Fronius –manufacturer of the world’s best solar inverter– is running a competition where anyone was invited to make a short video about why “I am 24 hours of sun”. Time got away from me, and a week ago, Marcus from Fronius dropped into my office while he was in town.
“We only have one week of the competition left Mark” he said late that Friday afternoon. “I’ve left it too late” I thought. It was down to 1 week to go and all I had was a few seconds of footage and draft script. Worse still, my salesman Peter, (who moonlights as an amateur video producer, and has helped me with videos in the past) was out of town.
I went home and told my wife.
“I’ve got one week left to try to win that trip to Wendy. Looks like were not going to Vegas eh”
“Oh Really?” she looked disappointed. “And I was just thinking that I really wanted to get back to the States to see my sister”
Wendy’s sister had a huge health scare this year, just after we spent a week with her at Christmas. Winning the prize would allow me to get to see the unveiling of the highly anticipated Fronius Primo Hybrid in a Las Vegas, and give me an opportunity to geek out at Solar Power International, North Americas biggest solar trade show. But it would also give would give Wendy a chance to see her sister.
“I had to give it a crack” I thought.
So the next day, I went out and bought a drone, and learned to fly it. It was a week of taking videos of my son down the beach (acting as mini-me), taking drone footage of my family down the park, and climbing on the roof of a solar install to and flying my new Phantom 4 above our heads. At night I sat up and worked out how to do voice recordings and edit in iMovie. What a week!
So it’s Thursday morning, August 18 2016. Today Fronius decide the winner. I woke up early as I eagerly await a phone call to see if I win my wife and I a trip to Solar Power International, and give Wendy a chance to see her sister. I’ve seen a couple of the entries on youtube, but who knows what other entries on have gone in that I haven’t seen!
Ah, shucks – I’m already a winner! It was a fun week. I finally justified buying a drone and I learned how to edit short videos : I had a lot of fun with my kids doing it. I get this feeling that my blogs may be slowing down a little, and all the short solar videos I have been meaning to do for work will be on their way soon.
But Vegas would be pretty cool. I’ll be sure to let you know if we win!
Mark
