Well if you’re from BC you may have heard that recently a mill in Burns Lake had a big fire and explosion, leaving part of the mill in wreckage and a number of the employees injured or in critical condition. This has left a lasting impression on the community and local economy.

To help support local businesses and promote people to shop locally, we’re starting up a great chance for businesses to get on screen at the Beacon.
We’re offering our motion graphic ad creation for $100 (savings of $150) AND our monthly airtime is ONLY $100 a month (minimum 3 months).

You’re not going to find a deal quite this good anywhere.
Advertisers get to show off their ad 2-3 times before EVERY movie and get to key in on a very attentive, captive audience.

If you or someone you know wants to get a local business on screen in Burns Lake, please email matt @ filmads.ca

Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

• FilmAds September 2011 Monthly Report
• FilmAds Facts
• 1Day Design Launches

I wanted to put together a fun little ad that we could play in the pre-show to highlight FilmAds a little bit more. I really want it to show off the power of the silver screen in some of the smaller communities we work in, such as Trail, Golden, Terrace and High Prairie (plus more!;) So this is what we came up with:

We also put together a fun little ‘Behind The Scenes’ video, filmed by the awesome Jillian Fraser from Simple Solutions. (Be sure to check out the work she offers as a virtual assistant… she is a life saver for admin & office work I tell you!).

• FilmAds September 2011 Monthly Report
• FilmAds
• Cineplex Media & FilmAds

I contacted our old neighbour about buying some tackle (jigs and spinners) because I had heard how popular their stuff was, which I love by the way, and then started to think about combining two things I love to do: film and fish. I followed up our conversation about tackle with the idea of doing a promo video they could use to showcase online for potential web customers. We’ve had a chance to sit down and it’s looking like it will develop into a lot more than just that, but in the time being they’ll be filming some of their own content and using the intro video I created below:

BentRods is an excellent fishing guide and they are also incredible hosts. So be sure to check out their site and if you’re looking for fishing trips, these are the guys to contact.

Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

• Processing Ideas
• My Summer
• Day 12 – Behind the Scenes

2012 is looking much better. At least for the box office.
This year will be riddled with sequels or prequels and from my own personal opinion I’m screaming for Hollywood to create more original material like Super 8, Drive or Midnight in Paris.

Great box office anticipation is excellent news for advertisers – the more people coming through the box office, means more impressions.
It’s a great idea to look at setting some of your budget aside in 2012 for some great ad space – www.filmads.ca

So here’s a few of the trailer for what I think will do really well in the box office for 2012.

The Hobbit

Avengers

Dark Knight Rises

The Hunger Games

Men in Black 3

Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

• Cineplex Media & FilmAds
• FilmAds
• Beacon Theatre – Burns Lake

There were a number of things that made it so. I wanted to recap a few of the things that stuck out the most to me.

1. Cineplex Media & FilmAds
In April I was able to see a 6 month conversation and a 1 year idea come to fruition. FilmAds officially signed a partnership with Cinplex Media. The deal has opened tremendous doors for the 12 theatres that I work with. I’m very excited for each of the theatres I work with and the new theatres we’ll be signing up in 2012.

2. Fringe
Last December my friend Jason and I came up with the crazy idea to meet John Noble (Walter Bishop on Fox’s Fringe) and we started to go out and visit the Fringe film sets. You can also check out how we met Joshua Jackson and others here.

3. Dan Murphy Interview
Aside from some technical issues that were completely my fault. I had a lot of fun interviewing Dan Murphy of Sportsnet (all because I asked him if he’d be up for it through Twitter)
My friend Geoff Heith filmed the interview and afterwards we figured we’d head over to Rogers Arena and see if we could watch the Canucks practice… which we actually got to do.

4. Brent Butt Interview
After I got to meet cast members from Fringe, I moved on to a new fun project: trying to film a Canadian comedian legend… Brent Butt. It all started with a few twitter questions and then a blog post. Brent responded on Twitter saying he’d do the interview once he got enough Twitter followers… which over time he finally got. Thus the interview (with another technical glitch that I’ve learned never to make again)

5. The Valley Votes Interviews
For the municipal election in the Chilliwack area (Hope, Agassiz, Harrison & Chilliwack) I was asked by the Valley Votes team (run by the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board) to interview candidates about important and pertinent things in the Chilliwack area. It was a great chance for me to sit down with influential people in the community and hear them out and share a bit about me as well. You can see all the interviews here.

6. 1Day Design
I get to work with a number small businesses all across BC and Alberta. With the way the economy has been going it’s proven tough for small businesses to do much in terms of marketing. Since I run a medium for businesses to market themselves, I wanted to give a simple option to get great advertising tools from – enter 1Day Design. As the 1Day Design site says “1Day Design is a service that is offered once a month. 1Day a month we create you a new website, logo, video or more. 1Day we design work for you at 1Price.”
The other side of 1Day Design is we give 50% of the money raised to charity. So far, we’ve given over $200 to charity and we’ve only been running for 2 months. It’s a start to something great!

7. Witness for the Prosecution
On my list for things to do for a while, was to have a role in a play. My actual goal was just to audition, but I guess I was good enough to play the part. Thanks to my friend and colleague Janet Carroll (the director) I was able to take on 3 roles (1 non-speaking) in the play “Witness for the Prosecution” by Agatha Christie. My main role was Thomas Clegg, a stuttering Englishman, nervous as anything because he’s taking the stand in court and he never does well with it. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and hope to do it again in the future.

8. Currency Marketing and The Living Young & Free Show
If you’ve ever spent any time on my blog, then you know I’ve spoken about Currency Marketing and LYFS. I have tried for a number of years to find a spot on their team. I really like the work they do and the people that work there. So in the spring of this year, I signed up for contract work with the Currency team and it’s been so much fun to work with them. A lot of what I do is literally behind the scenes. You wouldn’t really know what I’m doing unless I told you but a lot of what I do is film, direct and edit the Living Young Free Show (which is a bi-weekly show we produce) and I do a lot of coding/application entries for all their contests and spokespeople application entries. It can get really crazy, but is a lot fun… just check out their Christmas video we did:

9. My Family
After 2010 and the craziness and ups and downs we went through then, 2011 was a year of incredible time together. We got to go on a great 3 week road trip in the summer, in which we visited Salmon Arm, Nelson, Trail, Red Deer, Edmonton, Valemount and more (all while visiting some awesome friends, family and theatres!!!). We were also able to go to other great places through the year like Seattle, a weekend in the west end of Vancouver, a week at a beach house in Parksville (thanks to a special friend for letting use the last two places!) and camping in the Shuswap. It was a year for us to spend great time together, build new memories and start getting an idea of what the future is going to look like for us.

To all my blog readers, thanks for checking in and occasionally commenting. If anything, I do this blog for myself, but I love that you stop by and check out what’s happening.
Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

• Video Invitation to Brent Butt
• Women I Work With Part 1
• Day 12 – Behind the Scenes

Let’s get the basics covered that everyone should know and can be used in pretty much all programs (CTRL is for PC users/CMD is for Apple users):

CTRL/CMD + C = COPY
CTRL/CMD + X = CUT
CTRL/CMD + V = PASTE
CTRL/CMD + A = SELECT ALL
CTRL/CMD + Z = UNDO
CTRL/CMD + S = SAVE
CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + S = SAVE AS
CTRL/CMD + P = PRINT
ALT + F4/CMD + Q = EXIT PROGRAM
CMD + W = CLOSE WINDOW

Word/WordPress/Text Shortcuts:
CTRL/CMD + B = BOLD
CTRL/CMD + U = UNDERLINE
CTRL/CMD + I = ITALICS

Internet Browsers (most use these):

CTRL/CMD + T = NEW TAB
CTRL/CMD + N = NEW WINDOW
CTRL/CMD + D = BOOKMARK
BACKPSACE = GO BACK

If you are using the Adobe Creative Suite there are countless shortcuts you can use. One of the things I love the most with Adobe products is that you can create your own shortcuts.
In Photoshop I have a number of files I use and update often so I created specific shortcuts to help me speed things up quite a bit:

CMD+SHIFT+P = PLACE
SHIFT+CMD+ALT+S = WEB SAVE
ALT+CMD+I = RESIZE IMAGE

*And if you’re really into video editing, there are keyboards you can buy with every shortcut on it.
** If you want to know what shortcuts are in Adobe, you can usually hold the mouse over the tool and it will show you the shortcut key is.

These are only a few shortcut keys, each program can have their own set or created shortcuts and it really saves a lot of time for you once you learn them.
If it takes you 3 seconds to move your mouse to the toolbar and select the tool you need to use or .5 seconds to hit your shortcut keys, that really adds up after a while.

Hope it helps.
Matthew A. Hawkins

• Micro Blogging
• Guest Blogger – Adam Besse
• My Take on Buying New Gear

We had a lot of fun putting together this crazy and unique ad for Regency to share online and at the Carib Theatre in Quesnel.
We had ‘pro’ drivers, donut and warm coffee all morning. So glad I got to be a part of this experience.

Being up in the lift and in temps around 0 or just below, I finished the morning freezing cold. I went straight back to my hotel and jumped into my bed with my coat still on just to warm up. I had so much fun that I actually just laughed in bed and thought about how cool the shoot was.

Later that afternoon I got to sit down with Evelyn, general manager of Regency Chrysler, and talk about a number of things, especially the amazing community involvement that Regency has started in their community of Quesnel.

• Decades Coffee Club Commercial
• Behind The Scenes
• FilmAds Feature: Paradise Cinemas & Carib Theatres

We had an awesome time in November putting together 2 great designs for clients.

The first was a logo. The client gave us some great insights of what they’d like to see in their logo. We came up with the following:

We also worked on the 3rd ad we’ve created for Shuswap Bliss, the first one we’ve created with 1Day Design.

Make sure you sign up for our December 1Day Designs as well!
It’s a great way to get awesome design work done and give back to the community.

Cheers,
Matthew A. Hawkins

• 1Day November & Geoff Heith
• 1Day Design Launches
• 1Day Design: November

Below is just an example of regular use. I’m going to try and create something a lot more crazy this weekend.

If you’re interested in getting the ring light for yourself or want more info, check out:

RotoLight

The Ring Light itself

Have fun out there!
Matthew A. Hawkins

• Geoff’s Pics of Me
• My Weekend
• An Update & Challenge

Jason Lum – I wrote about him already, just check it out here.

Chuck Stam – He’s experienced and a successful, honest business man in town. I think he’s great potential to continue his work on city council.

Ken Popove – I don’t know much about Ken, but what I do know is enough for me to mark his name on my ballot. We buy all our tires from him because he’s a local business and he has some of the best customer service in town. Aside from business he’s also been heavily involved in the community.

Sue Attrill – She has 3 years of experience on council already and she has a wealth of experience in business. She’s been very involved with the community and is passionate about the work she’s done and hopes to continue to do on city council.

Ken Huttema – Ken was very well spoken both on camera and off camera for our interview. Hearing him talk about getting the library built in Sardis and all the work that’s gone into planning the downtown revitalization you could see a spark in his eyes for the work he does on council. He’s a successful business man in agriculture which I think is so important to have represented on council.

For my last choice it’s a toss up between these two. I’ll be reading more tonight to figure out who I’ll choose tomorrow.

Mitchell Nosko – I had a great interview with Mitchell for the Valley Votes website. He has a very interesting perspective on Chilliwack as he gets to deal with a lot of tourists through his flight business at the airport. I can’t say I’ve liked everything I’ve read about him saying at meetings and such, but from our 1 on 1 conversation, I was really impressed with his platform and honest opinions.

Ron Browne – Ron has an abundance of experience in the medical and administrative fields. He is soft spoken but very intelligent. This is what I gathered from our first 10 minutes together for our interview. He has a balanced approach to work on city council and a real heart to serve the citizens of Chilliwack. I appreciated his soft voice and his passion to help shape our community.

There you have it.

If you want to see the video interviews I did, check out Valley Votes here.

I’m going out to vote this November 19th. Are you?

Matthew A. Hawkins

• Chilliwack City Council Candidates
• Chilliwack City Council Votes #1
• Salmar Theatre: Community Investment