Stories

News, project launches and thoughts from our team.

Healthcare Video: Imagining Better for a Brighter World

“Every day, thousands of primary care providers head to the front lines of healthcare in Canada. They’re by our sides for moments big and small, and motivated by a singular vision. To help everyone lead happier, healthier lives.” 

We are so proud to premiere this suite of healthcare videos supporting the public launch of the David Braley Primary Care Research Collaborative. An incubator, focussed on advancing and strengthening primary care in Canada.

Beginning with the story of the incubator itself and following up with five more, we drew a rich picture of the DBPCRC and its research goals. Through multiple layers of live-action footage, music, voiceover and animation we illustrated their mandate – to improve the lives of Canadians through better delivery and implementation of care. Each video was crafted in collaboration with the public relations team at the McMaster Department of Family Medicine,

Thanks to everyone at McMaster’s DFM for allowing us the opportunity to expand your story! We are honoured to capture the work of this inspiring group of people, pushing toward a brighter world for us all. For more of our McMaster University or healthcare video projects, check out our education or healthcare portfolio.

Maximize Your Time (and money!) with Training Videos

Training videos are a hot topic these days. And no wonder! Educating new employees is something that every business needs to do at one point or another.

At Double Barrel, we get requests for these all the time. And our answer is, yes! We do those! And in too many styles to count.

 

Training videos keep costs down, create educational consistency, improve information retention AND employee engagement. As a savvy business owner, video should be your go-to solution when it comes to training new staff.

Check out the short sample above of our latest training video series for Wolseley Canada. Or, follow this link to view our entire library: https://doublebarrel.wpengine.com/video-styles/

From live action to animation and everything-in-between, we’re your #1 choice when it comes to producing videos that will ensure your employee training is more effective, cost-conscious, on-demand and consistent!

PROJECT LAUNCH: INVIS & Mortgage Intelligence

When you’re a national brokerage with teams in hundreds of Canadian cities, how do you even begin to capture the spirit of the hard working brokers representing your brand? In the case of INVIS/Mortgage Intelligence, the answer was simple. You go to them. With a camera crew in tow.

Over the summer of 2016, the Double Barrel team was thrilled to film across Canada, documenting the passion and the people behind the INVIS/Mortgage Intelligence brand. In one of our most ambitious documentary projects to-date, we filmed in six provinces and seven cities, capturing the camaraderie that makes INVIS/MI truly unique. From wineries in Kelowna, to line dancing at the Calgary Stampede, from charity golf tournaments in Niagara to boat cruises off the Halifax harbour. Through it all, what stood out the most was an overwhelming sense of community and caring. Brokers that truly care for their clients, and each other, working exceedingly hard to ensure their happiness.

Double Barrel is thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with Invis/Mortgage Intelligence, documenting this beautiful country and their world class teams from coast to coast to coast.

This completed piece screened at the INVIS/MI annual gathering, to rave reviews. And it’s easy to see why! Invis Mortgage Intelligence has successfully built the only true full service brokerage in Canada, attracting top brokers that are continually diversifying and developing their craft to deliver the best support possible. That’s something to cheer about.

PROJECT LAUNCH: Hamilton Code Clubs

Hamilton Code Clubs is a trail-blazing program that sees industry mentors introduce local youth to simple software computer programming, through a blend of interactive and hands-on training. The ultimate goal is to teach students to develop a love for the subject and begin integrating code into the classroom in a fun and engaging manner.

For many students, this introduction can open up career pathways and 21st-century learning skills.

With the tech industry in Canada expanding at a breakneck pace, Hamilton Code Clubs represents a critical link between the classroom and the real world, with mentors working to spark an interest in our youth and develop our next generation tech workforce.

At Double Barrel, we know the importance of a solid education in digital literacy for our youth. That’s why in 2015, we worked to create the #HamOnt Forever Digital Literacy fund, a Hamilton Community Foundation administered fund that will distribute grants over the next 15 years for digital literacy initiatives in the Hamilton area.

This year, we are proud to continue that legacy by providing an amazing organization like the Hamilton Code Club with this recruitment video free-of-charge, to inspire the tech community to continue to grow and help ensure that kids are realizing the amazing career opportunities around coding at a young age.

If you’re in the software industry and keen to help out, you’re in luck! They’re in need of volunteers! If you’re interested in volunteering for Hamilton Code Clubs, contact experience@iechamilton.ca

Project Launch: Hamilton – Burlington SPCA

With nearly 10,000 hits in one day, this could be our biggest launch yet! SO excited to share this hilarious little piece we produced for an amazing cause – the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA!!

Thank you so much to Diana Frances and Jennifer Goodhue for lending their time and talents to this project ~ and to the Mulberry Street Coffeehouse for letting us grab one shot of their exterior. Thank you also to Shawn Lovering Photography for the excellent cinematography, Alex Last for the fabulous hair & makeup, and all of our extras (both human and feline) for keeping a straight face!!

From the Edit Suite: Why We Love Creative Cloud

by: Zakk DiSabatino

One of the pillars of a good video is the editor sitting behind the computer. That editor relies on his or her knowledge in the art of editing, but equally on their knowledge and the performance of the software they use. Professional editors seek out editing software that is powerful, and efficient. In the past the majority of editors have opted to use either Avid or Final Cut Pro 7, however in the last decade Adobe has amped up their editing software, Premiere Pro, and for many reasons it’s becoming the software of choice for many editors; myself included.

So why the spike in popularity? As mentioned, the top software for years had been Avid and Final Cut Pro 7. Premiere was around, but not exactly a frontrunner. On June 21st 2011, Final Cut X was released to the public to extremely disappointing reviews. It was missing many features that professional editors rely on day-to-day. Many editors initially felt that the software was useless, with Hollywood film editor Walter Murch stating “I can’t use this”. Those issues have since been addressed, but the damage was done. Editors felt betrayed by a software that they had relied on for years, and many looked for other options. Premiere had a similar look, feel, and features to Final Cut Pro 7, as well as its own set of additional tools that were unique from any other software on the market. For many editors the choice was obvious, and the product has only grown making Premiere an obvious choice now for people just getting into the craft, and professionals looking for a different ecosystem to work in.

In 2013 Premiere Pro joined Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which is an affordable cloud-based subscription service that allows access to Adobe’s entire creative suite including popular software such as: Photoshop, After Effects, and Illustrator. Having access to all of these programs means that more can be done in-house (such as graphic design, animation and compositing). These programs also work extremely well together, and have the exclusivity of Adobe’s dynamic link between software. This means for example that you can make a change to a dynamic linked animation in After Effects, and it will immediately update in your Premiere timeline. This saves time and space from the usual method of re-exporting the animation after every change, and having to replace it in the timeline.Along with dynamic link and affordability, another benefit of Adobe’s move to a subscription service is that they release updates every few weeks rather than every 12-18 months like other softwares. Sometimes these updates are minor bug/performance fixes, but they can often be larger things like adding new features to keep them at the top.

Premiere Pro has grown a lot in the last decade. It has become one of the top choices for both video and film editors alike. The ability to work dynamically with the rest of the creative suite which includes industry standard software is a huge benefit to any editor who also has tasks outside of cutting. With the frequent addition of new features and tools, as well as constant updates to performance and bugs, it’s no question that Premiere Pro is here to stay and I couldn’t be happier with my choice.

Double Barrel Podcast: Episode 3 ‘Why Production Value?”

Anyone can film a video these days. So what separates an amateur from a professional? It’s something those of us in the industry like to call “production value.” And if you’re a business looking to establish credibility with your customers, it’s something you can’t do without.

Come along for our third episode of the Double Barrel Podcast, where we explore the topic of production value. What is it? How do you get it? And why do you and your brand need to make sure you have it for your next video project?

The Art of Colour Grading

by: David Capizzano

The process of adjusting the colour, contrast or overall look of footage is called colour grading, and it’s probably one of the most important steps in the production process. Despite this, if it’s been done well, you might not even notice it at all. Colour has a massive impact on how we respond to what we’re seeing on screen, and a good colour grade can bring out an entirely new set of ideas or thoughts which can be communicated to an audience, and with the advent of digital technology, the options for setting a look are almost endless.

But it wasn’t always this way.

In the days of film, directors and DoP’s would use a series of chemical baths and prisms to chemically alter the colour composition of the film after it was shot. They might have also used a series of filters on the lens while capturing the scene.

Before Roger Deakins used a digital colour process on the film O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) to achieve a dustbowl look, chemical timing was standard practice. Despite shooting in a very-green South Carolina & Mississippi, Deakins used a digital process to essentially remove the colour green from the film, resulting in a wonderfully bleak and magical depression era setting.

These days, the most common method of capturing footage is through using digital cameras. These cameras are incredibly powerful and capture images up to 6k resolution (5760 x 3700), however upon first glance, the footage you initially get doesn’t look fantastic, but there’s a very important reason for that. Like shooting digitally, these cameras capture video in a RAW format. A director or DoP might choose to shoot raw to ensure that they’re getting the most flexible footage possible. Later on in post production, RAW formats allow the DoP & Colourist to match shots effortlessly, adjust white balance with amazing specificity, and to recover areas of the footage which might seem too bright or dark.

So until the footage gets processed, it typically looks something like this:

By capturing the scene in as flat of a colour profile as possible, you’re ensuring the camera is collecting the maximum amount of data possible, offering you tons of latitude later on. Sometimes, a LUT (or Look-Up-Table) will be applied to the footage temporarily on set as the flat footage can be tricky to see through if you’re not used to it. This allows the client or viewers to get a “glimpse” of what the final colour process might look like.

On larger productions such as movies or t.v shows, a colourist will usually be brought on to work with the DoP to grade the footage using a control panel specifically designed for colouring software. This control panel is large, expensive, and requires incredible skill and knowledge to operate, so the process is usually reserved for bigger projects. Smaller projects can be graded without the use of such systems, meaning you can achieve great quality and professional results by using your edit suite, or a free version of the Davinci Resolve software.

Almost everything you’ve ever seen on t.v, at a theatre, or even online has been through some sort of colour treatment, but when it’s done well, it doesn’t draw attention to itself. Colour will continue to become an increasingly important step in the production process as more and more footage is shot using digital cameras, and the technology inside of those cameras progresses. Taking the time to go through this important step with your project could make the difference between something great, and something spectacular.

And hopefully, if it’s done well, your audience won’t have any idea it’s been done at all.

PROJECT LAUNCH: AGE Inc.

In 2011, 747,000 Canadians were living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias – that’s 14.9 per cent of Canadians 65 and older. Which means that sadly, chances are high that you know someone who has suffered, or is currently suffering from these diseases.

As our population ages, these numbers are only climbing. The Alzheimer’s Society of Canada has estimated that if nothing changes by 2031, this figure will increase to 1.4 million.

In Canada, AGE Inc. has set out to provide humanistic, patient-centred care for people living with dementia. Their curriculum, GPA or Gentle Persuasive Approaches, provides a broad-based educational experience for caregivers treating people afflicted with dementias, allowing these front-line workers to truly connect with the person beneath the disease. It is a novel approach, and one that has had huge success within Canada.

For the 10-year anniversary of the AGE curriculum, the team asked us to create a mini-documentary about the program. We were so pleased to be a part of the celebration for such an important organization. And by the end of our video screening, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

To the staff at AGE Inc. ~ thank you for including us! We were so happy to tell your story. Here’s to another 10 years of success!

PROJECT LAUNCH: W Booth School of Engineering Practice

Today’s engineering graduates have a tough job ahead of them. From water quality to sustainable living, from climate change to aging infrastructure, the engineering classes of 2015 and beyond will be expected to have the skills necessary to tackle the grand challenges of tomorrow.

The W Booth School of Engineering Practice provides recent grads with that skill set, through interdisciplinary education combined with experiential learning and mentorship. Their tagline: “Inspiring innovative leaders who will transform the world.”

No small task.

When the W Booth School came to us for help with their new commercial, we were excited to get involved. Double Barrel has a long history with McMaster’s Engineering department, but we hadn’t had the opportunity to work with the Master’s program. We knew that this would be a particularly tricky project – within a tight timeframe, showcase the depth and breadth of experiences and opportunities a W Booth graduate would attain.

After much discussion, we decided to go with a combination of green screen, animation and live action in-the-field footage.

After one particularly long shoot day with an amazing team of W Booth Graduates, our animator Taylor Heres set to work in the edit suite. Sketching, animating and keying out the green under the guidance of director Tyler Tekatch. We couldn’t be happier with the end result.

Many thanks to the W Booth School for involving us in such a great project!