We are excited and proud to announce that the Independent Television Service (ITVS) has granted major funding support for The Guardians. The funds will allow us to complete both production and post-production on the film, which we’ve been working on since the beginning of 2014. ITVS is an ideal co-production partner for The Guardians because of its mission to fund independent films that bring underrepresented stories to public television audiences.
Through our work, we’ve been lucky enough to visit some of the most beautiful and amazing spots on the planet. I’ve tried to capture my sense of wonder, awe and inspiration through photography, whether it be images of elephants crossing the Maasai Mara, a tranquil bamboo forest in Kyoto, or prayer flags flapping in the Himalayan winds. Now I’ve made my favorite images available for sale.
Lately there seems to be a mad rush for visual content; the more the better. As a creator, I can’t help but celebrate the increasing appreciation for visual stories. But the glut of content that’s feeding this insatiable desire is also creating a lot of white noise that’s hard to break through. The solution? Certainly stronger, more visual stories. But also finding and understanding your audience. Who are the people that are going to engage with your content and take the actions necessary to advance your mission? Below are some ways to find and know them:
Think back to your favorite stories, what you remember and love about them most. In Winnie-the-Pooh, I fondly recall Pooh’s naivety and Eeyore’s persistent pessimism. As a pair, they were charming antidotes for the other’s limitations. Quirkiness and the exposure of fatal flaws are what make great on-screen moments, but it’s really action that makes character come alive. What decisions do the characters make at moments of trial that reveal something about who they are? Perhaps it even reveals something about ourselves? If you can achieve both, you’ve achieved storytelling gold. And that’s what effective nonprofit videos are all about. Below are the questions you should ask when casting good characters for your non-profit video production:
It’s a misty June morning in the mountains of Michoacan, Mexico. A group of men, women and children from the indigenous community of Donaciano Ojeda gather by a veritable mountain of pine saplings, wooden boxes in hand. Tree-carpeted mountains loom behind them, hued more blue than green due to the cast of rain clouds. It was only just yesterday that they’d been given word that reforestation would start at 7am. So they’ve dropped everything to plant up to 60,000 pine and oyamel trees to regrow destroyed areas of the forest.
Our latest work-in-progress film Las Vigilancias (The Guardians) is the story of one indigenous community’s fight to preserve the forest home which they share with the threatened monarch butterfly in central Mexico.
We are going to Mexico! While we’re sad to miss the lovely warm beaches on this particular trip, we’re excited to go to the the mountainous region of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, which straddles the states of Mexico & Michoacan.
One of the great fortunes of living in Washington, DC is being able to walk down to the National Gallery of Art, enter at no cost, and wander the grand halls to view a rare Van Gogh. I did that on a recent Saturday and after viewing “Green Wheat Fields,” I happened upon an an exhibit of the photography of Charles Marville, a relatively obscure French photographer from the mid-1800s. Click to read more about how Marville’s photography photography captured a changing Paris.
Social media saturates our everyday lives to the point of ubiquity, yet its visual role in film and television is still evolving. A few years ago, if a character were to receive a text message, email or tweet, the words would appear in large unrealistic text on the screen of their iPhone. But now, media makers are being more bold and pronounced in their depiction of social media interactions on screen. Click through to learn more about how we integrated social media into our latest piece.
We tend to remember music, even tunes we’ve heard for only a brief moment. Their melody sticks to our memory, and while we may not recall where we heard it, we do remember how it made us feel. That’s what’s so magical about music, and it’s what we hope to achieve with our films and videos. Our audience may not remember the names of our characters, what they wore, nor exactly what they said. But if they remember how that story made them feel, we’ve met our goal as filmmakers. Just as strong characters, a good story, stunning visuals and immersive sound design helps to accomplish this goal, so does well composed music. Click through to read more about how music is used as a narrative tool and to hear about process from composer Doug Kaufman.
This Fall, we teamed up with German based NGO Malteser International to produce an identity video that would introduce their organization to an American audience, just as they open new offices in Miami, FL. Click through to view the video and read more about our approach.
There’s a lot of exciting news to share about our latest independent film, Fate of A Salesman! We premiered our film to the DC community, and followed that with a local broadcast premiere on WHUT, all with fantastic reviews in the press. We’re looking forward to a national PBS broadcast in late winter and upcoming screenings at the St. Louis International Film Festival & The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum! Click through to see photos and read more!