Tag: Uncovering Oklahoma Page 72 of 78

Tonight I just filmed the first episode for the new Uncovering Oklahoma Weekly show! I’m describing the show as a mix of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Comedy Bang Bang as a local YouTube show. It’s going to be a fun show.

Joining me was my musical sidekick, John McGuru, and the show’s guest, Paulette of Fat Nikki Food Tours. The Fat Nikki Food Tours is a food tour company in Oklahoma City where people get to tour a few restaurants’ food. Playing with the theme of tours and alter egos, we did a “tour” of microwave cooking. We had a fantabulous time.

Throughout the evening, Paulette did recorded behind the scenes live on Periscope. If you missed it, here’s the first video on set with us, hyping up the episode. In this video we’ve just finished the interview segment. Finally, after we finished, we did this final video.

I can’t wait to show you the episode! Uncovering Oklahoma Weekly will premiere in November! Stay tuned!

If being locked in a room with your friends for an hour while finding clues to solves puzzles and ultimately getting the code to escape sounds like fun, then I recommend visiting The Escape. In my latest Uncovering Oklahoma video, I interviewed Bridget Trowbridge, James Gibbons, and Shey Ramsey about the live action escape the room game in Oklahoma City. The Escape also has locations in Tulsa and Omaha, with the OKC location being the flag-ship store. This video has been approved to contain no spoilers!

For some history, real life escape rooms are based off computer games of the same theme, but brought into real life. It’s all hands on, but also there’s no cheat sheet as it’s all up to you and whoever you bring. Also just so I’m clear: you’re not going to get murdered in these rooms. There’s nothing that can injury or hurt anyone. No one other than your team will actually be in the room, unlike some other escape places.

This is was my first video shot in 4K with my Panasonic GH4! There was no difference in my workflow. Rendering on my MacBook Pro didn’t take long either. While filming, I did encounter an issue I’ve never faced before with the florescent lighting creating bars on my video. It drove me nuts because at the time I had no idea how to fix it, so I worked around it or with it. The best way to learn things is to do things.

Overall, I’m happy with this video. I especially loved the introduction for it. I don’t care to use my voice, but with that modulation it worked so well. This was actually a happy accident. I had recorded audio to act as a place holder and have Leslie do the lines, but I was playing about with the audio effects and ended up with what you hear. I did consider doing the whole project in the style of the intro, but decided against it for timing, annoyance, and how other Uncovering Oklahoma interviews flowed.

For the first time, Uncovering Oklahoma’s The Escape OKC video featured music by a local band, Larry Chin. (I usually used a royalty free track.) I had told Jennifer Maynord of Cellar Door Music Group I was planning to do a video on The Escape and asked for recommendation for a song to use with it. She sent me a pre-release version of a song Larry Chin were working on and got me in touch with the band. I look forward to our continued partnership and working with more local bands in the future!

I’ve had the honor of being invited to speak at the Norman Public Library West about my Uncovering Oklahoma Date Idea Books. My first presentation was on Friday, February 20. This was first time I gave a talk about myself, what I do, and my travels. I enjoy talking to people about places, so I knew talking in front of crowd, about something I was passionate, I would be comfortable.

Before the event though, I sent a tweet out to one of my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, asking for advice. To my joy, and later embarrassment of the typo I made, he responded. The conversation went as such:

Wisdom I kept in mind.

The subject of my first talk was road trip ideas. I spoke about such places as Talimena National Scenic Byway, Heavener Runestone Park, Center of the Universe, Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Arbuckle Wilderness, and a few others. Overall, the presentation was about 20 minutes.

The feedback I received on the first presentation was it was okay, however, people wanted it to be be longer and more in-depth. They also suggested to have more pictures, give a prize, show off the Uncovering Oklahoma site, and share some videos.

I took everyone’s comments and the next time I spoke in March on the subject of date ideas, it was nearly an hour long. Fewer people showed up for the second one–partly due to bad timing as it was also spring break and there were St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Despite the lackluster turnout, I felt way better about everything and I enjoyed myself. Plus, I have a solid presentation for future use and I got pictures of me speaking to add to my resumé.

To recap what I’ve learned:

1. Know What To Say
2. Breathe
3. Pace, don’t rush
4. Pictures are awesome
5. Have text with slides for viewer note taking
6. Video clips are awesome too (doesn’t have to have sound to be effective)
7. Give something away
8. Investigate surrounding days for scheduling conflicts
9. Enjoy It
10. It’s Public Speaking – Not Pubic Speaking

Billy Sims BBQ is Tulsa-based fast casual concept serving premium BBQ smoked daily in-house with traditional sides. Founded by 1978 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims, and cofounder Jeff Jackson, Billy Sims BBQ is a unique franchise concept that is one of the top rated celebrity and athlete-owned restaurants.

To promote the limited-time “All You Can Eat Rib Night” on Tuesdays, I had the pleasure of interviewing Billy Sims himself at the Norman location. Sims was a kind and energetic interview. He’s one of the bigger celebrity interviews I’ve done, on camera at least. I kept the focus of the interview on the restaurant and food because Uncovering Oklahoma is a travel positive site and I didn’t want to do anything that could damage chances of future interviews with other people.

For this video, I experimented with a one camera back-and-forth question and answer style. I concluded this style would work best if I had at least a second camera and mic on myself. A good note for the future. I am happy with the audio quality on Sims himself with the mic and audio settings I used.

After the interview, I had the Heisman Sandwich with mac and cheese. It kept me full well into dinner. To me, the restaurant was like Swadley’s or Rib Crib, but sports themed.

Anyway, that’s my interview with Billy Sims.