The Battalion-The Series Website

The Battalion-The Series is an online fire fighter reality show that can be found at www.thebattalion.tv. Tule Fog Productions, LLC follows the men and women fire fighters across the nation. Currently The Battalion has filmed in San Francisco, Washington D.C., Kentland, Prince George's County, National Institute of Health, and Milwaukee.

I decided to add a section to my blog devoted to the websites that I design or build. And where better to start than from the beginning.

This particular site is near and dear to my heart, mostly because I helped to start the Series in early 2007 and mold it into what it is today. I started as a video editor on the show a few years ago as we were pitching it to networks to pick up and put on television. The networks didn't want it because we couldn't promise fires and drama. So the owner David Furtado decided that he was going to put it up on the web. He coined the phrase "webisode" because each show was to be full length TV programing.

I had never built or designed a website before, but I took the task on the best I could. A good friend of mine, TJ Shafer, pointed me in the right direction and did the development of the site. Needless to say my first design, might be just about everything wrong with most websites today. I learned a lot.

The site and the viewer base had outgrown the design of the site, it was time for something new. I read some articles about a CMS called Drupal. It seemed like the perfect solution so I dove right in. Like most people I grabbed a theme and re-purposed it for my needs. This was my first experience with Drupal. I learned a lot.

Unfortunately the site still has the same design. Hopefully I will be able to redesign it soon with a much needed and deserved fresh unique look.

When I left the Series in mid 2008 I had edited over 40 "webisodes" 10 Promos, 4 Teasers, and 4 Sizzle reels for Major Networks. I was also the audio editor mixing down on average of 45 tracks per webisode, including arranging and mixing the music tracks. I made all the graphics and of course maintained not only The Battalion website, but also all the video portals that we were on at the time. It was a really stressful job with very demanding deadlines. I learned a lot.

I left the company and set off on my own not sure what the future had in store for me.

You can find more information on thebattalion.tv here.

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