The World Cup Trek is an epic race from Berlin, Germany, the location of the 2006 World Cup, to Cape Town, South Africa, the 2010 tournament venue. The contest, organized by dvDepot client Rob Evans, involves three teams, each comprised of two volunteer members, driving 10,000 miles through sixteen countries on two continents to reach the southern tip of Africa in time for the Cup’s final game. Sponsored by dvDepot and produced by both Burgess Productions and Nomadic Nation, Mr. Evans and his team will film their seven week adventure with the intent to transform their journey into an adventure/reality program.

Race for Charity

Contest organizer Rob Evans

As a social activist, Mr. Evans has been involved in several charity initiatives. Some of his recent projects include establishing and maintaining a storage facility for charities in his hometown of Phoenix/Tempe, Arizona, helping organize community projects, creating an arts community in Scottsdale, Arizona, and becoming an organ donor by donating one of his kidneys. Mr. Evans’ conception of and participation in the World Cup Trek is yet another of his charitable endeavors.

Benefiting from the race are three non-government organizations: Grassroot Soccer, Kick 4 Life, Coaching for Hope. These multifaceted organizations work in third world African countries to both coach underprivileged children and aspiring soccer players and provide education and preventative measures to combat the AIDs epidemic.

The Gear

dvDepot is sponsoring World Cup Trek’s production and furnishing the teams with video equipment, including two Sony PMW-EX1R HD cameras, six 16GB cards for footage, two 7” Nebtek monitors to review the footage before uploading it into a computer for editing, and other accessories. With the pristine quality of the Sony EX1, and the durability and storage capacity of the memory cards, no moment of the weeks-long journey will be missed.

View World Cup Trek 2010 in a larger map

After being equipped with dvDepot gear, the World Cup Trek teams began their exciting trip. Departing on May 9th from the United States, the volunteers set out for Berlin, Germany. The teams and the production crew stopped at Berlin’s co-sponsor hostel CityStay to finalize travel plans, go over the route, get all the needed vaccinations and load the last of their supplies into their Renaults.

On the Road

The World Cup Trek cars on the Autobahn

On May 18th, the team hit the Autobahn and almost immediately ran into their first setback. One of the three cars blew a head gasket 200km into the race, a frustrating mishap that could have been avoided. The car, driven by team members Jonathan and Susan, had to wait for the production vehicle to send for a tow truck; however, that car struck a flat tire and its spare tire was coincidentally flat. With two vehicles down, the team had to wait for tow trucks to arrive for both cars. To compound an already rocky beginning to their journey, the police declined to deal with cars that were ill-equipped to handle the Autobahn to begin with.

Into France and Spain

Barcalona Harbor

After two days of camping outside a McDonald’s in Hof, the team was back on the road in rainy, foggy weather. After seventeen full hours of continuous driving through miserable weather, the team left Germany and finally entered France nearly two days behind schedule and in dour spirits. The fair weather and sunshine in France, however, lifted team spirits. The group even had time to stop for a rest at Beziers, a picturesque city with a large winemaking industry. A 10-hour scenic road trip from Beziers to Barcelona (effectively avoiding traffic and tolls) was the next course of action for the team. From Barcelona the team managed to rest up before catching the last ferry out of Tarifa and into Marakech.

With any luck, the team will reach South Africa around July 5th, a few days earlier than planned. We hope to continue providing support and enthusiasm for the entire team on their amazing trip! Be sure to follow updates about the World Cup Trek on dvDepot’s Twitter and Facebook.

The Weinstein Company is releasing their new movie “Youth in Revolt” starring Michael Cera this month. dvDepot worked on a series of promos for the film featuring Michael Cera and the cast of MTV’s The Jersey Shore.

As anybody who watches the show knows, the Jersey Shore kids are a wild bunch. They did not disappoint us here. DJ Pauly D took one look at Michael and decided he needed a makeover. They changed his wardrobe and spent an hour giving him Pauly’s signature hair style. Also, once they heard there was a hot tub on the roof, there was no keeping them out of it– not even the 20 degree weather. In spite of all the fun they had, our crew reported that everybody was professional and easy to work with. We can’t wait until the promos premiere so we can see our finished product.

The promos were shot on three Sony EX1s with our operators Jeremy Leach, Andreas Wagner and Chris Piazza. We had two audio techs on set to mic all the people: Diana Milani and Michael Correa. Kevin Provost was a camera utility and handled data transfers. Joseph Bandelli was our PA. We worked with Partizan, who were producing the spots.

You can see more pictures on the sites we borrowed these from: People Magazine and the Huffington Post. We also get mentioned in the article at New TeeVee.

Today, we’re prepping for a multicam reality shoot in January. Those sorts of shoots require a lot of preparation and often take days to get ready.

One exciting piece of gear on this shoot is our Starlink wireless monitor system. The Starlink is a powerful wireless transmitter and receiver that can be mounted onto the camera. We’ve cameras down to the street and received the signal in our seventh floor office. On a multicam reality project, it allows a producer to monitor all cameras from a centralized location, no matter what environment they’re in.

Has anybody else used the Starlink? Are you as excited by them as we are?

“Pitchmen,” on the Discover Channel is a great show. It features informercial veterans Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan searching for new products to sell. Rather than being a strict contest show, it is also a chance to spend time with the stars in their world as they shoot their commercials and run their business. It’s a project that we were proud to have worked on. Original Productions is a great company to work with and the cast were friendly and fun.

Unfortunately, one of the stars, Billy Mays, passed away recently. It was terrible circumstances to be involved in, but we were honored to be able to work on the memorial episode.

Matt Kulvicki (camera) and Ethan Goldberger (audio) worked on the show the most for us and spent the most time with Billy. Matt said, “Good man, small ego.” Ethan agreed he was “a great guy, and one of those rare celebrities you work with that leaves you with total admiration. A total gentleman and a complete professional, he always made sure everyone felt good around him, remembering the names of everyone on set (including the sound guy!).” Matt also assures us that “there is nothing like watching a soundman throw his headphones off in pain when Billy turned the volume up and made his pitch.” Billy’s pitches weren’t just loud, there were passionate and filled with joy. Billy always believed in his products and was his happiest telling the inventors on the show that they had a hit.

You can see a brief tribute to Billy Mays at the “Pitchmen” site as well other clips.

He believed in these products and took his greatest pleasure when telling the inventor they had a hit.

The camera ops on the show included Matthew Kulvicki, Alex Sierra and Andreas Wagner. Audio was done by Ethan Goldberger, Diana Milani, Alex Sierra and Stephen Collins.

R.I.P Billy.