DIRECTOR’S   THOUGHTS

We shot this TV spot for SwedishAmerican’s 100th anniversary. It starts with the founding of the hospital, and takes us on a 100 year journey up to the present.

The spot is a combination of actual photos from Swedish’s archives and from turn of the century Rockford, composited together with original material that we shot. I’ve seen still motion of period pictures done before, and I’ve seen footage shot and treated to look like it was 100 years old, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them used together like we did in this project.

Kudos to George Chalekian for coming up with a script that tells the 100 year story in 60 seconds, Cedric Fujita for some wonderful propping, Deb Nishimoto for great period clothing, Shawn Hiatt shooting in the style of the period, and most of all to Deb Miller for bringing the stills, to life and compositing them seamlessly with the footage. Brian Reck from Swedish and Jim Rudosky were indispensable in helping us make sense of it all in a way that is both understandable and entertaining.

SwedishAmerican is celebrating their 100th anniversary by creating a new historical museum and publishing a book by Paul Greenland about it’s history. Most of the photos we used came from Paul’s research. Congratulations to SwedishAmerican on your 100th birthday, and for 100 years of success.

— Dave