Show-Me a Valuable Infographic

Early this year I was tasked with creating a motion infographic for the University of Missouri System that the President could use to share statistics outlining the value of UM in the state. I was frantic getting this project finished and I'm so glad that it's been released for the world to see:

(I do not own the copyright to this video. Copyright 2013 University of Missouri Board of Curators)

Motion graphics meets alcohol and substance misuse

How much do you know about alcohol and substance misuse and it's affect on society? Maybe it's one of those "out of sight, out of mind" things for you. It certainly was for me until I was given an opportunity to create a video that explains to health care professionals why they should care and what they can do about alcohol and substance misuse in their patients. Before you click away from this thinking "I'm not a health care professional, that's not for me," let me just tell you that it impacts you... even if not directly.

Someday, I'd like to see this become a PSA, but while I'm dreaming that vision away, here's the video I created that is now the first part of a training series:

ADEPT: an introduction from Academic Support Center on Vimeo.
An introduction to why health care providers should care about alcohol and substance misuse in their practice. The ADEPT training teaches health care providers what they can do about alcohol and substance misuse. MU-ADEPT (Alcohol and Drug Education for Prevention and Treatment) is funded by a grant from SAMHSA and utilizes SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment).

This is a perfect example of the kind of project I've been waiting for and why I wanted to work for an educational institution. The creators of this training series needed a way to convince their audience that this training is important. They were passionate about the information but it just wasn't coming across in their peruse-on-your-own powerpoint presentations. The hope is that this video is both educational and engaging.

For screen shots and more information about the creation of this video, visit the project on my behance portfolio.

On hold

Do you ever feel like your real life is on hold while your work life takes over? Well, that's how life has been for us lately, only with a few little trips dotting the landscape.

September and October have turned out to be very busy months at work. I had already started working on a very exciting all-graphics video for the ADEPT program at MU. Working on this introductory video which explains why healthcare providers (and really everyone) should care about alcohol and drug abuse and what can be done about it. Adept is a grant-funded project that teaches healthcare providers oh-so-important tools for addressing substance abuse in patients. I have learned so much on this project and the passion of our clients has rubbed off tremendously. I will share it when I can, as it's not fully completed yet.

September brought another interesting project to our team. The president of the university was responding to twitter questions via a video we produced. I got to work with new software to customize a virtual set for the president. I also made graphics and did the video composite for this video:



Last week we took a quick vacation to Orlando. It was my first trip to Disney World and it was a great time! Next week we're off to Washington DC again for work. Hopefully soon after I'll find the time to finish going through my pictures from this summer's Grand Canyon/Zion vacation and be able to post more of those pictures, and then I'll be sorting through Disney World and DC. Whew, when will I ever get to complete that quilt?

Work for Work

So almost three years ago now, I worked on a video for the Center for Sustainable Energy at MU. We were really pressed to get it done in time for the energy summit. I was very proud of what we accomplished, especially since we had so much other work to do that I stepped up to the plate and wrote the script, came up with a visual style for it, created all the graphics, went on some of the shoots, and edited the final project together in time to play at a kiosk. Only, they decided to show it at a breakfast instead. I finally decided to upload the video to my vimeo account. I still think it has value. Does it need some extra finesse, of course, but there just wasn't time. No, I mean literally. I was working from about 7 am to about 11 pm with a couple of 15 -30 minute food breaks, sleeping and then getting up and going back to work. Anyway, three years later, and here it is:

MU's Center for Sustainable Energy from Katrina Boles on Vimeo.