elliottrotterCOM

Great Ideas Never Die :: Time Shower Ep 5

Elliot — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:05:08 +0000

It was two years ago that I started filming and producing Time Shower with my good friend John Espey. The absurd concept was a mad scientist builds a time machine out of his shower (which later morphs into a shower staff for some ill-defined reason). Sort of a Dr. Who (which I had not seen until recently) meets HG Wells. It was meant to be both an outlet for creativity and a means to promote a project I was working on at the time called minutaur.com.

After attending a CLAW meeting recently, I was encouraged by fez wearing colleagues to make more Time Shower episodes. Though I finished editing the 4th episode two years ago, I still have footage we shot for a couple more. This weekend I decided to jump back into the footage and see if an episode really could still emerge. It’s fun for me to look back at those filming memories of what we put together and try to reconnect the dots of how we planned out the shoot to flow into the editing room. I’m pleased to be able to present another episode in the Time Shower series. While the chances of further episodes are low (minutaur is fledgling if at that and John and I no longer live in the same state), there’s still a smile on my face when editing this one and thinking of the future.

A bit about minutaur:

Beginning work with The Primal Effect

Elliot — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:47:50 +0000

Rodney Flores spent over 35 years in the restaurant business and is now combining his passions for nutritious food, Crossfit and cooking into a project called The Primal Effect. The focus of this project is a video cooking show called Primally Plated which I will be filming and editing hopefully twice a month. I just finished producing our first episode which can be seen below.

Rodney is an incredibly passionate guy with a lot of exciting ideas. I look forward to seeing how this project materializes.

Great Ideas Never Die :: Time Shower Ep 5

Magic Tricks

Elliot — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:30:43 +0000

Asleep, I play guitar
Stroking every chord and string with virtuoso speed and guile
Any tune is reality, any song committed to vibration
But in reality, failure is polite
Is quitting still quitting after trading practice for afternoon cartoons
After falling behind in class
After giving up on myself

“Love me tender” by Elvis Presley
Is the only song I’ve learnt fully
On my red Pevay Predator no less
A song which I didn’t even know the words to
Until grandma sang over my playing

Guitar, I regret you
You, my perennial failure, are not alone

My grandfather’s name is Stanley Allen
Or Allen as he preferred to be called
Or Papa as we called him
Papa was always known as a quiet man
Even in death, he went with as little fuss as possible

He wore large, but thin-framed, square glasses
The type you think about when considering Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation
His hair, a gray matted toupee, always gently and neatly combed to the side
Displayed a constant appearance of formality, of honor, of duty

Coming of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War
Papa was a workaholic
Although the details of his death are limited to
Images of my grandma returning from a day’s shopping
Finding Allen’s silent body quieter than usual
Realizing he isn’t responding to her questions
Moving as quickly as her body could take her to call 911
My understanding of his heart-attack through litterings of family conversation
Suggest a struggle to deal with a recent retirement
Retirement being
A notion unthinkable and unknown to the greatest generation

Papa was a Navy man, so my father tells me
During WWII it was his job to flash Morse code signals to other boats at night to communicate
And I can see him there
Standing silently in a starry night
The boat drifts up and down over the sea
Waves splash lightly on the ship’s hull
Allen’s lips sealed and his eyes sternly focused on
The dark distance
He’s waiting
Waiting there listening
And watching for the birth of a new star
It’s the type of night a man like Allen would have found peaceful

My father proudly recounts the story of a horrible
Stormy night aboard Papa’s Navy ship
The fists of Gaia pounded the vessel back and forth
Threatening to shred it apart
And my Papa, still a young man, fearful for his life
Made a wager with god
Should the storm break and he live to see home
He would never complain again
And as far as I know
He never did

That’s really a good way to understand what Allen was all about
He never complained about anything and
Never smiled greater than when taking that big silver dollar out of his pocket
Showing magic tricks to his grandchildren
Waving his hand like a magician
Making that flashing coin jump behind our ears
As if it was never actually there
Chuckling heartily at our surprise

While I admire the bits of his life that I know
Through these stories or childhood memories
I can’t say I know my Papa
And though I may someday learn to play guitar
There are some things I’ll never do

He’s there sometimes
Off in the distance
In the fog of a deep night
Flashing code to me
It shines like a silver dollar
Always in the distance
And when I look for him
He’s not there

USAU Club Champships 2011: Official Coverage Team

Elliot — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 05:40:55 +0000

Correspondents Zack Smith and Ian Toner provide commentary for a semifinal game. - Photo by Discraft Inc.

Skyd Magazine was named the Official Coverage team of the 2011 Club Championships that took place in Sarasota, FL on Oct 27-30, 2011. Working in conjunction with USA Ultimate, Skyd brought a team of top notch correspondents down to the heat (and rain) to cover the action as the nation’s top teams in four divisions competed for gold. Skyd provided a video stream of games as well as daily preview and recap shows, write-ups, interviews and more.

Read all about Skyd’s coverage here and check out one of our preview shows below:

Seattle SketchFest 2011: Official Videographer

Elliot — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:03:27 +0000

I’ve been selected for the second year in a row as the Official Videographer of Seattle SketchFest – the longest running SketchFest festival in country. Organized by Clayton Weller and crew, Seattle SketchFest brings together some of the finest sketch comedy groups in North America to the Theater off Jackson including the likes of Ubiquitous They, Charles Comedy and Dk & Morgan. This year, I was please to be able to catch and film the work of Peter & Chris, Charles Comedy, Comedian Barbara Holm, the Don’t We Boys and more. Congrats to the Seattle SketchFest team for putting on another amazing show.

Last year at the Fest, in addition to helping to film SketchFest’s project called MashUp, I put together a documentary about Ubiquitous They and the creative process. Below you’ll find a Ubiquitous They clip from last year’s SketchFest.

Seattle Voodoo

Elliot — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:12:26 +0000

Not only was I pleased to have the honor of playing an awesome season with an incredible group of guys, I was excited to be a part of the design task force that would outfit and create a look for one of Seattle’s Elite Level Open Ultimate Frisbee teams – Seattle Voodoo. I built a wordpress site, augmenting a template and with Adam Restad and Vehro Titcomb of Five Ultimate helped make decisions about jersey designs and logos.

I also filmed a number of player profile videos for individual roster pages. You’ll find a good example below.

SeattleVoodoo.com

It’s Recess!

Elliot — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:31:42 +0000

Founded in December 2010, It’s Recess is an event management company dedicated to reclaiming the moments of childhood where play and fun were the most important, most treasured things in the world. We organize events that recreate the best parts of the playground experience.

It’s Recess’ first event is the Seattle Tug of War Spectacular which pits like organizations against each other in a one-day tug of war tournament and benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. The event will bring in over 50 teams and upwards of 400 participants to compete for the Seattle Tug of War Championship in what may be the most exciting Saturdays of existence.

Find out more at ItsRecess.com and check us out on Facebook.

Seattle Tug of War

Elliot — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:29:32 +0000

Seattle Tug of War is a one-day tug of war tournament and benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. The event will bring in over 50 teams and upwards of 400 participants to compete for the Seattle Tug of War Championship in what may be the most exciting Saturdays of your existence.

Teams of eight compete in multiple matches toward the Tug of War Championship. Teams can consist of anyone: your buddies, your coworkers, workout-partners, cubicle-mates or people you just met. The event is set up to encourage “grudge matches” in which industries compete for the best of each category (cafe vs. cafe, gym vs. gym, office division vs. office division, etc.). Each team will compete in at least four matches over the course of the event. Matches includes up to three “pulls” in which teams tug against each other. On the whistle, teams have up to three minutes to tug the middle of the rope (indicated by colored tape) over their line. Once the colored tape clears the line, a whistle is blown and teams are allowed five minutes to reset. Like all great competitions, best of three wins.

Teams work their way through brackets with the opportunity to make it to the 2011 Seattle Tug of War Championship bout.

Check us out on Facebook and RSVP to the FB Event.

UPDATE: Unfortunately this event has been cancelled.

2011 USA Ultimate College Championships

Elliot — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:44:36 +0000

This past weekend I spent time 5 days in Boulder covering the 2011 USA Ultimate College Championships for Skyd Magazine. In addition to producing a ton a videos, liveblog, webcast, tons of recaps, interviews and photos with an excellent team for Skyd, I worked with CBS Sports and USA Ultimate to do voice over and talent work for a few daily recaps.

Oils on the Mind

Elliot — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 06:18:30 +0000

Since renting studio space a few months ago, I’ve been getting in to Gasworks Gallery here and there and started painting again. I’m still a bit rusty with everything, but I’ve been trying out some new techniques that have been rewarding. Here are a couple works in progress (click to embiggen):

New technique in progress.

Shot of the studio space I share with my friend Robert.