Backflip Films

Backflip Logos 2007 – 2012

john — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:36:40 +0000

The New Year and the new developments on the horizon for Backflip Films inspired me to dig through some of our old logo designs this afternoon. I suppose the nostalgia that I feel won’t be shared by those of you that haven’t known our company as long, but I hope you enjoy this glimpse back into our past. The designs show an interesting shift in trends as well as a development in our style through the years.

Sometime in the spring of 2007, a good friend named Heather (now married to one of Backflip’s Founders, Aaron Wimmer) took a crack at Backflip Film’s first logo. This logo was never used officially and was retired before the company formally incorporated late that year, but it got the creative wheels spinning and got us excited enough to engrave this logo on a piece of plastic.

*Fun Fact: John and Aaron used to work at the campus engraving shop.

In late 2007, about the time that Backflip incorporated, Phil Hetue created our first official logo. He drew his inspiration from some of our earlier branding ideas. We envisioned an animated character that would backflip into the logo. This design served us well but also caused some confusion and led to questions about the St. Louis Arch.

Summer of 2008, we began work on a new logo design, again with Phil’s help. This new design would be modern and ideally, timeless. The first rendition had a lot of character and style.

After a lot of discussion and some preliminary testing (emails to family members), we settled on our current logo in 2009. The logo is clean, modern, and certainly has staying power but it is not so plain as to sacrifice all personality. We feel that it has just the right mix of business and fun – like the mullet.

It is always a tricky decision: When should you redesign your company logo?
Brand recognition can be an important marketing tool and once a company is established, one must carefully consider any drastic changes to the logo and other elements that give the company it’s look and feel. I imagine, one day, we will design a new logo and perhaps tweak our brand as a whole. The question is “When?”

An unreleased logo idea proposed by Phil in fall of 2008.

Backflip’s Black Friday Sale

john — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:07:15 +0000

Now that you’re back home from the stores tending to your wounds, here is our own spin on the Black Friday sale!

Usually we don’t get into the whole “Black Friday” thing. I’m just not real keen on curling up in a sleeping bag in a parking lot so that I can bull rush an iPhone display rack at 12am in the hopes that I might be able to save a few bucks while subjecting myself to the risk of getting shot or trampled in the mobile section at Best Buy.

But if you’re like me, you may choose to participate in the annual sale from the safety of your home computer by grabbing a bargain online while sipping a hot chocolate.

Hot Chocolate = Good

Shot and Trampled = Bad

This year you can do more than you family Christmas shopping on Black Friday. You can book the next video production for your business or organization and receive a 25% discount. Just contact Ryan or John and mention this ad to get your project underway.

Stay safe and have a great holiday weekend!

Storyboarding tips

ryan — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:27:02 +0000

We purchased a Wacom tablet this afternoon to streamline our storyboarding process a bit more. I was really excited to test it out but ended up having to scrap a half hour of work because I made a few mistakes. Here they are, learn from them:

read the script – i thought i had the right idea/text in my head, it turns out that I didn’t. The script was a little different than what I used and I ended up going in the wrong direction with the storyboard
label correctly – i labeled the job the wrong, too excited to be bothered with correct title
read your notes – again, i went in the wrong direction because i didn’t look at our original sketches
read the script – yeah, i feel dumb for missing this

We bought the ‘Bamboo Capture Pen & Touch’ model and so far love it. Once I setup the software and preferences it really helped streamline our process. Anyone else have examples of storyboarding that caused a palm-to-forehead experience? Share it in the comments.

We are parents with kids who like cupcakes

ryan — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:57:23 +0000

Backflip Films’ second generation (Ryan’s daughters and John’s son) were in a photoshoot for Three Cheers Creative. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity so we brought our camera along and filmed it. We ended up with just enough footage to fit into a short video.

You can also read more details over at Ryan’s website.

A Day in the Life at Assumption High School

john — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:52:25 +0000

Students, staff, and parents share the aspects of Assumption High School that make it “the place to be!”

Footage and interviews were filmed in several trips over the spring and fall in order to capture the varying seasons and activities that take place during the school year.

Wisconsin Farmers Union – Renewable Energy Tour

john — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:36:24 +0000

We had the pleasure of accompanying the Wisconsin Farmer’s Union on the 2011 Renewable Energy tour earlier this summer. This video was produced to summarize the trip around southwestern Wisconsin and to inspire farmers and policy makers all across the state to take another look at renewable energy.

Riding around southwestern Wisconsin on a bio-diesel school bus with no air-conditioning in 100 degree weather proved to be quite the test for our camera. The Canon 5D mark ii passed the test with flying colors!

Thanks to a visionary: Steve Jobs

ryan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:55:27 +0000

I was notified by Twitter just before 7:00pm that Steve Jobs had passed away. Whether Apple Fanboy, or Google Gearhead, Steve Jobs has touched each and every one of our lives. He brought computing into the home and made it fashionable. Computers and mobile devices, whether they’re from Microsoft, Google, Apple, or elsewhere are what they are today because of this visionary man.

Here’s to the amazing life of Steve Jobs.

A Video is worth 5 million 760 thousand words

john — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:02:12 +0000

You’ve heard it said that “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well at 24 frames per second, a 4 minute video contains 5760 pictures. Multiply THAT by one thousand!

Really, what I mean to say is this: All of that beauty, emotion, and extra meaning that can be captured in a picture can also be captured in video. In fact, many times video invokes a deeper emotion or feeling of connection to the subject. The tools that an editor uses – music, color, pacing, transitions, order – add to the meaning of the piece. I love great photography, but there is a reason that people create photo slideshows for their wedding receptions and anniversary parties. The individual frames displayed next to each other as a collection of events, places, and people tell a story that viewers can connect to. Now I won’t deny that a single image contains meaning, but when two images are placed next to each other in sequence an interesting thing happens. A third meaning is interpreted by the audience. This third meaning is the idea that develops when viewing the two images together, either at once or in sequence. In film school we called this the “Kuleshov Effect“. In client meetings, I just explain that it’s the mark of a great video. Add some animation and a music track to the edited shots and your message becomes even deeper and more thought provoking.

So you can advertise with a single image if you like. After all, they say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” (I’m not exactly sure which thousand.) Or you can use video to communicate so much more. See what I mean?

Promo video for St. Paul’s Catholic Center

ryan — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:28:02 +0000

This video was produced for St. Paul’s University Catholic Center on the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus. It shares the personal stories of students past and present in order to tell an emotional story. This was shot entirely in downtown Madison, at St. Paul’s and around the campus.

We’re in the badger guide, at the top

ryan — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:53:06 +0000

We’re getting around to renewing old accounts and signing up for new things. One of these new things we signed up for was The Wisconsin Production Guide aka badgerguide. It’s a great centralized location to find freelancers and production companies for whatever your working on.

The best part is (because we had the foresight to name our company with one of the first letters in the alphabet), we’re at the top. There are no companies that start with A’s or B’s so look for us at the top of ‘Commercial Production Companies’ and ‘Corporate & Video Production Companies.’