A few months ago my good friend and fellow filmmaker Evan Vetter pointed me to a cool event called Creative Mornings. It’s a FREE monthly networking and presentation event where a star individual from the creative community gives a 20 to 30 minute talk. The presentation is bookended by coffee, delectables and networking before-hand, then Q&A after. It was started by designer and über-blogger Tina Roth Eisenberg (also known as “swiss-miss“). Her site gets about 900,000 visitors a month looking to be inspired. (<sigh> One day…one day. )
Anyway, Creative Mornings are held in major metropolitan areas all over the world, including Zürich, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockholm, Berlin, London, Chicago and more. As I looked at their site, I was aghast to find there was no Atlanta chapter. How could this be! Then, not more than a week or two after Evan first turned me onto Creative Mornings, my good friends at the brand design firm Matchstic blogged that they would be the hosts for an Atlanta chapter. Woot! Woot!
Last month I had the honor to record November’s speaker, Rick Anwyl of the design firm Son and Sons. As I’m want to do, I went above and beyond just recording the event and also made a promo video for it to.
Making the Promo
I always try to add some educational component to my blog posts when posting a video I’ve made. For this video my goal was to tell the story of a first-time attendee to the event. What are the feelings he has? What is he thinking? I wanted the viewer to empathize and see himself/herself. I found my victim actor in graphic designer Paul Stechmesser (a real life first-timer).
What really makes this video is Rick’s eloquent words. While I was recording his presentation, as soon as I heard him say these words, I knew I would use them in the video. That’s a great tip for whenever you’re recording speeches, interview, etc. Whenever you hear something you know will make a great soundbite, make a note. Either write it down, leave yourself an audio note on your iPhone, or make a mental note if your memory is good. Sometimes if I have the time, I’ll quickly record a visual queue on camera to make it easy for the editor (usually me, but not always) to find the spot in the video.
Get Inspired
If you’re in the Atlanta area and consider yourself a professional creative, you will want to come to the Piedmont Park Conservancy next Friday December 9. The speaker next week will be Ben Chestnut, one of the founders of Mailchimp. What’s even better, I understand that Tina herself will be there. (We’ll be recording that one too, so be sure to come up and say “hi” if you’re a fan of the blog. Even if you’re not, come say “hi.”)
Tickets are free, but are first-come, first serve. They become available Monday morning, December 5. Follow Creative Mornings Atlanta on Twitter to know exactly when. Tickets will be available here.
Check the Creative Mornings site to see if there’s one in or near your city. In the meantime, check out the promo and be inspired.
If you can’t see this video in your email or RSS reader, click here.
Thank you for the continued inspiration and ideas. How many cameras did you use to record the event. Were you hired to do it and was it for archival purposes or something else. Sorry for all the questions, but I aspire to be where your are. If you were in the Florida area the questions would be a lot more. I love you brother for what you are doing.
No worries Andrew. We used two cameras. A 7D and a T2i. Recorded audio with a Zoom H4N going into their audio mixer (or rather, I should say, coming OUT of their mixer. 🙂 ) I did the event for no financial payment. I don’t pay for advertising, so I select certain projects that have good exposure potential. The time I allocate to projects like these is part of my marketing budget. The fact that Tina herself blogged the promo was a wonderful outcome I only dreamed would happen. The attendees of these events are also potential clients and/or collaborators (e.g. graphic designers, art directors, etc.) So getting my work in front of them is strategic. Ever since weddings were my main bread and butter, that has been my M.O. Has served me well. Do a search on my blog about knowing when to do “free” work for more details on the topic.
Great work – I agree with your soundbite observation. I’ll be keeping a closer eye on your blog.
Unfortunately I missed the most recent Creative Mornings in Toronto.