August 16, 2010

Principle photography completed on Spectrum Health project

We just wrapped four intense days of filming for Spectrum Health Continuing Care. The project required over 100 extras, all provided by Spectrum Health… staff, family, friends, etc. In addition the production required filming in a home, 3 floors at the Fuller Avenue location and two days at multiple locations throughout the Kalamazoo Avenue location. Once edited the footage will be used to produce nine separate videos that will be shown on the internal Spectrum Health network, as well as offered on each of the Continuing Care individual program’s web sites, such as Visiting Nurses Association, Special Care Hospital, and Hospice and Palliative Care. Despite the week being one of the hottest of the summer, and some really long days, the crew and staff of Continuing Care all worked great together to make for an exceptional shoot. Post production is now underway with editing taking about two weeks. Look for updates on this project in the near future.

July 20, 2010

July – A month of preproduction and post production

We are currently in post production on the Water Security Project. There are two segments to the project: Introduction and Training, and the Exercise portion. We have completed editing on the Exercise portion and now are waiting on client review. We will be posting this segment as soon as we finalize the edit. We still have another day of filming “talking heads” and then post production on the Introduction and Training portions. Look for a video posting soon.

We are in preproduction on a large multi-video project for Spectrum Health highlighting their Continuing Care services. These services include Hospice and Palliative Care, Subacute Rehab and Visiting Nurses Association. Shooting will be early next month, so look for production stills from that shoot mid-next month. Post production will quickly follow with delivery slated for early September. Once completed the eight videos will be available on the Spectrum Health Continuing Care web site, as well as play on the SH internal TV system, and used for orientation.

We continue to work with Spectrum Health PR department, producing monthly video new releases. We have just finished the latest VNR highlighting Makoplasty. This robotic assisted procedure uses 3D imaging to assist surgeons in pinpointing arthritis, allowing them to precisely remove the damaged tissue. Pretty amazing technology.

We are in very early production on a project for the Spectrum Health Blodgett Re-Grand Opening. This is slated for an early September shoot with the event taking place in early October. More to come on this.

In association with Storytelling Pictures, we have also been awarded a complex project for Amway. Unfortunately this project, slated for summer production, has been pushed back a bit due to some internal leadership changes at Amway. We’ll post more once the project restarts, and gains further definition.

June 22, 2010

Day 2 & 3 filming complete on Water Security Project

Day 2 and 3 were used to film special effects, dramatic scenes and underwater model filming. The special effects scenes were shot multiple times with a locked down camera to allow for post production layering. John Despres from Scene It All Production provided the custom built equipment designed to launch a variety of projectiles through the shots. These included everything from a catapult to throw bricks, to leaf blowers to propel flour and peas. (Special care was taken to use bio degradable materials for projectiles.) For another scene, a pick-up truck was used to yank a 8′X8′ fence section through the frame, to give the illusion it was propelled by the blast.

The last day of shooting was spent in Cedar Lake in Jenison, filming a scale model of the underwater blast-damaged intake. We used the new Kodak Playsport HD video camera for the underwater scenes. This amazing little camera shoots 1080i HD footage and is safe up to 3 meters underwater. Its compact size allowed us to “fly” around the model, with out having to employ and deal with prepping and shooting with a larger HD camera in an underwater housing.

Post production is underway and will take the better part of July. We still have another day of “talking-head” shooting to complete as well. Tentative show delivery date is September 1. We’ll post various segments over the next two months as we complete them. And check back here often for other projects currently in preproduction. We currently have three Spectrum Health projects and an Amway project in the preproduction pipeline.

June 13, 2010

Day 1 Filming complete on Water Security project

The first day of shooting of the Water Security project utilized two separate crews: one on the water, and one on land. The water crew was made up of three camera ops, an underwater camera op, special effects coordinator and the director. On land, three camera ops, an assistant director and a make-up artist, rounded out the crew. This first day required the filming a full scale exercise shot in real time, concurrently on land and on the water. The exercise included the involvement of the following agencies: US Coast Guard, Ottawa County Sheriff’s Dept., Kent County Sheriff’s Dept, Grand Haven Twp. Fire Dept, GR Police Department, GR Water Treatment, North Ottawa Community Hospital, Ottawa County Technical Rescue Team, GR Fire Dept., Michigan State Police, FBI, and Dept. of Homeland Security.

After filming the real time exercise, both crews moved into filming b-roll including water special effects and reenactments of various segments of the exercise. The morning started out foggy, with 2-3′ swells on the water. By mid-morning the sun was out, and the big lake had calmed. We have already begun editing the exercise rough cut, but still have two more days of shooting to round out the production. Stay tuned for more updates.

May 27, 2010

Underwater filming with the Kent County Sheriff’s Dept. dive team

We are currently working on a complex project in conjunction with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security and regional critical infrastructure stake holders. In preparation, we recently conducted some underwater test-filming on Lake Michigan with the Kent County Sheriff’s dive team. Production begins next month and takes place over three separate days. In addition to underwater filming the production requires land filming as well as underwater and land-based special effect explosions.

Here are some production stills from our test dive filming.

Kent County Sheriff’s Dept. dive team.


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The ROV sends video top-side to the operator.


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The ROV nicknamed K.E.R.M.I.T.


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Jeff Timmerman (JT) underwater camera operator and with underwater camera.


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Returning to port.

May 21, 2010

Pearson Creative Supports Waterfront Film Festival

Earlier this year Steve Steketee of SteketeeGreiner and company and I were working on a project for National Heritage Academies. We had to drive to Flint for the shoot so we had a a couple of hours in the car on the ride over. He was telling me about his annual volunteer work for the Waterfront Film Festival where he created these short, but cool animated bumpers that ran between the films. They were designed partially as entertaining filler, but also with a simple message asking people to volunteer at the festival. In our discussion the question was posed “why not do something bigger this year?” Thus was born the idea to shoot three 30 second bumpers that parody film genre’s. Through the early spring, Steve and I worked on scripting the three bumpers focusing on the genre’s of Mystery, Melodrama and Action. I then went to work calling in favors with cast and crew members I’ve worked with over the years. As is typical with our West Michigan production community, many talented people stepped up and volunteered their time, talent, expertise and equipment for a single day, 16 hour shoot. Attached are some of the production stills from the day.

A special thanks to crew members: Peter Sensor-DP, Derek Street-AC, Sean Quashnie-Sound, Brett Sorensen-Boom Op, Brett Biemers-Gaffer, Matt Lowing-Key Grip, Lowing Light and Grip for the equipment, and Pete for bringing out is Canon D70, DSLR and all his toys. Special thanks to the cast: Joe Anderson, Aimee Workman, Kyle Harris, Todd Herring, Craig Powers and Amy McFadden.

I’ll post a follow up blog with the links to the finished spots as soon as they are ready. Also you can check them out at the Waterfront Film Festival, June 10-13 in Saugatuck, MI.

Melodrama


Melodrama – Director Steve Steketee discusses scene with Aimee Workman and Joe Anderson

Action


Action – Actor Todd Herring exits the vehicle in a scene being shot by DP, Peter Sensor. Director, Steve Steketee stands to his right, and Sound Tech, Sean Quashnie records in the foreground left.

Mystery 1


Myster 1 – Amy McFadden and Craig Powers running their scene in a 1948 Ford.

Mystery 2


Mystery 2 – DP, Peter Sensor adjusts settings on the DSLR. Director, Steve Steketee, provides last minute direction. Key Grip, Matt Lowing in background.

Mystery 3


Mystery 3 – Just a wee bit too much “fog” for the scene.

April 28, 2010

Case Study: E-Kiosk project for Dow Wire & Cable

We recently wrapped production on an E-Kiosk and E-Billboard project for Dow Wire & Cable. Howe Marketing Communications was the agency for the project. These media tools were designed for use at the WIRE Trade Show in Dusseldorf, Germany and the IEEE Trade Show in New Orleans.

For our use the term E-Billboard simply refers to a 42″, 55″ or 60″ flat screen, strategically built into the front of the Dow Wire & Cable trade show booth. Working with Dow Chemical’s Studio 2020 we built a two minute looping, graphic heavy, video designed to draw traffic into the booth by communicating Dow Wire & Cable’s core competencies. The on-screen phrasing was designed to be read in three to five second increments by passing show attendees. We repurposed video from other Dow shoots we produced in Texas, New Jersey, and North Carolina, as well as video from shoots we produced in Germany and Japan.

The E-Kiosk is a hard drive linked to a 22″ screen and manned by a Dow Wire & Cable Sales rep. We produced and designed the media that provided the interactive experience for visitors to the Dow booth. This was a mouse driven E-Kiosk, however we have also designed touch screens for this purpose as well.

The E-Kiosk contained a screen saver that utilized components from the E-Billboard video. The menu items were a Product Finder, Literature, and links to dowwireandcable.com, dowinside.com and dow.com. The Product Finder was an ISO file that was captured for local access, and also allowed for direct link to the web based Product Finder. Literature was broken into two segment options. One for European use, and one for North American use.

We designed a hidden link for set up at the trade shows that allowed Dow users to choose which Literature documents would be accessible, based on their location. The Literature was all in .pdf format. They could be accessed and referred to by the sales reps while talking with potential customers, and even printed if the customer preferred. The links to the various web sites allowed for direct access from the booth to the web. However, due to the chance that internet access could be interrupted, each site was also captured on the E-Kiosk for local use if necessary. This option was also available through the hidden set-up link.

Understanding that the Dow representatives wouldn’t use the E-Kiosk if it was overly complex, the E-Kiosk was intentionally designed to be very simple, and user friendly, while still incorporating the Dow Wire & Cable branding colors, fonts, style, etc. The E-Kiosk and the E-Billboard were each deemed a great success at the trade shows and found to be extremely functional and easy to use by the sales staff.

The menu page from the E-Kiosk:

If you are interested in learning more about E-Billboards or E-Kiosks for your organization, please call us or send an email. We’d love the opportunity show you what we can do.

March 23, 2010

Introducing our new web site

Pearson Creative is proud to unveil our new web site. The new site has an expanded, easier to use portfolio page, that includes new video samples. Also new to the site is a “Clients” page, as well as this blog. We will be posting here often; whether it’s to discuss industry related topics, West Michigan news or just to show off our latest work through a case study and visual sample. We hope you’ll follow our posts on this blog, as well as through our social networking links. Please feel free to drop us a line or a comment… let us know what you think of our work and ideas, and of course if you have any questions or think we may be able to help you on a project please give us a call. A special thanks to Jeff Courter at Storytelling Pictures for his creative genius and programming/authoring skills, that helped to make this new site a reality.

© 2010 Pearson Creative