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.
If you’re in the non-profit sector and are interested in story, you might want to head over to recharity.ca and check out some of the content there. A few of us who spend our days working with charities have teamed together to write about the best of what works in the charitable sector. Our team includes a philanthropist, a web designer, a fundraiser, and myself (a storyteller) so it makes for some interesting dialog.
Here’s one of my latest posts, part of a series on finding your story as an organization. You can check out all of my posts here.
End the Wait from Storyspark on Vimeo.
As a follow-up to the first video, this motion graphics piece was developed by Storyspark to communicate the urgency & the simplicity of the need for families to adopt. Kudos to the excellent design & animation chops of Dan & Gordie, with the music track by Adrian Bradford. Always great to work with these talented people.
Find out more at endthewait.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.
After a shoot earlier in the year for the newly opened downtown Robert Lee YMCA, I was brought back to re-work the brand imagery for a further three of the YMCA’s family centres in Greater Vancouver. The deadline was tight (aren’t they all?). Over 5000 images shot over the last two days in time for a dozen selects, processed and ready for release tonight. Here are a few of my favourites.
What I love about shooting for the YMCA is there is such a great community vibe. Each of the centres has its own flavour & feel, and at each place the volunteers and members are more than willing to jump in and help out. Everyone featured in these photos (and for the previous RLY shoot) is someone who is part of the YMCA community in some way. There are no professional models. While this poses some problems in terms of getting advertising-ready images out of the shoot, it also lends an authentic feel to the images. I love how these turned out, and I’m looking forward to more upcoming work with the YMCA in the new year.
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
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.
A fresh wallpaper for a crisp month. Click the image to download the full-size file.
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.
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!