I've been mailing new year cards for over 20 years. It is a good way to stay in touch with clients and people. I got the idea from a company (The Texas Crew) that sends me a funny photoshopped card every year. It is a brilliant way to reach out especially to those I haven't seen or talked to in awhile.
Happy New Year 2024:
I love this card with the pun of gaffer weekly (gaffer weakly).
Most of my cards are original ideas, but I got this one from a meme sent to me last year. It was a fake magazine cover called "Gaffer Weakly". It was cleverly funny. I wish I knew whom to credit but I have no idea of the original source. My apologies to them. Otherwise, everything else is original to my card.
Back in the 1990s there actually was a magazine like this for us crew in the electric and grip departments. It was great but it only lasted a year or so before it went out of business.
Happy New Year 2023:
The year 2023! It sounds like a science fiction movie. Where's my flying car!
Usually work is slow around the holidays but not this year. I was prepping for a movie; Ethan Hawke's Wildcat. I barely had time to make a card. I ended up mailing very few cards. I just didn't have any spare time.
This funny picture is me on-set for a small indie movie. No photoshopping on this one other than the pixelation of the mannequin which makes it funnier.
It looks like I'm making questionable choices of movies to work on, but this was strictly a drama; nothing obscene other than maybe the mannequin in the background.
Here is another picture that I almost used:
I'm trying to set-up DMX on some lights while a hazer is going full blast. I love the colored beams of lights.
Happy New Year 2022:
I have to thank Buc at Yellowhaus for taking this great picture and Cindy for being in the picture.
The inside of the card has this picture:
I have joked for years about wanting to be a white glove gaffer. The past year, I was anything but a white glove gaffer. It seems like more jobs have smaller crews meaning more work for everyone including me.
The
white gloves are real. Chance, my assistant chief lighting technician
(which sounds much better than "best boy") on Extremely Wicked,
Shockingly Evil, And Vile gave me the gloves as a wrap present and
joke. I love the presentation case!
Most of my new year cards have featured a lot of photoshopping. On this year's card, there is none. The card looks great without it.
I did make some photoshopped versions. Santa hats have been a tradition. I did some demos with hats, but it didn't add anything. Likewise, I put the picture on a TV with Dick Mikemann Show captions, but again, it didn't add anything to the picture. It's funny as it is.
It wasn't easy picking a picture for my new year card this year. I had many great pictures to choose from.
Here is one of the pictures:
Here
is another picture I was thinking of using. It is me working in the
rain at night on a movie in Arkansas. It's a great picture. (Thanks
Solomon!)
Happy New Year 2021:
We all looked ridiculous on set this past year, me included. I hoping by this summer that we will once again be able to work together without wearing masks like we are hiding our identities.
Most years, I have several possible ideas for a card. Here is an unfinished demo of one idea that I didn't use:
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| Things Are Looking Up! |
I like it enough to put it on the back of my 2021 card.
Happy New Year 2020:
This
card is a funny picture of me standing-in on-set. Originally I had a
title on the TV; "Bedtime Stories With Dick Mikemann." My wife said, it
was pervy. I removed it. The TV set has been recycled from my 2018
card. It's the same Santa hat that I have been using for many years.
If you look carefully, I even photoshopped it on the monitor screen.
Happy New Year 2019:
This card has me standing in front of my fictional store front.
Telautamatic is a misspelling (?) from Nikola Tesla himself in a letter. Brilliant beyond our understanding, he had a philosophy or concept that he called The Art of Telautomatics. He believed he could visualize something and make it real:
"The possibilities of will power and self-control appeal tremendously to my vivid imagination . . . until finally my will and wish become identical. They are so today, and in this lies the secret of whatever success I have achieved.
My imaginings were equivalent to realities."
Nikola Tesla
He
famously described how he visualized the 3-phase alternating current
electric motor in his mind. Then he built it and it was real.
The inventor of our modern alternating electric system, Tesla is a hero to all set electricians.
Happy New Year 2018:
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| Unpopular Television Shows |
I
love this silly card with the mythical Dick Mikemann Show. The
original card had the caption at the bottom, "Unpopular Television
Shows". The only thing real in this card is me standing in overalls
holding some speedrail. The dolphins are a great touch which put the
card over-the-top silly. It was my wife's idea.
Happy New Year 2017:
Another new year card with the mythical Dick Mikeman Show. (Yes, I know. I've been inconsistent with the spelling of Mikeman; sometimes I use Mikemann.) The silly picture in the TV is real. Only the Santa hats have been photoshopped. It's me and a grip standing-in on set at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
A great thing about my work is sometimes I get to go places and meet people that I would have never otherwise had a chance to do.
Many years ago, I was standing on the sideline of the Bengal's practice field while working on a job for ESPN. The legendary Paul Brown walked up and we started talking. I was wearing a University of Kentucky jacket. He asked if I had played for UK. (I'm a UK fan so I can say this; even if I had played for UK, back in those days, I might have said, no!) I laughed and said no. I told him I had never played football. We then talked for around 20 minutes like best friends even though I was just a grip on the job. He was humble and friendly. He was an amazing person.
Happy New Year 2016:
 |
Best Year Ever! |
It
really was one of my best work years ever. I had a lot of great
pictures but not many ideas. I ended up using a collage. It is mostly
various pictures of me on-set.
First, I have to disappoint you, that is not a naked man. He is wearing a body suit. I pixelated the picture making it go from funny to hilarious.
The
center picture is me working on lighting for NASCAR: American Speed.
It is the unfinished set of the owner's box from Dayton Raceway circa
1970. The track outside the window is an LED screen. It looked real.
It was like looking out a window; the clouds were moving and cars were
driving around the track. To simulate skylight coming into the room,
there's a row of 4K pars with chimeras over the screen.
The
rig is a mogul socket paper lantern holder I invented. Spring loaded
tabs grip the paper lantern. I made a dozen of these and have used them
many times. I thought of selling them, but never was motivated enough
to try.
The
applebox that says "gaffer": Day 1 of American Speed, Bailey the key
grip walks up with this applebox with the label on it. It was a seat
for me he explained. The grips would bring it to me on-set every day.
It's a little thing, but it was awesome, too. On a movie, I'm on my
feet all the time. It was great to have a seat handy whenever I got the
chance to rest my feet.
Happy New Year 2015:
For new year 2015, I made 2 cards. I mailed them randomly. It was just chance which card you might get.
The dinosaur card is from a commercial at the Columbus Zoo, for an animatronic dinosaur exhibit. There's that Santa hat again on T-Rex. I love the look on my face. I hope I don't look that grumpy all the time. I think I was just deep in thought about something with the lighting.
On my other card is the mythical Dick Mikeman Show for the first time. The picture is from a set for American Genius. The DP asked me to do flat, bad, TV lighting for this set. (He got the right gaffer for that!) This is the actual test picture for the DP to see my handy-work. Most of the background has been photoshopped. Yes, the DP was pleased. This is also the first appearance of this TV. It has reappeared in later cards with subtle changes.
Happy New Year 2014:
One of my favorite new year cards, this is me at Jim Beam Distillery lighting for a job with Kid Rock. The legendary Fred Noe was there that day, too. The bourbon ads have been photoshopped and of course, the Santa hat.
Happy New Year 2013:
I'm sitting in an electric chair on the set of American Genius. I mailed a handful of these cards. Then I had a change of heart that some people were going to be offended. Like the Beatles infamous butcher shop album cover, this probably does cross a line. So I made a new card. (If you have one of the original cards it is very rare! I couldn't have mailed more than a dozen of these.)
Here's my new card that I sent to most people:
I'm on set on a hospital shoot where we had to wear gowns and masks. There were probably some people offended by this card, too.
I have to give credit to Miles for taking a great picture.
Happy New Year 2012:
My card for 2012 is another collage. The bottom center picture is on-set of The Men Who Built America. We are all smiling, but it was an awful day. We were working in the rain all day.
Yes that is a real pony on the bottom right. And yes, I am not putting my weight on the poor little animal.
Upper right was a commercial on Cinco de Mayo. Production gave everyone mustaches.
The
upper left picture if me standing-in with the costume that the talent
was going to be wearing. I happen to be wearing one of my favorite
tee-shirts. Years ago, I worked on something like 16 Lowe's commercials
in Knoxville, TN. It was like working on a movie. At wrap, a girl
from the art department (I am so disappointed that I can't remember her
name.) gave everyone tee-shirts that she had made. The saying "Where in
the world are you?" is an inside joke from the shoot. There were 2
crews, "real world" which shot the live action, and a 2nd crew which
only shot products on a white background, we called "white world".
Happy New Year 2011!
I
had a lot of fun photoshopping this card of my "gaffer-mobile". The
graphics were a huge amount of work. The image had over 30 layers!
I made an interesting discovery with the original picture. If you look closely at the window you see something kind of smudging, or fog on the window, but not a bad thing. I enlarged the image to see what was going on there. I could see that someone had used their finger to blur something unwanted that was reflected in the window. It must have been done at some point in the processing. I could actually make out some finger prints. It was a clever way to hide an unwanted reflection by a skilled photographer. It is like an early version of photoshop!
Happy New Year 2010!
I
had no ideas for 2010. I came up with re-visiting Pee Pa Pa's, my
original new year card adding a new picture of myself. It's nostalgic.
Happy New Year 2009:
I giggled to myself when I made this card. I'm standing at a lost & found at Holiday World in Indiana. I worked as a gaffer on commercials for them for years. They were great jobs. The people there were awesome and the commercials were fun.
Sadly, there were changes in the management at Holiday World, and the company I worked for lost the contract. It's sad, but you see it all the time in our business. There will be some change with a company like a new person in charge of commercials, then the production company loses the contract. There's no loyalty for years for great work.
A
post-script, I saw their new commercial the following year. It
obviously cost more to produced but it was not a good commercial.
One
last post-script, I am disappointment that I cannot find an original
high-resolution picture of this card. All I have is a lower resolution
copy from my old website.
Happy New Year 2008!
It's not the Dick Mikeman Show, but even better, it's Grips & Gaffers! I think this is my first card with a mythical television show.
Happy New Year 2007!
Apologies to Arnold! I took a sports cartoon and turned it into my card for 2007.
Happy New Year 2006!
The police car background picture was taken while I was working on another Holiday World commercial in Santa Claus, IN. This card is my first fully photoshopped card. I like it.
Happy New Year 2005!
I think this could have been one of my funniest cards, but unfortunately, the picture was taken with a cheap digital camera. The resolution is terrible! You can't even tell that I am wearing a catfish hat.
Happy New Year 2004:
My
father-in-law died just before Christmas this year. I ended up not
making or mailing any cards. This picture is the unfinished demo that I
had been working on. I liked the idea of a bubble caption with me
thinking the "West Virginia" equation while getting shocked. The cutout
is sloppy and needed to be refined. I never got around to a
background.
Happy New Year 2003:
Captions make this a funny card.
It's me working on a small studio job. Typical for little jobs like this I was probably gaffer/key/electric/grip/and sometimes PA. It's funny to see myself with a tool belt. I haven't worn one in years.
Happy New Year 2002:
The background is a popular picture from that year, the so called "Pillars of Creation" taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Inside the card was this great, profound quote from Lewis Thomas:
The probability of any one of us being here is so small
that you would think the mere fact of existence would keep us all in a
contented dazzlement of surprise.
Lewis Thomas
This card is the last year I used the "South Park style" of making images by cutting out photographs and photographing the composite.
Happy New Year 2001:
Happy New Year 2000:
This is a picture of Comet Hale-Bopp I took. It was a once-in-a-lifetime comet. You could plainly see it even in the city. Spectacular.
I
you were alive on new year's eve at the start of the new millennium, it
seemed like everything was right with the world and getting better.
Comet Hale-Bopp seemed like it had been a herald of a new age.
The inside of my card had this hopefully poem:
now
Happy New Year 1999:
This is another 'South Park style' card; different pictures are cutout and the composite photographed. It is one of my favorites from over the years.
Happy New Year 1998:
This is where it all started. This is my first card from new year 1998. I am amazed how much younger I look.
This is a silly nonsensical card with me cleaning a Santa hat. The card was made "South Park style". It is different photographs cutout and the composite photographed.
The year before, I had worked for a company called, The Texas Crew. They were awesome. They sent me a funny new year card, and continued to send them for many years. It is a brilliant way to reach out and say 'Hi'.
I 'stole' the idea. I've been sending out a card every year since. It's to the point people expect to get the card. Years when I've been slow to get the cards mailed, I've even gotten emails saying, "Hey I didn't get your card".
Pee
Pa Pa's was (maybe still is?) a real place in Chattanooga, TN. I was
at a traffic light in Chattanooga. I looked out the window to see Pee
Pa Pa's. My 35mm camera was next to me. I quickly took a picture of
this funny place before the light changed.
Weren't
35mm cameras awesome? I would have never gotten the picture with a
digital camera. I would have had to wait for it to boot, etc. With a
35mm, I could take a picture anytime in a split second and they looked
great.