Eastport Plaza

Filmed and Edited by Brian Schatz of Spool Video
Script and Narration by Dianne Gill
Event Photos courtesy of David Ashton at East PDX News

This video highlights Eastport Plaza, a well known but sometimes forgotten shopping center in SE Portland, Oregon. The mall was looking for a fun way to help visitors to its website rediscover Eastport, while simultaneously restoring some prestige to the mall’s brand. The video highlights the stores and services available, shows how the mall acts as a hub for the local community, and informs people on transportation options for getting to the plaza.

The mall has a 50-year history, but in recent times had been overshadowed by newer shopping centers with premier tenants like Nordstrom and Macy’s. Eastport then underwent a transformation from an indoor facility to an outdoor one, and had even been identified—incorrectly—as a “dead mall” (www.deadmalls.com) at one time. Under new management, Eastport is finding its niche as a home for the budget conscious shopper. It was for this same reason that public transit options are shown in the video; Eastport Plaza serves a lower-income area of town, and shoppers may rely on TriMet to get there.

In making the video, Eastport wanted to include more topics than their budget permitted. However, I was able to supplement the video footage with still images provided by the client, and use holiday footage from an old television commercial (they had purchased the rights). I tend to discourage ‘slide-show’ style videos, but in this case the combination of styles, paired with a fast-paced script, kept the video flowing. Decide for yourself by watching it on their website, in the 'As Seen on TV' section.

Bike Racing

This demo was a collaborative project between composer Boone Johnson, of Aural Produce, and myself. Our intent was to convey a sense of emotion and story without the use of words; only through editing and music. The soundtrack was performed first, and the visuals were then edited to the tempo.

The video was later discovered by Dan Kaufman, creator of Crank My Chain! Cycle TV, an Internet Podcast (available on iTunes) about cyclists. With our approval, Dan added titles and used the video as a promo for the 2007 Eric Kautzky Memorial Track Race--held on the same track where this video was shot.

Filmed on two cameras, one was a consumer model that grossly overexposed the highlights in many of the shots. After careful consideration, I felt that the white 'hot spots' gave the footage an intensity that was actually a good match for the action onscreen. In post-production, I was able to digitally color-correct the 'normal' footage to match that from the overexposed camera, and thus establish a look for the video.

Racing Bikes from Brian Schatz on Vimeo.