very high cool factor..........

[JJEconomaki]

Hi All-

YouTube videos are what they are and we agree, they are crummy--we do have a hi-res version of the video (around 100meg I think) and we would be willing to post it. Michael is exploring ways to do that--we are certainly open for suggestions.

The questions regarding cutting techniques, engineering, and capacity posed so far should be easily addressed by Monte. We spoke at length this afternoon and look forward to his visit on June 2nd.

Regards,

John

 

[petiegolfer]

One way the golf component companies get new stuff in the hands of peeps is to have some demos do the rounds...peeps keep it for a trial period box it up and then send it on to the next person.

The deal is kind of done re Monte...it might be somthing for John to consider....rather than get peeps to come to him...box one up and let it do the rounds with several guys...ie the original list. The benefit is that then we get several different takes on the machine from fullas who will use it in diferent ways. this might be something that you could do next?

If this thing is the dogs boll0cks (like we all think it is) then John will get brilliant feedback doing this

Piers

 

[robtonya]

John,

Thanks for getting some of the members to show their work.

Actually, thanks for everything.

And to show you guys why you made the right choice,

I thought a Bridle Joint was were you found something like this.

[attachimg=#]

Just a little anticlimactic comic relief.

Per

Good one Per. Congrats Monte. Thank you John for the opportunity, and also welcome to FOG. If you ever need anyone with absolutely no experience, and a tendency to hurt themseves, I am your man. If you say wanted to see how many stitches one could get in an hour, sign me up. I would want to request Per for company though, maybe he could bring a whip like the one pictured to "distract" my attention to my freshly cut fingers.

All kidding aside, it looks like a great product, and I can't wait to hear more about it.

 

[Eli]

Congratulations Monte, looking forward to your review. Michael, really excellent body of work. I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to work together before I left LA. You're exactly the type of guy I used to like to sponge onto for info on set.

On a separate note, today I had the slabs delivered for the bar build I'm doing. You guys would go into cardiac arrest if you saw these things. Himalayan Cedar, the biggest piece is 4.2m x  850mm x 55mm, but  I have two others that are 2.9m x 1090mm x 50mm, and two that are 2.7m x 600mm x 50mm. Massive! dead straight center grain, fiddling all down both sides of the heart. Very light for the size. Spent the morning at the shop over in Kallista flipping through slabs with Ken Hanson, the local slab guy. He brought them out to be drum sanded and delivered just before we went home. He's got the most amazing stuff. I saw a walnut burl that was 2m in diameter. I saw Japanese cedar knees that had been sliced into huge radius pieces 2m long and 550mm wide. Huge slabs of Cal redwood. Huon pine. Japanese cedar. English oak (I've never heard anyone call it 'crap' before).  I almost passed out from the smell of aromatic cedars when I went through the door. I'm going to go broke just meeting this guy. I got home and started figuring out every spot in the house where I could knock out walls and put in beams. I mean like 10" solid beams

 

[Michael Kellough]

Congratulations Monte, looking forward to your review. Michael, really excellent body of work. I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to work together before I left LA.

Thanks Eli! I have never worked (or lived) in LA though, never joined the union for one reason. Luckily for me the miniature effects I get to do don't have to be in LA. Star Trek V was done in a former candy factory in Hoboken, NJ. Three projects I worked on were in western MA and others in NYC.

A footnote, one of my assistants in the old days went on to be the effects supervisor on the Matrix. The time stopping pan around the bullet trick was developed in that Hoboken candy factory (by other people a decade after I was there).

 

[Eli]

I say LA, but meant the biz.

I've been working with Toby Copping, the key grip of the Matrix series here in Australia. Lots of personal photos of the 'time-slice' shot.

 

[monte]

good morning.......

I'll have a "Jointmaster Pro / Portland" update later today. (midday....ish)

......west coast time 8)

Monte

 

[BCT Mike]

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for all of your enthusiasm, John and I are excited to see such a great response from people about the Jointmaker Pro.

As far as the video quality goes, there is a trade off of quality vs load time. If the video quality is too high, then it takes a LOT longer to load. Then, people get impatient and they don't even end up watching it.

You can see what I mean by this Honing Guide video; slower to load (you may have to wait for it to load completely before even watching)  but better quality       


I am working on getting a better quality JMP video posted. I will let you know when it happens. Youtube has its limitations so we'll see!

Thanks!
Mike

 

[joraft]

I am working on getting a better quality JMP video posted. I will let you know when it happens. Youtube has its limitations so we'll see!

Mike, as an alternative how about posting a link to the high res file so those wish to can just download it directly to our local drives?

John

 

[BCT Mike]

Ok, you if want to very high quality download, here it is:http://www.bridgecitytools.com/videos/JMP_Intro20.zip

This is about 91 MB, so it will take about 9 or 10 minutes with conventional broadband. Sorry to all with dial-up. Someday we'll be able to zap it to you from satellites...

Mike

 

[BCT Mike]

I guess I know where my boss is saving his pennies......
Did I say that out loud? 

mike

 

[Michael Kellough]

I say LA, but meant the biz.

I've been working with Toby Copping, the key grip of the Matrix series here in Australia. Lots of personal photos of the 'time-slice' shot.

Then Toby knows John Gaeta. I hope they got along okay. The grapevine said John could be "difficult".
Back on the ride film version of "Back to the Future" John wanted to get into mechFX but I could already see the computers nibbling away at that craft and advised him to hang around the camera department. When I asked a CG retoucher whether he wanted black lines or white lines, (which would blend in better?) and he said he'd prefer orange so he wouldn't miss any, I knew the future mechFX was bleak.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Ok, you if want to very high quality download, here it is:http://www.bridgecitytools.com/videos/JMP_Intro20.zip

This is about 91 MB, so it will take about 9 or 10 minutes with conventional broadband. Sorry to all with dial-up. Someday we'll be able to zap it to you from satellites...

Mike

It took a whole minute to download via Verizon  Fios to my Mac computer but then I got a warning from QuickTime that this is not a "Movie" file.  :-\

 

[poto]

I had the same problem on my mac. I tried opening it in real player, windows media viewer, and quicktime, with no joy for any of them. What kind of mpeg is it? Maybe I can convert it...

 

[BCT Mike]

It is an mpeg file. It works in Windows Media Player.

I will rip a .avi file so that Quicktime can play it.
It will be a bit before it is posted.

Mike

 

[joraft]

This is about 91 MB, so it will take about 9 or 10 minutes with conventional broadband.

2 minutes 40 seconds on DSL. Beautiful quality.

Thanks, Mike!

John

 

[BCT Mike]

I did not manage to get the avi or mov files to a decent size. However, there is a higher res YouTube version now. There is quite a difference too.=18

Mike

 

[John Stevens]

I did not manage to get the avi or mov files to a decent size. However, there is a higher res YouTube version now. There is quite a difference too.

Thanks, enjoyed the other videos & will be taking a closer look at some of the other Bridge City tools.  Couldn't find the return/exchange policy on the web site, though.

Regards,

John

 

[Michael Kellough]

I did not manage to get the avi or mov files to a decent size. However, there is a higher res YouTube version now. There is quite a difference too.=18

Mike

Thanks for the higher res video. I take back my complaint about the choppiness of the low res version. Apparently it's my 13 year old computer and pathetic 16MB video card to blame.

 

[Michael Kellough]

More photos & explanations en route today...........

The two photos below are of a Cabinet (An ARK that holds the holy scrolls) I recently designed and fabricated for a Synagogue in Los Angeles.

Monte

Thanks for switching to your real name Monte Roger!
That allowed me to find this missing text from your justifiably appreciative client.

"Our new ark was
designed and executed by a local Malibu artisan, Roger Savatteri.
Roger lived in Israel for many years, and was educated at the Betzalel Institute
in Jerusalem, a school named for the artisan who followed God?s direction
and produced the original ark.

It took the Interiors Committee over a year to select the ark
that most closely exemplified the spirit of MJC&S, and Roger?s design
was chosen for our light-filled, open-air synagogue over twelve other finalists.

The new ark is constructed of glass and acacia wood,
with filigree carved doors resembling the tree of life.
The shelf holding the scrolls will be of acacia wood, as mandated in the bible.
The carved doors will open to reveal an internal/eternal glow,
thus encasing the torah scrolls in a sea of light."

It's a beautiful description and should be included with these photos.

By the way, Google must love the FOG. It has already found Roger's reply to Per's MFT3 review!