Inside the Case Method

Client: Harvard Business School

At the very heart of Harvard Business School is the teaching method it invented, refined, and has placed at the core of the learning experience. Though the case method is often imitated by other graduate programs, those in the know agree that there is no other school in the world that practices the case method at such a high level as HBS.

For the first time in its 100-year history, Harvard Business School invited a camera team inside the HBS case classroom to explore what makes the HBS Case Method so special. Calling on DigiNovations and its executive producer Michael Kolowich, Harvard commissioned “Inside the Case Method,” and is showing it to every prospective student, faculty member, and other member of the community who really wants to understand what’s so special about this remarkable method of teaching and learning.

Into the Second Century

Client: Montclair State University

As a public university in New Jersey, Montclair State University wasn’t accustomed to raising private money on a grand scale.  But when it started calling alumni and private funders to help build a new vision of its campus and programs, MSU found its giving base ready, willing, and able.  As it approaches its 100th anniversary, Montclair State’s leadership has articulated an ambitious vision for the second century, and called on DigiNovations to help articulate that vision.  The result is a modular-design campaign video that can be adapted to different audiences in different settings.

Immersion. Innovation. Integrity.

Client: Sacred Heart University

Sixty seconds seems like a long time, but when a huge audience gives you sixty seconds to tell the story of your institution, where do you start? Keating Associates engaged DigiNovations to produce a 60-second television commercial to be played at halftime of NCAA telecasts of Sacred Heart University’s Division I team. “Sacred Heart is all about energy, innovation, pioneering new learning and living opportunities,” wrote Steve Keating as he guided the DigiNovations team. “It’s a growing, vital, leading Catholic University.”

Capital Fundraising Video

Client: Portsmouth Abbey

Portsmouth Abbey School faces a dilemma in launching a capital fundraising campaign this year. While its alumni population includes many prominent and capable prospective givers, their memories are of a strict, Spartan existence at a school embedded within a Benedictine Monastery. So many things have changed at Portsmouth Abbey over the years – co-education, independence from the monastery, dramatic physical changes on campus – that the school was concerned about a disconnect between the school alumni remember and the school they’re being asked to support.

This film, intended for alumni, current and past parents, and friends of the school, connects past with present by showing that the stories of today’s students are in fact similar at their most fundamental level with the stories of alumni. It reinforces the immutable values of the school that have stood the test of time. And it demonstrates the current needs of the school, connecting them to those core values.

Five Years of Project Oxygen

Client: Massacusetts Institute of Technology

Five years ago, Project Oxygen energized hundreds of MIT faculty, students, and researchers at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory around the goal of ubiquitous, human-centered computing.  As it celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2005, the Project Oxygen leadership team asked DigiNovations to create a film documenting the achievements of the research and painting a vision of the next five years.  The film has been used to recruit students and faculty and to solicit partners for the next five years of Project Oxygen Research.

Turning 5th Graders On to Engineering

Client: National Center for Technological Literacy

A New Face for a 175-yr-old Classic

Client: Perkins School for the Blind

Authenticity and the voice of the student

Client: Portsmouth Abbey School

Telling the story of colleges and private schools to prospective students and their families is very different today than it was even ten years ago. Today’s Millennial generation resists the tight narrative and slick marketing messaging that has dominated marketing for many years.

Today, authenticity is paramount. And the key to successful school marketing is to portray the strong values and fundamentals of a school in the authentic and unvarnished voices of its students, teachers, and recent alumni.

Here, from our work in process with Portsmouth Abbey School, are two vignettes which tell a strong story about the school by telling stories about its students…in their own, most genuine words.

Exciting Students, Reassuring Parents

Client: Brimmer and May School

School admissions video design demands a delicate balance between conveying excitement to prospective students while giving parents the confidence that they're getting the best possible education. Brimmer and May School brought that challenge to DigiNovations/North Bridge Productions, and our cameras sought out the highlights of campus life, from the classroom to the stage to the athletic field.

Distinguishing an Exceptional Early Childhood Program

Client: LEAP School

You won't find the word "preschool" in any of LEAP School's marketing materials.  That's because their Language Enrichment Arts Program (LEAP) is like no other educational experience for 3- to 6-year-olds in suburban Boston.  To showcase the distinctive character of its program, the LEAP School turned to DigiNovations to make an informational film that takes prospective parents inside its learning space.  The video is a learning experience in itself.  This program won a Silver Spotlight Award from the League of American Communications Professionals and was named one of the "Top 100 Publicity Materials of 2004"

Envisioning a Nanotechnology Future

Client: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

When MIT needed a film to introduce visitors, media, recruits, and sponsors to its spectacular new Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, they turned to DigiNovations and North Bridge Productions. The challenge here was to help viewers visualize applications of new technologies 20 to 30 years hence, and to explain science conducted on scales measured in billionths of an inch. We turned to a combination of video and 3D animation to create a dramatic, compelling film, shot and edited in widescreen format.

Climb The Mountain: A Coach’s Inspiring Words

Client: The Fenn School

This 16-minute video was shot in a single day at an independent school soccer tournament in Western Massachusetts. The original, in high-definition format with a cinematic flair, is stunning in its detail and color.  The degree of access afforded to our camera in this setting was extraordinary, yet the camera was so inobtrusive that it blended into the background. The combination is an unusually intimate and touching view of a team’s pursuit of a championship.  Coach Bob Starensier’s inspirational speeches — and victory reflections — capture the essence of his school’s values more vividly than could any glossy brochure.

More than Just Pretty Pictures

Client: The Marcus Lewis Day Camp