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May, 2008

What better way to kick off May than with Bloomberg Television and the North Carolina Primary! Our crew provided the crew and uplink for live coverage of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama from Raleigh, NC on Tuesday, May 6.

We provided OnCor Energy in Texas a promotional video for the new Eco-Meter which measures home energy consumption in real time. This video had a 72-hour window from taping to final edit with delivery in Texas from our server. The video is now part of a mobile display traveling around Texas to encourage homeowners to be more aware of their energy usage.

Los Angeles-based A. Smith and Co. called again to have us tape segments for an upcoming network show on the Panasonic Varicam (DVC-Pro HD) camera. The two-day shoot included locations in Augusta and Athens, GA.

Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr stopped by our studio for a live shot on ‘Money and Politics’ hosted by Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television.

Football star Fran Tarkenton stopped by our studio for a quick interview session for a corporate client.


'Top Chef,’ the popular Bravo TV show, booked our studio for a live shot with contestant and Atlanta resident Richard Blais. Richard and his wife were expecting the birth of their little girl at any moment, so he couldn't make the studio taping in New York City for the reunion show. The show airs on June 11^th on Bravo.

Projects for several corporate clients included taping at the Georgia World Congress Center , green screen work in our studio and a corporate web piece for Logicalis that utilized our studio, 3 cameras and teleprompter.

April, 2008

Reality TV was the buzzword around the office in April. We spent a week working on ‘Family Challenge’ for Canadian Television in Alpharetta and at the Chateau Elan resort.

Our studio booked with several clients including a live shot for London ’s GMTV on April 4, 2008 with Martin Luther King III and his sister Bernice King on the occasion of their father’s assassination in 1968.

We worked with Sage Software on an awards video, and created a commercial for Legacy Jewels that will air nationwide.

Independent producers often use our crews and studio for shoots and April was no exception. Our other regular clients including Bloomberg, HDNet, the Georgia Technology Authority and the Centers for Disease Control were also in the mix.

Lastly, three of our staff visited Las Vegas for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention, where there is always lots to see.


March, 2008

Our corporate clients kept us busy in March with shoots around Atlanta . From media training sessions in our studio to an interview with the head of CapGemini and Coca-Cola Enterprises (the world’s largest bottler of Coke), we needed the extra caffeine to keep us going.

We covered the Hinman Dental Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center – and ended up covering the tornado aftermath at the same time. On Friday, March 15^th, we completed taping and headed home, only to watch local news break-ins to talk about a severe storm headed straight for downtown Atlanta . The storm produced an EF-2 tornado which left a trail of destruction more than 5 miles long.

We worked all day Saturday for The Weather Channel from Cabbagetown, downtown and even north of downtown when additional tornadoes hit Saturday afternoon.

Our studio stayed busy with live shots for several networks and included Georgia Congressman Tom Price as one of the guests.


February, 2008

February took us on several road trips, including to Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood, FL for Bloomberg TV and to Athens, GA for a Clinton Campaign Town Hall Meeting.

Our studio stayed busy with several corporate shoots, live shots for CNBC, green screen work for the Atlanta Falcons Football Club and the National Guard Youth Foundation.

Red Bull’s Salzburg, Austria-based Chef, Roland Trettl came to Atlanta to visit Joel Restaurant , owned by Celebrity Chef Joel Antunes. The HDCam F-900 shoot took place at Joel before capturing b-roll at the Georgia Aquarium.


At our studio, we completed post-production on ‘The Business Of Fun.’ The hour-long High Definition Video show looks at the inside workings of the theme park industry and how one park researched, built and opened a new roller coaster.


January, 2008

2008 started off with several corporate projects including videos for ING Australia, Janus International (both shot on location), the International Policy Governance Association and Reliv Nutrition (both shot in our studio) and Barlow Productions, which once again took our crews to the office of former UN Ambassador Andrew Young.

On our broadcast side, we had location work in Miami Beach, FL and Dillon, S C for Bloomberg TV, Las Vegas, NV for Color Code Entertainment and in Gree ville, SC for HDNet. The HDNet shoot used two Sony HDCam F-900’s to cover an appearance by 2008 Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee at a local university.

Closer to home, we provided broadcast production services in the metro area for Bloomberg, HDNet, CNBC, WPIX, the National Hockey League, the Canadian Broadcasting Company and the new Fox Business Channel.


December, 2007

We find 2007 coming to a busy close, thanks to our new and returning clients.

Early December had BTK Media in our studio with a news set and three doctors to talk about hemostasis. The set included a news desk for three, a 42” monitor and 3 prompter screens for the three-camera shoot.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History had us visit their archeological dig in South Georgia, which has turned out to contain numerous historical artifacts from what is thought to be a 17th century Spanish mission. Forrester Media has covered the excavation’s progress since its early days – and we look forward to our next visit to this important piece of Georgia history.

Staff cameraman Keith Krystofiak and Mike Forrester traveled to Tallahassee, FL for Bloomberg Television to cover the problems arising from the State of Florida’s investing in sub-prime mortgages and resulting losses. We conducted interviews in Tallahassee with the State’s CFO, in Orlando with the Orange County Comptroller and in Perry and Monticello, FL with local government officials about the losses they face.

Bloomberg also had us cover three days of shooting in South Florida concerning local efforts to mitigate beach erosion from summer storms. Miami Beach is storing excess sand near the beach and is now able to simply return the beach to near-perfect condition at the end of each hurricane season.

We also worked on several corporate image pieces including a training video, and booked green screen work in the studio.

As we wrap our first year in the studio, and our 17th year in business, we want to thank all the clients who put their trust in us and we look forward to a great 2008.

November, 2007

We entered the holiday season with a lot of location work and ended the month with some studio work. The Fernbank Museum of Natural History came back to edit some footage we had previously shot for them at an archeological dig in South Georgia.

We traveled to Orlando to cover the American Heart Association 2007 Scientific Sessions for Bloomberg Television with both live and taped segments. We then drove directly to Boca Raton, FL for the annual Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association meeting – also for Bloomberg Television.

On The Go Hosiery called to have us document their store displays and how they set and restock their in-store displays. We then edited the piece which was shown to officials at Wal-Mart. On The Go received a big contract with Wal-Mart, in part with the help of the video we created for them.

The Cobb Community Foundation asked us to update the video we produced for them in 2006, which was a pro-bono project. We shot an interview with the Director – Sue Wootten – in our studio and updated the overall piece which was shown at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce breakfast on December 3rd.

Our studio stayed busy with several shoots, including green screen work for Boston-based Faces Media.

Our last shoot of the month was a live shot for the BBC in our studio with guest Dr. Helene Gayle, President of Care, who spoke about World AIDS Day and which aired in both the US and the UK.

October, 2007

Fall brought several road trips for our team, including a visit to Charleston, SC for Bloomberg Television. We covered a speech by US Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator John McCain. The following day we taped a three-camera interview with Senator McCain and Bloomberg ‘Money and Politics’ anchor Peter Cook.

The following week we traveled with an even larger entourage to Historic Williamsburg, VA for coverage of The Business Council meeting – also for Bloomberg Television. The three-day event included interviews with CEO’s and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. ‘In Focus’ anchor Brian Sullivan hosted his 2-hour show from our location just outside the Williamsburg Inn.

Corporate clients put our studio to use with green screen shoots and set interviews, including Marriott Hotels.

We taped interviews with Andrew Young and Rev. Joseph Lowery for an upcoming PBS special.

Several stories were shot for HDNet on both the Sony F900 and the Sony Z1 in Georgia and South Carolina.

Cameraman Keith Krystofiak traveled to San Diego, CA with Meteorologist Jim Cantore to cover the wildfires for The Weather Channel.

The month ended with several projects being cut on our Apple Final Cut Pro Studio 2 edit system.

September, 2007

If August was our International Month, then September was our High Profile Guest Month!

First, we had several high-profile guests in our studio including 2008 Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani. He stopped by for live shots on both CNN and Fox, speaking with Larry King on ‘Larry King Live,’ then with Sean Hannity on ‘Hannity and Colmes’ on Fox.

Celebrity Chef Dave Lieberman from the Food Network stopped in for a morning-long satellite media tour. A full kitchen was built in our studio for the tour, which visited 21 television markets around the USA. Dave talked about the great Frigidaire appliances available at Lowe’s, and offered cooking tips to guys about keeping the ladies happy during football season.

Michael Sullivan, Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives visited for a satellite media tour to talk about a new Federal initiative to help keep our neighborhoods safe.

In Florida, we again worked with Martha Stewart at the opening of one of her new communities, built in partnership with KB Home. We provided camera crews, field producers and satellite uplinks of the event.

We interviewed former US Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young for the Big Idea Company.

We worked with The Weather Channel Meteorologists Jim Cantore and Mike Bettes, this time providing live storm coverage from Pensacola, FL, though fortunately it wasn't much of a storm.

Our crews covered a briefing with Atlanta Federal Bank President Dennis Lockhart which was uplinked live to Bloomberg Television in New York City for worldwide distribution on their networks and terminals.

We continued shooting for the HDNet program ‘Deadline’ at a breakneck pace throughout the month and also had shoots for more than a dozen other clients - much of it in HD. We traveled to Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina and Nebraska. Whew, what a month!

August, 2007

August seemed to be our international month. We traveled to Montego Bay, Jamaica to cover Hurricane Dean for The Weather Channel. Hurricane Dean stayed south of the island, thus avoiding a direct hit.

Locally, we provided a live, three-camera switch uplinked to Nigeria for the Nigerian Television Authority. Reuters asked us to cover the Federal appeal of the ‘Cuban 5’ and the opening of a new Temple for local Indian nationals – both of which were fed to Washington, DC and distributed internationally.

We also fed a single camera live shot featuring author Esther Perel to Sydney, Australia for the ABC show ‘Enough Rope’ and provided a downlink from Australia so our guest could see host Andrew Denton.

We traveled to New Orleans for Bloomberg Financial Television to document the rebuilding effort two years after Hurricane Katrina. It was a big HD month as well – with 10 stories for HDNet shot in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Including: Cardboard Cop, DragonCon, Leaping Sturgeons, Baggy Pants Ordinance and The Rejection Hotline.

We shot a beauty piece for John Portman and Associates, one of Atlanta’s premier architectural and engineering companies, using the Sony HDCam F-900 body and Zeiss prime lenses.

BET also had our team busy with the taping of the first round of auditions of their new reality show ‘Sunday Best’. Michael Forrester created the audition room set for the show using HMI and florescent lighting with large fabric backdrops hiding the drab hotel conference room walls. Four Digi-beta’s were used to tape the judges and contestants while the field of 400 hopefuls was whittled down to 6 and an alternate in the final round.

July, 2007

We added several pieces of equipment in July, including a Doorway Dolly with both tires and track wheels. We used the Dolly on a shoot for one of our corporate clients utilizing three sections of 6' track for a tracking shot of a family at a dinner table.

AirTran Airways decided to put a larger-than-life portrait of Race Car Driver and AirTran spokesperson Danica Patrick on one of their 737's - and Forrester Media received the call to shoot a time-lapse video of the event. We decided upon the Sony PDW-F330 XDCam HD camera. The disc -based HD camera easily configures for time lapse. We opted to shoot 1 frame per second (instead of the usual 30fps) for the four hour installation. The aircraft arrived just after Midnight at the AirTran hanger at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. By 12:30AM, things were underway. We completed the time lapse portion, then waited for sunrise to get some beauty shots outside the hanger.

Forrester crews spent 6 days on the road in July shooting stories for HDNet's "Deadline!" satirical news program. Included were: 7 couples getting married on 7/7/07 while riding a roller coaster at Six Flags, the World’s biggest horse in Niota, Tennessee, a corn dog eating competition and the Red neck Museum in Dublin, Ga.

The studio also worked several days for the executives from Church's Chicken for an upcoming web video. Executives from Holder Construction also visited the studio for a continuing project. Companies around Atlanta have found our studio not only well-equipped and convenient, but also secure and comfortable for their executives.


Work continued on our in-house original production, 'The Business of Fun'. The one-hour show goes behind the scenes in the theme park industry to learn how your favorite rides are developed, built and finally opened for you to enjoy. Our crews spent several days in Pigeon Forge, TN taping at Dollywood focusing on its new roller coaster, 'Mystery Mine'. We also traveled to New York City to visit the nations oldest roller coaster, the 'Cyclone'. Closer to home, we visited Six Flags Over Georgia and shot footage of its new coaster 'Goliath' from both a special camera mount on the front of the coaster, and from the front row of seats.


June, 2007


Our studio was booked for several clients including BET for their 2007 Awards Pre-show with Toccara and Tigger (in photo with Mike Forrester) hosting the 30-minute special. The hosts used our in-house teleprompting system and our green screen set.



We traveled to South Georgia for the Fernbank Museum of Natural History to document the continuing excavation of a former mill site that has been underway for the last year, which we also documented in August of 2006. This year the archeological dig made several discoveries and will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at the Museum.

MSNBC called on us to work on an upcoming documentary about fire forensics and the changing methods investigators must learn to accurately determine the cause of fires. The HDCam shoot took place at a forensics lab in nearby Marietta.

The studio stayed busy with both green screen and set work for the remainder of June. We designed the studio so we can have several different sets available to our clients at any given time in addition to the video background which is popular for live shots.


Our studio was also outfitted with a larger semi-permanent green screen that allows for the screen to be stored on a roller on our lighting grid when not in use. The screen is 12 feet wide and is 24 feet long. It hangs 10 feet off the floor and extends 14 feet on the floor allowing full-body keying. Kino-Flo lighting was installed in our grid and on rolling stands to ensure a clean key on every project.


May, 2007

Bloomberg Television called on us to cover the National Cable Television Association's annual convention in Las Vegas, NV. Bloomberg built a custom booth for the show which included a set area for live shots. Forrester Media provided HMI lighting and three cameras for a live switch that was fibered to the satellite uplink truck outside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. We also provided two wireless cameras for roving shots from the show floor.


Uniroyal Tires sponsored a satellite media tour from our studio that featured Stephanie Nelson, the 'Coupon Mom' talking about ways to save money on summer travel. The tour was hosted in 20 television markets around the US between 6AM and 11AM Eastern Time.


When the new World of Coke opened it's doors, Forrester Media was there to document the event for Coca-Cola. The opening included a world-record setting Coke float that featured a 3,000 gallon Coca-Cola glass filled with Vanilla Coke and 20 gallons of vanilla ice cream.


The Weather Channel's environmental show, 'Forecast Earth' had Forrester Media at Georgia Tech interviewing a research scientistonthe impact of warmingseas on hurricane intensity.

Forrester Media went on a Florida roadtrip for HDNet, shooting three stories in the Sunshine State and one in South Georgia over a four day period. Four additional stories were shot in Georgia and South Carolina for the HDNet program, 'Deadline'.


April, 2007

Early April had Mighty Horn Ministries in our studio taping a three-camera program for their web site. The shoot was live-switched in our control room and recorded to Betacam SP for final edit and insertion of graphics, music, titles and encoding.

TSN Sports in Canada used our Vyvx tape feed capabilities to have a morning interview with boxer Evander Holyfield fed to their Toronto studios for use in an afternoon broadcast on the network.


HDNet's 'Deadline' received several stories we produced and shot, including a comic cop in Birmingham, AL, kudzu eating goats in Chattanooga, TN, computer typing orangutans at Zoo Atlanta, rubber duck races at Atlantic Station as well as other typically offbeat stories.


HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher' called on Forrester Media to provide a live shot with rock star Sheryl Crow and activist Laurie David on their efforts to inform college students of the dangers of global warming. The live shot was set up in their tour bus at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, AL and uplinked to the Los Angeles studios where the show originates.


Michael Forrester traveled to Las Vegas for the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention. This year, over 108,000 professionals attended to learn about, talk about and purchase the newest cameras, editing systems, lighting fixtures, microphones, graphics programs and just about anything else anyone could possibly ever need in the video business.

The Weather Channel, Bodog Music and The Montel Williams Show were once again return clients for our production services.


March, 2007

The Weather Channel called on Forrester Media to provide live coverage of the aftermath of the devastating and deadly tornadoes that struck Southwest Georgia in early March.

Universal Forest Products once again looked to Forrester Media to document installation of their truss systems in single and multi-family homes around the Atlanta area.

Bloomberg had our team at Tampa ’s MacDill Air Force Base covering the change in command at United States Central Command and an exclusive interview with Admiral William Fallon. Later in the month, we covered the CTIA Wireless convention in Orlando . FMI provided live coverage of former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton’s keynote speeches, as well as live interviews with wireless company executives.


The Forrester Media team traveled to South Carolina for HDNet to interview a man training stray huskies for next year's Iditarod Race in Alaska . On average, Forrester Media shoots more stories for HDNet than any other production company outside New York City.



March 23^rd had Miss America 2005, Diedre Downs in our studio for a satellite media tour that was seen in over 20 television markets around the country for GN Resound hearing aids. The two-camera, live switch was fed via our dedicated Vyvx fiber connection to the Atlanta Teleport where the signal was uplinked to a satellite for downlink in the local markets.


March Madness concluded with the NCAA Final Four in Atlanta. We were part of the madness when Goodyear offered four lucky college students a chance to win a trip to any of them if they could hit a large basket painted on the ground from the Goodyear blimp hovering 500 feet above. Forrester Media provided the satellite truck, 33x lens and camera, lipstick camera, playback and record decks, crew and producer for the event which was taped. We also coordinated the Wescam-equipped helicopter. The two winners then appeared live on ESPN's 'Cold Pizza' a few minutes after landing and the tape was fed to stations around the country and ended up being shown on 120 stations a total of nearly 500 times.


February, 2007

Bloomberg Television kept the Forrester Media team busy in Florida during February with live shots in Miami, Orlando, Hollywood, Daytona Beach and week-long coverage of the Business Council in Naples, FL. Our Orlando live shot originated from the Walt Disney World resort and featured Disney Chairman Bob Iger .


Forrester Media also taped a three-camera interview with NASCAR team owner Roger Penske and anchor Brian Sullivan during Speedweeks at the Daytona International Speedway for Bloomberg Televisions, 'For The Record'.


The FMI team worked on several episodes of ‘Forecast Earth’ for The Weather Channel, an episode for ‘The Montel Williams Show’ and HDNet’s ‘Deadline’.


January, 2007

January began on a big note for FMI. We took occupancy of our new office and studio on January 15^th and began outfitting the space. The studio was built specifically for television broadcasts, so we sound-proofed the 700-square foot studio, added 200 amps of electrical service to the existing 200 amps, put in a 4-ton HVAC system to serve the studio, lighting grid with Kino Flo and Arri fixtures, green screen and skyline backdrop, in addition to many other extras to make this the most desirable studio space in Atlanta.


HDNet kept us busy in January with seven shoots for ‘Deadline’, their weekly offbeat news program.

Speaking of HD, we had the privilege of documenting the paintings and drawings of Morris Louis at Atlanta ’s High Museum on the Sony F-900 in 108024P. The HDCam was mounted on an Alien Revolution – an extreme Steadicam-type device that allows the camera to rotate on the end of the balanced arm. Operator Ramon Engle guided the rig through the galleries of the High.

Forrester Media also worked at greater heights – this time in a Wescam-equipped helicopter. Working for an architectural firm, we documented the Emory Crawford Long Hospital campus in Midtown Atlanta from several approaches. The client then incorporated our footage with CG created buildings to show how the proposed additions would fit into the exiting campus.