Eric Arvizu

Ten Grads in Ten Days

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:05:19 +0000

This project was one of the first video projects I did for UC Santa Cruz and it consisted of interviewing ten graduating seniors. Getting to know your subjects has always been one of my favorite parts of the process, and all of these people had a fascinating story. Helping subjects feel at ease and comfortable talking into a big, fat camera can sometimes be a challenge. In this case, it wasn’t usually long before we were laughing and rolling right along. I find that UCSC students seem really good at this, and this group in particular made my job just a little bit easier. The above reel is an overview of the whole group, to see the individual student profiles, check out the 10×10 page at UCSC’s website.

Looking Up

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:41:59 +0000

When I made this video honoring the UC Santa Cruz professor, Steve Vogt, it was me who felt honored. Vogt is best known for discovering planets that might be able to support life. It was a pleasure getting to talk to Vogt and his colleagues about their work, background and what they see on the horizon. While I didn’t create the intro slides, I did get my hands dirty on some motion work using the still photography within.

Below is another video I made for this special Founder’s Day event featuring UCSC alumni, Julia Sweig. Sweig also happened to be a great pleasure getting to work with in D.C.

How To Spot an Office-Place Deadhead

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:18:29 +0000

We Are Everywhere. When the Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz wanted to draw a crowd for preview exhibit, I was stoked to get involved. We determined that an online video would accompany the electronic save-the-date and would need to be interesting enough to compel the user to pass on the information. I came up with a 1950′s-style public service announcement alerting people that there may indeed, be Deadheads among them. After crafting a script and a story board, I shot the video with a Canon 7D and shoestring budget. It was a fun experience and definitely something I learned from as well. Within three days of being sent out, we had over 5,000 hits, nothing like a few deadheads to spread the message…

Hands-On Learning

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:37:29 +0000

This project was one for the Annual Report made for UC Santa Cruz. The story focuses on the importance of experiential learning and gets the perspective of current students, alumni, faculty and a donor. I had a great time with this one as it allowed me to meet a lot of great people, and see some really cool students working in some really cool places. One of the things I like most about this kind of project is the challenge of sorting through a lot of great footage, and trying to put it together in a way that tells a compelling story. This one seemed to naturally do that, and I was really pleased with the final product. I also had some fun using Apple Motion for the intro graphics, always a treat playing with type in motion…

The Importance of Endowments

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:14:36 +0000

This video was created as part of the Annual Report for UC Santa Cruz. It highlights the endowment from Deborah Seymour that helps support the daily educational experiences offered by the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. The story had to focus on endowments while only highlighting the Seymour Center. This was a bit challenging due to the visual appeal of the Center itself—it naturally attracted a lot of attention and sometimes became the story itself. By using the Center’s Director to tell the story of the Endowment, we managed to keep the focus where it belonged—and use the natural beauty of the environment to provide a nice backdrop. This was shot using a Canon 7D and it also happened to be one of the first times I got to pull out a glide-track.

Student Thank You Video

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:14:33 +0000

From start to finish, this project was a lot of fun working on. The assignment came from the Annual Fund department within UC Santa Cruz. We were tasked with creating a video that would express the gratitude of students who are impacted by donor contributions. After writing a script, we then shot the students on the spot with their own original answers. I shot the whole thing with a modest backdrop, a small light kit, two Canon 7Ds and a boom mic. In the end, we got a lot of “thank-yous!”

Look Good Enough To Eat

Eric — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 06:35:51 +0000

The invitations to this annual event change every year. The year I was invited to play, they took the form of three large-format posters. They were like collectibles in that way, you could trade them if you wanted, hoard them, keep them in a plastic covering sheet… I don’t think anybody was actually doing that sort of thing. That’s not what really matters though—what’s truly important is that these posters were a sumptuous success.

A little background: These invitations were used for an annual soiree that the agency threw down for it’s favorite clients. Every year, the color-theme of the party would change—and if you were going to this party, your clothes had to match that year’s hue. This year’s color was “chocolate.” And that was pretty sweet because the idea of people wearing chocolate has it’s perks for the imagination. I mean really, when you think about it—the core of beauty can almost always be defined as anything you can wear—but also eat. Our question was, “How will you wear it?” We propped up that question next to some lovely images of people wearing swanky little chocolate accessories. Rich.

We worked in St. Louis with the talent-coated photographer, Brandon Voges, who had no truffle at all with this assignment. (I’ll stop that right now.) It was a lot of fun and a successful campaign.

An interesting side note: The production manager we were shooting with invited my CD and me out for a nice dinner that night. Joining us was a fellow from Colorado who was also working with one of their photographers. That fellow looked remarkably like Patrick Dempsey. And you could tell he got this a lot from people because he knew how to work it too. As a result, everywhere we went that night we were given the VIP experience. It was like a really bad episode of Entourage. True story.

Lt. Dan Has No Legs, But He Does Play Bass.

Eric — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:27:43 +0000

It’s true, Gary Sinise is actually a skilled bass player in a talented band that travels around the world putting on benefit concerts for charities and organizations like the USO. When The Lieutenant Dan Band came to play a concert at the university I work for, it was a pleasure meeting them and getting to design the promotional materials for their show.

Cashing in on the famous namesake, the posters—like the band, fuse the music with the iconic role Sinise played in Forrest Gump. I think the image is a great metaphor for a musician’s relationship with his or her instrument. And the idea that you can’t really tell where one ends and the other begins drives that point home. Plus, come on—it’s a guy with a guitar for a leg, that’s just messed up…how would he walk up stairs? Car wreck marketing, you can’t help but gawk at the cruelty mother nature bestowed upon the guitar-legged freakshow. It’s how the university attracts the big donors.

It was a fun show.

Campbell’s Soup Synergy

Eric — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:14:21 +0000

When the Campbell’s sales force is looking for strategies to help boost their commissions, they turn to Soup Synergy—the internal news letter of the food company known best for soup. This logo for the publication was assigned to me during my tenure at the food marketing agency, Noble. It came together with the help of my friend and mentor, Dan Stewart. Among other things, Dan taught me that ‘good is the enemy of great.’ He also taught me that you should never rub baby oil on your bare-belly just before a client presentation, and especially neverduring a client presentation. Anyway, Soup Synergy, it’s on.

Learning Is Paramount

Eric — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:04:57 +0000

This mini documentary was produced as part of the university’s campaign for reaccreditation. It was the first of it’s kind to be used in this process and was received extremely well across the board. In addition to all of the editing, I shot most of the footage and produced all of the animations. For me, the most rewarding part was working with the interviewees. It was a new challenge getting our subjects lit just right and the audio tuned for each person’s voice. I got a lot of great advice and help from my friend, Mike Everett over at The Creation Lab in Turlock, CA. The following six videos present the final product in it’s entirety, thanks for taking a look.