Nielsen is widely known for its TV ratings. But it does so much more than measure what people watch. It also tracks what people buy through a variety of new technologies.

Nielsen’s innovative spirit was what the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Mitchell Habib, wanted to capture in a high-energy video for an audience of corporate executives in India.

In collaboration with Harrington Design Company, I filmed interviews with some of Nielsen’s lead inventors and produced four 90-second videos, each highlighting a different innovation.

It was some of the best work we had done for Nielsen and we were excited to show Mitchell the culmination of three weeks of work. So we flew to New York to make the big presentation to Mitchell at Nielsen’s headquarters.

Ten minutes into the meeting, all four videos were killed.

We had 72 hours before he boarded a plane to India to come up with a totally new concept and put it together. After several deep breaths and some reassuring self-talk, we began working on a completely new piece, which weaved together short clips of Nielsen’s innovation stories with a funky beat and animations to match.

Here’s what adrenalin helped create, in addition to a very happy client.

One of the movie industry’s biggest surprises of 2011 is the silent film, “The Artist,” winner of a Golden Globe for Best Picture, Comedy, a Best Actor award at Cannes and a likely contender for this year’s Oscars.

In the film, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, silent movie idol George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) mourns the arrival of talkies. Refusing to adapt to the new genre, Valentin’s career falls apart.

Like Valentin’s career, Jacksonville took off during the heyday of silent films. The site of the country’s first full-length feature film in Technicolor, “The Gulf Between,” Jacksonville almost became Hollywood with more than 30 movie studios operating in the city by 1916, including Metro Pictures which later became known as MGM.

Unfortunately, residents disliked the vulgarity of the films, and local government support for the film industry waned. That in addition to advances in technology, which made indoor filming and studios less dependent on the Florida sunshine prompted the film industry to move to Hollywood.

With its strong connection to our city’s filmic roots, “The Artist” brings back the nostalgia of an era where stars were born on the silver screen and the magic of movies helped people escape their everyday lives.

York Painter Nathalie Engdahl from Natalie Halpern on Vimeo.

When Jacksonville sculptor David Engdahl commissioned a film about his 96-year-old mother who’s been painting for more than 40 years, I jumped at the chance to explore where David and his sister, watercolor artist Ellen’s artistic talents come from.

Nathalie uses a palette knife to give people a glimpse of nature raw and untouched. She paints images of places where the family lived or spent vacations, sometimes combining several into one painting.

During filming one of the main challenges we faced was bringing the paintings to life.  Cinematographer Gareth Paul Cox used a Cineslider, a small dolly that attaches to a special tripod head, to add some movement and guide the viewer through a scene in the woods or a patch of colorful flowers.

Being able to capture Nathalie’s creative spirit, energy and zest for life was incredibly meaningful for me. But even more fulfilling was the opportunity to create a legacy piece that tells the story of the Engdahl’s artistic roots that the family will enjoy for many generations to come.

A big thank you to David and Nathalie Engdahl for giving me this opportunity and allowing me into their lives.

Stop at Nothing, headquartered in Jacksonville Beach, works with companies around the world to increase leadership effectiveness and transform corporate culture. They needed a powerful way to capture their consultants’ passion for unlocking the potential of leaders and teams to collaborate more and innovate.

Its founders decided that would be best accomplished through visual storytelling and ask me to produce three short Web films to tell the “Stop at Nothing” story and highlight the motivation behind the transformative work the company does.

Here’s one the videos I produced.

We learn about ourselves, our families and our history through stories.

Stories are how we are remembered, a record that we were here and made an impact on the world.

My most recent project, a film about 96-year-old painter Nathalie Engdahl, is a tribute to this mother of four children, two of them artists—sculptor David Engdahl and painter Ellen Ehlenbeck.

Nathalie’s passion is painting nature raw and untouched to get people in today’s fast-paced society to appreciate the stillness and beauty that surrounds them.

The film is a celebration of her career as an artist, her creative inspiration and the legacy she is leaving her family and the arts community in her native York, Pennsylvania.

The film is due out later this summer.

I presented at a July 12 half-day program,“The Power of Story,” which I organized for the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Marketing Association. In addition to sharing with marketing professionals why story matters, my talk focused on how more and more companies are using film to communicate with consumers in a deeper, more meaningful way.

One of the main themes was that films engage, inspire and compel us to action. That’s because they affect us emotionally as we identify with characters whose dreams, challenges, and journeys toward goals are very much like our own.

Their story is our story.

Barbara Ponce, Manager of Corporate and Diversity Advertising at Honda shared her experience in conceiving and pitching the “Dream the Impossible” documentary film series to reach audiences in a way that no 30-second spot could.

The eight films which she spearheaded using renowned and Oscar-nominated directors have resulted in a 1000-fold increase in Honda web traffic, generated thousands of comments and taken consumer engagement to a whole new level.

Like Honda many brands and organizations are switching their approach from interruptive marketing—interrupting consumers with advertising messaging—to engagement marketing—offering engaging and relevant content.

Film is the new text. It allow brands to bring to life their core sensibilities.

I’ll be speaking about the Power of Story next at Pecha Kucha on September 21 at 7 p.m. at the Five Points Theatre.

Stories are central to the human experience. Delivering information with emotional impact, they engage and entertain us.

People want to learn, seek inspiration and connect with others through stories.

Companies and brands that connect with audiences by telling compelling stories that matter to them instead of directly promoting their products, are remembered most.

Because video is a very powerful way to tell a story, more and more companies are embracing video storytelling to more deeply engage with consumers and develop stronger relationships with them.

Honda is one such company. Through its “Dream the Impossible” series of documentary films, the company connects viewers with the idea that nothing is impossible if you follow your dreams.

Directed by Oscar-nominated and other prominent filmmakers, the films feature people like professional surfer Laird Hamilton, artist Clive Barker, and Deepak Chopra, as well as with Honda engineers, sharing stories of success, perseverance and failure.

Started in 2009, the campaign has resulted in a tenfold increase in web traffic and significantly improved brand image and recognition.

Honda’s “Dream the Impossible” films, “The Undying Dream” being the most recent, are among many examples of powerful video storytelling which serves as a kind of emotional glue that connects us to each other.

What examples have you come across? Are there any films, videos or anecdotes on the power of story that you’d like to share? Please post them in the comments below and let’s keep this conversation going.

Bike MS: Accept the Challenge from Natalie Halpern on Vimeo.

Each year thousands of cyclists and their corporate sponsors accept the Bike MS challenge – riding 150 miles from St. Augustine to Daytona Beach and back to raise money for multiple sclerosis.

I don’t actually know how to ride a bike (it’s true…) but instead was given the opportunity to capture the energy and excitement of the event in a video the MS Society of Northeast Florida will use to engage other corporate sponsors.

Documenting the commitment of these riders to create a world free of MS by raising more than $1 million was an amazing experience. I’m honored to use the power of video storytelling to help an organization that impacts the lives of so many people in our community.

Documentaries about people overcoming great obstacles to achieve their goals are inspiring. They provide a sense of hope that, like the film’s characters, we too can make our biggest dreams come true.

The two young women featured in my documentary “Africa’s Daughters” continue to inspire me. Now 20, they’re both in college in Uganda—Ruth at Makerere University in Kampala studying Food, Science and Agriculture and Hoctavia at Uganda Christian University in Mukono studying Law.

Sometimes documentaries tell stories that do more than inspire, they bring about real change. Stanley Nelson’s film “The Murder of Emmett Till” led the court system to reopen the case after several decades and finally put the perpetrators of this horrible crime in jail. Other documentaries raise awareness about an issue and get people to take action to resolve it.

With “Africa’s Daughters” I was able to document the gap in girls’ secondary education in Africa and how it limits the progress of many societies in that continent. But even more rewarding is that through screenings in Jacksonville I have been able to raise enough money to cover Hoctavia’s college tuition for two of her three years. I’m still working on the third.

Here is an excerpt of an email I received from Hoctavia at the start of the year. It reminds me every day that story matters.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you in your generosity in financing my education. I don’t believe that I would adequately be able to put into words how much receiving this support means to me.

Because of your support my financial needs have been lessened. Now I am in a position to focus entirely on school. I am sincerely appreciative and I hope that you know I will continue to towards earning good grades and future honors. I will work very hard to make you proud that you awarded this honors to me.

As a law student I was very nervous and exited to start UCU and after my fist year I have found that I am very comfortable to stay in UCU.

God bless you, and have a happy and healthy new year.”

Sincerely,
HOCTAVIA NOELINE SABITI

David Engdahl Sculpture from Natalie Halpern on Vimeo.

Watch and learn about what inspires sculptor David Engdahl and how he transforms plywood into curved, multi-toned laminated wood sculptures.