» Making the news

The $100 Hamburger

staci baird — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:04:08 +0000

Jay Baird conducts a pre-flight check of a Piper Cherokee Warrior at San Carlos Airport in San Carlos, Calif.

Private pilot Jay Baird took advantage of the good weather and flew me (his wife) to the Hollister Airport so we could eat a at the Ding A Ling cafe.

It’s sort of an inside joke amongst pilots to call quick trips to small airport cafes flights for the “$100 hamburger.” It refers to the cost of renting a plane for a couple hours. As Baird explains, the “$100 hamburger” is one of the reasons he obtained his private pilot’s license.

Photos taken with a Nikon D90 (which I am still learning how to use), audio captured on a Flip Cam..

Listen to excerpts from my interview with Jay in my previous post, Interview with Private Pilot Jay Baird.

View more photos from the trip in the $100 Hamburger Flickr photo set.

Interview with private pilot Jay Baird

staci baird — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:16:44 +0000

Jay Baird watches as a plane takes off from Hollister Airport in Hollister, Calif.

Jay Baird got his private pilot license in 2004. Since then, he’s flown about 100 hours. Jay is my husband. I think it’s pretty cool being married to a pilot. It means we can wake up on Saturday morning and fly to Hollister for a $100 hamburger. (More on that below.)

I’ve wanted to interview Jay for awhile so I finally took the opportunity (while he was willing to humor me) and asked him a few questions about being a pilot and what it means to him.

In this clip, Jay explains his greatest fear…

I asked the Twitterverse and Facebook what they wanted to know from Jay. Here’s a few of the questions and answers:

Kelsey asks, “Has he ever had to pull down the oxygen masks?”

@jrustigian asks, “Do pilots ever get scared when landing/taking off?”

And here it is, the million dollar question…

“What is with the $100 hamburger?”

I’m working on a photo/audio slideshow which will be posted soon. I’ll add the link when it’s live.

Photo slideshow – Brunch at Serpentine

staci baird — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:58:57 +0000

I took the pictures and edited this piece as an example for my students. I used a Nikon DC-90, Flip cam (to record audio), and Final Cut Express (to edit the audio and create the transitions between photos).

Fracture website: Adobe Max 2008 finalist

staci baird — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:03:35 +0000

One of my very first assignments at LucasArts was launching the Fracture videogame website.

We (Shane, Eric, Elijah and the guys at 2Advanced, and Nicole from Lucas Online) spent many late nights working on the site… so I was really excited when I learned that the site was an Adobe Max 2008 finalist.

I’m especially proud of the TD Playground, a section on the site where you can see a few of the weapons in action, it really does feel like you’re in the game. The Vortex is particularly fun!

Congrats to the team at 2Advanced! Shane was an absolute dream to work with. And a special thanks to Nicole for all her help – from design input, production, integration and QA – she is a one woman wonder.

My TFU experience

staci baird — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:54:31 +0000

My first major project at LucasArts is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, otherwise known to us on the inside as “TFU.”

This experience reminded me how geeky I really am and how much I enjoy putting together a web site. Although I’m the project manager, in the end, I also get to copy edit, QA and even troubleshoot. And while I’m working on these projects I get to work with kick ass people like Eric Jordan President/Chief Creative Officer at 2Advanced . Eric has been with me the last two nights – tweaking the site and keeping me entertained. I have “officially” decided Eric’s new title is “tweener extraordinaire.”

Then there are my Lucasfilm co-workers…without them, there is no way this site would’ve launched. They are all extremely smart, talented, motivated and dedicated individuals. I am particularly grateful to Nicole, who has guided me through my first 60+ days at Lucas, offering her support and humor the entire time. (Let’s think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.)

There is nothing more invigorating (or complicated) than launching a web site. Often the biggest challenge to overcome is all the last minutes tweaks that trickle down. You change one seemingly “small” thing here and *BOOM!* fifteen more things bust.

Being a PM is great because you get to be a part of the site development all the way from concept to final QA. At times, it’s like birthing a baby (something I know nothing about yet, but I think it’s a fair analogy). This baby was born at midnight – Star Wars : The Force Unleashed - and I couldn’t be more proud.