Pangeality Productions » city

Pangeality Productions Wins National NATOA Award

leonard — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:26:32 +0000

Via my work with The Seattle Channel, I’ve just learned that we won a NATOA Award, commonly referred to as the Emmys of government television. The Government Programming Awards (GPAs) are annual awards that recognize excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia and electronic programming produced by local government agencies, in this case The City of Seattle. The piece was the story about Rob Rose and his organization The Rose International Fund for Children and their work on behalf of young people with disabilities in Nepal, and the movement to battle the stigma of disability in Nepal and South Asia. We won’t know until September whether we won the category or not, but the nomination itself is an award as all nominations are given recognition for their work. There will be an awards banquet in Washington D.C. in early October. Very cool.

This is the piece

Challenging The Stigma of Disability in Nepal from Pangeality Productions on Vimeo.

Saving an Iconic Seqouia Tree in Downtown Seattle

leonard — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:03:17 +0000

I got a call late one afternoon recently from my client Cedar Grove Composting to ask me to come film some footage of a special project they were working on. Together with the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities, Cedar Grove Composting was involved in trying to save a very special tree. The giant Sequoia tree is in the heart of downtown Seattle at the corner of 4th and Stewart, that was originally planted on Aurora Avenue, but was relocated in 1972. The tree is also the official Christmas Tree downtown every year. Over the years, the tree continued to grow but recently, birds had infested it and their droppings were both damaging the soil below as well as the canopy was slowly becoming covering with their acidic poop. Not sure about how to save the tree, SDOT approached international tree specialist James Urban, author of the book Up By Roots who had been in Seattle recently and paid the tree a house call, diagnosing the problem and prescribing the solution that this group eventually implemented.

So using an air spade to blow out vertical holes and a giant sucker truck to take the dirt away, a number of 4 ft deep vertical columns were dug around the base of the tree, and filled with fresh compost donated by Cedar Grove. Better irrigation and gas flow to the roots was the goal to supplement the pruning they’d already done.

Here is the video I produced about the work.

From Aurora Ave N. to Downtown

Sequoia on Aurora before being transplanted, 1972

Placing the tree downtown at 4th and Stewart, Seattle

Talking Compost w/ Mariners Fans at Opening Day @ Safeco Field

leonard — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:50:27 +0000

Yesterday I spent the day down at Safeco Field for the Seattle Mariner’s opening day with my client Cedar Grove Composting. Cedar Grove is taking all of the thousands of pounds of food scraps left behind at the ballpark, and instead of them going to a landfill, turning them into compost that’ll then be used among other things in the planters and landscaping around the ball park. Unfortunately not on the field which would be the ultimate application but in the flowers and trees surrounding the park which is pretty great. And not only the foodscraps and green waste, but Cedar Grove provides many of the food trays and napkins, and even corn based plastic cups and utensils at the snack bars throughout the park. And in addition to Safeco Field, Cedar Grove has similar partnerships with The Seattle Seahawks at Qwest Field, The Washington Convention Center, The University of Washington and over 2,000+ other businesses and event facilities around Puget Sound. Very impressive, a great client who I’m excited about continuing to work with and share with Seattle this leadership in large scale urban sustainability practices. At Safeco, I was actually following around 2 guys in meat and banana costumes asking Mariners fans about their own understanding of compost and how they felt about knowing the Mariners were leaders in Major League Baseball environmental practices. When you consider how many millions of people go to baseball games across America every year and the impact it could have if similar practices were implememnted at other ball parks. That would be hundreds of millions of tons of material diverted from landfills and turned into a healthy byproduct that would otherwise have been waste.

New Youth & Families Initiative video linked to on NYT

leonard — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:47:28 +0000

On Friday, the New York Times ran this article about the city of Seattle and what kind of place it is for raising children. In the article was a link to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s new Youth & Families Initiative, which I just happened to have finished the video for earlier in the week. Our initial plan was to wait til next week to roll it out, but with the link and increased attention to the initiative, they decided to make the video live that day. It was an exciting synchronicity for me. I was pleased with the way the piece turned out and felt like it really captured the energy in the room, and the broad spectrum of Seattleites who were participating in the conversation. I felt like NYT readers or visitors to the Youth and Families website could get a real sense of what the actually took place at initiative events , and that ideally they’d be moved to get involved in helping to make Seattle a healthier, more equitable community.

Pangeality Productions » city

Pangeality Productions Wins National NATOA Award

Saving an Iconic Seqouia Tree in Downtown Seattle

Talking Compost w/ Mariners Fans at Opening Day @ Safeco Field

New Youth & Families Initiative video linked to on NYT

Top 10 Capitol Hill Seattle Videos of 2009