“On June 4th, the Philadelphia Marketing Association (PDMA) honored both its 2008 Direct Marketer of the Year and made presentations to the winners of the “Benjamin Franklin Awards for Direct Marketing Excellence” (also known as the “Benny”) on the 33rd floor of the Loews Hotel. The event drew more than 150 regional direct marketing professionals for peer recognition and networking.” (PDMA directviews June/July 2008)

There were a wide variety of entries, and Hall Media took on the task of creating a showcase of all the talented direct markers who submitted their work. We created two separate videos- one that included all of the entrants, and a winners’ presentation that announced this year’s Benny Award winners.

The event was well attended, and the videos both extremely well received. Congratulations to all the winners!

Hall Media was featured in the July 2008 issue of Markee Magazine.

Thirteen-year old Hall Media Productions (HMP), also in Philadelphia, focuses on corporate and web work with the occasional commercial mixed in, says President Maureen Hall, citing a three-spot campaign for Wills Eye Hospital in the city.

Most of HMP’s clients emanated from the corporate world. Recent productions include a facility tour for Arkema, an international chemical company; a patient education web site for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and a sales training video for Merk Inc., the pharmaceutical giant.

About 75 percent of the workload comes from the Delaware/New Jersey/New York City region, with the rest originating further up and down the coast. “We’ve been doing plenty of greenscreen work during the past two years,” says Hall, “for clients who come from as far north as Boston and as far south as South Carolina.”

She’s happy to report solid growth for HMP. “We’ve seen as incredible spurt in the past year,” which she attributes to concentrating on target markets “as well as the public having discovered the benefits of using video on the internet.”

HMP’s shooters have been lensing more HD in the past year, renting cameras “until we find the right flavor for our needs,” she says. HMP already owns a Panasonic SDX900 and cuts on Avid Adrenaline and Final Cut Pro HD systems.

The company also has a webcast-ready 500-square-foot soundstage, which hooks into an all-digital control room and the Internet through the HMP server.

A recent contestant for the show “America’s got Talent” stopped by to shoot a promo video of his dummies

My kids film “The Pig and The Tree” has been preselected for the CHINH INDIA KIDS FILM FESTIVAL 2008. Details on www.chinh.in

The CHINH INDIA KIDS JURY will announce the awards on 7th August 2008.

Its screening in the pre-school section, with 7 other films from all over the world.

“The Pig and The Tree” will be showing at another festival! The 5th Annual San Diego International Children’s Film Festival. (The site will be updated with the new line up soon). If you’re in the San Diego area, the film will screen at 11:45 AM Saturday Aug. 9th, at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.

Our amazing editor, Nicole, was hit by a car this morning around 9AM while riding her bike near Broad and Spring Garden.  She was brought by an ambulance to the hospital.  Luckily, she escaped major injury.  No broken bones or major lacerations.  She got banged up pretty bad.  Good thing for her she always wears a helmet, so who knows what could have happened if she wasn’t…  We’ll have more info when she comes back to work.

Drivers, watch out for people on bikes!

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On a less serious note, I strapped a camera to my bike and filmed my ride from the Hall Media offices on 5th and Callowhill to my house on 13th and Passyunk.  (I sped up the 10 minute ride into 1 minute):

Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia

Broadcast:

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Industrial:

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Web:

We have so many videos old/new we figured they needed their own home.

YouTube.com/HallMedia

Rooftop Hop
Location: Hancock Square, 1001 N. Second St.
Neighborhood: Northern Liberties/Port Richmond
Date: 6/25
Time: 6:30 - 8:30pm
Price: Free

Philadelphia Weekly hosts its third rooftop hop event at Hancock Square. Enjoy the city views over complimentary cocktails from Pravda, Michelob Ultra and more and food from Copper, Swanky Bubbles and Qdoba.

My wife, Diana, is the production manager at Philadelphia Weekly and we regularly attend these PW events.  Great food, drinks, and people in “the industry” to schmooze with.

Photos: Check out Hall Media’s photo gallery of the event on our Flickr page

More photos from DigPhilly