Project Pitch: Clark Vandergrift

Photographer/director Clark Vandergrift has an especially strong connection to the health professionals defending us against the coronavirus: his wife is one of them. So when the pandemic began and his wife’s profession took on a new sense of urgency and danger, he witnessed the way this was affecting his family and sought a means to document it. The result was a video of his sons as they spoke to their mother via mobile devices, which as we know has become the new normal for the ways that we communicate even with those closest to us. 

Given the importance of the role of health professionals today and the unique insight his work afforded, Clark knew the project would interest a variety of clients. He reached out to executive producer Craig Oppenheimer to help find a home for this work. Craig knew that he would need to compile a list of clients in healthcare and related areas and turned to producer Bryan Sheffield for research into the best clients. At the same time, Craig tapped publicist Varun Raghupathi to write a spotlight article about the project.

Varun wrote a compelling account of how the project came together and how lockdown affected the way that Clark completed the project. Since Clark has a number of broadcast commercials, short films, and branding videos under his belt, he knew precisely what needed to be done, even if he hadn’t had the experience of filling all those roles by himself for quite a while (where’s a gaffer when you need one?!). In particular, Clark spent a great deal of time in post-production, as always, making sure the video hit all of the right notes. Read more about that process in our spotlight article, which was published on April 29th.

While Varun was doing his magic, Bryan searched through our ever-expanding client database for firms to intrigue with this project. Naturally, the first group of clients he compiled included healthcare behemoths that manage hospitals such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and Einstein Healthcare Network. Yet this was also the kind of project that might interest companies that supply hospitals as well as the networks of clinics and pharmacies that provide similar services. 

From that list of candidates, Craig produced a pitch for the project to promote the video to potential clients. As it turned out, a branding and marketing director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont was looking for content that would be ready for National Nurses Day on May 6th to be used on BCBSV’s website, social media feeds, and YouTube channel. Clark’s project fit the bill perfectly.  On top of that, the client seemed to recall having crossed paths with Clark years ago when she worked in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

After the numbers were crunched, Blue Cross Blue Shield was ready to make the deal, and it all came together quite nicely, and just in time.

Need help finding a home for your project? Call us at 610 260 0200 or email us!