Track 2 on Rose of Jericho’s 3^rd album, ‘Out of the Maze’, is the song “Midnight Eyes”. It’s a song with significant meaning to the band’s lyricist and lead vocalist Andrea Russie.  When the band chose Geomedia to transform this powerful love song into a music video we jumped at the chance.

After a few pre-pro meetings with the band, it was clear to everyone that Andrea would be the focal point of the visuals.  Her compelling stage presence is matched only by her amazing vocals.  We decided early on to feature Andrea’s performance in as many different settings as possible.   We faced the challenge of only having a single location to shoot, San Antonio’s Scottish Rite Temple.

After scouting the location director Murray Breit and Director of Photography Zach Nasits identified 6 unique locations inside the Temple that would provide the diversity desired.  Hair and Makeup Artist Donna Horner and Wardrobe Stylist Krista Ynostrosa designed a different hair, make up and wardrobe “look” specifically matched to each setup.  Add in a smoke machine, some oversized light bulbs, a baby grand piano, some kind of crazy cardboard covered bicycle wheel and at the end you have a music video with a nice variety looks.

Getting our gear into the Scottish Rite was no easy task.  The loading dock door is 8 feet off the ground. Why? Maybe check the ‘The Lost Symbol’ for the answer because we don’t know. Thanks to the crew, we loaded in without incident. Then it was on to the following locations.

The Parlor

The Window

Stage (Band Performance 1 Alone)

Among the Bulbs

Stage (Band Performance 2 Crowd)

Creative lighting techniques were handled smartly by our Gaffer, Ron Meneses.  The smooth tracking shots of the Chapman Pee Wee III+ Dolly were expertly provided by Greg Lomas.   Assistant Director, Jacob Esquivel kept the whole ‘circus’ moving and on schedule throughout the night. It’s also important to mention the tireless efforts of Matt Rasmussen, Rudy Martinez, Jeff Chesnut and Jeremy Kenisky and their work in a variety of roles. We had equipment help from Holtz Entertainment and the cool wardrobe selection was supplied by The Vintage House.  A delicious dinner break was provided by Asia Kitchen.
From setup to setup Andrea never lost her energy or enthusiasm.  Her emotional performance is authentic and can be experienced in every scene. Andrea’s determination to give her best performance each and every take had a positive residual effect on the rest of the crew.

A few days later we shot a few scenes with Andrea driving around the city at night to add to the overall mood of “Midnight Eyes”.

As with every shoot, we faced some problems and unforeseen challenges.  But everyone pulled together and came up with some quick solutions. When we wrapped we felt confident that we had captured some great images.  We all had a blast.
Next was editorial and color grading, here’s the end result…

In case you’re new to the band, Rose of Jericho has released 3 CDs to date.  Their music can also be found throughout the critically acclaimed video game Rockband for the Playstation and  Xbox consoles.  In fact, Rose of Jericho is Rockband Network’s featured ‘Artist of the Month‘ for September.  Their music is available at iTunes, Amazon and their website.

We recently wrapped up a 6-spot television and web campaign for University Health System, through agency Creative Civilization, highlighting “Living Proof” of the medical miracles occurring every day at University Hospital

This years’ production featured live action with testimonials and personal accounts from the hospital’s patient, doctors, and staff. Through extensive research and hard work, agency Executive Creative Producer Joseph Guerra and senior Creative Director JC Cody felt all the stories were unified in that each of the patients’ testimonies were stories of survival, real-life examples of “Living Proof”.


The project presented challenging logistics from a production standpoint, but our talented team conquered each situation along the way. With only 8 days to prep the project we were able to successfully complete a three-day shoot on a schedule that more realistically should have required four or five days.

Our filming location was an ever busy city hospital so plans were often redirected as the next scene might included a doctor that would be unexpectedly unavailable “saving someone’s life” or our location needed to move since a surgery took longer than anticipated. Needless to say, our set wasn’t always a controlled environment and our AD team worked the schedule constantly to ensure that our shoot was successful.

We completed over 37 live action scenes with uncompromised blocking and lighting setups. ER’s, OR’s, research labs, MRI Labs, heli-pads, hospital exteriors, common areas, hallways, waiting rooms, limbo interview sets, designed home interior sets… You name it we shot it all at the University Hospital.

In addition to production, and integral to the success of the campaign, we also handled HD post production in-house. Creative editorial, color grading and subtle visual FX heighten the emotion of the poignant narratives, which culminate with “living proof” of each story’s happy conclusion.

So this one goes out to the entire production crew, AD, agency CD’s AE’s, etc. post production artists and the marketing team at University Hospital, who all made it possible.

Hope you like these commercials. Watch the the rest of them here.

When teams broke training camp this spring, the Hooks, Corpus Christi’s minor league baseball team and Double-A affiliate of the Astros , had visions of a competitive season and a new creative approach for their broadcast ad campaign.

Teaming up with Creative Director and Principal, Stephen Rybak of mdr, Geomedia produced a 30 second photography-in-motion spot that captures the atmosphere and excitement of a day at the ballpark.

Drawing inspiration from a storyboard concept and subsequent animatic designed by Geo’s Art Director, Martin Jaeger, we traveled to beautiful Corpus Christi and Whataburger Field where Director of Photography, Zach Nasits, and crew captured still sequence scenes of players, fans and stadium details to be incorporated in the final spot.

Geomedia Motion Graphics Designer and Editor, Joe Schartel, blended together  2D and 3D animation elements, composting techniques and organic transitions to take the viewer on a fast-paced journey of the sights and sounds of a Hooks game.

It was the agency’s vision to highlight the many areas of interest found in and around Whataburger Field.  The spot is filled with an abundance of iconic ballpark imagery, like Hook’s mascot Sammy Seagull, the swimming pool just beyond the right field fence, the majestic Harbor Bridge and many other unique amenities that make a Hooks game a fun family destination.

Related link: Corpus Christ Hooks Facebook Page

Geomedia recently had the pleasure of being selected to work with San Antonio Credit Union (SACU) to design and create a :30 promotional spot featuring their Spurs Silver Card Platinum MasterCard.

The lively project titled “Assembly Line” takes place in a virtual factory and follows the conceptual process and stages of the manufacturing of a San Antonio Spurs theme credit card.

The entirely animated spot utilized our full arsenal of 3-D and visual FX talent and software and is showcased during television broadcasts as well as in-arena at the AT&T Center.

SACU outlined their requirements and an original concept was created by Dirk Mitchell to cleverly focus attention on the client’s hero card throughout the entire spot. The story starts as a futuristic robot begins to laser-cut a sheet of steel. Articulated robot arms and hands manipulate the “blanks” onto conveyor systems that allow further development of the card.

To intrigue the audience and peak curiosity, multiple stages of manufacturing are incorporated to incrementally evolve the card. Stamping, embossing and plasma-etching are invoked as the SACU/Spurs card continues to progress. The spot concludes with a massive army of completed cards and the summon for Spurs fans to “Join In”.

Designer/Art Director Martin Jaeger illustrated the initial storyboard, designed and custom modeled all of the robot parts, fixtures and assemblies utilized throughout the commercial as well as handled visual FX, compositing and finishing. Troy Davis served as Animation Director as well as lighting and choreography designer. Technical Director Jeremy Kenisky assisted with layout and animation. In addition to video editing, senior editor Jeff Chesnut provided in-house audio editing and sound design.

For years, whenever a Geomedia production called for a grip truck , we’d rent one from video equipment rental companies like Gear in Austin. Gear is an awesome company to work with, but as our live action business began to expand outside San Antonio into other Texas cities like Dallas and Houston, and smaller locations like Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Corpus Christi, it started to become clear that renting may no longer make the most sense.

Beyond the financial considerations, and perhaps even more important, owning the equipment (along with our Red One Digital Cinema Camera package) would provide us the freedom to be more nimble in helping a client ramp up a fairly elaborate video, tv or film production more quickly.

Not having to do two round trips to Austin for each rental wouldn’t hurt either. We were convinced.

So now that we’d decided that owning made more sense that renting, the choice came whether to buy a grip truck from someone or build our own.

We took kind of a hybrid approach.

First, Murray found a well cared for 2006 GMC W4500 at Enterprise Truck Sales. We then turned to ABC Truck for a new Dry Freight Van Body that would hold all our equipment.

At this stage we had what you might call a pretty basic cargo van with an Interlift Lift Gate.

Now…the interior.

Our Animation Director Troy (of Devo Hat fame) loves to build things in the real world as well as the virtual, so he took the lead from here and began by adding a custom 1/2 inch plywood layer to the interior.

To help secure our carts while we’re on the road, Troy custom cut 10′ horizontal E-Track pieces for the walls…

…and then we mounted some steel rails for hanging light stands from the rear swing-out doors.

As the interior continued to evolve, our DP Zach was busy putting together a plan for how to organize the truck (including finding a place for our Chapman Leonard Super Peewee III+ Dolly).

All that remained from here was a final quick trip to LA to acquire the remaining equipment needed to fill out the Geomedia Two Ton Grip Truck.

Nice work, Murray, Troy and Zach.