Thursday, May 26, 2011

Eli the Terminator

Four years ago my son was five and his passion was his skateboard.  I came across this old video today and had to put it up.

Eli the Terminator from Steve White on Vimeo.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Roots of LeanSigma

Tonight is the finale of American Idol, and my kids are big fans.  The show's narrator is sometimes heard introducing Ryan Seacrest and oddly enough is also the narrator of a series of pieces I did for TBM Consulting Group.  Here's a segment on the roots of Lean and Six Sigma featuring his VO.

Friday, May 20, 2011

AllSaints Spitalfields and the Classic Sewing Machine

I believe the cell phone video camera is today's equivalent to the Super-8 camera.  The quality is compromised, lenses are simple and it's a little bit of a hassle to use, but it's perfect for those moments when you want to capture a short clip of something special.  This display at the Vegas store AllSaints Spitalfields featuring several hundred sewing machines was one of those things that begged to be captured.  With Youtube as the new Super 8 projector, enjoy.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Toner Machining Technologies

One of the AdvantageWest Certified Entrepreneurial Communities pieces I did was for Toner Machining Technologies in Morganton, NC.  The small specialty machine shop serves a variety of markets from manufacturing to Aerospace.  I interviewed Jim Toner and captured activity around the plant.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Vegas Plus Vignette Droid Photo App

Harsco MultiServ Kaizen Video

Harsco is a global company with divisions serving infrastructure, metals, minerals, rail and industrial sectors.  I created a series of Kaizen related videos for the company including this one at a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario.  The operation's scale is amazing and the location is like shooting on the surface of Mars.  This is one of my favorite industrial pieces and the employees of the MultiServ division were a great team to work with.


For the rail division - HTT - we shot at the plant in Columbia, SC to capture the dynamic week where a cross functional team reconfigured a production line.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Quintiles - Improving Q with You - Corporate Lean Launch Video

Quintiles is an international drug testing firm based in RTP, NC.  Last year they launched a program called Improving Q with You which was focused on reducing waste, improving internal processes, and enhancing response times.  As part of the launch I followed two Kaizen teams in Marietta, GA and Kansas City as they focused on specific challenges for a week.  The resulting video is a look at the power of Kaizen methodologies in a business process and lab environment.

Qunitiles Improving Q with You Final review from Steve White on Vimeo.

Lantech - A Decade of Change

Lantech is known as the creator of plastic wrapping systems for packaging.  The company's founder Pat Lancaster came up with the idea of wrapping an entire pallet full of boxes in cellophane and the resulting patent gave Lantech a lock on the lucrative market for 17 years.  In the 1990's Lantech began working with TBM Consulting Group to launch a Lean journey focused on innovation and creating operational excellence.  For the 10 year anniversary of the TBM/Lantech relationship I was asked to produce a video that cellebrated their many successes.For those gadgeteers out there, this plant was endlessly fascinating and staffed with wildly creative people.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Bluescreen and the Advanced Teen Film Class

For most of the 2000s there was a movie studio in Asheville known as Blue Ridge Motion Pictures.  The studio building was a huge converted textile mill that also was home to Highland Brewery.  Part of the building once served as an enormous indoor set for The Last of the Mohicans.  During its operation the studio featured a small film school and housed an indoor street set, screening room, grip and lighting dept. and several sound stages.  It was home to the production offices of The Clearing and All the Real Girls, and it was host to many smaller commercial shoots before closing around 2009.
I kept an office at the studio for a few years and taught the Teen Advanced Filmmaking Class one summer.  It was a two week intensive production class where a small group of teens wrote, directed and edited a short film.  With a 30 foot bluescreen available to us, we landed on a superhero story about 3 inch high heroes fighting a mad scientist seeking to destroy the world (or something like that).  Here's an early bluescreen test that we did as a proof of concept.