I am doing the half marathon for this years City to Surf in Perth. That’s 21.1km! I have never run that far before and I’m hoping that YOU will sponser me to do the run.
What is CJD?
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a rare and fatal degenerative brain disease of the central nervous system.
There is no treatment, there is no cure.
About me
So I have been running for about 9 months now and I can officially say that I am addicted. The amazing places you get to see, the feeling of freedom, the comradery from other competitors, just trying to better myself. I love it!
This is the sequel to my viral short film How to Stop Cats Pissing on Your Car – The Best Cat Video Ever! It follows on my struggle and solution to my problem with neigbourhood cats urinating on my car and property.
Craig welding together the “device”
Seriously I don’t hate cats, This video was the result of a legitimate ongoing problem we have had with cats in our area. Washing cat urine off our doors and cars was becoming an increasingly time consuming and frustrating part of our weekly routine. Not to mention the many nights lost sleep with cat fights, we have even had property damage.
Basically I thought “bugger it”, why not turn our problem into entertainment? Everyone likes a funny cat video on youtube 😉
A scene from the film
So what’s it about?
In the sequel I take the basic concept of the first video and just make it…well…extreme. I don’t want to give too much away, you will just need to watch the video. So far it has been received very well with over 230 000 views. Plus it has just become a finalist for the short film competition Rottofest. The winner will be announced on Sunday 8th September.
The device in action on my first test subject (my sister)
One of my other “inventions” featured in the video
Drive by coffee. Sounds like a great idea (to everyone but the customer)
If you would also see how Kristen and I act behind the scenes watch the blooper reel below.
Follow Me:
If you would like to subscribe to my youtube channel go here and hit the subscribe button. You can also follow me on facebook or twitter or instagram.
I have been dubbed the Aussie MacGuyver so my lovely wife photoshopped this for me. I laugh every time I see it!
Aussie MacGyver!
Original Cat Video:
If you are unfamiliar with my original video “How to Stop Cats Pissing on Your Car, The Best Cat Video Ever! I have linked to it below.
Event coverage has never been this inspiring or this fun for Craig and I! We were hired by Megaroc Dance Company to film the first ever Disability flashmob in Australia to celebrate Disability Awareness Week.
Craig and I must have looked hilarious wondering around Garden City trying to look incognito with 2 professional cameras while waiting for the flashmob to start. We didn’t want to give it away!
Feel like being inspired? Then you have to watch the video below! There is no way that you can watch it without smiling. You know what I learned today? That everybody CAN dance!
Definition Flashmob:
For those who are unfamiliar, a flashmob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do a performance for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.
About Megaroc:
Megaroc was founded by Megan Diggins in 2002. Not long after she started Wheels In Motion disability dancing as part of her company. Conducted by Megan Diggins, the classes are designed for disabled and able-bodied people combined.
We were selected to produce 9 creative and informative background video stories for each of the finalists. This was broadcast on the awards night as well as used to further promote the finalists achievements to an international audience online. The production included the express turnaround of the videos (production taking place between the finalist announcement and event date) and also included the video graphics production for the multimedia display at the event.
Category winner Kanopy receiving their award. You can see the Master of Ceremonies – Susannah Carr off to the side
The media area for the Awards presentation at Crown Perth. Kristen at the ready!
As entertaining and amazing as all of the finalists were, I won’t go into detail about all of them, just my favourites!
Finalist – Wireless Underwater Communication System
Interviewing Paul from L3 Nautronix about the underwater communications technology his team created
Working with Paul at L3 Nautronix in Fremantle, He has recently returned from Hollywood director, James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge dive to the earth’s deepest point. Paul’s team created the underwater communications technology here in WA to survive the 11km decent to the ocean floor! James Cameron’s 3D documentary about the dive should be out early next year.
Finalist – A Floating Droplet Solution to Oil Spills
Filming Dr Chi working on his solution to break down oil spills at Curtin University
Dr Chi & Prof Moses from Curtin University have invented a solution to break down oil spills in the ocean which is environmental friendly compared to the current use of solvents. It makes water droplets float on top of the oil which capture the sunlight to degrade the oil. Go WA innovations!
Finalist – The HIVAP Airconditioning System
Interviewing Graeme who has invented over 80 things in his lifetime!
Who remembers the DirtSurfer? (Pictured Bottom Right, in the above image) It made world news and was invented by Graeme here in the late 90’s. We discovered this when filming his new high efficiency evaporative air-conditioning system, HIVAP. Turns out he has invented over 80 things including a lot of well known windsurfing and surfing technology. What an inspirational conversation… and guy! Kristen had to drag me away to the next shoot in the end.
Winner – Novel Treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Professor Steve Wilton from the University of Western Australia has developed a novel treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – a genetic disorder that affects boys and results in muscle degeneration and eventually death. A very humbling and awe inspiring interview. A very worthy winner.
To watch all the finalists and winners click on this playlist.
We are settling into our new production office location: Suite 10, 63 Penguin Road, Safety Bay. However as such we have been “lucky” enough to experience an epic “stuff up” with the relocation of our phone service by Telstra. This has seen us without service for two weeks now.
You can however still get in touch with us via the temporary numbers available on our contact us page.
We do apologise for any disruptions in communication for those have tried to email or call us recently during the move.
Everything should be back to normal in the next couple of days.
As the saying goes “the mechanic’s car is always last to be fixed” similarly as we spend most of our time on other people’s videos we never get around to fixing our own.
However we have finally updated it!
So what approach did we take with our own video? As video producers the trend is to go for a music montage showreel, squeezing as much of your favourite “eye candy” shots into a few short minutes as possible, which can be great fun to edit. However focusing on the video’s purpose, that being a home page video to tell people who we are and how we can help them, we have kept it short and simple at 2 minutes in length. We have gone with a direct to camera dialogue giving a simple outline of what we are all about while building trust.
Always remember, people do business with people, not businesses. One of major benefits of of video is its ability to build trust and show the world that yes there are actually real people behind the business. This doesn’t mean you should present your own video specifically, but simply by having yourself and staff seen in your video connects more with people than text and photos on a website.
As video producers, every now and then when time prevails, it is great to shoot something for no other reason than the fun and the creativity of it. Recently Craig’s short comedic solution to our ongoing neighbourhood cat problem has gone global!
Between Youtube and some foreign video websites (who pinched it :-p ) the video has now received over 1 million views and now online is the most viewed short film ever produced in Western Australia.
While having an underlying message of responsible pet ownership, The video shows Craig’s improvised humane solution to our ongoing problem with neighbourhood cats urinating on our property, including our cars!
With what has been amusingly described as a “MacGyver like solution” Craig improvises a defense mechanism from automotive and household items. Putting his camera rigging skills to the test he then documented the results for the world to enjoy with a combination of night vision, motion sensors, and high resolution photos.
Some facts we thought were interesting:
For a period in May according to TrendsMap the video was the second most discussed video in Australia on twitter, just one spot behind lady gaga’s latest song.
Shortly after upload the clip received over 200,000 views in a 48hour period.
The video has just under 800,000 views on Youtube.
The video has been featured in numerous online humor, technical and media websites worldwide including The Guardian UK.
Most interesting for us has been seeing the potential global promotional power of online video, whether it be for a message, idea or product. Considering the video was not at all intended for promotional purposes, it is interesting that we have had requests from numerous people who are ready and wanting to purchase the cat spray.
Check out the video below and tell us know what you think on facebook
Rockingham’s Kinetic Ball Sculpture or “ball machine” is a one of a kind sculpture created by George Rhoads. This iconic sculpture resided at Rockingham City Shopping Centre and entertained children and adults alike for years. The sculpture was removed from the shopping centre when the centre went through a demolish and then a massive upgrade a few years ago. Once the upgrade was complete the ball machine was not returned. The people of Rockingham started a facebook page to bring the sculpture back and Rockingham City Shopping Centre listened. We were then lucky enough to be hired to film the re-opening of the Ball Machine sculpture.
As video producers, every now and then when time prevails, it is great to shoot something for no other reason than the fun and the creativity of it. Recently Craig’s short comedic solution to our ongoing neighbourhood cat problem has gone global!