New Faces-part 2

It’s time to check in and meet some more of the latest arrivals here at Running Pony Productions.

Brandon Roten takes over Edit Suite 3 as a full-time editor.  His is a “right place at the right time” story.  Brandon grew up in Olive Branch, but spent the last few years working for Waymack and Crew, a leading production company in Little Rock, crafting local, regional and national spots.  But long before that, Brandon came by Running Pony, looking for work.  His first visit to Running Pony was about 10 years ago, when, in his own words, he was a bit too “inexperienced.”

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago, after Brandon decided it was time to move on professionally.  He got back in touch with us, and said, “I’ve been talking to Dallas, Nashville, Chicago, New York, L.A. – and this is about the only place in Memphis I’d have come back for.”  That was good enough for us to welcome Brandon, his wife and two children back to the Mid-South.  In his words, “everything just fell into place.”

Drew Fleming is Running Pony’s new production specialist.  You name it; he does it.  He grew up in Memphis, moving to Florida when he was 15.  After college, when his family moved back to the area, he came too.  Drew had some pretty far-flung freelance jobs before joining us, working on travel documentaries and “eco-tourism” pieces in places from Central America to Finland.  Ask him what was most interesting and he’ll say it’s the food.  “Tamales in Guatemala,” Drew tells us, “are the originals – you can’t get better ones anywhere.”

His Running Pony experiences are pretty good too.  He says the most interesting one so far is “going to Morgan Freeman’s house and shooting some video of him.”  Anything else?  According to Drew, after they shook hands, Freeman “looked me in the eye, said ‘thanks for your work,’ and ‘peace.’  And then walked off into the sunset.”

There’s an APP for that

Hey kids, remember Bruce Springsteen?  More specifically, do you remember his song “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)”?  He was bemoaning the trouble finding anything good to watch on a cable TV system with a lot of channels.  That was back in 1992 – now, most systems have several hundred channels.  I’ll leave it to you to decide how good they are.  But for a long time, it seemed like that was all TV could do – go from one channel to the next, to the next, and so on.  Pull out your smart phone or tablet computer or laptop – and it seems like you have a lot more options.

All those apps, or applications to the uninformed, are available on our hand-held devices.  Facebook, Angry Birds, Netflix, Twitter, weather, sports, news and more – all those apps available at a touch.  TVs aren’t left out anymore.  Watch the commercials during the holidays and beyond for new TVs and you’ll see a lot of them are for what’s called “Connected TVs.”  Besides the HD picture and stereo sound, those televisions have built-in WI-Fi and include additional content – factory installed apps that offer programming – and a lot more.  Those apps will connect directly to the Internet, giving viewers access to movies and TV shows that may not be available on through cable or satellite.  Music, games and social media will pop up on the same screen as your favorite shows.

According to this story in TVTechnology, more than a quarter of all digital TVs shipped this year will be Connected TVs, and contain apps that TV makers hope will entice shoppers.  Is Internet-ready TV the next wave?  Let me check if there’s a “Coming Trends” app and I’ll get back to you.

Shopping for 3-D

TV used to be such a simple affair.  Black and white picture, 3 or 4 channels – without a remote – you would actually have to walk over to the TV set to change stations.  Constantly having to adjust rabbit-ear antennas and possibly having a piece of aluminum foil twisted around the top to improve reception.  Okay, maybe I’m dating myself (I’m not the oldest Pony, but close to it!).

In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of technology in, on and around our TVs.  The incredible growth of HDTV (high definition television) may make some of us wonder how we ever watched SD (standard definition) TV at all.  Once you couple the incredible pictures with cable or satellite programming and stereo sound you might ask – what can TV makers come up with next to drive sales?

Last year when the Buzz looked at 3-D TV, the question then was whether it was going to be the next big thing?  After all, we’ve seen a lot of 3-D at the movies – that was supposed to spur TV sales.  But, much like the 3-D movie craze from the 1950s, box office receipts are starting to drop.  And TV?  ESPN has a 3-D channel to showcase big sporting events, but the only commercials they seem to run are ones encouraging people to buy… 3-D TVs.  And, neither the major networks nor other channels, are rushing to invest in the technology needed to create other shows in 3-D.  And while prices have come down, a 3-D TV is still more expensive than a regular HDTV – and you still need the glasses!  So an industry-wide switch from 2-D to 3-D might still be a few years off.

“Running” Running Ponies

We’re particularly proud of a pair of the Running Pony crew.  Steve Shipowitz and Eric Thompson joined more than 16,000 others taking part in the St. Jude Memphis Marathon races over the weekend.  The marathon, half-marathon and other races raised nearly $4 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital^®, one of the world's premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other deadly childhood diseases.

Steve, our Director of Operations, ran the entire 26.2 miles of the full marathon, coming in 2,103th (out of 2,357 finishers) with a time of 5:40:57.  Pretty good for someone who took up running last year during a Running Pony weight-loss contest.

Eric, Director of Production at Running Pony, did the half marathon with his wife Shellie.  Eric finished with a time of 2:14:44, while Shellie got to the finish line 10 minutes earlier.

And if you want to make plans to run with some Running Ponies in 2012, the race is on December 1.

Emmy Buzz

Excuse us while we blush a bit, but we just found out that Running Pony Productions has been nominated for 5 (count them-5) regional Emmy® awards – television’s highest honor! One nominations is for a commercial we produced for the Memphis Zoo, another for the Memphis Tigers football team and a third for the www.beamemphistiger.com website.  The other two nominations are “composites” – compilations of graphics and animations we produced for our clients.  Winners will be announced in March.  Here at the Pony, we believe that having the chance to do good work for great clients brings out our best.