Stories

News, project launches and thoughts from our team.

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!!

Project Launch: McMaster IBEHS Program

“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!

 

“Double Barrel helped bring our vision to life. The team’s creativity and diligent work resulted in a stellar product that helped raise the profile of our new Integrated Biomedical and Health Sciences Program.” – Monique Beech, Manager, Public Relations, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University

Project Launch: Team Unbreakable – 30 Second Spot

Team Unbreakable is a therapeutic teen running group operating out of Hamilton, Ontario. Their goal is simple: to decrease anxiety and depression among our teen population by providing access to a proven mood-booster: exercise! Running has been proven to decrease depression and anxiety by suppressing stress hormones, while boosting feel-good hormones like endorphins.

 

The Hamilton Family Health Team is looking to add to its roster of runners and volunteers for this program, and would like to spread the message to #HamOnt teens. If you or anyone you know would benefit from either volunteering or running with this amazing organization please reach out!

 

We are proud to say that this piece will be screening in clinics across the City of Hamilton. Thanks to the Hamilton Family Health Team for involving us in such a great project!

 

**This piece is an accessible, shortened and animated version of the longer three minute promotional video we produced back in 2016.**

Project Launch: City of Hamilton West Harbour Redevelopment Video

“The West Harbour is what first attracted the world to our shores, but we’ve come a long way since then. Introducing the next chapter of the Hamilton West Harbour story!”

We were thrilled to collaborate with the City of Hamilton on this video project, bringing their vision of the West Harbour’s future to life through the power of animation! This $140 million dollar redevelopment project will create a vibrant hub for community and more useable waterfront space for Hamiltonians.

Project Launch: City of Hamilton: BLAST Network

Double Barrel is a firm advocate for #LRT in Hamilton, so when city staff asked us to create a video bringing their BLAST Network vision to life, we were thrilled to be involved. By 2041, 780,000 people will call Hamilton home. And as a city, we need a transit infrastructure that will support this booming population.

Let’s remember what the future of transit will look like when the BLAST Network becomes a reality.

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.

Double Barrel Podcast: Episode 2 ‘Why Story?’

At Double Barrel, we’ve had the pleasure of working with people from all types of industries.

They all come to us with a need – a new business or program or product they need to promote – and almost everyone recognizes the importance of telling a compelling story. Inevitably, though it comes time to put pen to paper – and that, my friends, is where everyone struggles. When you have so many things you need to say, how do you even begin?

Luckily for us, the craft of storytelling has been around for as long as we humans have roamed the earth. And over hundreds of years of refining of this craft, writers have developed a very clear methodology when it comes to keeping your audience engaged while still getting across the things you need to say.

In our SECOND installment of the Double Barrel content series, we’ll walk you step-by-step through this methodology, outlining the top 3 elements of compelling storytelling – so that you can be sure your next piece won’t fall flat. And don’t forget, we’re always here to answer your content questions. Feel free to drop us a line anytime!

Enjoy!!