Month: May 2015

High-flying drone adventures

Drone video

I have always been a camera fanatic, probably because my father was too, but once I started shooting video, that started to become my default. There is nothing quite like a capturing that perfect moment on video, and for one of my next reviews on The GATE, I’m test flying one of Parrot’s Bebop drones, which takes video into the air.

Frankly, I’m still amazed that I’m flying a drone and that I can watch what the camera sees through my phone. It’s an incredible experience, and that’s obvious by the fact that wherever I take the Bebop, there are people who want to come up and find out all about it.

Drones are getting a lot more prevalent now, but they’re still rare enough to be exciting, but what I find truly enthralling is being able to get that eagle-eye view of the world–something I always dreamed about as a kid.

For now, I don’t want to spoil the review, but check out this quick video I shot (which is totally raw) with the drone while I was in New Brunswick recently. The video quality could be a little higher, to be honest, but the images are still impressive for a consumer-level drone.

Great Scott! Christopher Lloyd & Joel McHale are in Lego ads!

Christopher Lloyd

Okay, yes. Christopher Lloyd did an ad for the new Lego game, Lego Dimensions, and it’s fun for a little bit, but never mind that. Ultimately it’s a few moments of Lloyd doing his “Great Scott!” shtick (which, yes, I do love), but it doesn’t feel all that interesting.

Who wouldn’t want to see Lloyd do another Back to the Future film? I’ve been down for that even when the third film was kind of mediocre. Dr. Emmett Brown is one of the great characters of film, and even in an ad it’s kind of fantastic seeing him in that role again.

On the other hand, Joel McHale apparently also did an ad for Lego Dimensions, and it’s both fun and funny. Plus, who doesn’t like Lego Batman, after all?

Watch McHale’s ad here, and scroll down for Lloyd’s.

You may be asking yourself why I’m posting ads on my blog, but the real question is, why wouldn’t I? I’m a big fan of great advertising, and there’s frankly not a lot of them on the air these days. Since ads are so prevalent now, and we’re inundated with them, I’ve always felt like it was worth “reviewing” them now and then.

Happy 15 years to me

W. Andrew Powell

At this point, I may actually have too many websites, but I’m also really excited about this one, and here’s why.

In the past, I used The GATE’s Blog, The GATEKeeper’s Blog, as my personal blogging space, but as the site has grown and become its own entity, that seemed less and less like a good idea.

Were visitors coming in to The GATE really interested in reading about what I did last weekend? Maybe, but it made the site look more and more like a personal space when I want it to be its own thing. I may represent the site, but I will also always strive to make it stand on its own.

That’s where this site came in. Over the years I’ve had lots of accounts, but I like that this site is personal, not just another social media account. I may be on LinkedIn, About.me, and all of the rest, but I never felt like there was a space that made sense for me to relax and write whatever I felt like. This site may be a kind of resume, but I also feel that, because it’s not part of my other sites, I can talk about anything I’m doing.

For those of you who have followed along with my various adventures, thanks for reading this as well, and for anyone knew coming in, thanks for stopping in.

Photo at the 2014 MuchMusic Video Awards by Matthew Romaschin, lightanddarkmattr.ca