It might sound a little unbelievable, but you can get pretty good quality voiceovers for your projects using a simple smart phone. For our latest series Streetfacts we decided to go a little bit more low-tech: rather than using a microphone to record directly into the computer or renting out a studio and spending a [...]
While on a shoot in Indianapolis to document the grand opening of the Cultural Rail Trail (look for a great Streetfilm on it shortly), Jaimson Hutchins, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the city was leading a group ride showing off its bike amenities to some of the group gathered there from National Association of [...]
Friends, as you may know our major funder for Streetfilms, Mark Gorton, has a wonderful touring presentation called "Rethinking the Automobile" which he's been delivering at many gatherings throughout the country. Recently he was in Portland, Oregon at the Active Transportation Summit a few weeks ago. Dan Kaufman of PDXK Productions (and CrankMyChainCycle TV!)captured the [...]
Spring has arrived! And along with it an explosion of livable streets activity. Every time I ride my bike, or relax in a public plaza, or walk down a nice wide street where I can stop and say hello to my neighbors, I think how lucky I am to live in a place with growing [...]
It's likely most of our readers haven't heard of Regions Bank or at least haven't seen some of their trademark television spots featuring their distinctive lime green bicycles (Regions refers to them as "life green"). That's probably because most of their branches are in the Southeast U.S, so they likely advertise locally instead of purchasing [...]
Streetfilms Shortie - Fantastic Art in the Public Realm (Chicago, Milwaukee, NYC) from Streetfilms on Vimeo. Here's a quick Streetfilms shortie I just thew together that I shot with a point & shoot on vacation in Chicago and Milwaukee. I hope you enjoy, with these shorts you never know whether a couple dozen people or [...]
Major World in Queens is at it again. This time they're using a portable billboard to broadcast the message that bicycling and walking aren't the best choice to get around. One side features a tricycle and asks potential clients if they are being treated "like a kid". Though one could argue the tricycle is just [...]
There's been some fantastic bicycle momentum going on in the advertising world in the last year or so. Since I decided to start monitoring ads in the middle of 2012, there seem to be more commercials showing bicycles positively, and in many cases featuring them front and center to sell their product. This first one [...]
Here's one you might file under Not Ad Nauseum: a new commercial with bikes being used in a positive way to have fun, recreate and see your city. The product being pitched? The new Toyota Scion. Watch below. First off, this is a very nice, hip and pretty ad. It introduces us to Daniel Farahirad, [...]
The above apocalyptic-looking still is one of many shots of the South Bronx (circa 1980) from the opening montage to my favorite, New York City-set movie "Wolfen", an often forgotten film (even among horror buffs) about shape-shifters defending their land from greedy fat-cat developers. Though not a 5 star movie, it's a very solid tale [...]
People ask me how I came to shoot transportation videos, what school I went to, what my training was, etc. Well here's the skinny: I was always good with cameras. I liked being outside and riding bikes. In the late 1990s when cameras got small enough to fit in a camera bag or wear around [...]
I finally got around to seeing the Oscar-nominated "Silver Linings Playbook," and it's a charming film. It certainly deserves to be right up there with the top pictures of 2012. And as the film unspooled, I got a pleasant surprise: Neither of the main characters owns (or drives) a car. Except for the opening scenes [...]
Back in the Summer of 2010, the Streetfilms crew shot & edited ten wonderful vignettes starring Zozo, a purple Henson-designed creature, for the now-defunct Livable Streets Education. It was a great team effort from our colleagues Kim Wiley-Schwartz and Rebecca Jacobs as well as the hugely talented folks we partnered with to write and plan [...]
Smack dab in the middle of watching some Friday evening tv programming on ABC came the most pleasant of surprises: three consecutive commercials showcasing bicycling and they're all pretty nice spots. First came this brand new, wonderfully creative ad from VerizonWireless featuring the Droid Razr. I'm not gonna spoil the end of it, but we [...]
The networks were busy tripping over themselves trying to point out all the "firsts" during yesterday's inauguration ceremonies. But when Barack and Michelle Obama stepped out of the presidential motorcade to greet well wishers on Pennsylvania Avenue, they missed a huge one: Obama is now the first U.S. president to walk down a bike lane [...]
How'd most of the bicycling world miss this? You know bicycling has hit the big time when Golden Globes winners start talking about it during their acceptance speeches. Megastar Hugh Jackman (who won the Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy) had his bike stolen while auditioning for Les Miserables. How do we know [...]
I see a lot of films. And since so many are shot on the streets of New York City, I'm quick to pick up on things that are inaccurate (or cool) about our quickly evolving transportation landscape. I recently got the latest "Resident Evil" chapter on Netflix. Why? Well as I've told many people - [...]
Looks like we might have a trend! Following my posting featuring a commercial bashing bicycling as a mode of travel, this holiday season I saw two more ads locally making fun of bicycling/alternative transportation. One which isn't on the internet anywhere is a 30 second spot with a guy who loses a chance at a [...]
Although in 2012 I spent a large amount of time recovering from surgery from an auto crash I was in, I still was able to take some interesting photos I'd like to share. The above photo is my favorite livable streets shot which I took by chance while in Times Square. Apparently these gals were [...]
A couple of times per year there are usually some ridiculous NYC ads that tout car ownership over the "troubles" of riding transit, being a pedestrian or bike commuting. Most of them are laughably bad and involve much aggrandizement, but the newest one from LIC Hyundai goes straight for the sex appeal: if you're a [...]
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