Category Archive: ‘Steve’s Thoughts’

Hit up facebook

We’re busy creating a new website so in the meantime see us on facebook.

New SWAG @ FFP

Thanks to our friends at Graphtech, our new pens have arrived! New year, new SWAG.

DUI video telling it like it is.

An Australian video showing the effects of DUI – A bit graphic, but brutally honest. Please remember that every decision we make has an impact positively or negatively.

TED’s Ads Worth Spreading Challenge

If you’re not familiar with TED, its simply “Ideas Worth Spreading.” I’m a huge fan of forward thinking, conceptual development, and thinking outside the box. Check out Freakonomics for a great read too. Anyway, we have a few months left to come up with something. “We” meaning me & you. I’m not looking to give away services (sorry) but I am looking for a client that may really want to stretch their mind and reach an incredible audience. I’m looking to inspire someone to action. Do you have a product, company, cause or idea you want to promote? Read all about it below and get a chance to make 7M impressions.

Don’t forget that the typical FFP value-add of re-purposing the project for your own website, broadcast and wherever else you want to put it will give that many more impressions.


TED announces its Ads Worth Spreading Challenge. Full article here.
An open invitation to the global advertising community to reinvent, inspire and engage audiences with a new definition of what advertising can mean in the digital age, using TED.com as its platform.

TED invites the business community to submit their most forward-looking video campaigns to the contest by January 10, 2011. A judging panel will select up to 10 winning video campaigns, which will premiere at TED2011, February 28-March 4, 2011, for the gathered audience of 1500+ thought leaders, and will appear on TED.com for free for one week in March.

During the week of March 21-27, 2011, the winning campaigns will occupy every available postroll ad space on TED.com,garnering roughly nearly 7M in free advertising impressions. In addition to appearing as post-roll after TEDTalks, each ad will also have a permanent page on TED.com, allowing the ad to be rated, shared, commented on and linked to, perhaps earning large numbers of additional views.

Submissions to the Ads Worth Spreading Challenge must be made in the form of a video, which can vary in length from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, and submitted in a common digital, downloadable format as detailed in our submission guidelines.

Videos must be promotional in nature, but can promote a company, cause, product or idea. It can promote a product, company or cause, but is likely to do so indirectly rather than directly — for example, by showcasing the values, motivations and questions of the organization’s people. The ads may be commercial, PSAs or self-promotion.

The campaign should be new — created between January 2010 and January 2011. Ideally, it should be new creative, but it is possible to submit campaigns that appeared elsewhere. Submissions must be received by midnight EST, January 10, 2011.

All entrants into the Ads Worth Spreading Challenge will be notified as to whether their video has been selected by Friday, February 25, 2011.

Strange resemblance between Intel and MAC

Here’s an image of the MAC Workflow Automator.  Notice any resemblance to the new Intel robot?  I guess it’s cool since MACs now use ‘em.

What’s this funky image?

Just wondering who will be the first person to comment on this object and tell me specifically what it’s used for.

WE HAVE A WINNER!   Read the comments below for more information.

Optical Illusions


So in our world, things may not always be as they seem.  Our perception of color has very much to do with the context or surroundings.  Lighting for video and film takes all of this into account to trick our eyes and cameras to let us perceive the proper colors.

8 Secrets of Success

Some comics to make you smile!

Here’s a few comics I’ve collected over the years that I thought might put a smile on your face.  I needed a little distraction today and have been wanting to do this for some time. Enjoy!

Final Focus Video 95%
At least the guy was honest.

Final Focus Video Far Side
From “The Far Side”

Final Focus Video glare
Not sure if the younger generation that grew up on LCDs will get this one!

Final Focus Video Graphics
Ya gotta speak the language the superiors will understand.

Final Focus Video production assistant
Not too far from the truth!
From millimeter magazine

Final Focus Video vision
This is from the mid-90s when customized inkjet mailing was catching on. They got my name wrong but inspiring none the less.

Grass seed germination

We had a patio poured last fall and they didn’t get done in time for me to plant grass. What a mess over the winter with 2 dogs!  About 3 weeks ago I tilled a good portion on my back lawn where the trucks had been, sowed seed, put on starter fertilzer, covered with straw, watered, and waited. And waited. And then waited some more. Very sparse germination and what did sprout was thin and spindly.  This is not typical for my usually very green thumb.  What made it more disturbing was that my neighbor 2 doors down had this lush new law in about 3 days!  What thuh?!

For some reason it never occurred to me that seed has a ‘best before’ date on it just like my beer.  And that date is only about 6-12 months… TOPS.  After that storage time, grass seed loses about 10-25% of its germination potential every year.  Given that my seed was closely approaching driving age- OHHHHHH, that explains it.

So I chalked up that first go-round as practice and yesterday raked off the straw, loosened the soil with a garden rake, re-sowed new seed, etc. Now the waiting happens again and if thing go right, my dogs will have new grass to tear up in about a month.

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