You Spin Me Right Round...Like a Record Baby...

Self destruction is best done via centrifugal force.

2012 Consumer Electronics Show - On the Strip

So Big Hero & Lil' Heroes are the names I gave to my family of Go Pros I own (Hero2 and Hero, respectively). Lil' Hero was on recording duty at the Bellagio while Big Hero was busy with the time lapse you see in the previous post. Def wish i had a 2nd one w/ my mic attachment to record the following vids. More after the jump!

2012 Consumer Electronics Show - Road Trip & Vegas Strip Time Lapse + Booth Highlights

After a weekend of messing around, it's finally here. Opted to cut my trip back to LA out, since it wouldn't make sense to show a drive there, the strip, then a drive back! Don't worry, i still have a few more posts regarding CES 2012, this is just to get the hype up. Hope you enjoy!

WWII Dogfight - No SFX Budget, 100% Realistic

The German from Nick Ryan on Vimeo.

Amazing work, and the end message that is conveyed. Yet another piece of history uncovered for those who only associate WWII with D-Day, the Battlefield games, Saving Private Ryan, and the atomic bomb. Check out the discription on Vimeo for more info.

2012 Consumer Electronics Show - Teaser

Go Pro's new underwater housing, specifically to remedy the vingetteing effect the current Eye of Mine aftermarket GoPro underwater case has, while recognizing and providing a manufacturer's response to the growing market of HD cams. in my opnion the best HD compact vid cam. Stay tuned for more!

Slo-Mo Go Pro @ Doggie Park

Beautiful Day at the Dog Park from Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo.

the fun starts when time slows down.

2012 Consumer Electronics Show - 2nd Update

Finally found a free weekend. Hope to finish with not only my CES post, but also editing the video for the trip. Hope to see something on Monday morning! that, and the gopro guys bugged me to post the time lapse on their fb page

Yosemite Time Lapse

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Amazing footage, especially time lapses on top of Half Dome, looking down at Curry Village. guess that's one more thing i don't have to do anymore...

Memes in (sorta) real life hurt

getting an arrow to the knee is no joke.

Virgin America - The Best Flight Delay Experience

I encountered my first memorable airport delay, and I’m very surprised how it turned out. The planned trip to come home for Chinese New Year was done at the end of October 2011, scoring a sweet (but annually predictable) $90 RT from LAX to SFO. Then the long awaited winter storm finally came.

It all started with a very long work week. 14hr days flew by and I still felt I needed more time. The feeling of a Wednesday feeling like a Thursday was all too familiar. On Friday, I blew through a 3hr jobwalk in an hour and was able to leave by noon, hoping to catch the 1:35pm flight. Found a cozy spot on the 5^th floor of my usual airport parking structure but didn’t make it through security until 1:30pm. By then, I had learned the flight I had hoped for was heavily delayed due to SFO’s strict guidelines on bad weather.

Photo courtesty of http://www.virginamerica.com/

For those that don’t know, I’m a huge Virgin America fan. Their frequent flyer program is fine-tuned for short distance flights like LAX-SFO, and combined with their credit card the 8x points earned means a free flight home is much easier to obtain. I’ve never had problems hopping onto an earlier standby flight, and was even able to sneak into an earlier one since I’m usually 2hrs early to the gate. But today was no such hope as ALL afternoon flights were delayed from LAX to SFO. It was 2pm, my original 5:35pm flight pushed to 7pm, and people starting to slowly trickle in to go back home.

Luckily, the VX people are always helpful and advised me which flights had fewer standbys which would increase my chance of leaving earlier. VX has a great standby system in which you can either be unconfirmed (free) or confirm your seat ($25). There was a “main cabin select” (VX’s premium economy designation) available, but the standard upgrade was $39 (free baggage, still a good deal). However, in order to confirm that seat, I’d have to pay the $25 on top of the $39 upgrade fee. Not a bad dent to an original $90 RT flight, but with every flight delayed I wasn’t sure if there was any benefit in the long run besides free booze. Flight 933, which was scheduled to depart at 4pm had yet to have any standbys so I opted for one that would at least get me out an hour earlier. By now people had started to pour in. The time was 2:00pm.

Sushi here was not worth it at all

The lack of preparation started to affect my stomach, as one cup of rushed coffee and no breakfast or lunch meant the wait was going to be painful. I had opted not to bring my Starbucks gift card, and it was now sitting in the parking lot as the thought of an overpriced egg salad sandwich was dancing like sugarplum ferries. The old college trick of “bread fills all” kicked in and 20min later a moderately priced chowder bread bowl from Gladstone’s Fish Restaurant was being devoured. The restaurant itself was packed with everyone else who was delayed, and the frustration meant booze was flowing aplenty. For me, curled up and catching up on episodes was much more appealing than getting in a drunken sports debate.  I was ready to wait this night out; the laptop made me feel invincible.

As the late afternoon turned into early evening, the truth became evident; our flights were not going to be departing as expected. A cute couple plopped down in front of me and had a gateside picnic, while others paced back and forth, expressing their anger and frustration over  a power-starved smartphone. 6pm became 7pm, and 7pm became 8pm. The wife of the cute couple had already gotten frustrated and insisted that the husband book an American Airlines flight to Oakland airport, rather than SFO. As if on cue, the kid bluntly stated she needed to take a #2.  My Acer Timeline X finally ran out of batteries after 4 hours of nonstop video. All the charging kiosks were filled with thirsty iphones and androids, drained from the constant facebook updates and Pandora streaming. When it was finally announced that flight 933 was going to be boarding at 8:30pm, VX had pushed its last flights of the night all together to take off at 10:15pm. Then came the moment of truth, to see if the sold-out #933 would have enough frustrated people bailing out so I could go home and see Cheese.


Seeing everyone crowded around the customer kiosk, I was a bit irked as I’d already seen a few people try and hope it was still 1980 and they could get a standby ticket despite all previous flights sold out. Most look like they just got to the airport and failed to realize many on standby arrived the same time as me. The attendant started printing the tickets, but I was too nervous to count how many she printed to calculate my odds. Going alphabetically didn’t help either as I was forever a Wong and never a Huang. But on the last ticket available, my name was called and I finally felt like things were looking up. 933 had already boarded and I rushed down the concourse, hoping that overhead space was still available and some idiot didn’t shove a purse or messenger bag above rather than inconvenience their feet from stretching out.

11C was my designated oasis from the crowded Terminal 3. I saw some empty seats, probably belonging to people who had requested standbys but never heard their name and opportunity to leave the mayhem of LAX. At 9pm, a voice came over the intercom: “Apologies, but we missed our flight window to take off. We want to fill all the seats, and due to this inconvenience we are now to depart at 10:15pm.”

Of course, groans echoed through the cabin, and coupled with the fact that FAA regulations do not allow the serving of food prior to takeoff (water was passed out), some people just started getting annoying.  The person sitting next to me shared the same viewpoint: better safe and late than DOA. Furthermore, we were already on the plane, did not have to worry like those still in the gate, and most importantly each economy seat on VX had a power outlet. No longer did I have to fight with the 400+ people in the terminal like a hungry piglet fighting for some nutrients, as the utters of electricity was a standard feature on all VX flights. My procrastination of not transferring all my House of Air time lapse vids and Costa Rica trip off the 750GB laptop also meant I could kill time with nostalgia.

House of Air's catwalk under construction, circa Summer 2010

drainage was pretty poor; huge puddles just built up right in front of the exit of Terminal 2

And so, an hour later with turbulence that actually made me nauseous, I was finally back home. At midnight. What an exciting 12 hour adventure; to me the weather delay wasn’t even a problem. It was just interesting how people handled the situation at LAX, some thought they could receive special treatment, others opted to forfeit their ticket price and buy a second one the next morning. And the family that left the gate to peruse the American Airlines flight to OAK? I had warned them about the Occupy protest, so hopefully their trip was ok.

getting picked up at departure is better for late night arrivals

Like any other delay, your frustration and complaints won’t make the FAA change its rules.  A lady sitting in front of me called the attendant over to voice her displeasure that the pilot didn’t take off during our window of opportunity and instead made everyone wait an hour more.  One must vent their frustrations, be it steam or explosion, but in the end it’s no use stressing over something you can’t change. Virgin America already had enough amenities and provisions to entertain you no matter how long you’re on the tarmac; bigger airlines frankly won’t give a rat’s ass. Be glad you have a seat, be glad the flight isn’t completely canceled, and just overall – be glad.

Oh yeah, I also got this in my inbox this morning. Serious brownie points to Virgin America; you may not have the best customer phone service, but everything else is at least better than the competition.

Golf Wars - FreddieW's First 2012 Video

A great year to start off with the new FreddieW "Golf Wars", or rather "Modern Golfage 3". wonder how the golf course felt about this...

2012 Consumer Electronics Show - Update

Time lapses are finally done. Waiting for some free time to add music, compile the trip video footage. this is going to be a crazy end to January

2012 Consumer Electronics Show - Teaser

 

So for the 2nd year in a row, I went to CES. about 60GB of time lapses, 20GB of gadget reviews and interviews, and about 800 photos.

Look forward to some posts about new tech, old tech, and casino games I felt were worth or not worth my money.

Martin Luther King Jr Day - Significance to the Next Generation

It's sad when KassemG shows us how people lack the knowledge of a great civil rights leader. When parody brings out the truth, it can be one of the saddest moments. His demographic of interviewees was probably not accidental either. For those who forget, pause your Angry Bird session and just wiki MLK. Everyone is due for a refresher in history; don't forget what you've learned the first 18 years of your life.

just found another delicacy within a delicacy; the top layer of super fatty tonkotsu ramen, after a layer is formed. all flavor, no water.

First Post

after all those years on Xanga and posting hundreds of links on fb, i've finally graduated to a real blog. Look for extreme in-depth gadget reviews, travel photos, video productions, time lapses, and just blasts from the pasts.

I chose "Where's The Film" in hoping i could get a website called "WTF", but unfortunately the idiots who have those already haven't updated in two years. The title represents the shift away from film and to digital media for the standard consumer, something that is evident in the past 8 years alone. VHS & cassette tapes, amateur cinematography, and the upsurge of affordable SLR cameras have all contributed to the way we document our lives and the frequency we do it. I have much respect for film as digital is yet to capture the same quality for the same price.

So yeah, that's the concept behind this blog. that, and even with Facebook's Timeline feature, that shit ain't gonna be around forever. Enjoy!