Welcome back to our blog series “Industry Insights”, where we interview members of the production world that we have had the opportunity to collaborate with! This week, we are featuring a talented pilot and drone operator who has helped us take many projects to new heights. Meet Jonathan Gruber!
On May 21st, the winners for the 40th Annual Telly Awards were announced, and Motion Source made the list! We submitted two projects to the competition and received recognition for both. Each project received a Bronze Telly in their respective categories. These two Tellys join the three we took home in the 2018 competition. We are excited to share with you our newly-awarded projects!
If there was any shred of doubt left as to the enduring popularity of superhero movies, Avengers: Endgame has incontrovertibly eradicated it. After just over 10 years of cinematic output, the 22nd entry to the Marvel universe has already pummeled box office records. In under a month, Endgame has already outgrossed the entire domestic run of Titanic, and is on pace to be the highest grossing film of all time. This unprecedented success has led the Motion Source team to contemplate their favorite superhero films over the years. Below you will be treated to an intriguing assemblage of superhero films: some you’ve undoubtedly seen, some you may have forgotten about, and one or two you may have never heard of.
Many projects require hired talent so casting becomes an important part of pre-production. We assist our clients with casting and offer the option to hold auditions at our studio. Clients can attend these sessions or receive video files to review. Either way, we offer guidance to clients in selecting the right talent for their project by keeping a few tips in mind.
Our latest project with long-standing client, the Les Turner ALS Foundation, wrapped up about a month ago, and it took us on an emotional journey like no other. This marked our fourth “Hope Through Caring” project together, and we wanted to create something different with just as much impact. One of the Gala’s honorees, Mindy Evans-Williams, was to be featured in the video. Her incredible, unique story and the theme of “paying it forward” inspired an approach we had not taken on past projects.
While this blog entry bears the title “How To Be Creative,” I am fairly certain that I made my opinions regarding personal creativity abundantly clear in the previous installment. Suffice to say, everyone is creative. Therefore, the idea of being “more creative,” is really a question of how to enhance the inherent creativity that you already possess. The first part of this series discussed the strategy of exercising your ideas: to attain a higher level of creative fluency, you need to spend time doing creative things. This seems like a painfully obvious admonishment, but very few seem to follow it. More frequent engagement with creative activities is where you begin this quest; the next steps are detailed below.
I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about my professional title: Creative Director. It serves its purpose in roughly describing my job--overseeing the conceptual development of our projects--but it also seems to suggest that I am the holder of this elusive, arcane source of pure inspiration. And, while I consider it an honor to be labeled a creative person, the idea of creativity being the province of an elite enclave embedded within the larger mundanity of society is diametrically opposed to my personal belief. I have engaged in countless arguments with “artists” and “layman” alike, who both maintain that creativity is a talent assigned to a special few. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Midtown Athletic Club recently renovated and reopened their signature club in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. With this new renovation came the need to hire a slew of new energetic associates to staff the sports resort. To that end, Motion Source was hired to help achieve this goal through video.
Brand videos are among the most popular types of videos out there these days. Differing from standard commercial or corporate videos, brand videos (also referred to as brand films or brand stories) focus on connecting with the audience, typically through emotion. It becomes less about the “who” and the “what” and more about the “why” and the “how”. Let’s take a look at some key features to a successful brand video.
While my list of books to read is nearly bottomless, I am always seeking for additional titles to tack on. This has led me into many discussions with friends and associates regarding what they consider to be some of the finest reading material they’ve ever engaged with. Which, leads me to where we are right now: a blog post about book recommendations. I must also admit that a portion of the motivation for this post comes from the fact that all to often people assume we are film nerds and nothing else! Without further ado, we are about to prove that wrong…
The new year is up and running and that means resolutions are in full swing. Why not include goals for your video marketing? Last year, we offered a few suggestions based on some of the most common personal resolutions. This year, we are offering a three-part approach to apply to video objectives: something to continue doing well, something to improve on, and something new to try.
The last few months, we have been working on a very special project: our 2018 holiday gift! If you have been following along, then you will know that we announced this back in October, and we were excited to share the final video last week. Learn more about the project and what is to come next!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And with that, comes fun, festive activities and spending time with loved ones. The holiday season is the perfect time to create new memories and reminisce on the old. From special foods and desserts to family and cultural customs, here are just a few of our favorite holiday traditions!
It is November 30th and we are closing out 30 days of mustaches in the name of men's health! You may have seen our posts throughout the month as our team has participated in our second Movember. Now, as wrap up the month, each team member shared their motivation for participating and thoughts on the experience.
Most weekends are for sleeping in, relaxing, and catching up on the latest Netflix shows. This past weekend, however, some of the Motion Source team joined forces with friends and creative collaborators to compete in the Four Points Film Project, a worldwide film competition, challenging teams to complete a short film in just 77 hours. That’s correct: write, shoot, edit, and submit a short film in a little over 3 days. There was little sleep and relaxing, but we did it. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of “The Ballad of Bloodfist”.
It’s that time of year again...Movember! That very hairy, but important time when men’s health issues are brought to the forefront through the power of the ‘stache. Motion Source has formed a team for the second year to raise awareness and funds through the Movember Foundation. Once again, we will join the movement by putting down the razors and standing up for men’s health.
We announced on Tuesday our plans for this year’s Motion Source Holiday Video. Instead of sending out our usual seasons greetings video, we are reallocating that time and those resources into producing a video for a Chicagoland nonprofit. What better way to celebrate the holidays and honor the spirit of the season!
You may have heard the term “4K” when doing some research on video production, but do you actually understand what it means? While it is not necessary for your video, it does offer benefits as well as a few drawbacks that are worth considering.
“End of the year? But it’s ONLY September!” The calendar year clock is ticking down, and soon we will be entering Q4. This IS the time to think about end-of-the-year videos, and we have a few ideas to help you get started!
Creating art isn’t just part of our job; it is something that we are passionate about and continue long after the 9am-5pm and far beyond the walls of the office. At our core, we are a team of artists and storytellers, and while video is our go-to medium, it also transcends motion picture. A few Motion Source team members created a webcomic “One Thousand Mornings” that debuted earlier this week. Here’s a “passion project spotlight” on their work!
Video Production