Analyzing and Summarizing Focus Group Research

Client: Various (samples available upon request)

Role: Analyst, Video Producer and Editor, Presentation Designer

Backstory: My role in these projects began when a Houston-area PR firm's primary communications researcher pulled me in to help digest the massive amount of video data collected for a state-wide education organization. I was able to dive into the data and files, creating a method for sorting and editing hours of footage down into topic-specific videos. On their next project, they insisted on having me involved in the planning stages as well. So, I helped coordinate the filming and culling of hundreds more hours of focus group research from all over the country. I very much enjoyed being a part of these complex, important projects and would love to discuss more details privately.

Challenges: While the quality of focus group footage is not a hangup, the quantity of footage is very time consuming for both humans and computers. Dividing the workload among a team of assistant editors for the biggest projects helped me solve this challenge.

Successes: My colleague was able to present the data collected in an organized and visually interesting way with the help of the visuals I produced. The client was able to review their research in an organized way that helped them make strategic communications and planning decisions.

Creating a Mayor's "Wow Moment" at the State of the City

Behind the scenes: I wrote all about creating this video on the company's blog here: https://www.thestoryhive.com/post/how-d-they-do-that 

Link to watch: (Note the full wide screen video is along the top, but we added a cropped version at the bottom. You can see it would be hard to display on a normal computer or phone screen.) https://vimeo.com/766512341

My Role: Producer, writer

Backstory: The former Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner enjoyed videos we had created in the past (like this one), so his people asked us to create a short but powerful animated video piece for the State of the City event. We created a 35-second-long, 11,000-pixel-wide, animated visual treat where the mayor "travels" to all corners of the city in dramatic and stylish fashion.

Challenges: Capturing a huge and hugely diverse city in 38 seconds, and only in animated photos was tough. I tackled it by using the city's neighborhoods as a guide, making sure we collected imagery from each area and the big iconic features in Houston. Running the plan by stakeholders during the image capture phase helped me be sure all our bases and the Mayor's priorities were covered.

Successes: We won a Telly Award for this video and received several new projects from it. We were asked to create another video for Mayor Turner's final State of the City Address the next year: https://youtu.be/bLEtZMKBrLQ?si=oxK8XYN4Ot2U-Hj8

The Rodeo's Highly-anticipated 2024 Entertainer Lineup

Link to watch: https://youtu.be/9AYNReMNEDE?si=HVDbKsZx6akTKKL-

My Role: Producer, Writer, Director

Backstory: Taking a note from NFL teams who produce fun schedule-release videos each year, the Houston Rodeo’s digital team asked for our help creating a similar one for the 2024 entertainer lineup. We brainstormed with the client and I began writing the script. Having lived in Houston for 20 years, I quickly put together a list of iconic locations and representative scenarios for the project.

Some of the announcements would be live-action and real props (like the wine bottle, sandwich board and proposal), and some would be purely VFX (like the billboards and signage). This took a lot of coordination between production and post-production crew.

Challenges: The lineup was kept a secret from almost everyone, even our team, until it was necessary to create an asset. A lot of the early drafts were created with placeholder names.

Successes: The client told us the video was a huge success for their purposes, and it created a lot of buzz on social media. The whole team is super proud of this video.

Behind the scenes: