Media: Feature Story on Creo Productions

Rapid Growth wrote an in-depth feature, "The Multimedia Men," covering our downtown expansion, the project in Zimbabwe, and our hopes for the future.

GR's own talented Brian Kelly took the photos. Below are only selected excerpts; make sure to check out the full story.

"Creo Productions was born during a six-week backpacking trip through Europe, as co-founder Aaron Carriere traveled while taking a break between jobs."

"Today, the full-service video, audio and creative production company takes clients' projects from start to finish, including concepts, animation and graphics."

"Behind the company name and logo that adorns the large storefront windows, Carriere and Tingley sit at two desks facing the front door. Tall ceilings give way to bright white walls and wood floors. Just through the kitchen papered with Ansel Adams photographs is a set of steep stairs leading down to what will become the audio production studio."

"But, after viewing a sample of the company's produced work, it's hard to believe the material was created by such a small team, and not a big-budget studio."

New Video: LifeStraw and the Global Water Crisis

LifeStraw is an innovative, life-saving water purification tool, noted as one of the century's most important inventions by CNN, TIME, Forbes, and a host of other media outlets.

We've partnered with international company Vestergaard Frandsen, the creators of LifeStraw, to produce a video about the global water situation and how LifeStraw is saving lives.

We're also honored by Peter's comments about working with us:

"I have worked with many large advertising and production agencies over the years, but none were as easy to work with or as competent as Aaron Carriere and his colleagues at Creo Productions. They quickly developed an appreciation for our technical products, and grew that concept into a smart and beautifully shot promotional video that we can use in countless ways."

-Peter Cleary, Vestergaard Frandsen New York

1. Please watch the video on our portfolio.

2. Please spread the word about LifeStraw.

New Video: Zondervan Launches Symtio

We're helping publisher Zondervan launch Symtio, a technology independent program that allows retailers to sell downloadable digital products in their store. Zondervan CEO Moe Girkins called Symtio an "industry movement."

We shot and edited the video that was shown at Symtio's national launch on July 14 at ICRS in Orlando. Watch the video below:

Techy Blog: Behind Creo Boggle

Many have commented on our Boggle video (see above), which tells the developing story of Creo Productions. First, we had to locate the elusive Boggle Deluxe edition, which has five columns and rows of letters instead of four. (Props to eBay for making it happen).

The music in the piece is an all original track, “Back Home,” written and played by Aaron, and recorded by our audio engineer Matthew using our ProTools system.

After scripting, production involved securing the camera directly overhead on an animation camera-stand. After numerous tests, discussions about logistics and lighting, we began shooting. In order to get the effect, we had to place the letters in their final resting position first.

Everything had to be done in reverse.

We developed a rhythmic counting system with a metronome to keep proper pacing. When Andrew set the Boggle game down on the table, we would count beats, then Aaron would hit the table underneath the set with a rubber mallet, shaking the Boggle pieces. At that exact moment, Andrew would pull the Boggle set up, shake it, and pull it out of screen.

After posting the video to our website with the original blue boggle and flesh colored hand, we decided it had to match our color scheme.

Andrew took the completed video in Final Cut Pro, and desaturated all the colors except green. He then tweaked the brightness and color to mimic our Creo Productions green color (Hex 339933). Running the video through After Effects with an HLS (Hue, Lightness, Saturation) filter made this process easy.

Finally, it was compressed with flash and added to CreoProductions.com.

On Sale: Yester-DVD's for $10

The Yesterdog Documentary is on sale for $10. Visit Yesterdog or www.YesterdogDocumentary.com to pick up your copy.

In the meantime...

GR Press: South Division Stirs With New Investment, Sense of Community...

The Grand Rapids Press wrote about the revitalization of South Division and the Avenue of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids. They also talked to Andrew about Creo Productions and our thoughts on the space.

Click to read the story.

Local First: Grand Rapids Street Party

On Saturday we shot and edited a video about a street party in downtown Grand Rapids for Local First, an organization that connects local businesses and supports sustainability, collaboration and education. View the party highlights below:

Business Review Story Features Creo: Small Businesses, Big Screens

Lynn Stevens of Business Review wrote a story on how the film and video industry is impacting West Michigan, including those taking advantage of the new film incentives. She also talked about Creo Productions, and how we're approaching the industry differently.

The section about Creo Productions is below; the full story is available here:

Creo Productions in Grand Rapids is at another point on the spectrum. The company's founders, Aaron Carriere and Andrew Tingley, aren't interested in making movies for theaters. The two-year-old company is a member of the alliance, but its distribution plans involve other formats. They make documentaries, podcasts, online videos and related Web materials.

"What we sense is that the whole communications model is changing, how people are getting information is changing, how people are telling stories is changing," co-founder Carriere said. "People are starting to do a lot of experimentation with video -- I think that's going to continue. Stories have a place to be heard now online."

Creo is finalizing a contract with Lifestraw, a microbiological water purification system made by Danish company Vestergaard Frandsen, headquartered in Switzerland.

"What is the global water situation? We're going to make a video about that," Carriere said. "A lot of people know, but a lot of people don't know. Here these inventors in Europe are working with a small company in Grand Rapids because we can tell stories. The way communications is, there's no limit to the size of stories you can get a hold of or the impact you can make. You don't have to be an enormous company to make a big impact."

Rapid Growth Story: LifeStraw and Creo Productions

Rapid Growth did a short story on our upcoming project with LifeStraw, a personal water purification tool. You can click to read the story below or click here:

June 19, 2008

Swiss inventor taps Grand Rapids filmmaker to market innovative water purifier

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Forbes Magazine calls LifeStraw one of the 10 Things That Will Change The Way We Live and Grand Rapids-based Creo Productions has partnered with its Swiss manufacturer, Vestergaard Frandsen, to create a video that markets the product globally.

LifeStraw is a drinking straw with an instant microbiological filter that removes disease-causing waterborne bacteria. It fits in a pocket or satchel and costs just $4. Users, many of whom live where there is no clean water supply, use the straw to drink directly from rivers, streams or pots of well water.

The 2008 UNICEF Handbook On Water Quality reports that some 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water, and over three million, mostly children, die from water-borne diseases annually.

Last January, Creo co-founder Aaron Carriere, 26, was in Ecuador and ate fish he and friends had speared in a contaminated stream. They all got sick and suffered severe dehydration in the jungle.

“I’ve never had to deal with being so sick because of the water,” Carriere says. “I came back and said what can I do about this, there’s people that live like this daily.”

Carriere contacted Vestergaard Frandsen and about a month later came up with the idea to create a video the company can offer on sermonspice.com, where members buy videos to play for their organizations and churches. The video is currently in production.

“We’re going to reach an audience for LifeStraw that they haven’t reached,” says Carriers. “Sermonspice.com has 90,000 members. You take a local video, load it to the web site and immediately it goes international.

“We’re a two-man company,” Carriere adds, “and for us to have an impact on the world is great.”

Source: Aaron Carriere, Creo Productions

Rapid Growth Article

There's a story about Creo Productions and our move to our downtown studio in today's Rapid Growth newsletter. Here's an excerpt:

New video/audio studio houses "21st century storytellers" on Avenue for the Arts

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Based on the philosophy that the Internet is changing everything—communication, shopping, advertising, and entire industries—one Grand Rapids video studio has relocated to 40 S. Division and set a course for leveraging the Digital Age.

Read the full story online here.