Want to read more about it? Okay. The band came to me and let me know that they planned to release the single "Oh My God" off their new album Nomads a month ahead of the official album release concert at the Viper Room, and they wanted to make a big splash by releasing the single with an official video.

I was dying to use my new Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the revamped DaVinci Resolve Studio, so I was instantly onboard. They knew they wanted this much: a coffin, the desert, and them. So we put our heads together to fill in the gaps. One short, winter day in the desert, one evening on a Hollywood green screen stage, one non-existent storyboard, and a whole lot of editing all added up to this video. We are really proud of what we came up with, mainly because of the extremely short timeframe in which we had to work.

The video, along with the single, dropped worldwide on January 25th, 2016, followed by the release of the album Nomads on February 19th, 2016. We had so much fun together, we are already storyboarding a couple of other videos for songs on the album. With a little more time on our hands, we will be storyboarding more properly.

These guys make real rock and roll in an age where it often seems to be missing. I highly encourage you to check our more of their music. If you're in Los Angeles, they play on the Sunset Strip, right in your back yard, and you can even see this music video outside the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios Hollywood - 4 times a day! But everyone should just go ahead and buy the album.

As is often the case in this fast-paced field, we didn't have enough time for several versions, and we didn't even have available developer resources for multiple solutions either. So it all fell solely on my shoulders to figure out how to make this thing work for everybody. Canvas was not an option, and there was going to be no real backend for data. So, I came up with my own JavaScript animation engine from scratch.

The final solution was born of compromise. There was no time for prototyping, the creative team wanted pixel-by-pixel assurance that it would appear exactly the same at any screen size. This meant no independent, full-screen fluid background, so we had to force the ratio to stay the same. In order to preserve the level of control over placement that they insisted upon, I defined the positions of everything in a JSON object, used percentages to calculate the difference from the initial size on load and on resize, then translate it back into pixels.

Then I decoupled rendering from the scroll events, took advantage of requestAnimationFrame so that I could control how often repaints occur and the result was an incredibly robust, high-performance scrolling website that everyone could use because it did not rely on canvas or any other HTML5 elements that, at the time, were not supported for the majority the client's visitors. We were very proud of how this turned out, and humbled by the awards and recognition it received.

My main regret was that we did not have just another week or two. I programmed this to be very intelligent, and I tested it on mobile, and it worked!... But the images were way to large in file size. I wished to create 3 additional sizes of every asset and add logic to choose the appropriate size for each device - but alas, we could not include that. We also began logic to incorporate sounds and video that was very promising. But, you know how it goes. It wasn't a requirement; and meeting the deadline was. Ultimately, it is still very cool and has served the client and the agency very well.

This project was originally to be a Flash microsite when Apple released the world's first iPad in the middle of our production schedule, and the agency decided this should be the first project to launch us into the world of mobile apps (we had not done one for iPhone, ever).

We were already short on resources and everyone was already dedicated to other projects, while we had effectively tripled the amount of work needed in the same timeline that was already under way. Since I had arrived at the agency, I was already the only person with one foot in the creative world and the other in the development world. My background in video, coupled with my experience in Flash and ActionScript had already lent me a role of duality in an environment where the two worlds were pretty well separated by completely different departments.

So, I suppose it was rather natural for the agency to look to me to find a way to accomplish all of this. Their minds were set. I was already scheduled to be the developer of the Flash microsite. I was already the go-to consultant on any project to liaise between creative and technology professionals. And I had dabbled with OS-native programming. I emphasize "dabbled" because it is a very different world. I was a natural at Flash because it was the perfect development environment for individuals who were creative-minded and programming-minded at the same time.

Ultimately, I was able to get my boss to request a small budget increase to bring on a lead Xcode developer. Our art production resources all but pulled out when they determined they would be unable to triple their workload. Great. I got clever and found two interns who were unhappy with the department they landed in. They wanted to be creative. I managed-up a little bit, and boom. I've got my own, dedicated production team. Yes, I had to train them, but that gave me the opportunity to have everything created perfectly so that we could reuse assets between the iPad app and Flash version of the experience. Sweet! The programming of the app, unfortunately, was too much for one developer and I could help him very little while I had to write the entire Flash site by myself. So, we hired three mobile development interns to help him. Yes!

Just as things were looking up, the Digital Producer assigned to the project, for whatever reasons (I'm guessing the quadrupled workforce to keep up with had something to do with it), pulled out too. I couldn't believe it. But, with the short timeframe and tightly-knit mini-agency I had under my direction, it was a blessing in disguise to be able to take on that role and rework the schedules, omit loops, and refine processes.

Looking at each development as a challenge, rather than a problem, really showed me what we could accomplish when the chips were down. Ultimately, we were able to deliver the same, exact experience to users on computers as well as the world's newest device (the tablet), in two different languages - all without having to shoot a single extra piece of photography or CG. It was so much fun! A truly integrated effort. And I could feel proudly that I had lived up to the title that had been created for my range of skill sets: Integration Manager.

This was another project where my multi-disciplinary skill set was highly appreciated. When Acura came out with a new line of vehicles, they wanted to present those innovations in an innovative fashion. Flash was still very much in use, and I remember even being able to use this site on my first Android phone without any special or additional programming. A lot of people don't realize that even though mobile is responsible for expediting Flash's exile, it originally supported it with no extra effort.

Technically, RPA spawned a sister company (RP&) which was in a different building and employed an entirely separate group of people. This was a requirement from the client so that RPA could have the business of both Honda and Acura - as long as the same people did not influence both.

Prior to getting the Acura business and starting RP&, I had already solidified myself as "the one who lives in both worlds" (creative and development), or more professionally: the Integration Manager. The good folks on the RP& side wanted to have a go-to consultant for their projects too; someone to help translate and refine things from creative to development and then back again. Since many of the professionals working on the Acura business had previously worked with me on the Honda side, an arrangement was made, making me one of the very few individuals who were lucky enough to be able to touch both brands.

I really appreciated being in this position, as these were our two largest clients. Sometimes you would get the occasional change in pace on a single project for a smaller client, but I was now able to keep my mind open to a minimum of two different, ongoing energies - as opposed to being constantly enveloped in one train of thought. Honda's young, straightforward approach as well as Acura's, very different, professional, classy and somewhat aggressive approach. I miss those days at times.

I worked closely with a rather large group of creative professionals to plan a rich media module and landing page that could be used to engage viewers on video content websites such as NBC, ABC, CBS, Hulu and so on.

I was the only developer for all of these modules and landing pages, once we had finalized our plan together. I also worked closely with the Executive Producer and an outside sound engineer to create the notes for the game. We made several trips together to the engineer's studio where we made several tweaks to audio that was actually recorded by a microphone attached to a car driving over the real, physical musical road.

As a result, when placing each note that you choose to use in the game, you are actually playing back audio from the actual musical road. I had my reservations about the way the notes sounded. One night, I stayed up late creating a separate library of notes using Pro Tools, and an alternate version of the game that used these notes. I simply started with piano key sounds, and then ran filters to simulate the concrete-groove sound of the physical Musical Road.

I thought the notes sounded far more musical, but also with adequate authenticity. So, I brought this version to the team and also pointed out that we could include as many notes as we like with this method, rather than being limited to only the notes used in the exerpt from the William Tell Overture which had been drilled into the highway. I was vetoed. The Executive Producer was too married to the idea of marketing the sounds as "truly authentic". That's okay, its still really cool, and has that "authenticity factor" for you - and above all: its fun! It was even more fun to make.