Category: video

A tribute to Sabine Schmitz

Today I was saddened to learn that Sabine Schmitz passed away after an extended struggle with cancer. The first hot lap of the Nürburgring I can remember watching was Sabine driving the BMW M5 “Ring Taxi.” It seemed somehow appropriate to sim race a few laps of the Nordschleife with a BMW M6 GT3 in her honor. My first lap was just okay, and in my head I heard Sabine’s voice say, “I do that lap time in a VAN” so after putting together some good laps, I switched to the only van in Gran Turismo Sport (VW Sambabus Typ 2) and ran the ring one more time. We’ll miss the Queen of the Nürburgring.

Farewell video for a fellow nerd

September 29, 2020 – Ann Arbor, MI

For those of you know don’t understand the Star Wars references (SRSLY what?!), I am once again channeling my favorite Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi in order to stretch out with my feelings.

(Be sure to enable the closed captions, unless you’re fluent in the binary language of astromech droids!)

This time my son Griffin was the camera operator and also on-set foley artist.

A proper #UMSocial send-off video with love for Connor from everyone:

Farewell video for a friend and colleague

June 16, 2020 – Ann Arbor, MI

The global pandemic has made working from home the norm for me and others at the university. When faced with the challenge of needing to say goodby to a longtime colleague and friend remotely, we decided to record video messages that could be shown during a Zoom party. Being very dear to me, my video for Lee needed to go the extra mile. I enlisted the help of my daughter to work the camera and lighting. Below is my heartfelt message:

For those of you know don’t understand the Star Wars reference at the end (what?!), they are the words of my favorite Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

We are a Star Wars family, so finding a lightsaber to use as a prop was easy.

Anneka was fantastic behind the camera, starting and stopping the recording, keeping an eye on and adjusting the lighting, and giving feedback on the quality of the takes. She also helped me plan the order of filming, capturing the Jedi scene first before I shaved off the wild whiskers that really completed the desert hermit look. 😂

I was really taking photos during the photo hobby scene, and managed to capture a cool photo of Anneka through the ring light.

Also, in case you are wondering about how things work now that we live in Zoom world, you can be business suit on top with adventure shorts and sandals on the bottom. 🤣