NEWMODERNSCIENCE » Client

Client Profile: The Catalogue for Philanthropy

Chris — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:07:55 +0000

I hesitated in posting this because technically this isn’t a client of mine. I’ll explain. There’s this site called Genius Rocket that puts designers together with clients. I think the idea is interesting, but where it kind of falls flat is, rather than letting the client decide on a designer via a bidding process, the designers are given a creative brief and complete the work in full, and the client picks out of the completed projects. To me, this results in a bunch of last minute entries, and not alot of quality overall. Then there are those of us that go out of our way to create a really quality product for basically nothing because our project didn’t get picked. I’ll just say that i’m glad I only spend $40 on the licensed images, and had a really awesome friend do the voiceover on spec. It represents alot of hours for a job that didn’t come through, so I find it unlikely that i’ll take that approach again. It does however, represent a valuable entry in my portfolio and as such, here it is. The Catalogue actually seems like a really great idea: You donate to this fund, and the good folks at the Catalogue do research and vet the different candidate organizations, and then give you a smarter choice of what causes you’d like to donate to. They also take your donations and multiply them, presumably through some investments.

Client Profile: I Give A Shirt

Chris — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:01:11 +0000

Bo Lane of Rethink Monthly Magazine contacted me about putting together a video to promote a local charity movement called I Give A Shirt, Started by Whitney Ferrin. There are many homeless youth in our locality and Whitney found that oftentimes they wouldn’t attend school simply because they don’t have clean clothing or the ability to address the most fundamental hygienic needs. A truly sad reason to miss out on an education. I Give A Shirt is aimed at addressing this issue by raising funds through the sales of I Give A Shirt apparel; for every shirt sold, $10 goes towards clothing and hygiene products that get distributed to local youth. This most worthy cause is lead by local students, and is aimed at local students. It’s awesome to see our youth rise up to address public issues.

The video was shot with minimal lighting for a slightly grungy look, and jump cut-edited in post for impact. This was an opportunity for me to completely light, direct, shoot, edit, and post produce an entire project, including writing music for the piece. This was also the first time I was able to present my logotype and ideogram at the end of a piece.

Client Profile: Paramount Real Estate Services

Chris — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:37:21 +0000

A local design outfit Vintom had been tapped to develop a website for a new local business, Paramount Real Estate Services, run by Brian and Nina White. Vin contacted me mid-project about putting together a short video for them to help promote their website. We went back and forth on different ideas and settled on a direct frontal approach, rehearsed, but no teleprompter. Having to focus on the camera the whole time was a bit unnerving for them but in the end, the direct eye contact and natural delivery paid off. The piece feels like they’re talking right to you, and adds transparency to their business. I shot and edited this piece, and hired Rick Lord at Rick Lord Photography to handle the scene and subject lighting. Check the video out here:

Client Profile: The Northern Sound

Chris — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:11:34 +0000

Out of all of the different types of projects I get into, studio engineering is definitely at the top. The nerdy, techy side of it is alot of fun, but the thing I love about it the best is producing. I’m not such a great songwriter, but I have an ear for arrangement, and I LOVE helping someone take a song idea to it’s conclusion. The same way an artist visualizes a painting, or a sculpture, I like to “auralize” songs, hearing countermelodies, rhythms, and changes for raw song ideas people give me. Then recording the different tracks, and sculpting them the same way a digital artist sculpts layers in Photoshop, we take what started out as a simple guitar or piano song, and turn it into a finished piece.

The Northern Sound is one example of a project that grew out of someone coming to me with a few simple songs, taking those and trying different instruments, and textures till we got something that we liked. What I really like about how these turned out, is that they have drive and atmosphere, but yet still have their acoustic coffee shop vibe.

The Northern Sound – The Widow’s Song

The Northern Sound – Collapse

The Northern Sound can be found here:
The Northern Sound on Reverbnation

Client Profile: Laura Morett

Chris — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:12:54 +0000

Laura and I go back a few years; we attend the same church and have gone on a mission trip to South America together. I found out after noticing her gone from church for a while, that she had made it onto the 19th season of the CBS show Survivor:Samoa. When she returned, I offered to set her up with an online presence with the goal of building a personal brand; something she wanted to leverage post-show to do public speaking engagements.

I knew the show would pick up speed quickly, so we hit it hard and fast: Twitter, Facebook Page, IMDb profile, website/blog. Because of the legal restraints and CBS imposed media blackout on all cast members, Laura wasn’t allowed to actually blog till after the show, but she was welcome to Twitter and Facebook.We used both of those to network, and build a fanbase through frequent interaction, and by leveraging these we organized a migrating “Survivor Party” that moved every week, frequently packing out the venues they were held in. Her combination of charm, personality, and transparency, helped her cement relationships with her fans on a personal level.

We lined up a local photographer and shot a number of promotional photos, one which was a geometrically straight on shot that I used for her website. We shot it with her leaning on some appleboxes, and then masked it out. That along with a few other handpicked shots were used for promotions, and b/w headshots that she would sign and hand out to fans.

Laura is Hawaiian, so for her website I wanted to do something that would be a balanced representation of her feminine side, and the tough girl that landed the spot on the show. We ended up going with a flower motif, and sand/ocean tones that complemented we wardrobe in the shot.

All in all, her personal branding has been a success, and it’ll be fun to see her continue to leverage that in future endeavors.

www.lauramorett.com
twitter.com/lauramorett
www.youtube.com/TheLauraMorett
facebook.com/TheLauraMorett