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The digital video business in our area has come full circle: businesses such as AJA Video and Thomson Grass Valley abound, and now we have a Sony Electronics commercial that is centered around capturing our idyllic lifestyle on HD products.
I was watching television this week and saw the Sony commercial that was filmed in our area last month, including a Norman Rockwell-like scene showing boys riding a bicycle in front of a "painted lady" on our street. (The same block was in the news this week because a neighbor wanted to hang out a shingle out front for a hair salon, irking some residents).
It was fun to hang out with the film crews and grab a cup of coffee from the breakfast wagon on the way to work. I'm an early riser, and so was the crew. They rolled onto the street at 5:30 a.m.
The campaign launched Monday - dubbed "tumble" - features Sony cameras, camcorders and point-and-shoot cameras literally "tumbling" from a mountaintop (Squaw Valley). The commercials will run on television all year.
"We show a professional HD camera fall off a mountain, but instead of the camera breaking, we see it transform into a series of other Sony high-definition products," a Sony marketing manager wrote on a company blog. "Those products eventually land into the hands of various people in the town below."
The "town" below is ours - Grass Valley and Nevada City. With the magic of computer graphics, one scene shows a Sony camera bouncing off buildings on Broad Street and landing in a woman's hand just in time to photograph a wedding couple coming out of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Voila!
It's a cool campaign, and you can watch it on the Internet at www.sony.com/tumble.
Most interesting is the video on the same site called "How Tumble was made." The clip shows many scenes in Nevada City and Grass Valley. It's also posted on YouTube and tech blog sites such as Gizmodo.
As it turns out, this was no ordinary commercial shoot. Here's what it took, according to Sony: Nine shoot days, 12 locations, four towns, two mountains, 20 tons of equipment, six cameras, one spider cam, one lenny arm, one 50-foot Technocrane, 62 crew members, 30 computers, 25 animators, 90 cast members, 200 hours of editing, two helicopters, 20 snowmobiles, 600 feet of rope and 6,000 feet of elevation.
"From shooting from inside a gondola high up in the Sierras, to sending a high-definition camera bounding down the steep slopes tethered between two gigantic inner tubes, this was going to be a one-of-a-kind commercial-shooting experience," the Sony blog said.
Sony is counting on sales of its HD products to boost its business. I'm familiar with Sony's challenges: the Sony U.S.A. chief executive, Howard Stringer, is a former journalist and I interviewed him several times when he ran a venture called Tele-TV, the Baby Bells ill-fated foray into video in the mid-'90s.
Here's the challenge: As Apple Computer becomes more like Sony - with iPods, iPhones and Apple TV - the electronics giant can't afford to sit flat-footed. Some techies are speculating that Sony will get into software to better link its cool hardware and entertainment content.
Sony's commercial, meanwhile, provides a high profile for our corner of paradise. Ads have been filmed here before, ranging from the Ford Motor Co. to Mr. Goodwrench. A Ford commercial featured Kermit the Frog rafting down the South Yuba River, climbing rocky banks and finding a new Ford Hybrid. Hallmark's movie "The Christmas Card" featuring Ed Asner was a boost for Nevada City. It also was nominated for an Emmy.
Next week, business leaders will gather to discuss a unified branding campaign for Nevada County. "Culture and creativity at the edge of nature" is one slogan being considered.
Here's a thought: The group also should consider creating a countywide film commission to help bring commercial, television and film crews to the area.
The commission also could help coordinate filming schedules with our area's residents and businesses to minimize disruptions and help with cleanup (like the bags of trash that were left on our street).
Think of it as a end-to-end solution for digital video, from making components to providing images for the screen.
Jeff Pelline is the editor of The Union. His column appears on Saturdays. Contact him at 477-4235, jeffp@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.
I was watching television this week and saw the Sony commercial that was filmed in our area last month, including a Norman Rockwell-like scene showing boys riding a bicycle in front of a "painted lady" on our street. (The same block was in the news this week because a neighbor wanted to hang out a shingle out front for a hair salon, irking some residents).
It was fun to hang out with the film crews and grab a cup of coffee from the breakfast wagon on the way to work. I'm an early riser, and so was the crew. They rolled onto the street at 5:30 a.m.
The campaign launched Monday - dubbed "tumble" - features Sony cameras, camcorders and point-and-shoot cameras literally "tumbling" from a mountaintop (Squaw Valley). The commercials will run on television all year.
"We show a professional HD camera fall off a mountain, but instead of the camera breaking, we see it transform into a series of other Sony high-definition products," a Sony marketing manager wrote on a company blog. "Those products eventually land into the hands of various people in the town below."
The "town" below is ours - Grass Valley and Nevada City. With the magic of computer graphics, one scene shows a Sony camera bouncing off buildings on Broad Street and landing in a woman's hand just in time to photograph a wedding couple coming out of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Voila!
It's a cool campaign, and you can watch it on the Internet at www.sony.com/tumble.
Most interesting is the video on the same site called "How Tumble was made." The clip shows many scenes in Nevada City and Grass Valley. It's also posted on YouTube and tech blog sites such as Gizmodo.
As it turns out, this was no ordinary commercial shoot. Here's what it took, according to Sony: Nine shoot days, 12 locations, four towns, two mountains, 20 tons of equipment, six cameras, one spider cam, one lenny arm, one 50-foot Technocrane, 62 crew members, 30 computers, 25 animators, 90 cast members, 200 hours of editing, two helicopters, 20 snowmobiles, 600 feet of rope and 6,000 feet of elevation.
"From shooting from inside a gondola high up in the Sierras, to sending a high-definition camera bounding down the steep slopes tethered between two gigantic inner tubes, this was going to be a one-of-a-kind commercial-shooting experience," the Sony blog said.
Sony is counting on sales of its HD products to boost its business. I'm familiar with Sony's challenges: the Sony U.S.A. chief executive, Howard Stringer, is a former journalist and I interviewed him several times when he ran a venture called Tele-TV, the Baby Bells ill-fated foray into video in the mid-'90s.
Here's the challenge: As Apple Computer becomes more like Sony - with iPods, iPhones and Apple TV - the electronics giant can't afford to sit flat-footed. Some techies are speculating that Sony will get into software to better link its cool hardware and entertainment content.
Sony's commercial, meanwhile, provides a high profile for our corner of paradise. Ads have been filmed here before, ranging from the Ford Motor Co. to Mr. Goodwrench. A Ford commercial featured Kermit the Frog rafting down the South Yuba River, climbing rocky banks and finding a new Ford Hybrid. Hallmark's movie "The Christmas Card" featuring Ed Asner was a boost for Nevada City. It also was nominated for an Emmy.
Next week, business leaders will gather to discuss a unified branding campaign for Nevada County. "Culture and creativity at the edge of nature" is one slogan being considered.
Here's a thought: The group also should consider creating a countywide film commission to help bring commercial, television and film crews to the area.
The commission also could help coordinate filming schedules with our area's residents and businesses to minimize disruptions and help with cleanup (like the bags of trash that were left on our street).
Think of it as a end-to-end solution for digital video, from making components to providing images for the screen.
Jeff Pelline is the editor of The Union. His column appears on Saturdays. Contact him at 477-4235, jeffp@theunion.com, or 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley 95945.
