How to really sell a used car

According to Bill Myers this commercial was created by just "one guy with a phone mounted on a 3 axis gimbal and a drone."

Used Car Commercial // 1996 Honda Accord

Yet, on the YouTube site it says this:

Written and Directed by Max Lanman 

Cinematography by Christopher Ripley 

Produced by Max Lanman & Christopher Ripley 

Starring Anne Marie Avey 

Voiceover by Matt Pratt 

Featuring Papa Puff Pants 

Additional Stunt Driving by Carrie 

Original Score by Andrew Johnson 

Sound Designed and Mixed by Colin Heath 

Drone Piloting, Foley Recording, Editing, and Motion Graphics by Max Lanman 

Color by Christopher Ripley 

I'd like to send a special thanks to Burg for helping me record additional foley, Kelly and Chris for all the time you babysat and re-parked Greenie when we were out of town, Canon for helping out on the principal shoot day, and Brian for lending your handwriting to this. 

Finally, a huge thanks to Carrie for letting me do this, even though it took me a lot longer than I had planned. 

Thanks for watching!
- Max 

P.S. Read the fine print!

Whatever the above means, it suggests it was not a one-man show.  

Below is a picture of the principal creator of the commercial, Max Lanman, and his fiancé, Carrie Hollenbeck.  (source)

Although Carrie owned the 149,095-mile Accord, Anne Marie Avey drove the car in the commercial, for the most part.  (below)

If Ann Marie is not a professional actress she could be.

Finally, here is what CNBC said about the commercial:

"The idea came to me when I was driving the very stretch of highway that you see in the commercial," Lanman, the writer and director behind the project, tells CNBC Make It. He's the founder of a creativity agency based out of Los Angeles, Calif., called, LEÃO, which makes ads, virtual reality and branded content for companies like Microsoft and Häagen-Dazs. 

"It just dawned on me that making a high-end car commercial for a really crappy car might be funny, and Carrie fortunately had just the car for the job." 

Carrie Hollenbeck, now Lanman's fiancée, is not the actress in the video. That's their friend, Anne Marie Avey. "Carrie's a little bit camera shy so she didn't want to be the main character," says Lanman. But she was the stunt driver for the aerial shots that Lanman took with his drone, a DJI Phantom 3 Professional. 

He also used his own SONY A7S2 camera. In fact, except for a pickup truck he rented out to shoot some of the footage, Lanman says he did the entire project with his own equipment and with his own friends. The other cameraman is his buddy Christopher Ripley. The video's narrator with the born-for-radio voice is his neighbor, Matt Pratt. And the cat, Papa Puff Pants, belongs to Avey. 

The commercial hardly cost them a thing. 

Lanman acknowledges that they put in 200-some hours over the course of a year. And 200 hours might seem like a lot of effort to sell a car with a Kelly Blue Book value of $1,500. 

Still, he says, "the experience of doing it was just a blast. That was our M.O. from the beginning. If we have fun making this, then it will be worth it."

The Sony a7S II Lanman used is a full-frame E-mount camera that shoots 4K video.  From what I've seen a high-end smartphone could do a comparable job for shooting a commercial like this.  

Bill Myers mentioned a 3-axis gimbal.  Gimbals come in many prices, but here's one that's inexpensive:  The Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3 Axis Handheld Gimbal for Smartphones Up to 6".  $139 Prime at Amazon.

What is a gimbal?  Here's the Wikipedia answer:

Handheld 3-axis gimbals are used in stabilization systems designed to give the camera operator the independence of handheld shooting without camera vibration or shake. Powered by three brushless motors, the gimbals have the ability to keep the camera level on all axes as the camera operator moves the camera. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) responds to movement and utilizes its three separate motors to stabilize the camera. 

With the guidance of algorithms, the stabilizer is able to notice the difference between deliberate movement such as pans and tracking shots from unwanted shake. This allows the camera to seem as if it is floating through the air, an effect achieved by a Steadicam in the past. Not limited to handheld shooting, gimbals can be mounted to cars and other vehicles such as drones, where vibrations or other unexpected movements would make tripods or other camera mounts unacceptable.

The DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter 4K UHD Video Camera Drone Lanman used gets high marks from customers for its quality, but absolutely devastating comments regarding the company's customer service.  

Flatearther plans to launch

This caught my attention. I liked Astronaut Farmer and thought this might be something similar in real life.

"Self-taught rocket scientist plans to launch over ghost town"

The launch is scheduled for this Saturday.

"This will actually be the second time ['Mad' Mike Hughes has] constructed and launched a rocket. He jumped on a private property in Winkelman, Arizona, on Jan. 30, 2014 , and traveled 1,374 feet. He collapsed after that landing — the G-forces taking a toll — and needed three days to recover.

"That distance, though, would've been enough to clear the Snake River Canyon, which is a jump daredevil Evel Knievel made famous when he failed to clear it during his attempt in 1974."

So far, so good.

"Here's the thing: Hughes doesn't make all that much money — $15 per hour as a limo driver, plus tips. That's why he's scrounged for parts, finding the aluminum for his rocket in metal shops and constructing the rocket nozzle out of an aircraft air filter. He gave it a good varnish of cheap paint, and his launch pad is attached to a motor home he bought for $1,500."

"The location of the jump will be Amboy , a ghost town in the Mojave Desert and along historic Route 66. The fictional town of Radiator Springs in the Disney movie Cars was loosely based on Amboy."

"On the morning of the launch, Hughes will heat about 70 gallons of water in a stainless steel tank and then blast off between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. He plans to go about a mile — reaching an altitude of about 1,800 feet — before pulling two parachutes. They're discouraging fans — safety issues — but it will be televised on his YouTube channel . He said he's been in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Bureau of Land Management.

"Following his jump, he said he's going to announce his plans to leap into the race for governor of California.

"No joke."

If Mad Mike succeeds he might make a decent governor. He knows how to stretch a dollar, he's got guts, and he "believes what he believes," meaning, I suppose, he's an independent thinker, including the view that the earth is really flat. That last part is disconcerting but could he be any worse than the current governor?

Fantastic illusionist

Peace! Peace! Anybody want peace?

Soldiers on both sides were ordered to end the Christmas Truce of 1914 by officers far from the front lines.  During that brief period of unauthorized peace the soldiers had put down their rifles and traded

chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home, these sons and fathers far away from families of their own,  

Oh, soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more;
with sad farewells, we each began to settle back to war,
but the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?” 

-- John McCutcheon, "Christmas in the Trenches" 

We no longer ask that question, since to answer it would be a threat to "national security."  All we do is glorify and express thanks to the troops for the killing service they're doing "over there, somewhere."

Changing the “War No More” Sentiment of Armistice Day to the War-Glorifying Propaganda of Veterans Day by Gary G. Kohls, MD

Ray Kurzweil at the CFR

Inventor, futurist, and author Ray Kurzweil talks about the future of AI and its impact on society.

Hysteria over global cooling

What's Up With That?, which claims to be the most viewed site on global warming and climate change, has sitting in its archives a "compilation of news articles on the global cooling scare of the 1970’s" reproduced from PopTech.  It's a very long list.

Here's what PopTech shows for the post of February 28, 2013:

"The scientists and computers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were confidently predicting that the frigid weather would continue. The chilling pronouncement of NOAA's senior climatologist: 'The forecast is for no change.' "

The Coming Ice Age was blamed on pollution from heavy industry.  "Environmental extremists called for everything from outlawing the internal combustion engine to communist style population controls."

Has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

Check out the list.  The experts warned us.