Chicago Video Production

High Jump | Fundraising Video

High Jump is a two-year, tuition-free academic enrichment program for rising seventh graders in Chicago. The Chicago nonprofit teaches students who demonstrate strong academic potential, value learning, and have dreams of excelling academically.

Through this video production, we were able to tell the stories of three exceptional High Jump students and how the Chicago nonprofit has helped them excel academically.

chicago nonprofit video production
Filming Anaitzel’s story at Latin Campus

Our initial plan was to capture the three student stories over the course of three separate seasons. That was the plan but this year, Fall was short and quickly turned into Winter. So, two of the students were filmed during what we’ll affectionately call the “colder months” in Chicago.

chicago nonprofit video production
Filming the twins (Derrick and Justin) at University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

We filmed at three of the nonprofit’s Chicago campuses: Francis W. Parker, Latin School of Chicago, and University of Chicago Lab Schools. All filming was done with the RED Epic Dragon Cinema Camera for that extra movie-like look!

Filming at Francis W. Parker School on their stage

We started planning for this project about six months ago and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the final product come together. Even more amazing is that our client was able to raise over $1 million at their annual gala where this video premiered! This was $70K over their fundraising goal and an increase of over $200K from last year’s benefit. This is the highest amount ever raised in the history of this nonprofit!

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Detroit Documentary Video Production

SMILE Program // Documentary Film

The Oakland County Friend of the Court provides services to parents who are going through divorce. Through their SMILE (Start Making it Livable for Everyone) program, an Oakland County Circuit Court mandated program, all parents with minor children who are divorcing or involved in a privately filed paternity, custody, or support case can learn how to co-parent during and after a divorce is finalized.

The SMILE program had a brochure and a training DVD produced in the 90s. Since the video was first produced, a lot of the material taught in the program needed to be updated. So, they hired us to produce an updated video! In looking at the material that needed to be taught and the intended audience, we brought up the idea of producing a documentary-style, interview-based video. The plan was to film interviews with several families who were going through divorce so that viewers could learn from those experiences and see how those families successfully navigated the co-parenting process.

Detroit Video Production

Pre-production phone interviews were conducted with many families. In coordination with our client, three families were selected to appear in the documentary film. Over the course of three days, we filmed nine interviews, b-roll, and also various scenes with actors. It was a busy three days while our crew filmed around Detroit and the surrounding suburbs.

Detroit Video Production

During filming, we were able to meet a lot of interesting people. One of the people we featured lived in her car for a period of time. She handed her daughter over to her ex-husband during this time because she didn’t want her daughter to live outside in the freezing car. To illustrate this scene, we filmed an actor living outside near the abandoned Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit, MI.

Detroit Documentary Video Production

In addition to all of the ground footage we filmed, we also flew our aerial drone to capture video of various landscapes around Michigan.

Michigan Aerial Drone
Post production included logging many hours of interviews and b-roll footage. In addition to the longer documentary film, we also produced a shorter version and segments for in-class training. Closed captioned DVDs were made and distributed to various stakeholders across the State of Michigan.

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Tuxco Corporation // Industrial Manufacturing Company Video


For over 70 years, four generations of the Blomgren family have manufactured service tools and equipment to help keep the machinery of industry working. Tuxco Corporation is based in the suburbs of Chicago. For this video production, we filmed at their manufacturing facility for a day, which included b-roll and interviews. The imagery we were able to capture in the warehouse was iconic. Since the business has been here for many decades, some of the backdrops were perfect for placing historic company photos on the workbenches. We used some of these scenes in the branding film opening.

We edited several social media edits at various lengths and the final branding film will be a nice compliment to the company’s new website!

Chicago Industrial Manufacturing Video Production

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