Every year we create dozens of short profiles and short subject documentaries for a wide range of companies. Each brings different challenges.
Playtex
It may not make for great TV, but someone’s gotta market Diaper Genie, and when Playtex turned to us, we took a deep breath and said we’re in.
For this six-part series, we identified and cast three families with multiples under three years old. Triplets, two sets of twins, and triplets and a three year-old. We shot with them in highly innovative situations – helmet cams for the kids, moms racing against the clock to see how fast they could get their kids out of the house, Diaper Nightmares (including re-enactments – awesome!).
The series capitalized on the fascination that mothers-to-be have with triplets. While Diaper Genies were around all the houses, our focus was to create funny, compelling, and honest content with these families, and Playtex was thrilled with the results.
Sometimes it takes the most creative thinking to market difficult consumer goods, and in the end, meeting the challenges of this project was something the entire studio enjoyed. And Playtex hired us again – this time, to cast and shoot a family visiting New York for Wet Ones. It may not make for great TV, but someone’s gotta…
Carrie Johnson Story
Olympic kayaker Carrie Johnson has Crohn’s Disease, and we were asked by the international pharmaceutical company UCB to develop a short piece about her experiences with the illness as she prepared for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sprint kayaking involves balancing on a flimsy boat and moving at top speeds. It requires an extraordinary combination of upper body power and deep core strength. Seeking to connect viewers to kayaking, we created an innovative radio lavalier attachment and miked her wirelessly from a follow boat.
The resulting audio creates a high-impact, emotional connection between the viewer and subject. Rather than just watching her on her boat, we hear her in the boat, hear her heartbeat, hear her labored breathing, hear how hard she’s working to compete globally. It may look beautiful, but she’s gasping for air.
Our innovative audio approach was featured in the newsletter of Professional Sound Services for its innovation, and UCB has hired us again, this time for an international design and science documentary project which is currently in post-production at the studio.
GlaxoSmithKline
Another recent pharmaceutical project was a 16-part series about four women and their journeys with cervical cancer. This project involved extensive pre-interviews, casting, scouting, and working nationally to develop in-depth stories in Colorado, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and California about highly sensitive and personal experiences.
To sustain and build a connection between viewers and our subjects, we delved into their everyday lives, building out their experiences – one works with autistic children in a group home, one is a Jew for Jesus – and then creating new questions to end each episode.
This fall, we will be creating a new series of documentary shorts for GlaxoSmithKline on the same subject for the launch of Cervarix, GSK’s cure for cervical cancer.
Alfred University
When Alfred University wanted to rebuild its interactive presence, we pitched a convergence of online and spots, utilizing their interactive budget to shoot two spots for multi-platform use. Each spot glorified the fantastic lives of one of their students.
The spots formed the lead content on the Alfred home page and played in regional markets throughout the northeast. Alfred loved the spots and their impact on alumni and prospects so much that they quickly asked us to create two more.
The entire campaign won Best of Show at the International Admission Marketing Awards, the premier showcase for the very best in college marketing.