Here are some case studies and sample films.
Case Study: The Botanic Garden at Smith College
The Botanic Gardens at Smith College are both beautiful places to visit as a guest, and historic classrooms for Smith students studying the life sciences. I was really excited when they reached out to work with Cottontail Media to produce, film and edit a video for an exhibit exploring Sylvia Plath's time as a student researcher at the college. The folks at Smith had done a lot of archival research and we met to look over old photos, journal entries and even look at Plath’s old text book. Our initial meeting was insightful and I left having scheduled a day to come and scout locations inside the greenhouse to film while the staff spent the next few weeks writing a script that Dr. Jessica Gersony (faculty member at Smith College) would speak from in order to explain the details of a science experiment that Plath conducted as a student during her time at the college.
Filming day arrived and I got to the Botanic Garden early to dress the set and light the scene. Dr. Gersony was ready in a white lab coat and we recorded the entire experiment in less than three hours! This project was both fun and challenging. The location itself, while stunning, was humid and loud due to the fans that run in the greenhouses. We worked around those obstacles and the result was fantastic.
Case Study: The Mohawk Trail Region Website
The Mohawk Trail Region website is a hub of information celebrating some of the most amazing sights, sounds and tastes found along the historic 63-mile stretch of highway that stretches from the Massachusetts/New York line to Millers Falls. This project came to me by way of a local web marketing company who reached out to ask if I was up for a road trip. Obviously the answer was ABSOLUTELY! The creative director wanted an entire package of assets including photography, a looping video of gorgeous scenery that would run on the website's home page, and a series of short videos that featured all of the shopping, food, activities and recreation, and entertainment found along the trail. I was happy to make this happen and eager to pack my car for a mini Western Massachusetts road trip.
Before heading out, I worked with the creative team to identify key locations that included cafes, farms, bridges, hiking trails, and more. List in hand I set out with a car packed with cameras, lenses, tripods and my handy drone that I used to capture a glimpse of what the Mohawk Trail Region has to offer.
Case Study: Athletics at Northfield Mount Hermon
Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) is a private boarding school tucked into the northern hills of Western Massachusetts and is home to a wonderful array of students and staff, so when they reached out for some video work, I was instantly on board. NMH has a robust athletics program with teams participating in sports ranging from golf and soccer to wrestling and swimming. I worked closely with the social media and marketing director at NMH to develop a social media schedule that included multiple seasonal thirty second sports reels highlighting the student athletes. Each season’s social media calendar was capped with a longer cut that would be sent to parents and alumni in the school regular email communications.
This project had me running around soccer fields, in the locker room at half-time with the boys varsity basketball team while the coach rallied the team for a win, and in the ice rink with the boys and girls hockey teams.
Case Study: Taylor Seldin-French Studio
Local contemporary artist and furniture maker, Taylor Seldin-French was just getting ready to move studios and asked me to document the space before his big move. We talked over coffee one afternoon to draw up a plan; he was really laid back about the concept and the idea and open to however I wanted to film it but he had one request; he wanted bird song to play over the video. No problem!
I visited the studio to see the space and plan for the shoot, and then headed out with a mic and audio recorder to gather birds singing (a task that is a lot harder than you might think!). On the day of filming Taylor was on hand and watched while I worked my way around his studio filled with sculptures, prints, and a fair amount of plants. I delivered the video to him using DropBox for his own future use on a website or to share on social media.
Case Study: Thornes Marketplace
Thornes Marketplace is the main shopping hub in downtown Northampton with restaurants, book stores, a cafe and so much more. With four floors bustling with business, capturing the vibrancy of this space for the new website the marketing manager was getting ready to launch was no small feat. Over a few zoom calls and in person meetings, we came up with a plan that would allow me to gather the shots I needed while not interrupting business in the shops and restaurants.
The marketing manager worked with individual shop owners inside Thornes to schedule my visit and we built a schedule that allowed me to show what Thornes Marketplace has to offer. This project was on the bigger side with multiple videos grouped into food and beverage, clothes and shoes, and art and home decor. I edited the videos and shared them with the manager via Dropbox and the site was up and running on schedule.
Case Study: Our Family Farms
I love working outside whenever I can and the project I did with Our Family Farms in Franklin County gave me outdoor work in spades! This family run farm has been in operation for generations. I worked closely with Angie who showed me around the farm and explained the operation to me. She also knew each one of her cows' names by heart (there are a lot of cows so this was very impressive to me!). The farm was opening its own milk processing plant right next door to the farm and the family wanted to highlight that new endeavor with a number of films that told the story of the farm, highlighted their amazing farm staff, and served as educational material on the methods they use to raise a happy healthy herd.
Farmers are busy people, so I worked really hard to not be in their way. We scheduled interviews well in advance so we didn’t slow anyone down and everyone came to filming day with an informal script ready for what they wanted to talk about on camera. The interviews were great and we did them all in one day. I came back to the farm a few days later to gather lots of luscious farm b-roll and film the cows of course. In all I delivered four films to the crew at Our Family Farms and they have used them online and on social media and have helped put names to the faces of the hard working people (and cows) who make our food system work.