Client: The Ocean Hyperbaric Neurologic Center, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, FL
Summary: To re-write, re-design and direct the re-production of a medical case study documentary, using source footage that was severely degraded, improperly shot, and overall a giant mess, that had to be color-corrected and image-stabilized
The result: A very happy client:
“Jon has performed exceptionally well, and the results became apparent soon after our affiliation began. Our business has increased significantly, and we are much better organized. OHNC has received compliments from all over the world regarding the media that Jon reconstructed (particularly our videos and website).”
– Richard A. Neubauer, M.D., Medical Director
Contents
(1) Background
(2) Dr. Neubauer’s discovery of how bad OHNC’s cerebral palsy case study video was — and his retention of me to figure out how to fix it
(3) My assessment of, and recommendations regarding this video
(4) The new cerebral palsy case study video that I wrote, designed and produced
(5) Dr. Neubauer’s testimonial for my work
(1) Background
The Ocean Hyperbaric Neurologic Center (OHNC) was a South Florida medical facility that used hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to treat severe neurological injuries, such as Cerebral Palsy, birth defects, near-drownings, stroke, and traumas.
Richard Neubauer M.D. (1922-2007), who founded the OHNC and acted as its Medical Director for 35 years, is considered the “father” of HBOT for neurological rehabilitation. He earned a worldwide reputation for integrity and scientific rigor, and is the author of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Read more about Dr. Neubauer here.
Here is an excellent ten minute video introduction to Dr. Neubauer and his pioneering use of HBOT, “The Recoverable Brain” (Parts 2 & 3 are located here and here).
I first became acquainted with Dr. Neubauer in the course of interviewing him for the print magazine I created and published in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, The Galt Ocean Mile INSIDER:
(2) Dr. Neubauer’s discovery of how bad OHNC’s cerebral palsy case study video was — and his retention of me to figure out how to fix it
One of the primary means by which the OHNC marketed itself was through “case study” documentary videos, showing patients’ statuses before, during and after HBOT.
Despite the prestige Dr. Neubauer had earned within the medical community, the videotape that OHNC was distributing containing case studies of its pediatric neurorehabilitation work, specifically regarding cerebral palsy, was in terrible shape. He only belatedly discovered this fact, in 1999, after being alerted to it by some of the physicians and scientists around the world, to whom his staff had forwarded the videos.
As he was traveling so much at the time, Dr. Neubauer had little control over the production of these videos, and entrusted their development to his Director of Marketing & PR, and certain staff members who told him they had experience in video production. (They were all fired after what you’re about to read was discovered).
Prior to this, Dr. Neubauer had retained me to work on some other media related tasks, and was thrilled with the result of my:
Rush re-writing and re-design of a print ad for an OHNC-sponsored symposium on pediatric neurorehabilitation.
Development of a logo icon to represent the scientific acronym for hyperbaric oxygen: “HBO2″.
Development of a graphic identity for “Neuro2,” a first-ever international symposium that Dr. Neubauer was organizing on HBOT for neurorehabilitation.
Based on these successes, Dr. Neubauer retained me to evaluate OHNC’s case study videos, and make recommendations for improvement.
(3) My assessment of, and recommendations regarding this video
My major findings included:
- The raw footage was being shot on several consumer-level 8mm cameras by a resident HBOT technician with no experience in video production or graphics, and was extremely amateurish (jerkiness, purposeless zooms & pans, etc.).
- This technician then “produced” and duplicated the finished videos on a VHS to VHS makeshift “editing” system, with severely pixellated “titles” being generated on a low-end graphics program (see an example of this technician’s design ability here).
- The videos suffered from severe color problems (skin tones were shades of green; the whites of peoples’ eyes were shades of red, etc.), in part because of no color balancing, and the fact that the master tapes were being stored in open boxes, with no protection against the South Florida humidity and salty air.
- The final videos appeared extremely amateurish, and it was only after the first round of them were distributed that Dr. Neubauer began receiving negative reports on them from physician colleagues around the world.
- This was all being done under the supervision of his Director of Marketing/PR, whom he later admitted to me he hired out of nepotism.
My recommendations to Dr. Neubauer were:
(1) To immediately stop distributing any of the existing videos
(2) To destroy all copies in their possession
(3) To retain me (or another professional) to:
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- Review, label and log all scenes on all raw videos
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- Identify the best scenes and stitch them together into sequences
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- Take all the raw videos to a professional video processing facility (in Arizona), where the targeted sequences can be stabilized (from jerkiness) and color corrected
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- Create a bright, clean, standardized on-screen graphic standard for presenting key information about each video that the viewer is about to see
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- Establish new, written procedures for shooting, logging and storing new footage, to ensure these problems could never be repeated
Dr. Neubauer retained me to execute these tasks. This act created such tension and resentment among his support staff, who were responsible for the messes I documented, that he fired all of them.
(4) The new cerebral palsy case study video that I wrote, designed and produced
The work required approximately six months of my time, and a small fortune on the OHNC’s part.
The result of all this work was the new video, “Cerebral Palsy and the Brain-Injured Child,” the first 8:00 of which is comprised of the case studies that I recreated for Dr. Neubauer. While to the modern eye this video may look primitive, it is light years ahead of where it was, in 1999.
(5) Dr. Neubauer’s testimonial for my work
The following is an excerpt of the letter of recommendation that Dr. Neubauer wrote for me, shortly before I relocated from South Florida to Charlottesville, VA. It also references a major follow-up project I did for him – to deconstruct, rewrite and redesign the OHNC’s entire website, which suffered from a similar array of problems:
“When I retained Jon, I had high hopes, but no expectations. Until that time, OHNC had been ill-served by its public relations and creative/media consultants. […]
“Jon has proven to be a multi-talented, exceptionally valuable asset to OHNC. Jon’s work… required that he research, analyze, deconstruct, then reconstruct OHNC’s existing media, and consult on overall strategies – and even business operations, down to the smallest detail. In all of the above work realms, Jon has performed exceptionally well, and the results became apparent soon after our affiliation began. Our business has increased significantly, and we are much better organized.
OHNC has received compliments from all over the world regarding the media that Jon reconstructed (particularly our videos and website).” […]
– Richard A. Neubauer, M.D., December 14, 2002
The trophy
Soon after Dr. Neubauer’s colleagues in medical clinics and universities around the world indicated their relief at his recreated cerebral palsy case study video, he did something that still puts a smile on my face, 20 years later.
I was taking a break, on a bicycle ride along the ocean, when it began drizzling, and I headed home. I then received an urgent call from Dr. Neubauer’s secretary, who said he was having an emergency and needed me to stop by his office ASAP. I explained my situation, but agreed to head over to his office.
Upon entering, I discovered that while he had a trophy made up for me, labeled “World’s Best Creative Consultant.” It was a period of heavy travel for him, and he was only in town for this day, which was the reason for the urgency, plus, he liked springing surprises on his friends and colleagues, as you can almost see in his grin.
It was one of the great honors of my life to have had the opportunity to help advance Dr. Neubauer’s remarkable work, and to call him a close personal friend.