Now more than ever, it’s important to stay together, even while we stay apart. So I wanted to take a moment to personally wish you safety, health, and courage and to let you know about some recent events on our planet that have left me with new perspectives and a whole lot of gratitude.

Last week, a long-planned, long-anticipated trip to Patagonia came to a sudden end for me and my wife. While backpacking through Argentina’s Glaciares National Park, a ranger found us deep in the wilderness (in the shadow of Mt. Fitzroy, to be exact) and told us to pack up our tent and get out. All Argentine National Parks were closed in response to COVID-19.

Thus began a harrowing journey back home.

It took us 10 miles to hike out, and when we emerged, we found a changed world. Luckily, and by complete happenstance, we heard that the Argentine border was closing in just a few hours, leaving us little time to drive 300 miles to get back into Chile, our only way back to the US. 

With barely any sleep, we packed up and drove through the early morning hours, hopeful that we would avoid one of the many checkpoints the Argentine police had set up to enforce quarantines on all foreigners. Eventually, we managed to find an obscure border crossing on a potholed dirt road. My heart pounded as we approached the border guards, but thankfully, we were allowed to cross. 

Had we not heard about the border closing we’d still be in Argentina under quarantine. Many from the US, Europe, and elsewhere are still caught there with limited options–including a Belgian family of four we befriended.

Once in Chile, we had to decide if it was even wise to return home, as the situation in South America is much less dire than in Europe and the US, with far fewer cases and limited community spread (so far). Ultimately, though, we did decide to return. The pull of home, of familiarity and community, outweighed the risk. And I wanted to be closer to the Planet Nutshell team during the crisis. 

However, by the time we’d made the decision to come home, we found most flights were cancelled. Somehow (again, a pure stroke of good look) we ended up on a flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and from there, we boarded one of the last flights to the States. 

All told, it took us six days to get home after the park ranger evicted us. And throughout it all, the Planet Nutshell team has shown incredible resiliency, courage, and kindness. They’ve shown me yet again what a special group we have managed to assemble. I am deeply grateful.

There is no way to know how this situation will resolve. The only thing that’s for sure is that we will be all surely changed by it. At Planet Nutshell, we know change — however frightening — will push us to grow, to discover, and to help. 

Our team continues to work remotely and we remain open for business. To all those in the Planet Nutshell orbit, I invite you to reach out and say hello. Let us know how you are in this trying time.

Stay safe and be well.

We just wrapped up a pair of new projects for Alloy Therapeutics, a biotech startup that’s working to democratize drug development by making access to research tools much easier. Alloy’s mission is to aid the curing of diseases, and that means making sure small firms (and not just the big pharma companies) can create and test new drugs quickly.

In addition to a short, animated video outlining their first product platform, the Gx Mouse, the Alloy team asked us to create a live action video featuring their founder and CEO, Errik Anderson titled “Hello World.”

You read that right. We’re talking real people. Filmed. With a camera. No animation.

Oh, and did we mention this video was going to be used as a launch video? As in the launch of their entire company? Yeah, no pressure.

For help with production, we turned to Bagamor Media, headed up by Dan Lovering. Dan is a super talented documentary filmmaker and journalist (and if you haven’t seen his short film, Motorcycle Man, you should). We learned a ton from Dan’s team during the production process, and his shooting, editing, and sound design skills were vital.

Obviously, over the course of this project, we found there are some differences between animation and live action. Mainly, we found that unlike animation, live action documentary production is a process of subtraction. You go through some pre-production with the client and establish the kinds of shots you will need to effectively tell this story, and you use your shoot days to capture as much usable footage as you can. The video doesn’t find its true shape until you get into the editing room, though, after several rounds of careful revisions.

By contrast, with animation, the editing happens in advance of the production. Because animation is so labor intensive, the “editing” happens first in the form of a precise script and storyboard. Only after those are approved do we move on to the production phase of the project.

At the end of the day, though, no matter the visuals — live action or animation — a great video is driven by story. And stories have always been what Plant Nutshell is all about.

So… did we pull it off? I think so. But take a look at both these videos and let me know what you think.

Once again, we owe a big thanks to Dan and his team for their support with “Hello World.” And of course, our animation team was expectedly amazing in the Gx video.

Stay tuned, though! Because we’ve got more live action projects in the works, and the next one actually combines live action and animation in a single package. Get excited! Because we sure are.