Victoria Nece

FRONTLINE: “Ten Trillion and Counting” on PBS starting today!

Tuesday, 03. 24. 2009  –  Category: News

Our new film airs tonight! “Ten Trillion and Counting” is DocGroup’s first FRONTLINE documentary, and explores the history and issues surrounding the national debt and the challenge it poses to the nation’s future.

“This is a program everyone needs to watch if the search for solutions is ever going to get beyond the simplistic, accusatory catchphrases that sometimes seem to pass for economic-policy debate in Washington.”
— Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

Here’s the blurb from PBS’ website:
All of the federal government’s efforts to stem the tide in the financial meltdown that began with the subprime mortgage crisis have added hundreds of billions of dollars to our national debt. FRONTLINE reports on how this debt will constrain and challenge the new Obama administration, and on the growing chorus on both sides of the aisle that without fiscal reform, the United States government may face a debt crisis of its own which makes the current financial situation pale in comparison. Through interviews with leading experts and insiders in government finance, the film investigates the causes and potential outcomes of — and possible solutions to — America’s $10 trillion debt.

It’s over $11 trillion as of last week, actually, but it was too late to change the title. Oops.

Check your local listings. It’s on at 9 on Thirteen here in NYC, but PBS schedules vary by station. “Ten Trillion and Counting” will also be viewable online starting soon.

Many non-visible updates.

Friday, 02. 27. 2009  –  Category: News

Finally have the site working properly again behind the scenes. (Thanks David!) Please let me know if you find any issues!

My mom has a website!

Tuesday, 11. 25. 2008  –  Category: News

This weekend I helped my mom get her website up and running. I’m quite happy with how it turned out. We’re both using Wordpress, which should make it easy for her to update and me to troubleshoot if necessary.

I really like the theme we chose, “modern” by Ulf Petterssen. It’s clean and classy and shows off her work (she’s a colored pencil artist) extremely well. And I think I’ve given her enough plugins to make adding images — and even video! — a snap.

Setting up her site (and doing a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to mine) has me wondering, though: if I adjust my layout, what should I change?

So, who actually reads stock photo license agreements?

Saturday, 09. 6. 2008  –  Category: News

Apparently not political campaigns.

But I do. This probably makes me a huge dork, but when you work on things for national broadcast, not being sued is usually a plus. And after some work I did designing labels for a DVD about AIDS in America, I became quite familiar with the fun, exciting world of licensing royalty-free stock photos. Mainly, the fact that yes, even if you pay for them, you can’t use them for absolutely anything. It’s understandable, particularly with a subject like AIDS. After all, you might imply that the models in the images had the disease.

Now, there’s been a lot of talk today about the mysterious building looming behind McCain for part of his acceptance speech. (I particularly enjoyed the snarky “must be one of his seven houses!” assumptions. It’s actually Walter Reed Middle School in California.)

But I find a less-noticed story much more interesting: that a lot of the stills used in his introductory video aren’t actually pictures of supporters, but generic images purchased from iStockphoto. I will trust that the convention planners paid for the proper license fees for broadcasting. But I’m not so sure they read the fine print: iStockphoto’s content license agreement states that

4. Standard License Prohibitions
7. use or display any Content that features a model or person in a manner that (i) would lead a reasonable person to think that such person uses or personally endorses any business, product, service, cause, association or other endeavour; or (ii) that depicts such person in a potentially sensitive subject matter, including, but not limited to mental and physical health issues, social issues, sexual or implied sexual activity or preferences, substance abuse, crime, physical or mental abuse or ailments, or any other subject matter that would be reasonably likely to be offensive or unflattering to …

Babyland on ABC’s 20/20 this Friday

Wednesday, 08. 20. 2008  –  Category: News

Been working on graphics this week for just about the saddest show ever: Babyland, our special edition of 20/20. You can watch the opening of the film here.

A little about what it’s about, courtesy of the press release:

There are places in America where the unthinkable is happening — too many babies are dying. In most cities, black babies are dying at three times the rate of white babies. That’s what’s happening in Memphis, Tennessee, the city with the nation’s highest rate of infant mortality. A baby dies there on average every 43 hours. But many people are working to change that startling statistic. “Babyland,” a one-hour report anchored by Elizabeth Vargas, airs on “20/20,” FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 (10:00-11:00 pm, ET) on the ABC Television Network.

It’s a really important topic, and I definitely think it’s worth watching (and for more reasons than “hey, that’s my work on TV!”), but a warning: some of the footage is pretty intense. I’ve been working on this all week and am still having a bit of a hard time with all the tiny caskets.

China Inside Out airs this Wednesday!

Monday, 08. 4. 2008  –  Category: News

Can’t wait to see it all done and on air!

My Work on ABC Next Week!

Friday, 08. 1. 2008  –  Category: News

My company’s newest documentary, China Inside Out: Bob Woodruff Reports, premieres next Wednesday night (Aug 6th) on ABC. It’s a special edition of Primetime. I’m excited — it’s my first time I’ll have my graphics on one of the big four networks, and the logo I designed is already popping up in various places on the web.

It’s amazing how many graphics even an entirely live action film needs. Opening titles, logo bumpers for the start and end of every segment, locator maps, lower thirds, end credits — even the midbreak “…will return in a moment” is an animated clip. And on top of the show elements, there are web graphics, promo sequences, email ‘postcard’ promo images… the list goes on. And all this stuff, no matter how elaborate, pretty much goes under the radar of most viewers. If it doesn’t, something’s wrong: it’s either too over-the-top and distracts from the story or lacks the production value that makes your show seem like a real, professional undertaking. The graphics are important; they set the tone and help with the overall feel of the documentary — but subtle is key. That said, I’m pretty happy with the ones I’ve done for China. They’re shiny.

Anyway, a little more about the show:

China Inside Out, a documentary reported by ABC News’ Bob Woodruff, explores the stunning global transformation that is taking place at the outset of what is already being called “The Chinese Century.” While much of American foreign policy has been focused on the Global War on Terror, China has been shaking hands and making deals all around the world. In this hour-long documentary, Woodruff examines four of those relationships to discover how China’s rise is impacting all of us.

You can read more at my company’s site.

Fresno Bee covers Making of a Law

Wednesday, 07. 16. 2008  –  Category: News

Hey the Fresno Bee wrote a story about our Making of a Law film! They even mentioned my poor little bill character! (No relation to Bill of “I’m Just a Bill” fame — but I have to admit, it’s amazingly hard to talk about the legislative process without personifying the bill somehow.)

The film is part of what’s called The Constitution Project, funded by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. The nonprofit group says it wants to improve civics education and public understanding of democratic institutions. In a related film, for instance, Imbriano examines a crucial Supreme Court case from the 1960s.

The films target a high school audience, or younger. A cartoon embodiment of the Wawona school bill walks through Capitol Hill corridors, slumping in despair when doors shut in its face. A scene from a cheesy old horror movie illustrates the dire fate of most of the 9,000-plus bills introduced in Congress each year: Most die.

“The documentary really shows how hard the process is,” Stauffer said.

You can read the rest here:

http://radanovich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=89920

On The Mend: Part II

Wednesday, 05. 21. 2008  –  Category: News

I don’t really intend to turn this site into a personal blog. I have other places for that. This is for work stuff, as well as useful things like tutorials and downloads like shiny fractal wallpaper (more of that is on the way, as the original batch has proved to be surprisingly popular).

But I think the lack of updates in recent weeks merits explanation: I’ve been sick for a month and a half. It sucks.

My doctor thought it could be mold allergies, but that’s looking increasingly unlikely. It seems it may instead be one of those mysterious flulike things that just takes a long time to get over. I’m definitely making progress now, though, and hope to resume proper updates soon.

Update: Earth 2100

Friday, 05. 9. 2008  –  Category: News

The film contest/web game ABC News is starting launches today! First entries are due June 9th.

Click Here to download a PDF with more information and entry specs, or check out
Earth2100.tv.

Get your stuff on ABC, guys!