You hear a lot about Midtown. About downtown. And for good reason– there’s a lot of development going on. Often you hear the gripes of residents in the city aiming to turn the lens of the camera from that glistening hope to the neighborhoods where the real growth needs to occur in order for the city to move forward. So naturally, when we were asked by TechTown to make a video on a program they are doing in Brightmoor, we got a little excited to be a part of telling that story.
As Crain’s explains in this article, TechTown took the video to Chicago for the Clinton Global initiative and “wowed” the crowd. Leslie Smith, CEO of TT, presented the piece. We were so excited and honored to have been a part of relaying such a fine message about Detroit for such a respected national event. See the full video here:
For the past month we’ve been working with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and NextGen Detroit to create a piece for their 2013 campaign. The challenge was to create a movie piece that helps the viewer understand the work they do providing resources to support the efforts of 18 local agencies. These things include youth engagement, early childhood development, senior services and much more. We were honored to work with them and are very proud of the video. Check it out when you have a few minutes:
Whew. We’ve emerged from the holidays which is good news.
2012 was a good year– we grew as an operation considerably as we continue to grow in to our “agency” shoes bringing on three new people to help on the media production side with film, print and motion graphics. Our work appeared in a commercial in front of 12 million people during the World Series. We grew our client base some 300%. We made a documentary that toured the world screening in 12 different countries with notable festival inclusions like Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. As such, we continue to shape the narrative coming out of Detroit and we are very proud of that.
For 2013 we’ve got lots of new and interesting projects on the burner. We’re still gathering our guns with the remote control race car track at the Georgia Street Community Garden (more info on that here). You’ll continue to see client work in the familiar areas– for Model D TV, the Urban Innovation Exchange and Creative Mornings Detroit– and some new work with clients that spans familiar and new. We’re designing a large graphic wall for a Michigan-based agency at the moment which is pretty fun, and working with two large Detroit-based companies to put together some ads for the work they do across the country. Not too bad.
So, Happy New Year of course. And cheers to a great 2012 and an even better 2013.
We’ve been fortunate enough to chronicle the growth and evolution of the Green Garage over the last couple years in Detroit and have put together a piece looking at their work in the city for the Urban Innovation Exchange. The Green Garage is primarily a co-working office space Midtown, but the building itself is pretty amazing– specifically the fashion in which it was renovated. In 1920 it was a Model T showroom, but beginning in 2008 Peggy and Tom Brennan started its rebirth as a fixture in the community. Over the next three years they conducted a zero waste renovation project which implies that essentially nothing was put in the dumpster in the renovation. Old drain pipes are now rails for the staircase, flooring was re-planed and made in to decorative shelving, shingle and tar materials were sold to the state to go in to paving roads, etc. Pretty incredible. Listen to Peggy talk about the building and the community that is formulating around it, giving Detroit’s entrepreneurial community a nice spark.
We were pleased to shot some of the footage used in Quicken Loans’ “Made in Detroit” TV spot featuring Kid Rock. It aired during Game 4 of the World Series just after Cabrera smashed a two-run home run to give the Tigs the lead. The ad kept the momentum going when it appeared, though unfortunately, the series didn’t end in our favor. That said, the commercial stands as testament to the momentum and cool things happening in the city right now. Check it out here:
For almost a quarter century– geez, that sounds pretty intense– John George has demonstrated boundless energy in the pursuit of making Detroit a more livable and friendly city with his organization Motor City Blight Busters. How? By working to re-activate the 100,000 vacant parcels and structures throughout Detroit by eliminating blight. To be around this guy is like somehow having a direct line of adrenaline tapped in to your carotid artery. He is a machine, speaking only in progress and efficiency. His relentless vision and never-say-die attitude represent the possibility that this city holds if each of us were to take but just a smidgen of his tenacity.
The last few weeks have been pleasantly busy with two new clients coming our way for film production services that we were pretty excited about.
We teamed up with Skidmore Studio (we did a piece on them for the Speakers Bureau when they moved their offices downtown– see that here) to shoot and direct content for a client of theirs called Abraxas Worldwide. The project entailed shooting employee testimonials that went in to a promo piece that opens the website and then little pieces throughout the site that guide users through Abraxas’ process and capability. Pretty cool. See that piece here:
Next, some work we did for Kiva Detroit. They disperse micro-loans to businesses throughout southeast Michigan in cases where traditional lenders usually will not intervene. A micro-loan is typically $1-5,000 and is paid back by the recipient over and agreed upon timeframe. What’s really cool is that the source of the loan comes from citizen lenders who want to support the business. Unlike something like Kickstarter, however, the lender gets their money back. We were really excited to do a piece for them that will be used internally to garner support for some of their upcoming programs, and will also be housed on their website for promo purposes:
The latest in the series of short films we’ve been doing for the Urban Innovation Exchange was released today. The piece looks at Soh Suzuki and his work with DAY Project, an organization focused on mentoring Asian American youth.
For more of the work we’ve done with UIX, head over to their website.
