…with you, not at you.

You ever pick up the phone when it rings, say “hello?” and after a few seconds hear, “The reason I am calling today is to tell you about a very important message…” in that overly upbeat tv announcer voice? You just hang up, right? That’s because no one likes being talked AT. People like to be talked WITH. So next time you’re trying to decide the best way to get you corporate communication across to your employees, or you want to find out what your customers really think, don’t think in terms of what you want to say TO them, think about what kind of conversation you’d like to have WITH them… that’s what we’ve been thinking of… check out our Digital Dialogues- talk WITH your audience, not AT them.

Surgical instrument laundry

Had a good field trip today to see what happens to all those clamps and scissors and retractors after the life is saved in the operating room. Turns out they make a very well documented trip through some major sterilization machines and are reassembled into kits ready to be sent on another life saving mission…. The trick is keeping track of 800,000 instruments a month. We’re going to make that trick easier.

A good place to work

So, I’ve been sick for the last couple of days so I haven’t been in the office… And you know what? I miss it..
I think that says a lot for the company of our company. Everyone should work in a place with people they want to be around anyway, doing something they would do in their spare time anyway. Maybe that’s why we do really good work- we actually enjoy the work we do…

Expand Holiday Party

We’ll be celebrating company fellowship this year at Vaccaro’s off Ghent Rd, a nice little Italian place with good lasagna and a comfy atmosphere. Friends of Expand that are in town on December 11 are welcome to join us.

Junifer McSage

This is just a small salute to Juniper, without whom no one I shoot would be able to put three words together. By simultaneously operating the teleprompter, checking grammar, checking logic, and offering interesting commentary— all while reading backwards— you make our shoots run pretty dang smooth.

Thank you.

AirBP

Had an excellent shoot with Walter and Greg for an AirBP customer service training course. I never really thought about how a person’s response to “Thank you” is interpreted. Apparently Ritz-Carlton, however, has considered it. A lot. So, for anyone who has ever thanked me before, “It was my pleasure.” Oh, and try providing customer service to people who teach customer service some time, it’ll keep you on your toes.

Companies cannot live by work alone…

So I brought my mountain bike in to work finally. Everyone else here at Expand seems to have figured this out and maybe I’m finally getting it, too- you can’t stare at a monitor all day long, no matter how much you like what you’re making.
Eric, Jon, and Juniper run. Will and Steve work out. I crash bicycles. There’s definitely something to be said for breaking up your day with some somewhat strenuous activity. Your brain gets recharged and you come back to your project with more energy and creativity, plus you don’t get afternoon zombification.
So, get off your chair and go do something. Your work, and your brain will be better when you get back.

Practice makes perfect (and annoys Jon)

Testing the jib in the office proves successful. Didn’t knock anything over, didn’t break any windows, annoyed Jon and Will… Thus, successful.

Boom!

…or jib, or crane… Today we shot a segment for the Cleveland Clinic in the deep dark woods. So deep, in fact, that they had to build these really cool bridges across the really deep parts. And dark because the sun that was supposed to come out at 9:00am didn’t show up until sometime around 12:30pm. But the shoot will look great anyway, in part because of the camera boom that we used. Basically it swings the camera around on the end of a 12 foot armature that holds the camera at a constant level no matter how far around, up, or down you swing it. Pretty much every movie you’ve ever seen uses one for the big sweeping establishing shots. We used ours to chase Scott McFarland around (on a side note, Scott always wears the best belts). So if we’re shooting some video for you, insist that we use the boom. A little boom makes everything better… Oh, and, if you could be any one of the X-men, which would you be?

Mmm. Coffee

Nothing is better in the morning at expand than a fresh brewed cup of cafe crema done up euro style from our sweet Jura impressa x7 industrial strength brew machine.