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 …

ALASKAN 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.”

Alaskan 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.    

Alaskan 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” …

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 …

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.  

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 …

‘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.

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.

Photography

Epiphanie Bags & Ali Edwards Collaboration

Epiphanie Bags came to us to film a new camera bag collaboration with local Eugene artist, Ali Edwards. Ali's passion is memory keeping that's rooted in stories, photos and intentional embellishments. As fellow storytellers, we were excited for the opportunity to work together on this project. Owner, Maile Wilson, a professional photographer, launched Epiphanie in 2009 after searching for a fashionable and functional camera bag that would protect her gear without sacrificing her personal style. The goal for Ali's bag was to create something that was simple, with clean lines and came in modest colors. She wanted something that would fit into her lifestyle – Going from …

Behind the Scenes: IDX Broker

In late April, we shot a video for a local tech company, IDX Broker. IDX wanted to showcase their fun and creative culture with a video highlighting a common workday which includes biking to the office, nerf gun battles, and an interactive robot. Filming at IDX was not only an awesome way to spend a ‘day at the office,' but their workspace and cooperative employees allowed us to get creative long shot with our shots. We chose to do a series of single take tracking shots with the Canon EOS-1D C and the Canon 14mm and 24mm Cinema lenses. For stabilization and practical use, …

Connecting with Local Artist: Part 2

Earlier this week, the AO Team went back to the Lane Community College campus to visit local public artist and LCC professor, Lee Imonen. We met Lee a few months ago after noticing a public art piece he was displaying on the campus. After our initial conversation to learn more about the piece, we asked if he would be interested in letting us film him at work with his students, and include his thoughts into our internal documentary. The purpose of our documentary is to create awareness for the very issue that Lee has presented with his 2005 War Veteran sculpture: veterans do not receive the …

Synergy Air: RV12 Build

In late February, we were asked to sit down with Dennis Schoenberg to document his first RV12 Build at Synergy Air in Eugene, Oregon. To be able to follow a man and watch his dream come true before our eyes was an incredible experience that will be hard to replicate. Dennis began working with the staff at Synergy Air to build his first RV12 aircraft in 2014. He referred to himself as an average craftsman, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to accomplish the build. Working alongside the synergy staff, he was able to build his first plane from start …

Cycle of Freedom

We worked with the founders of the new non-profit veteran organization Warrior's Bridge, Ami Tucci Jones and Scot Spooner, to create this film. This was a very moving and emotional project for us, because it was a little different than other veteran-related films we've produced. It brought up the issue of the disconnect between the people who fight for our freedom, and the actual freedoms we are so lucky to have. Spooner explains that during World War II when the duty members returned home, they were "well-received" and "integrated easily back into society." However, today it is a lot harder when people return from war, …

Generations

This video was a passion project produced by AO team member, Ryan Welch. This past weekend, while at the Oregon beach cabin that has been in his family for almost 80 years, he filmed a quick video capturing the "generations" that have experienced this amazing place. Welch mostly wanted to practice using the DEFY G12 gimbal, which worked perfect for this project to keep the shot steady while he ran alongside his family members. He filmed it in about 90 minutes using the Canon 1DC with a 24mm lens. Sometimes it's the personal side projects that recharge our creative spirits.

Behind The Scenes: UO Track and Field

We worked with the University of Oregon Track and Field team to produce a video to promote their upcoming spring season. We purposely chose to shoot at night in order to set the tone the team was looking for: intense and competitive. The Oregon Track and Field team chose to promote their new apple-green track uniforms for the upcoming season. This worked in our favor in post production since there was already such a contrast with the black background and white graphics.   Only 30-minutes into shooting, our Arri Lights blew out most of the fuses around the entire track at Hayward …

UO Track and Field: Strength in Numbers

Eugene, Oregon isn't called Track Town USA for nothing. It is the home of the renowned University of Oregon's Men and Women Track and Field team. We got the honor of working with two of the team's champions, Jenna Prandini and Edward Cheserek. Prandini is known for being a National Champion, eight-time All-American, and a five-time Pac-12 Champion. Cheserek is known for being a four-time NCAA Champion, five-time All-American, Bowerman Award Finalist, USTFCCCA Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, USTFCCCA Cross Country Runner of the Year, Pac-12 Cross Country Runner of the Year, and the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year. We filmed …

Oregon Pit Crew: Not Your Average Student Section

Pit Crew is the ecstatic student section found at the University of Oregon basketball games in Matthew Knight Arena. Pit Crew is made up of the most dedicated (and loudest) Oregon Ducks. If you ever go to a game, you'll know them when you see (hear) them. They all have the same goal: to cheer on their beloved Ducks basketball team to victory. These students are impressive in their commitment to the UO Basketball Team. There really is no other student section like it.     We worked with these Ducks to make a "mockumentary" style commercial to show what Pit Crew is all about, along with highlighting the Oregon …

It’s Science, Dude

This is the story of three people, all amazing athletes with big dreams, who came together to create scientifically-backed, healthy, delicious "real food bars" for the snacker and the athlete. Together, Jesse, Lauren, and Steph created Picky Bars. Their mission statement is not to eat extremely healthy, filling foods every day, but to live life to fullest, and to give your body the clean nutrients it needs to live that life. We loved creating this video for Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon about Picky Bars, not only because it is a direct result of Jesse obtaining his MBA at the Lundquist Center, but …

Connecting with Local Public Artist

Earlier this week, the AO Team met up with local public artist and Lane Community College professor, Lee Imonen. In October of 2014, his 2005 War Veteran piece was put on display at the LCC campus and caught our attention.  In talking with Lee, he explained that the piece represents the experiences of returning Iraq War Veterans and the limited services that are provided to them upon their return home after active duty. As seen in the photos below, the metal human body mold creates flawless cement figures that represent all people going into war. Many of these people return as a crumbling, …

InFocus 2015

InFocus is a conference for filmmakers by filmmakers. InFocus has yearly conferences bringing studios and filmmakers from around the world together to learn and share with one another. This event is for the filmmaker who cares more about authenticity, investing in others and doing kick ass work, rather than looking cool in front of their peers. The AO Team was first invited to New Orleans, Louisiana in 2014 to present on the subject of Freestyle Cinema. We shared our knowledge and our internal systems of capturing and creating cinematic films in documentary-type environments. In 2015 we were excited to return and travel to …

Oregon Loves This Game

This was a personal project filmed by Ryan Rossman and Ryan Welch using the RED Epic Dragon with the Canon CN-E 35mm and CN-E 30-105mm lenses. It is meant to highlight how so many kids grow up being Oregon Duck fans, attending exciting games at Autzen Stadium, rain or shine, and watching their beloved Ducks play on TV. This video captures the essence of what it is like for kids to look up to these Oregon Duck football players, and to pretend that they are on the same grand stage that is Autzen Stadium. We hope you enjoy this video just as …

The Warrior’s Bridge

In early October, we traveled across the country to North Carolina to meet with the passionate and motivating duo, Scot Spooner and Amy Tucci Jones. When we heard about their foundation, The Warrior's Bridge, we knew we wanted to get involved. The Warrior's Bridge website is finally up and running, and we made a video to introduce the world to this incredible organization. We hope to inspire others to support this cause.

“I can do anything I want to do”

Those with special needs can be themselves and go on adventures with this amazing foundation. Trips Inc. provides all-inclusive, organized, chaperoned trips for people with special needs. Their trips range from experiencing the wonders of Disneyland, to venturing into the great outdoors. Their ultimate goal is to make the travelers feel independent and to have experiences like anyone else. It was a joy and a privilege to be able to travel with the group, and to see how Trips Inc. is touching these people's lives. We made a video for Trips Inc. that really shows what their company is all about, and …

Law and Military Art

Tattoos can be one of the most meaningful forms of art. Many law and military personnel, as well as veterans, go to Scottsdale Tattoo to remind themselves of the meaningful lives they live, and to honor those they've lost in the line of duty. "It's there with them for life. People obviously are interested in tattoos and they ask about it. And it gives them a reason to bring up that person's name and tell them the story of what happened, and what that person meant to them," one of the parlor's owner says. It was impactful to see the tattoos that law and …

Ben Lunak

Relationships are a huge part of what we do at AO Films. We love telling meaningful stories and the bonus is the relationships we get to build along the way. We were reminded of the importance of these connections this week while filming in Arizona. Nine months ago, while in Arizona filming for a Life of Duty documentary, we met a young veteran named Ben Lunak. He came to dinner with one of the principals of our story and we were amazed at what he told us. He is a Marine, and lost his leg in Iraq in 2005 when an …

Spokane SWAT Sizzle

The only sounds we could hear were boots on the ground, the crackle of radio, fire power, and yelling. We received the opportunity to film the Spokane, Washington SWAT team's training session last May. We got quality B-roll of the team in action, so we thew together this sizzle reel. It was surreal to be in the middle of a training session, because it felt so realistic. It put us out in the field. We put together this sizzle reel to showcase the life of these brave men and women, and to give the everyday civilian a taste of what it is like …

Summer Evening in Oregon: Eugene Challengers

To us, film is one of the most powerful ways to tell a story.  It makes it possible to capture emotion and action in ways that other storytelling devices can not. For this particular video, we wanted to capture the essence of a Legion League baseball game. We wanted to show the beginning, middle, and end of this story. We also wanted to show, not tell, the passionate and competitive vibes we received while filming and attending this Eugene Challenger's game. With the power of videoography, we think we achieved this. There is no dialogue or interviews in this piece, only significant A-roll, B-roll, and …

Chemeketa Community College Fall 2014 Commercials

After weeks of preparation, we spent two full days filming commercials for Chemeketa Community College. Chemeketa is located in beautiful Salem, Oregon, so we decided to do our filming there, so we could include the town and the campus. On the first day, we worked with our talent to create a sequence of a boy growing up from childhood to adulthood, transitioning from adoringly watching his father work on cars, to putting a car together himself, with the support of Chemeketa. The second spot chronicles a motivated young woman making the transition from being raised by her loving parents, to continuing her life and receiving a quality education close …

Elder Heart: American Warrior

Standing 20 feet high, a sculpture of 22 huge, metal leaves stands out in the quaint town of Nashville, Indiana. However, it is not the statue itself, but its purpose that is amazing. The 22 leaves represent the 22 Veterans that commit suicide everyday. Most people are not aware of this devastating issue, and one local Nashville organization is committed to change that. Elder Heart is a Veteran organization that creates art in public areas to raise awareness for those 22 Veterans. They aim to employ and empower Veterans, and show them they are not alone. “We will not let …

Brown County // Nashville, Indiana Arts and Entertainment Community

What is art? Art is music. Art is jewelry. Art is bright yellow paint splattered on an empty canvas. Art is a statue of a fallen hero. Art is whatever you want it to be. In the town of Nashville, Indiana in Brown County, art strings the community together. From glass blowers, to painters, to builders, to guitarists, to woodworkers, the charming town has a lot to offer. Local artists say Nashville has more people making their own products and running their own shops than any other town. AO Films collaborated with the artists of Brown County to showcase all …

Trip to North Carolina for Warrior’s Bridge

Earlier this month, we traveled to North Carolina to meet with Scot Spooner and Amy Tucci Jones to learn more about their foundation, The Warrior's Bridge, and how we could be a part of it. We are passionate about telling stories that really matter and make a difference. The Warrior's Bridge really spoke to us in this way, as their mission is to provide free, long-term wellness treatment to those United States Service members who possess emotional wounds due to mortal combat. Every American should have the chance to live the American Dream. Spooner, a former Delta  explains, "If you look at …

Joshua P. Williams Foundation

“Everybody in their life needs people to encourage them and support them, cheer them on when they’re winning, but are also there to support them when things aren’t going quite as well.” In football, the 12th man refers to fans that support their team through thick and thin. Likewise, while growing up, children need the same thing. There are many organizations, such as the Boys and Girls Club, which support youth in just this way. However, these amazing organizations need support themselves in order to keep serving today’s youth. That’s where the Joshua P. Williams (JPW) Foundation comes in. JPW celebrates …

Elder Heart: The Art of Healing Warriors

In the quaint town of Nashville, Indiana, it is common to see the work of artists displayed at every corner. Everything from glass blowing to painting, to woodwork and theater performance, the artists of Nashville come together year after year to create an expansive cultural fabric in an otherwise small town. But there is something new on the horizon for the art community here, and it is coming from an unlikely group of artists. Projected to take a half-year to complete, the art piece will stand 20 ft tall with 22 large steel leafs, some weighing up to 500 lbs. To …

Interview with WW2 vet Bill Kunkle

For a number of months now, we've been talking about and researching for a documentary that we've been excited to pursue. After 3-4 months of info gathering, we finally got the first interview under our belt today when we interview Bill Kunkle, an 89-year-old World War II veteran. It was a powerful interview, listening and watching him break down several times as he recounted the horrific things he experienced as a medic after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was just the first step – and we're excited for where this journey will take us!

AO Explore // Using the ‘Duration’ Column to Speed Up Your Editing

Just a quick tip on how to use the duration column within Final Cut Pro X to weed out clips. While filming for my son’s 8-year old baseball team, I realized quickly that I’d have lots of clips with no action, thus no value to me within the edit. What I did was to make sure that while filming, I kept the clips as short as possible if there was nothing I’d be interested in using for the edit. I’d then organize my footage via the ‘Duration’ column in the browser and be able to select those clips that captured nothing …

AO: Explore // Color Grading Duck Store Commercials with VSCO in Aperture

Last fall we completed a series of :30 commercials for The University of Oregon Duck Store. They had seen the ‘Experience Autzen’ piece we filmed for the marketing department at the UO and wanted to recreate that same sort of emotion and energy in their spots. Something that “communicated that an Oregon Duck fans’ experience starts at the Duck Store.” We love the way VSCO film creates a very real, authentic, film-like look in photos. So we tried using VSCO Film in Aperture to color grade the final spots. Here’s the rundown of how we did it, after editing it Final Cut …