Executive Producer James Gustin and  Director Melissa Martens talks about creating the short.

James:

Fig and Metro Chicago have a long standing history, in particular a relationship between myself and Joe Shanahan (Owner of The Metro). A relationship that has lead to many opportunities that we are grateful for. Joe has been a big champion of ours and we are so appreciative to him for offering us the opportunity to work with Rock for Kids. The partnership just makes sense. Fig is an organization of artists that value and understand the importance of arts education in Chicago and Rock for Kids is making a big impact. Being invited to be on the board for communications fits right in with our mission. Our team at fig picked up and embraced the organization right away. We saw both long term opportunities to get involved and a place to fill an immediate need. Rock for kids had “video,” that’s what we call it, “video.” with quotes. They did not have a film. Two very different things and this is where we came in.

Melissa:

It all started with an email.  I was copied on an ask for a pro-bono “video” for the non-profit called Rock for Kids. After I looked up the mission of the organization, I knew I had to get involved. As a product of the inner city Chicago Public Schools system, I know the value of an arts education. Reading in the papers about cuts in arts education and music enraged me. I felt helpless to make a difference in a system that once offered me so much support. The arts classes I took in school inspired my career path and I just could not imagine my childhood without them. When James told me about Rock for Kids, I was so excited to be able to give something back. The timing was perfect. Fig had just invested in new cameras and I was itching to have an excuse to learn them. This would be my first Canon 5d MarkII film.

After meeting with the Rock for Kids team and talking things over with James Gustin, I was inspired to create something simple, a trailer.The time line of the project was driven by the classes. They were ending for summer and I had a short window (2 weeks) to film the classes in action. Nothing like a deadline to speed up the creative process. I wrote three versions of the scripts before settling on the version we produced. All the scripts involved voice over of kids. I was nervous that I might not have enough time to direct a large group of kids to get the tone that I wanted in the amount of time that I had access to them. I knew I needed a new plan.

The night before we were going to film the first class I was researching music videos online. Looking for inspiration. I remembered a film/music video I had seen by Bob Dylan:Subterranean Homesick Blues. As soon as I found a copy of it, I knew it was perfect.

It was simple. Thoughtful. Powerful. The idea referenced rock and roll and allowed me the freedom to spend more time directing the kids to feel comfortable on camera with less pressure on getting a good sound bite. Perfect! I adjusted the scripts and decided on a visual direction.

The decision to go black and white was governed by a major force: Post-Production time line. I would love to say that my choice to shoot black and white was by design. It was not. Sometimes true creativity comes out of figuring out how to do the work, do it well and deliver it on time.

It was a risk shooting on a camera that I was unfamiliar with. Even though I had backed myself up with Claire shooting documentary style footage in color on our Sony cameras.  I was learning the MarkII’s and knew that I would need to draw on my basics from film school and photography. My professors never let me graduate to color until I knew the ins and outs of black and white. If I thought I was going to change it to black and white later in post- why spend hours rendering the files in post. It would be faster to shoot it all in black and white and go back to the basics: shoot everything on a tripod when the situation allowed. One of my favorite things about this project- none of the footage is color corrected in post. You see it exactly the way I shot it. It wasn’t until I got into editing that I realize the coincidence of my choice. The Rock for Kids branding was black, white and red.

The morning we were to head out I bought a piece of white foam core for $2 from Walgreens- and set out to film the first class. We covered 6 classes in the course of 2 weeks from the South Side to the West Side- in and out of schools and community centers.

Filming brought me back to my own experiences, seeing these big spirits filled with such potential in little bodies reminded me of my own little spirit- just wanting to burst into song. I remember standing in my grade school auditorium with my Chorus teacher (whose name I wish I could remember, but whose influence I will never forget). He kept me after class that day to help me learn how to sing correctly. I had been belting out notes in class so loud that I was straining my voice. All I wanted to do was sing my heart out- but didn’t know that I was doing more damage then good. He set me in the center aisle facing the stage and dismissed everyone else. He told me to listen to the sound of the space, the sound of the piano and to try and fill the space with music- not volume. I remember vividly the moment I sang correctly. It took a few times for me to understand the concept. Standing eyes closed tight, fists balled up, head back- deep breath and the release. Hearing my own voice ring out in the space gave me chills. The hairs on my neck stood straight up. I started to understand what flow meant- not fighting the piano, but joining it. I got to the last verse of the song and started to cry, then burst into laughter. It was pure joy. That moment meant so much to me.

Filming the classes, I saw myself in each child. The little girl standing the the aisle, singing. I waited to find similar moments with the kids and used my experience to guide my selections for the edits later. I chose moments where the kids were being themselves, enjoying creating music and connecting me me behind the camera. When I had them hold the signs, I would have them make eye contact with me. I would smile, laugh and coach them to get comfortable, joke that I would tickle them to get them to smile- then wait. I would film the entire interaction and I waited for the moment when the awkwardness faded and they were connected with me before I cut. I chose both the moments of vulnerable awkwardness and connection for the edit.

In post production I added in all the text for the signs. My team at fig helped me re-work the script after my first version. Michele Gustin came up with the “help me rock” idea and helped me write some key messages. Some shots proved a challenge to add in the text. Places where I had abandoned my tripod for quick production showed up in moving text. If the signs and the shot weren’t locked down- the text moved. Some of those moments were so cute and added so much to the edit- I decided not to cut them. It wasn’t perfect execution but the idea and spirit came across.

For the score I wanted something that referenced a street beat. I fought with a few ideas till I realized that the beat I wanted already existed in the footage: the bucket class. I used the natural sounds of the classes to drive the score and after a few remixes by our intern team- settled on the final version. We sent it off to the Rock for Kids board and after a few rounds of tweaks- locked it all down.

What resulted in one month of work is the video below. Simple. Short and direct.

The versatility of the Mark II’s allowed me to pull stills and make images that Rock for Kids could use to further the branding and integrate the video style into their website and marketing materials. This was an added bonus that I loved- and plan on using in future projects.

The success of this piece would not have been possible without the planning and hard work of the Rock for Kids team: Maria Mowbray, Kyle Curry and Erin Frisby. The support and coaching I received from our fig films team. The opportunities set up by Executive Director James Gustin and the willingness of the kids and teachers to play. I am honored to be able to create something for an organization that our company, fig media, believes in and that personally means so much to me.

Rock for Kids is truly making a difference in these kids lives. As our school systems struggle with tough choices on budget, often having to cut programs like music and art; non profits like Rock for Kids are important to our communities future. I think it is our responsibility as adults to create places where our communities children can thrive and to give back those moments- like mine in the auditorium. I created this piece to help with that mission. You can help too. Visit their website to find out more: www.rockforkids.org

Rock on!

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@MetroChicago @RockForKids @Figmedia @Jamesgustin @takeupreal

Jack Johnson is donating his profits to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation which supports environmental education in schools and communities in Hawaii.  He also is participating in the Johnson Ohana Chartiable Foundation, which matches fans donations to Green Village. (The local non-profit site at his concerts)  I asked fans what charity they do, or would, support. Here’s what they said:

Tiffanie Craddock and Chris Simnick: World Wildlife Fund. I’m sure you all understand this one. www.worldwildlife.org

Oliva Graham: Simple Life Foundation. A group that fights the stress of everyday life by downsizing and living simple to avoid problems. www.simplelifefoundation.org

Shawn Cox: American Cancer Society. www.cancer.org

Heather Lanz: Junvinile Diabetes Research Foundation. www.jdrf.org

Amanda Williams: Relief effort for the BP oil spill. This can be accomplished many ways. You can donate you time and/or money to a lot of different organizations affected by the disaster. Just Google BP oil spill relief.

Shamus H: New Belgium Brewery Recycling Program. New Belgium Brewery uses renewable resounces like wind power to assist in it’s brewing process. It also resues 73% of the waste it creates. Shamus thinks you can help the environment by kicking back a bottle of New Belgium brew. Not a bad idea. Cheers.

Tyler T: Invest in solar panels for your home. Solar energy is a great idea but to turn around as an investement takes about 30 years. If you have the cash and want to have a renewable energy source right on your rooftop, check out www.solarhome.org

Todd T: Cut out oil. Sounds easy dosen’t it? Not really. There are little things you do like riding your bike or taking public transportaion. But a life without using any oil may not happen in the near future.

Ian Neil: Support wind turbines. To go along with the nice new solar panels on your roof, you can have your very own brand new wind turbine in your backyard. A mere $10,000 and your set for generating 538 kW of power in an average month. They also make them for your sailboat too. Something needs to power your radio.

Currently Fig Media filmmaker Joe Martinez is searching for a charity to help victims of domestic abuse.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this story.

Marketing Intern Mike Hyzy interviews people on the street to find out.

Neil Pavela: Passion Pit “Little Secrets” – ALO “Girl I Wanna Lay You Down” – Alcoholic Faith Mission “My Eyes To See”

Bob Engel: Passion Pit “Little Secrets” – Taio Cruz “Heartbreaker” – Enrique Iglesias “I Like It”

Bridget Kearns: Passion Pit “Kingdom Come” – Passion Pit “Little Secrets” – Wolf Parade “Shine a Light”

Britney Schrimple: Robert Randolph “Shake Your Hips” – Adel “Crazy For You” – Phish “Character Zero”

Jim Miller: The Who “The Seeker” – Phish “Gotta Jibbo” – Passion Pit “Little Secrets”

Aubrey Martinez: Jimmy Burns – Black Eyed Peas – Bradley Carlyle

Tom LaJeone: Modest Mouse – Peal Jam’s Madison Square Garden Concert – White Rabbit “Percussion Gun”

J.P. Youpel: Dirty Heads “Lay Me Down” – (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life – Jennifer Warnes/Bill Medley – The Crystal Method “Trip Like I Do”

Sean Murphy: Drake “Over” – Mickey Avalon “My Dick” – Beach Boys “Surfin USA”

Casey Dunn: LaRoux “Bulletproof” – David Guetta “Memories” – Passion Pit “Memories”

John Wagner and John Kearney were in from Denver. They gave me their list of what music set the tone on their trip to Chicago for the weekend.

Tom Petty “Last Dance with Mary Jane” – Nas “Hate Me Now” – Men at Work “Down Under” – Toto “Africa” – Electric Light Orehestra “Evil Women”

I looked up the few songs I didn’t know and ALO was my favorite hands down. If you like this type of music, Jack Johnson will be at Alpine Valley with G Love and ALO this Saturday.

Good music, great people.

Robert Randolph opened for Passion Pit at the Taste of Chicago, and even if your not the biggest fan, it was something that anyone could enjoy. The music that is. The heat was intense and the sun was beating down for most of the show. The crowd was huge, but not large enough to make it uncomfortable. Robert Randolph knows how to light up a crowd. His music was upbeat and keep the crowd grooving throughout his set. He kind of lost the crowd at the end for a minute and then…bam! “Is that poker face?” says the guy next to next to me. Oh it was.

This guy:

Covering a song by this girl:

Was unexpected.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or start cheering, so I did a little bit of both. He got the crowd back and it was a cool way to close out his set. Now it was time to see what everyone was waiting for. Passion Pit was closing out their tour right here on the 4th of July. Ive been asking people what three songs they were in love with over the weekend. Half of them named Passion Pit. Their album has been out for more than a year now and it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down at all. They come on stage and play an insane set. I’ve seen them twice before and this was the best by far. The crowd was going nuts. Security keeps coming around because people are jumping up on the chairs. They came back on for the encore and played “Dream” by The Cranberries. They pull it off pretty well. To close out the show they played “Sleepyhead” and the crowd went insane and rushed up to the stage. The energy at the concert was ecstatic. Here’s a recap of the concert.

This whole stunt was set up by Bill Wasik of Harper’s Magazine. He claimed the purpose was a social experiment that wanted to show the humor of conformity.  It also created a social network of people that want to get together to do something that draws a lot of attention.   The definition of ‘flash mob’ is “a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.”

Since its inception in 2003, the flash mob phenomenon has traveled all over the world.  Some events have become yearly occurrence like “No Pants Day,” “National Pillow Fight Day,” and “Zombie Walk.”

These flash mobs antics have spurred viral videos of their performances.  The whole concept would not be possible without the technology that connects the members and then shows the rest of the world what they did.  The event is set up though social networking sites, email and text messages.  Using during one of the events the participants (usually called agents) are contacted by text message on when to start their performance.  The event is usually videotaped and then posted online.  The concept of doing unusual things in usual places is pretty funny and the videos are widely shared.

The original concept was a humorous event, it was not created to be a protest of anything of political matter.  The flash mob concept is similar to what Improv Everywhere does but on a larger level.  Improv Everywhere does some usual stunts in public places.  My favorite is their ‘Ghostbusters’ skit in the New York Library.

The idea of a ‘flash mob’ has also caused some unintended side effects.  Groups with some negative ideas have used the tactic of gathering a large group of people by social networking, email and text.  The point of the gathering is not for comedic humor but for violent protests and riots.  They have been called ‘flash mobs’ but this in incorrect because they actually have a point they are trying to prove. Philadelphia has had constant problems with violent so-called ‘flash mobs’ and have requested help from the FBI to monitor social media sites.  Protesters for the G20 summit in Canada called themselves a flash mob and caused havoc in the city that turned to looting and burning of police cars.

The flash mob machine doesn’t seem like it’s losing any steam.  It has groups that are categorized in big cities on sites like Facebook and Myspace.  There is also a site called Urban Prankster that recruits people for large flash mob events.  It has also spawned other ‘mob’ groups like smart mob and crop mob.  Smart mob is an organization that uses the same recruitment and execution strategies for a political, economic or social purpose.  Cropmobs use social networking to recruit people for help maintaining small organic farms.

I’ve been looking into the Chicago flash mobs and street improv and I’ve found we havent even come close to New York.  Oprah did set the record with 20,000 people doing a synchronized dance to Black Eyed Peas ‘I’ve Gotta Feelin’ but that is neither here nor there.  From the city where comedy is king I think we can do better.  There is bad organization and the dates and times get switched often.  The Urban Prankster Chicago group is more than a 1,000 members strong, but it only takes one to try to turn a good hearted flash mob event into a social protest.  So I asked writer/director/actor Joe Janes, who is also a teacher at Second City, what his reaction would be if he was walking down Michigan Ave. and there were 70 people frozen by the bean.  He responded, “I love that stuff.  Its like the WTF moments. Its great to see a group of people get together and do something fun and spontaneous.”  He was familiar with the No Pants subway rides and the group that did a MP3 experiment in Lincoln Park close to what Improv Everywhere did in New York.

So finally I asked him what advice he had for the people that were starting street improv groups.  He said, “Just do it.  Don’t put it off a few days and wait for more people to join.  Go out and get it started.  Let it snowball and if you do something that you love people will follow.”

The flash mobs create so much attention that large corporations have started to use them to market their products.  The most widely watched corporate funded flash mob was the T-Mobile flash mob dance at the Liverpool Street station in London. Yahoo has just signed Improv Everywhere to work on a marketing plan. Microsoft put together a flash mob for the release of Office 2010 but the video bombed getting a very weak 67 views of the day of its release.  Its problem was that everyone was wearing Microsoft Office shirts.  The point is that is supposed to look random.  The idea of a flash mob for marketing purposes is a very tricky concept to deal with.  It has to be original, funny and be completely legal to avoid any lawsuits against the company.

I don’t really think that this is a fad.  Just like social networking sites have become a part of our lives, flash mobs have become a part for some of us too.  The point that is has to evolve and stay fresh.  Whether its to promote a product or just for fun, its become a hobby for many people.  If I was walking through LaSalle street station in Chicago and 100 people started dancing, I would stop and laugh my ass off. But how many times I am going to think a dance or a freeze is funny after that?  Chicago has the potential to be a great city to experiment with the flash mob and street improv.  Someone just has to take the reigns.

A L I C E from Fig Media on Vimeo.

fashion short for bambi magazine

http://www.bambimagazine.com

Fig clients Chad and Lorien gave up their 4th row tickets for game one- to get married. The wedding had already been planned. Not to fear, fig photogs (Brian Carey and James Gustin) had the bright idea to take the wedding party to United Center to take some photos. Even if they could not go to the game- why not take advantage of the timing?

What happened next was unexpected. The couple has been interviewed by several news stations and today a story ran on them in the Chicago Sun-Times. Quoted all over Chicago as the couple that just “wants the Blackhawks to win The Stanely cup, as a wedding gift.” And they got it! Congrats to the Hawks and to our couple.

Suntimes Article BY MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporter

Diehard Blackhawks fans Chad and Lorien Yonker had to give up their fourth-row tickets to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals because of a slightly more important commitment: The game fell on the same day as their wedding. But that didn’t stop the South Loop couple from showing up at the United Center right after the wedding to pose for pictures with amused fans.”All we want for a wedding present is the Stanley Cup,” said Lorien Yonker, whose lace strapless gown stood out among the red Blackhawks jerseys and caps.

Check out our priceless photos and read the full article here.

Images by figphoto.net

photographers: Brian Carey and James Gustin

©fig media 2010 all rights reserved.

Fig Media writer and Second City instructor Joe Janes embarked on an ambitious project to write an original comedy sketch every single day for an entire year. Now, the full collection is being produced live in Chicago. 26 shows over the course of 11 days featuring over 200 actors and directors. Congratulations, Joe!

A full Performink article about the event is on-line here: http://online.performink.com/features/theatre/251-365-sketches

You can read more about Joe and the 365 Sketches project at the 365 blog : http://365sketchesbyjoejanes.blogspot.com

Tickets for any of the shows can be purchased here :https://secure2.sellingticket.com/design22/clien/list/index_byUserListAll.aspx?OrganizationID=26

A book of all 365 Sketches is available in print or download at lulu.com.

The stories have themes of nostalgia, dreams, luxury & of course Miami.  They were shot from sunrise to sunset, on South Beach, the Park Central Hotel, & the exclusive Fisher Island.  To view the rest of the stories make sure to check out http://www.figphoto.net.

If you haven’t already watched, make sure you check out the behind the scenes video from the 2 day editorial shoots!