Yesterday I got to shoot footage at the Washington State Fire Fighter Academy during training sessions with Bob Pennington for a great project he and Jen are doing through their company Rhizome Designs. It was cold and wet but we got some great footage. It was rather surreal sitting by the big door of their training building where they had live fires and new recruits getting real experience fighting fires, with their masks and the view I had through my camera it was like I was filming in the trenches during World War I.
This winter our film making team (Sandy Asher, Kris Browne and myself) has completed the first phase of making our documentary on the story of wildlife passages came to be included in major highway renovations on I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass.
We now have ten new interviews filmed with people from all angles of the story: Brian White and Randy Giles of WSDOT, Patty Garvey Darda and Peter Singleton of the US Forest Service, Washington State Senator Curtis King of Yakima, Representative Judy Clibborn of Mercer Island, conservation leaders Mitch Friedman of Conservation Northwest, Jon Hoekstra of Mountains to Sound Greenway, and Gene Duvernoy of Forterra, and Janet Ray of AAA.
Additionally, I’ve spent many days shooting footage on the ground and in the air, flying with LightHawk pilot Lane Gormley and UAV operator Richard Gillette.
We are excited to begin shaping our story and to continue filming through the coming months. The film is scheduled to be completed later in 2017.
In recent times I took to the air for two projects shooting aerial footage, the first being for Forterra. Forterra is a fantastic conservation organization working to both protect lands and enhance communities living on them. I flew with Charlie Raines, Director of Forest Conservation, and pilot Lane Gormley of LightHawk, up the Great Northern Corridor which runs up from Everett, WA, up to Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains, following US Hwy 2 and the Snohomish and Skykomish Rivers. We documented a number of sites along the way where Forterra is making an impact for Washington State residents and wildlife.
The other flight was to capture footage of I-90 from Seattle up to Snoqualmie Pass for “Cascade Crossroads”, the documentary I’m working on for the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. While it was a challenge fighting some stubborn clouds, with Lane’s expert piloting I got some gorgeous footage showing why this particular point in the Cascades is so special.
I can't say enough great things about the work and generosity of LightHawk, an organization of pilots who donate flight time and resources for environmental causes. Thank you Christine and Lane!
So cool to have my 3D video, "Eventually They Melt" featuring music and performance by Seattle artist London James, is playing in the LA 3D Movie Festival this weekend. The festival is organized by Eric Kurland, who is also the creative energy behind the 3-D Space as well. Other 3D gems showing this weekend include Nick Cave's new film 'Once More With Feeling', which I hope to see soon as I suspect it's pretty intense...
In June, the one and only Lamborghini opened a new high tech carbon fiber research lab in Seattle. I was excited to cover the ribbon-cutting event for Centigrade Inc. as CEO Stefano Domenicali joined with Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee in announcing the grand opening, and excited again to be asked to edit a sizzle reel for Lamborghini's web site.
It's amazing what they're working on in the lab. You can see in the video a snippet of a new carbon fiber fabric that Lamborghini will actually use in the interior of one of their cars instead of leather.
It was also fun to have my former Microsoft colleague Craig Mathewson join me, since Craig and I are veterans of many years of Detroit Auto Show coverage for MSN Autos from years back.
Many thanks to Perry Stern and the crew of Automotive Content Experience, as well as Kevin Fisher of Centigrade!
I'm extremely excited to have been commissioned by the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition to create a documentary that details an amazing story that is unfolding at Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Working with producing partners Kris Browne and Sandy Asher, the documentary will be about how a broad coalition of environmental organizations, the US Forest Service and other government agencies, and Washington State Department of Transportation collaborated to incorporate wildlife bridges into major highway improvements on Interstate 90, one of the Pacific Northwest's major transportation corridors. The highway intersects with a critical wildlife corridor that connects protected lands like Mount Rainier National Park and Alpine Lakes Wilderness, cutting through the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. It's a connection that is even more important with the effects of climate change now in evidence.
While the documentary is currently in the earliest stages, filming will be happening throughout the summer of 2016 and beyond, with simultaneous efforts in fundraising commencing now as well. For information on how to contribute, please visit the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition web site.
You can also follow the progress of both the project and the documentary here and at the Cascade Crossroads Facebook page. Additional information about the project can be found on the WSDOT web site.
Here's a recent photo of the progress on the first wildlife overpass---a bridge dedicated for wildlife to cross over the highway, complete with native vegetation, which will be completed in 2018.
File under: I Love My Job
There's nothing better than over the top client feedback after you've completed a project. Collaborating with Michael Murphy Productions on an event video for the Washington State Association for Justice, we received the following feedback after the video was shown before an audience of over 500 people at the Seattle Westin Hotel:
"People uniformly thought it was the highlight of the evening--upstaging the Governor and other guest speakers...people loved the music, the format, the style, lots of laughs...the Westin had four extra large screens, and so it was large and played well. People liked it so much that many wanted a copy. You guys were a HIT! Thanks"
Here's a photo from the Westin:
Earlier this year, my sometime producing partner Kris Browne and I completed a project for Microsoft that I'm very proud of. It was a case study, and while case studies don't always have a central human story element, this one was touching. It showcased how Daphne Stigliano and The Boys & Girls Club in Ft. Worth, TX, were using Microsoft's Power BI software to get new perspectives on their data, and using that new information to improve the programs they offer for their community's children, including literacy and physical activities, among others. They were helped by Doyenne360's Kristian Rickard, who also was a tremendous help to us on this project. We were also supported by Dallas DP Mikon Haaksman. It was a satisfying project to complete, happy ending and all.
Read more about the story and see the video at Microsoft's Customer Stories web page.
Spent a morning shooting a skit with Joel McHale and Chris Cashman for Up Late NW...
