Tom Demerly. Videos

"Hard to imagine a bike that weighs as much as a large water bottle!"

We once did a photo shoot with a 15 pound cat and a 14 pound bike. The cat weighed more than the bike. It was tough because it was raining lightly when we did the shoot so the poor cat just wanted to run inside.

But remember, it isn't the complete bike that weighs the same as a full water bottle, it's the frame of the bike. Big difference.

... and a voice for newspaper!

All kidding aside, Tom you do a great job of bringing information to the masses, please keep up the good work.

Appreciated.

In the top video if you click on the link you hear me refer directly to a thread on this forum about a comment someone here made about Asics shoes. I glean a lot of insights for the videos from comments made on this forum, and it is a big part of the reason I'm paid to be here: It's our corporate "Ear to the Ground", and we listen.

Now, I'm going to do something horrifically amateurish: I'm going to blame our equipment for the sound.

Our sound quality isn't bad, it's abyssmal. We have an excellent camera (when its not off for service, which it was the last month, during which we were using some ancient video camera that I think was used on Apollo 11) but we do not run good sound. As a result, my voice always sounds like I'm talking through a toilet paper tube. I wear a clipped on mic and that is not ideal. We need a boom mic with good directional ability and seperate sound mixing capability so we can produce good sound.

That said, our video editor, Zach Crumbo, is absolutely the best. Zach is responsible for the visual presentation of our website, owns a Master's Degree in his field, teaches photography and graphic arts AND his dad was plank-holder (original member) in U.S. Navy SEAL Team One. Zach is an incredible character and its a joy to work for him.

Our camera man is an English lad and British citizen, Matt "Duffy Bear" Duffin. He is an ardend fan of motor racing and has two lovely boys. Amazing fact: until about 8 months ago Duffy Bear never held a video camera.

The videos you see are usually done in one take, no script. I just wing it. Sometimes you can tell. I scribble notes about a product on cue cards that Duffy Bear holds next to camera after he hits "record". An amateurish touch is you can often see me glancing at the notes on the cue cards during the video. I wish we had a teleprompter like the news guys or the President...

We will often shoot 4-8 videos in under 2 hours including set-up and tear-down. It is really "back porch video".

My cat would probably be put out too. He doesn't like it when I prop my bike up against the back of "his sofa". He would probably puncture my tires if I compared his weight to my bike's.

Speaking of videos and cats (you started it...) here is my special one-eyed cat exhibiting odd behavior:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-JBgcrVkU0

That is great!!