Castello Di Amorosa & THE CHAT
The Castle
I visited Castello di Amorosa in the Napa Valley for the first time recently. I went to hang with my great friend Annette Biggers – and to help out on one of her fantastic fairy tale shoots. She’s done them at the castle before, so I’d heard a lot about the place. I couldn’t wait to see it! And yet… nothing prepared me for what I saw! My jaw about hit the floor when I walked in. This is basically the first thing you see when drive up. Y’know, just a basic Napa Valley winery. NOT!
Because I was there in support of Annette’s project, I didn’t shoot as much of my own stuff and I normally do. I’ll definitely be posting more of what I did come home with in the coming weeks. But it was all good because we had SUCH a great time our little crew, which included Dave Bell and his super awesome wife Susie, Jennifer Freeman – who was the star of the story she and Annette created – with guest appearances from Castello V.P. Jim Sullivan, who facilitated the whole thing in a most awesome manner. An INCREDIBLE 2 days!! I cannot WAIT to go back!
3 New CHATs!
What I DID do were three (count ’em, 3!) episodes of THE CHAT. Coming in the very near future, you’ll get to hear from Jennifer, Annette AND the creator/owner of Castello di Amorosa (which means “Castle of Love”) Dario Sattui. Dario is the great-grandson of the great Vittorio Sattui, whose V. Sattui Winery is world-famous. Dario is instrumental in V. Sattui’s re-opening after a 60 year dormancy kicked off by the prohibition. He took all that he learned there and applied it to The Castle to astounding effect.
All three of these people are so wonderfully diverse and completely inspiring that you’re gonna be doing a jig when you’re done watching! THE CHAT is all about “living your life as if it were your art”… and boy, do these people accomplish that.
THE CHAT’s New Schedule
As I’ve mentioned before… I’m posting new shows every other week now. This is NO way reflects a lack of commitment on my part! No sirree. When I started this show, I wasn’t sure what a reasonable frequency would be – because I’d never tried to produce a show like this by myself before. I started out thinking I’d do them as Google+ OnAir Hangouts… but verrrry quickly evolved into doing them on-location as much as I possibly can.
I LOVE doing them in person! I didn’t know how much I’d adore it, but after the first one (with Gordon Fowler) I was hooked. What changed, however, was the time involved. It went from a lot when I was doing hangouts… to completely consuming! I started not having enough time to photograph as much as I simply must to, sleeping as much as I needed to, and worrying about making my deadlines more than I wanted to. While I started the series with 7 shows ready… all it took was some extra travel this fall to eat ’em all up. Suddenly, no more backlog!
Life Requires Adjustments
At a certain point recently, I realized that if I wasn’t willing to cut corners on quality (I’m not!)… then something had to give. So now, bi-weekly episodes are giving me a minute to breathe. Not to mention I’m now singing the praises of ScreenFlow Pro… which I only ever used to create tutorials before. But Screenflow’s editing capabilities are crazy awesome! My friend Frederick Van Johnson swears by it – and I always listen to him!
You can even improve the audio, correct the video and speed through exporting like nobody’s business. I’ve always been an Adobe Premiere user, but Screenflow has changed my life!
So there you have it – and update from KHutt central. Learning, making adjustments – figuring out how to live this artist’s life in better and more effective way
Did I mention I’m starting another super cool project or two that both involve video content too?
Oh yeaaahhhh. KHutt never lets moss gather. Momentum is picking up. Here we come, 2014!