If you’ve walked through the doors of Videobred, chances are there’s been at least one four legged companion roaming the halls.  Steve’s dog Archie literally just walked up to my desk.  We’re dog people here at the ‘Bred.  We love our dogs and we love bringing them to work.  That’s why I was so excited when I met Sunny for the first time. She came in the lobby just as excited and happy to meet us as we were to meet her.  Sunny, as some might recall, was the pit bull that was thrown off the Clark Memorial Bridge in July 2009.  Kelsey Westbrook rescued and adopted sweet Sunny. Saving Sunny Inc, a non-profit organization founded by Westbrook, rescues, shelters, and finds new homes for abused and neglected dogs. Saving Sunny Inc. also dedicates their time to promoting “public education about responsible dog ownership, spay/neuter, and reporting animal abuse, neglect, and dog fighting.”

Our team could not be happier to help Westbrook, and her tireless crew, promote their message and mission to the community.  In December, we followed them to Crestwood Elementary where Westbrook spoke to the students about the dangers of stereotyping, what you should do if you see animal abuse, and how these sweet and loving dogs need a good home just like any breed.  As you can see in the above picture, the kids loved Sunny and she loved them right back.

We are excited to document this organization’s journey, through a video mission statement that will live on the Saving Sunny website. Stay tuned for the final project. My hope is that by seeing the story of Saving Sunny, you will be inspired by their strength, dedication, and most importantly their fight to save these voiceless victims.  Please check out SavingSunnyInc.org to learn more about Sunny’s story, and  Westbrook’s blog about the “Unsaveable Six.” Learn how you can help in their efforts to give love to dogs who some said did not deserve it.

http://www.savingsunnyinc.org/

For this project we were lucky enough to partner with producer/director Kay Milam of Donna Lawrence Productions, to create a short video documenting the history and growth of the company. With so much history to cover, this project required an all-hands-on-deck approach. The team combined elegant interviews shot on location, by Brian Cunningham, with archival images and motion graphic treatments.

Sorting through hours of photos, footage and news clippings, to bring the story to life is quite a task. Steve Hurst and Chris Johnson worked together to piece it all together. “I loved working on this project. It was a perfect team effort that allowed each person to truly focus on what they are best at,” Johnson reflects.

Annie Ratterman’s guidance as producer and Hurst’s “unshakeable calmness” Johnson said, allowed for a successful completion of the video. The final product was shown to the entire Humana staff in the Yum! Center, to which David Jones, Jr. said was a difficult act to follow.

I’d say that’s a job well done. Click over to our portfolio to see for yourself!

Brian and Matt have spent the last year and a half pouring their existence into this movie, so all the accolades it’s receiving are well-deserved. Six hundred film fans came to the premiere, and two hundred were turned away at the door. Brian and Matt are trying to get  Overtime even more exposure in new festivals with new audiences. To help the Cunningham/Niehoff Revolution skyrocket,  everyone should “like” Overtime on Facebook, and visit their IMDB page… those of you who have seen the movie should write a quick review.

Once again, congratulations Brian and Matt!

And she didn’t like The Social Network.

These are just a few facts and figures…a smattering of information about our newest team member, Tori Thompson.  Feel free to use your newfound knowledge to strike up a conversation.

Tori will be taking on the role of office manager at Videobred.  What’s she most excited about?

“I’m excited about the energy, creativity, and fun that kind of defines Videobred.”

Tori has big shoes to fill as Annie Ratterman, our previous office manager, moves into a full-time producing role. She’s taking Kara’s window-lined office, and all the sun-starved editors are jealous.

Tori will be taking the office adjacent to the lobby (VB veterans know it as “the place Shulhafer used to pass out”) where she’ll be hard at work on office-managerial duties.

“I’m really excited about the chance to focus on doing one job and doing it well.  Instead of just being good at lots of things, I can make sure I’m great at one thing.”

In addition to her primary task (which is, as Jamie puts it, “keeping us sane”), Tori will be integral to Videobred’s future business development and client services.  “I’m eager to help Videobred grow and become a bigger part of this community that we all love,” she says. “I’m excited about what Jamie’s communicated to me about where he sees the company going.”

So peek your head in, say hi, and ask the burning question on everyone’s mind…

“What did you have against David Fincher’s masterful Facebook movie?!?”

Business First subscribers can also read the full text of the article here. Photo by Ron Bath.

Videobred’s Jamie Pence was born to be a tech geek

Romance at the truck stop

Buying the company

| Jamie Pence

| Everyone’s a critic

Congrats, Brian! We can’t wait to see what’s next!

Seth created the film while in the Sports Link program at Ball State University, where he just completed his junior year. Sports Link is the first undergraduate program in the nation catered specifically to sports production, and students typically work closely with the athletic department. Last year when Seth approached his instructor looking for an in-depth project to work on, his instructor told him about a former Ball State basketball player who was the subject of a recent book, titled Black Men Can’t Shoot.

Seth eagerly devoured the book, loved Malik’s story, and immediately contacted author, player and coach. All were happy to participate, so Seth gathered a couple fellow students and set about the arduous task of scripting and planning the film.

Nick Yeoman and Ben Wagner, also Ball State students, assisted with scripting, interviewing and editing. Although Seth created all the storyboards, he credits Nick as “phenomenal” at taking his “ideas and putting them into words and a cohesive story.”

An entire semester’s worth of work resulted in the final six-minute piece. Seth, however, still wasn’t confident in the finished project. “I shot it on a PD150 and I was concerned the camera quality wasn’t good enough,” he explains. But an encouraging professor gave the students the money for the entry fee and a few months later Seth was “blown away” to find out their film had been nominated for the Emmy.

Some three months later, Seth was, like most college students, paging through Facebook in the wee hours of the morning when he was tagged in a post congratulating him on the big win. The award comes with a $3,000 prize, though Seth professes, “I don’t even care about the money, I’m just so excited that I get to put it on my resume. I never even thought I’d come close to winning a student Emmy as an undergraduate.”

So what was the most rewarding part of the filmmaking process for Seth? “When we finally got to do the sit-down interview with Malik. We had written out about 40 different questions and we still weren’t really sure where the story was going. And then I was looking through the monitors and the lighting was really cool and I could see it all finally coming together, that this story wasn’t actually about basketball. That’s always the best part of any project you do – when you realize that you actually have something.”

Seth insists that right now his “focus is really just working at videobred and absorbing as much knowledge as possible.” But as with any aspiring filmmaker, for Seth there’s always another project just around the corner. “I’m working on a new script now,” he says. “What’s it about? Oh, just the cliche indie script that all college students write.”

Congratulations on this much-deserved award, Seth! We expect to see many more great things from you in the months and years to come!

But we’ve still gonna make you take out the trash.

View Seth’s award-winning “Malik Perry Story” here.