The AO Blog
“Full Hearts” Premieres to Full House
On March 6, 2023, the Wildish Theater in Springfield, Oregon was packed with over 250 people who came to witness the premiere of the documentary film "Full Hearts." Directed by Ryan Welch of AO Films, the film chronicles the journey of the Sheldon Irish, a high school football team in Oregon, as they strive to secure a bid for the state championship. The premiere was introduced by Sheldon football's head coach Josh Line, who welcomed the director, Ryan Welch, to the stage. Welch spoke for a few minutes about the making of the film and his experiences with the team before …
Read MoreALASKAN NETS acquired by Good Deed Entertainment
As seen today in Deadline: Good Deed Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to basketball documentary Alaskan Nets, which is exec-produced by Chris Pratt and his production company Indivisible Productions. Good Deed Entertainment is set to release later in 2022. “Good Deed is incredibly proud to be teaming up with Jeff to get this amazing story out into the world,” said Fabin. “Jeff cares deeply about these athletes and their community, and his passion translated directly to our team. We have no doubt audiences across the country will connect to it in the same immediate way we have.”
Read MoreAlaskan Nets to play at Bend Film Festival
Alaskan Nets is set to play at the Bend Film Festival, October 9, at 6:30pm. The showing is at the Tower Theater, downtown Bend. Click here for tickets. The festivals programing director had this to say about the film: If this were a narrative Hollywood movie, it couldn’t have been written better. Their success feels like a matter of life and death. A tale that's heartbreaking, thrilling, deeply human and raw.
Read MoreAlaskan Nets Wins “Audience Choice Award” at Santa Barbara Film Festival
“Alaskan Nets,” a world premiere documentary, was the winner of the SBIFF’s Audience Award in April 2021. Here's a nice little write up by RogerEbert.com: Directed by Jeff Harasimowicz and executive produced by Chris Pratt, "Alaskan Nets" may be formulaic, but it’s a thoroughly winning formula. It is set in Metlakatla, Alaska’s last Native reserve. Here on Annette Island, life is nothing but nets: fishing, which for generations has been the livelihood of the residents, and basketball nets, which is the life blood of the reserve, its own "Friday Night Lights" as one resident remarks. Harasimowicz chronicles the 2017-2018 season in “the Met” …
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Alaskan Nets Documentary to Premiere at Santa Barbara International Film Festival
MARCH 29, 2021: This is an excerpt from an article in Deadline Magazine: Alaskan Nets is having its world premiere next month in the Documentary Competition at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The doc, directed by Jeff Harasimowicz, follows the high school boys basketball team in Metlakatla, the native reserve of the Tsimshian Indians off the coast of Southeast Alaska. It’s a town, we discover in the trailer, where two things matter: fishing and hoops. The pic, directed and produced by Harasimowicz of Raised By Wolves and produced by Ryan Welch of AO Films, follows the improbable journey of cousins Danny Marsden and …
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Expedition: Legacy
One thing that Covid has allowed, is for us to do a few things we might not otherwise have the time for. I’ve got a group of friends who have been talking about doing a trip on Oregon’s Backcountry Discovery Route, which a route that traverses all across Oregon – all off the paved roads. We’ve wanted to do this trip with our boys as this June we finally pulled the trigger on it. We partnered with Grizzlies Granola and North of 42 (AO Films’ ‘adventure’ arm) to produce this film.
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Documentary-Style Promotional Films
Over the last few years there’s been a shift in marketing videos. We’ve all seen documentaries. They are entertaining and inform on subjects in a cinematic way. At AO Films, we strive to tell stories, using a cinematic style. More and more brands are looking for ways to stand out amid the “noise” of commercials. A couple of interesting stats: Viewers are 95% more likely to remember a call to action after watching a video, compared to 10 percent when reading it in text format (Forbes, 2017). Videos help keep users on your website longer and also keep them more engaged. The average user spends …
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‘United We Heal’ Documentary
We’re also in post-production on another documentary about the power that exists when civilians and veterans come together to help our warriors return home with the wounds of war. We’ve partnered with Mission 22 and the American Valor Foundation and have traveled the country following a variety of veteran’s stories of battling the return home and the search of hope in their post-combat life.
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Oregon Wine Country: Filming in the Beautiful Willamette Valley
We began a year long partnership with Willamette Valley Visitors Association in September of 2018. They came to us with a desire to create a series of videos that showcase the diverse wonders that the Willamette Valley has to offer throughout the year. Koosah Falls, Oregon We produced three videos covering Adventure, Cellar Season and Wine+. Each one has a :60, :30 and :15 version and will placed in a variety of locations around the U.S. to promote tourism to the Willamette Valley. Here's the "Cellar Season video, encouraging visitors to explore the many adventures you can have in the Willamette Valley.
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