This co-op I opted to work for a local business (in Yellow Springs) called The Levinson Brothers as the Coordinator. The Levinson Brothers is a business that provides its clients with original content, usually, in the form of a video for publishing online to Facebook, youTube, or Vimeo; or to the client’s website.
Video Projects:
The first project we did when I came onboard was for 3M. 3M wanted a video that was musical but also described the full range of products and services they provide to their new and onboarding employees. The video was shot within a year of the date prior to the re-shoot (which I was a part of). This shoot also served as a trial project for me as a new employee to see what I knew and how I would work with a team of people I didn’t know. During the shoot, I assisted with the setup of the camera and lighting equipment, setup of the shots and the material that was included, and I served as eyes and ears on matching shot-for-shot with the previous video (production phase). After the shoot, I was responsible for editing the content to match the previous video, check edits with Joel, and send a final edit version to Joel to forward to an animator who would add the various products that came up in the song as overlays on Post-it Notes (post-production) which only took 2 hours to produce a 90 second video.
In this project, I learned a quick and easy technique to mix music audio and voice-over (V.O.) audio in the video to eliminate interferences between the audios.
In another project, I was geared to serve as the editor of either a series of short videos or one longer piece that was also to be an internal circular on the website of Premier Health. In this project, I was part of a larger team which included a few actors, a lighting technician, a sound technician/ boom operator, a grip, a writer/ director, 3-5 Premier Health staffers, and myself as the person on the film slate.
In the end, I was not tasked as the editor due to a tight timeline and the fact that I was needed to help plan and manage a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, which included social media marketing planning. Also, I experience working directly with people involved with bringing the project to life (content creators and the clients).
First Feature Film:
This leads to the next big project that I worked on this quarter: The Kickstarter campaign. The campaign was to generate the final funds to produce the first feature film for the company, entitled…
“BOY BAND: The ❤️Throb Story.” A Musical Comedy Feature Film.
A musical comedy movie about a Boy Band that’s gotten older but hasn’t grown up made locally in Dayton, Ohio by the Levinson Brothers.
Planning for the campaign started a little over a month before its start on August 30th, 2016. I was tasked with: researching other successful campaigns that matched (or were similar) to the one we wished to do; drafting elements for the material for the campaign page; gathering information about the campaign, it’s players, and other details to comply with Kickstarter campaign guidelines and Levinson’s creative flow; helped produce the Kickstarter campaign video (to be posted on campaign page and social media) on scene in Yellow Springs and Dayton Ohio; and as campaign task manager. During the campaign, I was tasked with monitoring the progress of the campaign and making suggestions to updates and social media engagement; and, post updates on the campaign page and social media networks (primarily Facebook and Twitter), as directed. The process of creating the feature film in which I was involved with (pre-production) evoked excitement and fear: the idea that someone’s creative work was going to be made real comes with many mixed emotions.
Media I Helped to Produce:
Top: Video produced as a rough and test drive for a project for the client (Tungsten Networks) and because I suggested Star Trek as a topic.
Above: This video was produced and published as an update for the Kickstarter campaign. and across social media.
Business Blurb and Role:
The company has created content (sometimes hilarious, sometimes inspiring, sometimes informational) for some of the biggest brands in the country: 3M, Conde Nast, Bud Light, DAP, NASA, Nature Valley, Trojan, Cheerios, Essence Magazine, and more. I assisted in various stages of media production for small and name brand clients; record, edit, and publish media online; assist in setup and running of business Kickstarter campaign for a feature film; publish and monitor business social media accounts via HootSuite.
