So I’ve been here in Singapore for about 14 hours now and thought I’d write something about my initial culture shock and adventures so far.

While this isn’t specifically production or animation related I thought it still might be fun to read.

The first thing I noticed last night was that everything here is backwards. The cars drive on the wrong side of the road and if you want to move out of someones way on the fastwalk systems at the airport, you should move to the left.

I arrived last night at around 1:30AM to my “hotel”. Hotel turned out to be a hostel and for some reason my name wasn’t on the guest list. A few quick phone calls later I managed to get in touch with one of the SIGGRAPH guys and they got me in. So I walk up to my room and there are 5 other guys in there all asleep – not only were they strangers but they weren’t a part of SIGGRAPH either. I went to sleep at around 2:00AM after trying to put all of my stuff away in complete darkness. I thought turning on the lights would be rude, but after banging stuff around because I couldn’t see I probably just trumped that idea anyway.

After sleeping for what I thought was about 6-7 hours, someone else in the room turned the light on and I could see out our window that the sun was starting to come up. This other guy was getting dressed and leaving, so I figured I’d jump out of bed too and head downstairs to check my email and see any students had emailed me in the last few days since I wasn’t able to check since I left San Antonio. I walk downstairs and the clerk informs me that I should “get some sleepy time”, because it was only 3:00AM. I had been asleep for less than an hour. I’m having a hard time adjusting to the time differences but I was finally able to get a few more hours of sleep before getting up again at around 7:30AM.

Today (Dec7) is sort of a free day for me, I’m supposed to be catching up on jetlag but I’m not tired so I figured I’d go check out the shopping malls and market places.

A lot of things are cheaper here. There is a place called Sim Lim Square that is essentially the electronics Mecca of the island. 6 Floors of every single electronic device you can imagine, and then some. Before leaving I was talking with Troy about different lenses for a Canon DSLR I recently acquired. I’m not sure how the guys at Sim Lim compete because it seems like every other vendor has tons of Canon lenses at pretty good prices. So after haggling with a few vendors, I was able to track down a 50mm/f1.8 lens, uv and polarizer, battery charger, and a lens cleaning kit for what was essentially $65-$70 USD. I’m not sure why everything seems so much cheaper, but I guess when it breaks in a week I’ll know why.

I also managed to find a mall here that is open 24 hours. It’s different. A mall has groceries on one floor, toys on another, jewelry on another, and traditional cultural wear on another. One thing I noticed is that everywhere I went was very cramped. The aisles are very close together and it’s hard for 2 people to walk side by side in them. It didn’t help that I was carrying my “look at that stupid tourist” camera bag around, but I figured getting some fun pictures would be worth it.

The smell here is very different. Different places have a strong what I would call “Indian” spicy smell. It smells very good and they often play complementary music and it really creates a great atmosphere. Other places have different smells and other types of music and together you really get a sense that you really are on the other side of the world. I’ve really enjoyed just walking through the local neighborhoods and shops and taking it in. Even the architecture of the buildings (at least where I’m staying) is very different. You see movies like The Bourne Ultimatum and you see him running through a busy street in Lebanon, and the atmosphere seems similar here. There is a huge mix of culture here and it is different from what I expected.

I’m still trying to figure out how the SIM cards and wall outlets and internet connections work here but I’m surviving. This is definitely one of the most different things I’ve ever experienced but so far it’s been great. I’m looking forward to tonight to see the city really light up.

Hopefully I’ll get some actual CG related stuff up soon, but for today this will have to do.

Also, I’ve uploaded a few pictures to http://www.kenisky.com/singapore/

If you’re a media professional who’s relocated to San Antonio to join one of these Fortune 500 companies, or one of the city’s entrepreneurial new startups, or one of the many public and private sector organizations in between, we wanted to take a moment to welcome you to the neighborhood.

Corporate transfers can present many challenges – finding a new house, getting the kids in a new school, learning how to get around a new city, not to mention the time it can take to develop new relationships and rebuild your professional network. Geomedia can’t help you much with the house or the school, but we might be able to offer you a little something that can help you build your list of media contacts more quickly.

In that spirit, here’s an overview of some of the media related companies that we’ve gotten to know over our 12+ years of doing video production, post production and visual effects in San Antonio. You might think of it as a Guide to the San Antonio Video Production Market.

The proverbial light bulb.

One common element we’ve found in all our projects that were later determined to be successful is that they all started with a great idea. You no doubt know this part of the process by its industry term, creative. Maybe creative is your strong suit, and if so, congratulations. That’s a special talent and the city can sure use you. But if that isn’t where your gifts are, and you aren’t blessed with someone like that in house, then you’re going to need some help. Geomedia provides creative support services, but much of the work we do is with advertising agencies who specialize in exactly that – developing innovative strategies for communicating your message. Agencies bring us an idea, and we help them build it.

If you’re searching for an advertising agency in San Antonio, the San Antonio Advertising Federation is a good place to start. Over the years Geomedia has delivered successful projects for San Antonio based ad agencies of all shapes and sizes, like The PM Group, Texas Creative, The Wood Agency, Rudd Creative, Lynn Riddick, Bromley Communications, Parker Creative, Cutting Edge Communications, Crittenden Communications and the Thompson Agency to name a few.

We cherish the many friends we’ve made at these San Antonio agencies. And now as the world gets flatter, we find ourselves working with more and more agencies from all over the world. So whether your needs are local, national or international, please don’t hesitate to give us a shout and we’ll be happy to help you with your search in any way we can.

Now, how the *$#&@ do we build this thing?!?

Turning that great idea from a sketch on a napkin into something that’s ready to distribute to a large audience is the part of the journey where Geomedia really shines. In our San Antonio post production house you’ll find a full time team of award winning editors, animators and designers who are passionate about their jobs. But we’ve learned along the way that paying attention to all the fine details is another trait of successful projects, so we sometimes bring in ultra specialized talent to help your project achieve it’s full potential.

For example – where are you going to shoot?

Some projects are shot outdoors on location, but other projects require the controlled environment that only a high quality indoor studio and soundstage can provide. We designed the Geomedia facility to be the best choice in the city for pre production, post production and creating visual effects. You’ll find comfortable suites constructed around tools of our trade like Softimage XSI, Avid, Final Cut Pro, After Effects and more. But when we need a location for a large indoor studio shoot in San Antonio, we often turn to Maverick Studios.

Geomedia’s booked Maverick studios to capture everything from live action footage for a traditional 30 second spot to green screen footage for a complex project destined for international film distribution, and those experiences have always been positive. In fact, some of the footage for one of our editor’s recent winning entry in the 48 Hour Film Project was shot at Maverick as well. (way to go Smiley!)

In the interest of full disclosure, we should mention here that some members of the Maverick team are also part of our regular Thursday night pickup basketball game. And though there’s little doubt that their jump shots may be lacking, we’ve found their desire to provide the physical space where you can shoot your project is not.

I’m ready for my closeup now.

Ok, so now that you’ve found a place to shoot, where are you going to find the talent to star in your San Antonio commercial, industrial video or film project? Though some members of the Geomedia team have been cajoled into making a cameo appearance over the years, our professional life is better spent behind the camera, so we turn to specialists in the area of finding actors and talent. Condra Artista, Calliope Talent, Entourage Model and Talent and the Avant Agency are the San Antonio talent agencies we rely on for help in finding just the right face for a project. For another recent project, we suggested a client may want to try out the services of TalentMatch to help them find their pitch person for a national campaign and they reported back good results. Austin based Agence Talent is also very good at what they do.

Or if you prefer to turn your whole search for talent over to a San Antonio Casting Agent, Brenda Ambrize is a name you should know.

Lights, _________, Action.

Being a media type, it probably took only a split second for your mind to find the word to fill in that blank with – camera. Matching the right video or film camera for a project is an important decision. Unfortunately, you can’t always find what you need in San Antonio so we often turn to Gear Rental in Austin when we need something like a Panasonic AJ-HDX900 or a jimmy jib for a shoot. Roger Castillo at Fawn Mountain has really delivered for us in this area on occasion as well.

Just as important as finding the right camera though, is finding the right person that can make that camera sing. Someone who can capture every ounce of emotion and subtle nuance a scene has to offer, and make it look great. That is often the job of the DP and one of our new favorite DP’s to work with is Zach Nasits. In addition to helping us capture some beautiful footage for several recent ad campaigns, you may have seen some of Zach’s camera work on projects like Friday Night Lights on NBC, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Ruffian from ESPN Original Entertainment.

Another DP we’ve enjoyed working with is Peter Simonite. With credits like Idiocracy and A Scanner Darkly to his name, we’re always glad when Peter is available for a project.

And Vance Holmes is a versatile and talented DP we’ve only recently started working with. The pleasure has been all ours so far as Vance has really come through for us. If you’re looking for someone with experience in aerial photography, you may want to talk to Vance.

Can you hear me now?

Here at Geomedia we provide a full service audio suite, including such everyday necessities as a dedicated mic booth, a full Killer Tracks library and a Mac based Pro Tools workstation. But sometimes an audio project requires more horsepower than that. When that happens, some places you can turn to for San Antonio audio production services are New Age Recording and Keith Harter Music.

I need 2000 copies of that DVD tomorrow…please.

Your project is in the can, ready for release. Sometimes delivering your content means uploading a digital file to Vyvx for distribution to broadcast stations, or on to our own server so that those who require access to the project can easily retrieve it. But many times a project still requires the need to deliver a large number of physical media, like DVD’s or video tapes, via FedEx. For large scale dubbing and duplication, Geomedia is set up to do runs up to about 500 units or so. For projects with duplication needs beyond that, we’ve turned to Matson Multimedia here in San Antonio and Allied Vaughn in Austin and have had good results.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

OK, your project is out there now and it’s time to let the MSM know all about it so they can help tell your story. We get the chance to work with a number of San Antonio Public Relations companies who specialize in doing just that. From international heavyweights like Fleishman Hillard, to local veterans like Guerra DeBerry Coody, to Social Media specialists like Kami Huyse who we only recently crossed paths with on our myspace page, San Antonio has many choices to offer you in this area.

The next generation.

When you need to add some in house talent to your team, one of the first places companies often look are local colleges and universities. And San Antonio is no different. We’ve found the Computer Graphic Arts Department at the University of the Incarnate Word (CGA@UIW) to be a great place to look. Jeremy Kenisky, who does 3D modeling and more for Geomedia, is a product of that program and is turning out to be a bright young star. Trinity University has also been the source of some great talent finds in the past, and the Radio Television Video Film Department at San Antonio College continues to turn out a steady stream of people with the training to hit the ground running.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

Someone asked us why we regularly devote part of our web site to mentioning and highlighting other companies, even sometimes offering links to our direct competition. That’s a fair question, and has been the topic of some internal debate. Our answer speaks to the underlying philosophy here at Geomedia. It can sometimes sounds a bit cliché these days, but delivering the most value to the client is really what we’re all about, and continues to be at the core of the Geomedia foundation.

It takes collaboration with all kinds of talent to keep delivering success. Letting you share in the knowledge that we learn along the way and letting others share in the credit they’ve earned is a way that we, like the city we call home, can continue to grow, together.

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related item: The San Antonio Film Commission, a part of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau, offers an online production manual that is a great resource for information on film, television, and commercial industries in San Antonio.

related links: San Antonio Economic Development Foundation; IABC San Antonio – International Association of Business Communicators; North Chamber; Laszlo Rain; Matchframe; San Antonio Business Journal; PRSA; SA Film Forum Blog; TXMPA; FilmSA Blog; MySanAntonio.

tags: San Antonio; video production; 3D Modeling; VFX; CGI

On to the reason of this outburst. For my first trick back at Geo I will be attempting to clone the Skater mini. Notice I did say ATTEMPT. I am not guaranteeing victory I am just attempting it. No hard date and no I will not be selling them on ebay. The first stages of this project will be 1:10 scale made completely out of construction paper, preferably pink.

Once that is complete and to industry standards, I plan on constructing a test version out of wood. If it turns out to be everything I dreamed it to be, I hope to continue developing and eventually constructing a final product out of alluminum.

So cross your fingers and wish me luck on my journey. Also I probably won’t be starting this journey until after the holidays, so if someone out there feels like embarking on this journey with me, you will be welcomed with open arms. To be continued…