Stories
News, project launches and thoughts from our team.
Program Overview
The Hamilton Code Club 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
Safety Tutorials for Autistic Children & Families
Work that warms the heart is our favourite kind to do. So when Sarah Kupferschmidt and Nancy Marchese came to us in November 2013 to ask for help in creating videos that would educate children with autism – we couldn’t get casting fast enough.
Truly our first foray into the world of interactive video – these short, 30 second pieces are actually embedded into a mobile app that Special Appucations is creating with the help of Hamilton’s own Weever Apps. The end result will be an educational game that teaches children and their care providers many skills. Among them, what to do when a child gets lost.
Educational messaging was provided by Special Appucations, with scripting done in-house at Double Barrel. By reaching out to the community we were able to cast five talented Hamilton children, with Springy’s Tot Shoppe graciously offering us the use of their Upper James store for the day! Truly a homegrown #HamOnt project.
We were thrilled to be brought on board to help create such an important multimedia project. Thanks Sarah and Nancy for involving team Double Barrel!
Broadcast Commercial
We teamed up with the DeGroote School of Business to create a video campaign that would showcase their current focus on the transformation of technology in business. Using DeGroote’s unique vision, our animation team took iconic symbols in business such as Newton’s cradle and the globe to depict the evolution of technology around the world.
Program Overview
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!
Original Educational Series
For people who have recently been diagnosed with cancer, one of the first challenges is overcoming the amount of information that exists when it comes to care and treatment options. In the digital age, opinions are everywhere, and sorting through them to discover which are accurate and which are bunk can be an overwhelming task.
At Double Barrel, we’ve all lost loved ones to cancer. So when Wayne MacPhail of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer approached us with an innovative way of educating patients about how to separate the wheat from the chaff we were thrilled.
This was a unique project as Wayne came to us with concept in hand. CPAC wanted to create an online educational series that was dramatic, comedic – and demanding. In fact, the entire piece depended on a pitch-perfect embodiment of our two leads, Franny & Zooey, two 12-year-old budding scientists. Knowing that we needed rock-solid talent, we decided to reach out to ACTRA. For web series this can seem daunting, but their fantastic industry liasons walked us through the process effortlessly. Our two actresses – Chelsea Okyere and Zoe McGarry came in prepared and ready, doing such an amazing job in the audition that we ended up using their second rehearsal take in the completed video.
The final piece is everything we had hoped to achieve, and definitely goes into the Double Barrel vault as one of the most original concepts we’ve executed. Says MacPhail, “It was a pleasure (as always) working with Double Barrel on this project. From our first conversation about the unusual concept they got it and brought a ton of creative value to the end product. This is the type of idea, as we said in the meetings “that had a hundred ways to fail”. But, through casting, direction, animation and post-production, they didn’t let any of them happen. The result is delightful.”
We’re excited to see where this goes. Thanks for inviting us along, Wayne!
