Advice for President Mortensen

A few months ago, Weber State University asked me to produce several videos and graphic backgrounds for an inauguration event celebrating their new University President Brad Mortensen. One of the highlights was creating several video reels of “advice” for the incoming president. The videos included advice from Mortensen’s parents, community members and even NBA All-Star and Weber State Alumni Damian Lillard.

Here is one of the advice reels and a few photos from the event.

Images courtesy Weber State University.

The Recognition of the Rights of Nature

I recently produced the documentary “The Rights of Nature: A Global Movement.” This past year it has been shown at film festivals, universities and environmental conferences. The idea of nature having rights has existed for centuries. Some indigineous cultures view nature as an ancestor and treat the land as they would a grandparent. This segment from the film documents the recent legal beginnings of the rights of nature in the western world. This movement made global headlines when the country of Ecuador adopted the rights of nature as part of its constitution in 2008.

In 2008 Ecuador became the first country to recognize nature as a legal entity.

In the documentary, environmental players in Ecuador explain the history behind the legal recognition of the rights of nature.

Shout from the Mountain Top

This year I helped Weber State University with a Holiday E-Card that is emailed to University employees, students and members of the local community. The University chose to create a 2D animation of their mascot Waldo sending a music greeting to the campus from the a nearby mountain top. Hillary Wallace, Rachel Badali and Ben Zack came up with the story. Ryan Snarr illustrated the characters and sets and I did the animation and editing.

Here is the animation plus a few images.

The animation features Waldo the Wildcat. Waldo is the Weber State University mascot that was created by Dean Hurst. He is seen skating on a pond and later climbing the mountains east of campus with a giant bag.

Ryan Snarr created a few extra characters in the animation like these ducks that listen to Waldo’s music.

Ryan illustrated this snow shoe scene. It was cut to trim down the length of the video.

The Wurlitzer Organ at Peery's Egyptian Theater

David Park, organ technician at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden, Utah, recently gave me a tour of the theater’s Wurlitzer Organ. It was a very fun experience to climb into the organ and see the 1400 pipes and percussion instruments that make up this amazing instrument. Here are a few photos and a short video with Park describing some of the organ’s features. The footage is being used in a documentary I am producing for PBS station KUED on old movie palaces.

The Egyptian Theater Wurlitzer has 1400 pipes located in two chambers.

David Park, Peery’s Egyptian Theater’s Organ Technician, volunteers his time to keep the Wurlitzer Organ tuned and working.

Perry’s Egyptian Theater had an organ when it opened in the early 1900’s. That organ was removed sometime around the 1950’s. The current Wurlitzer Organ was installed in 2004 after the theater underwent a major restoration. Image courtesy Van Summerill.

The Casino Star

Last weekend I went to Gunnison, Utah to record a story on the Casino Star Theatre. The Casino Star has been part of the Gunnison community for over 100 years and recently underwent a renovation. Lori Nay and Diana Spencer, founding directors of the theatre, gave us a tour of the theater, its basement and the original upstairs apartment used by some of the early theatre owners.

The story will be used in a documentary I am producing on old movie palaces for PBS station KUED.

Here are a few video clips from the tour and some photos of the Casino Star.

The Casino Star as it appeared in the early 1900’s. Image courtesy Utah State Historical Society.

Prior to the recent renovation work, the facade of Casino Star was falling apart as seen in this 1989 photograph. Image courtesy Casino Star Theatre.

95th Birthday Celebration of Russell M. Nelson

This summer I was asked to create three videos for the 95th Birthday Celebration of Russell M. Nelson. Nelson serves as the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The videos spoke about Nelson’s contributions to the church, to the field of cardiovascular medicine and in his own family. It was a great experience to interview persons who have known President Nelson over the years. We spoke with fellow surgeons, apostles and members of the Nelson family. Here are all three videos from the celebration event.

Nelson was a a key figure in the field of cardiovascular medicine. Early on he was involved with research on the Heart and Lung Machine. In 1956, when Dr. Nelson did his first open heart surgery in Salt Lake City, Utah was only the third state in the United States to perform open heart surgery. I was able to find a few old photos of Dr. Nelson at the time he was doing research at the University of Minnesota and with his Heart and Lung Machine in 1956.

Nelson studying at the University of Minnesota. Image courtesy University of Minnesota Archives.

Dr. Nelson with his Heart and Lung Machine on April 8, 1956. Salt Lake Tribune Photograph courtesy of Utah State Historical Society.

Having the opportunity to interview President Nelson’s children and grandchildren was very fun. Nelson was loving father to his children and a very supportive husband to his wife Dantzel. The family provided me with digitized 8mm film footage, photos and slides taken by Nelson.

Video thumbnail images courtesy newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org.

From Stone and Mortar to Heart and Soul

The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, Utah recently asked me to produce a video for their annual Bishop’s Dinner. This year the video focused on the impact the Cathedral experience has on parishioners. We told stories of several parishioners who attended the Cathedral as children, then later moved to the nearby city of Ogden, Utah. There they participated generously in the community, partly due to the spiritual lessons they learned at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

I enjoyed learning about the contribution of each of these individuals. I also enjoyed flying my drone in the Cathedral for the first time. A few drone shots are in the video.

Movie Palaces: The Centre Theater

KUED7, Utah’s PBS television station, has asked me to produce an hour long documentary on old movie theaters in Utah. It will cover some of the large movie palaces in Ogden and Salt Lake City, plus a few of the small town theaters and drive ins in Central and Southern Utah.

A long time favorite in downtown Salt Lake City was the Centre Theater, located at the corner of State Street and 300 South. The Centre was the first theater built in Salt Lake City after the Great Depression. In addition to its large auditorium that seated 1623 patrons on two levels, the developers, Herbert and Fred Auerbach also built 21 shops with large glass display cases. The wrap-around marquee at the front theater entrance was 90 feet tall.

Completed in 1937, the Centre ran first run movies for fifty years until closed in 1987. A year long attempt was made to save and restore the theater. However the theater’s large size and valuable downtown real estate, made that effort fail. It was razed in 1989.

Here are a few photos of the Centre. The white haired man entering the theater lobby is Henry Blood, Governor of Utah. That photo appears to have been taken at the theater’s grand opening. Thank you to the Utah State Historical Society who recently completed a massive digitization project of the Salt Lake Tribune negative collection where most of these images were housed.

Images Courtesy Utah State Historical Society.

Kuwait

Last week I went to Kuwait to record and edit a story for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Newsroom. It was very, very hot there, but the trip was definitely a neat place!

A few months ago The Church of Jesus Christ was recognized as an official religion in Kuwait. It was the first time in almost forty years that a religion had been given recognition. Quentin L. Cook, a senior leader in the the Church, and his wife Mary, made a trip to Kuwait to meet with and thank government and religious leaders in Kuwait.

Here is the story I was able to help create for newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org and a few images, most of which were taken with my drone.

Kuwait has many mosques. We were able to tour the Grand Mosque in downtown Kuwait City. It was very ornate inside and quite beautiful.

Kuwait is not a large country. In a little over an hour you can drive from one end to the other. This ridge in this photo is near the Iraq boarder. It has the highest elevation in Kuwait. (Images and video courtesy newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org)

Dance Study

The Weber State University Dance Program asked me to create this short video introducing their program offerings to prospective students. Dance, like other art degrees, is sometimes difficult to “sell” at the University because many students are interested in the financial outcomes of their degree. I thought the professors and students did a good job articulating how their Dance degree has helped them professionally outside of just choreography and dance.

A unique element the Dance Program has introduced is collaboration with other departments at Weber State University. Dance students have teamed up with history students to choreograph performances about their interpretation of historical events and declarations. Other dance students have choreographed unique performances using percussionists from Performing Arts or the 3D artwork from Visual Arts students.

Staring early in their study, dance students are able to choreograph and direct their own performances.

Exceeding Customer Expectations

Spring Mobile, recently asked me to create a film that documented the history and impacts of their company culture. Spring is the nation’s largest wireless retailer and started in 2001 with only six mall carts in Utah and Colorado.

An early Spring Kiosk. (Image courtesy Brett Bradshaw)

At first, the company culture was a fun, relaxed place to work, but overtime grew to become something else. Brett Bradshaw, Spring’s co-founder drafted a list of five values, later called “S-Factors” that outlined basic principles the company believed in. They included “Sincere Integrity: We always act with honest intentions” and “Simplicity: We are easy to do business with.”

Spring asked me to show examples of how these values have been demonstrated. During production, one value I was impressed with was “Solidarity: We create a feeling of team unity based on common goals, interests and empathy.” There were several stories of Spring employees who were helped by their co-workers because they cared about their success and well being.

Below is a short clip from the film that talks about the Spring mindset of caring for their employees.

Rome, Italy

I was able to spend the last few days in Rome documenting the Rome Italy Temple Dedication for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Newsroom.

On Saturday, Russell M. Nelson, the president of the Church, met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. We created a short news release afterwards with comments from President Nelson and M. Russell Ballard, the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Sunday was the Temple Dedication. The Temple and grounds were quite amazing to visit. In addition to the Temple there is a chapel, visitors center, housing for those traveling to the Temple and a good amount of green space to walk on. Monday was a unique event in which all 15 of the Church’s senior leaders had a photo taken in the visitors center. It was the first time in the Church’s history that all 15 senior leaders had gathered in location outside the United States. The backdrop was statues of Jesus Christ and his original apostles.

Here are a few photographs and some of the videos I was able to help produce.

President Russell M. Nelson, and Elder M. Russell Ballard did an interview outside the Vatican after meeting with Pope Francis.

Image courtesy Sam Penrod.

Images and video courtesy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Saints Newsroom.