Our PUSH documentary is really coming to a head since ‘Arc of Ages,’ the show that our movie’s plot will be revolving around, is in production.

While the video was completed a while ago, some unexpected circumstances required us to revisit the project.

Two main hitches occurred in the distribution of this video. One is that one of the best mother testimonials in the day care video had to be cut from the final edit. It turns out that this mom had taken her child out of Railroad Junction since we completed filming. The day care director didn’t feel comfortable featuring this woman’s testimony when she had chosen not to stay with that particular day care facility. So . . . snip snip!

Secondly, the facility’s webmaster literally took months to actually publish the video to the site. You may notice from the video that this footage was captured last summer and fall! We didn’t want to share the project on the blog until the client got the use out of it that she intended.

We learned a valuable lesson in honoring the customer’s wishes (even when it might result in a little extra work) and being respectful of the client’s right to choose how and when the final product is distributed.

‘Arc of Ages’ began workshopping this week after casting shortly before that. It is designed to be an epic tale of love, war, friendship, and foes, drawing its storylines almost exclusively from the biblical Old Testament narrative. The main storyline of Envision’s PUSH documentary will focus on the process of producing and performing this show.

Darren, Heather, and the other PUSH company members are busy guiding the show’s new dancers  from a variety of backgrounds in learning PUSH techniques. There’s a lot of miming, core-strength-building exercises, and slow motion sword fights going on right now.

Oooh! We’ve said too much!

Choreography will be starting in about two weeks. We’re just a little excited . . .

What? You don’t know what Rudicon is? Well, truthfully, neither did we until signing on to this project; but Gamebreak’s Andy Wheeland knew all the ins and outs of this gaming convention held annually on the Rochester Institute of Technology’s campus.

For members of the Rochester Wargamers Association and Guild (RWAG), admission to the three-day event is totally free. For those of us who aren’t quite as . . . ahem . . . nerdy . . . the entire event is a mere $5. (Just kidding, Andy. You and your friends are great . . .)

Rudicon will be the high-energy setting of an upcoming episode of Gamebreak, but stay tuned for other cool locations as well!

The Father’s House is a progressive mega-church in Chili, NY that draws a huge youth population because of its passionate worship, relevant teaching, and numerous opportunities for fellowship.

King’s Faith recently screened there to a packed auditorium/sanctuary of teens and TFH church-goers. The response was overwhelming, but honestly . . . we’re not surprised. Everywhere this film has gone, young men and women moved by its story and singing its praises have followed.

Here is a video of some of the comments we recorded after the screening:

When Collichio’s partner wasn’t blown away by the first video filmed for the instructional video series, we were asked to try filming Lesson 1 over again as a proof of concept. With the addition of some high-quality sound equipment, professional lighting, two cameras to enable close-ups and cutaways, and a few helpful graphics, the business-savvy partner is very impressed (as is Mr. Collichio.)

Hopefully the two will decide to work with us for the production of the rest of the series (possibly as many as ninety videos in all!)

We think it’s important to mention that we did not charge Collichio School of Music for this concept video even though editing it took many hours of intern Jessica’s time. We believe that by having the integrity to provide a proof of concept for free, we build customer rapport and make it more likely for the client to choose us when it is time to contract the rest of the video series. In other words, we are forfeiting immediate monetary compensation in hopes of securing a long-term business relationship.

This is the ad that Envision filmed for director Nick Dibella in an effort to promote King’s Faith, the faith-based film scheduled for theatrical release on April 26th.

You may or may not know that we filmed and edited many of the behind-the-scenes extras for the DVD release of the film two summers ago when the movie was in production here in Rochester, NY. The two young people in this promo were regular extras during filming, and EP intern Jessica Thurston spent a lot of time with them as the background PA on the King’s Faith set.

The idea is that audience members eager to view the upcoming film will recruit friends and family to click the link on the KF site and “demand” that the film be shown theatrically in their hometown. I believe the film is up to about six cities where it will be released on April 26th!

UPDATE 4/12: 4,500 demands and going strong!

UPDATE 5/7: King’s Faith is now onscreen in 16 cities and counting!

You can still demand the film for your city at DemandKingsFaith.com!

In the case of “Red Ball,” the cast has integrated the use of iPads featuring a variety of interactive animations into a whimsical story about a troupe of bumbling, bickering characters and their escapades with a simple red ball. This piece is thrilling because, for much of the show, the ball only seems to exist on the screens of the iPads. It is pantomimed and invisible in the hands of the characters–until it materializes suddenly to the audience’s delight.

“Giovanni,” a touching story inspired by Tomie dePaola’s children’s book The Clown of God, uses projections on both hanging scrims and actors’ bodies to recount the life of an orphaned boy who rises to fame as a juggler. The adult actor depicting Giovanni is made to look like a small child by casting a tiny, concentrated shadow onto a scrim beside the massive, shadowy image of the actor portraying his father. The piece ends with the breathtaking effect of slow-motion juggling as Giovanni, now an old man whose fame has faded, performs with all of his heart for a statue of Mary and the Christ child on Christmas Eve–until his heart gives out.

While we were unable to attend the moving December performance (which was incredibly well-received from what we hear) we had the opportunity to view many highlights from PUSHinterPLAY at a pickup shoot yesterday. Darren and Heather wanted a promo put together specifically for the purpose of pitching the show to clients who might like to book the new show. This was Envision Production intern Jessica Thurston’s first day on set with us! She kept track of shots through day of multiple takes with the PUSH cast.

The reel probably won’t be posted on the blog since it “gives away” a lot of the best parts of the new show, but I hope this post gets you interested enough to check out a PUSH performance in the future!

On the one hand, we don’t know what we were thinking. On the other, we think it turned out well!

We’re sharing this video on the blog to demonstrate that freelance artists shouldn’t shy away from working on unpaid, un-commissioned projects. Even if these works don’t result in monetary compensation, they can be added to your portfolio and used to create rapport among community members who might pay you for your services in the future!

Our schedule is a little messy right now, but we took the time to make this video entitled “Messy” to encourage everyone to just slow down, sit back, and remember the reason for the season.

Choreographer Missy Pfohl Smith has worked with Envision in the past and commissioned us to record the event for the purpose of creating a DVD, and we are in the process of working on it now. When intern Jessica Thurston starts work at Envision at the end of the month, this will be one of her first projects.