Celebrating the Past, Present, and Future of Dress For Success, Columbus

Dress for Success Columbus is a non-profit organization that empowers women to achieve their goals through free-of-charge Suiting, Career Center, and Employment Retention programs. Any woman referred by a community partner is eligible for service.

THREAD and the Sam's Fans Foundation: Supporting Music Therapy in Hospitals

Two years ago, Nikki McCarthy hosted an inaugural fundraising race in honor of her daughter Sam. The race was a success and Nikki was able to make a generous donation to the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, the organization dedicated to finding a cure for the disease that took Sam’s life nearly six years ago.

Buoyed by the support she received with the race, Nikki decided to take the next step and fulfill her goal of establishing Sam’s Fans, a permanent foundation in Sam’s honor.

Vital Helps Brian Joslyn Share His Personal Story About Becoming A Criminal Defense Attorney

Vital Companies recently collaborated with Joslyn Law Firm to help Brian Joslyn share his personal story about why he became a criminal defense attorney.

Watch him tell his story in the video we created for him below:

"In his late teens, Brian was a victim of police brutality. This experience was the catalyst in his goal to defend the rights of others. While attending a campus block party at Ohio State University, Brian stood on a private lawn holding a milk carton. As the crowds grew, police arrived to maintain order. Instead, utter chaos ensued. The assembly of students was thrown into disarray as the police sprayed tear gas everywhere.  Brian was hit in the forehead with a tear gas canister, a blow which threw him to the ground and nearly rendered him unconscious. Frightened and disoriented, he remained in a defenseless posture, while inhaling fumes from the canister at his side. People stampeded by him in fear. Those who didn’t flee were arrested..." 

You can read more about Brian's story here.

Although Brian was later found not guilty on all criminal charges, this event shaped who he is today as a criminal attorney. Brian founded Joslyn Law Firm with the mission of strongly advocating for the rights of men, women, and minors who face criminal charges. We enjoyed having the opportunity to create these videos for him to help share his story!

The Red Scarlet Mysterium-X Camera

In addition to our Canon and Blackmagic cinema cameras, Vital Companies has recently acquired the Red Scarlet Mysterium-X professional digital cinema camera!

The Scarlet M-X camera shoots motion video and stills images at 5K resolution up to 12 frames per second, or up to 30 frames per second at 4K. The Scarlet M-X captures over 6x MORE pixels than HD for superior motion capture. The Mysterium-X sensor can be used on the larger Red One and Red Epic cameras, which have been used for feature length films like The Social Network, Prometheus, and The Hobbit. This camera provides spectacular resolution, crispness, and detail for both cinematography and photography.

So what is 4K video anyway? 4K video is a digital cinematography standard which offers approximately four times the resolution of 1080p HD video. Although there are currently only a limited number of monitors and projectors that can actually handle 4K video, Red's products are highly modular, customizable, and flexible, making them "future-proof" devices; capable of adapting or conforming to standards not yet known.

We recently used this camera to shoot a video for Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, which you can view below:

This camera brings life to imagery, and imagery to life. The Scarlet M-X was perfect for this shoot, because we needed to be able to show a high level of detail in the scenery. The large dynamic range was crucial to exposing beautiful images in the harsh mid-day sun. We also leveraged it's slow motion capabilities to highlight the movement of the water.

Do you think the Red Scarlet M-X is the right camera for your next project? If so, contact us here! We offer a wide range of tools for any type of production.

Working with Kids On Film Sets

Working on set can be a lot of fun in many ways. Yes, you're all there to do a job and get the job done in a reasonable time but being on set is a fun way to get to meet people in the talent industry.

One of our latest jobs was working with kids. On this particular shoot, we got to work with talent that was much younger than our usual. We had the privilege of shooting with talent under the age of five. 

There are a few things you may not think about prior to the shoot date. There's a lot that goes into creating those perfect shots with kids this young. It's also pretty cute having them on set all day. 

Here are some things to think about!

Work Around Their Schedule: 
Children on set need things. They need snacks, lunch and in most cases nap time! Be considerate of their routines and schedules. Think about an appropriate call time to have them on set. There's a lot that goes on, setting up lighting, creating the shot, loading in equipment, etc. Have the call time set to where they won't have to be waiting too long.

Monkey See Monkey Do: 
Kids at this age are great at mimicking others. If there's a particular scene you need, show them how you would do it first and let them follow your lead. It helps them know exactly what you're asking of them.

One Voice: 
Be sure to have one person as the child's go-to. Whether it be a parent or a Production Assistant, have one person speak to them. It's hard enough being on-camera when you're that young and to have multiple people telling you what they want you to do all at once can be overwhelming.

Upbeat & Excited: 
Kids will respond to your energy. Keep it positive and energetic. Say things like; you're doing great, that was awesome, keep it up, we loved it, etc.

Lastly, and possibly most important...

Refrain from using the term "One Last Time":
Once you've said "one last time" for the third or fourth time, kids stop believing it will actually be the last time and it will become discouraging. Whether you didn't get the shot because of a missed line or the boom was in the shot, the child may start thinking they're doing something wrong.

Bonus thoughts: 
*Keep kid-friendly snacks on set, juice boxes, fruit snacks, etc. 
*Be cautious having them eat while in wardrobe
*Play and have fun with them in-between shots

Be considerate of their schedules, make it fun for them and have fun doing it!

For questions or advise working with children on set, feel free to contact me.

Best,

Shyla Bohrer
Vital Companies 
Office Manager
shylab@vitalcompanies.com
o. 614.294.1306
m. 724.986.4788


Subscribe to our weekly email The Vital News

Vital Teams Up with The University District to Teach OSU Students How to Film B-Roll

The University District came to us asking if we could help them with an upcoming project to produce a series of videos highlighting the University District and how living there has many benefits. 

The District was given a grant for this project and one of the requirements was to include OSU students in some way. We wanted to help so we set up a class to teach those students how to film B-roll so they could be included in the project.

For those that may not know, B-roll is the extra footage captured to enrich the story you're telling and to have greater flexibility when editing. Instead of featuring only talking heads on video, you want to have other images you can cut away to that will add dimension to your story. 

The students participated in the class we provided and they were off! We gave them a good direction and specific subjects to film and we were able to use some of the footage they captured for the videos we created for UDO.
It was a fun opportunity for us and a great learning experience for the students. 



Best, 

Jason Clayton

Chief Marketing Officer

Vital Companies

jclayton@vitalcompanies.com

o. 614.294.1306
m. 614.270.1500

Subscribe to our weekly email The Vital News

Vital Companies in 3D!

                                                                        
                                                  Click here to watch the video

Vital Companies now has 3D animation capabilities! 

Thanks for watching! 

Contact us today or visit our website here.

Best, 

Jason Clayton

Chief Marketing Officer

Vital Companies

jclayton@vitalcompanies.com

o. 614.294.1306
m. 614.270.1500

Subscribe to our weekly email The Vital News