent from the corporate Chrysler Twitter account?

"I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive"

I thought it was funny but he lost his job and then his agency subsequently lost the Chrysler account altogether. Come on man, whose job is it to tweet for a living and they get fired for it? It'd be one thing to send that from his personal account but you can't write that on behalf of Chrysler. (#commonsense)

Anyway, here are a few songs with Big Sean features including the brand new All of the Lights Remix, enjoy.

DOWNLOAD NOW

SLIGHTLY NERDY TENDENCIES

I name all our hard drives after the greats.

Don't really remember when I started doing this but I have no real intentions of stopping now.


L to R: "STAT" the 750GB Seagate after Amare.
"OGILVY" the 500GB Western Digital after the advertising legend.
"DROSE" the 750GB Western Digital after the Bull's soon to be MVP point guard.


Flash drives too. "RODDICK", 16GB Lacie.


And introducing the newest addition to the fam, "NOTORIOUS" the 2TB Seagate.

Largest drive I've ever owned - Matt and I each bought one recently. Blows my mind that every project I've ever worked on in my life can fit on this thing. Anyway I realize the whole naming thing might not make a whole lot of sense to some of you but you're lucky and you probably don't spend as much time on the computer as I do.

RECENT WORK: TRAVIS KVAPIL HERO CARDS

We designed these Travis Kvapil Hero Cards for International Trucks and Randy Moss Motorsports recently.


Travis is a former Truck Series Champion who recently joined RMM and also currently competes in the Spint Cup Series. Matt and I met up with him when we were down in Daytona - super friendly guy.

We watched and filmed most of the race from Travis' pit. He started in the middle of the pack but with less than 30 laps to go he had climbed as high as 3rd place.

But then, he got a flat tire...



Crazy right? Anyway, with this and all the stuff we're working on for Tayler Malsam, you really wouldn't believe how much SPEED TV Matt and I are watching nowadays.

Also, credit Bloggo for taking the photos of Travis and his truck and letting us art direct the shoot via email - good work man.

SICK DAYS

I got sick last week.

Which explains the relative lack of updates on this blog and also possibly - if you're a client of ours - on whatever project it is that we're working on for you. Don't panic though, because I've started eating some fruit and if that doesn't kill me then I may even consider adding a vegetable or two to my usual routine.

Anyway, I'll be back to posting pictures of sneakers and newly leaked rap songs and such soon but in the meantime, if you're bored, check out this blog. It's what I read last week in between Nyquil and Jamba Juices.

It's written by Jonah Lehrer, a Contributing Editor at WIRED, and it mainly takes neuroscience and brain-related studies and breaks down their conclusions into easy to understand regular human terms. Really interesting and super well written. Jonah happens to be, by many accounts, one of the most talented and compelling, young, non-fiction writers in the country. He's written a couple super popular books and for The New Yorker and The NY Times Magazine etc. Most importantly, he also happens to be a client of ours.

Check him out - his article about a geological statistician who devised a way to hack Lottery Scratchers was amazing. I love weird scams like this.

P.S. When you all mail in your 'Get Well' cards this week, remember to please make the checks payable to: 0484CREATIVE. Thanks :)

STRAIGHT CASH HOMIE

So a couple weeks ago we got a call and - long story short - Randy Moss flew Matt and I out to Daytona to make a video for him and the NASCAR team he co-owns.


Met up with Tayler Malsam and his camp at a sponsor luncheon earlier in the day.


Bryton James was in attendance - he's from Vampire Diaries and The Young and the Restless - or at least that's what Matt tells me.


Anyway, Randy showed up to the track and we basically shot stuff with him all day - meetings, interviews, everything.


View from the pit.




Fans approached Randy all day but he took pictures and signed autographs for everyone. All in all it was a great shoot, we got a ton of footage and everything went smoothly.

Anyway, we're editing now - as soon as the video is done I'll make sure to post it up here.


Kind of a crazy itinerary. We flew out on a red-eye Thursday night, landed in Orlando at 9:30 Friday morning, shot all day and then took the first flight out at dawn on Saturday in order to make it to Santa Barbara for Daniel's wedding. So we spent less than 24 hours in Florida. After shooting the race and grabbing dinner, we checked into our hotel in Orlando at 3AM and then checked out at 6 and barely made our flight. No big deal.