Del Padre Digital Production Company, Flash Website Design, Video and Interactive Media

Branching Out: Del Padre joins forces with alternative travel gurus at GoNomad

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:40:00 +0000

Throughout the months of October and November, The GoNomad Cafe in South Deerfield will display Mark's full-color photographs of Tanzania on its gallery walls. All of the photos were taken during the Inspire Me Africa filming.

From quiet portraits of Tanzanian orphans to dynamic captures of zebras, lions, and other wildlife, the exhibit features images taken over a three-week period, during which time Archer shot still photos and video-footage for Inspire Me Africa, a project spearheaded by the Space Science Institute (SSI) in Boulder, Colo.

Together, the team began the three-week journey by climbing Africa's highest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro. After descent, the group toured several local orphanages, Masai villages, visited Ngoro Ngoro crater, Oldapi Gorge - widely regarded as 'the birthplace of man' - and went on a week-long safari across the Serengeti.

The GoNomad photo exhibit marks the latest showing of international photographs taken by local photographers and travelers. These exhibits underscore the mission of the cafe's sister company, GoNomad.com, also based in South Deerfield, which publishes alternative travel articles and information for all types of travelers.

About GoNomad.com & GoNomad Cafe

GoNomad.com, owned and operated by Max Hartshorne, is a comprehensive resource center designed to provide independent and alternative travelers with all the information and inspiration they need to plan their travels in the U.S. and abroad. GoNomad is well known among tourism boards, travel writers, and anyone who is well-versed in travel and wants to get the skinny on the unexplored, the unseen and the unwritten about.
The GoNomad Cafe is a breakfast, lunch, coffee, and Internet cafe located on Sugarloaf St., South Deerfield Mass., across from the town common and moments from the Yankee Candle flagship store, Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory, Historic Deerfield, and other attractions. The cafe is open Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; 413.665.5005.

RED Demo Now in Progress... catch a sneak peek

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:24:00 +0000

This week, we're working on a compilation of RED ONE footage shot over the past few months in several locales stateside and abroad; from Cape Cod to Las Vegas to Africa, and back home to the hills of western Massachusetts.

What you'll see here is very much a work in progress, as much of Mark Archer's footage from Mount Kilimanjaro has not yet been included. Stay tuned for the final version this fall.

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Dispatches from Africa #2: Lake Natron, Flamingoes, and the Grugrux King

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:44:00 +0000

This shallow salt lake is famous for its pink color and an incredible amount of flamingoes: A perfect breeding ground, Lake Natron is host to 2.5 million of the distinctive pink birds that live in the Great Rift Valley.

My Masai friend Thomas did a great job of sneaking close to the birds and waiting until I gave him the signal. Some other members of the team offered some blockage from the persistent wind oscillating the camera on what was never a perfect tripod. But once I had the RED ONE set up with a lens filled with birds, and the 4k sensor set for 120 frames per second, I was ready.

I gave Thomas the signal, he scared up the flock, and filled my frame with so many birds that I knew it was going to be an amazing, surreal shot.

Two out of three rubber tripod-leg caps decided to stay in the mud afterward, and were plucked out by Thomas. I would have liked to stay on the water's edge, following the birds and getting more shots. But with the RED on my back and the eight-person Land Rover looking smaller than a Matchbox, I got walking. Not before putting on the album I finally remembered I had on my iPhone, though: the Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey & The Grugrux King.

You know how music often becomes associated with trips? Our finished film will be filled with such music; from orphans to Masai Warriors, organized groups of dancers to an impromptu a capella treat by the porters on Kilimanjaro.

But I will also forever link DMB to my trip. It's One Sweet World!

More later,
Mark

Dispatches from Africa #1: Kilimanjaro: First Look Back

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:49:00 +0000

The first in a series of entries by Mark from the filming trip to Tanzania

This is one huge mountain!

I was mostly concerned with getting down, so I did not get a picture until this shot, somewhere around 14,000 feet. This is also the point at which I started to feel a little bit like I was going to live!

Although only seven weeks post-surgery, it was not my hernia that kept me from the peak of Africa's tallest mountain, but the altitude itself. Of course, I knew I had a battle going in ... my tallest training hike was only about 2,000 feet. And sometimes, the mountain just wins.

Still, all is well. I went to Africa and climbed higher than any mountain in the lower 48 states! and, most importantly, I made it down under my own power. The rest of the story, is a long one. Many photos, posts and video to come.

Jambo, Mark

In support of Change in Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:08:00 +0000

A proceed of the sales will go to Amnesty International. The Revolution will be Twittered. T-shirt from Zazzle.com

Shared via AddThis

Equipment Check, Mt. Holyoke Range

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:53:00 +0000

View past episodes here:

Part 2 Film Training

Part 1 Cardio Training

Telly To Me One More Time...

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:20:00 +0000

The 30th annual Telly Awards competition, which honors the nation’s best in local and regional television, video, Web and film production, will soon present Del Padre Digital with a statuette for the creative showcasing of its work. This is the second such award for us.

Chosen from more than 13,000 entries – submitted by advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, interactive agencies and corporate video departments from across the country – Del Padre will receive a Bronze Telly for a demo ree l that highlights the firm’s work in 2008. The demo reel is featured on its Web site, and is also sent to clients and included in press kits.

In addition to Del Padre, other past winners include Comcast Spotlight, Discovery Communications, Busch Entertainment Corporation, Chicago Tribune, ESPN, NASA, NBA Entertainment, NBC Universal, and WebMD.

Lest we forget the filming...

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:52:00 +0000

In addition to plenty of cardio workouts, some training with the RED camera - both filming with it and lugging it around - was in order. Here is a snippet of the work we did on Cape Cod this month - special thanks to Cape-based band Earth Junior, who provided the soundtrack.

No Turning Back Now, Archer.

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Mark's flight information for his trip to Africa to film Mt. Kilmanjaro with the RED ONE camera just came in. There it is, in black and white. Time to go big!

Shooting Mt. Kilimanjaro on the RED Digital Cinema Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Mark needs to ski, run, hike, walk, and weight train - not to mention practice doing all of the above while shooting with a 25 pound RED Digital Cinema Camera - for his trip to Mt. Kilimanjaro in June, to shoot footage for Del Padre's ongoing work with the National Science Foundation's STEPS project. As the date of departure approaches, we thought we'd share some of the more entertaining moments from this training journey (which, incidentally, included Mark's last cigarette on Thanksgiving morning).

Here's snippet #1, featuring Mark and Del Padre's communications manager (and Mark's wife) Jaclyn. She's just happy to be here.

More to follow.

Del Padre Digital supports PodCamp WesternMass

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:49:00 +0000

By now, we’ve all heard of iPods and podcasts. But what’s a PodCamp?

PodCamp is one example of an ‘unconference,’ or unorganized conference, at which participants choose the topics they’d like to discuss. It’s geared toward new media enthusiasts and professionals of all types, including bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, social networkers, as well as the people who read, watch, and listen to them.

This month, PodCamp will come to Western Mass., Del Padre Digital's home base, for the first time. On Saturday, March 28 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., members of the marketing, business, design, technology, and music industries will gather on the second floor of the mixed-use, retrofitted mill building Open Square in Holyoke for an unconference that aims to promote education, innovation, and collaboration between technology and media professionals.

There is no agenda at an unconference, and the list of potential topics is virtually endless. However, sessions often include a ‘social media 101’ and an overview of current and emerging new media tools. Attendees are encouraged to bring laptops, power strips, and cameras, and can come and go as their schedules allow. The cost of the program is $20, attendance is limited to the first 60 people to register at http://podcampwesternmass.eventbrite.com.

About PodCamp WesternMass

PodCamp WesternMass is a community-based ‘unconference’ modeled after a popular meeting concept in new media. The first PodCamp was held in September 2006 in Boston, and the trend is now spreading across the world due to the spreading preponderance of social media.

Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass. predicts that spending on interactive technologies will grow to $61 billion by 2012, and that social media (podcasting, blogging, and services such as Twitter, flickr, Facebook, etc.) will drive emerging channels to $10.6 billion.

PodCamp WesternMass is spearheaded by Morriss Partee, owner of EverythingCU.com, an online resource for credit union marketing professionals; Tish Grier, Chief Community Officer of Placeblogger.com and a hyperlocal and citizen journalism aggregator and blogger, and Jaclyn Stevenson, freelance writer, Public Relations Specialist with Winstanley Associates in Lenox, Mass., and founder of the online blogging community Thirty-something Bloggers.

The event is designed for anyone interested in the online world to share ideas, hear from industry experts, and participate in discussions. New media marketing experts predict that businesses can thrive if they embrace social media and conversational marketing methodologies. To learn more or to register, visit the PodCamp WesternMass wiki at http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/PodCampWesternMass.

Tech Talk: Del Padre Tapped to Review the Redrock microMatteBox

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Mark Archer, Del Padre Digital's creative director, is featured in the latest issue of Studio Monthly magazine, where he was called upon to review the Redrock microMatteBox for the publication's ROI Reviews section. He used the piece of equipment on a recent music video shoot in Detroit, Mich.

"We’ve been using Redrock Micro products for some time," he says. "When we heard they were offering a universal mattebox, we decided to try one along with our new RED ONE camera."

Archer explains that matteboxes are integral to shooting with high-end rigs like the RED ONE, because lens hoods are often inadequate.

"Often, they are just not large enough to do the job well," he says. "You can bring plenty of gobos and put up light blocks, but this takes time and grips to keep things moving on the shoot. And if you’re using a system with interchangeable lenses, time becomes even more of an issue."

The review is in the December 2008 issue of Studio Monthly, and is also available online. In addition to providing an overview of use, ratings, and troubleshooting while using the microMattebox, Archer also shot his own photos of the apparatus for the magazine.

It's a Gas(s) - Fuel Lines Readers Choose Del Padre Blog as Number One

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Fuel Lines, the advertising and marketing blog of ad-agency- and social-media- guru Michael Gass, has announced that this blog is number one among Fuel Lines readers in December 2008!

We received more than three-quarters of a record number of votes - color us proud. What's more, Fuel Lines reaches thousands of readers through RSS and a special, blog-of-the-month e-mail blast, so this is great exposure in the marketing and design industry. Big thanks to Michael and all of the Fuel Lines readers!

Fuel Lines is also home to the Ad Agency New Business Report, so it's good required reading for marketing profs. You can follow Gass and Fuel Lines on Twitter, and while you're there, follow us, too.

We are:

@delpadre (president Nino Del Padre)

@archervision (vp and creative director Mark Archer)

and

@writerjax (publicity diva and writer Jaclyn Stevenson)

Kodak, Pepsi, Volkswagen, Bacardi? We're in Good Company.

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:14:00 +0000

Del Padre Digital has been awarded Best in Class by the 2008 Interactive Media Awards, for excellence in the design, development and implementation of the most recent version of our Web site, delpadre.com.

When we launched this version of delpadre.com, version six, we knew we were introducing one of the most search-engine optimized Flash sites on the Web today. But to be honored among some of the best companies in the country, and some of the best designers anywhere, validates our belief that all of our work is cutting-edge, not just in SEO. Especially given the fact that we’ve been recognized for our own company’s site.

The honor, granted by the Interactive Media Awards, places Del Padre in the company of several well-heeled and Fortune 500 companies, including Volkswagen, McDonalds, Sony, Pepsi, and Kodak, among others, whose sites were designed by some of the top interactive media and marketing agencies in the world (view a full list of winners here).

A little more about the IMAs ... the competition honors the Web's most professional work, judging sites on a number of criteria, ranging from design, usability, and innovation in technical features, to standards compliance and content. Only a fraction of sites entered into the IMA competition earn Best in Class status each year. The awards are sponsored by the Interactive Media Council, Inc., a nonprofit organization of leading Web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers, and other Web-related professionals -- all of them seeking to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet.

FWA - All the Way

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:32:00 +0000

The FWA (Favourite Website Awards) is well-known among Web and multimedia communities -- its site welcomes 44,000 visitors a day and maintains a Google page rank of eight, in addition to listing some of the newest, ground-breaking Web sites on the Internet - not to mention updating that list daily.

Del Padre Digital's own site has received an FWA nod in the past, as has its client Robert Charles Photography. However, now the spotlight is on us in a different way.

A piece we wrote is currently the featured article at the FWA, looking at some of the innovative SEO-for-Flash things we're doing at delpadre.com and how it's made us one of the most searchable Flash sites on the Internet.

As part of the article, we spoke to Rostislav Hristov, creator of SWFAddress -- one of the tools we used when relaunching delpadre.com in June, 2008.

"[Del Padre] started developing their new site from scratch, and ended up with a solid base that can be extended even more in the future," Hristov said of delpadre.com's redesign.

We tend to agree.

View the printable version of the FWA article Flash Forward

Del Padre-Produced NASA DVD Released

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:54:00 +0000

Completing a project that began two years ago, we've just received our first copies of a three-part educational movie filmed for NASA, for which we served as directors, animators, editors, and producers.

Spacefaring: The Radiation Challenge, addresses the topic of radiation and human space flight, and was produced in tandem with the Space Science Institute. We combined live action with 3D animation and compositing to create a trio of video shorts for DVD. The plot follows three young astronauts encountering a solar storm on their way to Mars, but it's more than just a movie --classroom activities accompany each act of the story, designed for both middle school and high school students.

Spacefaring also includes video-game-level special effects, and is available in both standard definition and HD formats.

Del Padre On Hand to Announce STEPS at ASTC, Philly

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:52:00 +0000

Del Padre Digital's Creative Director Mark Archer and Senior Programmer Joe Maki were recently among more than 1,800 science-center professionals from 31 countries, who gathered for the 2008 ASTC (Association of Science Technology Centers) annual conference, held at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pa.

Del Padre's Mark Archer meets and greets with Philly's resident Founding Father.

Archer and Maki attended as part of their involvement with the STEPS (Science Theater Educational Programming System) project, an application being developed by a collaborative of science and multimedia professionals, including the Space Science Institute of Boulder, Colo., the SETI institute in Mountain View, Calif., and NASA. STEPS will be for use by educators in museums across the country, and will create interactive presentations to help science educators of all types stage theatrical presentations for museum audiences.

Del Padre Digital has been tasked with developing the multimedia aspects of STEPS, utilizing the latest tools in digital design to create a software engine with groundbreaking, yet easy-to-use functionality.

The project is slated for completion in 2010, and the ASTC conference coincided with the end of the first development year of this three-year project. A trailer was also produced by the STEPS team and Del Padre Digital for the conference, giving what will be its key audience a first look at the developing platform. The video was filmed in part at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, one of the science centers that will utilize the final STEPS product.

A beta version of STEPS will be unveiled next year, at the ASTC conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Music Video Shot on RED Now in Production

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:08:00 +0000

Rolling through the streets of Detroit, Del Padre Digital recently became a player in the filming of a new music video for one of hip-hop’s rising stars.

We’re in the midst of editing now, after a whirlwind shoot in several locales in Michigan for Johnny ‘The Greek’ Saxx’s single Take Me Away. This will be the premiere video from his latest album, The Protagonist, released this year by BP/Universal Distribution.

Del Padre Digital’s creative director, Mark Archer, was pulled into the project earlier this month to serve as its director of photography. This created an opportunity not only to film in various challenging locales, from a cigar room to a Bentley cruising down Lake Shore Drive, but also to test the mettle of the firm’s new Red ONE 4k camera.

Mark Archer and lighting specialist David St. George film at Blue Sky Studios

“We shot a number of staged scenes at Blue Sky Studio in Troy, Mich., which is a state-of-the-art, fully-equipped production facility,” says Archer, “as well as at one of the state’s hottest night spots – The Harem Lounge. All of these locations posed challenges, but also unique, exciting filming scenarios.”

The plot of the video follows Saxx through a number of ‘high-roller’ scenes, from mansions to parties with plenty of bling in tow. The footage was shot over two days, and is currently being edited at Del Padre Digital’s suite in East Longmeadow, Mass. It’s slated for completion at the end of this month.

Saxx is already a cross-over draw in Greece and other Mediterranean countries; his previous videos are available on ANT1 Europe, as well as Viacom US.

Science and Storytelling

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:45:00 +0000

There’s a science to storytelling, and Del Padre Digital is currently at the forefront of the latest techniques.

Del Padre is one of several partners in a cutting-edge educational project funded by the National Science Foundation that is poised to change the face of science education. We've joined forces with the Space Science Institute of Boulder, Colo., the SETI institute in Mountain View, Calif., NASA, and a number of science centers and museums of varying size to help launch STEPS, or Science Theater Educational Programming System.

STEPS is an application being developed for use by educators in museums across the country. It will create interactive presentations to help science educators of all types stage theatrical presentations for museum audiences, using state-of-the-art technology, live action sequences, animation, and other components.

As part of this endeavor, Del Padre Digital’s creative director, Mark Archer, recently attended the Theater in Museums Workshop at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. There, the STEPS team was able to glean information regarding the strengths, challenges, and opportunities facing science education today, as well as film a trailer announcing STEPS.

“We were able to take part in discussions that have to do with all parts of ‘science theater,’ including audience participation, script writing, funding, producing, and the use of improvisation,” he says. “Plus, we were able to film while we were learning, creating an informational video featuring members of the STEPS team.”

Del Padre Digital's creative director Mark Archer (right) films at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis with STEPS founder Brad McLain of the Space Science Institute.

The video will be shown at the ASTC (Association of Science Technology Centers) annual conference, to be held at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pa. Oct. 18 to 21.

“The attendees at the ASTC conference are a core audience for us,” says Archer. “This is a groundbreaking project – there’s nothing else like it out there. We’re trying to create an early buzz.”

STEPS is slated for completion in 2010.

Del Padre Digital goes RED

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:25:00 +0000

After reserving a serial number almost a year ago, Del Padre Digital’s newest acquisition is here. We’ve recently added the lauded ‘RED ONE’ Ultra High Definition Digital Cinema Camera to our equipment roster, allowing us to offer clients video with a dynamic, film-like look and feel.

RED is an entirely new digital motion picture camera and the first that matches the detail and richness of analog film. It has an expansive format in which to shoot and handle postproduction, with over five times the amount of image information available each frame when compared to a typical HD rig.

The system, which is available for shooting in Western Mass, Boston, Hartford, New York and nationally from Del Padre's home base in East Longmeadow, Mass. , also offers image quality that is on par with 35mm film, if not better, as the RED captures footage in a RAW format and allows for a full digital workflow.

Typical high-end HD cameras have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color sub-sampled video at 30fps. The RED ONE, however, includes the Mysterium™ Super 35mm cine sized sensor that provides capture at 4K up to 30 fps, 3K up to 60 fps and 2K up to 120 fps with wide dynamic range and color space in 12 bit native RAW plus greater than 66db dynamic range. Too technical? Just think of it as being the digital equivalent of film. According to the RED ONE’s developers, viewers that see RED footage for the first time either describe the quality as 65 mm film or as ‘grainless 35.’

Why Shoot in 4K?

The RED ONE Cinema camera allows you the option to shoot in 2K, 3K, or 4K. When in 4K, the entire Mysterium sensor is utilized, delivering a picture resolution of 4096x2304. In comparison, most of today's HD cameras output an image of 1920x1080, but in reality only record an image 1440x1080 and have to res-up to a full HD image.

As you can see in the diagram below, the RED ONE captures significantly more information than is required by any of today's output methods, thus eliminating the need to up-rez.

Format Comparison:

We use a set of Nikon Prime lenses with the RED, allowing depth of field control, which blurs the foreground or background; the trademark of film production. In addition, the RED offers variable frame rates, up to 120 frames per second, for slow-motion applications.

And, there are other advantages, including cost savings with the elimination of film and processing and the ability to watch dailies in real time. With applications including corporate video production, commercials for television and Web, documentaries, music videos, and short-and feature-length films, the RED workflow adds an exciting aspect to Del Padre Digital’s expertise in high-end video production.

MODE for iPhone Video and Hamilton Sundstrand Touch-Screen Kiosk

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:18:00 +0000

While millions were standing in line waiting for their new iPhone 3Gs, Del Padre Digital was capitalizing on the craze.

Del Padre recently completed a new, HD video that will serve as a marketing vehicle for SpeakerCraft of Riverside Calif., promoting the company’s new product, MODE for iPhone®. The piece is now being used by SpeakerCraft in viral marketing campaigns, direct mailings, and as handouts at several national trade shows.

The completed production coupled HD video footage – filmed using the Redrock Micro 35 mm lens kit and Nikon prime lenses mounted on a Panasonic HVX200 – with a number of 3D renders created by the Del Padre team. New York-based voiceover artist Brian Kelsey provided audio production and narration, and various graphics and video effects were generated using Adobe After Effects and digital video platform Adobe Premiere.

Nino Del Padre, president of Del Padre Digital, spearheaded the project, and noted that a tight deadline and the inherent difficulty of shooting video of electronics such as the iPhone made the use of 3D renders doubly important.

“Shooting the shiny surface of the iPhone created some challenges for us in capturing video, and also created even more need for the photorealistic 3D renders,” Del Padre said, adding that the award-winning Autodesk® Maya® software was used to create the renders. “We had a very tight deadline on this one due to the recent fervor over the 3G, but we are really happy with the results, and that we could complete this project concurrently with sales of millions of Apple’s newest product.”

MODE for iPhone by SpeakerCraft essentially transforms the iPhone into a remote control that can be used with home theater and multi-room audio systems, as well as every iPod within a household. The interface operates much like other iPhone applications, and displays song information, artist names, genres, and playlists on the interactive touch screen, making accessing music simple and intuitive.

MODE is the latest product introduced by SpeakerCraft, a company with a three-decade history of innovation. After inventing the in-wall speaker and manufacturing them for the most prominent companies in the business, SpeakerCraft developed its own brand, based on the ever-expanding need for quality sound in the home. Today, the company is the largest supplier of custom installed audio/video products in the world.

Del Padre Digital was founded in 1991, and specializes in video production, interactive CD-ROM design, and high-end Web design. Its clients include NASA, the Space Science Institute, LEGO Systems, and Barnes Aerospace. Del Padre has worked with SpeakerCraft and its daughter companies, Proficient Audio and Emphasys, since 2005. Through this relationship, Del Padre has created everything from full Flash Web sites to E-marketing campaigns, and provides sophisticated 3D product renders and product photography for both packaging and marketing purposes.

view video

As the planes roared overhead, Del Padre Digital placed key information regarding new, exciting developments in aerospace at people’s fingertips recently, at the famed Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, England.

Del Padre created an interactive, touch-screen kiosk for Hartford, Connecticut based aerospace manufacturer Hamilton Sundstrand, which was incorporated into a trade booth at the biennial Airshow, and operated by the user operating a 21-inch touch screen. Farnborough International Airshow is the largest, most internationally attended aerospace event in the world.

Del Padre Digital’s president, Nino Del Padre, said the project was completed in just less than four weeks, in order to be ready in time for use at the airshow in July.

“We have worked with Hamilton Sundstrand in the past, creating trade show videos to illustrate the different product groups that comprise the $5.6 billon dollar company” said Del Padre. “The project was particularly complex and detailed, but we completed it in a record time, start-to-finish.”

Most of the application was created using Flash 9, along with Photoshop to prepare complex component shots. The application was loaded onto a dedicated PC for smooth playback, and each component was accessed either by a list within an on-screen side bar, or by touching the corresponding part of the aircraft shown on the screen.

The Farnborough Airshow is not only a draw for the public due to its spectacular air demonstrations. It’s also a key business event for the aerospace industry, resulting in more than $40 billion orders for components from participating vendors every other year.

Hamilton Sundstrand, the result of the 1999 merger of Hamilton Standard and the Sundstrand Corp., employs approximately 19,000 people at more than 50 major facilities worldwide, and is among the world's largest suppliers of technologically advanced aerospace and industrial products.

Del Padre Digital was founded in 1991, and specializes in video production, interactive CD-ROM design, and high-end Web design. In addition to Hamilton Sundstrand, its clients include NASA, the Space Science Institute, LEGO Systems, and Barnes Aerospace.

New website and new name

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:29:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce a new website and a new name. Del Padre Visual Productions is now Del Padre Digital. The name change reflects the constantly evolving technology we harness in our business. Established in 1991 as Del Padre Video Productions, the name was changed in 1995 to Del Padre Visual Productions to better describe our services when we embarked in the new world of multimedia and internet development.

Today all of our services from web design to high definition video production is digital hence the new name.

The new delpadre.com is the sixth incarnation of the Del Padre web presence. This site was intended to fulfill several key roles. First and foremost this site was intended to be an easily scalable, dynamic, and easily managed web presence for our company.

Beyond this however the site was developed with many other end goals in mind. Our company wanted to highlight the fact that Flash is a viable platform for an entire website. We wanted a flash site that could emulate an HTML one in basic functions such that have long been unsupported in Flash. Features such deep linking and browser back button support , fast loading dynamic content, coherent loading sequences so users can get to the most important information fastest, and the ability to optimize our site for search engines. We also wanted to capitalize on the raw power of the Flash platform with animation, integrated full screen video, fully dynamic and easily updatable content, with transitions and other subtleties to increase the flow of the site and enrich the user experience.

Technical Challenge

Back button support/deep linking

By taking advantage of the open source SWFAddress project we were able to create a flash website that could interface with the browsers history allowing the user to use the browsers back button as well as bookmark and link to specific sections of the flash movie.

Dynamic content

To avoid needing to edit the flash project to add updates to our site virtually all the content was made dynamic, pulling from external files that can be edited via our in browser Content Management System
- All news and gallery information is pulled from external files when the respective page is accessed. Once it loads the contents of these files, any borders or styles are generated by ActionScript on the fly.

Speed

This site was built to run on any connection above 756Kbps. We didn’t want our visitors to have to wait for 30 seconds at a loading page, or bring their system to a crawl downloading numerous large assets at once. There were many different ways we came at this problem to solve it;

The site is almost completely generated by action script; the initial timeline in the flash file is very small and has few assets on it. By having greater control over the exact order content was generated in we were able to streamline the loading order in many areas without having to extend the timeline or rely on timeline based tweens or dead space. We were also able to reuse much of the code, further reducing the overall files size of the project.

We took load order into account when adding more bandwidth and processor intensive assets to the project, for example on the index page, rather than sharing the bandwidth among the gallery content, the full background video, and music files, the site doesn’t initialize loading the video and music assets until the gallery is loaded. Accessibility to the information was our top priority, if that information is good enough the user will be around long enough to see the flashier aspects of the site as well.

Server side bandwidth controls, on a slow connection the music player was bringing the site to a halt whenever it started to cache a new song. To side step this problem the flash site posts the song file information to a PHP file which restricts the download speed to 16Kbps leaving a 4Kb buffer over what the song needs to play, but preventing a 2MB mp3 from hogging all the site bandwidth.

Much of the content of the site is populated by ActionScript loops, by writing these loops to be as effective as possible we were able to increase overall load times of galleries

Processor usage and Memory Leaks. Some aspects of our site had potential for high processor usage and memory leaks, however by actively managing what assets were enabled in the website at any given time we were able to strike a balance between file size and processor demand we were able to keep the system resource footprint of our site relatively low compared to similar websites.

Public bookmarking has become a powerful and effective way to get a website noticed so we decided that lacking that support was not an option, this also pushed us to write a much more advanced URL handling system than the one included in the SWFAddress project. This new handling system allows the site to dynamically generate unique links to newly added content keeping our dynamic content source files much more manageable and easily updatable.
Intelligent resizing, the site gives priority to certain elements and will attempt to keep them within the viewable area as long as possible when the browser window is resized, lower priority elements dynamically moved and the centering and scaling scheme is modified based on the current window size.

Search Engine optimization was something that we intended to include from the start, and luckily SWFAddress comes with a good platform to do this from. Some aspects of the platform were modified to handle our different URL management system as well as much more dynamic SEO abilities.

The entire site runs off index.php however .htaccess rewrites the URL header to reflect the current location in the website. Due to this, any static meta tag information we set in the index.php file would be repeated on every single page of the site, negatively effecting search engine rank. To overcome this we replaced the static information with PHP function calls which would determine what content was showing and update the Meta tags to match.
SWFAddress also writes the contents of its data file to the index page as html so that anyone viewing the page without flash player or JavaScript can still view the exact same content as is in the flash site.

All links in this no JavaScript mode will link to the proper flash page once JavaScript is enabled, this means any links a Search Engine crawls will link to the same section in the flash site.
Benefits of this site include
- Fast and easy updating of content from anywhere in the world.
- User friendly, intuitive navigation that brings the user to the information they want
- Search Engine optimized
- All the power of flash without losing any functionality or benefits of an html site.

Recent Video and Flash Design Work

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:26:00 +0000

Video Production

Like a good wine, this concept was well aged. Over the course of a year or so, the Trifecta Wine commercial was conceived, written, shot and edited. The final result, we think, is as sweet as the private reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon it features.

This entire spot was shot at 60 frames per second in HD resolution with an M2, 35 millimeter lens adapter from Redrock Micro and Nikon glass. The copy for the spot was specifically written for the amazing voice of South African Patrick Willis, which goes down just as smooth as a bottle of 2004 Trifecta.

view video

Flash Website Design

Our newest Flash site, for Pennsylvania based home technology provider STI uses some great features including dynamically populated content, SEO - friendly Flash content and deeplinking.

The services of STI include home theatre design, security, automation, lighting design and structured wiring for homes and businesses. The site needed to be not only informative, but also appeal to a high-end client looking for a particularly tech-savvy company. STIworldwide.com does just that.

view website

Take the "Fake or Foto” Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:12:00 +0000

Today we're presented with images in movies, on TV, and in the press that are of such good quality we don't even think to consider whether the picture is of something that exists in reality or if it was generated by computer software. Movies can be considered as being at the high-end of the range of uses for computer generated imagery that mimics real-life, but there are many more day-to-day examples that challenge our ability to tell what's real and what's not.

3D rendering and visualization is an affordable technology for quickly and realistically depicting products or architecture visually. When a product, program, or concept is still in its early stages 3D rendering can be used to create compelling imagery to tell the story. Besides being great for marketing, 3D visualization saves prototyping time and expense, and it lets users see physical conditions not obvious in 2D. Read More..

Autodesk recently used a few of our renders for their “Fake or Foto” Challenge. Spend a few minutes with our reality check and see if you can tell the difference...

Del Padre Visual Sees Red

noreply@blogger.com (Nino Del Padre) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:07:00 +0000

It’s been a while since we have been in touch with an update. Things have been crazy busy! I hate to dump all this on you at once but I want to share some of the exciting projects we have had the opportunity to work on for the last few months and introduce you to an exciting new technology that has to be the most important innovation in digital video to date and we are thrilled to be able to offer it to our clients.

We worked on two videos to be shown at the Paris Air Show for Barnes Aerospace and Hamilton Sundstrand during the summer. Our friends at Proficient Audio have been keeping us busy, working on a group of videos to introduce their new products at the 2007 CEDIA show. You can view the videos here on the new Video Dashboard that we just completed.

Mark and Joe had a chance to shoot video for long-time collaborator Brad McLain, on a “zero-gravity" aircraft flight that creates temporary weightlessness. NASA has used this method to train its astronauts for the last 45 years and it's the same way Tom Hanks floated in Apollo 13.

The Northrop Grumman Foundation has teamed with the Zero Gravity Corporation to develop the Weightless Flights of Discovery program. The program is designed to inspire students to pursue science and technical careers by inspiring their teachers first. DVP's footage will be included in a documentary McLain Science Education is creating about the program.

Nino was an in-studio guest on The Howard Stern Show for the Riley Martin site we launched in June. Riley Martin is a well-known author and radio host. Martin is the author of The Coming of Tan, a book that describes his life and his alleged abduction by aliens. He currently hosts The Riley Martin Show on the Sirius Satellite Radio channel Howard 101 and Artisfirst Radio Network.
We just started a three year project for the Space Science Institute. STEPS (Science Theater Education Programming System) is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. When completed, STEPS will allow museums across the country to create multimedia presentations that will be shown in their museum theatres with an estimated target audience of over one million viewers in the first 5 years.

Now for the exciting new revolutionary technology that I mentioned.

It's called The Red One Camera. And ours is on the way. To say this camera is groundbreaking would be an understatement. Here's some background.

When James Jannard, the billionaire founder of the eyewear and apparel company Oakley, set out to create a new video camera with a 4K sensor that rivals the definition of 35mm film and image quality that exceeds anything else available today, everyone said it couldn’t be done. After all if the big boys like Sony and Panasonic only produce cameras with maximum resolution of 1920X 1080 pixels how would a sunglass maker create a camera with a 4520 X 2540 resolution? Compare that to the super high end 2K Genesis and Viper cameras that many feature films are being shot on. The difference is four times the resolution (see chart below).

Well after 5 years and a lot of public bashing that this is and always will be “Vaporware” the cameras are finally shipping. Well kind off at least. They have been taking reservations for the camera for years and only 100 have been shipped so far. We should get our hands on ours in June. The Red One Camera is the future of Cinematography.

Typical high-end HD camcorders have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color subsampled video at up to 30fps. Red delivers 12M pixels at up to 60fps and records RAW, or 2x over-sampled HD in 4:4:4 or 4:2:2. That’s more than 5 times the amount of information available every second and a vastly superior recording quality. With the Mysterium™ Super 35mm cine sized (24.4 x 13.7mm) sensor, RED gives you the same breathtaking Depth of Field and selective focus as found in film cameras. Mysterium™ boasts a greater than 66db Signal to Noise Ratio thanks to its large 29 sq. micron pixels. And 12,065,000 pixels deliver resolution that can only be called Ultra High Definition.

One of the first real field tests came from recruiting veteran filmmaker, Peter Jackson to test two RED camera prototypes named “Boris” and “Natasha.” The result was a film called Crossing the Line. Here’s a clip.

Steven Soderbergh, director and cinematographer of Ocean's Eleven, Traffic, and Solaris, said "This is the camera I've been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand...I know this: RED is going to change everything."

Soderbergh’s making two new movies (Guerrilla and The Argentine) with it; the upcoming Angelina Jolie assassin-fest “Wanted” was shot with it and, from the trailer, looks visually amazing…

What this means to you is that your corporate video or television commercial will look more like a major motion picture or a national TV spot .