7/79 Ltd.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer – Front page of the Business section
Publish Date: Feb 4th, 2011
Story by Enquirer Reporter, Laura Baverman
Original online article at Cincinnati.com

Dan Phenice (Left) and Drew Money are partners in the Norwood video production firm Seven/Seventy-Nine, Ltd. Here, they’re shooting a commercial for Jellystone Park Camp Resorts.

Good video producers can make even the padding under Astroturf look cool.

Video, after all, is about finding a good story in just about anything.

That’s the mantra of Dan Phenicie and Drew Money, who left the corporate world a year ago to start Seven/Seventy-Nine Ltd. at the Hamilton County Business Center in Norwood.

Shooting video had for years been a hobby of the two college friends, who both were born in July 1979 (hence the name).

They’d write and produce short Quentin Tarantino-style feature films or quirky commercials for Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. and events like Over-the-Rhine’s BockFest. Others liked their work and by January 2010 they had enough of it to quit their jobs. Phenicie had been in politics and marketing and Money, product design.

Today, the pair has quadrupled the workload and plans to hire additional staff.

They’ve filmed Jellystone Park Camp Resorts commercials that aired in movie theaters before last year’s Warner Brothers production, Yogi Bear. They’ve produced videos of physicians explaining surgeries for Private Health News, also in the HCBC. Those are distributed to patients and families prior to an operation. And soon, they’ll begin filming a travel show for Time Warner Cable’s local On Demand station.

The documentary-style turf padding video was created for a client of the downtown ad agency The Creative Department.

And a new license with a technology company called Veeple in California now lets them embed interactive links in videos on YouTube or a web site. It could provide clients a new way to advertise products or services during videos. They’ll soon test the technology through a series of web shows featuring a pair of local entrepreneurs sharing tips and horror stories of starting a company. Coffee mugs, for example, could link to advertising for a coffee shop.

“We want to use video in ways people don’t think about,” said Phenicie.

Phenicie and Money have a team approach for any project. Phenicie is a strong writer and networker. He writes scripts and handles sales for the team. Money is the guy behind the camera and the computer, guiding the creative direction of the video and its editing.

They spend time with clients before a shoot, outlining goals for a video project. Who is the audience? Is the client trying to sell a product or service? Will the video just provide information? Is it for television or a web site? Does the client want it to spread through social networks online?

“We understand how to take a message for a client and apply it in the best way,” Money said.

They also work to save clients money during production.

Operating on a shoestring budget when producing was just a hobby has forced them to be creative in their techniques. They rent rather than own all the highest tech digital video equipment. They create the effect of two cameras while using just one. And they’ve determined unique ways to maximize light during shoots.

“We found our own techniques that make our videos look like they cost twice as much as they do,” Money said.

The men are making money and investing back into the company these days. They hope to soon have time to shoot for fun again too.

“We want to be useful for business and industry and produce good videos, but use that income to create artistically compelling stuff,” Money said.

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