Sports Awesome Episode 5 Released

Yesterday I completed editing the 5th installment of Sports Awesome. For this episode we brought in a new co-host, Dane MacLellan. Overall the episode went well, however audio was somewhat of a pain. The audio and video were recorded separately during the shoot and this was my first experience matching them together. During the day of the shoot, we also filmed a tidbit on the Manitoba Bisons hockey team. This footage didn’t make it to the episode, however it will be edited and released sometime in the coming week.

Next time we film will hopefully be done in a studio with a blue screen, which should make for an interesting episode as well as a new editing challenge for me. I have always been interested in doing some green/blue screen work and this will give me my chance. Potential holiday episode?

http://www.sportsawesome.com

December 5th, 2009 Videos 0 Comment

Baking Cookies…In A Car

On one of the last few weekends of the 2009 summer, we came up with the fantastic idea to attempt to bake cookies in my car using the heat from the sun and the vehicle’s heater. This idea became even better when it became a challenge between ourselves to see who could stay in the vehicle the longest.

Though it was quite warm out on the day we chose, if we had a warmer day I’m sure we could have reached temperatures in the 70C range. The maximum temperature we were able to achieve was 62C, which being from Canada, is pretty damn hot (eh).
Being a fairly spontaneous event, we didn’t do much planning ahead. None of us thought to wear shorts, and our drink of choice wasn’t doing much hydrating.
The cookies weren’t a total success, but they weren’t a failure either. If the temperature had been higher, or we waited a little longer, I am very confident that the cookies would have hardened and tasted just like the ones that would come from a real oven.

Participants:
Steve Keeves
Trent Gill

October 17th, 2009 Videos 1 Comment

The Death a Ford Aspire 2: Electric Boogaloo

Last year, we drove a 94 Aspire to death. For whatever reason, we decided that it wasn’t quite dead enough.

Using axe’s and sledge hammers, we pummeled the surface of the car to a hardly recognizable state. We we’re almost successful in chopping the passenger door completely off.
To smash the glass we allowed Travis to show off his man strength and punch through two side windows. The rear hatch window needed something more spectacular however. We removed the drivers airbag and affixed it to the window. This proved very effective.
Since we really couldn’t burn the whole vehicle, we kept the fire contained to the roof. However, something happened that we didn’t see coming. The head liner of the car began to melt and did almost set fire to the interior of the vehicle.
I think we can all finally agree that this car is completely dead and now it will live the rest of its days in the dump.

Thanks to:
Travis Froese
Steve Keeves
A.J. Potrebka
Cory Gill

July 4th, 2009 Videos 1 Comment

Sports Awesome: Stanley Cup Edition

Yesterday I completed editing the Stanley Cup edition of Sports Awesome. Sadly, I had no internet access all weekend and was not able to upload it. Now that I’m home, here it is! This time we had a lot better lighting at our disposal which made the videos quality a lot higher.

In this episode, Jarred talks about the final series in this NHL playoff where the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings play for their chance at the cup.

You can check out Sports Awesome at http://www.sportsawesome.com

June 21st, 2009 Videos 0 Comment

Demolition Derby at the 128th Manitoba Summer Fair

On Sunday, June 7th, I competed in the demolition derby at the 128th Manitoba Summer Fair in Brandon, MB. I used a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria which I had “purchased” 2 years earlier for 24 beer.

We started working on the half finished car two weeks before the derby. Poor planning I know. After sitting for those 2 years, water had gotten into the engine and it had seized. We managed to break it loose and replaced the seized carb with on off of one of our trucks.

The car was in some serious need of a face lift. My brother, Cory, gave the car a fresh coat of paint as well as some website plugs. Props to him for doing an awesome job.


Photo Credit: Travis Froese


Video Credit: Travis Froese

We ran in Heat #1 and did surprisingly well for first timers. We placed 2nd in the heat which put us into the Feature at the end of the day where the winner would take home $1500.


Photo Credit: Steven Keeves

In the feature we didn’t do quite as well. Placed 9th out of the 14 cars in the final event. This round the car took a lot more serious of a beating. The rad was crushed, two tires blew, and I’m very sure that I saw some crucial wires melting.


Photo Credit: Steven Keeves

We were unable to get the car running again for one of our mechanics, Matt Miller, to run in the mechanics heat sadly, but it was still an awesome experience for us all. We did have a few cameras running throughout and I will hopefully throw a video together within the week.

Driver: Wes Gill
Pit Crew: Matt Miller, Travis Froese, Steven Keeves, and William McFadden
Special thanks to Grant and Cory Gill who both put a huge effort into the car.

UPDATE: Video is here!

More pictures can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesgill/sets/72157594483657302/

June 8th, 2009 Life, Videos 2 Comments

Sports Awesome – A Sports Show Like No Other

Today I finished creating the first episode of one of my new projects, Sports Awesome. The show is hosted by my good friend Jarred Wood and is as ridiculous as ever. For a first go around, where we really didn’t know what we were trying to do, things worked out fairly well.

Sadly the content is a little outdated since I took quite a long time editing, but now that we have a better idea of what we are doing, things should be a bit more streamlined. We hope to start filming a second episode within the coming month.

You can check out Sports Awesome at http://www.sportsawesome.com

May 24th, 2009 Videos 0 Comment

Fernie Snowboarding Video

As promised, here is the finished video of my snowboarding trip to Fernie in February. This will be the first video that I have made using Final Cut and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. This will also the first time that I’ve attempted using more complicated effects than fading in and out. I think they came out not too badly and look forward to playing around with them more in the future.

The original Fernie post can be found here: http://www.wesgill.net/2009/02/snowboarding-in-fernie-bc/

March 7th, 2009 Videos 0 Comment

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