Our company Dare Dreamer Media has evolved quite a bit over the nearly 8 years we’ve been in business. Our specialty is combining video with social media to help our clients achieve objective results. But lately I’ve been moved to specialize in providing services to organizations that represent worthy causes. Non-profits, schools, community organizations, and charity events are just a few of the types of clients we’re looking to serve. We want to create films that bring hope and enlightenment. To that extent, we wanted to help identify the type of organizations and jobs we’re perfect for:

• An organization that has a message to communicate in a powerfully emotional way. A message that needs to be heard because of the positive changes it will make in the community. A message that will inspire your audience. A message of hope.
• A Fortune 1000 company looking to motivate your personnel to aspire to higher goals than ever before reached. To encourage them in times when the horizon may seem bleak. To remind them of the important mission set out before them.
• An individual passionate about helping other people improve their lives and move forward. You’re a speaker, coach, teacher, or author whose work has already had a powerful impact on others. Now you want to reach a wider audience using the power of video and social media to communicate your message.
• A small business with a product or service that is unique and compelling. One that is best communicated via a film that will emotionally connect with your desired customers or clients.

Our New Mission Statement

Dare Dreamer Media is a social media and video production agency that specializes in partnering with worthy causes. We use our God-given gifts as storytellers to inspire, encourage, and move our clients’ audiences to improve their lives and better the community. We do that by providing superior customer service and a premium product marked by stunning creativity. We want nothing less than to change the world.

Our Latest Production

Below is our latest production for long-time client Pictage. It’s an inspirational recap from their yearly conference PartnerCon.

Some of you may be wondering what happened to all the information about Blade Ronner’s Inspirational Movie Marathon. Well, life happened. Unfortunately, I had to cancel it. But I didn’t just want it to disappear with no explanation. There are two main reasons I pulled the plug.

1. Work: we recently got confirmation on a new film series we’re going to produce for a new client; a project that will take a great deal of time to prep and shoot. Given the magnitude, it just doesn’t make sense to add the obligation of a daily movie review and blog post.
2. The Joy Was Robbed: the original objective of this project was to inspire my work and imagination as a filmmaker and bring joy to my life. I complicated it by adding the social media contest and daily required movie review. What was initially supposed to be a fun thing for me to do has become just more work. That’s the last thing I need right now.

For those of you who were looking forward to participating, I am sorry. But, I could feel the stress of this thing building, and with the aforementioned project, the holidays, and the fact that it was no longer fun watching the movies, I decided to nip it in the bud.

I will still have a $25 gift certificate to OpenSky for anyone who re-tweeted the original three posts so far, or for anyone who commented on any of those posts. The drawing will take place next tomorrow, December 4. So, you have until 12 noon EST to comment or retweet.

Thanks for understanding.

I have great news! My friends over at Triple Scoop Music (with a library of over 5,000 songs from award-winning artists) have agreed to give some lucky winner my entire “True Romance” TSM collection. These are a collection of songs personally picked by yours truly to be excellent choices for love story related videos. Here’s how you enter the contest:

1. Follow both @triplscoopmusic (yes, there is no “e” after the “l”) and @rondawson on Twitter. (If you’re already following us on Twitter, you’re good to go).
2. Copy and paste the following tweet then tweet it on your Twitter account: Enter a chance to win a TRUE ROMANCE music collection ($300 value) from @triplscoopmusic & @rondawson. http://bit.ly/2Q5B7a
3. Tweet it as many times as you like (but don’t go crazy.)

That’s it. You have until Tuesday, December 1, 11:59 pm EST. A winner will be picked at random from qualifying entries. Good luck, and happy tweeting.

I think it’s great when capitalistic commerce combines with compassion and caring to create great collaborations. Blurb—the creative publishing platform that allows anyone to design, publish, share, and sell your own professional-quality books—is helping out Bridges to Understanding, a non-profit which uses digital technology and the art of storytelling to empower and unite youth worldwide, enhance cross-cultural understanding and build global citizenship. Blurb is offering two promotions to help Bridges to Understanding.

First, use the coupon code bridges-H9FQ and get $31.95 off your own self-designed Blurb book. This offer is good until Monday, August 31.

Second, use the coupon code “bridges-donate” and get $10 off your next Blurb book. For every one of these purchases, Blurb will donate $2 to Bridges to Understanding. Donations will continue until September 21, 2009.

I strongly believe that we can greatly improve our future if we instill within our children values that lead to compassion and understanding for others. What a great way to do that by empowering them to use their own creativity in digital storytelling. I encourage all of my visual arts blog readers to learn more about this fantastic organization. It’s so cool to see all the photo slideshow documentaries created by kids all over the world. A couple of days ago I encouraged you to get inspiration from the eyes of a child. I see no better way to do that than to watch these engaging videos.

Students at the Tibetan Children's Village work on their digital story "Compassion in Action."

Aki Kurose Middle School students in Seattle view the digital story "Compassion in Action" made by students at the Tibetan Children's Village.

A couple of months ago I was surprised to get an email from friend and mentor Skip Cohen, then president and CEO of RangeFinder Publishing/WPPI. He was leaving. What! After one of the most successful WPPI’s ever. Wow! Well, once the news broke publicly, he was flooded with people from all over the industry willing and able to be a part of whatever he did next. And why not? He’s “the man”. After twelve years as CEO of Hassleblad USA, and then seven years running WPPI and RangeFinder, Skip knows every major player in the biz (from photographers to manufacturers to service providers).

Skip is now doing what so many of you reading this blog have done: started his own thing. (He says he’s lived vicariously through so many of you, now is the time). Marketing Essentials International will be his new flagship company, and you can expect some amazing educational material to come out of it. The first of many, Skip’s Summer School.

BACK TO SCHOOL

This August 16-19, Las Vegas is about to get a lot HOTTER! Skip has put together a top notch line up of some the biggest names in the industry to be a part of a 2-1/2 day seminar/workshop. The speakers include peeps from the old school to the new school, speaking on everything aspect of the business:

• Bambi Cantrell
• Skip Cohen
• Tony Corbell
• Some black dude
• Robert Evans
• Jim Garner
• Matt Hill
• Jerry Ghionis
• Mitche Graf
• Kevin Kubota
• Jennifer and Charles Maring
• Dane Sanders
• Ken Sklute

Plus, a keynote opener by Kostas Mallios, a pro photog and futurist from Microsoft. But, it gets even better…

TWO CONVENTIONS FOR THE (LOW) PRICE OF ONE

You probably can’t quantify the value of the education this line up will bring. So, don’t try. Just know this. You get it all for ONLY $279. That’s highway robbery if you ask me. Just one session with one of these guys is probably worth that (someone needs to teach Skip about pricing or something!   But, each paid admission includes one admission to WPPI 2010. So, for $279 you get a sort of mini-WPPI this August, plus admission to the full-blown one next March.

But wait, there’s more…

MGM GRAND SPECIAL RATE OF JUST $69/NIGHT

That’s right. You get to stay at the luxurious MGM grand for less than a Motel 6.

Registration is supposed to go live June 1 at MEI500.com. Mark your calendars now! More information is to follow, including a video produced by the aforementioned black dude.

Thanks for all the congrats and well-wishings. I am truly humbled.

As most of you may know, we recently changed the name of our company from Cinematic Studios to Dare Dreamer Media. Our focus as a company will be more towards new media marketing in conjunction with video production, as well as original program development. They are lofty goals indeed, but life’s not worth living unless you go for the gusto.

So, since Cinematic Studios is going bye-bye…hasta la vista…sayonara,  so soon will the website. Which means I needed a new blog.  I considered creating DareDremaerMedia.com/blog, but I don’t want to go in that direction. At least not now. I really want a blog that can be more about me. Gosh, that sounds terribly self-serving. Let me re-state that. I want a blog that’s not just “all business,” but would also be a place where I can post more personal and self-reflective articles. It will still be written with a goal to help inspire and educate, but I may get more philosophical here and there. And, every once in a while, I may throw in movie or television review.

I’ve imported all the old articles from the Cinematic Studio blog, so if there’s anything I’ve written in the past you need access to, it’ll be here.

I hope you continue to stop by for a weekly serving of inspiration, education, or entertainment. And be sure to follow along on Twitter or Facebook.

Mark your calendar folks for a major event in the world of wedding and portrait photography. Celebrity wedding and lifestyle photographer Mike Colón will be the next featured guest on “F-Stop Beyond: In Living Color”. We are partnering with PhotographyMentor.com to produce this episode, in association with Brooks Institute. I’m very excited about this event. It will be a sort of Inside the Actors’ Studio, but for photography. In true FSB style, I’ll be sure to ask Mike deep and personal questions to learn more about the man behind the lens. But, we’re also going to discuss some of his best photos and take questions from the audience.

What’s even more thrilling about this episode is that PhotographyMentor.com is going to stream it live to their chat room. So, if you can’t make it to the event in person, check it out live. You won’t want to miss this one!

The episode will air online as usual later this year.

DETAILS

The event is FREE. That’s right. Zero dollars. Zilch. Nada. Just bring a warm body and a good question. First come first serve.

Date: Next Monday, October 6, 7:30 pm PST
Location: Victoria Hall, 33 West Victoria St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Stay tuned to this blog, F-Stop Beyond, the F-Stop Beyond:In Living Color, or Ron’s Twitter for further details.

MORE BIG NAMES ON F-STOP BEYOND: IN LIVING COLOR

Also in the can and soon to be on the show is our interview with Kevin Kubota. Find out what it was like for little Kevvy-Kev growing up on the isle of Hawaii (FYI: I just made up the nickname. As far as I know, he was never called “little Kevvy-Kev.”) And, the original bad boy of wedding photography himself, the [b]-man will be on after that. We got chock full of exciting projects in the works. Tune in.

This month you get a double whammy of Cinematic Studios in the press. First it was EventDV Magazine, and now North Bay Biz. This is a regional magazine that covers business news in the Marin, Sonoma, and Napa county areas of Northern California. In this month’s issue, there’s a terrific write up on little ol’ me. If you’re in the SF Bay area, see if you can pick up a copy. If not, you can read the article by clicking here.

In the article I wax philosophic about the importance of wedding video, how I got into the business, and my hopes for the future. The author did a great job at relaying exactly everything I said. Usually in pieces like this they always get something wrong. My hats off to Stephanie Derammelaere for getting it right. And what’s really cool about it is that it’s nice and long, but exciting all the way through.

Let us know what you think about the article.

technorati tags: North_Bay_Biz, Cinematic_Studios, Wedding_Video, Main_At_and_Garden_Center

The Easter season is one that brings to mind visions of death, and new life. It is only fitting then that this Easter we put to rest the “old” Cinematic Studios, and bring to life, a new creation. As we continue to evolve and take on larger corporate clients, we are switching our wedding and event business to a “by referral only” basis. This will allow me to focus our marketing and development efforts on clients like you: dynamic and exciting companies and artists looking to expand their brand and businesses with cutting-edge, contemporary film and video production. We hope you’ll continue to stay with us for the ride. (article continued below image).

For those of you in the wedding and event business who have worked with us (or want to work with us), we encourage you to still refer clients our way. All we ask is that you make sure they’re a good fit for what we offer. That means that 1) they like our unique style, and 2) are willing to invest our minimum rate ($5,000 as of this blog post). When you get a moment, visit our new website and tell us what you think.

Here’s to a new beginning.