Midtown

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Drew Geraci has produced yet another excellent time-lapse video, this time of midtown New York City. Drew is a well known time-lapse videographer that I'm a big fan of. You've probably seen his work before and not even realized it, especially if you watch the Netflix original show, House of Cards, which he did the intro credit sequence for. Drew has also previously been featured on my site for his Washington DC time-lapse and the time-lapse he did for the Washington Times of President Obama's second inauguration.

www.District7Media.net @TheVoder @District7M Midtown New York City is the place to be. The lights, cars, traffic, architecture and people make the city come to life as a living, breathing, organism that never sleeps. Take a trip with this time-lapse production into the city and see the sights and sounds that create this magnificent destination. For us, this time-lapse production was produced using more than 50,000 still frames, shot over the course of 6 months traveling back and forth from Washington DC to New York City while we shot for clients. Our main goal was to capture the central part of the city in both visuals and audio. The sound effects used in this production were taken from the various locations we shot and were added in to give you the feeling of actually being there. There were multiple times during this shoot that we were chased off, either by cops or the cold. The subway shots were particularly difficult to get, especially in the wake of the Boston bombings. We were led out and in some cases followed by police officers or MTA officials who seemed intent on getting us for using tripods. The music is performed by the talented Danny McCarthy (Fracture) (Music has been licensed through Killertracks.com) ***MIDTOWN Water UFO*** We captured something we can't explain. If you know what these lights are, let us know! https://vimeo.com/72343954 ***Licensing note*** The majority of this footage is own exclusively by 3rd party clients and we can not license out certain shots. If you're interested in licensing non-exclusive material please contact Andrew at ageraci@district7media.net or call us at 513-259-9231 Follow us here; www.District7media.net www.facebook.com/District7Media Our gear consisted of the following; (4) Canon 5D Mark III's (2) Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 II Canon 24-105mm f/4 Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II (2) Dynamic Perception Stage Zero's with upgrade stepping motors www.dynamicperception.com Emotimo TB3 - Orange and Black www.emotimo.com/ This production would not be possible without the help, assistance, guidance and inspiration of some of the most talented people out there; Arthur Breese, Jimmy Shea, Gregg Lehrman, Jay Burlage, CA Time-lapse Crew (Joe Capra, Colin Rich, Andrew Walker, Matt Givot, Chris Pritchard, Michael Shainblum, Eric Hinds, Ben Canales, Sheldon Neil) Richard Bently, Patryk Kizny and the rest of the time-lapse community. MIDTOWN - Cinematography, production and motion graphics by Andrew "Drew" Geraci ©2013 District 7 Media All Rights Reserved. No images, video or parts of this production may be used without authorization. This production is for portfolio use only.

Water Bomber Extinguishes Truck Fire From the Air On a Remote Canadian Highway

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Trans-Labrador (Canada) Highway Accident between a Grader & Transport Truck. A fire started and was soon engulfing the entire cab, lucky the driver did get out & survived. Because of such a remote location, emergency vehicles are miles away, so a water bomber is dispatched to extinguish the flames.

For a brief moment it looked as if the cameraman was also going to be extinguished.

The Coming Public Freakout About iOS 7

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After listening to this week's Accidental Tech Podcast episode, something the hosts talked about stuck with me.

Remember "Antennae-gate"? What a stupid name for a stupid non-scandal scandal. What about the mainstream tech press freakout over Apple's refusal to allow Flash on iOS? That even prompted a letter from Steve Jobs. Have you noticed how Consumer Reports finds a new straw-man "issue" with each new Apple product over the last few years as an excuse to generate page views?

Keeping all of the above in mind, what do you think is going to happen in October, when the iPhone 5S/6 comes out with iOS 7? The vast majority of iPhone users, who have iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 devices (and aren't even aware of which device they have) and have been holding out for "the new iPhone" are going to buy the new device which will have iOS 7 on it. These are the very same users who do not follow tech news. They discover features of iOS 3/4/5/6 months or years after it is released because they do not read all of the extensive reviews that are published when ever Apple lifts their press embargoes the night before the new iPhone goes on sale.

Now imagine what is going to happen when they see iOS 7 for the first time after having had iPhones for 2-4 years already. We all know that people hate change. But these people in particular, really hate change. They are not technically savvy and have a difficult time learning/getting used to the technology they do have. Remember the loud, public freakout every time Facebook does yet another massive UI overhaul. If like me, you rarely use Facebook and don't really remember it - trust me, it happens. Consumer Reports will probably write a mostly positive review, but wont miss the opportunity to concern troll somewhere in the middle about Apple's changes in iOS 7. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS's token mainstream "tech" reporters will write articles pretending to care about the new phone and iOS 7, citing "concerns" about Apple's new design. They write about it simply because that's what everyone else is writing about. They can't be left out of the sheep herd of intellectually dishonest articles that the majority of mainstream tech press will write because it is the flavor of the week. They will use their standard arsenal of vagueness, hearsay, false premises, citing irrelevant facts, changing the subject, or questioning the motives of Apple rather than writing about the design itself or having insight into the changes. They will write their articles as if what they write actually means something and wont be forgotten four weeks later when these users have all gotten used to the changes in iOS 7. Three or four years from now, we will look back on October of 2013 and remember how ridiculously everyone reacted and note how, just like every other fake scandal about Apple since 2007, that it had no impact on anything of substance.

Remember people do not like change. People are superficial and vain, and thus react more loudly to things they can't avoid seeing. The changes being made in OS 7 are easy to see, and thus the reaction will be loud.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that there isn't anything wrong with iOS 7. It has been hashed out by many reputable designers, developers and tech press what are some legitimate issues with the new design. There has also been signs from the betas of iOS 7 that Apple is listening and making changes to fix these issues. I'm not referring to any of this in the above rant.

This Makes Me So Inexplicably Happy

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The video features so many wonderful locations around DC that any local will recognize easily. I attempted to list all of the locations I recognized from the truck shots in the background. My list: * Metro Center * Chinatown * Union Station * National Portrait Gallery * The National Mall Also, pay attention to the folks in the background. Ari Shapiro plays the bells once at the old building and again at the new. Scott Simon is in the background of the elevator in the lobby in the old building wearing a coat. Carl Kassell is the older gentlemen who scowls at them at the new building that they go quiet for. Bob Boilen, at NPR Music writes:

The Tiny Desk has moved, and OK Go has helped make it so. Earlier this year, we needed to figure out the best possible way to move my Tiny Desk from NPR's old headquarters to our new facility just north of the U.S. Capitol. We wanted to go out with a bang and arrive at our new space in style, so our thoughts naturally turned to a catchy pop band we love: OK Go, whose unforgettable videos have been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube. Bandleader Damian Kulash used to be an engineer at an NPR member station in Chicago, so we figured he'd be up for helping us execute a simple idea: Have OK Go start performing a Tiny Desk Concert at our old location, continue playing the same song while the furniture and shelving is loaded onto a truck, and finish the performance at our new home. In addition to cameos by many of our NPR colleagues — Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, David Greene, Guy Raz, Scott Simon, Alix Spiegel, Susan Stamberg and more — this required a few ingredients: * Number of video takes: 223 * Percent used in final version: 50 * Number of raw audio channels: 2,007 * Percent used in final version: 50 * Number of microphones: 5 * Number of hard-boiled eggs consumed: 8, mostly by bassist Tim Nordwind * Number of seconds Carl Kasell spent in the elevator with OK Go: 98 * Number of times Ari Shapiro played the tubular bells: 15 * Number of pounds the tubular bells weighed: 300 * Number of times the shelves were taken down and put back up: 6 * Number of days it took to shoot: 2 * Number of cameras: 1 OK Go played "All Is Not Lost" from Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, with words tweaked by the All Songs Considered team. And so begins a new era for the Tiny Desk, after 277 concerts (counting this one) in our old home.