I just renewed WhalingShipStudios.com, which means this site has sort of existed for a year, now. Let’s look back on this time, shall we?

• Mike starts this blog as an assignment for one of his classes at OSU.
• We discovers XLNTAds via OnlineVideoContests.
• Mike writes and animates the brilliant A Grand Discovery for a Nestlé assignment via XLNTAds, which is selected as a finalist, earning Whaling Ship its first legitimate commission.
• We flirt with various cameras: the HV20, the HVX200, the RED (oh, if only).
• We develop a taste for WINGS? YEAH!
• Mike buys an HV20, and I make my first appearance in the blog.
• Our good friend and colleague Jonathan searches for love (alas, to no avail—at least professionally).
• We spend a few months playing with ideas for a Klondike commercial (for their ridiculously-exorbitant video contest) and after writing like five killer scripts, end up with…something. I think this was finished like a month after the deadline, too.
• We complete pre-production on a ten-minute short involving real, live, grown-up actors and are ultimately forced to call it off due to scheduling constraints (though I do hope we complete this project soon—I’ll let you know, I promise)
• Mike takes some time off from school, I take some time off from school and move to California, exploring some ancillary career paths, I grow tired of writing this list.

I’m here to tell you that this birthday couldn’t come at a better time. We’ve been kinda dormant for a long time, but Whaling Ship is back. Look for more from us (including a spankin’ new website) in the weeks to come. Yeah! Whoo!

I spent most of yesterday browsing DVXuser and I've got the bug back. Zak Forsman has convinced me that the D90 is not such a bad thing. All that Jellocam nonsense really turned me off but I can think of one shot in the combined past works of Mike and I that would have suffered such torment. I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons, even if it means soft focus and shouldn't-be-HD compression (that's what Mr. Forsman says, anyway).

Not making any immediate plans (and still holding out for more info on the GH1) but I definitely see some more filmmaking in the near future. I haven't even written since like, December, though. Whoops.

By the way, I'm going to NAB this year.

Mike wrote, shot, and edited this. I did sound, and scored it, too. For a contest (of course!) for Chanticlear Pizza, a pizza chain in the Twin Cities. I like it!

Life update sooner or later (probably later). I re-re-launched my personal website and have been focusing more on live goings-on lately, but I'm also planning a major film project for late August. Maybe Mike will update us on what he's been doing, too. Oh Mii-iiike…