Jason Levine – Healing People Daily with the Power of Digital Video & Audio

Hello friends. Well, we just completed the Tampere leg of the Creative Freedom tour here in Finland...and all I can say is...sheer Nordic brilliance! ;)

Naturally, as we took the train in from Helsinki, we decided to get a quick bite to eat before the show. Here we are, in a pub (literally down the street from the venue) giving you a 'preview' of what was about to happen..

Jase & Greg @ the pub in Tampere

Good times, my friends. Good times!! (and the wurst was FAB!)

Back to business: the seminar kicked off at 1pm, and Greg Rewis led the crowd through 1.5 hours of tips & tricks on the new features of Fireworks CS3, Dreamweaver CS3 and Photoshop CS3. After taking a quick break, we re-commenced, and I began the next half-hour showcasing some cool Video-to-Web workflows, highlighting 'FLV' and 'SWF' export from Premiere Pro and After Effects CS3 respectively, as well as a little 'web audio cleanup' between Premiere and Soundbooth, and lastly, taking the content 'on-device' through Adobe Device Central CS3...(oh. and I couldn't help myself: I had to show the crowd the 'Puppet Tool' in AE! And they loved it!)

So, following my brief web video pitch leading up to Flash (wherein I also showcased adding XML Cue Points to a video's audio track in Soundbooth), Greg took the last hour and showcased taking ALL of those materials into Flash CS3, using some of the new 'components', and highlighting the abilities of Flash to go 'full screen' and add full 'accessibility' with Captions. Sound cool? Oh yeah..very cool, and great responses from the crowd. Thanks to everyone in Tampere who turned out today (and braved the freezing rain!) We look forward to coming back in the near future!!

Now, following the seminar, we had to catch the train 'back' to Helsinki. Here, we had another 2 hours to simply 'chill' and reminisce about the day's events (and do some additional prep work for tomorrow and thursday's seminars in Helsinki).

ASIDE: you know, when we arrived in Tampere, the first thing Greg and I noted was that the temperature was rather pleasant. In fact, having been in Finland over the last four years, at approximately this same time, it's always been, well, REALLY COLD!! lol (this, coming from two desert cats; but hey, -20c is cold!!)

THAT, however, all changed dramatically a mere 7 hours later, as when we arrived back into Helsinki, well, it was simply FRICKEN' FREEZING!!! -2c (with the windchill) and OH MY...that wind. Ahh yes, I remembered it well. lol. Good thing I had my scarf; Greg, sadly, was not so lucky. But, we pressed on, and I was so-o-o inpired by the return of the 'wind' that I just decided to do ANOTHER video!! (mildly narcissistic but necessary, you know!)

Frozen Jase

And on *that* note, my friends, I will indeed say goodnight. Till tomorrow when Greg will conduct his Web Premium CS3 workflow at the Finnkino. And I'll be conducting a 3-hour seminar on Production Premium CS3 the following day.

Stay well, stay warm, stay groovy, and as always...

Blog On.