All posts by John Shoemaker

13 Posts

November 21, 2012 · Musings

Black Friday will eat your leftover turkey this year

Black Friday can certainly be some good materialistic fun when enjoyed in moderation. I always get a little excited when I see the electronics deals begin to tickle my inbox. Personally, I’ve always got my eye on TVs, internet tv connected devices, and tablets. But this year, there’s a new twist on this celebration of consumerism that I’m not sure I like.

I googled “Black Friday” in preparation for this blog post and immediately ran into one of the more important aspects of this year’s Black Friday event.

From Wikipedia:

Black Friday is the name given to the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Apparently, “the day following Thanksgiving Day” was not soon enough for Walmart, and others, who decided to kick things off a little early this year.

Read on…

August 27, 2012 · Musings

Shia LaBeouf has come a long way… Or has he?

In 2003, Shia LaBeouf landed himself in a desert juvenile detention center for stealing some sneakers. (Holes) Nine years later, the law is after him again for bootlegging. (Lawless) Has he learned nothing?

Kidding aside, what are your thoughts on the direction he has taken his acting career? Is the lawless transformer wrangler more appealing than the hole digging even Steven?

June 13, 2012 · Announcement

Hey Backflippers,
(Don’t you just love that you have a nickname?)

We are applying for a small business grant sponsored by Chase and LivingSocial and we need your support!

Help us receive 250 votes on the Mission: Small Business℠ page to get closer to qualifying for a $250,000 Grant. Each business needs at least 250 votes to be considered for the grant. Eligible small business applicants will then be judged by a panel of business experts. After clicking “Support” on the home page, search for “Backflip Films” and vote for us! https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/

Now according to the rules, we are not allowed to “…entice Consumers to Vote by offering any type of consideration, gift, award, or inducement, including merchandise, cash, online currency, discounts, vote trading or anything deemed to have value in exchange for Votes.” Just so we’re clear, you get nothing. But what we can offer is this: “Pretty please!”

Your vote for Backflip simply means that you think we’re pretty cool, that you wouldn’t mind seeing Backflip grow and take on a few more super talented employees, and that you wish you could spend every waking moment just hanging out with us absorbing pure awesomeness! (Ok, maybe not that last part.)

It’s a year for voting so make it count. Vote for “Backflip Films” today!

May 9, 2012 · Graphics, Video

The Final Frontier of the Civil Rights Movement

We’ve had a few people ask if we created this video. The short answer is “Yes!”

The long answer is that we had the pleasure of working closely with Steve Karlin and Pro-Life Wisconsin to produce this animation explaining the civil rights issue that relates slavery, Native Americans, the disabled and the preborn. That is, the issue of personhood.

Subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook or Twitter to receive updates about new projects. And keep an eye out later this summer for our next video for Pro-Life Wisconsin.

March 15, 2012 · Uncategorized

Ideas of March

Just a friendly reminder for the day. March is proving to be a month of dangerous ideas!

The ideas of March have come… but not gone.

January 10, 2012 · Graphics, Musings

Backflip Logos 2007 – 2012

The New Year and the new developments on the horizon for Backflip Films inspired me to dig through some of our old logo designs this afternoon. I suppose the nostalgia that I feel won’t be shared by those of you that haven’t known our company as long, but I hope you enjoy this glimpse back into our past. The designs show an interesting shift in trends as well as a development in our style through the years.

Sometime in the spring of 2007, a good friend named Heather (now married to one of Backflip’s Founders, Aaron Wimmer) took a crack at Backflip Film’s first logo. This logo was never used officially and was retired before the company formally incorporated late that year, but it got the creative wheels spinning and got us excited enough to engrave this logo on a piece of plastic.

*Fun Fact: John and Aaron used to work at the campus engraving shop.
Read on…

November 25, 2011 · Uncategorized

Backflip’s Black Friday Sale

Now that you’re back home from the stores tending to your wounds, here is our own spin on the Black Friday sale!

Read on…

October 28, 2011 · Featured, Portfolio, Video

A Day in the Life at Assumption High School

Students, staff, and parents share the aspects of Assumption High School that make it “the place to be!”

Footage and interviews were filmed in several trips over the spring and fall in order to capture the varying seasons and activities that take place during the school year.

October 6, 2011 · Featured, Portfolio, Video

Wisconsin Farmers Union – Renewable Energy Tour

We had the pleasure of accompanying the Wisconsin Farmer’s Union on the 2011 Renewable Energy tour earlier this summer. This video was produced to summarize the trip around southwestern Wisconsin and to inspire farmers and policy makers all across the state to take another look at renewable energy.

Riding around southwestern Wisconsin on a bio-diesel school bus with no air-conditioning in 100 degree weather proved to be quite the test for our camera. The Canon 5D mark ii passed the test with flying colors!

October 5, 2011 · Musings

A Video is worth 5 million 760 thousand words

You’ve heard it said that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well at 24 frames per second, a 4 minute video contains 5760 pictures. Multiply THAT by one thousand!

Really, what I mean to say is this: All of that beauty, emotion, and extra meaning that can be captured in a picture can also be captured in video. In fact, many times video invokes a deeper emotion or feeling of connection to the subject. The tools that an editor uses – music, color, pacing, transitions, order – add to the meaning of the piece. Read on…

Categories