The tournament is held at TPC Sawgrass Stadium and is known for its signature 17th hole, which is one of the best holes in golf. It's also the home of the tournament's "closest to the pin" contest. As our team walked up, the name on the closest-so-far board was Vinnie Testaverte at 4 feet from pin. Pretty damn good shot on this hole. Chase steps up and sends his ball into the drink. Nick hit the green, but bounced off. Then, our teammate Alfonso walks up, and BOOM!, 2'9" from the pin! The crowd watched and went crazy, we have the shot on video below! Alfonso's shot was not to be beaten for the rest of the tourney. And, to sweeten the deal, the 17th hole was sponsored by Soul Headphones, so Alfonso not only walked away a proud man, but also with Party In A Box.

While we have a fleet or camera equipped RCs, sometimes a project needs a little more... well, a little more RC power, and we knew the exact mad scientist of inventions to call, our old pal Jordy Klein at Jordy Klein Film & Video. He just built a new heli from scratch that holds a Red Camera, and we love to partner with him to produce epic projects. Chase on the camera controls and Jordy's people on the flight patterns. We also fittingly used the new Vine App to capture some behind the scenes moments of the crew...click the Vines to play, they are marked with the Vine logo at the bottom right of some of the pics. If you're on Vine, find us: @Fiction. 

The heli is operated from a pretty simple radio and the Red Camera is fully operable from a second radio with pan, tilt, iris, focus and record. It really takes a team to pull off these shots, and after seeing the final footage in the video at the bottom of this post, you'll see that the teamwork really pays off. We were all curious as to how fast it flew and if could it chop off any limbs. The simple answer, "It's very fast, and yes, it will kill you." We sort of felt like the kids who were scolded by the crotchety ol' lawyer in Jurassic Park..."Is it heavy?" "Yes." "Then it's expensive, put it back."

You've got to keep hydrated when shooting out on the farm. You also have to eat, which was mainly why we were there. You think we were gonna work on a tomato farm without partaking in the goods? Ha, you should know better. Luckily, Nick, who pulls his knife every 5 minutes was there to lend it for our snack making. Chase made a pretty genius move (& Vine) with some fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and a little salt and pepper... voila! Theres nothing like picking a fresh tomato from the vine and making a Caprese salad right there on the spot. There's also nothing like eating a ripe tomato like an apple...except for maybe an apple...

I must admit, we felt pretty clever playing CCR while shooting this Vine...

We had quite a few different camera set ups, including using a 400mm lens that Bear was lugging around like a point and shoot. He used it on an interview shot which produced a pretty unique perspective in the final video, the trick is getting far enough away..."Im gonna be like way out, over there, you know, in the tomatoes".

So, moral of the story, kids is to always work with people that have access to a lot of delicious food...a full crew is a happy crew. I mean, these two are satisfied. Check out the final video below and get your taste buds primed for deliciousness. 

On a recent trip to San Francisco to announce the Shepard Fairey Mission Patch at the Engadget Expand Conference, we had to make a quick stop in Washington DC for some super important meetings. The first of which was with Shelton the Barber...

Shelton the Barber is an artist. After creating for Nick the sharpest stash trim of all time, we had some sight seeing to do. We may of had some real meetings in between sometime or another but that's besides the point. We wandered around the National Mall and saw some of the art installations there because if you know Nick, hes a reeeeal art lover. His "I hate art" mantra is really an art statement in and of itself. Much like his sharp stash is an art statement.  We discovered a pretty good cortado at Chinatown Coffee and contemplated our next moves.

Our second day was filled with a drive out to Charlottesville, VA which is about 3 hours away from DC. But not before we found more art (seriously, Nick is obsessed). We met with the artist behind The John Rolfe Society (he did the Mark Twain below which Nick HAD to purchase), in which we explored the idea of sending garbage to space, touched on war history and discussed the artist Ghost Face Killah. We then continued onto Charlottesville listening to bluegrass driving through the Virginia hills, and stopping at an old country store along the way. We finally arrived in Charlottesville to meet our new friends at  Journey Group at their very cool ski lodge work space to talk about their work in Ethiopia, as well as ours.

 That night we drove back to DC late and happened to see the Lincoln Memorial in the distance, so we made our way over to take a look. Nick couldn't help but comment on the artistry of the hand engraved Gettysburg Address.

Before our flight out we had the best work of art yet. A breakfast sandwich to top all breakfast sandwiches in the history of food. Its located at Market Lunch in an indoor farmers market called the East Market. I asked the cook what kind of bread or biscuit or whatever heavenly loaf my sandwich was on and she grinned and said, "its homemade baby." Yeah...I know that's right.

Freshly trimmed, cultured, and full of patriotism we were finally ready to go to San Francisco to announce to the world the mission patch art of Shepard Fairey. 

When we arrived in San Francisco we drove straight to Palo Alto. We criss crossed the valley all day visiting friends at Tivo, Facebook, and Made In Space before making our way back to San Francisco. Seeing the Facebook Headquarters was a real treat, they really value art there and have posters and graffiti everywhere. We stopped long enough to have lunch and coffee and to catch up with some Florida buddies. My favorite part was when we were driving there I looked at Nick and asked him if he knew the address to Facebook...he said no so I got to say, www.facebook.com. Hilarious.

Somewhere off the highway near Mountain View is Nasa's Hangar 1. We first drove by it and thought how cool it was we could see it, then realized we were actually going there. The guys and gals at Made In Space have their office and work space on the grounds of Hangar 1, so we took the opportunity to walk around the massive structure. We were allowed in the Made In Space workspace but not allowed to take pictures of their top secret genius. So, you cant know what we know.  

Finally, the main event, The Endgadget Expand Conference, where we announced the Shepard Fairey mission patch. This is probably one of the most laid back conferences we've been to, making it one of the best. There were some great exhibits including Tesla, Davinci (robotic surgery), BRD Electic Dirtbikes, and actual Storm Chasers from the show, wait for it...Storm Chasers.

You couldnt ask for a better location than Ft Mason for a conference. We could hardly get anywhere because of stopping every few minutes to take pictures.

Our buds at Videri Chocolate Factory in Raleigh, North Carolina just opened their new coffee bar exclusively serving Stumptown Coffee. ( If you are unfamiliar with Videri check out our video here ). They really know how to get our attention, throwing a party with free local Trophy beer, free chocolate samples, Stumptown coffee...umm yeah, we were not going to miss this. They also had artist Sean Marlin showing and hanging out. Needless to say it was a great time...

The guys went to Stumptown and trained with their barista's so when you stop at Videri, you're not only getting the only shop in North Carolina serving exclusively Stumptown, but properly prepared Stumptown. Win Win. In addition, they carry Stumptown's delicious cold brew for the warm days ahead.

Artist Sean Marlin tastefully had his art on display, only adding more character to this rad shop with his clever animal characters. He was born in Florida so we are just wondering where his "Lizard" or his...wait for it... "Marlin" painting is... what up with that Sean?

The space is incredible, its in an old train depot with walls of chocolate like a chocolate library. They roast and make all of their delicious goods right in the store, towards the back is a huge roaster that you can walk around.

The night was a success, everyone full of caffeine, chocolate and beer. There was no way we were leaving without a box full of chocoloate. So if you are in Raleigh, you have to stop by and see this place. They ship as well so go ahead and order some. viderichocolatefactory.com 

The Shoot consisted of an in-store shoot and a second day in our studio. Day 1 was in the Publix store and we basically had an all you can eat sub tray for us to sink our teeth into for the whole shoot. 

When all you have on your mind is devouring a never before tasted sub, its difficult to focus on the task at hand. But having the great creative team from Publix keeping your eye on the prize is always very helpful. Especially when they can answer every question you could possibly have about how and where Publix subs are created. Day 2: Finally the day came where we got to shoot this modern day masterpiece. They brought in a sandwich artist (no, not a subway employee), someone who's job it was to literally make the PERFECT sandwich (my mouth is watering while I type this). The hardest thing about the in-studio shoot was that we had to stare at this sandwich all day without being able to touch it. I can't tell you how many times I almost reached out from behind the camera to stick my finger in the dab of BBQ sauce that was on the pork. Finally the shoot was over and we all were kind of walking around the sub not sure if it was appropriate to ask if we could actually take a bite of this behemoth of modern day deliciousness. So I look up at our friends from Publix with the eyes of a puppy dog and said "...um are we allowed to eat this sandwich". Much to our surprise the answer was yes! Let me tell you, this sammy is….. well….. you will have to go try it yourself, you will not be disappointed.

Its available today at your local Publix market. Go on n' get chu some…… 

Check out the final video:

Part of our philosophy at Fiction is when we do something creative, we try to do something different and better than it has ever been done before. So, when our client CASIS  told us that they wanted us to do the mission patch for their inaugural flight, we knew that we not only had an amazing opportunity, but we really wanted to make sure we delivered something that represented forward thinking and relevance. When we started thinking about it internally, we knew that we had the ability to design the patch, but we wanted to think bigger than our circle of influence. When we sat down to talk about it in our creative meeting, the first words that came out of my mouth were, "Shepard Fairey should do this". Thinking this was just a shot in the dark idea, we all kind of looked at each other and said " well, we at least have to try ".  Nick, being the sophisticated pitch man he is, reached out to Shepard Fairey's team that day, and much to everyone's amazement, he responded very promptly with his interest in the project.

Being huge fans of Obey and Fairey's work, when word came back to us that he signed on to do the project, we looked at each other half stunned like, "are you F'ing kidding me right now? ". But, he did, and we were beyond excited about the partnership. After a couple of weeks, we got some comps in and were blown away for a number of reasons: 1) the sheer number of comps he delivered ( over 30 ) and 2) the style in which he executed the patch artwork. When you work with someone like Shepard Fairey, you expect him to stay within the artistic style for which he is so famous. When we got the comps, however, it was a great surprise to see him take a bit of a departure from his personal style, and incorporate hat tips to various old space patch esthetics. Yet, at the same time, when you find out its Shepard's work, you're instantly like "oh wow, yea I can see it now ".

With the artwork done, we went to work figuring out where we’d start the awareness campaign. Shepard was kind enough to sit down with us for an interview, leaving us with great art and a video featuring a passionate artist talking Space (it’s crazy how well versed he is in this area). Enter Engadget Expand. It was here, live from stage, & live blogged by the good folks at Engadget, that we announced the historic design.

This was an amazing creative project for us and we can't thank Shepard Fairey and Studio Number One enough for partnering with us to deliver CASIS what we feel is an amazing patch and a great work of art.

We are psyched to have Josh on our team as our newest Director. He just completed his first project for Fiction directing videos for Barn Light Electric, an incredibly cool lighting manufacturer and retailer based right here in Florida. We produced 3 videos highlighting what they do & how they do it. See the videos here.

Below are pics from our very first trip to Scout their locations and to get the official tour of the company. We rode out on motorcycles since they are just an hour away and found out Bryan, the owner and a bunch of the guys are motorcycle guys. Bryan even showed us his secret stash of vintage race bikes. Who will I have to apologize to for showing bikes someone may not have known about??? Ha, someones probably in trouble with the Mrs. right now.