It’s been an incredible year of growth at Workhouse Creative.
We broke ground on our new office, worked with an amazing group of clients, and welcomed new faces into the family (including three newborns!). As we look forward to the new year, we hope you’ll enjoy some of our favorite moments of 2014.
Cheers to a wonderful 2015!
At Workhouse we strive to push our creative boundaries and think outside the box. A reel was recently requested and we decided to do just that. Rather than use a traditional box, we packed a vintage film canister full of goodies. It included a beautiful booklet that highlights our talented directors, and a Surface tablet loaded with of our latest work. We are incredibly proud of the final product.
Our multi-talented director Daniel Brown couldn’t help but utilize his skills to create this hilarious family Christmas card that we can’t resist sharing. Happy holidays, everyone!
Workhouse Creative recently moved to a new location in the heart of Seattle’s Central District, nestled between bustling Capitol Hill and the vibrant International District. We’re settling in nicely on the corner of 14th and Yesler but didn’t know how much history we’d discover here at our new home.
The building dates back to 1901, when the foundation was created for the St. George Hotel. Since the hotel was erected in 1910, the building has maintained a rich, eclectic history.
Above ground, the St. George began as an apartment building, offering “the lowest rent in the city in a respectable, first-class building,” as it was phrased in a 1915 ad for the Seattle Times.
The property later transitioned into a variety of retail spaces, ranging from barber shops and laundry cleaners to grocery stores and billiard halls. A later issue of the Seattle Times, in 1916, features another advertisement for the St. George Hotel offering storage space in the large concrete basement and describing the hotel as a “splendid, modern building’.
During prohibition, the basement continued to serve the community as a speakeasy.
The St. George continued to house retail spaces and various tenants up until 1973, when the St. George converted from apartments to office spaces. In 1975, the Seattle Urban League and other civil rights groups, including the NAACP, opened offices to serve the communities of the Central District. Today, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle still serves the Seattle area, providing education, housing and employment programs for historically under represented groups throughout the city.
We’re happy to be joining a great community here at the St. George and know we’ll be right at home here for years to come. Construction on Workhouse Creative’s new space is currently underway on the ground floor, with plans to move in early 2015. Keep posted for more updates on the build-out.
Here at Workhouse Creative we strive to produce amazing content, but that process is made all the sweeter when given the chance to produce work with a great cause behind it.
Last year, our Principle Director Keith Rivers traveled to Zambia on behalf of World Vision International, a humanitarian aid, development and advocacy organization that works to sponsor children in developing nations.
In order to raise awareness of these children’s stories, Keith worked with the Seattle based Bob Rivers Radio Show and brought these stories to air during 94.5 KATS’s annual radio marathon.
While in Zambia, Keith lived amongst villagers in rural areas outside of Lusaka and Livingston. He spent his time speaking with villagers about the cleanliness of their water and the health of their children, breaking bread and connecting as people.
“I realized we all have so much in common, despite the drastic differences in our cultures and circumstances. We all value our families and share so many commonalities as people.”
Keith had an incredible experience traveling and we’re happy to share the story he found.
For most people, music festivals are a chance to relax and escape the nine to five but for our Technical Director Ryan Frey, it was the busiest weekend of his life.
When Ryan isn’t managing post production on Workhouse Creative projects, he’s moonlighting with USC events to create amazing videos highlighting various music artists. Most recently, Ryan spearheaded the Paradiso Media team, directing and editing the official Paradiso Festival recap videos that have already garnered thousands of views. Both are spectacular and capture the vibrant and kinetic atmosphere of the USC festival.
Ryan described Paradiso as the time of his life and a wonderland of self expression.
Ryan worked closely with cinematographers from Joosbox media and directed them in what content to collect and made sure the videos were assembled and edited as soon as possible. He even pulled multiple all nighters with his fiancé (and assistant editor) Maria Anca to bring them in on time; another example of his dedication to every project he touches.
The man is a machine. Follow the links below and check out Ryan’s amazing work!
Workhouse Creative’s new VFX artist Ansley Elizabeth Lee may be a wiz behind the computer screen but she’s also been flexing her muscles as a budding director.
Ansley recently graduated from Cornish College of the Arts for Motion Design & Original Works but has always had a passion for film, so much in fact that she wrote and directed the very first short film to come out of Cornish College as a part of her senior design project.
Her film entitled WACO, is a coming of age story about a group of teens living in the small town of Waco, Texas. The project also contained an interactive radio play that when paired with the short, creates a cohesive transmedia campaign that pushes the boundaries of how we experience stories.
WACO has already begun its festival run and premiered last Wednesday at the Lone Fir Film Festival in Portland, Oregon. Ansley has sited the experience as “extremely empowering” and is excited to see how far WACO can go.
We’re so proud of Ansley and know that her passion for storytelling will only lead to bigger and better things here at Workhouse Creative.
Workhouse Creative has an eclectic team who are always working on side projects. When Ryan Frey, our Technical Director, isn’t managing our project work flow he’s keeping busy handling videography for USC Events. Ryan has been filming live performances at local clubs like Foundation, named Seattle’s Best Nightclub of 2013. If you’re new to electronic dance music, check out “Foundation Nightclub: Year One” featuring over 140 artists including Tiesto, Kaskade, and Above and Beyond. All the footage, editing, sound and effects were handled by Ryan. It’s evident that he’s turning heads because his work for USC has led to shooting music videos directly for artists like Wolfgang Gartner.
Ryan also edited “Where is the Heart”, a music video for Alex Clare. It looks so incredible that you’d never guess all of the footage was taken from the band member’s personal cameras while on tour. Ryan’s edit transformed the home video footage into a kinetic and unique piece.
Ryan recently created “Winter 2013: Behind The Scenes” for a DList Magazine photo shoot as well. All effects are in camera and achieved using crystals and gems to catch some amazing lens flares.
Ryan always has new projects in the works. Whether he’s creating something for us, or local companies that have noticed his talents, we love it all. We consider ourselves to be Ryan Frey’s biggest fans.
Of all the values citizens of the world hold, none is more universal than the value of our children.
In the Autumn of 2013, our director Caleb Slain was one of three filmmakers recruited to explore the work of a team helping children in some of the most ignored areas of the globe. Slain and cinematographer Chad Terpstra ventured out into the Indian state of “Nagaland,” one of the most remote regions of the eastern Himalayas to learn about it’s habitants, health conditions of the children and a group called “Vitamin Angels”.
This is what happened.
Following Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s death in February, thousands of fans, critics and filmmakers were quick to celebrate the life of an amazing talent. Our own Caleb Slain paid tribute by compiling a touching supercut of Hoffman’s greatest moments on film. The video spans Hoffman’s 47 film career including his Academy Award winning performance in Capote as well as his lesser known roles. Caleb spent nearly 200 hours combing through Hoffman’s enormous body of work, an experience he says was “indescribably rewarding”.
The video has been featured by Vimeo as a staff pick and highlighted by several news outlets including TIME, USA TODAY, INDIEWIRE and Entertainment Weekly. Critics are quick to notice Caleb’s impeccable sense of pacing and subtlety as he paints a full portrait of Hoffman’s career.
Thank you Caleb for helping us celebrate the amazing contributions Hoffman has made to the film lexicon and remembering a man who’s time came far too soon.
