Aligning Forces For Quality

Aligning Forces for Quality from Steve Kownacki, Final Focus Prod on Vimeo.

We were fortunate to work with our pals at Suasion to create a video for Aligning Forces for Quality. They are a York county, PA-based group community leaders, consumers, physicians, nurses, employers and insurers who have come together to help improve health care quality in the community.

The video is a series of greenscreen interviews shot over 2 days in a conference room. Working from an outline that provided the direction of the video, Producer Megan asked the questions to elicit meaningful responses that could be whittled down from 4 hours to, yep, 11 minutes. Adding a bit of motion to the graphics, some cover shots, news footage and photographs, a pretty dynamic and informative video was developed. This video replaced a panel of individuals at a conference greatly reducing time on the agenda. Everything was shot HD, but final output was SD 4×3 for projection at the venue.

Thanks to my editor Ryan Mast for pulling out some quick tricks to liven things up.

September 25th, 2010 Filed Under Recent work | No Comments »

Leaders Without Borders – Logo’d by FFP

Leaders Without Borders – Logo’d by FFP from Steve Kownacki, Final Focus Prod on Vimeo.

While a good percentage of our biz is full-scale production, we do a huge amount of re-purposing, modifying and otherwise manipulating video we obtain the rights to. (We’re an ethical bunch ’round here and don’t step on the toes of copyright holders.)

Anyway, Tracy from Tremendous Life Books (formerly know as Executive Books), GREAT source of quality motivational and leadership books BTW, called and had a video provided by the author that she had permission to post to TLB’s YouTube account – an FLV. We’ve got lots of nifty util software around to re-encode to an editable format, add the graphic here & there in a “like-it-was-meant-to-be-there-in-the-first-place” look and then get it properly encoded for wherever you need it to go. All with online approvals along the way.

So check out the book, check out Tremendous Life Books and have fabo day.

Oh yeah, we can produce that kinda stuff for ya too if you don’t have it already.

September 24th, 2010 Filed Under Recent work | No Comments »

United Way of the Capital Region PSA

United Way – “Never Turn Our Backs” from Steve Kownacki, Final Focus Prod on Vimeo.

We were approached by the United Way of the Capital Region to create a TV commercial based upon a corporate giving video that was produced by the Rite Aid Corporation video department. While the video was very well done, the visuals and dialog didn’t quite work out to pull elements & create a TV ad.

So I worked with my writer and he extracted the concept of “never turning our backs” on the community and the concept of people in the logo t-shirts and finally doing actual projection onto the shirts. Through a few revisions (5) we came up with the final script and pulled visuals from our vast United Way library – we’ve been working with them for years.

The next step was how to pull it off. I’ll get some pix on Flicker soon, but we re-configured the teleprompter mounting bracket in order to mount a video projector directly above the DSLR camera on the same tripod. With this whole contraption on a dolly, video coming from a MACbook & Final Cut, we did many, many rehearsals to work on timing.

So it came down to this much time to make :30 seconds:
2 hr initial script mtg, an hour of re-writes, 3 hours of pre-production planning, 2 1-hour site visits, 3 hours to find and edit the projected clips, 1 hour to concept and mount the projector, 4 hours of location setup, 1 hour of rehearsals, 30 minutes of actual attempted takes, 30 minutes to record additional audio, and a day of editing more or less. Oh, plus the digital upload to Comcast.

Thanks to all of our volunteers that day that put up with me saying “OK, we’re gonna do it again, but this time…” What a bunch of troopers! THANKS!

“Behind the scenes video coming soon!”

September 23rd, 2010 Filed Under Recent work | No Comments »

Updated Demo Reel. (Uh, video? Movie?)

Truth be told it really is no longer a reel per se. We shoot on SDHC or SxS media and have a completely tapeless workflow now – including uploading hi-rez files to the TV & Cable outlets for broadcast or DVDs or Web media. No reels to speak of.

Demo Reel July 2010 from Steve Kownacki, Final Focus Prod on Vimeo.

Tidied up the demo reel a little for July and want to thank Royal Benson for providing the music “Fire Fly”, check ‘em out at www.RoyalBensonMusic.com.

This one shows more color correction capabilities and shooting styles. No, I don’t do weddings; that was a clip from a commercial touting accessibility and thus the use of the interpreter. On that note, we can also produce subtitles and closed and open captions.

When you’re ready to produce a commercial, create a corporate communication piece or simply videotape a seminar, let me know. We can help you get it on the web, DVD or even your phone. And we make a great cup of coffee!

September 20th, 2010 Filed Under Recent work | No Comments »

Healthy Living Kitchen embraces video to deliver their message

I recently had the privilege of shooting segments for an upcoming intranet-based program for The Healthy Living Kitchen. We shot 9 segments in 3 days at 7 locations. Whew! But excitingly fun – there’s nothing like having great clients with a great product or service. Shot on JVC in 720P HD. This was a lot of work for a 2-person crew but I’ll do what I can to make your project successful.

“This was the best experience for us. Steve, you did a great job of staying cool in all the situations and the hot sun!!! I never knew filming was so complex but you had some good pick me up jokes for the ride. I love the photos. They really tell the story of the experience that was supposed to last maybe a day and a half and went for 3 full days!!! Thanks for working with our budget” said Michelle.

Note that the 30-some hours on-set created an edited 30-ish minutes of completed program material. For those of you considering video, it takes time to create a program. Short-changing the production value could compromise your brand.

What made this shoot great? Aside from being educational for me, the client (Michelle & Beth on-camera) understood the complexity of the production company’s job and didn’t mind having wardrobe changes 3 times a day. Director Bob meshed well with me and knowingly took into account the equipment available, the speed at which we could re-locate and setup, and made the client at ease; not to mention his great art direction on the props. Hey, bottles of olive oil don’t just appear on set. We collaborated creatively on delivery and set design… it was just a great shoot! Michelle adds “Next time we’ll hire that teleprompter person you recommended”.

Below is a compilation of the 9 segments to show you the various locations and setups – press play & enjoy!

Click on the left & right arrows on the photos at the top to jump through the photos or click the center of the photo to jump to my flickr site and see the descriptions of the images along with my other work. Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about how I can help you with your next production, feel free to call 717-697-2622 or email me at finalfocusvideo (at) gmail (dot) com.

June 8th, 2010 Filed Under Recent work | 2 Comments »