Friday, May 16, 2014

Market Day Series

Since its inception, I've felt pretty strongly in favor of Des Moines' own Market Day event. The "pop-up indie craft, vintage and thrift market" provides shoppers with access to some of Iowa's best handcrafted goods and, whether you've got money to buy art or not, it's always a good time. 

That's why, when I needed a creative project to do, I offered my video-making services to the proprietors of Market Day. They indulged my need to do my own making and we created a series of web videos designed to bring in new shoppers and give the uninitiated a better idea of just what exactly Market Day is.

This was another one-man-band project for me, meaning concept, writing, prep, shooting, editing and additional what-not were all hats I wore on this. The only hat I passed off was the composer hat. Tony Bohnenkamp at The Sonic Factory created the catchy tune for the first video in the series. The other two are scored with songs by Poison Control Center, also supporters of Market Day and generous song use permission givers. 

Make. Market. Love. (or Get Ready for Market Day) - Video 1




This Is Market Day - Video 2






Market Day on Vine - Video 3
A composition of Vine videos posted by Market Day attendees.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

ReThink, Think RE/MAX Real Estate Concepts Recruiting Videos

In the Summer of 2011, Robb Spearman of RE/MAX Real Estate Concepts approached me because he wanted to create some short, targeted recruiting videos for use on the web. He had seen other web videos I had created and wanted to put my style, energy and voice to work for him.

With Robb's input, I concepted a series of five, 2-3 minute videos, each with a single message highlighting something great about being an agent with RE/MAX Real Estate Concepts.

The project is ongoing to keep the material fresh and the clicks coming. At this time, four of the videos in the series have been produced.

Here are the first four pieces of the ReThink, Think RE/MAX recruiting series. Written, directed, produced and edited by (and starring) Kathy Landin.

ReThink, Think RE/MAX - The Brand


ReThink, Think RE/MAX - More Training


ReThink, Think RE/MAX - Pay Your Fair Share


ReThink, Think RE/MAX - More Leads

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

HCA Code of Conduct Refresher, August 2011

In August of 2011, I worked with Jeff and Alice Cue of Cue2Media to produce video vignettes that would eventually be embedded in a computer-based training program on HCA's company-wide LMS. I have a long history working with the Cues and it was great to be producing for them again.

While Cue2Media coordinated the project as a whole, I was responsible for coordinating all aspects of production of the video vignettes. The shoot took place on location at HCA headquarters in Nashville, TN.


Below are a few selected vignettes, shared with the permission of Cue2Media.


Jeff & Alice Cue - Hospital Politics in the Workplace from Cue²Media, LLC on Vimeo.


Jeff & Alice Cue - Hospital Substance Abuse Recognition from Cue²Media, LLC on Vimeo.


Jeff & Alice Cue - Hospital HIPAA Compliance from Cue²Media, LLC on Vimeo.


Jeff & Alice Cue - Hospital ADA Compliance from Cue²Media, LLC on Vimeo.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Von Maur Recruiting Video, May 2011

In May of 2011, I teamed up with Cue2Media to create a multi-purpose corporate communication piece for Von Maur, a high end retailer based in Iowa. I was contracted to produce the video they would use for recruiting and orientation. Cue2Media coordinated the project and did the scripting and editing. My role was to coordinate the details of the video production. I have been teaming with Jeff and Alice Cue at Cue2Media since 2004.


You can see a sample of the final Von Maur product in Cue2Media's video collection.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Charlie Sheen's Social Media Intern (Almost)

In the spring of 2011, I was one of 50 finalists (chosen from more than 74,000 applicants worldwide) to be Charlie Sheen's social media intern for the summer. 

The process involved several eliminations to whittle down applicants, and I managed to hold on to the bitter end by keeping the attention of the people at Internships.com, who were overseeing the competition.

The first step in the process was simply to enter my email address and a statement of 75 characters or fewer explaining why I should be chosen for the job. Just to see what would happen (and because few things in life are easier than these two steps) I filled in the blanks and hit the submit button. 

And I made it to the next round. I expected more, but the second round only consisted of entering some basic resume information. I had a resume, so the cutting and pasting was easy. I did have quite a bit of experience that wouldn't fit, but I chose my resume inclusions and my Round 2 submission was complete.

At this point, I was sure I had just completed a file for Internships.com to be able to spam me with some very targeted emails. I also found out that internet friends (and people much more popular than I on social media) had also been going through the process. Like me, they were curious.

But, unlike me, they did not get through to the next round. When I received an email telling me I had made it to Round 3, I jokingly mentioned to my friends that we should do our Round 3 submission together as a fun bit of mockery for the process. That's when my very-successful-at-social-media friends told me that they had not made it through to this round. I was now their only hope for getting on the inside.

My Round 3 submission was to be a two-minute video answer to one of three interview questions. Because I'm a video producer and I wanted to make a good impression for the sake of proving I was a worthy choice (and that excellent productions can come from Iowa), I decided to make a video they couldn't refuse for the next step in the process.


It worked. After a long delay, I received an email congratulating me for becoming a finalist. They had narrowed the pool to just 50 applicants. That's when the fun started. I ended up getting some local media coverage, which was picked up nationally and turned into a week of radio and blogger interviews. 

There was yet another long delay before an intern was finally chosen (reportedly by Sheen himself after viewing the 50 videos) at the beginning of July. By then, I had gotten enough notoriety that it was better that I wasn't picked. I had plenty of paying work to keep me busy. I also had a little more fun with the whole experience and enlisted some help to make this video while I knew people were still watching me on the internet.


You can read about the entire experience on my blog, as well as listen to the radio interviews for which I received recorded copies.

The moral of this story is that it doesn't take Hollywood to make a web video people will watch and share. It just takes me and a little bit of tiger (house cat) blood.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Web SEO Project - Oct. 2010

These videos were created as part of a web SEO project for Fair Courts For US (based in Iowa) as a last minute push to get their election message out. They were used in conjunction with a strategic, pay-per-click campaign implemented a week before election day.

Because of this SEO campaign, the organization's Facebook "Likes" increased by 700% in a week, their site traffic increased by 400% and the videos amassed nearly 1000 views in just a few days.

Kathy acted as project coordinator as well as video producer on this project.

Written, shot, edited by Kathy:


Written and edited by Kathy:



Graphics created and edited by Kathy: