Access Media Group, Inc.

Just Jake

We closed out 2022 with a three week sprint shooting another Colorado based romantic comedy, Just Jake. The movie was packed with new experiences and opportunities for the team to creatively tackle, including multiple musical performances. Though the holiday season made preparation time on this movie short, the team was able to pull together everything we needed to shoot a gorgeous and heart-warming movie in only a short time.

Just Jake tells the story of an emerging country star who returns to his hometown to overcome his serious writers's block, and reunites with his high school sweetheart. Jake Collins was played by Rob Mayes and his high school sweetheart- Amber Gibson- was played by Brittney Bristow.

From a small town talent show to a full concert this story was a fun one to capture on camera. One of the most enjoyable and challenging opportunities of this movie was pulling off a large Nashville country music concert. In only one day the large auditorium was prepped, with a gorgeous stage set and whole room fully rigged and lit for a fun and fast paced filming of the concert. A whole crowd of people attended to play the adoring fans and listen to an original song performed by our stars as well as four other country music musicians flown in from Nashville.

With its original music and a touching love story, Just Jake was a great way to end our year. It will premier on UpTV in early 2023.

Date: December 2022
Client: Just Jake
Category: Feature Film

Farm to Market

One of our most exciting accomplishments this year was developing one of our own show ideas and shooting the sizzle for the concept. Farm to Market is a docuseries that tells the inspirational stories of agricultural producers who are impacting their communities by doing things a little differently.

Over a nine day period a small team from AMG traveled to three different states to talk with producers, capturing their inspirational stories at breathtakingly beautiful farms. In these experiences we learned that this was more than the stories of agriculture in America; this was a story that every human could relate to…the story of our food.

Food brings us together. It gives us the opportunity to experience the new or relive the nostalgic. And these agricultural producers intimately understand that deeper truth: that food is more than for survival, it gives us a connection to one another.

Aerial view of pikes and bicycles racing

Farm to Market is filled with our stories. They are the stories of tragedy striking, insignificance sinking in, and failure after devastating failure yet finding the strength to continue. They are the stories of those who display every-day courage and who each in their own unique way strive to bring hope and connection to those around them. They are the inspiring stories of people who are like us. They are the stories behind our food.

Date: October 2022
Client: Farm to Market
Category: TV Show Sizzle

The Happy Camper

Early in 2022 we had the opportunity to shoot another Colorado based romantic comedy, The Happy Camper. Shot both in Colorado Springs and on a quaint farm in Peyton, Colorado this movie presented a variety of opportunities for our team to creatively tackle. With challenges including record breaking low temperatures while shooting outdoors, snow storms, and on-the-fly re-writes the team showed their ability to come up with unconventional solutions and create a beautiful final product.

The story follows Dillon (Daniella Bobadilla) as she returns to her grandfather's farm in Colorado, where she works with Jordan (Beau Wirick), a handsome hardware store owner, to restore a vintage 1960s travel trailer, after her love life falls apart. Along the way she restores family relationships and finds new love.

During this 14 day whirlwind our team shot in three different Colorado towns, filmed in a blizzard, created an entire festival for vintage trailers, and pulled off a convincing- though unreal- dramatic renovation of a vintage trailer.

The Happy Camper premiers on UpTV January 20, 2023.

Date: February 2022
Client: The Happy Camper
Category: Feature Film

The Engagement Plot

In less than three weeks Access Media Group accomplished our largest, most involved project yet: our first feature-length film THE ENGAGEMENT PLOT. While the actual shooting of the movie took place during these 3 (incredibly intense!) weeks, in reality the planning and execution of this film took several months of focused strategizing, upgrading equipment and even the building of a new, totally customized camera truck.

After dozens of location scouts, talent acquisition, and compiling a crew from three different states, we were finally ready to go. Doing any feature-length film comes with its challenges, so each day was a balance of executing carefully laid plans and problem solving on the fly to create the best product possible.

It was an honor to work with romcom veterans Rachel Boston and Trevor Donavan, who played The Engagement Plot couple. The heartwarming story spotlights Small Town America with a diverse locations list including carefully selected, unique areas in Old Colorado City and Colorado Springs. It was exciting to see our own home town establish theme and bring heart to the film.

From a technical perspective the Access Media Group team rose to the challenge to exceed industry standards in every area and embraced this opportunity to learn and grow. The team’s extensive knowledge and years of experience were evident in every detail of production.

We are so proud of this movie and hope you enjoy it too. Look for The Engagement Plot coming out early 2022.

Date: November 2021
Client: The Engagement Plot
Category: Feature Film

ENT Federal Credit Union All Staff Live Stream

Imagine this: four state of the art Red cameras; a full wall of streaming equipment; a Skype call with more than 100 participants; multiple live interactive virtual quizzes; and during this, four live location changes. This is technical mastery and exact execution at its best. This is what Access Media Group did for ENT Credit Union's COVID-19 age all-staff meeting.

Our goal was to make this look easy to pull this off, with simplicity and smooth execution on the surface; but the involvement required several tech and test days to work out the flaws so the final product would look incredible in the end. Every detail was taken into account: time of day, weather, interior lighting. It took a clever (and powerful) lighting plan for our gaffer to capture the Front Range through the wall of windows in ENT Credit Union's new headquarters building, while balancing interior lighting for the on-camera participants.

Live streaming can be a massive job with even just one camera setup. \ In this shoot we took on four multi camera setups to be switched live. Mobility was key, as we used a Fischer dolly and lots of crew to move our units smoothly from one setup to the other. When action was called, we were committed to doing what we do best. Because of the time spent strategizing and preparing, our producers and crew collaborated to deliver audio/visual excellence, all without a hitch… just another day at the office!

Date: October 2021
Client: ENT Federal Credit Union
Category: Live Stream Event

The Pikes Peak Apex

When Pikes Peak APEX first reached out to us to produce high energy recaps and promo material for their inaugural bike race, it was perfect timing and a great change of pace for our team. The schedules were busy and the hours were long but it was a rewarding product in the end. The excitement was to be on the cutting edge of telling these athlete’s stories beyond statistics and performances.

For many of the riders, it was their first race in 2020 due to shut downs and cancellations. What made the APEX different is that the 4 day stage race took precautions seriously and worked hard to maintain regulations. This was especially because there were professional bike racers from around the world including Xterra world champions, some of the best athletes alive in crosstrek and enduro riding, along with local legends. The beauty of the race is that all bikers were able to enter. That beauty of the race is that all bikers were able to enter. That meant hobbyists and amateurs alike got to ride alongside their heroes in the sport.

Overall, our work included daily recap videos at the end of each of the four days. On average, it required six shoulder rig camera buildouts, a cable cam and three drones in the sky, totaling about 30 hours of sports coverage and interviews. The most rewarding part was that we got to stretch our legs in some of the more beautiful areas of the front range. Garden of the Gods, Palmer Park, Rampart Range, and Gold Camp Road just to name a few.

Date: September 2020
Client: Pikes Peak Apex
Category: Extreme Sports

TEDx Colorado Springs

Some of the advantages of being competitive and flexible in production are the variety of locations and clients we get to work for. Steve Moraco is the TEDx project organizer in our local area of Colorado Springs and the front range of Southern Colorado. This last year has been a combination of hearing his ideas and vision, then inspiring action through the guest speakers that Steve lined up. However, achieving TEDx Colorado Springs this year was not easy due to pandemic precautions and limitations.

At the end of the day, creativity helped us in this variety shooting. It allowed us to fully customize the feel for those who attended the online event and provided interesting insight on the reach of livestreams in this COVID-19 age. The ideas that were shared remained paramount, and the scenery ultimately made it more interesting for the people at home. It is rewarding for us to experience the diversity that comes through exploring the voices in our community.

Luckily, being a production company in Colorado Springs means we have access to some of the greatest views in the USA. Our shots worked out to be even more interesting with gorgeous backdrops in Memorial Park, Garden of the Gods, and controlled studio setups in Windstar Studios.

Date: October 2020
Client: TEDx
Category: Live Stream

Christmas This Year: The Movie

Every year, Jared Anderson hosts a Christmas stage production honoring and benefiting kids with down syndrome. This event has become a tradition for many and a special hallmark of the holidays for the community. With the impact felt by COVID-19, our team alongside Jared have continued the momentum of the show by creating a Christmas streamed special. Despite working within the new challenges of our global pandemic, we found that we were still able to reach out and capture interesting stories of families and individuals that down syndrome affects directly.

Similarly to the trend set by this last year, we were able to create something awesome that was virtual but also impactful. We were able to utilize most of our grip and electric equipment and work in various locations in the Colorado Springs area over the course of a couple months. One interesting location we utilized that we’ve actually shot at before is The Piano Warehouse. It offers such a hole in the wall, piano mechanic shack vibe that cannot be found anywhere else.

Truthfully, it is hard to slow down and understand and relate with humanities daily struggles. 2020 felt like just what we needed to slow down and gain perspective on the marginalized and the forgotten in the down syndrome community and beyond. Access Media Group, Inc. is about telling stories of diversity and we took the same approach with Christmas This Year. Although it is not the same as previous years, we were able to put together a show that still harbored celebration and its true meaning for all of us.

Date: June 2020
Client: Jared Anderson
Category: Live Show/Feature

Girls Gone Strong: Book Trailer

Oftentimes in the Grip and Electric world, it takes a fair amount of effort to achieve a captivating high key look. Especially being greeted by light levels that are unusually low. Be it hard to believe by the final snapshot seen here, that is precisely what happened to us with this beautiful bookshelf backdrop. The house was surrounded by trees and small windows encircled the small room. A low key in a location like this would be easy; provide a single source and create a darker background so the eye has no doubt in its focus.

After prelight, in total, we used nearly every fixture we owned on this setup. Keying with a 1200 hmi booklight and another in the kitchen, even that wasn’t enough. The ambient levels were next, with over 10 quasar tubes. To top it off, the incredibly useful Sufa bullet was just outside the window to brighten our background and bring interest to the bookshelf. Overall, a spacious feel with a high key breezy look.

This is the control and consistency we needed for our first setup. The truly interesting part of the day happened while rolling some handheld b-roll in the front yard, as a sudden realization set in; sometimes, natural conditions call for exquisite lighting without having to do a thing. In this particular shot Molly exited the house with the backlight being enough to cut down the power of the sun and create an interesting variance as she walked through the shadows. Our key was addressed by the soft bounce of the white minivan parked in the driveway.

Date: September 2020
Client: Molly Galbraith
Category: Book Trailer

Electrician's Safety Course

Finding a reliable source for online renewal courses and continuing education for electricians can be difficult despite the accessibility of information today. Pete Larsen, a local electrical professional in Colorado Springs posed this exact problem to us this last year. After exploring what material should be covered, we got to work creating a full online course that can serve both as a great asset to electricians but also a great resource for employers as well. Pete’s invaluable knowledge of the industry inspired the structure and legitimacy of the scenes.

A big topic of the course was safety. Because of that, there were many heart wrenching, hard stories that were covered. When you see the consequences of negligence as an electrician, it’s much easier to think twice when complacency arises. That is what this curriculum was designed to do. Creating stories with impact happens on the ground level, where people experience their day to day life, so we ended up producing this course right in a local electricians warehouse.

Our involvement included an A+B camera setup, along with complicated setups with our grip truck, diffusing and adding light to the warehouse for a commercial ‘soft’ look. We took this project from video, to graphic design, and finally into a long form edit that we can look back on and be proud of. This course serves as 4 hours of continued education for electricians that can be achieved in the comfort of their own home. Check out the website to see our work.

Date: June 2020
Client: Peter Larsen
Category: Online Training Course

Wildwood Casino

It’s truly always a pleasure to take on fresh new ideas with Wicked Think Marketing (WT) up at the highest casino in the world. Kim, the director at Wicked Think always has a big vision that he pushes towards. It shows in the final cut. Over the past couple of years, we have carried out principle photography for Wicked Think and several Wildwood Casino commercials. Some of the shots, one can only dream about, like $300,000 in cash within arms reach, or sitting in a bathtub full of cash. Believe it or not, no fake cash was used during the process.

Wildwood is the only single floor Vegas style casino in Cripple Creek. Their large floor plan offers an impressive diversity of games and entertainment which allows us to promote a good variety of content, every time we roll. Depending on the shoot we have mobilized our RED cameras on anything from thirty feet of dolly track to a twenty foot matthews jib straight off of a balcony. Being so highly grip intensive also means a lot of light is required to fully capture the space.

This held true for our latest commercial, where the grip truck was very helpful, especially due to the travel time to shoot on location. Some of the highlights this time around included their brand new automated blackjack machine, sports gambling, and massive prize giveaway of 2 million dollars. Wildwood has also done a lot of work to maintain their standard of cleanliness and precautions which works well with our own standards of clean set protocol.

Date: September 2020
Client: Wicked Think
Category: TV Commercial

AMG 2022 REEL

A Little more of what we do

Colorado

AMG 2022 REEL

A Little more of what we do

Colorado

Colorado