I just made and observation.  So, if you watch the Improv Everywhere video where they Freeze in place in Grand Central Station you will notice that quite a few people pull out their cell phones to shot some video or to take a picture.  Many other people get on their phones and to call people and tell them how crazy the whole thing is.  So what does T-Mobile see when the watch the video?  They see people using their minutes and texting friends etc.  Then they come up with the tagline for the end of thier video, “Life’s for sharing”.  Then next time that you come across some sort of random event in the middle of Liverpool Street Station be sure and get on your mobile and share it with your friends.  ;]

I wrote before about Improv Everywhere and their comedy stunts.  Well it seems that T-mobile has picked up on the popularity of the video experiment and made one of their own.  I LIKE IT!

here’s their inspiration from Improv Everywhere.

Food Court Musical

Best Game EVER!

Speaking of Stormtroopers… I saw this post on Gizmodo (via the Star Wars Blog) about some new tilt shift photos.  I wrote about tilt shift in an earlier post, but the idea is to make the subject of the photo look tiny by creating a narrow depth of field.  Photographing people dressed up like Stormtroopers and making them look like they’re action figures is an incredible idea!

When I was looking at the photos I noticed that the photo was filtered through TiltShiftMaker.com.  It looks like they’re using a filter to create the shallow depth of field created by the tilt shift lens adapter.  Upload a photo to their site and run it through the filter and your done.  I used a similar technique when I was creating the Background for the CarboTron animation.

Along with those Rebels, there was a whole bunch of stormtroopers out at the Phoenix Comicon.  You should look at the video from last year to compare the improvements to the Trooper Training.  Here’s a bit about the 501st from their website.

“…The Legion is a volunteer club formed for the express purpose of bringing together costume enthusiasts and giving them a collective identity within which to operate. The Legion’s aims are to celebrate the Star Wars movies through the wearing of costumes, to promote the quality and improvement of costumes and props, and most importantly to contribute to the local community through charity and volunteer work…”

The Star Wars elements of the convention were the things that my son was most looking forward to.  You can see in the way he runs the course that he loves being a trooper.  I put together a video of the course.  Sorry about the cell phone ring in the middle of the video.  That was my friend Chris calling me to come over to the con so he could meet Chewbacca. 

*note* I’m still trying to figure out all this video stuff so be sure to click the up arrow in the lower right hand corner of the video and select “HQ” to watch the video in HIGH QUALITY.

Hey Everybody!  I finished up another crazy week by attending the Phoenix Comicon.  The convention added another day and a preview night this year so I was out there from Thursday night till Sunday evening.  I’m going to try and be a bit better about taking my video camera with me on these outings so that I can share all the fun.  One of the things that my son was really looking forward to was the Jedi and Trooper training.  I’m still putting together a few videos but here’s the first one.

I met up with the Rebel Legion at the convention. They are an international Star Wars costuming organization created by, of and for people interested in creating costumes from the Star Wars mythos.  You can learn more about them at their main website here.  You can also keep up with the Arizona chapter of the Rebel Legion at their site called the Mos Eisley Base.

*note* be sure to click the up arrow in the lower right hand corner of the video and select “HQ” to watch the video in HIGH QUALITY.

I wrote a bit last week about how great it was to make some friends at Jerry’s Audio-Video.  They had this huge 103″ Plasma screen that they showed my video on 2 or 3 times a day.  Thanks William and Michael and everybody else who helped me get the word out about the Bandit.

I gave them a DVD of the complete story of the Bandit.  I included a bit of footage from the TV show as well as some of the video that I saw that got me interested in entering the contest.  So here’s a quick shot of my video on their big tv and then the complete story of the Bandit video.

The auction was a great success.  I had a great time with the whole experience and ended up learning a thing or two.  At the last possible moment I decided to go over to the Russo and Steele auction.  I talked with plenty of people that know more about this stuff than I do and they kept recommending that I go to an auction house where I could put a reserve on the car to help control the final sale.

So I drove down to their offices to pay my consignment fees and sign over the power of attorney so that they could finalize the work on the title.  I paid $950.00 to have the car in the auction.  YearOne had valued the car at $80,000.00 when they gave it to me.  I had heard that with these types of restoration projects that the car is only getting .50 on the dollar back from what they put into it.  Now, this being said, I went in to the Russo and Steele offices thinking that I would put the reserve on the car at 40k.  If the car hits the reserve price or more, the consignment fee is refunded and then the auction house takes a commission of 10% of the closing bid.  They want to make sure that they get the cars sold, so I was advised to have my reserve price set at a more reasonable price of 30k.  I’ve never done this before, so I felt that it was fair to trust their judgement.

To promote the cars that are for sale at the auction they publish a catalog with a short description of the vehicles.  I had switched from the Barrett Jackson auction to Russo and Steele so late in the game that I didn’t get in the catalog.  I was nervous that I wouldn’t have enough coverage to show off the car and find a buyer.  So, I started promoting it myself.  I was out at the auction everyday for 6-8 hours a day.  I talked to the Hagerty insurance reps and asked to be on their website’s “Cars to watch” list.  I had magazines out about the Bandit and had printed information in the windows.  I set up my laptop in the engine to play an episode of the DIY Network show all about rebuilding the car.  I hung up a poster on the pole behind the Bandit and even strung up a clothesline where I pinned up my wardrobe from my winning video.  I brought a CD with the song from the Smokey and the Bandit movie, “Eastbound and Down” and blasted it over the speakers a few times.  Probably the best thing I did was that I made some friends with Jerry’s Audio-Video.  They had a booth set up and had a huge Plasma screen set up.  I gave them a DVD of my video and they would play it for me 2-3 times a day. 

So, I watched some of the other auctions to get a feel for how it worked.  The cars would drive in between these huge bleachers.  The auction caller was up on a tower overlooking the whole crowd and the bidder assistance were down working the crowd.  There were several bidders who would be down and circling around the cars to get a closer look at them.  I had one of the Russo and Steele employees drive the car in so that I could stand off to the side of the block and act cool.  I kept my arms folded across my chest and tried my best to shake my head “NO” when ever the bidder assistant would ask me questions.  The idea is that the crowd is watching the interchange between the seller and the bidder assistant.  The crowd is watching to see when the seller is going to fold on thier reserve and sell the car.

As soon as the car stopped on the block the bidder assistant came right over to me.  He said, “I see that your reserve is at 30, would you take 20?”  I held firm.  Arms folded across my chest, “no” I said while shaking my head for the crowd to see.  “How about 22?  25?” he asked.  “No”, then I said, “Lets just see where it goes.”

About 30-45 seconds later the bid had cranked up past 30k.  The bidder assistant came over and said, “Hey, you hit your reserve!”.  I told him not to say anything yet so that it could keep climbing.  The bidding seemed to even out at about 48k when the caller cried out, “ARE WE GOING TO SELL THIS CAR?”  The bid assistant pumped his fist in the air and said, “THE RESERVE IS OFF!!!!” 

The bidding climbed a bit more and I saw some people out in the crowd that I had talked to earlier that were now bidding on the car.  It seemed like there were at least 3 people or more bidding on the car.  They started to move the car off the block and the bidding ended and I was just standing there looking around.  I guessed that it had ended, but I didn’t even hear what it sold for.  One of the guys that I had spoken to earlier came across and said, “When things were slow around 48k we threw in a few bids to get things going again.”  I thanked him and wondered if he had thought that my reserve was at 50k.  I wouldn’t want to have accidentilly spent 48k at the auction. 

A couple and their son came down out of the crowd that I had spoken twice on the day of the auction.  They came down and said, “We just wanted you to know that it’s going to a good home.”  I smiled, and then congratulated them and said, “It all went so fast, I didn’t even see what the final bid was.”  Then they told me.

$52.500.00

goodbye Bandit.  thanks for all of the good times.

I’m all done with my Hot Rod auction and I’ll be writing about my experience shortly.  Here’s a little photo I found at Jalopnx to hold you over.

It’s been a long time coming but here’s the sequel to my Bandit winning video.  Special thanks go out to Burt Reynolds, the team and YearOne, the DIY Network, and Heavy.com.  I also want to thank the police officers who volunteered their time to chase me around.  I’m not sure if I can mention you all by name.  Let me know if I can.  ;]

A higher resolution video will be posted at a later date.

I came home to a sad little girl yesterday.  When I found out that she was crying because she sad that I was selling the Bandit, I decided to let her explain in her own words.