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Live Chair Health

by COMMERCIALSocial MediaWeb video

This project was one of the early shoots we did with masks and social distancing on set when things began slowly opening back up in July. It’s a short spot we produced for Live Chair, a healthcare startup that is aiming to solve the disparity of health issues in black communities.

Now more than ever we see how much the black and brown communities have been disproportionately affected by the current pandemic due to existing comorbidities. Live Chair is solving this problem by breaking down the stigma of men talking about their health by starting that conversation in the trusted, sacred space of barbershops in urban communities.

Director by Keenan Marshall

Behindthemask Social2

Behind the Masks #1millionmasks

by AnnouncementsBroadcastCommunityWeb video

On March 27th, Maestro Filmworks launched Behind the Masks, a challenge and call to action to the creative community to make 1 million homemade masks to assist in the shortage of PPE during the COVID-19 crisis.

Just a few days later, the CDC put out an official recommendation for all civilians to wear masks as an extra layer of protection as well, furthering the importance and accessibility of homemade masks.

In an open letter from our founder, Kris Mendoza, the initiative was set into motion in an effort for those sidelined to channel their anxious energy into something productive. Here’s a clip from NBC 10 covering the initiative:

Interested in joining the challenge? Head over and Take Action to see how you can start making masks at home and join the challenge.

Here is the instructional video that the Maestro team produced in the effort to streamline the process for those at home:

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Enabled Gaming

by ANIMATIONBroadcastDOCUMENTARYWeb video

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Sometimes worlds collide and great things happen. Such is true when we had the opportunity to tell the story of our animator and unofficial IT guy, Andrew Czudak, and his venture Enabled Gaming in an episode of our show FTW Philly.

In this segment, directed by Jo Shen, we dive into Andrew’s love for gaming and how it inspired him to create an opportunity to connect and bond with his grandfather who had been suffering from dementia. He used driving games as a way to let his grandfather reclaim the sense of driving, keep his motor skills sharp, as well as use it as an opportunity to spend quality time together.

Sadly, Andrew’s grandfather passed away shortly after this segment was filmed. We’re lucky to have been able to document such a poignant story and bring it to the masses through the show, which aired on NBC Sports Philadelphia on December 12, 2019.

Andrew has been a big part of the Maestro family since 2013 and it was an honor for our team to have the responsibility of telling this story. Andrew is pursuing Enabled Gaming as a business venture, with the hopes of commercializing his prototype and bringing it to nursing homes for the elderly to experience.

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Humbly Home for NRF

by COMMERCIALCorporate VideoWeb video

NRF is the largest retail trade association in the world, and we were hired by Deloitte to create a faux spot for a fictitious company in order for them to use in a Cyber Security training for the world’s largest retailers at NRF’s recent conference in NYC.

The spot was used to establish a make believe company in a session with top cyber security experts in the retail field, with additional training videos that would outline important security protocols and recommendations to keep consumer information safe and secure.

As always, thanks to our great cast & crew for the work on this spot, make believe or not!

Starring: Erin Sanderson, Giancarlo Mariutto, Rachel Yong
Director: Charles Morabito
Producer: Kris Mendoza
DP: Bill Burke
AD: Joanna Shen
2nd AD/PM: Steve Sklarow
Art director: Mike Mizrahi
Gaffer: Paul Bradburn
AC: Weston Fahey
2nd AC: Joanna Shen
Sound mixer: Rich Mach
Art PA: Kate Feher

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Clinical Pathways for CHOP

by ANIMATIONCorporate VideoWeb video

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is consistently among the best in the world and has been the birthplace for countless breakthroughs and dramatic firsts in pediatric medicine. Built on a foundation of delivering safe, high-quality, family-centered care, the Hospital has fostered medical discoveries and innovations that have improved pediatric healthcare and saved countless children’s lives.

To this end, we were honored to have the privilege of translating CHOP’s thought leadership for their Clinical Pathways into video form. This first installment of a larger campaign centers around the basics of managing a fever for both new parents and parents of young children. We are looking forward to diving into the rest of the campaign but are proud to present this first installment. Directed by Charles Morabito, Design & Animation by Andrew Czudak.

Narrative Short Films For Cyber Security

Narrative Short films for Cyber Security

by AnnouncementsCorporate VideoWeb video

The last few months, we’ve been grateful for the opportunity to combine corporate, commercial and narrative filmmaking into a few very exciting projects for one of our top clients. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter and client relationships, we’re unable to post the final videos or too many details about the project, but we essentially set out to produce some short narrative films about diabolical cyber hackers being fended off by elite government agencies in order to paint a picture of a cyber attacks, a looming and very relevant threat in today’s business and political landscape.

To rise to the task, Maestro scaled up to a full crew, with director Charles Morabito at the helm and Bill Burke as Dir. of Photography. We filmed every where from in studio, to 30th Street Station, to Center City corporate offices, to our neighbors offices at 215 Marketing, and the USS United States in South Philly which doubled as our “abandoned hacker lair.” Hoping to be able to share some version of the project in the future, but in the mean time, enjoy some behind the scenes photos below which were posted to our Instagram account.

Scouting all day at some epic locations.

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Cyber hackers in full swing. On set aboard the SS United States. #maestrofilmworks

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Behind the scenes from a recent film. SWAT team preps to storm an abandoned cruise ship. #maestrofilmworks : @ssharrington

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Nearing The Finish Line For Americano

Nearing the finish line for “Americano”

by AnnouncementsShort filmSocialSocial MediaWeb video

For those of you that have been following the production of our short political thriller we’ve produced with Consurgo Films, we’re excited to announce that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Our goal has always been to submit to the festival circuit and we’re a few steps closer to wrapping on post production and begin submitting.

Ed Cipolla, our lead editor on the film, spent countless hours in the edit suite with director Tim Viola to lock picture over the last few weeks so that Tim and producer, Kris Mendoza could head to LA to jump into finishing. Color and VFX were done over at FX Studios and are near completion.

Late night edit sesh for @americanofilm. #maestrofilmworks #consurgofilms

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Upon completion of color and VFX, the film is coming back to Philly for scoring and a final sound mix. Christian Mariano, a Bucks County native now living in Queens, NY is slated to compose original music for the film and the final audio mix will take place at Shake Audio over at Milk Boy.

It’s been exciting to see the film really begin to come alive with all of the final elements coming together. We look forward to circling back and updating our cast, crew, and Kickstarter backers on the road ahead with the festival circuit.

Late night color session on the left coast for @americanofilm.

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DNA Simple

DNA Simple: “Speeding up science with you”

by AnnouncementsCOMMERCIALCorporate VideoSocialSocial MediaWeb video

We are happy to announce our recent collaboration with a local Philly based startup in the Healthcare & Science field. DNAsimple is one of the most buzzed-about companies in the fascinating area of genetic research, and it has been fantastic for us to collaborate with such an exciting client.

DNAsimple is “the match-maker of the genetic research world”, matching-up interested users with relevant DNA research studies that are seeking donors. Their streamlined platform is free and easy to use, 100% anonymous, and automatically informs you any time you qualify for a study. For nothing more than the completion of a home saliva kit, all donors are fairly compensated any time they decide to contribute to a study.

The mission of DNAsimple is to enable donors to double the pace of genetic research, bringing cures and treatments to millions of people much earlier than they could otherwise be provided. The combination of cutting-edge scientific research with an intuitive, easy-to- use platform is what has helped DNAsimple gain such great buzz in a competitive, burgeoning field. Co-founder and CEO, Olivier Noel, was featured on the 2017 Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 list for Science, in addition to prominent write-ups the company has received in BuzzFeed, The Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Magazine, among others.

The Maestro team produced a video for DNAsimple which will be used by the startup on their website, social media, and eventually even in a broadcast spot. We couldn’t be happier with the final product, and with the fact that we helped to contribute to DNAsimple’s goal of furthering the field of genetic research, and ultimately improving the lives of millions of Americans.

DNAsimple has been featured in stories by multiple media outlets, often touted as a leader in the emerging biorights movement. Visit dnasimple.org to learn more about the cutting-edge research going on at DNAsimple, or to sign up today.

Check back at the Maestro blog soon as we’ll be highlighting some of our most exciting projects yet!

Meet Our Summer Interns

Meet our Summer Interns!

by AnnouncementsShort filmSocialSocial MediaWeb video
Maestro Interns 2017
(Photos: Anjelika Rivera, Maestro Filmworks)

Meet our Summer 2017 Interns! Or as they’ve currently named themselves “Working Title Pictures” for the summer. Eurica (Temple University), Joey (Temple University), and Morgan (Emerson College) have been coming in a few days a week to work on their summer project, which is to produce a short documentary for a non-profit we sponsor, Stay True. (You can read all about our involvement with Stay True over the last 6 years in a recent post.)

From their first day of icebreakers and activities in the office, the three have been hard at work learning as much as they can about production while PA’ing on some film sets and also assisting in the day to day of the office. In order for them to embark on capturing the footage for their summer project, they were tasked to create a short project so they could get familiar with the camera and gear package they would have access to during their time here. They were given one full day to brainstorm a concept and film a short project, and the only stipulations were 1) they had to film in our studio and 2) they had to use as much of the gear as possible. The below is what ensued. We’re proud to present, on behalf of our summer intern, a short film, entitled Void.

VOID

by Eurica Yu, Morgan Sage, and Joey Tighue

We’ll make sure to loop back here and update you with their final summer project which will be screening on August 31st at a Gallery Show for Stay True here in our studio.