Stories

News, project launches and thoughts from our team.

Small Business Story

Clients come to us for all sorts of different reasons when they’re considering adding video to their online presence. In the case of Sim Kalsi, owner of RSK Automotive & Collision it was a brand rethink and refresh that set the wheels in motion. And as it turns out – he had quite the story to tell.

RSK has called Hamilton home for 6 years. Their new tagline “Built By Hamilton” speaks volumes of their dedication to the people of #HamOnt. With a long family history in local automotive repair, Sim has built a reliable and trusted brand featuring a team of skilled technicians with a passion for the steel city.

With a strong narrative lead by the team at RSK paired with glowing customer testimonials from some seriously happy folks in the neighbourhood, Double Barrel Studios put together one of our signature business profile documentaries, highlighting their many unique offerings. RSK truly stands out as a friendly neighbourhood auto body shop providing fair and accurate estimates and excellent customer service.

Thanks for letting us expand your story Sim!

Program Launch

“Healthcare challenges are one of the biggest problems facing today’s society”

McMaster University is transforming these healthcare challenges into new learning experiences. Bringing the Health Sciences and Engineering faculties together, into a hands-on, project based 5-year program – the new Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences Program.

“Biomedical problems are very complex. There is the human element and the technological element and in order to solve these types of complex problems you need experts of many different areas of study and many different backgrounds, this program is going to produce such graduates.” – Colin McDonald, Assistant Professor, McMaster University

McMaster has a world class reputation in both health sciences and engineering. Consistently ranked internationally among the top 40 universities in the world for medicine and health sciences and rated one of the top ten engineering schools in Canada. At Double Barrel, we were thrilled and honored to help McMaster launch this groundbreaking program, which is the first of its kind in Canada!

Event Recap

EXT: Convocation day – University of Toronto campus. Everywhere you turn, happy parents are hugging capped graduates holding framed diplomas. Tears flow freely. The culmination of such a huge amount of time & effort is a glorious day, indeed.

U of T Engineering wanted to capture this day and create a video that would highlight the international nature of the student body, a mix that mirrored the diversity of Toronto itself. They wanted to demonstrate the pride, sacrifice and pleasure parents experience when their son or daughter graduates from U of T Engineering – to have those watching the video imagine themselves in each parents’ spot.

For this project we melded the flexibility of a news crew with the cinematic style of film. Shot as graduation was unfolding – and with only one day to capture all the footage – we had two separate teams capture the action. One focussed solely on interviews from our outdoor studio while the other took the time to establish location and set up more complex shots, such as inside Convocation Hall as students lined up and prepared for their cross-campus march.

As recruitment of university and college students becomes ever-more sophisticated and competitive, it’s important that University faculty come up with increasingly creative ways to reach potential students. Most are using video as a tool because it allows prospective students to get a feel for the campus they are considering – and video is also a perfect tool to establish an emotional connection.

All in all, it was one of the most fun and challenging shoots that Double Barrel has ever done. Thanks to U of T for letting us be a part!

Program Overview

“Inspiring innovative leaders who will transform the world”

What Characteristics will define the next generation in engineering? Will it be scientific aptitude? Grasp of global issues? Entrepreneurial moxie?

At the W Booth School of Engineering Practice & Technology they believe it’s all of the above.

They came to us asking for help in telling that story, we couldn’t have been more excited. Presenting the first piece in a series of vignettes on students who are making a difference and have grand aims for the future. And with education like this we have no doubt they’ll succeed.

30 Second Broadcast & Theatrical Commercial

Engineering is the invisible thread that holds so much of our day-to-day lives together. And when it comes to getting teens excited about a STEM career – it pays to reveal just a bit of the science behind their everyday experiences.

We set out in October of 2014 to create a 30 second broadcast commercial that did just that. Using skateboarding as our metaphor – and an extreme slow motion camera – we aimed to capture the forces of friction, momentum and gravity.

The end result is something we’re all so proud of. Screened in theatres from Hamilton to Toronto (in IMAX no less!) and also in Calgary, we hear this piece is on its way to theatres in Hong Kong!

Many thanks to our amazing crew, as always. Shot in slow-mo by Ty Tekatch and Christoph Benfey, with animation assistance from Antenna Visual Communication. Edited by Taylor Heres. Starring skateboarding superstar Alishia Stevens. Many thanks to New Line Skateparks for allowing us to shoot at their construction site in Oshweken, Ontario!!

Commercial Trailer

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!

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