• Broadcast Infomercials:

  City of Hope

  This half-hour infomercial had over twenty celebrities, breaking all industry records for the number of such cameo appearances. I was very active in the post-production PR campaign. Specifically, I coordinated the very successful brunch and viewing at the Friar's Club, hosted by Norm Crosby.

  Preventco

  I worked on a team of three writers to create the concept, write the script, and cast this half-hour infomercial advertising the "Family Pak", a drug intervention/education kit to help parents discuss drug abuse with their children. The kit, which was comprised of a series of videos, posters, interactive games and exercises, as well as a home drug test, was manufactured and distributed by a 501C3 non-profit agency.

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• CD ROMs

Mazda

This eight-hour Computer-Based Training program teaches Mazda's Warranty Administrators to use Mazda's Dealer Communication System (MDCS, their proprietary software). It also provides interactive exercises that illustrate the practical applications of the Policies and Procedures Manual as they relate to the work flow of Warranty Processing.

A "Route 66" theme was developed to integrate the eight separate training modules enabling the students to travel virtually travel through the eight states crossed by the famous interstate highway. Interesting Route 66 trivia "rest areas" follow each lesson's mastery test.

Belkin Components

This eight-hour sports-themed training CD ROM is narrated by impersonations of personalities derived from international sports ranging from skiing, car racing, horse racing, boxing, soccer, golf, etc. It teaches retail sales associates how to market and upsell Belkin computer, networking, and peripheral cables, as well as their surge protectors and cellular accessories.

Belkin Components

This five-minute marketing loop (on CD ROM) demonstrates Belkin's "Video Bus" and the accompanying software that enables home PC users to turn their personal computers into virtual darkroom/mini-movie studios to edit and enrich their home videos.

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• Edutainment Videos:

  Dollar$ & Sense: Personal Finance for the 21st               KOCE-TV (PBS) Coast Community College

  I was one of a team of eight writers creating scripts for this Emmy-award winning 26-episode telecourse series covering everything from banking services, IRAs, MSAs, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, estate planning, REITs, and mortgages. This series was first broadcast in the Spring of '99 and will run for over a decade on 2,000 PBS stations in the US as well as abroad.

  Psychology: The Human Experience 

  PBS/KOCE-TV Coast Learning Systems
  
  This was a fascinating series on the Human Brain. One of the episodes was a follow-up to a story of young boy. At about the age of three, his mother realized he was not developing his motor and cognitive skills at any reasonable rate. To her horror, she discovered her baby had likely had a stroke coming through the birth canal and she was forced to decide whether or not to half half of his brain surgically removed to save the remaining healthy half - or to take her chances the brain would continue to deteriorate and possibly kill her child. We traced his rehabilitation and learning challenges all the way up through his graduating from high school, being in school plays, and his first girlfriend. Another episode was of a man talking during brain surgery to clue the surgeons into when they were touching live tissue.

  
  The S.W.A.T. Academy at Golden West College 
  
  This is a nine-minute promotional video that I wrote backwards from forty hours of time-coded stock footage and testimonials. It was used in a Direct VideoMarketing campaign to encourage Police Chiefs and Special Weapons and Tactics squadron commanders to send their potential S.W.A.T. officers and recent recruits through the two-week Criminal Justice/Special Weapons and Tactics Academy program at Golden West College to fulfill their POST professional training requirements including: planning tactical operations, approach/entry/search techniques; use of chemical agents, weapons, rappelling and task-related physical activities. The video was also televised on PBS as part of a community effort to increase public awareness of the program and to enhance the understanding of the need for such special forces. The script and treatment can be viewed as writing/format samples.
  

Reviews

Delta Jews – documentary Review
Words Into Pictures WGA Event Review

 

The California Small Claims Court Video

A grant from the State of California to Legal Aid Services, a 501C(3), made possible this ten minute bi-lingual (English and Spanish) video for use in orientation classes all over the State of California. I wrote and directed the Wonder Years/hindsight is 20/20 take on the traditional mistakes most claimants make when filing or and plaintiffs make when responding to small claims cases. The goal was to educate all parties so as to streamline the system for everyone's benefit. The A/V script is available as a sample.

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• IPOs and Business Plans:

The Ostrich Group: Investor Prospectus Video

I wrote the script for this half-hour infomercial which solicited investors for Ostrich breeding trios. I also wrote the scripts for a variety of 30/60/90 second radio commercial spots.

Initial Public Offerings and Business Plans

Obviously, I signed non-disclosure contracts with 99% of the IPOs and Business Plans I have worked on, so I am not at liberty to use them as samples - or even reveal the clients' names. I am willing to provide my own Sub-Chapter S Business Plan for Storyworks Entertainment, Inc. as a Business Plan Writing sample (in select cases and for the purposes of securing Business Plan Writing contracts only). I can also offer references, if need be, from the following Business Plan Writing Clients:

• CyberActive OnLine (cao.com) 

• The Martial Arts Channel (TMAC)

In addition to The Ostrich Group unique infomercial/video-marketing approach, I also have a clever "outside of the box" treatment, poem, and rough draft A/V script sample that I am proud to share (since at least a decade has passed on this technology and infinite iterations have taken place to the company and their product). The Internet Look-Up Guide IPO was a particularly clever concept: potential investors could read the Children's Storybook to their kids while considering the soft sell pitch via an entertaining Dr. Seuss-esque poem which nailed all the objectives via an entertaining and surprising storyline. The book and/or multimedia/interactive website was to be illustrated by Bob Staake (Rem and Stempy, The Powder Puff Girls). 

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• Sales and Training Videos:

Reebok: Convention Video

This was an entertainment piece used to spice up an annual employee convention. Rather than running the traditional baby photo next to the employee's current photo, we morphed the photos in and out of celebrity photos and cartoons using an "X-files"/"Twilight Zone" alternate universe comic storyline.

Win-Win Technologies: Training video

This was a one-hour training video teaching recent multi-level marketing recruits how to establish their new businesses. Covering everything from setting up an effective home office, to expanding downlines, to sales techniques and strategies, this video helped to eliminate the constant need for regional meetings and accelerated the start-up time for new recruits.

Win-Win Technologies: Recruiting video

A companion piece to the training video, this five minute promotional video was an additional tool offered by the corporation at a minimal expense to help recruit additional salespeople.

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VideoMarketing:

Fieldstone: "The HomeBuying Experience"

This eight minute video highlights what sets Fieldstone apart from competing homebuilders. "Fieldstone builds neighborhoods - not just homes." Prospective homeowners are guided through the exciting steps of buying and personalizing an upscale track home with the custom options offered through Fieldstone's Home Fitting Center.

Fieldstone: "Model Home Floorplan Video Tour"

This is a series of videos that takes the homeshopper on a virtual tour of model homes representative of each of the floorplans available in any subdivision through Fieldstone. This innovative use of multimedia technology virtually eliminates the expense of full-color brochures and dramatically reduces the need for standing inventory of each model home variation.

The Ostrich Group: Investor Prospectus Video

This is the follow-up video that was sent out to all the incoming calls off the broadcast infomercial and radio spots. It was sent out with additional collateral materials and pursued with telemarketing and a subsequent direct mail campaign.

Vortex: "Training Express and Class Link"

This was a short three-minute video used to hype a new breakthrough in Computer-Based Training. Keypad systems, similar to those used in bars for trivia games, were re-engineered for interactive instruction. The software and video components were designed for truck driving schools who could use video clips and computer graphics to demonstrate safety techniques from the convenience - and limited expense and liability - of a classroom setting.

The San Diego Air Commerce Center

This was a voice over script for a short animated promotional piece detailing the visionary transformation of San Diego's Brown Air Field into the premier International cargo transportation facility on the West Coast. The video highlights the development plans of the Enterprise and Foreign Trade Zones that will stimulate the business and employment sectors that book-end the Californian border.

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• WWW Site

  IBT Financial

  This online continuing education course for the banking industry covers Regulation U, The Federal Reserve Bank's Margin Stock Act, which limits the amount of credit available to the securities market in order to help mitigate market volatility.