So I've been working with some development teams on developing a couple software products at Entertainment Partners. It has been very challenging and rewarding. The hard work of the people on those teams has hit a milestone tonight with the release of the public Beta of Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling. I am very proud of the work that has been accomplished so far, and am excited about what can still be accomplished. Plus I was tasked with coming up with the tutorial videos that explain the new features. I was happy to accept that responsibility :)

As I was wrapping up my duties on TRS, I got very nostalgic of all the short movies (intros) that we shot around my house. They sort of haunt me as I walk around. When I look at certain areas, I see the scenes that we shot. I wanted to express that the way I know how, which is through a video. So I made the following video trying to express those emotions. I tried to show different areas of my house and the memories that they evoke is sort of a ghostly fashion. And then I used the song "Breathe Me" by Sia. It is one of my favorite songs of all times and it was used in the series finale of Six Feet Under (the best series finale of all time). So here it is:

End of an Era from Stephen Koncelik on Vimeo.

Today was one of the final days I will be working on a little show I helped create called the Totally Rad Show. I am still going to shoot the live show at SXSW festival, so I still have some work to do. But today we shot our 2 year anniversary, which has a nostalgic tone to it anyway. On top of that, we pretty much said farewell to each other on the show AND I was shown a farewell video from the fans (thank you Lavahot!!). It was a very strong mix of emotions.

It is going to be very hard to watch my baby walk on its own, but I need to move on to other ventures. I just can't thank the fans enough for their support and love.

Here's the video that was sent to me:

Well here is the new site thanks to Squarespace! They did a fantastic job, and I'm very excited to start updating the site with new material. Here is a time lapse video of the creation of the design.

Squarespace Site Design from Stephen Koncelik on Vimeo.

So in doing the Totally Rad show for over a year and a half, we have had the need for lower 3rd’s to communicate information. I started off with an ultra simple lower 3rd. Then after a while I got bored with that and wanted to build something original for the show. So I made something that involved and explosion and fire like effects.  That was fine for a while, but I wanted to try something more complex with the After Effects skills I was gaining. So recently I built an all new one from scratch.

The effect I wanted to achieve was that of a fireball that tore open a section of the screen and left it burning for a while, then sealed up. This is what I came up with. I worked hard at getting the logo to have a heat wave effect (video may be too small to tell), and the edges to look like they are still burning a little bit. Like the slow burn of a piece of paper.