2010 starts tomorrow and I haven’t finished posting about 2009. The last few months have been a blur of activity and compositing so Live Journal updates have suffered. Fear not, my three readers, a flurry of updates has arrived!

Earlier this year, Steven had an idea that none of us truly appreciated: Get four of us together, pool resources, and help each other shoot four spec commercial spots over one weekend. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a spec spot is a fake commercial for a real product. It’s something you do for practice and to add to a reel to show clients. We got together, rented necessary equipment and set out to each direct one spot. Steven directed a Zombie Skittles commercial. I took on Duncan yo-yo. Travis tackled Monster Energy Drink and Shlain composed a Doritos spot for the Annual Superbowl contest.

It was a valuable experience. When not directing our own project, we worked with the crew in various capacities on the other spots. Everything from setting up lights, operating fog machines, building a jib arm, pushing dolly, holding monitors, lugging equipment, to providing food. In the end, we collectively had several dozen high-quality clips to build our spots and we got to work with a great group of people. And Rui did some bad-ass yo-yo tricks.

We are planning similar projects for the future.