Happy New Year!

As we prepare for an even better 2012, we want to take a minute and thank all of those individuals and business that we worked with in 2011.

The ETV Endowment of SC

SCETV

The Palmetto Health Foundation

Post No Bills

The SC State Fair

PeopleFit

Kristian Niemi

Flock and Rally

Bone-In Artisan Barbecue

The SC State Guard

The US Army

USC Opera

USC Department of Arts and Sciences

USC Moving Image Resource Center

The Churchill Center

John McCallister Realty Consulting

PeopleFit

Crossfade and Eleven-Seven Music

Eurolux Antiques

The Greenville Children's Hospital

Joab Dick and 101 Reasons to Quit

Battle at Congaree Creek

Pocket Productions

ArtRageous

The SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce and BUYSC

We love creating new relationships and meeting new partners. We wish a grand New Year to all and look forward to an exciting 2012 filled with great new experiences.

Closing in on 100

For the past year we have producing a series title "South Carolinians in World War II". Our main goal before anything was produced was to interview WWII veterans with ties to South Carolina. From these interviews we have produced 3 hours that have aired on SCETV. We have plans for five more hours.

As of today we have interviewed 94 veterans for this series. If you have a family member or know a WWII vet, we want to talk to them. Feel free to get in touch with us about the series and with any information that will help us continue our efforts.

A Rant

The news that the United States Post Office ran at a loss of 5 billion last year took me back. I knew, from reports over the past year, that they were in trouble. There response, however, has really been bugging me. The USPS is essentially grown from the oldest form of hand delivered communication in the United States. They developed the modern way of delivering communication. That has been replaced, over the past decade, with email, texts and other forms of instant communication.

The USPS announces that to stay afloat the way they have chosen to solve one of the issues is to not guarantess overnight delivery on first class mail. Essentially saying that it will take longer to deliver. But you still pay the same price. Huh?!

What we do at Coal Powered is not new. We are not the best in the world, we are not the worst. We are very good though and we value those that come to us with a need. You will get every ounce of creative energy that we have to offer. This is the motivation for us.

Handshakes

After we meet with clients, and production is a go, there is a handshake. We rarely use production agreements, no paperwork between us. It is all in the handshake. Once a client has committed to us and we have committed to them, their goals and the responsibility is understood. The trust in each other is there.

Our investment in our partners must be stronger than their investment in us.

Our Fatal Flaw

I was watching an episode of "Homeland" last night and the theme of the episode dealt with our fatal flaws and how they prove to be our weakness.

It got me thinking about what our fatal flaw at Coal Powered Filmworks is. the more I thought, the more it was apparent that our fatal flaw was our unwillingness to accept average. I thought more. It didn't seem as much a fatal flaw as a strength, but why did I keep thinking about it in the context of that theme?

We talk face to face to our clients. Sometimes the passion for a project is hard to see, sometimes it apparent. At the heart of every project we feel that communicating that passion to your audience is the key to collecting support for whatever goal you seek.

But again, why the context of fatal flaw? Because no matter the budget, we do not accept average. The perfect example is a project we just finished for "Battle at Congaree Creek". Our partners on this wanted a :30 sec TV spot promoting their event. Almost no media exsisted or could be collected in the time available. But they love Civil War reenactments. They were truly excited, this got us excited. At the end of our first meeting I didn't care if there was a budget at all, I wanted to do this project for them. There was a small, minimal budget.

We started with a basic info, basic graphic concept- Where, when, date and time, with some images and video. At one point about 30% in I realized this was all junk. The spot has to achieve two main things: 1) Promote the event properly. 2) Translate that excitement to the public. Start from square one.

So the more I thought, the more I realized that what we may call flaws are strengths that separate those you choose to partner with. We hope you choose us for your projects. Here are some stills from the final spot. Video will be posted soon.