The Trebuchet Experience

Crisman Show, Crisman Show?!

Gas up the Blue van and grab your panty hose. It's time for the Sarah Crisman Show. By far the most eccentric episode to date; a Crisman kidnapping and zombie attack are key for a trebuchet experience.

I grabbed my gear and loaded up the van before meeting up with the Crisman and invading the Trebuchet compound. Upon our arrival we put on our thinking caps and tried to figure an appropriate beginning for their episode. A quick glance at their big blue van reminded me of the scene from the movie Old School in which Will Farrell kidnaps rush members for their fraternity. It was discussed and then decided. We were going to kidnap Sarah Crisman and it was going to be glorious!

We made a quick dash to the gas station to get our hosiery and then it went down. Scared a few peeps in the process, but it was awesome. Following the kidnapping we returned to the trebuchet casa to conduct and interview, which went well. What I found interesting about this band is how much this house was a part of their band. They write, record, edit and party in every room of the house. Their next album will undoubtedly be amazing and I can’t wait to hear it finished. They’ve asked me to film a making of DVD for their next album and I hope I can capture what makes trebuchet the next great underground rock band.

Anyways, back to the show. I don’t know how it was decided or why for that matter it was necessary to have a zombie in the episode, but I was told it needed to happen, and it did. From what I hear zombie attacks will be a big part of their next CD, which is damn cool in my opinion.

The Sarah Crisman Show: Trebuchet from patrick flaherty on Vimeo.

Following the interview I set up a shot to shoot a promo for the next My Denton Music Showcase. After a few shots we nailed it and it turned out great.

The Showcase went down a few weeks later and I quickly scrambled to put this one together. It turned out alright; we had 2 cameras this time and a make shift switcher. Streaming a concert online is a funny thing. Sometimes your online viewership is way high, sometimes it’s not so much. That was the case here I guess you could say. We did promote the hell out of this show and what little viewers we had online we made up for in attendance at the show. It was packed, for all 4 bands that played. Each act brought it and the Boiler Room was a bumpin’.

Since then I’ve found myself kickin’ it with the trebuchet cats from time to time. Even made a trip to ACL with the clan, but that’s a different story. Anyways, if you haven’t already listened to this band, DO IT! And prepare to have your face melted off...

And the band marches on...
The Sarah Crisman show continues, this time with the incredible rock duo RTB2.


They may not of been the headliner for the My Denton Showcase last month, but they sure rocked the house. Having listened to that stream on repeat a number of times, I can honestly say I have listened to this group play more than most people. I had seen them perform a few months back with some friends at Hailey's and was not really expecting them to 'bring the thunder' like these 2 did. Their music blisters my ear drums and keeps me coming back for more. In fact their cd is on a constant loop on my radio and always played at the proper level, REALLY FREAKIN LOUD!

Anyways enough of the praise. We met the band at Fuzzy's on a nice rainy afternoon a few weeks back to shoot another episode of the Sarah Crisman Show. After we chowed down on some taco's and read over their article about them in the Quick, we ran outside to shoot an aloborate storyboarded intro for the show (which turned out awesome)! We then conducted the interview admist the ever increasing lunch crowd and intermitent rain. In the end the show turned out great and is becoming really fun to shoot and edit. The next episode, with Trebuchet, is probably my favorite so far. I don't know what to expect after what went down. Anyways check out the RTB2 madness and let me know what you think...

The Sarah Crisman Show: RTB2 from patrick flaherty on Vimeo.

Motion Graphics

Groovy Dude...
On my quest to become Captain Amazing, in the video world that is, I'd like to submit the following for your consideration. As I've spoken about before I've been called upon to create an animated logo for the CLEAR Department at UNT. I've posted a few of my video's on here (here, here and here) and it's time for an update. Our Department is quickly trying to get me to finish this cube so that we can start posting it on iPod university for students to view classes and see whats going on at the University of North Texas. With that in mind I've had to readjust a few things so that my animated cube looks good on an iPod screen.
For one thing, I've taken the logo above and added it to my composition so that it matches with the already created logo as close as possible. Once I did this I went about adjusting the format of the composition; before when I was first using Motion I was kind of just playing around. Now I'm perfecting my angles and creating my own 3D schemes. Here is what the old composition has turned into:

Cube Tornado with Video from patrick flaherty on Vimeo.

After finishing this video and readjusting everything (aligning the camera and the cube faces) I felt like I could do alot more with this project, being a perfectionist and all. So I took it one step further and and I came up with this:

HD Cube with no background from patrick flaherty on Vimeo.

I then took the white background and added in some lights (just for fun). I also pushed this composition into the HD sphere and spent a little while getting used to long render times and large compositions. My work has opted to buy me more ram for my computer in fact, some time next week I'll be rocking 8 gigs! I eventually replaced these drop zones with video and audio, I just wanted you to get a feel for what it looks like. I also slowed down some animation in parts and sped it up as well to make it more smooth. All and all its looking alot better than it was before.

HD cube with white background and lights from patrick flaherty on Vimeo.

I've also been trying my hand at some After Effects tutorials, with hopes of creating a few logos that I wouldn't be able to create with Motion. Namely I've been working on a Logo for our Denton ROCKS segments that I've been shooting. Here is the early stages of awesomeness:

D from patrick flaherty on Vimeo.

As I'm sitting here writing this I'm attempting to upload a promo video I've created for the next My Denton Music Showcase that is coming up at the end of the month which I'm pretty excited about. This time we're laying out the red carpet for Trebuchet, which is made up of a group of pretty laid back guys. We shot a "Sarah Crisman Show" episode with them the other day and it was a blast. Lets just say pantyhose and zombie blood were a necessity for this shoot and definitely made for some really good laughs. I hope to have this segment and an episode with RTB2 edited and online by the middle of next week. These shows are really starting to get to be alot of fun...

Trebuchet Promo from Pat Flaherty on Vimeo.