Jesse Meria

#imagination #curiosity #adventure #empathy | Creative Producer @ Meria.Agency

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Taking song lyric videos to a new level! Animated lyric music videos for Ingrid Michaelson - Secret Road Music 

Recently completed an exciting animation project for Ingrid Michaelson / Secret Road Music. 

https://io9.gizmodo.com/ingrid-michaelson-and-artist-nicola-scott-create-a-pret-1835974743

Each track on Ingrid’s recent album, Stranger Songs will have an animated lyric video with artwork created by a comic book artist - and animated by someone (I animated 3 of them :)

I especially appreciate the comments on this video so far; It sounds like people love that we’ve taken the idea of simple lyric videos to a whole new level!

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Promotional Video: MFA Program at The Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan

This video is meant to excite and entice interested students by providing an in-depth look at the current cohort of students, and their projects.

More about the Stamps School of Art & Design, MFA program where the video is currently embedded: stamps.umich.edu/graduate-programs/mfa

Stamps MFA: Driven by Research Stamps MFA students join a supportive, curiosity-filled culture of makers and scholars. Fueled by the energy and expertise in our research university community, our concepts take shape and make an impact on the world. Idea and material work together at Stamps, as the curriculum supports students in the creation of culturally relevant work with a clearly articulated context. Graduates of this program will be prepared to thrive in a variety of public and private roles and become cultural leaders in a rapidly changing global culture.

Video produced & edited by: Jesse Meria Truly Render

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Branded product shoot with Sip and Savour USA 

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Introducing the UMS 2018-19 Season!

My 5th and final season at UMS, and the 2nd season we produced a promo trailer to kick off the season that could be used throughout the entire season on social media, in board meetings, and as a paid ad as needed anywhere necessary. 

A simple video with high ROI, and so enjoyable and sharable on social!

Learn more: ums.org/

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A new president at University Musical Society = Fun photo ops

Challenging times require challenging art - See the full article here:

https://ums.org/2018/02/01/challenging-times-require-challenging-art/

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Bringing the world to Southeast Michigan - Performance Arts Promo

Produced as an ad to be used for the entire performance season, to intrigue new ticket-buyers, and to excite current subscribers. Whether you know who they are or…

UMS 2017-18 Hype video. Used primarily as a paid ad via Facebook. 

Each season, we have our season announcement video which showcases the performances that will come to town, and then this will be the 3rd season which I’ve produced a sort of “Season kick-off” video. This is the creative type of work that keeps me going. 

I spend a couple of days, filming around town in Ann Arbor, some shots with my DJI Phantom drone and others with my Nikon d750. And then a full day driving to Detroit to capture some shots at the 3 venues where UMS will have performances outside of Ann Arbor. Most of the footage doesn’t make the final cut, but the quality of the footage that does make the final cut is higher because of the time spent gathering enough so that I was able to make decisions, and be selective. 

What took this video to the high level that it’s at now, is the depth to which it’s able to explain what UMS is, in a very short amount of time. We get that UMS is clearly bringing performances/experiences to town, to adult audiences, and to kids. I really liked the idea of portraying UMS as a sort of Ann Arbor night life experience, which it very much is. People come out, go out to eat, attend performances, and enjoy the city!

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2017-18 UMS Season Video

This 2017-18 UMS Season video(My fourth), we really kept things simple and went straight to the point, giving people the chance to see as much of the season in as little time as possible. 

With 45 performances to showcase, getting the flow, and titling just right is the bulk of the work. 

The more work it takes, the more enjoyable it is when complete!

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Binaural sound. Something interesting. Imagine just closing your eyes, and being taken anywhere, or having the sensations that someone is whispering in your ear. 

This binaural sound workshop that I captured at the Ann Arbor District Library was coordinated by UMS in conjunction with it’s performance of The Encounter, by Complicity & Simon McBurney. Learn more here: http://ums.org/performance/the-encounter/ 

Every member of the audience must wear headphones. The magic is in the microphone that’s used; because the microphone is shaped like a human head, and has the spacial density between it’s ears where the mics record from, they basically relate the same information to your brain as if you were physically at the location you’re hearing.

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These stories are what make my work worthwhile.

I spent a day capturing at Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program. 

The gym is simply amazing and inspiring; This venture that is filling in so many education gaps, changing so lives for the better☺️ I hope that this model can be replicated and distributed throughout the US. 

This boxing gym is an after-school activity, which has transportation, tutors, homework must be complete before they train.

“Boxing is the ‘hook’ to get and keep kids in the program. Teaching them to be productive members of society is our passion.” - Coach Khali

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Binaural Sound and Recording Workshop:

Unlocking the Technology and Technique Behind Complicite’s The Encounter

Ann Arbor District Library Downtown Secret Lab 

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Artist Chat: The TEAM | UMS presents

These two were fun to meet!

I caught up with two performers from The TEAM, who just got into town to perform, RoosevElvis. The performance has many dynamics that we felt could use some context for potential ticket buyers to hear. 

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Our 2016-17 season is here! | UMS presents

And the UMS Season has kicked off with this amazing season opening at the Ann Arbor Skatepark. 

There was so much coverage of this event. I really wanted to challenge myself to create a story that would be different than what the news sources had already been telling. I wanted to use this opportunity to really engage any newly interested audience members into learning more about what UMS is. 

Beautiful scenery and interesting content that was fun to work with. I find a nice soundtrack to edit to, and throughout, I carefully chose some meaningful words to highlight what UMS is and why we should care. 

18 Shares, 2k views on Facebook

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Michigan vs. Ohio Boxing Championship PROMO video

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UMS 16-17: Falling Up and Getting Down: Season Opening Event at Ann Arbor Skate Park

Here’s a fun promo for UMS’s season opener with Jason Moran & the Bandwagon, and several pro skateboarders at the Ann Arbor Skatepark.

I spent a half day capturing interviews from a couple of the Ann Arbor Skatepark board members, “Friends of the Ann Arbor Skatepark,” as well as a bit with their “street team,” a group of young volunteers who help with many tasks in the upkeep and promotion of this community park. 

The lead on this performance at UMS, Mark Jacobson was able to request and receive a couple of nicely done, personalized video clips from both Andy MacDonald, a local celebrity skater, and female skateboarder, Jordyn Barratt from California.

A few of the skateboarders also shared some footage of them in action. 

57 Shares, and 7,500 views on Facebook 

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Celebrating 2016 DTE Educator of the Year | UMS presents

This video is special to me for many reasons. There’s the personal satisfaction, the meaningful community impact, and the fact that this video becomes a tangible story that this school, teacher, students and their parents can be proud to be a part of; this moment that they can now come back to and share at any time they like. 

66 Shares and 6,152 views on Facebook. From a marketing standpoint, this is the feel good content that people want to share. It’s also network first, in that this school and every stakeholder involved will be proud and want to share this with their own networks. 

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2016-17 Season Announcement | Full | UMS Presents

Each season at UMS, allows me the opportunity to create a season announcement video to showcase the performances to come. 

This season, along with Ken Fischer, the President of UMS and the Programming Director, I interviewed 9 students from different schools at the University and included them as intros in each of the separate Series videos (The video above is the full video which includes all segments as one.).

The idea to use students was important to me for marketing reach, branding, and organizational development purposes; People want and like to see young people on camera, and when other students see their friends participating I think that it creates natural intrigue.

In my opinion, students are the most important ticket buyers because, one day, every student will become an Alumni, and when those Alumni remember particular experiences they had on campus, I want them to know that it was UMS that made that available to them; When those Alumni do well in their careers and decide they want to give money to an organization that inspired them, I want to make sure UMS is on their mind.

It was also important to me that these students represented the diverse population that we have and strive to continue, in race, ethnicity and focus of study.

Choral Union Series: 

Global Series:

The Participating Students are also all UMS Ticket Office interns:

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April 1: UMS Bans Cell Phones, Installs Pay Phones

This April Fool’s is a project that I’ll never forget. Willie was amazing. I literally showed up at Hill with a short shot-list and we had a great time pulling this together.