We teamed up with CASA of Travis County to produce a new campaign video to help spread awareness of their efforts and needs within the Austin community.

CASA of Travis County speaks up for children who’ve been abused or neglected by empowering our community to volunteer as advocates for them within the CPS court system.

This was done in 48hours for the 2012 Alamo Drafthouse FilmFrenzy Reel Change festival

After meeting with CASA’s marketing director, I brainstormed various concepts, ruling out most ideas that showed the children as victims. After watching many child-focused PSAs, I knew I wanted to keep it positive and inspirational… Then I stumbled upon the idea of “Let’s have a conversation, just us adults.” Which felt very strong in getting attention, while setting the focus on our target audience, the adults. Once we’d settled on our focus, we jotted down various ideas of child potential and innocence, the root of why we have children and do our best in raising them to be good human beings, and from there Amanda wrote this beautiful script.

Having only 48 hours isn’t much time, so we set out filming b-roll of children playing at Zilker park. We were sure to get releases from their parents so everything was legal and respectful. Producing a film on this very sensitive topic makes it pretty hard to get footage of kids. But I promised I would keep the kids faces out of the film.

Framing artistic and balanced compositions while not showing kids faces isn’t that easy, but I think we pulled it off very well. I also filmed our friend’s children, choosing to show their faces as their parents were okay with it. I feel that their faces and delightful expressions really add to the emotion of the spot. Most people don’t notice that they only see two kids faces the entire spot, they walk away feeling like they actually saw a bunch of kids. So I think we accomplished that fine line between privacy and intimacy that we were hoping for.

The studio shoot came together brilliantly. Using our iPad as a teleprompter, real-life CASA volunteer Jennifer C. did a wonderful job expressing the emotion of the script without pandering to our adult target audience. I will admit, the camera loves Jennifer under the Rembrandt lighting I chose for this shoot. It really couldn’t have worked out better.

In the end, we produced a very professional spot in less than two-days(I slept Friday night, and slept in Saturday, a rarity for a 48hr…) that the administration at CASA absolutely loves. Although we didn’t win the film-festival, we’re extremely proud to have helped a worthy non-profit focus their complex voice down to a very powerful 3:30 video for marketing and awareness.

We look forward to working with many more local companies seeking to improve our Austin community.

Here’s our interview as we turned in our film:

Bart Durham is one of the most successful and trusted law offices in the Nashville area. Part of ‘the fame’ that Bart’s law offices have garnered is very much due to a constant and always new advertising campaign. While the campaigns have remained consistent in style, Bart understands television as a medium and has allowed and even championed the campaign of at least 6 new spots per year.

As a package deal, we spend a two week period writing and producing roughly half-a-dozen creative spots. These spots then cycle throughout the year to keep the brand “always on” without becoming “stale bread”.

I’ve had the pleasure of teaming up with them on many of their television spots over the last few years. This is a great example of the potential for “planning” to really get you the most from your advertising spend. Grouping many spots into a single production period gets Bart enough commercials to stay on television throughout the year, without the typical astronomical costs that would be associated with such a large campaign.

Below are just a few of the creative spots I’ve shot for Bart Durham…

Bart Durham Law has matched their legal talent with a strong and consistent television ad campaign, making the brand a “house-hold name” throughout Nashville. Whether people love or hate the spots, the first name anybody thinks of when they need a lawyer in Nashville is “Bart Durham”.

If you’re interested in how you can save money by packaging multiple productions, please feel free to contact me.

Wilcox furniture offers fine quality furnishings to the Corpus Christi area. Each month would run a new commercial highlighting different sales items and specials. This campaign style keeps the brand quality solid while consistently showing new selections and action-inspiring special prices.

Advertising seems to have a cumulative subliminal affect. If you aren’t needing furniture, you ignore the ad. But as soon as you need furniture, you’ve got a long-time friend who you can trust… who happens to be having a nice big sale this month! (*whispers* Wilcox…)

Many people expect advertising to work ‘instantly’… It doesn’t. But if you can keep costs down and maintain a “quality and creative” television presence throughout the year, you’ll have discovered the secret to many local businesses success!

I had the pleasure of working with them on many occasions, directing their television campaign along with developing some very helpful product demonstration videos for their website.

Product Demonstrations for website – Produced on green screen with teleprompter. These are a great example of the power that video has to clearly communicate complex products to your clients.

The power of video on your website can make or break your customers’ buying decision. A quality, informative product video on your website pays for itself and requires very little upfront cost. Once produced, it’s like having a professional sales associate on your website 24/7 – helping your clients through their buying decision.

Because Wilcox had a smaller television budget, I had the pleasure of writing, directing, and editing their campaigns myself. Below are just a few spots I produced for them. This is a typical spot which I can produce on my own(actors needed of course) for cheaper than most anyone in the business.

I love the challenge of designing a quality ad that has fun while communicating its sales message.

If you’d like information on how you can plan for and put together an affordable local television campaign. Please feel free to contact me. I have years of experience in getting the most out of local television productions.