New Media Manitoba (NMM), is a grass roots industry started out of pure passion and has grown into something that is making the industry stronger, smarter & more connected.  Aside from putting real knowledge in real heads, and introducing real people to other real people (resulting in real projects), one of NMMs greatest achievement is creating the sense of community within an incredibly diverse industry.  Before this organization, I knew a handful of video and film people - and now, eveyone I work with is a direct result of a NMM event or intro of some sort.

Reason to Write:

These guys are making a difference.  And they do it being by being exceptionally effective and efficient with the funding that they currently receive.  The thought of them operating with larger, more secure funding makes me extremely excited.

So when NMM president, Kevin Hnatiuk, put out an appeal for letters of support in order to achieve just that, Lisanne and I were more than happy to oblige.  New Media Manitoba is currently seeking multi-year funding from Western Economic Diversification and demonstration of support really can make a difference in these situations.

Here's Our Letter, Where's Yours?

We wanted to share our letter of support with you.  As we sincerely believe in the organization.  If you are a member of,  or have benefited from NMM in some way, I strongly encourage you to write a letter yourself and email it to kevn[at]newmediamanitoba[dot]com.

Sadly, here’s the rub - the letter needs to be in by Friday, Sept 3.  I know, I know, short notice if you’re hearing about it now.  But its a worthy cause and can help make a difference.

So consider writing one and get it over to the good folks at New Media Manitoba pronto!

Here's our letter...

To whom it may concern,


My name is James Swirsky and I am the owner of BlinkWorks Media - a digital film production company based in Winnipeg.  My company and I have been members of New Media Manitoba for the past five years and I am writing this letter in support of the effective and impressive work done by this much-needed organization.

Since joining New Media Manitoba, my company has grown substantially by all relevant measures (revenue, profile, project size & scope, etc.).  Throughout this growth, some of the company’s most important connections made and projects undertaken can be directly traced, in some form, to the efforts of and services provided by New Media Manitoba. 

Education, networking and fostering a sense of community within an exceptionally multifaceted industry are areas in which New Media Manitoba excels.  Because of New Media Manitoba, my company has learned new techniques & technologies, found collaborators, and discovered an interactive digital community that we did not know existed prior to joining. 

In short: We are a better company because of this organization.

Two examples (of many) of how New Media Manitoba has helped my company:

1. BlinkWorks is currently in the production of a feature length documentary focused on the video game industry.  Though we are still mid-production, all early indications point to this project being successful and finding its audience.  Without the connections made through, and opportunities afforded by New Media Manitoba, I can honestly say that this project would not have happened, and that BlinkWorks would not be receiving the wonderful, international attention it currently is.  This project is a product of New Media Manitoba’s efforts to connect and grow the interactive digital media industry.

2. BlinkWorks recently expanded its workforce to accommodate an expanding roster of projects.  We are extremely fortunate to employ the fantastic talents of fellow Manitobans in order to satisfy demand.  Every one of my new collaborators  were met through New Media Manitoba - in fact, many were personally introduced to me by NMM president Kevin Hnatiuk himself.  If this were five years ago, I sincerely do not know how I would have met these people.

I cannot endorse the future plans of New Media Manitoba enough.  I have seen what the organization can accomplish with their current funding structure, and I can only imagine what good will come with the security, certainty and opportunity that would accompany multi-year funding from Western Economic Diversification. 

The Interactive digital media industry is an admittedly diverse one.  But through it runs a constant through-line of passion for change, technology & creativity - all fueled by an enterprising spirit. 

New Media Manitoba not only echos, but it amplifies these qualities.  They ‘get it’.  They ‘get us’.  There is no better organization to push this industry forward.

I support any and all efforts to continue, to enhance and to grow New Media Manitoba.

Sincerely,



James Swirsky
President / Co-Owner
BlinkWorks Media


Warehouse One: The Jean Store has it's roots right here in Winnipeg, and it's been around as long as we can remember!

Not enough people seem to know this, but it has grown waayy beyond our little backyard here in Winnipeg. Look around Canada and you'll see 111 stores from Coast to Coast.  The company is a bona fide, major player in Canadian retail.

Warehouse One came to us looking for a video to celebrate both its history - from selling jeans from the back of truck in 1977 to now bringing casual fashion to many communities (urban and rural) with its destination stores - and their latest brand evolution.  Warehouse One has a new, slick fresh look that the company wanted to talk about.  

The Brief:  The Warehouse One team wanted a video that would act as a quick historic/culture primer to new associate AND would serve as an explanation of the new branding to current employees.

We feel the Warehouse One Brand Evolution video we produced achieved both of those goals.  Telling WH1's history through interviews with managment and team members from several stores (in MB and BC), while showing the steps and thinking behind the store's new look, created by Dossier Creative.

Warehouse One also called on us to capture a very special photo shoot at Ian McCausland Photography. As part of their new branding and new attitude, they featured team members as models in their back-to-campaign. We think the video turned out great, and captures the key things that make Warehouse One what it is: Fun, Casual Fashion and Real People.

PegJam Logo designed by the talented Marlon Wiebe (feeblethemighty.com)

As part of the development of the film, we plan to make several short films to support the longer feature. We made one of those films on an gaming event here in Winnipeg called, TigJam - or PegJam.

The Jam was spearheaded by Infinite Ammo’s Alec Holowka, who describes it thusly...

Basically: Bunch of game developers get together, bring their laptops and work on whatever project they feel like.

New projects will be born, long-lasting friendships will be formed, skills will be gained – epic levelling-up! – and little or no sleep will be had…

It’s just sort of awesome.

 It is all sorts of awesome.  It's rather intense in nature, filled with some serious work, good vibes and decidedly devoid of any serious sleep.  An exhausting cocktail that shouldn't necessarily add up to a great way to spend a weekend - but does.

It's really such a simple idea (put like-minded people in a room and let them create)  that pays huge dividends in terms of learning, camaraderie and inspiration.  Game jams really seem to showcase the community, skills and general attitude of indie scene at its best. 

We attended with the intent of making like a game dev a little bit (embedding ourselves - Diane Fossey style!), doing some work on our own projects, meeting some cool people and, of course, doing some filming.

We wanted to create a little piece that aimed to capture the spirit of the event.  Something that touched on the games, the people and the vibe.  Here's what we came up with...

We were asked by On Screen Manitoba, an association that represents screen-based media in Manitoba, to make a demo reel from all the work done by members in the past year. We got to work with all sorts of dramatic, documentary, and TV projects by local producers.

To compliment the great work, we thought it would be interesting to ground the reel with a live performance from Winnipeg's own, The Weakerthans, featured in Farpoint Films' new documentary 'We're The Weakerthans, We're From Winnipeg'. Farpoint and The Weakerthans graciously agreed to the plan, and their contributions really added a visual theme, energy and truly local feeling to the 2010 On Screen Manitoba reel.

We love it when clients come to us and say, "We want to communicate this feeling. Can you help us do that?". And we respond with an enthusiatic, "Yes!". Because that's what good video is all about - communicating stories and emotions.

Joe Danis, Director of Housing and Student Life at the University of Manitoba, came to us wanting to communicate the feelings of living on campus and what that means to a student's life. Joe wanted to focus on a few key feelings, 'Community', 'Belonging', and 'Comfort'.

From that, we produced a series of videos for the Unviersity of Manitoba residence recruitment and fundrasing intiatives. We created videos about student life in residence, the new residence and the old residence, Tache Hall, that's being repurposed into a learning facility for music and art students.

Here's a video we made about the experiences of international students in residence.

When you make something like ‘Soy Protein Isolate’, it can often be a challenge to explain your product and industry in a clear, succinct & interesting manner.

Burcon Nutrascience came to us with that exact challenge.  The company was looking for a set of videos that would convey, to investors & the public alike, the nature of its products, its corporate goals and also related the strong sense of teamwork and camaraderie within the company.

We ended up creating a series of ten short vignettes that spoke to the various aspects of the company, its industry and products.

A selection of those videos can be viewed below.



Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to work with Ricki's Fashion - a national Canadian women's wear brand, based in Winnipeg, MB.

Ricki's came to us to looking for a series of videos to help welcome new associates and employees to their company. The result was a modular 25 min DVD that featured segments about their brand, their values, their customer, and much more.

We really enjoyed working with them and getting to know their company. We found out lots of surprising things - like, did you know they were founded by a Brandon, MB family in the 1930s? Or, that Ricki's has over 130 stores across Canada? Or that, Ricki's raises tons of money for the Canadian Women's Foundation? Or, that many of their employees have been working there for 20-30 years?

It was a fascinating experience working with such a focused organization with so many women at the top. Very inspiring.

We'd like to show you the finished videos...but we can't. Too many trade secrets would be revealed. ;)

BlinkWorks Media is pleased to announce the project launch of Indie Game: The Movie - a feature documentary about video games, their creators and the craft. 

We have started a campaign on Kickstarter.com (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blinkworks/indie-game-the-movie) to raise funds for production, which will be shot in several locations in North American in Fall 2010.

There, we have a first video segment of the film that features Edmund McMillen of 'Team Meat' discussing his childhood, his games and the connections between.

Enjoy!

images courtesy of At First Sight

Well, the HD-DSLR presentation happened last night, and everything seemed to go really well.  We had an overwhelming turnout.  The event pretty much sold out in the first 24 hours - which is really cool and something we didn’t expect.  We had about 100 people fill the chairs at the New Media Manitoba space (with a waiting list of 30 or so) ... awesome stuff. 

There is some talk of doing a second night.  If this is something that you’d want to see, might be worthwhile to drop New Media Manitoba a line and express interest.

Thanks to everyone came out and we really appreciate all the nice things people have been saying about the evening.  We’re really glad to hear it was useful, and that people took something away from it.

The guys over at ‘At First Sight’ took some really nice snaps of the evening and did a really nice write up on their blog.  Also Scott of MediaCircus.TV did a bang-up review/blog post of the event as well.  Thanks for writing about it guys!

(Quick Side Note:  ‘At First Sight’ is doing some fantastic work in the wedding field these days.  Basically, bringing a level of production to the Winnipeg market that I think (I may be wrong here) has been lacking for far too long.  Really interesting stuff. )

Links...

Over the course of the presentation, I threw out some links that I think people may be interested to follow up on.  So, I thought I’d post a nice link-list as a compliment to last night’s talk.  So here we go...

Philip Bloom:  In terms of HD-DLSR personalities, Philip is about as big as you can get.  He is a prolific blogger, and his site is jam-packed with information and examples.  A great starting point in terms of both information & inspiration. 

http://philipbloom.co.uk/

Shane Hurlbut:  Major Hollywood D.O.P. embracing and pushing this format as a narrative tool like no one else.  The Hurlbut visuals blog is wonderfully detailed and takes these cameras into a realm of professional production that really gives credence to these cameras.

http://hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/

Vincent LaForet:  The guy who started it all, really.  Vincent doesn’t write nearly as often as I would like him to (it’s like he works for a living or something silly like that).  But when he does, it’s usually really worth paying attention to.  Oh, and for Editorial stills guys looking to branch out into video - Laforet is likely the dream/blueprint for such a move.  Great source of inspiration in that regard.

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/

Prolost / Stu Maschwitz:  Crazy-smart guy, always posting interesting stuff.  Author of the Rebel’s DV Guide to Filmmaking.  If you need an indie-film hero, can’t go wrong with Prolost.  In terms of HD-DSLRs, Stu probably has one of the most balanced and pragmatic approaches out there.

http://prolost.com/

Danfung Dennis:  At the presentation, we watched the trailer for ‘Battle for Hearts and Minds’.  That film is a true testament to the power of these cameras.  Go to the site, read how he did it, and just try not to get inspired.

http://battleforheartsandminds.com/

Red Center:  By far, my favorite podcast (sorry ‘This American Life’)  Mike Seymor and Jason Wingrove started this off as a completely RED-only podcast, but later expanded it to cover all things digital cinema.  Absolutely love these guys.  It’s a treat whenever a new episode comes out (roughly every two weeks)

http://www.fxguide.com/redcentre

Zacuto Film Series:  If you still need proof that these cameras can hold their own against film (as if the ‘House’ thing isn’t enough).  Get yourself a coffee and sit down and watch Zacuto’s DSLR shoot out series.  All the pertinent cameras AND FILM lined up in a row, with a battery of tests thrown at them equally.  Not only do we see the results, but we see the response to those results from some pretty big industry names.  

Oh, also be sure to check out the series ‘filmfellas’ - great candid conversation about real-world digital film production (I especially enjoyed the two wedding series).

http://www.zacuto.com/shootout

Cinema5D:  In terms of sheer volume of information this site is number one.  Likely any question you have about Canon DSLRs will have an answer somewhere in the pages of the Cinema5D forums.  You can easily lose days (and gain tons of information) browsing through the forum posts on this site.  A great resource. 

http://www.cinema5d.com/

I can honestly go on and on about sites, there are so many great ones out there.  I may do a follow up post with another list.  But that should get you started down the HDDSLR Rabbit Hole.

Thanks again for coming out last night!

...now stop reading and go film something!

BlinkWorks received some really fantastic news recently - We've been named a finalist for a Signature Award!

The Signature Awards are Winnipeg's big advertising & design awards event, with the goal of recognizing & showcasing exceptional Made-in-Manitoba communications, advertising and design.

Our New Media Manitoba Business Showcase project is one of four finalist in the video category: 'Corporate, Product or Service Video'.  

We're in there with some pretty heady names - sharing the category with the likes of Frantic Films, McKim Cringan George and Direct Focus.  It's quite exciting to be named along with such calibre of talent.  In this case, it really is an honour to be nominated.  Seriously.

Really looking forward to the event ...now what to wear?