It's Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and clients. We have been blessed to have had a great year thanks to you and most importantly to the One we celebrate at Christmastime. The gift of Jesus Christ really is the greatest blessing and the greatest gift any of us have ever been given. Let's not forget that this season.

As we head into the new year, we are hard at work on a number of exciting projects. All Star Technical Services has commissioned Glassworks to produce three promotional spots for various aspects of their business. Our first shoot was at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. We enjoyed seeing the work of our military and the great people at All-Star first hand as we filmed in numerous locations around the base. Our promotional piece for The Crown College in Knoxville, TN is in post-production now with a release date of February.

We have wrapped up work on a piano instruction course entitled "Inspirational Improvisation." This 6-hour course is a 4-DVD set and is for use by church pianists who are interested in improving their improvisational skills. The course is taught by concert pianist Greg Howlett and is available for purchase at his site, www.greghowlett.com, among other places.

The first part of 2009 looks to be a busy as we already have location shoots scheduled in Mexico, Great Britain, India and at least 6 U.S. states. We will tell you more once we get into January.

Once again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

HD Stock Footage

We are just a couple of months away from releasing our first two volumes of high definition stock footage in a library called AmeriClipsHD. This will be over 300 clips that video professionals can use to fill out their productions. We are excited about the great stuff we have to offer and can't wait to see it in use on a grand scale. All of the clips are shot in XDCAM or HDCAM formats at full 1080 HD resolutions. If you are a video producer, be watching for the introductory offer of both volumes on a portable hard drive for only $399. Call Jason at 404-822-9939 for more information about the collection or to pre-order.

Recent Projects

This month is a busy one for us. We are in the middle of several projects, each with it's own challenges, but all with a deadline coming too soon...

• All Star Technical Services in San Diego, CA is a major contractor with the U.S. military and with some of the largest corporations in the world. They manage operations at military bases worldwide and at facilities such as the Bonneville Dam. We just finished up a graphic design project for them that will promote their logistics division.
• "The Marine Corps-Vette Story" will wrap up shooting next week and we will be in the editing stage. This documentary will be viewed in a mobile theater that travels with the car to air-shows, car shows and other public events around the country.
• The Crown College is a school in Knoxville, TN with campuses also in Texas and in England. We are working on a high-definition promotional video that will be distributed to prospective students.
• Straight Edge Marketing is a network-marketing company based in Murfreesboro, TN. We are working on updating their recruitment video and introducing a new technology called the i-Vo.
• Vitabase is one of the largest health supplement sites on the Internet. We are producing ten short informational videos featuring well-known naturopathic physician, Dr. Kevin Passero. Each video discusses the health benefits of a particular product offered by Vitabase. Visit them online at vitabase.com.

We would love to tell you more, but we better get back to work!

Ground Zero

We spent September 11th in New York City this year. Glassworks is producing a documentary about the Marine Corps-Vette, a car that travels the country thanking veterans for their service and promoting God and country. The Vette was a part of the events at ground zero and attracted thousands of people wanting to take pictures and learn more about it. We were able to interview NYPD officers and FDNY firefighters who recounted their experiences on that horrific day in 2001. May we never forget those who perished and may we never lose heart in the war on terror.

Another recent shoot for this documentary was at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. If you are ever through that part of the world, be sure to stop in for a visit. They have quite a nice facility right next door to the GM Corvette assembly plant.

PBS Election Short

Glassworks Media was privileged to be a part of the upcoming PBS short entitled "Tell Me to Believe." This segment that will air nationwide during the remainder of the election season is a cultural piece contrasting the religious views of presidential candidates Barak Obama and John McCain. It features man-on-the-street interviews interwoven with statements from the candidates themselves. The producer of the piece was Becky Beamer with a large part of the videography by Jason Prisk.

Speaker's Promos

We just today completed production on a promotional piece for The Leadership Movement. This organization is made up of two motivational speakers who put on seminars for corporations around the country. It is headed up by Christina Parker, vice president of Bruster's Real Ice Cream joined by Donny Henderson, a musician and entrepreneur. The promo showcases their presentation and shares a little of their personal story. Glassworks Media has also produced speaker's demos for top-selling real estate agent Walter Sanford and for current New York Times bestselling author William P. Young, author of "The Shack."

AmeriClips Stock Footage

Glassworks offers the AmeriClips line of stock footage for use by other production companies worldwide. We have just discontinued our standard definition line and are planning on releasing several volumes of the brand new HD collection in the next few months. You can purchase some of the clips in advance right now by going to pond5.com and entering "Americlips" in the search field. Seen on corporate productions, church productions and on national networks such as PBS, AmeriClips footage is cutting edge, quality stock that any video professional will find useful.

Washington DC

Need to lose a few pounds? Spend a week in Washington DC. This last week we were on the National Mall and other areas around DC shooting footage for the "Marine Corps-Vette Story" short film. Walking the mall in 100 degree weather will wear you out quick--even without a bunch of equipment to lug around.

The Vette drew a lot of attention everywhere we went, even some unwanted attention. The car was rigged up in every way possible to get interesting and unusual angles as it drove through the streets of the city. The film will be shown in a mobile high-definition theater that travels with the Marine Corps-Vette. It will make appearances at air shows, festivals, parades, and many other places and events around the country. Glassworks is excited to be a part of this project that promotes God and country.

Trade Show and Expo Displays

Messenger Media is a leading sound design and installation company in the Metro Atlanta area. They are off to the WFX Expo in Indianapolis next week and needed a short video highlighting their work. Glassworks has put together a simple but elegant high-definition production that will promote the services offered by Messenger Media as well as show off their finished product. The format of choice for this one was HD DVD (thanks to the low cost of HD DVD players now days) and will be viewed on large 1080i plasma screens in the booth. It will loop continuously throughout the week of the show. We are happy to be of assistance to this great company and hope to do many more projects of this type in the future.

Promoting Your Business in High Definition

As a business or corporation, is it time to make the move to High-Definition? Well, that question has been debatable for the past few years as the general population has been in transition with the equipment in their homes. It doesn't make much sense to put money and effort into producing HD content when only a few are able to view it at it's full resolution. So, what would be the deciding factor? There are three reasons why you should now consider using HD video to promote your company or product.

First, the prices for HDTV's has dropped significantly in the past year. There are now far more choices in the widescreen section of your local electronics store than in the standard definition section. Most consumers purchasing new televisions are choosing HD. Second, within a year the broadcast channels will all be switching to digital signals. This means that the only way someone with a standard definition television set will be able to watch their local over-the-air channels will be to purchase a converter box. Third, the format wars are finally over. In the last month or so, Blu-Ray has emerged as the clear winner in its battle with the HD DVD format. This means that the major movie studios will now commit fully to distributing their titles in HD and the price for Blu-Ray players, blank media and duplication will begin to drop very dramatically and very quickly.

Many of the major corporations have already been making use of HD content. In national advertising campaigns, nothing less is even be considered. In tradeshow exhibits, many are finding it to be a great way to stand out from the crowd. For some businesses, it is not a necessary expense, but you should at least explore the possibility of stepping up to HD. Glassworks is happy to talk with you about the needs of your particular business. Give us a call anytime.

Ministry Promos

Glassworks has done a lot of work with ministries worldwide over the years, and are glad to be able to contribute in this way. In the past two weeks, we have finished up promo videos for North Point Baptist Church (near Atlanta, GA) and their new building as well as for Katie Folden, an artist who will be going to Japan as a missionary. We recently shot the FirstBible International "Conference on World Evangelism" in Nashville, TN, and will be traveling to Mexico in May to shoot a fundraising video for an orphanage just outside of Mexico City. This promo will be shot and produced in HD. This kind of stuff keeps us busy and just like the Navy, we get to "see the world."

Coast to Coast

We have just completed two weeks of shooting--first in Florida for MoneyTrax, Inc., and then in Oregon for Leatherman Tools. It is great to be back home, but now the real work begins. Each year, we produce DVD's of the MoneyTrax user conference, normally a set of 5 or 6 DVD's. This year we are also producing two additional productions with footage shot in Floriday. One is a promo for next year's conference and the other is a promo for MoneyTrax itself. Many companies find this is a great way to let people get to know the company and it's people and to explain their product. We look forward to delivering the company promo to MoneyTrax in April.

No such luxury on the Leatherman piece. The promo we are producing must be ready for HD display at the Shot Show beginning February 2nd. The Shot Show is the largest shooting, hunting and outdoors show in the world. We will be working around the clock to make sure this video is ready go.