Opportunity International, a client of mine over at Storyspark, is celebrating 40 years of serving small-scale entrepreneurs in developing countries. I worked with them to develop the story behind the anniversary, as well as produce this short piece explaining the campaign. Props to Gord for the design and Ryan for the excellent animation.

Learn more about the campaign at ican.opportunitycan.ca.

Waiting to Belong from Storyspark on Vimeo.

Over the past several months I’ve been working with a dedicated group of people who want to see the end of the waiting generation in Canada. More than 30,000 kids in Canada are waiting for adoption – and they aim to change that.

My journey with them began by helping uncover their core story through a process I call “story finding”. We found that, though the number of waiting kids is a daunting challenge, it’s also a great opportunity. This is the first of a series of videos talking about adoption and what it means to those who experience it.

Find out more at waitingtobelong.com.

2010 Contagious Conference Opener from Storyspark on Vimeo.

The opening film for the 2010 Contagious Conference, held at the Vancouver Convention Centre and hosted by BCAIM. Produced by my new company, Storyspark. Directed by yours truly and the ingenious Dan Stewart. Awesomeness brought to you by all the Contagious Conference volunteers.

Marketers are not Advertisers – Seth Godin, 2010 Contagious Conference from Storyspark on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of filming Seth Godin in New York as part of a series of videos for the upcoming Contagious Conference. We had a great time during the interview, with Seth sharing lots of insight and new ideas about marketing, gift culture, and what it means to be a Linchpin. If you’d like to see the full interview… well, you’ll have to come to the conference for that :)

This is round two or three of a series of projects that have quietly launched my new venture, Storyspark. If you haven’t already, head over to the website to check out what it’s all about.

T-55 Test Drive on Vimeo.

A few days ago, on the rainiest August day on record, I was part of a crew that headed to Chilliwack for a test drive. Our test vehicle has a 38-litre V12 engine and weighs 40 tons: the venerable T-55.

I had to think about whether to post this. My views on war aren’t really compatible with going out to “play” with a machine like a Russian main battle tank. But at the same time, this is about making movies. And we had a lot of fun on the day. This test drive is part of a more extensive behind-the-scenes look I’m shooting for the 3rd season of Sanctuary, a Vancouver-based television series that airs on the SyFy network. I can’t say any more than that. Have a look at the video.

OnGray on Vimeo.

Recently I had the privilege of working with friend & photographer Dave Delnea on his first short film, OnGray. Conceived as a collaboration between friends, OnGray began as a photography shoot before growing to include video and a large crew of collaborators. My part was to cut the piece together and colour grade the final film. I worked with Dave to build a story out of the photographic pieces and create a colour palette signifying events within the story world. It was a lot of fun, and the finished product & website looks great!

(Alternate iPhone version)

In 2008, Lyn & Jesse Rosten and I headed to Rwanda to do the last round of filming for Rwanda: Hope Rises. Our hosts were our friends at the Wellspring Foundation for Education, a Christian non-profit working in Rwanda toward quality education. They do the hard, everyday work of training teachers, educating kids and working with headmasters & the ministry of education to deliver the best possible education to Rwandan kids. Their work is inspiring and deserves attention.

My friend and fellow creative Craig Harris just completed editing footage from that trip into a promotional film for Wellspring. The piece is a great example of collaboration at its best. A hard-working non-profit receives the combined efforts of several creative people, melded into a cohesive finished product. Have a look and let me know what you think in the comments!

This isn’t the type of work I’d normally feature here, but I’ve been prodded to give it a mention. The above video is an example of the result of the imaging workflow I helped to design for Vancouver 2010′s Olympic Torch Relay. Within a few hours of being shot, the above video was edited & available to broadcasters via satellite, to media (with stills) via the internet, and online via VANOC’s website. I worked with the team at Image Media Farm to craft the overall workflow, including video & photography ingest, data transfer and storage, editing & delivery via satellite and internet across the continent, and metadata retention and archival.

This is the largest Olympic relay yet, and it posed many design challenges. By the end of the relay, there will be 106 continuous days worth of video & photography, all of which had to be tagged and tracked for the more than 11,000 torch bearers and hundreds of cities & towns involved. The equipment had to withstand the harsh conditions of a trek across the Arctic and a travelling convoy back across the country… and all on a budget. Along with several parties needing different edited pieces out of the system and constantly changing requirements, it was a challenge – and one that I enjoyed thoroughly. Hats off to the media team on the road who do the hard daily work of putting this together.

Trailer for the documentary Rwanda: Hope Rises. More info and DVDs for sale here.

In August 2008 I travelled to Bulembu, my second trip to this small town in Swaziland, Africa. I had been a few months previously, on a photography assignment (you can see some here and here). This time, I was directing a film of the Canadian Tenors as part of the Voices for Bulembu campaign. The eventual result was this promotional video, and a mini-documentary of the Tenor’s experiences (see it here). Both films were shown as part of a series of gala events to raise money for the work of the Bulembu Foundation. It was a great success, with almost one million dollars raised over a single weekend.

Through my involvement in Bulembu I’ve gained many lifelong friends, and become part of a significant effort to transform this struggling nation. It has been a great privilege.

Many thanks to those involved. Post-production on the videos was by Jon at EXE Productions. Cinematography was by the talented Jonny Beecher. Special thanks to Kelly Walker for producing both trips and to the team at the Bulembu Foundation for their transformative work.