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.

Why Lean? - Testimonial piece for TBM Consulting Group

My work with TBM Consulting Group has allowed me to meet the leaders of some of the country's most innovative companies.  This testimonial piece shot last year features top Lean Leaders exploring the value of creating a Lean culture.

Deltec Homes - Extreme Home Makeover

A couple of years ago Deltec Homes participated in two episodes of the hit TV series Extreme Makeover - Home Edition.  The setting was post Katrina New Orleans where a home and church were both destroyed by the storm.  Deltec provided their Green building expertise along with the materials for modern, hurricane resistant replacements for the two buildings.  Andy Spencer spent the week following the Deltec team as they and a small army of contractors built a Leed Certified home and new church.  This is a teaser piece I edited from Andy's work.

Here is the longer 8 minute piece.

MoogLab - Working to Teach Kids Science through Electronic Music

Bob Moog was an electronic music pioneer who spent much of his professional life in Asheville, NC where Moog Music is still headquartered.  Moog's synthesizers, theremins electronic filters created a sound that changed the face of music and introduced sonic science to a generation of musicians.  Today, Bob's daughter, Michelle Moog-Koussa carries on her father's legacy as the head of the Bob Moog Foundation.  I've worked with Michelle to create promotional videos for the Moogseum and the educational outreach program MoogLab.
From MoogLab: 

With arts programs and school budgets suffering nationwide, and science education lagging behind that of other developed countries, we are committed to making an impact with MoogLab.

MoogLab brings electronic instruments like Theremins and synthesizers into underserved schools to teach children the science of sound, to inspire their own creativity and desire to innovate, and to forge connections between their classroom learning and fun, real-life applications.
We have brought MoogLab into North Carolina elementary and middle schools, festivals, and our own public events. Student reactions have been amazing, encouraging us to further develop the program and take it nationwide.

Anywhere, USA - Southern Fried Masterpiece

A few years ago, Asheville based filmmaker CHUSY (Anthony Haney-Jardine), wrote and directed a film originally titled Asheville, The Movie.  Described as an autobiography in three parts, the film is a mad, comic, soulful romp through southern culture which breaks or invents cinema conventions without losing the audience for a moment.  Like other indie hallmarks including Slacker, Pink Flamingos, Putney Swope, and Mystery Train, CHUSY's creation rejoices in the absurd interconnected flow of crazy characters, all motivated by good intentions.  Featuring an all amateur cast and shot over the course of several weeks in various parts of Asheville, the film was re-titled Anywhere, USA and was shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded a special jury prize.  
CHUSY's work is a small window into the rich, growing Asheville filmmaking and media arts community. 

Link: www.anywhereusathemovie.com/

TBM Consulting Group - 16 years and counting

Some clients are more like partners.  I've been working with LeanSigma practitioners TBM Consulting Group in one way or another since 1995.  During that time I have helped the company create a broad library of marketing and training material exploring their Lean methodologies, Kaizen work and Strategy practice.  I've also worked with many of their clients including Lantech, Bunge, McCain Foods, Blue Giant, Quintiles, Hubbell, Wika, Black and Decker, Pella, HillRom, Seally, Harsco, Haywood Pool Products, First Data, and several others.  Working with TBM consultants is always a learning experience for me, and I consider the company one of the best run and most customer focused that I've ever seen.  Needless to say, I am very pleased to be considered a TBM partner.

This piece was created in After Effects as a trade show loop for the company.


TBM Consulting Group Introduction from Steve White on Vimeo.

East Coast Drag Times Show, Shine, Drag, and Dine

Sometimes a job comes along that's just a joy from start to finish. That was the case when I got the call from Nancy Wilson of Vance County, NC asking me to cover their annual classic car show and drag racing hall of fame inductions. The two day event took place last fall in Henderson, NC and featured over 2000 classic cars. The event was a blast to shoot and edit and I met some fascinating car owners and historic drag racers.

East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame & Reunion and the Show, Shine, Shag & Dine from Steve White on Vimeo.

Deltec Homes, Asheville NC - Solar Rooftop Installation

I've been working with Deltec Homes, a premier Green Home Builder located in Asheville, NC for a few years now.  Deltec pioneered a unique circular home style over 40 years ago, and still fabricates the precision components for these homes in their Asheville factory.

This production highlighted Deltec's commitment to sustainable energy and low environmental impact production methodologies.  Highlighting the new solar voltaic array on the factory roof, the video was used to create public awareness about this innovative company.  Launched online and distributed nationally, the video has been an important way for Deltec to use it's Lean philosophy as an effective marketing tool.

Deltec Solar Installation from Steve White on Vimeo.

3D post workflow in Adobe Premiere CS5

I've been exploring post production flow for 3D video and came across this series of clips from Dave Hemly that shows the built in 3D support in Premiere CS5.  As display technology gets cheaper and better, I expect 3D to emerge as a robust tool for corporate production and marketing.  For now, I'm looking for the first client to embrace the new format.

Hard Drive Crash - Don't Panic!

I'm going to take a short break to get a little (more) geeky in this post and share something that might help prevent a few heart attacks.  If you've ever had to Google "data recovery", "unerase", "Raw file system", "missing partition", "drive wiped clean","all my data is gone", or "hard drive crashed" then you'll appreciate this.

Last night I was going to retrieve an old photo from an external hard drive only to find that the drive letter showed up, but nothing else.  It showed no data, no folders, nothing.  This is an XP machine and the disk is a 1.5 Terabyte Western Digital USB MyBook drive.  Looking at the properties of the drive I discovered the file system wasn't FAT32 or NTFS like I'd expected, but rather RAW. I figured this was a very bad sign.

This drive contains allot of content.  Some of that content is backups of material on other drives, so thankfully I still have the old stuff.  But the terrifying thing is that for the past several months I've used this drive to work on a number of projects.  The sheer size of these new cheaper drives just begs you to cram them full of video files, project files, graphics, photos and back-upped content from other drives.  The downside is once it goes you can lose a ton of work.  I admit that I've not been disciplined enough in backing up this drive.  Lesson learned.

So in a frenzied panic last night I started trying different recovery programs.  Many of these are try before you by - allowing you to see if the data can be found before you have to pay to use the program to recover it.  Others were freeware or donation based.  I wasn't too worried about the $30-$100 I would potentially spend as long as I could recover the files.  But the problem was, none of these programs could see the data.  Scans either didn't recognize the drive at all, or showed is as an completely empty RAW File System hard drive.  I tried Kernel for Windows Data Recovery, Easeus Partition Recovery, Easeus Data Recovery Wizard, MiniTool Power Data Recovery and finally Norton Disk Doctor.  Of all of these, Norton seemed to be the only one that could find data and put it into a form that allowed me to restore individual files.  The problem was there was no directory structure and the files were being named generically "recovered_video_file001.avi" etc.  This rendered the files essentially useless in a drive with about 18,000 individual files on it.   Still, Norton gave me some hope - there was data left on the drive and it could be recovered, at least partially.

Go to GetData to try Recover My Files for free.

Still not beaten I did some more searching and came across a great tool called Recover My Files by GetData.  The program recognized the RAW File System and after only a few minutes into a drive recovery scan I glanced over and saw the drive's directory tree and associated files.  The data is there and once the scan finished I was able to select the files and folders I wanted to recover and move them to another drive.  The program will not write to the drive being scanned to avoid accidentally overwriting any data.

When this screen populated with files and folders I regained years of my life.

One thing to note - a full scan of a huge hard drive can take hours or possible days.  You can however retrieve the data in manageable chunks by selecting which blocks to scan.  Recover My Files is well written and easy to use and most importantly, it works.  You can download the free trial here and evaluate what data can be recovered first without any obligation to purchase.  Hopefully it will save you some serious heartache.

Theater Welcome Film with Dolby5.1 Mix

This piece was created for a leading military contractor to introduce visitors to their unique visualization center.  The project mixed live action and 3D views of the space to explore the many features the center had to offer.  This was an exciting project not only because I was able to work with my former VisionFactory colleagues Michael Worthington, Eric Jones and Aaron Mazze, but it was also the first project I mixed in Dolby 5.1 at Soundtrax in Raleigh, NC. 

Industrial Marketing, Customer Testimonials - BBH Booklet Maker

Bowe Bell and Howell's Booklet Maker is an amazing little factory that eats paper at one end and spits out books at the other.  This piece took Matt Hedt and me to New Benefits in Dallas to shoot the machine in action and some customer testimonials. This is one of those pieces that reminds me of my favorite film of all time - the Crayon Film from Sesame Street.  It features lots of cool gadgetry in action.  This was one of a few pieces I completed for BBH after I first started Steve White Productions.

Google SketchUp as Visualization Tool

When I was working with the Cherokee Broadband Enterprise and Trificient Technologies to bring broadband wireless to the Cherokee, NC territories, I needed to create visualizations of proposed towers for the permitting process.  I've worked with some very talented 3D animators in the past, but never really dived into LightWave or 3D Studio Max because of the enormous learning curve.  For this task I decided to play around with Google SketchUp and found it to be extremely simple and fun to use.  There were a few anti-intuitive hurdles, but I was able to quickly create fairly realistic versions of the tower designs and work though the antenna placements.

HP CoolTown Trailer - After Effects

Carly Fiorina was the hotshot CEO and HP, the computing giant that was started years before in a garage, was looking to capture the excitement of its innovative spirit with a customer briefing center called CoolTown.  VisionFactory was brought in to brainstorm and help design the center which was to feature a working lab environment, the latest cool technology and a replica of that legendary garage (a wooden shack really).  The project was never completed, but this nifty After Effects piece still survives. 

Simple 2D Composite in After Effects

Blue Cross Blue Shield was looking for a welcome screen for their lobby that featured a programmable backend to display special guest announcements, and schedule information.  When the display wasn't showing a message they wanted a series of loops that meshed with their branding.  This piece was done in After Effects to compose graphic elements, still, and video.  We used to call these "Attractor Loops" especially when they were done for a kiosk or trade show screen.  It was branding eye-candy that said "look at me".

More with the Race Car Motif

Marketing directors like to think their products outrun the competition, out perform, are fast, can take you to the finish line, even when it involves printing and sorting mail pieces.  Or something like that.  The easy sell for some projects seems to be a racing motif, and that's what I used for this piece for Bowe Bell and Howell's BIPS solution.  I honestly have forgotten what BIPS is, but at the time, BIPS was a race car going around a track being chased by the most pitiful competitors we could design.  And by we, I mean Robert Klein of KleinDigital in Asheville.  We were on a no animation budget and Robert delivered more than I could have hoped for in LightWave racing goodness and product simulations.  Composites were done in After Effects and the live action footage was shot in RTP at the BBH plant.  The video was used in a racing themed booth at major trade shows.

BrightDoor - A Revolutionary Approach to Real Estate Sales

Deven Spear and Michael Worthington were the visionaries behind VisionFactory.  In the early 2000s they formed BrightDoor, a company that took their multimedia savvy and understanding of customer relationship management and applied it to the real estate market.  I helped create some early promo videos for the company including this one:

Nortel Formula One Simulator

When it was still a global force in networking technology, Nortel Networks sponsored a Formula One car.  VisionFactory was tasked to create a racing simulator/game that could be used at different events for the promotions team.  The requirements were - it had to be self contained, had to incorporate a camera that filmed the participant, would compress a video and allow the driver to email a clip with a message.  Being the late 90s, this was a pretty big task.  The VisionFactory team crammed the necessary technology in to a custom fabricated frame and the results are shown here.  It blows my mind that this thing probably exists somewhere in a warehouse now and occasionally someone will go "What the hell is that?"

The clip features fellow VFers Megan Bell, Eric (Dr.) Jones and David Johnston.  This video was really an excuse for me to play with our EZ-FX Jib. The backgound shows hints of our Googleplexish offices (5 years before Google).

I'll have cheese with that tradeshow

One of my clients when I was with VisionFactory was Bowe Bell and Howell, the former projector company turned mail services solution company.  BBH came to us for marketing videos and trade show presentations and design work.  One such project was "The Strongest Link", a game show parody that was used in a live trade show floor presentation.  I wrote the script and directed the segments which we shot on a set in Durham, NC from an old Glaxo show.  The cheese factor was high, but it was exactly what the client was looking for.  I enjoy looking back at this piece because it illustrates the rapid change in video technology.  The opening jib shot was done with a tiny 3 chip DV camera and cut in with the $80k studio cameras.  Anyone who remember "The Weakest Link" will get the joke.

3D Stills and Video on a $35 Budget

I've been a fan of the  Make Magazine and website for a few years and I recently mentioned the idea of making a 3D camera rig on the cheap to Senior Editor Mark Frauenfelder.  Note: Mark is also a regular contributor to one of my favorite blogs and daily addiction BoingBoing.net.  I've done some preliminary work based on two refurbished Logitech webcams that I was able to get for $25 and about $10 work of hardware from Lowes.  I'm hoping to submit a complete writeup to Make for possible publication.

Stereoscopic Frankenstein. 

Issues of parallax alignment are controlled by turning the turnbuckle.

Using the Stereo Multiplexer and Stereo Player software from Peter Wimmer, the two camera sources can be combined and displayed in a different 3D viewing formats.  Here a still from the first camera test in anaglyphic 3D (Red,Cyan glasses required).  I'm using my daughter's Barbie Pricess DVD glasses.

VisionFactory - A timecapsule of mid-ninties tech media

Long gone now, VisionFactory was based in RTP, NC.

As a video producer and writer for VisionFactory between 1995 and 2001, I was involved with hundreds of projects during the internet bubble.  Our clients were battling to capture the infrastructure dollars that the world was throwing at network technologies, and our biggest client was the now bankrupt and liquidated Nortel Networks.  Here's an early piece we created for a revolutionary product called the One Meg Modem, better known to us as DSL.  The project was created with After Effects and the video content was prepped and edited on a Mac-based Media 100. Design work was done by brilliant graphic artist Meri Kotlas who also did the VF logo and site design.

Who am I and Why am I here?

Bypassing the Admiral James Stockdale reference, I am a video and multimedia producer based in Asheville, NC.  During the past 18 years I've been an Independent Film Producer & Director, Screenwriter, Corporate Video Producer, Writer, Green Web Portal Co-Founder, Municipal Wireless Network Project Manager, Political Junkie, Small Business Owner, Online Advertising Entrepreneur, British Car Junkie, and most importantly - Twin Dad.

As a video editor I've cut two feature films, two television pilots, and hundreds of corporate pieces.  I've been editing video with Adobe Premiere since 1995 when I cut my film Immortal on version 1.0 for the PC, conforming the 35mm negative to the Premeire EDL.  I've also used Final Cut Pro on certain projects but always find myself returning to Adobe.  For motion graphics, compositing, and effects, I've been using Adobe After Effects since 1995 (when it was still made by Cosa).  I hack away at Photoshop when required but rely on much better designers than myself for serious design work. 

During the mid 90s to 2001 I was part of VisionFactory, an RTP, NC based multimedia firm that pioneered a variety of techniques in productions for companies like Nortel Networks, HP, Cisco, Raytheon, Bowe Bell and Howell, and many other leading tech companies.   Then in 2001 I moved to Asheville, NC and started Steve White Productions, servicing a select group of clients including TBM Consulting Group, Bowe Bell and Howell, and HP.  I've also worked with many Asheville based companies and non profits including AdvantageWest,  Deltec Homes, and The Bob Moog Foundation. I was involved in the startup AmericanGreen, a web based Green video portal in the mid 2000s and assisted Cherokee Broadband Enterprise to bring wireless internet to Cherokee, NC.  Today, I continue to work with a wide range of clients to produce affordable, quality video and interactive projects.

Why am I here? As a company that helps others market their products and services, I have often relied only on word of mouth to grow my client base.  This blog will serve as a way to showcase past work and share the media innovations that get me excited.