VisionFactory: Adventures in Corporate Screenwriting

For the past year I've been working on my first book which is a look back at many years of writing and producing for corporate clients.  The result is VisionFactory: Adventures in Corporate Screenwriting, A veteran producer's guide to corporate video from script to screen.

The title refers to my old employer, VisionFactory, the RTP multimedia powerhouse that rode the internet revolution to great success, followed by sudden failure.  The book explores a dozen or so productions including the scripts, some storyboards, and soon, links to streaming videos of the final pieces.

The experience of writing a book like this has been part archeological, part nostalgic, and a lot of hard work.  Now the experience will transition to learning about self-publishing.  If you'd like info on when the book will be available, email me at stevewhiteproductions@gmail.com.

Lined Script - HiddenMind

I've been working on a book about corporate script writing and dug up some old scripts from different productions.  Here is a page from a production for an RTP company called HiddenMind, an early app developer for mobile devices.  The story was a behind the scenes piece that just happened to use HiddenMind enabled phones and PDAs.  The script was "lined" while I directed the piece.  Each vertical bar represents a camera angle from the scene.  This is a shorthand technique to keep track of coverage in a continuity shoot.

Intro to Dynamic Governance - Schools

I recently shot an interview with Renee Owen, Executive Director of Rainbow Mountain Children's school, as part of a film on Dynamic Governance which is an alternative model for managing an organization.  More about the film "Beyond Democracy" can be found here.

Swap Shop - Largest Drive-In Theater in the World

Pics from a recent trip to Miami.  I saw Super-8 here.  I liked the Drive-In better than the movie. 
"The Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop is a 14-screen drive-in theater in Lauderhill, Florida, USA, that doubles as the largest drive-in and largest daily flea market in the world."

SnowWriter - Having allot of pun

A friend of mine, Walter Hatcher, is the owner of SWN Software, an Asheville based iphone App developer.  SWN does contract work for several corporations developing customer focused apps, and he has created several games available at the AppStore.  For one game - SnowWriter I helped create the pun filled marketing text on the landing page.  It was a nice departure from the typical corporate writing gig.

The CEC Webite wins best in class at the SEDC conference

AdvantageWest Certified Entrepreneur Community site www.awcec.com

The Certified Entrepreneur Community website created by AdvantageWest to promote area entrepreneurial development has snagged the Best in Class award at the annual SEDC conference.  I worked with an amazing team of local developers, writers and photographers on this project.  Many of the videos featured on this blog are from the 18 pieces I produced as part of the site.

Cherokee by Design

Another of my Certified Entrepreneur Communities videos was for a small business in Jackson County, NC called Cherokee by Design.  The arts and crafts shop specializes in customizing items using native artwork and the Cherokee Syllabary.  The shop is run by delightful Cherokee woman named Charla Crowe who has found a business model that works in a tough economy.

When Sugar met the Industrial Revolution

On a trip that took me through Savannah, GA, I grabbed this video with my phone. It is the Taffy machine at River Street Sweets.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Success Stories for AdvantageWest's CEC Program

AdvantageWest is a dedicated economic development group serving Western North Carolina.  They have been partly responsible for Google, Facebook and Apple locating data centers in the region.  They have also been very supportive of entrepreneurs and small businesses in the region.  Their Certified Entrepreneur Community program is the first effort in the US to certify a community as entrepreneur ready.
I've been working with AdvantageWest for about 5 years on various projects, but the CEC program has been the most rewarding.  As part of the www.awcec.com launch, I worked with a team to create entrepreneur spotlights for the success stories section.  The resulting profiles can be found here.  Here's one of my favorites for Sylvan Sport.

Sad news

It is always sad when a Hollywood screen legend dies.

Still shot with Frankencam3D

I'm working on my article for Make Magazine on building the 3-D rig I'm naming Frankencam3D and thought I'd post a new still from the experiment.  Red/Cyan glasses required.

Click the pic for larger version.