Author Archives: skipbensley

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About skipbensley

Unabashed father, AV genius, part time dark knight, foodie, amateur chef, antifascist, volunteer and rabid Boston sports fan.

Heading into the Holidays

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Thanksgiving is now a sweet and high caloric memory and we are all looking forward to the Holidays and the new Year. It seems everyone I talk with is guardedly optimistic. There is a real sense of we are all in this together. One friend said “ Things are more competitive and people are willing to go further distances to get your business. ”  They are going through all their accounts, making sure everyone is on board.  Taking stock in your business relationships is key right now and knowing where the cheese is or more importantly where it will be is more important now more then ever.  

As the new administration pushes forward into next year and various plans and bailouts are implemented I am hopeful our Country will rebound and that business will be get back on track, perhaps by 2010. I am realistic however and nothing will happen overnight.
Video Conferencing may be pushed again as it was after 911, I can see a real drop off in corporate travel occurring as companies scale back from 2008 heading into 2009, we will all have to wait and see.
We have been busy freelancing for other companies and recently did a shoot in Cambridge for Swagelok. We shot talking head testimonials with executives from Cambridge NanoTech about their relationship with Swagelok. 
Everything went very well on the shoot and everyone was pleased with the end result.

One week into History

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Last week we all stood in lines and waited patiently to do our civic duty in casting our vote for President. History was made as Barack Obama was elected the first African American President. He was quick to accept victory with the caveat that he is not in charge until January. Smart man, while I am not sure how the meeting with the bushes went except for blurbs about all smiles , but I am hopeful that now he is elected he will employ the same savvy that got him elected to the financial crisis. It’s interesting that the President of Iran was the first to send him a letter of congratulations. Hopefully Mr. Obama can restore our citizenship status with the world. I realize he cannot undo everything that has been done by the previous administration but he can try. He is already putting his team together for the White house, and I suspect he will continue to ramp up probably more aggressively then any president elect in history. His time is now, and will be official in January.

Big Shoot with Little Noodles

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I was hired yesterday by Director Phil Mondello and Producer Karen Vigurs Stack to assist with the digital importing of footage on the set of Etta Kit and Grace. The show stars Laura Osnes, as Grace and is an animation kids show that was shot in nearby Wellesley MA at the ELM Bank ( Mass Horticultural Society) Hunnewell building.
The shoot was also a reunion of sorts for 3 class of 1986 Northeastern University Alumni. Phil Mondello, Karen Vigurs Stack and I all graduated from Northeastern in 1986. Stopping by to lend his support was Professor Michael Woodnick from Northeastern University. It was great to see him and get caught up, He was one of my favorite professors that I had the pleasure to learn from while at Northeastern. We also had another NU alumni in Aileen Vicari from class of 2007 was also working on the set. So Go NU.

My role on the shoot was as Digital Image Technician. I imported the shot footage from Digital cards and transferred the data safely to hard drives and backup drives. I also had footage available to check and recheck for playback and continuity.

Overall it was a great shoot, it was great to see everyone and I look forward to seeing the finished product for some of the show will require intricate green screen post production and animation.

Thinking about Millenials

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A word that was not in my vocabulary two weeks ago has me thinking about it way too much. Millenials are the next generation consumer group, and will become the biggest in 5 years I have learned. How do I attract them as a small business owner, Will they like me? I hope so I have a company that is honest and works hard for it’s clients is that enough?

I am sitting Tech Directing in Lincoln MA today at the Dewey Gallery at the DeCordova Museum. The show is going well, and I was amazed at the weather today was just amazing. Thank you global warming I guess.

Dave Nickerson of Baystate Audio is doing sound and everyone has sounded great so thanks Dave.

Get Drop box is giving one of my client fits, not sure why he cannot see the files but I will contact them to find out what I am doing wrong. I think the shares are email dependent but I am not certain as yet. I love the abaility to share files, just want to share all of them.

New Marketing Summit wraps at the Razor.

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Brilliant Video Productions just wrapped up work with Cross Tech Media and work on the New Marketing Summit out at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.(Oct 14 & 15 2008) We were hired to assist Chris Brogan, Mike Lewis, Bill Sell and company with a show featuring the latest in Marketing trends.

Personally, I am still digesting what I learned and heard which was tons. The term “Millennial” is now branded in my head . This refers to those born in the Y generation or after 1980 and before 2005.

“Millennials” are very social, tech savy and can help make or break your company depending on the way you approach marketing to them. Apparently listening to where they are and aren’t (face book, blogger, twitter, and my space) helps in assessing where to invest your time as a company and as a marketing entity. Obviously the conference gave me lots of ideas and information much through osmosis purely.

We recorded all the main presentation sessions and also did informal satellite interviews with Mike Lewis from the Fidelity Club at Patriots place. All in all the Cross Tech event was very well received with attendees, and clients all happy with the outcome.

Back to work..

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Business is back with a vengeance in Boston area and We have been very busy since mid September. Clients have included work with the Harvard School of Medicine, Raytheon and work with Merk EMD- Astro.  We are also working closely with a sports writer at the Boston Herald putting together a killer Reel for her. Remember the name Lauren Malone for she will be known pretty well shortly. We just finished shooting in 3 locations for her including location shooting at Fenway Park Boston.  

The Boston Redsox also just clinched a playoff spot, and We are hopeful they will be playing into October again.  Go Sox.

Where did the summer go?

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Wow, time is fleeting. We feel like Adam Sandler in click and  have just fast forwarded through the rest of summer.  Brilliant Video Productions was busy most of the summer shooting weddings on the weekends.  Corporate business was down this summer, a sign of the times perhaps.  

Fall is upon us now and the kids are all back to school so make sure you keep your eyes open out there. Business is slowly creeping back up to speed, and we look forward to what is ahead.
Do not forget to vote this year. Never in our nations history does your vote mean more. For more on the elections and news see http://www.pbs.org/vote2008/.
Please also take time out a moment today and remember the families and victims of 9/11. 

Passing of Good men.

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Last week Tim Russert of NBC died of a Heart Attack, and this week George Carlin passed away from heart problems.

Tim Russert was host of Meet the Press after Marvin Kalb was host and that dates me. I met Mr Russert at a luncheon in RI at the convention center. I wanted to shake his hand because he reminded me of what a real newsman was like. He was part Walter Cronkite and part Charles Kuralt. He told it like it was or is, in a non condescending way and it was straight no tabloid stuff.

He also wrote a great book also about his dad and it became a best seller. He just seemed like a really good news man, a great father and good husband. Perhaps the last of the real good news men. Bob Sheaffer at CBS may be the last one now. For more on Mr. Russert please see http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/13/tim.russert/index.html

George Carlin was one of my heroes. He was counter culture I used to play his albums in my house in New Rochelle growing up. He was from Brooklyn I think and swore like a sailor. He was irreverent, bold and funny as hell. His take on baseball vs football, 10 commandments, and stuff all come to mind as I write this. He was very profound and I agree with many of his thoughts about organized religion.

When my mom passed I read from his brain droppings book at her funeral. She loved Carlin also and I knew she was laughing at me from above having the nerve to do so. I suspect George approved of it however and I hope my mom gets to meet him in Heaven, that is if she can break away long enough from Johnny Carson to do so. For more on George Carlin please see

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/arts/24carlin.html

George Carlin will be sadly missed.

Helping TJX Real Estate Out of a pickle…

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TJX Real Estate asked us to help fix a booth video for their upcoming trade show in of all places Las Vegas. They had some very nice Hi rez pictures and some DVD video but were having trouble making it all work. We shrank the pictures for video and fixed the video and audio portions. The Booth video will hopefully be a big hit for them and perhaps word will spread internally at TJX Corporation that Brilliant Video Productions is a good resource for local video outsourcing. You can also see the finnished booth video at

http://www.brilliantvideoproductions.com/video/demo.php