This episode of “Adventures in Freelance” is brought to you by The Weather Channel.  A former colleague of mine contacted me awhile back and wanted me to produce a package for her series, Forecast Earth.  It’s one of The Weather Channel’s only original series and it’s all about climate change and such.  They do a “Grassroots Green” segment that showcases “homegrown heroes” for the environment.  My friend put me in touch with one in Alabama – a 17 year old named Josh Morrison.  Apparently he was already quite accomplished in the environmental world so I was sent out to get the story.

I did a bit of research and ended up talking to Josh’s mom, Renee.  She told me about how he started an organization called “Geeks in the Woods” and how he’s spoken at environmental conferences and such (at the ripe old age of 16).  She told me that Josh would be helping out at a Nature Camp for kids here soon so I made arrangements to meet them there.  I figured that would be a good place to start.

I hired my friend Jason to help me shoot the piece and we headed out to Jacksonville, Alabama the night before.  I made reservations at the University Inn right there on the main strip so I surely expected a treat.  When the older, Southern gentleman checked us in and said we could get “adult beverages” right down the way, I knew I was right.

The next morning we go meet Josh, meet his mom, meet his class of 20 kids (freakin’ adorable), and talk to a bunch of people.  We shoot all day, have some fun, and it basically turned out really nice.  Here are a couple pictures:

I’m including the package below too so you can see.  I’m going to include two versions though.  The interesting thing about freelance (or whenever you do one of these) is that your work is subject to someone else’s vision.  Meaning, they can change or add it as they see fit.  For my piece I was always supposed to deliver the “barebones” while they then supped it up with graphics and such (just so you know why it’s just the basic story).  Once The Weather Channel got it into their hands though, they added a few things.

Here is my version:


Here is how it aired:


And here is us goofin’ off in the middle of the shoot:


Overall, I’m quite happy with all versions.  It was a fun shoot.
Now I just need to find the next one!!