Education

Class Act.

Late spring is an inspiring time on any university campus. At an art school, graduation season is the moment to reveal your pièce de résistance: a definitive work that will launch your creative career. When production started on our latest online recruitment campaign for Santa Fe University of Art and Design last May, several of our subjects were preparing for takeoff. Their incredible energy inspired us to produce our own magnum opus that tells the story of music student Rachel Dupard. Rachel was finishing up her junior year when we captured her story, but she was already well on her way to an incredible entertainment career….

From a Northern Song to The Last Emperor.

A lot can change in a thousand years. So, when the Asian Art Museum asked us to depict over a millennium of Chinese history with a video installation, we saw it as a chance to start thinking on a fresh time scale. Earlier this year we teamed up with our friends at the San Francisco museum in anticipation of their current exhibition Emperors’ Treasures. In this exhibit, exquisite artworks and personal possessions are on display, passed down throughout many dynasties of Chinese history dating back as far as 960 C.E. We begin with the Northern Song dynasty ruled by Emperor Huizong, a master calligrapher. Ultimately we…

Structural Integrity.

The SaltBox Tiny House sits in a lively fabrication yard outside the Extraordinary Structures headquarters off Siler Road, surrounded by a sea of over 400 Santa Feans and visitors. People stand in line for hours in the blazing summer sun, chattering excitedly as they wait for their turn to step inside. Rumor has it there’s a full kitchen, two king size beds and a bathtub hidden inside the silver box at the center of the crowd. As they wait for a turn to see for themselves, folks puzzle over the construction of this modern marvel. Even its panelized exoskeleton seems to hum with a mysterious…

Modern Family.

Creative Startups is a startup accelerator designed to empower businesses who blur the lines between innovation, expression and technology. Select creative businesses participate in three months of online classroom instruction, followed by a deep dive, where all of the startups and mentors come together for an intensive week of business planning and mentorship. In a time when so many in the startup world—accelerator programs, and venture capital firms—are only interested in technology companies with huge financial upside, it’s great to see one providing much-needed support for the creative economy. But don’t be fooled; even though they were founded in New Mexico,…

Words Matter.

How can we help LGBTQ+ youth feel safe and empowered? It’s a topic that’s being discussed at the highest levels of our federal government. President Barack Obama issued a letter on Friday encouraging schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity. A video we created with New Mexico Communities of Care this year addresses these issues directly, and the Albuquerque Journal picked up the story. “‘I Am Me’ video offers guide to support LGBTQ+ young people,” read the headline in the June 5th edition of the newspaper. Reporter Donna Olmstead wrote a powerful article about the piece, which calls on friends and family of…

For Life.

Blue Shield of California is more than a healthcare provider. We think of it as a “life care” organization. It’s a nonprofit that isn’t just about treating ailments, but supporting all-around well-being in an increasingly interconnected world. “It really starts and ends with creating a healthcare delivery system that is worthy of our family and friends,” says Kristen Miranda, senior vice president of strategic partnerships and innovation. All of this adds up to make Blue Shield a leader in 21st century medical care—and a fantastic place to work if you want to make a real difference. We know that for a fact: our recent project with the…

Finding the Happiness Within.

The remote mountain kingdom of Bhutan and the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City; they have more in common than you would expect. Around the world, micro-economies are carving their own paths to wealth and well-being. Nations like the island of Vanuatu and Los Pueblos Mancommunicados in the hills of Oaxaca are choosing to reject the looming presence of global capitalism and the adverse effects it creates. Filmmaker Dan Porras, communications director of the Christensen Fund, sets out to tell the stories of these peoples who are creating their own unique economic systems. They often strike a careful balance between traditional knowledge…

Face to Face.

“Who am I, and what does that mean?” LGBTQ+ youth tackle these questions from unique perspectives every day. This project calls on their friends and family to support them with passion and persistence. I AM ME: Understanding the Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Identity is the first in a series of groundbreaking training videos for allies of LGBTQ+ youth. It’s our second collaboration with New Mexico Communities of Care (NMCOC), building on a 2014 project that introduces this vital support network for at-risk youth and families in New Mexico. NMCOC saw a big gap in educational resources for LGBTQ+ allies, and asked 12FPS to create…

Hero’s Journey.

Every video starts with a script, and this one was our Odyssey. Santa Fe University of Art and Design challenged us to show off the Desert Southwest’s natural beauty for its spring recruitment campaign. We dreamed up an action-packed profile of a SFUAD student, with mountain hikes, snowboarding runs and a breathtaking aerial of Diablo Canyon. After selecting outstanding film student Austin as our star, we interviewed him to craft compelling voiceover for the script. It was finally time to turn words into actions. In this production, each line of the shot list was a crazy physical challenge. “Drone shot of car headed up Artist Road” called for sharp aerial reflexes and…

Over The Edge.

It’s a chilly February day, and we’re an hour away from Santa Fe lugging a heavy camera up a steep trail. At the top is a craggy cliff overlooking Diablo Canyon. There’s not a trace of civilization in sight, and the pale winter sun is setting. It’s time to make a movie. Our latest project is a spring recruitment video and campaign for Santa Fe University of Art and Design. It’s our second collaboration with SFUAD: we’ve already explored their studios and classrooms for a fall recruitment campaign. For this round of storytelling, the university sent us far away from campus. They wanted to reveal the wild…

Create With Purpose

As artists, we are constantly inspired to create impact: on the world, on fellow artists, and on ourselves. This desire to make a difference through creativity, to put momentum behind ideas, has guided every 12FPS project since before we officially existed! In 2006, the Adobe Foundation launched its flagship program, Adobe Youth Voices. Its goal was to ignite creativity in young artists around the world by working with educators and providing them resources for rich digital storytelling. Through a stroke of serendipity, our founder Adam Shaening-Pokrasso struck up a fantastic partnership with AYV that has helped shape our story and values….

Forget Bigfoot. This guy caught a Pegasus.

How do you capture a phenomenon that’s invisible to the naked eye? This guy took a flying leap to find the solution. The story of our logo is tied to a late 1800’s photographer with an ever-changing name. Eadweard Muybridge was a wandering Brit who also went by Muggridge, Muygridge and Maybridge. His simplest alias was Helios, the Greek god of the sun, a name that appears on many of his photographs. Muybridge was as mercurial as his monikers, and that was the key to his success. As a young man, Muybridge worked as a bookseller in New York City and San Francisco….

True Story.

What’s the best way to inspire an audience? Be fearless, and cut to the heart of the matter. Santa Fe University of Art and Design wanted to show a fresh side of Santa Fe for their fall recruitment campaign. We knew just where to start. The 12FPS team landed on SFUAD’s campus, searching for inspiring students to interview. That’s how we discovered Samantha Fe, a fine arts student who was hard at work in the ceramics studio. “I’ll show you how I throw,” Samantha said, settling at her pottery wheel and sending a slab of clay whirling. As the setting sun sent golden rays through…

Notes from a Mogul.

When you have the opportunity to speak with someone as influential as Alan Webber, you don’t expect him to be the one taking notes. Webber is the former editorial director of Harvard Business Review, and co-founder of Fast Company. Adam and Dwight met him at Creative Startups 2015, an Albuquerque startup accelerator with serious support from a national network of business leaders. As we discussed the evolution of 12FPS with him, he intently scribbled down his thoughts on a pair of notecards. Our early clients ranged from scrappy startups to top tech companies. As the 12FPS team grew and our creative network…

On Camera, Off-The-Grid.

When your business takes you on rugged adventures that are far off the grid, there are inherent challenges to spreading the word about it. Try packing a full set of camera equipment along with your tent, sleeping bag, food and water purifier. It’s enough to burst an ultralight backpack. We have a lot of experience coordinating productions in remote locations with difficult conditions, from rural Indian villages to snowy Rocky Mountain peaks. When Boreas Gear recruited us for a special expedition, we were ready to answer the call of the wild. We joined the Boreas Gear design team on their first-ever Wilderness Design…

Brain Food.

Our Santa Fe team just moved in to a new office in the Siler District, and a full third of the space is devoted to a big, beautiful kitchen. Where some companies have a rickety mini fridge, grimy microwave and cloudy water cooler, we have a sprawling range and butcher block countertop. There’s a full-size fridge, food processor and arsenal of pots, pans, knives and cutting boards. It helps that we’re sharing the space with Leafy Greens, brainchild of 12FPS team member and master nutritionist Leah Devine Pokrasso. Leah guided us through a post-Thanksgiving cleanse by cooking up delectable detox lunches. Behold, wild rice in a…