El Paso Addy Awards 2012

MindWarp has officially won 3 Gold Addy Awards along with the Best of Show honors for the “No Te Dejes/Don’t Let Yourself” campaign at this year’s El Paso Addy Awards (put on by the Advertising Federation of El Paso).  Since we won gold awards and Best of Show, the campaign will be heading to the Addy’s Regional competition later this year.  It’s great to know that the campaign will be venturing outside of El Paso for others to see.

The Don’t Let Yourself / No Te Dejes campaign won the following awards:

Gold Addy for Animation / Special Effects
Gold Addy for Website Design
Gold Addy for Public Service Mixed Multimedia Campaign
Best of Show Award for Public Service Mixed Multimedia Campaign

This would not have been possible without all of the love, support, and dedication from our hard working cast, crew, & family.  Thanks to all of your efforts, this campaign exceeded any and all expectations.  Its great to know that so many local creative people can come together for an amazing cause and deliver something grand.

Special thanks goes to the El Paso County team Michael Alvarez, Jaime Esparza, Frank Zubia, Elhiu Dominguez, Joe Gonzalez, Jo Anne Bernal and the rest of the team for believing in our small company to deliver this campaign both to the State of Texas and the El Paso Region.

See the campaign at www.dontletyourself.org

The Old Site

The Collaborative’s prior website resembled an extremely long laundry list needing to be organized for a clear delivery of its main objectives.   The deeper we dug into the previous website’s content, the larger the pile of ideas and solutions had to grow.  Our mission was clear: To surface their admirable purpose, crucial presence, and great achievements to the community in ways that all users could easily understand.

Old EPACE website

Sitemap and Content Organization

During our first attempt at understanding the inner workings of EPCAE, we quickly ran into the obstacle of a very content-heavy website.  The same concepts kept being interpreted differently as we went through ambiguous text and overlapping information. We had to be certain that we understood every detail. No exceptions.

Our  dedicated comprehension would allow us to teach visitors about the organization’s complex components in the simplest form. We did this through conversations with the Collaborative and by breaking down the entire content piece by piece.  As a result, we were able to trace back each piece to at least one of four main initiatives of the organization (they originally had six).  The four initiatives would become the main themes for visitors to easily understand the larger purpose of the organization. While some content could not be strictly categorized into a particular initiative (such as their funded programs), we preserved continuity by indicating that content’s ties to its respective initiative(s).

EPCAE Sitemap

Once both parties fully understood the direction, it was time to omit all unnecessary or redundant content and only keep the most relevant material.  We eliminated the user’s previous need of having to dig through filler information to finally find the buried valuable content.  Clarity and simplicity was key.

Wireframe

To display the importance of the four initiatives, we decided to showcase them on the homepage with a rotating picture banner and tabs to separate the individual initiatives.  This would engage the users and introduce them to the four main themes of the website.

Homepage Wireframe

The same type of organization with tabs from the homepage was transferred to each individual initiative page. Three categorized tabs were created to break down each initiative’s components. These tabs carried the labels of “In Action”, “Tools”, and “Outcomes”. The “In Action” tab refers to the initiative’s active ideas, agendas, or curriculums taking place. It represents the tangible portion of the initiative. The “Tools” tab corresponds to the detailed parts of the initiative that support the “In Action” items. The self explanatory “Outcomes” tab contains the results of  the initiative. This effective structure was created to facilitate usability and understanding.

Initiative Wireframe

A separate section for the organization’s Funded Programs was created as each individual program could not be categorized into one particular initiative.  Each program was given a designated page with links to its supported initiative(s).  For an easy skim, we added a side section on each page to capture a quick overview of each Program.

EPCAE’s student achievement data had been an important, but hidden part of the previous website. The data was hidden behind links and large blocks of text. This time around, we decided to give it the attention it deserves by spotlighting the data with large images and clearly divided sections.

Design Direction and Colors

Education and academics became our go-to inspirations for our design. We went with a clean, scholastic look that could bring balance and organization to the new website. We additionaly created a design that could carry various academic images to increase user appeal.

Our color choices reflected a youthful and scholastic setting to go with our design. We also incorporated designated colors for the four initiatives themed throughout the website to facilitate usability.

The new EPCAE website

The End Result

We were able to transform an overwhelming website to one that is easily digestible and easy on the eyes. We are pleased to see our client’s great successes in a different light and are excited to share with you our latest web design.

Check it out online: http://www.epcae.org

The End of an Era

Well, its official. Our company has officially switched from Final Cut Studio 3 to Adobe Production Premium 5.5. I’ll state the obvious reasons in this blog post. I will also tell you why we didn’t choose AVID Media Composer along with why we aren’t even going to spend the $299 on Final Cut Imovie Pro X. But first, a little history.

The History of MindWarp using Apple & Adobe

Believe it or not, I first used Adobe Premiere 5.1c while in high school back in 2000. From there I used Adobe Premiere 6.0. When I went to the University of Texas at Austin in 2002, I was introduced to Final Cut Pro 3. It was a much different editor at that time and it defined my entire college editing experience. I did move away from Final Cut Pro briefly and tried AVID out for 6 months in one of our advanced editing classes. While I thought it was great, I had just grown used to Final Cut Pro and decided to stick with it. I used Final Cut Pro all the way before graduating in 2007.

While we used other Adobe products on the side (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, etc), Final Cut Pro was our main editor. I had tried Adobe Premiere Pro out since it came with the production bundle but I felt it wasn’t quite there yet. I edited my 1st feature film Hands of God with Final Cut Pro 7 instead. I used After Effects, Color, Soundtrack Pro (for audio cleanup), and ProTools during this process and continued using these programs for the commercial and web video work I do today.  Not only that, I even wrote a RED camera article RED ALERT! two years ago to the day on how Final Cut Studio 3 fits perfectly into the RED workflow.  But alas, all good things must come to an end.

The Day the Editing World Stood Still

I remember that glorious day came when Final Cut Pro X was announced at NAB 2011. It looked amazing! It felt like Apple was rewarding me for being loyal for so long. Then, on June 21 2011, the unthinkable happened. Final Cut Pro X was unusable, not just in my workflow, but in every other professional editor’s workflow. Rather than purchase or panic, I turned to the blogosphere for answers. Why? Why would Apple do this to us? EDL, XML, OMF gone? Multi-cam gone? How am I suppose to talk to Protools or Col…OMG they killed COLOR? I can’t import my old projects? That was the final straw! It felt like Apple ripped my heart out and said “we don’t care how you make your living”. I felt like a cheap whore. Instead of being rewarded, we were kicked to the curb. But then, something unexpected happened that I don’t think Apple counted on. Everyone who had a blog began to write. I kid you not, I was glued to twitter 24/7 seeing who was saying what about FCPX. We were all looking for answers. Apple chose to stay silent. Big mistake. They finally came out with an FAQ for FCPX but it was too late. The damage had been done.

FCPX: Love it or Hate it?

Obviously if someone is in a relationship, (Apple & my company) having a working relationship means having communication as the basic core between the both of us. Instead, we got a slap in the face and were told to get out. Almost like telling us we were too old and Apple wanted someone younger and hipper because we had become to needy. Okay maybe not that graphic, but still. The question that will never be answered is this: “What the fuck was Apple thinking?” Rather than wait for answers, I looked over at Adobe & AVID to check out what they would offer my company. With all the bad press of FCPX, they pounced on the pro market and both are offering special crossgrade rates for FCP users. Talk about perfect timing!

Avid Media Composer Crossgrade

Adobe Premiere Pro 50% Off

Adobe > Avid

I had used AVID back in college but only briefly. It was a pretty solid program and it really fixed a lot of my bad editing habits (I now only use 1-2 video tracks instead of having almost 20 for one project). Unfortunately, my customer service experience with AVID was the main deciding factor. Being a Protools user, AVID support codes are expensive. If you contact AVID via email, they take as long as 24-48hrs. to respond. If you try by phone, you will wait a minimum of 30 minutes (this is has been my experience). I recently had a ProTools hardware issue that resulted in bad hardware and it took AVID two weeks to understand my problem. Long story short, I exchanged my hardware via my vendor but ended getting mixed messages from multiple reps. My phone rep told me to do one thing and the email rep said to try something else. Rather than hassle with AVID anymore, I just went to my vendor, told him the problem and they were able to help me without a fuss. Now that is customer service!

Adobe on the other hand made everything easy for me. People are available to chat online and I can actually speak to someone right away on the phone or via text, and I don’t need an ASC (AVID Support Code). The choice was a no brainer. I was able to try out Adobe Premiere Pro for 30 days and luckily, it was a very easy transition.

I think I’d rather stick with a company that will actually communicate with me about upcoming changes to their editing products rather than get the silent treatment from Apple or long wait times like AVID. Maybe in a few years I will go back and check out FCPX, but until it’s ready for actual professional use, I will be sticking with Adobe.

Adobe’s Advantages

I’ve been using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 for the last couple of weeks and I’m actually impressed. It supports every flavor of HD natively including DSLR & RED3D files. I think what has impressed me the most is the Dynamic Link between Premiere Pro and After Effects. I dragged and dropped several After Effects comps onto my Premiere Pro timeline without having to render. OMF, XML, EDL, and even tape are all still there! What’s also really smart on Adobe’s part is having the FCP and AVID keyboard shortcuts and making the transition to Adobe even smoother. And that’s not even the best part. I can export XML files from FCP7 of all of my old projects and Premiere Pro will call up everything the way it was (minus a few 3rd party plugins but I’m okay with that). While the interface was a little cluttered at first, I was able to adjust all the windows properly and create my own custom workspace. Neat!

Below you will find 2 screen shots of a commercial I recently edited that I imported from Final Cut Pro 7 into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 and used the Dynamic Link with After Effects. I edit on Dual Monitors so I think its kick ass I can have both programs open at once as they talk to each other.

"Dynamic Link" with Adobe Premiere Pro & After Effects CS5.5

Final Thoughts

While I’m not happy with the direction that Apple has taken, I have to ask myself, why didn’t I switch over sooner? Maybe all it took was a little push from Apple. So I guess I should be thanking Apple for dropping the ball with Final Cut Pro X. Without them, I wouldn’t have even considered Adobe Premiere Pro for my professional workflow. I’m sure one day Final Cut Pro X will be an actual professional editor again, but when a company like Apple turns their back on the creative professionals that made them the company they are today, one must wonder if they can ever be trusted again. Apple not only destroyed their creditably with the professional market, but they threatened the very means of how several of us make a living, and for that there is no forgiveness.

MindWarp Business Cards

Introducing our new business cards!  The new cards are die-cut, foil-stamped and printed on 130lb blue colored paper.  The cards were printed locally in El Paso by our good friend and cousin David Tovar at Tovar Printing.

The business cards have been featured on the following design galleries:

• Creattica.com
• Cardonizer.com

We’ll be handing these things out like candy!

www.dontletyourself.org

Due to a recent grant from Gov. Rick Perry’s Criminal Justice Department, MindWarp was given the honorable privilege of providing creative media to promote healthy relationships in the El Paso community and surrounding rural areas. In collaboration with the El Paso County Attorney’s Office and the 34th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, we successfully provided culturally sensitive and accessible marketing materials about domestic abuse and dating violence. The cultural campaign name, logo, four short films, and interactive website are all attributed to our hard working and talented team of filmmakers, writers, directors, programmers and graphic designers.

With both the County and District Attorney Offices impressed with our work, they eagerly look forward to a better, more educated, and healthier community. We are proud to take part in achieving these goals, as our Teen Dating Violence video will be shown throughout high schools within the El Paso and Ysleta Independent School Districts. Our additional domestic abuse videos will be shown to leaders and victims in our community. These videos and all other campaign materials focus on the recognition of warning signs of abuse and the availability of intervention and prevention services.

Due to our rewarding project experience towards this vital initiative, we are more than pleased to share the launch of our Teen Dating/Domestic Abuse campaign, “No Te Dejes/Don’t Let Yourself.” Support the campaign by checking out the videos below and sharing the interactive website www.dontletyourself.org.  A spanish version on the website will be coming soon.

The Undocumented Victim

The Cycle

The Safety Plan

Teen Dating Violence

14th Cine Las Americas Film Festival

MindWarp Entertainment, in association with Paloma Films, presents the Regional Premiere and final festival screening of the feature film Hands of God by The Brothers Corral. Hands of God will be screened on Saturday April 23rd at 1:00pm during the 14th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival at the Alamo Drafthouse @ South Lamar.

Film Badges & Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.cinelasamericas.org/ or by calling (512) 535-0765 for more information.

Film Synopsis

Dr. Michael Vidal is in his final year of residency and has just been named senior chief resident of the heart surgery program at his hospital. After his father’s death, he slowly begins to lose touch with reality and resorts to drinking while on call. When Dr. Michel Vidal begins to question his profession, Ramon Salazar, a patient with no friends or family, befriends him. While providing Dr. Michael Vidal with a second chance at understanding his father, Mr. Salazar reminds him that a man is only as strong as the memories that define him.

El Paso’s local talent includes: Manny Rubio, Jim Daross, Marco Naylor, Karen Moore, Frank Laverpool, Alyssa Sherman, Armando Beltran, Angel Herrera, and Nomar Rizo. Hands of God is the result of the hard work and creative talents of El Paso’s growing filmmaking community.

Follow us on our Facebook Fan Page (Hands of God) and Twitter (MindWarpLLC).

MindWarp receives two El Paso Addys

This past weekend, MindWarp won two ADDY awards at the 2011 El Paso Advertising Federation ADDY Awards.  Recognized pieces include our TV commercial for local florist Botanica Flowers and our animated intro for the El Paso Marathon promotion video. Both videos can be viewed below. Thank you everyone for all your support! MindWarp continues to grow in El Paso and we are thankful to all our friends and family coming along for the ride.

Botanica Flowers

El Paso Marathon Intro

Setting up the Production Design

I was recently hired by Think Street Inc. & Rip Tear Shred, an ad agency and production company in Austin, TX to come direct their Spanish speaking commercials for the TxDOT Drinking & Driving campaign. It was nice to go back to Austin and do production work there. I had worked in Austin a few years back before returning home to West Texas.

Listing to the Location Audio

I had the chance to work with Kim Whatley, Randy House, and Enea Abbud of Think Street Inc. & also worked with Cathy Beaudoin and John Brown of Rip Tear Shred, as well as several other talented actors from San Antonio, Houston, and Austin. Production lasted for 2 days and in that time we filmed 3 commercial spots at a Hospital, Kitchen, and BBQ party. Check out the little behind the scenes video I got while on set.

I was brought in during the audition process in order to help the agency and production company choose the actors and actresses who would best fit into the roles in the TxDOT commercials. We were more than happy with all of our choices. I even had the chance to work with Vic Trevino. Who is Vic Trevino? He was recently cast as Danny Trejo’s Mexican Federale partner in MACHETE. Spoiler Alert! he dies in the first 5 minutes of the film. Still he was a great guy to work with as were all the other actors and crew on this project.

Working with Victor & Jorge

Our talented Actresses & Crew Memebers

Check out the TxDOT 30 second & 2 minute TV Spots below:

Auditions Poster

Title: Domestic Violence Short Films
Company: El Paso County and MindWarp Entertainment
Project: Short Films
Genre: Drama
Roles: Paid
Production Start Date: TBD
Production End Date: TBD

Date & Location:
January 15, 2011
MindWarp Entertainment Office
5980 Silver Springs
El Paso, TX 79912
10am – 12:30pm & 2pm – 6pm

AUDITIONS:
Please call MindWarp Entertainment at (915) 412-6465 to set up an audition time.
Please bring (3) copies of your headshot and resumes on the day of the audition.

There are 3 narrative short films.

1st Story Synopsis:

Katie and Ben have been married for two years. They seem to be the perfect happy couple. The reality of their household, however, is very different when no one is watching.
BEN (Male, Age 25 -30)
KATIE (Female, Age 25-30)
WAITRESS/JESS (Female, Age 18-25)
HOSTESS (Female, Age 18-25)
BUDDY (Ages 25-30)

Please download your audition scripts from the link below:
http://www.mindwarpentertainment.com/auditions/

2nd Story Synopsis:

Maria decides to leave her abusive husband for good, but before she can execute her plan, her son gets into trouble at school and delays their plan of escape.

JORGE (BILINGUAL Male, Age 30-40)
MARIA (BILINGUAL Female, Age 25-40)
ROBBY (BILINGUAL Male Child, Age 10-12)
MRS. GARCIA (BILINGUAL Female, Age 30-40) Robby’s schoolteacher.
MIKE (Male, Age 30-35)

Please download your audition scripts from the link below:
http://www.mindwarpentertainment.com/auditions/

3rd Story Synopsis:

Tired of being abused, Josefina is determined to escape from husband, but taking her daughter with her presents a larger problem. Since she entered the country illegally, she is afraid to go to the police and instead turns to a friend at a battered women’s shelter for help.

OSCAR/HUSBAND (FLUENT IN SPANISH Male, Age 35-45)
JOSEFINA (FLUENT IN SPANISH Female, Age 30-35)
ESPERANZA (FLUENT IN SPANISH Female, Age 30-35)
ANGELICA (FLUENT IN SPANISH Female, Age 8-10)

Please download your audition scripts from the link below:
http://www.mindwarpentertainment.com/auditions/

Email or Call us (915)412-6465 if you have any questions regarding these roles. See you all at the auditions!

Pulling focus for Jaime Mora

Last Summer, MindWarp was hired to produce a short film for My Key Films. Mikey Reyes, owner of My Key Films, recently finished his Master’s Degree at NYU this past December. Before his graduation, he was required to turn in a thesis film in order to complete his course work at NYU. Being from El Paso TX, Mikey Reyes at first thought he would need to bring cast, crew, and equipment down from New York in order to complete his film.

Our Gaffer Ryan Martinez

Little did he realize that there was a booming film community right here in West Texas. Mikey Reyes was not only able to find a great cast and crew here in El Paso, but was also able to find a majority of the resources he needed for the project thanks to several local El Pasoans. So what was Mikey Reyes’ film about?

While crossing the Arizona desert, two illegal immigrants witness
 an ATV accident involving a young man. The immigrants decide to help the young man only to realize that the accident has attracted both the attention of a border patrol agent and racist minuteman.

Just from the description of the film, this project was not going to be easy. We went into production in June of 2006 and we ended up dealing with record temperatures while out in the desert. There was one day the temperature got as high as 106. Since we were shooting this project on the RED Camera, working in high heat was not the best condition to use this camera. We had camera shutdowns everyday. The ice packs we would put on the camera wouldn’t last long, so we were constantly rotating them.

Camera Team: Marco & Mouse

Luckily, we had lots of ice that would last us for the day, but we would also be getting new ice bags daily due to the nature of the shoot. There was one day where our regular ice packs had no effect on the camera, so we ended up having to use dry ice in order to prevent the camera shutdowns. Despite these few setbacks, we were still able to get everything done. It helps to have a cast and crew that is familiar with the weather conditions of West Texas.

Setting up the RED

Jaime Mora pulls out his gun

Jaime Mora, Jose Luis Butto, Gabriel Rivera, and Sam Elliot

Since then, Red Sands has been completed and sent off to Film Festivals across the nation. Mikey Reyes and I were also awarded a grant from the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund, which is sponsored by the Austin Film Society. As it turns out, the two us are undergraduates of the University of Texas at Austin’s film program and we found it very easy to work with another since we mostly had the same educational background. Always great to know that Texas has several grant resources for its local filmmakers.

Check out the behind the scenes video of Red Sands below: