Redwood Credit Union Community Impact: From brief outline to finished project

For many projects, the vision for the completed project is in place well before the cameras come out of the bag. But sometimes, it's more about the feelings, emotions and vibe that you want to convey to the viewer more than the exact imagery and scripting. In a recently-completed project for my favorite Bay Area banking institution Redwood Credit Union, that's exactly the challenge with which we were met. 

Redwood Credit Union wanted to produce a video that would play in their newly-remodeled entry mall in their Santa Rosa administrative offices (that also doubles as a consumer bank location). After playing many of their customer stories produced by Schneider Productions, they realized that there was a missing piece to the story they wanted to tell about what they do for their members and their community. 

Redwood Credit Union invests an incredible amount of time and money back into the community, including raising funds for those devastated by the wildfires that rampaged through the north bay (millions were raised), invest in the county public school system, and donate their time and money to local food banks among a host of other involvements like their "Bite of Reality" series and their annual Shred-A-Thons. 

Over the course of four months, we were able to slowly evolve the desires of Redwood Credit Union from a concept into a completed project. We are very proud of this one, and are very happy with how we were able to combine the many skills we offer at Schneider Productions:

Timelapse: Much of what gives this video flow and movement is timelapse. When placed in a video alongside still photos, regular footage and slow motion footage, timelapse gives the viewer an idea of the passage of time, and also can show how many people are impacted by an event. In the case of this video, it serves all these purposes at different points in the edit. 

On-site video production: Originally tasked with just animating still photos, we eventually were asked to capture new, high-resolution videos to show Redwood Credit Union's involvement in the community. 

Custom graphics and animations: Whether it's the heart animation transition or custom infographics bringing life to titles, graphics and animations do a lot to add that extra special something to videos and better illustrate the impact of certain scenes. Our experience here allowed us to create graphics for Redwood Credit Union that are not just unique, but more importantly they are on-brand for the credit union. 

This was not an easy project, but it was fun in the challenges we faced with it. The Schneider Productions team was involved from start to finish, and the on-site, editing and graphics team all worked together to produce a the best video for Redwood Credit Union's administrative building. 

48 Hour Filmmaking Challenge: Sedona, AZ

I like to think back on how I first got interested in filmmaking, and I have to say the first time I ever really enjoyed the process was back in college. This was well before I became a professional videographer in San Francisco, CA and I was focused on my degree in marketing and business administration. But one of my hobbies was in Film Club, where we made short films for fun. For three years we took part in a very challenging local event in Spokane, WA: the 48 hour film festival. 

This was, as you can imagine, a wild weekend of shooting. We were given 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a film with given parameters. Though we never won, we did come close two times. As you can imagine, it's not the most conducive environment for high-quality filmmaking, but rather forces you to make fast, tough decisions. A lot of what you want to do has to be thrown out, and even more gets left on the cutting room floor. 

Fast forward to 2017, and an opportunity presented itself to me at a Sony shooting event in Sedona, AZ. I was told at the onset that we had two days to make a video, and of course I wanted to win. I looked at who I was up against, and because there were so many dedicated YouTubers there I was a bit afraid of the competition. That's when I remembered my experiences doing 48 hour film festivals, and I thought that maybe that would give me the edge. 

Turns out, it did. The video above was conceptualized, shot and edited in just 48 hours and was voted the best video produced at the event. We were given the opportunity to shoot out of a hot air balloon at dawn, and I took that time to make all of the aerial footage you'll see in the video. Though I normally use drones for much of this kind of thing, the balloon afforded me some unique advantages. Firstly, it moves very slow and deliberately, and it allowed me to mimic some of the more sought-after kinds of aerial shots (slow reveals, pans, and the straight-down clips). It certainly helps that my balloon pilot was excellent at his job, and was able to fly us into some really amazing scenes, and deftly skirted the tops of the brush at the crest of the mesa. 

The timelapse shots were created using a mixture of a traditional intervelometer and my Cinetics Lynx rail. 

It was extremely rewarding to not only produce something in so short a time, but something that I was happy with and so were others. It's absolutely not the idea situation for creating content, but it was a fun exercise that took me back to my early days. 

From Jet to Jet: Being the Photographer for the United Air Force Thunderbirds

It's over 100 degrees fahrenheit in the shade on a blistering spring day in Phoenix, Arizona. At Luke Air Force base, you would be wise to find cover under an awning or the rare palm tree as the sun baked the flat landscape. Strangely I'm not as affected by the heat today as I am on other days. There is simply too much on my mind. I've been spending the past two days reassuring one of my best friends that he's going to do great, that he will indeed withstand 9 G's and maintain consciousness. 

His name is Blair Bunting, and his video you've probably already seen.

But this story isn't about Blair, the heat or even me. This story is about the man I met on the tarmac of Luke Air Force Base by chance as he held a Nikon D610 to his eye, stopping history one frame at a time in photojournalistic fashion. 

This is the story of Sergeant Larry Reid Jr., United States Air Force Photojournalist, and how his job is one of the most incredible stories I have ever had the pleasure of telling. 

Sergeant Reid is one of a very small group of people who not only gets to call himself a Thunderbird, but also whose job it is to go up in that F16 fighter jet and is tasked with capturing images of the planes in flight, whether he be in formation or in chase (behind the formation). 

"My favorite part about my job is capturing moments. Capturing moments that not a lot of people get to see," he told me. Reid is an Air Force pilot through and through, but he is also a photojournalist. He is a creative, and is given creative freedom to produce the greatest images possible. 

"I believe that in order to be good, and to better yourself and push yourself, you have to have that creative control. On this team, I have that." Reid's top cover, his leadership, trusts him to make the right calls when it comes to producing images, and Reid takes that responsibility incredibly seriously. 

In order to produce amazing images in a tiny bubble flying at an excess of 500 miles per hour, Reid has some very specific methods that he has developed. For one, he wears black flight gloves and a grey helmet, breaking in tradition with the rest of the Thunderbirds who wear the American red, white and blue whenever possible. "The red white and blue helmet will reflect in that canopy," he told me. "So I opt to wear a grey one." The grey helmet also carries a matte finish, significantly reducing the amount of reflection and glare it would knock into the canopy. He also has two specially designed black cloths that he drapes over the control panel and his personal buckles over his chest to further block reflections. 

Sergeant Reid has the art of taking photos from an F16 down to a beautiful science, and it shows in his absolutely incredible images.  

Reid isn't just the Air Force's air-to-air photographer, he is also tasked with documenting every important situation where he is present. He has to be ready at the drop of a hat to get those images. In order to shoot this feature, we needed to steal Sergeant Reid for a short time (30-45 minutes), but even in that small window things can come up. During our first attempt at the interview, Reid was suddenly called away to photograph the Undersecretary of the Air Force and he could not say no.

Despite the hustle it takes to do his job well, I don't think Sergeant Reid would want to be doing anything else. He truly loves his job and it shows on his face and in his imagery. 

I would like to thank Sergeant Larry Reid Jr. for his time, the United States Air Force and the USAF Thunderbirds for allowing me to make this video and for letting me use one of their hangers, and to Blair Bunting for introducing me to all these great people. 

For more, head over to Fstoppers, SLR Lounge and Photofocus. Different parts of the story are relayed in each place, so they are all worth checking out.