PF Happenings

After countless tux rentals, countless entry fees and countless disappointing losses, PlattForm finally scored the elusive Emmy award Saturday night for our pro-bono work. I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen. So like any good optimist, I told everyone we were going to win. I willed it to happen. Well, that and the judging panel finally came to their senses.

Nothing is worse than losing when you’re oh-so sure you’re going to win. You’ve mentally prepared yourself and you’ve rehearsed your speech ad nausea. And then you lose and you still have to smile and politely clap. You’re forced to sit through 84 more categories while you are served coffee and dessert. Usually, I’m so disgruntled I’ll eat six or seven desserts.

On Saturday, all the planets were aligned. Every single nominee at our table walked away with their respective award. And my boss, who had never won an Emmy, was absolutely over the moon. We decided he would give the acceptance speech 1) because he had never done it before and 2) because he’s my boss and told me he was giving it regardless. I was thrilled for him.

The video was for SAVE, Inc. — a local Kansas City charity that does housing options for men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS. It was the third video we’ve produced for them. Each of them had garnered nominations – so we were bound to win sooner or later. (Apparently later than sooner.) The Executive Director of the organization was on hand last night to accept the award with us … which was even more gratifying. You can watch the video here: http://creative.plattformad.com/tvFlash.php?id=8#creative

All in all, it was a great night. And it was great to see us finally bring home the gold for SAVE, Inc. They do such phenomenal things in the community with such limited resources. It’s been a privilege helping PlattForm work hand in hand with them for the last five years.

On August 4th 2009 my cousin (apparently we look more like sisters) Lindsay and her traveling bake sale “Gus’ Goodies” came to Plattform to share their knowledge on Autism and delicious treats! They had anything from Chocolate Chip cookies to Monster cookies, and of course it wouldn’t be a bake sale if Rice Crispy Treats weren’t involved! YUMMY- my mouth is watering thinking about the great goodness!

Lindsay, who is a 3rd Grade Teacher at a local elementary school, started the traveling bake sale to raise money and awareness for autism, as well as improve the social and communication skills of one of her students (Gus) who has autism.

Once I heard about what Lindsay was doing, I suggested she should have Gus and his goodies come to Plattform. The people here are so nice and it is a great environment for Gus to be around – I mean c’mon, we have a WII! Boy was I correct! Not only did we raise $400 worth of donations, but one person in particular made an impact. A woman came up to Gus- who at the time was more intrigued by the red balloons than the bake sale- knelt down to his level and said “Hey Gus, how are? Can you tell me more about Autism?” This unknown person was wearing a gray cardigan and had “cute” short black hair (can you tell that this is the portion of the time I was not there?). This really made an impact on Gus. Anyhoodles, to the gray cardigan, cute-haired girl, as well as the rest of the great employees of Plattform, myself and Gus’ Goodies say thank you for your generous donations and participation! It was definitely a successful event – Gus got to play WII, while the Plattformer’s had a sugar overdose and expanded their knowledge on Autism!

Yanni?
Yawn-y, right?
Surprisingly, no! And I’m the newly-eyes-opened witness to tell you why.
Until last Tuesday night, all I really knew about Yanni was that he produced some distinctive New Age CDs, keyboards mostly, awhile back and that his trademark look was long-hair. My only example of his work went MIA when I left it in the CD player of a car I traded off—two vehicles ago.
So, when an Email popped up offering two tickets from Danny Pumpelly to the Yanni Concert at KC’s Sprint Center that night, I mused aloud, “Hmmm….Maybe I should go get those tickets.”
It was already after five, but my ICD compatriots still at their desks, Erin Sullivan and Tracy Benbrook, urged me on–with equal parts ridicule and ‘we dare you’—to risk it for the tickets.
I shoved my way into Danny’s office to discover only one rival for the tix: Shana Kreikemier. She had them in her hand, waving them thoughtfully. “Oh,” I said, not sure if I felt deflated or not, “I guess they are taken.”
Shana offered them to me, saying, “Actually, I’m not sure I can make it to the concert tonight.”
From that moment on, the musical planets aligned. En route to change clothes, I called a friend, who stunned me by saying, “Yes, I’m available for the concert tonite,” despite not knowing the first note about Yanni. We readily found parking and our seats, bought a tee shirt (at Danny’s request)—all good.
The concert itself, styled Yanni Voices, started off with a long, slow bluhh number performed behind a transparent curtain. “Gonna be a long night,” I thought.
It wasn’t. Once the curtain rose, the tempo did, too. The voices: Nathan Pacheco, Chloe, Leslie Mills and Ender Thomas—seen and heard on at least one PBS special of the same name—stunned. The staging turned clever, the camaraderie among performers zoomed to the height of the top tier seating and the level of musicianship astonished. World class!
One highlight—a performance progressing through every Latin dance I could name and a couple I couldn’t—featured Chloe (I think) dancing and singing and vamping through a 10-minute segment that took my breath. (How she had the pipes to keep singing I’ll never know.)
By the second half of the show, audience members were on their feet, moving, grooving and keeping the beat, rapt at the variety of music ethnicities that Yanni and his troupe so powerfully displayed.
I stood, applauding and whooping, for two curtain calls.
In the bathroom, I ran into an exotic woman with a heavy Cuban accent, from Miami. She purred, “I first saw Yanni in MeeAHme (she rhymed) nine years ago and wherever I’m near a concert of his, I go. I just happened to be in Kansas City this week, and look, here I am.”
Indeed. And so was I. Amazed. Thankful that Danny Pumpelly couldn’t make the show. (And yes, Tee, I really WAS sorry that I got those tickets instead of you, but only for two seconds Next time you need to work late so you too can scramble for the tickets…..)

PlattForm is a very civic-minded company. They give all of their employees the chance to get out and about in the community and make a difference. It’s both a blessing and a perk.

Every year my team in the Video Production department puts together a pro-bono video for a local charity. The first video we produced five years ago was for a local organization that provides housing options for men, women and families affected by HIV/AIDS. To date, the video has raised nearly $900,000 for the charity, SAVE Inc. Over the years, PForm has wrapped its arms around this organization … and it’s been fun for us to watch them grown alongside us.

Over the weekend, we shot our fifth charity video in as many years. It was for the local Kansas City chapter of The Ronald McDonald House. It’s an amazing charity that was founded back in 1972 to help parents with gravely ill children. Now there are Ronald McDonald Houses worldwide … providing a home away from home for families who have children in need of critical medical care.

We spent a majority of the day in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital. We were interviewing parents with kids who were clinging to life. Mercifully, most were being nursed back to health. Yes, it was better living through chemistry, technology and the sheer love of their parents. A lot of the moms and dads were teetering on the brink of tears through most of the interviews. It’s never my intention to make people cry while I’m talking to them … but you could tell the waterworks could start at any minute.

At any given point the Kansas City branch of the RMH houses upwards of 50-60 families who have kids in the hospital or receiving medical treatment. Parent after parent mentioned the same thing … we don’t know what we’d do without this place. Most of the families were from smaller or rural towns. Traveling hours to visit their sick kids is not realistic or practical. Heck, most parents refused to leave the hospital room. How convenient to have the Ronald McDonald House less than five minutes away from Children’s Mercy.

The experience was definitely and eye-opener. I’ve never had full access to shoot in a hospital … let alone an intensive care unit. But every one was very candid and honest and wanted nothing more than to tell us how much the Ronald McDonald House meant to them and their families. Keep an eye out for the video as we’ll be unveiling it later this year!

12 Hour Videos Offer a Platform for Fresh Faces and Different Roles

Before the production began, no one who knew Adam Castle envisioned him as a grisly-voiced, face-contorting FBI bad ass. But now it’s hard to see him any other way.
The soft-spoken marketing consultant for Beauty Schools Marketing Group competed in this year’s 12 Hour Video Contest. With his performance in the winning video, 24, he crafted a new persona as comedic actor with a striking impersonation of hard-as-nails cop from television, Jack Bauer.
Castle’s experience exemplifies the magic of 12 hour videos. In the upside-down world of employee self-made video making, the unexpected is the expected … and the expected is as edgy as company videos should ever be allowed.
12 hour video teams consisted of 8 to 16 employees, including a camera person, an editor and a production assistant/grip/writer-editor. Each team was allotted 12 hours to write, shoot and edit a video that follows a given theme. This year, the themes were: Fear, Revenge, Joy and Anger. Beginning at 3 p.m., the teams were allowed to film until midnight on Fridays and then come back to edit the material into a cohesive production on Monday morning.
What happens behind the scenes of a 12 hour video is not unlike what happens when the camera is rolling. The silliness and the camaraderie that spills out when topics are being brainstormed and loose scripts are being developed often makes the transfer to the scenes that are filmed. And, that is the magic of the process. Contributors who take a leadership role in the group are often at the forefront of the shooting process.
In a company-wide vote, employees made 24 by far and away this year’s winning video, which earned it a showing at PlattForm’s annual meeting. Given his unexpected stardom, Castle said the experience wasn’t too of course from what he had envisioned.
“My 12 hours video was basically what I expected,” Castle said. “I was expecting that we would be working on the video until midnight, but we had a pretty defined idea, so we were able to finish up early. Our team didn’t drink as much beer as we thought we would either … it makes me wonder what that says about my expectations of Plattformers? Just kidding … kind of.”
The 12 Hour Video experience was the same across the country as PlattForm’s New York office got in on the act. Jason Penta, who worked behind the camera channeling what he called his “best inner-Spielberg,” helped create the visuals for “Land of Confusion.”
“We definitely all brain-stormed together as a group,” Penta said. “Everyone had great, creative ideas. And of course, everyone was willing to ham it up for the camera. It was also the day of our First Friday/Cinco De Mayo party, so there was a lot of excitement in the office all day. As the margarita count got higher, the video definitely got more interesting.”
Castle said the only other time he ever acted was in ninth grade drama class. He said he had no idea what role I would play in the video before the production began. His teammate, Brandon Gregory, conceived a spoof of the 24 television show starring Keifer Sutherland, and that was all it took.
“Once we had the idea, the whole team was really into it as soon as we started brainstorming,” Castle said.
Castle is the antithesis to the Bauer character, which made it 10 times funnier to see him in the roll.