I recently wrote, narrated, and produced this video for LateNiteLabs.com.

I tend to get passionate about any project I work on… but this one was special.

I used to work at a science museum doing live demonstrations: making kids’ hair stand on end with static electricity, blowing things up with liquid nitrogen.  I’ve seen first-hand just how powerful the experience of hands-on science can be for kids.  It opens their eyes, helps them understand concepts in a brand-new way, and it really does help them to discover a genuine love of science.

Unfortunately, in high school and college science departments, hands-on labs are becoming less and less common.  The equipment is expensive and fragile.  And in today’s economy, when some schools can barely afford textbooks, buying enough supplies for a whole class to try even one experiment, much less a whole series, just doesn’t happen.

Late Nite Labs provides an alternative: virtual labs.  Students try classic chemistry and biology experiments, going through the same steps they’d use in a real lab, but in a Flash-based web app, instead.  That means they can take their time, they can make mistakes, they can go back and try again, they can even try experiments they’d never have a chance to attempt in real life.  To me, that sounds like a fantastic opportunity.

It took a few rounds of revisions to get the video just right, but I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out–and I’m THRILLED to have had a chance to help promote Late Nite Labs.

This video–or rather, this set of videos (more about that in a moment)–is near and dear to my heart.  And it’s probably more revealing about me than anything else on my site.

I had already created a whole series of short tutorial videos for OnSIP, a hosted phone service.  But then, they asked me if I was familiar with YouTube’s new “annotations” feature, which allows one video to include links, so users can choose what they’d like to watch next.  And they asked if I’d be interested in using that system to create an interactive tutorial for their new users.

Was I interested?  I grew up playing Zork and reading Choose Your Own Adventure books.  Of course I was interested!

They had a script already… but it was pretty linear.  The viewer could make choices, but those choices didn’t affect anything.  So I asked if I could write a new script, instead.

In the end, I created 30 short videos, and even a flowchart to track how each one would lead to the next.  The tutorial covers the basics of setting up your phone system, of course… but it also allows each viewer to help to create a fictional company–and the nature of the company they end up with, depends on the choices they make along the way.

And what does it reveal about me?  Well, give it a look.  Move through the choices.  (I’d suggest picking Susan, rather than George.)  And you’ll start to discover my sense of humor.

When a client offered me the chance to create a screencast video to promote a mobile website hosting editor they were developing for AT&T, I jumped at the chance.

Turns out, the site wasn’t actually up yet–and wouldn’t be until after the video was done.  I’d have access to a testing site, where I’d be able to create a few isolated screen-capture clips, but those clips would not be the focus of the video.

Thus began my crash course in motion graphics… and this is what I wound up with.  I think it looks pretty cool.

Postscript: AT&T took my video and spruced it up a bit before they actually started using it.  That’s not surprising.  They’re AT&T; their video-production capabilities are lightyears beyond any freelancer’s.  But I’m proud to note that the bulk of my video still shines through.

Inspired by his great-grandfathers (H. G. Wells on one side, and Arthur Conan Doyle on the other), young H. G. Doyle travels through time, infuriates Ben Franklin, meets a dinosaur, and lands on Blackbeard’s foot.  And this is just the first book!

I’ve narrated more than 25 audiobooks, but this is still my favorite.  Silly, fun, and 5 stars on Amazon!  (And no, I don’t get a commission on any sales.  It’s just a wonderful little story.)

Studio Helper is a feature-rich online tool for people who run music studios, dance studios, or really any kind of small school.  They can keep track of their students and teachers, everybody’s availability, when and where they’re holding their classes, who’s paying how much on what schedule, and so forth.

I originally came in to produce one video for them, and wound up staying to write, narrate, and produce a series of 25 tutorials.  (You can watch one of them here on my site.)

Then, they asked me to create a promotional video to capture the attention of potential clients.  Which is to say, we needed to instantly establish the fact that this system works for all kinds of different studios, and even in places that don’t call themselves studios at all… while being visual and eye-catching… without getting bogged down… and without taking longer than a few seconds, since the bulk of the video needed to focus on the benefits of the software itself.

So although I’m happy with this whole video, I’m especially proud of the first 30 seconds or so.

REthink… is big.  Very, very big.

It’s a real estate CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool for real estate.  In essence, an incredibly powerful database system, where absolutely everything is interlinked and cross-referenced with everything else.  That makes it an extraordinary tool for real estate pros… but also a bit overwhelming for an outsider like me.

Still, REthink needed a promotional video to get the word out to potential users.  (Actually, they needed two videos: one for Residential real estate, and one for Commercial real estate.)

So I studied their site.  I worked with their software–carefully, not wanting to break anything.  I developed a script, got feedback, rewrote it, and so on.  And in the end, we came up with a pair of nicely-tailored videos which seem to be doing the trick.

The moral of the story: that I’m willing to do my homework,  and even if your software overwhelms me, I won’t be scared away.  (And,  I suppose, that I’m glad I’m not a real estate agent.)

Todoist is an online task-management tool.  I had already created a whole series of promotional videos for them, and a set of promos for their project-management offshoot, Wedoist.  (You can watch one example here on my site.)

But as part of a recent site re-design, they decided to replace their existing videos with something super-short, clear, and seamless.

As I’ve said before, I do have a distinctive style… but when a client asks for something different, I’m certainly willing to adjust accordingly.  That’s what I did here.

This is a promotional video I created for SkySlope.com, a transaction-management system for real estate professionals.

Usually, my process starts with trying to learn enough about a new site or a new software package to write a good script. 

In this case, I’d already created a whole series of tutorial videos for SkySlope.  (You can watch one of them right here on my site.)  So the challenge was not to acquire enough information, but to take the detailed knowledge I’d acquired and boil it down into something that would fit in one short video.

Ultimately, with a little help from the right stock photos, we were able to shift our focus from the software’s individual features, to the benefits for users.  That is, how using SkySlope would actually help  a real estate agent or broker work more efficiently.

Tyler at SkySlope is one of my favorite clients–and I’m proud  to say that he was delighted with the final product.

Shark’s Den Poker wanted a short promotional video that would introduce their family of poker sites to new players–and also to potential affiliates.  These are obviously two very different audiences, which made appealing to them in one video a little tricky.

It took a few revisions to get the script just right, but I think we pulled it off quite nicely in the end.

This one was fun!  MLMleads911.com wanted a promotional video inspired by Google’s famous Super Bowl ad.  I hadn’t done one quite like this before, but it did give me a chance to explore Camtasia’s 3D capabiities.