Dear Friends

This week it’s Ed writing for Don, who’s in Tanzania contemplating hippopotami. It sounds like he’s having an amazing adventure. I respect Don for being up for adventure at any time. I don’t think you could create a company like Small Dog if you were adventure-averse.

One of our traditions at Small Dog is to film a company movie every couple of years. The movie is a mix of silly and more-or-less serious interviews, ridiculous skits, and footage shot around the company. A little public domain footage is also edited in. The movie provides an opportunity for a company-wide check-in, and also gives us a chance to laugh at ourselves.

This year it was my turn to create the video. I recorded more than nine hours of footage, interviewing everyone who works here and shooting all the different departments. I recorded all video in HD on a Canon camcorder, and edited it on a 24” iMac, with Final Cut Studio 2, using a single 1TB LaCie drive to store all the footage. I was grateful that both the iMac and the LaCie drive had FireWire 800, so editing from an external drive was reasonable. The video ended up being 40 minutes long, with several out takes for the DVDs we’ll distribute around Small Dog.

Somehow I was able to do all this in one week, working mostly at night after work. Final Cut Studio was flawless. Final Cut Pro has evolved into my all-time favorite Apple product. Motion was also great to use, though render times were ridiculous on the the 2.8GHz iMac.

The first showing of the movie was a success. There are a few sequences to improve before burning it to DVD, but that will be easy. I recommend that other companies consider making such a movie, and then set a company party around the viewing. It’s a truly fun, bonding experience.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be posting clips from the movie to our blog Barkings and on YouTube. Remember to play YouTube clips in high quality for the best viewing experience.