2013 Senior Sessions

Senior portrait season is upon us and many people are wondering, Why do I need senior portraits shot in May or June?

If  you wait until November to have your photos done, you miss the outdoor photos.  If you wait until the end of summer, you risk a drought taking the color out of the grass and tree's that year, if you wait until school has started, you miss giving wallets to family members that you see over the summer.  Spring time photos just have a richer color to them with the fresh greenery, flowers and the angles of the sun still low in the sky.

Another reason to get your senior photos done or at least booked in May, so you can still get your photos taken by 3ChipMedia studios. We are booking up this summer pretty fast and we want to make sure that we can schedule as many seniors as we can so that you have that opportunity. Besides the fact that you get us locked in as your photographer, there are some great specials to take advantage of like 20% off all Senior Sessions when you book in May.  Leave a deposit, set the date, and when the day comes, no matter when it is this year, you save 20% just by booking now.

Summer 2012

Wow, super busy summer.  2012 has brought a lot of changes to 3ChipMeda and myself personally.  Looking  back so far, I've moved into a new location, opened a computer store in the front portion, New studio in the back half  of the building at 121 E Main St. in Anamosa, IA.  And now we are working on turning the massive 1,400 sq ft. basement into a full feature studio as well.

Some of the projects that we've done in 2012 have been 21 DEX Yellow pages videos, Lots of portraits, RAGBRAI photos, Todd Weaver Memorial Ride, Iowa Dressage Classics, Tamarack Stables 4 times now. And the calendar is still very full.  We have a few more websites to design, Additional marketing to do for Spackler Golf Flags, besides the video we've created for them.  It has been pretty good.  It's starting to slow down now, but that's ok.  It's going to give me a bit of time to restructure some things, work on some workflow issues that we've had and do a little more marketing to keep things going through the winter months.

I get a great deal of satisfaction out of working so many different types of projects.  It's really amazing how we can go one day from doing Senior portraits, to the next day or even that afternoon to be shooting a video or editing something that was shot a few days ago for some corporation.  I love being multi-talented. Not tooting a horn or anything but it is nice to not have to do the same thing over and over, day in and day out.

That's about it for this blog post.  If you'd like to see some of the stuff that we are working on or have done over the summer, check out our website at http://www.3chipmedia.com   Or call us at 319-361-7777 to book an appointment.

DexKnows Video Production for Iowa–3ChipMedia

www.StudioNow.com of Nashville, TN has selected 3ChipMedia as it’s choice for producing the 60 second videos for one of it’s biggest clients, www.DexKnows.com

These videos must be shot and edited within 48 hours of the pre-determined time and date of the shoot.  While this can be a daunting task with everything that we currently do, it’s a challenge that we’ve met head on. We’ve already completed 4 videos in the past few weeks and have already been contracted to 5 more videos in the next 2 weeks. 

What are the videos?  These are 60 second documentary style spots to highlight the companies involved to show the business as promoted by the owner of the business.  Unlike a TV Commercial, these are not pre-scripted, an interview is conducted and then video of the business in action is shot to truly capture the business in it’s true nature.  All of this has to be completed in an hour and a half.  Then the footage is brought back and it is up to the staff of www.3ChipMedia.com  to create the video and upload it for approval. 

We appreciate the opportunity to be working with StudioNow on this project and look forward to a long relationship. www.studionow.com

See these Examples: High Quality Home Maintenance – Anderson Construction – Anamosa Dental Associates – EJS Roofing

Fun little project for KRNA Radio

Friday, Jan 27th we found ourselves in the KRNA radio studios doing some filming and photos as comedienne April Macie @ http://aprilmacieishilarious.com/

She was absolutely hilarious, we are still working on the edit which will be done soon and you’ll see it on our website. 
One of our staff, Jared that was filming the day of the interview took his wife to the show and at around 11pm, texted everyone else and said that we had “Totally missed out on a great show”.

He later told us that while she is definitely not one to take the kids to see, she puts on a great show.

KRNA has been booking 3ChipMedia more and more lately to film interviews, shoot photos and come to their public appearances to document the events visually and we like that.  Jaymz Larson and Greg Scharnau “AKA SHARK” have both said “3ChipMedia has really helped us improve our image to the public with their support in our social media and website visuals. 

Just before the show, we put together a quick promo for their new “WEEKENDER BENDER” program that is hosted by both Shark and Jaymz, which highlights everything from Beer of the week to what’s going on for weekend entertainment.

Jaymz and Shark for Weekender Bender–3ChipMedia.com

 

We’ll post the link to Aprils interview when it is finished.

OutThink Thinks 3ChipMedia has what it takes.

 
  OutThink.com recently contacted 3ChipMedia based on it's experience with company owner, Shannon Appleby and a video shoot that he assisted on in Peoria, Ill.
   Shannon went as a contracted Sound Operator and Camera Assistant since this was a Canon 7D video shoot and Shannon is one of the few people in Eastern Iowa that shoots video on the Canon 7D camera.
    When they called, they stated that they were very pleased with the footage that Shannon was able to gather for them and thought that he could really see their vision of what they wanted.  They looked at the company website,  Googled Shannon and found him all over the internet with videos, photography and more and decided that 3ChipMedia were the ones to change up the look and styling of the Kaplan University Student Success video for them.
     This is a 3 minute video that shows a graduate of the school in his current life and work setting.  You can see some of the past videos on youtube.com but they want to change up the look and style a bit and 3ChipMedia agreed to the challenge and will begin the editing process in just a few weeks.

Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce Selects 3ChipMedia

The Chamber’s Business Success Initiative announces a social media workshop series for Cedar Rapids flood affected businesses and businesses in the flood zone: “Plug in to the online world: Social Media Workshop Series” presented by Shannon Appleby of 3ChipMedia.

The first session, “What Humans Need to Survive: Air, Water and Social Media” will take place on Wednesday, October 12, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. at Corridor CoWorks, 222 Third Street SE, Suite 600.

Appleby will discuss why people are so addicted to social media, what social media communication means to people, how to get a call to action to work, and understanding why social media is so huge.

“In this first session we will really get into why customers need air, water, and Facebook, and how they cannot survive without them,” Appleby said.

The event is free for flood affected businesses to attend by RSVPing to Jennifer Jentz, communications specialist, at (319) 731-5843 or by email at jjentz@cedarrapids.org.

Remaining sessions will be held at Corridor CoWorks on the following dates:

October 27, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m.

“Let’s Get Technical: The Nuts & Bolts of Social Media”

November 9, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

“Social Media Tools That Make Online Marketing Handier”

November 15, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m.

“Tweeting Here, Posting There, Social Media is Everywhere”

               The event is free for flooded businesses to attend by RSVPing to Jennifer Jentz, communications specialist, at (319) 731-5843 or email jjentz@cedarrapids.org. 

Shooting with the Canon 7D

Recently we purchased the new Canon 7D camera as both a photography tool as well as a video camera.  We've been researching this camera for quite some time and it has proven itself in the field and the footage that comes off of it is amazing.
This past weekend, we really got to put it through the paces shooting for another company and their client while in Peoria, Ill.  This was 2 solid days of shooting with a producer that had worked with this camera many times and really knew the shots he wanted.

WOW, that is about all we can say.  Shooting in 720p/60fps was absolutely amazing.  The lenses on the camera gave us a huge range to work with, the colors are brilliant and you can make adjustments to get any look you want, warm, cool, rough etc.  And the depth of field was fantastic.  It really is a a natural film look that you just cannot achieve with a traditional video camera.
We will be posting links to videos shot with this camera very soon so keep checking back to see some of the work that we get to do here.