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Posts Tagged ‘Robert Farthing’

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RIESTER’s Robert Farthing: Telling people’s stories.

Written on December 28th, 2011 | Posted by RIESTER
Robert Farthing.

Robert Farthing.

RIESTER: What do you do at RIESTER?

Robert Farthing: I am one half of the Content Production department along with my partner Linda Hart. I like to say that I am a professional fire fighter and have a full rack of different style hats that I put on from time to time to get a job done. Two years ago we were the Broadcast Production department, but with the way business has changed to include more content creation for Internet, we now cross over into all departments more than ever. I help with television, radio, special events and finding a way to do the really weird stuff we like to do from time to time for a client.

RIESTER: Discuss one project you’re working on right now.

Robert: 2011 was filled with a lot of anti-tobacco related content for both teen prevention and adult cessation. We are just finishing up some incredible spots for Ashline called Real Quitters II. I’m really proud of them. I am just starting the planning and coordinating stages of a trip around the world to film alumni for the Thunderbird school of global management, and putting together some B-roll of a recent shoot we did for La Victoria during the tomato harvest in Central California

RIESTER: What book or film do you recommend?

Robert: Book – Practicing The Power of Now because it helps keep the crazy freak out moments of life in advertising in perspective. Film – I would recommend Corvette Summer because sometimes it’s really fun to watch a truly horrible movie and wonder how in the world it ever got made.

RIESTER: What advice do you have for people?

Robert: See how long you can sit perfectly still and silent. Its harder than you think – but worth every second you can get.

RIESTER: What separates the good from the great when it comes to marketing campaigns?

Robert: Good campaigns get you to listen. Great Campaigns get you to act.

RIESTER: What trend in our industry is the most exciting to you?

Robert: I like the trend of capturing life around a product, telling the stories of the people who are our clients, and the people who use our client’s products or services. Putting a face to a brand name and finding out how it impacts of affects their lives in a meaningful way.

RIESTER: What are you excited about for 2012?

Robert: What’s the new Mayan Calendar going to look like?

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Robert Farthing

RIESTER Producer Robert Farthing contributes to a Sundance Film Festival film.

Written on January 28th, 2011 | Posted by Robert Farthing

Early in the summer of 2010, a call went out across the globe for people to film their day on July 24 and submit the footage via YouTube to be included in what was promoted as an experiment. The film was produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald.

The goal was to assemble the footage into a full length documentary time capsule of a day in the life of the world. The filmmakers received over 80,000 entries from 192 countries with over 10,000 hours of footage.

The footage was edited into a 90-minute film called “Life in a Day.” It premiered last night in two venues: to a live audience at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and to anyone on the planet with access to YouTube.

When I first came across this project in June of 2010 I was inspired to participate after watching the short introductory films of the director and producers talking of their vision and setting the stage for content based on four questions: What do you love? What makes you laugh? What do you fear? What is in your pockets?

From the deep and philosophical questions of life to the simple mundane, I was curious and felt inspired to contribute. I nearly forgot about it until the morning of July 24th 2010 when I woke up abruptly at 4:00 AM – “today is the day.”

Having no idea what I would be inspired to shoot that day, I jumped up on the roof of my house in Arizona in the predawn hour with my Canon 5D and my digital audio recorder to capture time lapse footage of the sunrise while recording whatever thoughts or ideas would come along the way.

The day turned into a rather quiet, serene and contemplative day spent pointing the camera to the sky. All day I watched clouds shifting and building and spoke to the recorder as I began to sink into a rather profound connection to the thousands of other people around the world doing the same thing I was doing.

This was one of the gifts of the day. There was something deeply moving in knowing that there were tens of thousands of us out in the world experiencing something different, but sharing a single intent to capture the spirit of this day as it unfolded.

As the storm clouds grew into late afternoon, it was apparent that we were in for our first good monsoon storm. I headed to one of my favorite spots, Lookout Mountain in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. It proved to be one of the most dramatic sunsets I have ever experienced, complete with distant storm cells, divine cloud breaks that let sun rays travel in all directions and an open horizon line at the end that exploded in the rich colors that Arizona sunsets are famous for. I knew I had captured something truly beautiful for the film.

I submitted the footage via YouTube and then waited. Slowly over the course of a few weeks, they started posting the raw footage in an archive library on the “Life in a Day” YouTube Channel.

It was fascinating to see this archive in its uncut state. You could get a feel instantly of what might come from the movie. Eventually I was contacted by the producers and asked to send in HD master files of a few of the clips, including the sunset time lapse. I signed the release waivers and was thrilled to be accepted into the final cut stage.

As it turns out, the sunset did not make the final cut of the film. It may sound cliché to say that it really didn’t matter if my footage made it in the film or not, but everything leading up to the screening was truly the reward including—the profound feeling of being connected to humanity on the day of filming, to breaking through the fear of sharing and publicly posting my personal thoughts on love and fear.

The moments of anticipation leading up to the screening and the subsequent support of my Facebook circle of friends who were supportive, proud and excited for me. WOW. This social media evolution is truly something.

National Geographic and YouTube will launch the film theatrically on July 24, 2011, one year from the date of filming.

It turned out to be an incredibly touching film that captures an abundance of ordinary and extraordinary moments all across the globe. It is a film about our connection to everyone else on the planet on a relatively simple day in time. There is something for people to connect with there and if you can see it someday – make time to connect and check it out.

The crowning moment of the entire “Life in a Day” filming adventure. Watch in full screen mode if possible:

Visit the “Life in a Day” YouTube channel for more video clips: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

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RIESTER

RIESTER helps Make-A-Wish Foundation share its inspiring mission.

Written on November 16th, 2010 | Posted by RIESTER

For three decades Make-A-Wish Foundation has been granting wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Make-A-Wish has brightened the lives of very young people in very difficult situations. Its inspired all of us who have watched as it changes one very important life at a time.

Take a moment to watch this video produced by RIESTER’s Robert Farthing featuring a young man named Darren. See how Darren used his wish to bring together his entire community.

Visit Make-A-Wish to learn more and to make a donation, small or large, to this incredible organization.

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Robert Farthing

Robert Farthing, Brand Activist for the Thunderbird School of Global Management, sends his final report from Geneva.

Written on November 21st, 2009 | Posted by Robert Farthing
Geneva in 2009, by Robert Farthing.

Geneva in 2009, by Robert Farthing.

I have spent the last eight days in Geneva, Switzerland, on assignment photographing and interviewing forty Executive MBA students from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. As I sit to write my final report from Switzerland the sky is grey, the air chilly, and the sounds of mopeds, tram bells and pedestrians drift through my third floor hotel window. It has been a long week: exhausting, invigorating, compelling and thought provoking.

I began working with Thunderbird a year ago on a video that included portrait style interviews blending images of life on Thunderbird’s Glendale, Arizona campus with those of Thunderbird students traveling abroad. I interviewed faculty, staff, and undergraduate students at various stages of their education. During that project I first realized what Brand Activism means for me personally.

REISTER shares mutual values with Thunderbird: Each organization strives to activate and inspire people to be the best they can, within the personal and organizational missions that drive them. Thunderbird School of Global Management evokes a powerful spirit of thoughtfulness and compassion on a global scale and you can not help being swept up in what is often referred to as “the Thunderbird Mystique.” When you ask a student about this mystique or global mindset, which is at the core of a Thunderbird education, you will get many different responses that all recognize an empowering sensation that resonates within, creating the desire to work for a purpose greater than yourself.

Thunderbird Executive MBA students are successful professionals who have a wide range of life and work experiences, be they financial executives, entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs or CFOs. Some work for major national and international firms, while others are transitioning in their careers. They come from all over the world. They are striking in their individuality, yet Thunderbird instills in them a foundation of common principles and creates a collective identity. You can go anywhere in the world and find a T-Bird. Alumni honor the Thunderbird brand as exemplary global citizens.

No matter where they are from or how they aspire to apply their education, I find T-Birds to be strong- minded dreamers with a vision to transfer the knowledge and skills they are gaining in ways that aid others in the world. They want to create sustainable prosperity within their field of interest and expertise. They have a concrete value base built on being a global citizen in a changing world. Some will work in developing countries, with farmers or refugees, threading together powerful networks to serve the less fortunate in our societies. Others, representing a broad spectrum of corporate brands, have clearly expanded their views to embody a wider view of the way the world needs to do business, conscious of their impact on humanity.

I leave my adventure in the beautiful setting of Geneva transformed as I know these remarkable Thunderbird students have been. By sharing our mutual interests in activating people to rise above old ways of thinking, I am inspired to be a better activist for all the brands we represent at RIESTER. Behind the products, services and causes our clients represent is the power of human beings with a wealth of dreams, visions and desires we can help them harness. Serving as a Brand Activist for Thunderbird is an experience I will carry with me always.

Bon Jour.

Robert Farthing
Geneva, Switzerland

View of Lake Geneva from Thunderbird's campus, by Robert Farthing.

View of Lake Geneva from Thunderbird's campus, by Robert Farthing.

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Robert Farthing

Robert Farthing’s second report from Geneva where he is traveling with the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Written on November 18th, 2009 | Posted by Robert Farthing
World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

I am not an espresso drinker usually, so this must explain the fact that it is 2:30 in the morning here after a full day and evening and I am writing to share the day.  I think I found the cure for that mid afternoon wall I tend to hit at my desk when nothing sounds better to me than a power nap!

Today I was letting my mind wander around one of the consistent themes that come up when talking to Thunderbird MBA students and that is the idea of being a “global citizen.”  What does it mean exactly?  Am I a global citizen?  Do you have to aspire to run global organizations, or to travel extensively and speak multiple languages?  There is more for me to see and hear before I can offer anything deeper than the fact that I might actually be able to learn French if I really tried.

Tuesday in Geneva was unseasonably warm. It felt like a great winter day in Arizona – minus the brown cloud of smog.  Today was a day when our three person marketing production team headed out on our own to meet with an alumnus at his place of business in the morning and then bussed into the world renowned financial district of Geneva for photos that captured the essence of international business and finance here in this truly international city.  It was a lunchtime scene dotted with book fairs, vendors, cobblestone alleys, street musicians (some friendly, some not) and waves of elegantly dressed business folk maneuvering deftly through bicycles, trolleys, trams, buses and mopeds.  I don’t mean to poke at my hometown of Phoenix, but I wonder if a couple hundred years of business and culture in our downtown center would develop a similar richness and depth of character that you feel walking through this area?

Afterwards we rushed to the new satellite campus of Thunderbird here in Geneva. Historic Chateaus are used for classrooms. The student housing is in post-modern buildings. It all sits within a majestic public park at the edge of Lake Geneva. The snow-capped Alps were off in the distance.  I am sure a poet could find all the right words to describe the fall colors carpeting the grounds along with the young lovers that cooed at each other, perched on an old stone wall, while my photo partner Andrew and I ran around like crazy men capturing all the pictures we could in the limited hour of dying light that we had.

We closed our work day interviewing two students at the hotel.  One in particular, a business executive from Brazil, nearly brought us to tears with the recounting of the way in which he surprised his mother by flying his wife and young son to her home with him to Brazil to share the news that he was accepted to the Thunderbird School of Global Management.  For him the quest to be a Thunderbird student was a dream that started 12 years earlier.  The development sessions that the students participated in today were discussions about the concepts and practical applications of creating sustainable prosperity in global business ventures.  Sustainable prosperity is one of those unique Thunderbird applications that impress the principals of sustainability into the global business mindset.  For this student from Brazil, something clicked today and he was one step deeper into his life as a global citizen.

Below is a video we shot late this evening that further inspires the feeling of being a global citizen.  It is the bells peeling at Cathedral St. Pierre in old town Geneva.  For me it synthesized a day having immersed myself one step deeper into a global mindset, head swimming with the ever moving definitions of a citizenship on the planet and eyes keyed to capture the spirit of men and women striving to develop sustainable prosperity on an international level.  Sometimes you just have to stop and appreciate something beautiful to have it all make sense.

Bon Jour.

Robert Farthing
Geneva, Switzerland

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Robert Farthing

Robert Farthing, RIESTER’s Brand Activist for the Thunderbird School of Global Management, reports from Geneva.

Written on November 17th, 2009 | Posted by Robert Farthing
The Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

There have been many moments throughout my career in production when I have found myself standing on location in an unusual place. I would look around and appreciate all the elements that came together that brought me to that moment in time when something remarkable was happening. Tonight I am reflecting on a day filled with remarkable moments.

I have the humble pleasure of being on assignment in Geneva, Switzerland this week.  I am following 40 Executive MBA students from Thunderbird School of Global Management.  My job is to track these students through the experiences of their day as they meet with influential diplomats, economists and esteemed professors.  These are men and women who meet every other week on the Thunderbird campus in Glendale, Arizona over 18 months and this is their first trip abroad for an immersion experience in international business.  The group is a microcosm of the globe with students from places like Pakistan, Brazil, Mongolia, South Africa, the United States and many other countries.  

My task initially has been to be invisible and to capture in still photos, pure moments of their experience here, whether it be engaged in a thought provoking debate with a cohort on child labor issues, or gazing out picturesque windows of the conference room deep in thought, pondering what it means to be a global citizen today.

Today we went to the U.N. and toured the great chambers, where issues of the world have been debated for decades.  I could not help but feel the power of the historic and relevant decisions that have been made here as we moved through hallways of marble in this storied building that was originally built for the League of Nations. 

To be on the floor of the U.N. under the great golden symbol of peace and unity and standing with these students from all over the world was an intense experience.  I am captivated by the students as people and to be able to watch them through a long zoom lens as they debate with passion and compassion on important global matters is an honor.  It’s exciting to witness the spark of enthusiasm through their eyes as they experience a personal epiphany.  Here we were where leadership characteristics like this matter. It is the human quality of compassion, care and concern blending with practical knowledge and the desire to drive the world to a better place.  These are the qualities of leadership that I see being transferred to the men and women in this class from Thunderbird and it was humbling and remarkable to be there.

Although there were many remarkable moments today it seems fitting to end my first entry for this travel blog with this one particular moment. Today I was a RIESTERite standing in the halls of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.  I felt humbled to be here on many levels and in a fleeting moment I felt the honor of what we get to do at the agency sometimes, and that is, to play a small role for a client which in turn empowers them to play a small role in the lives of people who may very well go on to change the world in a remarkable way.

Robert Farthing
Geneva, Switzerland

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