STONE BRIDGE Productions shares the same vision and passion as MOVE Communications for stories worth telling. 

It was a call from Brian Belanger in the spring of 2008 that started the ball rolling. Brian, a producer/director/composer from Royal Oak who I’ve worked with over the years, shared with me the story, “November Requiem”, that he was writing and beginning to shoot in the sleepy town of Rogers City, Michigan. It was just the kind of story I love to shape. And it was a few short weeks later that we were editing the trailer, in order for the producer, Anne Belanger Marlowe (Bon Ami filmworks), to use as a tool to raise grant money to proceed with the project. November Requiem tells the story about the community of Rogers City, and the effects and healing following the loss of 23 of its sailors that went down with the Carl D. Bradley November 18, 1958. 

The trailer was edited using Final Cut Pro, on a MacBook Pro, at the STONE BRIDGE Productions Milan location. John Kaley (MotionPixel Images) added his AfterFX magic to several of the scenes and title sequences of the trailer (you can watch it at YouTube). John later composited the flashback scenes in the final film. The full-length documentary was edited at the Ann Arbor location, under the same roof as MOVE Communications, with the addition of a Mac Pro workstation. 

The much anticipated film debuted at the Rogers City Theatre November 18, 2008 to the community which had suffered the loss of 23 of its fathers, brothers, and husbands 50 years earlier. Rogers City held a week of commemorative events remembering the men lost on the Carl D. Bradley, and the debut of the film was one of the central events. It was met with tearful gratitude for the telling of a story, which had been repressed, but not forgotten, for so many of the town’s people. The recovery of the ships’ bell in 2007 was featured in November Requiem, and family members were able to see it, touch it and ring it, for the first time in 50 years. For those whose loved ones were never recovered from the wreck, they were able to experience closure that they never had before. 

Congratulations to everyone involved in November Requiem for being honored with a Golden CINE award this June. What an honor and privilege to tell the story of such an intensely personal event that changed the lives of so many people in a small close-knit community.  My gratitude goes out to Don Hart at MOVE Communications for his years of mentoring and support to enable me, and my endeavor of STONE BRIDGE Productions, to undertake a project of this scope and import. Here’s to many more. 

David Peterson
STONE BRIDGE Productions

July 3, 2009, marks our 25^th Anniversary as a company.  Twenty-five years ago I went down to the Washtenaw County Building in Ann Arbor and filed a d.b.a. of Donald Hart called Hart Productions.  At that time I had no idea of the adventure and trial I was inviting my wife and family into.  Thank goodness!

Over the past 25 years, we’ve changed our name from Hart Productions to Hart Media Group to MOVE Communications, but all along the way we’ve endeavored to help our clients move ahead by moving hearts and minds.  Our core ability is to distill the essence of your story and express it through the right idea.  Within the communication arts we work as strategic artists to glorify God, provide for our families and enrich the human community.  We hope we’ve helped to shape a better world by connecting people to people, and people to brands.

And to some of those people, our customers and colleagues…

In business, nothing happens without a customer.  In our case, our customers are primarily other businesses. It is because of your initiative, skill and determination to deal with all the ambiguities of this thing called business that products and services are brought to market. We honor you for what you do for communities in Michigan and around the world.  And we thank you for commissioning us to do some of the work that has helped you succeed.  It has been a privilege working together.

Equally true, without people a business would not go and grow.  And here we want to highlight our great debt to employees and supplier partners.  Through the years, your skills of insight and creativity, practical know-how and human sensitivity have seen us through the inevitable ups and downs, fires and floods of business life.  Thank you for coping with our quirks and mistakes, for filling in the many gaps and lifting us on your shoulders.

Robert Greenleaf, in his work Servant Leadership, points to Jesus as the consummate servant leader—because his life and mission epitomized love of God and love of neighbor.  It is this model that we’ve endeavored to emulate and hope to grow in going forward.  Greenleaf expresses the test of servant leadership this way and invites businesses to take the test:

“Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become servants?  And what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or at least will they not be further deprived?”

We hope we’re passing the test.

As I look back over the years, I also “know with my knower” that it was God and his great goodness that has sustained us as we follow him.  We have at times been stretched to the absolute limits of what our family could sustain, but always, always, there has been a divine mercy to carry us through.

May all of us move ahead with that confidence—knowing that the best is yet to come.

If you've ever worked in a coporate setting or gone to high school, you've probably taken a personality test at one point or another.  I generally think that they are helpful.  They can help co-workers gain insight into how to interact with one another and read each other.  They can help guide individuals to a career path.  But the one thing that always trips me up is the Introvert/Extrovert thing.  I'm not an introvert, but I wouldn't really classify myself as a true extrovert either.  When I think of the extroverts that I know, I think of people who really feed off of big group settings and are really good at networking.  I wouldn't consider myself to be one of those people.

Networking is one of those facts of business life.  It makes most of us pretty uncomfortable (except aforementioned true extroverts).  There are lots of benefits to networking.  It's an opportunity to learn from people with different expertise than you.  Many sales happen because someone knows someone and those connections can happen at networking events.  And if nothing else, it's a good way to find out what is going on in the community.  But just because it's good, doesn't make it easy.

I went to a women's networking event last night with a friend of mine.  It was hosted by her company.  I only knew two people there.  My friend ended up having to leave early for another engagement.  That's usually when I would leave something like that.  I'm alright when I know someone but when I'm on my own it's much harder.  But I sat down with the other woman that I only sort-of know and a few other women and ended up closing out the event.  And I had a great time.  I really enjoyed the conversation and met some women that I otherwise never would have come into contact with.  I hate to admit it but I kind of feed of of that interaction.  Maybe I swing a little further towards extrovert than I thought.

Like me, many of you are probably a little uneasy about networking, so here are some networking tips:
1. Bring a friend who is commited to meeting people too, not just being a wall flower.  It helps to have someone who you know to facilitate conversation with.  Just make sure not to stick to yourselves. 
2. Ask the people you speak with lots of questions about their interests.  I think that I've been told this before but I can't tell you how true it is.  People really open up when they are talking about things they care about.
3. Be informed about local, national and international issues so that you can participate in conversations. Obviously don't be confrontational about your views but it's always good to have a topic in your back pocket.
4. Don't try to sell people something.  If it happens naturally that there is a business connection, great.  But don't do it artificially.
5. Don't take yourself too seriously.  Everyone else feels awkward too. 

This past weekend I participated with my husband and some friends in the Hawk-I-Tri, a sprint triathlon in Lansing, MI.  This is my 3rd triathlon.  The other two that I've done were a sprint and an olympic distance in the Chicago triathlon.  The difference in scale between the Chicago and the Hawk-I was pretty stark.  There are nearly 8,000 participants each year in Chicago and there were around 630 participants in the Hawk-I.  The Chicago is quite an experience.  You swim in the marina, bike on Lake Shore Dr. and run in the grounds surrounding the aquarium, ending in Grant Park.  It's kind of exciting to be part of something that big.

So when we signed up for this triathlon, I didn't really know what to expect.  I might have had a little bit of an elitest mentality going into it because it "couldn't be as good of a triathlon as the big Chicago one."  I also hadn't trained as well for this one as I have for my previous two. It definitely wasn't as organized as the Chicago but for a small local triathlon it was very well organized.  They had a number of resources for beginners and the course was well-marked.  And honestly, I had my best race.  I wasn't nervous.  I was able to push myself but I never felt like I was dying.  I think part of that is just mental.  I know I can do it, I've done a much longer distance than this before.  But I think part of it was the scale.  It wasn't as intimidating so I was more comfortable and I saw all of my friends/family during the race which definitely gave me a boost.

I find that it's easy for me to think that if I'm not doing something on a big scale, then its not worth doing.  But sometimes its the small organizations or just one person who can have a profound impact on people because what they do can be personal.  Sometimes in the middle of a tough project we tell ourselves that "it's not personal, it's just business."  But really it is personal.  Business has to be personal.  It might cost me $.25 more but I like going to the Zingerman's Roadshow because I get good service there and they're friendly.  We might not necessarily know each other's names, but I feel like I have a relationship with them.  We're coming up on our 25th anniversary here at MOVE and we've been reflecting a little on our history.  We're fortunate to still have relationships with some of those people who were around almost 25 years ago.  We're a small company but as we reflect, we've found that we have been able to accomplish a lot because we have invested in relationships.  And as I reflect on my race, I think that there were a lot of people who were able to participate in it and feel confident because it was an approachable size and it felt personal.      

Last year I participated in the ann arbor area chamber of commerce Leadership Ann Arbor program.  Part of the Leadership mission statement is to provide "a foundation for the development of a sustainable, vital community whose vision is based upon an informed and committed business community."  The program begins with an orientation and then an overnight retreat.  After that, one Wednesday a month, for the next 8 months the group learns about a different sector of the community including education, health care, local government, community services and others.  It's a very diverse group of people who participate each year. 

Last year I missed the May day, Quality of Life which focuses on arts, sports and other leisure opportunities in the area.  Lindsay, the fabulous director of the program, said that I could come back this year and make it up.  So 2 weeks ago, I tagged along with this year's class.  We started out at Gallup Park for a tour with some of the natural area preservation employees.  I'm ashamed to admit that I've never even been in the part of the park that we walked through.  They're doing a lot of work to restore some of the natural vegetation and get rid of the invasive species that have taken over many of the spaces that we think of as "natural".  Then we headed over to Hill Auditorium for a little tour that included a peak into the organ room.  We also had someone from The Ark, the A2 Summer Festival, and UMS speak to us about their programs that bring some of the best artists to the Ann Arbor area.  Then we headed over to WEMU, the public radio station on Eastern Michigan University's campus.  We are fortunate to have two great public radio stations in the A2 area but WEMU is known for jazz and a focus on local news and information. 

Next we headed to lunch at Pizza House followed by a trip to the Michigan Theater.  At the Michigan Theater we heard some of the background of the theater and movies from Russ Collins, the CEO and exec director.   He and Ron Olson, the chief of the parks & rec division of the SoM Dept. of Natural Resources, were our hosts or tour guides for the day.  We also heard from Amy Milligan from the Neutral Zone about the great work they do providing opportunities for artistic expression and community leadership for the youth in our community.  Amy is actually a fellow alum of the 2008 Leadership class.  Next we headed over to the UofM athletic campus for a tour of the football practice facilities.  We were all pleasantly surprised when Coach Rich Rodriguez came to speak to us.  Finally, we headed over to the Ann Arbor Art Center where we got to paint a mug. 

All in all it was a great day.  I highly recommend the program.  I have lived in Ann Arbor for most of my life but I learned so much about the sectors of the community that I don't come into contact with very much.  And it really helped me expand my network.  I was definitely aware of that when I attended this year's Quality of Life day and ran into a number of people that I know because of Leadership connections.  My participation in Leadership was also the catalyst for me to find ways to get more involved in the community through volunteer opportunities and a city advisory board.  If you can't commit the amount of time to do Leadership, there are other opportunities to get a little of the same experience. Russ Collins hosts the Morning Edition events through the chamber and the chamber has even done a couple of events that are formatted like a mini Leadership Economic Development day.  We're really blessed to have a number of organizations that improve our quality of life and make Ann Arbor a wonderful place to live.

Everyone knows that the city of Detroit has seen better days.  I've heard a number of people say that we Michiganders do some of the worst damage to the national reputation of the city.  In spite of this, there are a lot of people working very hard to turn the city around and return it to a thriving metropolis.  But it's a slow process. 

One of the best examples of this is the election for the interim Detroit mayor, a vacancy created by the resignation of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick after his text message/purgery scandal.  I really wouldn't have been surprised if either of the candidates, Ken Cockrel, Jr. or Dave Bing, would have won.  It turned out that Dave Bing pulled out a come from behind lead on election day.  But what did surprise me is that only 15 percent of registered voters turned out to vote.  What that says to me is that the voters of Detroit are weary (to borrow the title of a song from Sufjan Stevens, a Michigan native).  They're tired of politics.  And that might be what won the election for Dave Bing.  He's not a politician.  I live in Ann Arbor so I'm not right up in the middle of the Detroit scene but I only saw one campaign ad during the campaign.  I think it was on freep.com and it was one put out by the Cockrel campaign attacking Dave Bing for something, I think it was for being an outsider.  When I heard that only 15% of registered voters turned out, my first thought was "Well, they didn't do very good marketing."  Maybe it's the economy and budgets are tight, maybe it's that it was an interim election, but it seemed like we didn't hear very much about it. 

Just today, I opened up our copy of Crain's and saw an article about how Dave Bing won the election because of the "brand" that he built for himself.  The Cockrel campaign's biggest criticisms of Bing were that he was an outsider and was in with big business.  But Bing's campaign was able to turn those around and brand himself as someone who wasn't linked to any of the negative things about politics in recent years and who would think about running the city like he would run a business.  When we are working with our clients to develop a strong brand we ask ourselves is it "true from the inside out"?  If a brand doesn't represent who you really are, it won't be effective.   I hope for the sake of Detroit, and our state, that the Dave Bing brand is one that is true from the inside out. 

In As Good As it Gets, Melvin Udall, played by notorious happy talk actor Jack Nicholson, has a great line that expresses what all of us in the business world have felt at some time in the midst of a pressure-cooker work week.  It’s the retort you’re dying to blurt out when someone adds another straw to the proverbial camel’s back—“Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here.”  If you realize that you’re about to rip someone’s head off, take that as a sign that you need to experience a little work life balance.  Invite yourself out to lunch, take a half day off, go dig in your garden, or in my case, go ride a unicycle.  You’d be surprised what a little break can do to get your equilibrium back.  Good job, keep going. 

You may have heard a few weeks ago about President Obama's gift to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a collection of classic American movies.  The British were appalled of course because it was so low-brow of the Americans to give movies as a gift, when the Brits brought a pen from a 19th century British war ship.  But the biggest problem with the whole thing was that the offending DVDs didn't even play in the Browns' DVD player. 

Why didn't they play?  Well, the powers that be created DVD player regulations to allow the movie industry to control when, with what content, and for what price DVDs are released in different parts of the world.  So DVDs have to be authored specifically for the players in the regions where they are going to be used.  Some DVD players are universal so they can play DVDs from any region but most consumer players are regional.  Mr. Brown had a bunch of Region 1 DVDs that don't play on a Region 2 DVD player.

We don't have to do it a lot but at least a couple of times a year, I have to send videos to clients in Europe and Asia.  In the video world we were still using Beta pretty regularly until the past 3 or 4 years so the switch to DVD made things a little bit easier.  Now we have a new format, Blu-ray.  I had a moment of panic the other day when we sent a Blu-ray disc to Germany and one to China because I had forgotten about regions.  Fortunately, our encoding mastermind informed me that they were created as universal region discs.  There are only 3 regions for Blu-ray and according to Wikipedia, almost 70% of Blu-ray are region-free so it's getting easier but there's still some level of complexity that most of us never think about, even the President of the United States.

The lesson for me is that in an increasingly global business-world we need to spend a little time understanding the culture of our clients and partners, whether it's how to greet someone or what region their DVD player is. 

I would like to begin this entry by giving a “shout out” to Dan, the Assistant Trainer at Panera on Jackson Road in Ann Arbor.  Not only did he assist me in getting a dozen very delicious hand-picked bagels for our team last Friday, he taught me something just before I left about shaping a company culture. 

I saw his name badge with his title included and I asked what he thought about training.  “You’ve got to train every day,” he said. “People may have worked here for three years and be very good at what they do, but they don’t know all the jobs—so there’s always something to learn.” 

When he said “every day” something went “ding-ding” inside me.  To shape an atmosphere—a culture—a “way” that you do things, there has to be support and reinforcement every day.  In our particular situation at MOVE, we’ve had a culture where an entrepreneurial “jump in and figure it out” attitude was valued.  We haven’t really had a prevailing culture of training—of equipping people with the preparation they need to fulfill roles that work inside a process.  We are now addressing that issue and working to develop a culture of learning—where instruction is taking place somewhere in the company each day--and every day each individual is conscious of learning as part of this approach to continuous improvement. 

One client of ours that does very well in this area is Ductz, the nation’s leader in indoor air quality.  They work regularly to build culture, especially a culture of training.  If you’re interested in finding out more, I’m certain that John Rotche and his team can give you some tips.  Also, check out ZingTrain, the Zingerman’s training and culture-building company. 

So, my thanks to Dan for his “teaching” moment—the “value added” along with my dozen Panera bagels.  And to all the rest of us, here’s to building our diverse cultures each and every day!