For two years I've been able to assist Century 21 Everest Realty Group in their marketing and recruitment efforts. This December we launched a new recruitment video that includes interviews with Everest Agents in which they talk about the successes they have reached while working with Everest. It's a fun opportunity to go a little deeper into lives of these individuals and see how their work impacts their families and communities.
This week I was able to travel to Washington, D.C. with Mormon Newsroom to document the completion of the Freedmen’s Bureau project by Family Search. A special event was held at the National Museum of African America History and Culture to recognized the work of 25,000 volunteers in the United States and Canada that uncovered the names of 1.7 million African American slaves.
Through a year long online crowd sourcing project, volunteers indexed the records of the Freedman's Bureau, a government entity that was organized by congressional order in 1865. The Bureau created handwritten records of African American slaves at the end of the civil war. These records included marriage registers, hospital or patient registers, educational efforts, census lists and labor contracts.
While these records have been available previously by the National Archives, the indexing project made the documents text searchable, allowing African American's to use the records to trace there genealogy. Prior to this, few African American's have been able to find family history records before 1870. It was a special experience to interview genealogists who expressed their gratitude for the project and what it has meant for them personally and their families.
The event was held at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
This summer I began doing freelance work for Mormon Newsroom, which serves as the official news resource for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's been a fun challenge to work in a news world where deadlines are very tight. This month we traveled to Manhattan to cover an event in which Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke. While there we created a news style piece for Mormon Newsroom and created a press release package that included downloadable photos, b-roll and SOTS (or interview comments) for media outlets.
Spring Mobile is America's largest wireless retailer with over 1400 AT&T stores. Last year, I was approached by their HR department about creating what they called an "employee culture video" which would share with current and future employees the Spring values.
We began the project by interviewing a handful of employees who worked near the company's headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. We got some good content, but felt the diversity and enthusiasm of Spring employees wasn't coming across as much as we'd like. So, using the Spring Mobile's Facebook page, we decided to send out a message to Spring employees nationwide and ask them to email us short cell phone videos where they talked about the Spring Mobile value they liked most. The response exceeded our expectations. We received over 250 submissions. Having the additional content added another level of authenticity and humor that we used to create this video.
Every year, I have the opportunity to produce a short documentary for the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah. The film is a played at an annual Bishop's Dinner - a capital campaign event that raises funds for the Cathedral's upkeep and ministries. This year the dinner was given in honor of Anna Campbell Bliss, a Cathedral Parishioner and well known contemporary artist whose early use of computer programming in art brought her recognition both in Utah and the surrounding region. Bliss passed away in 2015 and we created this video to honor her and the contributions she made to the Cathedral of the Madeleine and the Salt Lake City art community.
This summer I was asked to produce a handful of TV ads for Weber State University. The ads are playing this month during the Olympics to Utah audiences. We took an authentic approach that showed the college experience of actual Weber State graduates. Below I've included two of the spots.
This spring I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film shares the history of the school through stories of its faculty, staff and students. One of the faculty members I enjoyed learning about was Walter Buss.
Buss taught Geology for many years at Weber State and was legendary for his "College on Wheels" bus tours. Outfitted with a chalkboard, projector and screen, the geology bus made its way past 5,000 miles of countryside and landmarks from Yellowstone to Los Angeles, and from Crater Lake to Glacier National Park. Students camped along the way and engaged in hands-on learning, on-site.
“I think one of the reasons why Walter was so passionate about taking students out into the field was, once you are there in the field, you can feel the pulse of the earth. You can look a photograph and the photograph can have a beautiful scene, but the only way you can have that is to be standing, observing, walking through these areas. That’s what Walter understood, the value of the world around us. ”
This spring I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film shares the history of the school through stories of its faculty, staff and students. One story shared the experience of Allen Holmes, an athlete who played on the mens basketball team from 1957-1959. During the 1958-59 season Holmes lead the team to an NJCCA National Championship. We were able to locate and interview several players from the team that year and include their comments in the film.
Despite a great basketball season, Holmes (second from the left) faced difficult situations as the team travel across the Western United States. At times the team would need to stay in motels 40 miles away from their games because locations closer wouldn't allow entrance to African Americans. Holmes told me in his interview, his teammates supported him throughout this time. "If they wouldn't serve me, we all got up and left" he said.
This spring I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film shares the history of the school through stories of its faculty, staff and students. One of the stories I particularly enjoyed researching was about a satellite engineering faculty and students build and launched in the 1980's. Here is a clip from the film that shares that story and the impact it had on the students of the time who worked on the project.
The construction of NUSAT was done in cooperation with Morton Thiokol and NASA, but all of the labor and parts were provided for free by Weber State College. Over 40 engineering students had the opportunity to with professors and industry professionals on satellite construction. One former professor told me the did save a "considerable amount of money by going to Radio Shack and buying the parts."
I recently completed a documentary on Richard Richards. Richards was Utah political organizer who became a major player in the Nixon and Reagan presidential campaigns and later went on to become the Chairman of the Republican National Committee during the Reagan years. The film was a collaborative effort with the Richard Richards Institute at Weber State University to showcase stories of good ethics in politics.
Producing the film provided an experience to learn about the behind scenes engine that drives state and national elections. Richards was involved with this effort at the grass roots level and his impact on both state and national elections is remarkable.
Throughout his political years Richard's honesty and integrity was also just as impressive. One moment in his interview that I remember most came when he said:
“Look. When I’m here, I don’t care whether you like me or not. When I leave, I don’t care if you like me. All I care is when I leave, you say, ‘He was honest with me.’ I’m going to give you honest answers, tell you the best I can, and that’s the way it is. I’m not trying to win you over.”
That statement described Richards perfectly. You never had to second guess Richards. You always knew where he stood. Richard Richards passed away about a year ago, but I hope this film can be a lasting tribute to his example.
Last week I began shooting interviews for the documentary I am producing on Temple Square. We're speaking with a variety of individuals who have a unique interest in Temple Square. Here are a few stills from the interviews. For two of our production days we were able to film on Temple Square in the Assembly Hall and the historic Tabernacle.
This week I completed a feature documentary for Weber State University. The film is being used to conclude the University's Dream 125 Campaign which has raised over a 140 million dollars in the last two years. To thank the many financial contributors to the campaign, Weber State University asked me to create a documentary that could share stories from the school's unique history. Below I've included a clip from the film.
