PHOTO: MIKE GOTTSCHALK
EDWIN / NELSON EDUCATION
CREATIVE DIRECTION, CONTENT DEVELOPMENT, FILM PRODUCTION, POST-PRODUCTION, MUSIC COMPOSITION.
Edwin, the digital learning ecosystem, began as a startup idea within a company that has been known and respected for textbooks for over a hundred years: Nelson Education.
Edwin meets each learner where they are with an advanced set of learning tools. And Edwin keeps students engaged with continually updated, vetted content that both supports curriculum goals and saves teachers from having to do the legwork on the web themselves, late into the night.
We’ve been telling the Edwin story since its earliest stages.
We approach the Edwin story as active participants, in constant dialogue with Edwin’s architects, educators, and students. By sustaining this level of communication, we are able to capture nuance beyond that of a more classical client-creative studio relationship.
As remote learning becomes the norm, the Edwin community expands, and the storytelling modalities we embrace evolve with it.
KATE PELLERIN
is an educator based in Mississauga, Ontario. Her Learning Studio defies all expectations for a grade 8 classroom.
Blue-black paint covers the walls, incandescent floor lamps give off a soft, warm glow, and wooden standing desks, which students build themselves at the begining of the year, replace standard classroom furniture. This is a space where students discover that their passions can guide their own learning journey.
Kate’s class was the perfect Edwin pilot site, and the location for our first Edwin case study film.
THE MORNING AFTER
our first shoot day, we rose at dawn and filmed exteriors around Huntsville, and then went back to Riverside School to capture B-roll and atmospheric shots.
It was here that we stumbled onto a scene that nobody could have expected. A teacher was moving on to another school, and the other teachers had gathered to sing ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ to send her off, with the entire student body as audience.
Not a dry eye in the house, including our crew. Especially our crew.
Without a sound recordist, we quickly used our iPhones to capture audio from the scene.
These moments later formed the basis for a ‘thank you’ film, Life in a Day.
The film shares a first person perspective into the vibrant culture and vitality of daily life at Riverside, and celebrates a world where cameras rarely go and people whose lives are rarely documented.
Nelson VP Ben Higgins once said ‘we put teacher and student in the center of everything we do’ — and Life in a Day expresses this sentiment: We really believe what happens in schools is amazing and beautiful and crucial, and a film as simple as Life in a Day actually helps to broaden perspectives on what education can look and feel like — and accomplish.
Learning: Create situations where happy accidents can happen, and be there, ready to capture the scene.
“If you challenge them,
but also prepare them with
the tools that they need…
they will do things that amaze you.”
Brian Diogo, Principal
St. Julia Catholic Elementary
Mississauga, Ontario
ST. JULIA CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY
As Edwin landed in more classrooms throughout Canada and the world, we identified a completely different but equally powerful landscape at Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board in Mississauga, Ontario.
A few hours into his first day as Principal, Brian Diogo presented his teachers with the wild idea of piloting Edwin.
They went for it.
Still leaning into the moments of human connection that grounded previous Edwin case studies, at St. Julia, we elected to fine-tune our creative approach with the idea of school as metaphor for human body.
Schools are intense environments, pulsating with activity and sound. Our anamorphic camerawork flows through spaces with a participant’s access, tracking along at eye-level in hallways, peeking though windows, and floating around in conversation with educators and students. A whip here, a push-in there.
And since Edwin helps learning take place anywhere, we filmed all around St. Julia, even on a moving school bus.
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY
AN INSIDE PERSPECTIVE
EDWIN THEME
As Edwin grew, it felt like the movement deserved it’s own sound. So it was a good time to compose original, ownable Edwin music.
We’d known composer David Myles Lewis through his brilliant scoring work, and we had a good feeling about working with him.
We started with a few ideas and inspirations:
It had to have an arpeggio—a chord broken into a series of notes.
And it had to feel rhythmic and poetic at the same time, representing imagination and the pace of education.
And if it was modular, so we could break it into pieces and scores for other films, that would the icing on the cake.
The intro was cellist Pete Jacobson’s warm-up and the three notes at the end were Dave’s doing. They happened to time out perfectly with ‘Explore. Create. Collaborate.’ which later became Edwin’s tagline.
When you have the right people in the room, amazing things happen.
EDWIN THEME CELLO SESSION BTS
HALIFAX
Teachers are incredibly busy people, but Courtney Smith and Michelle Hunter made time to chat with us over Skype, and this helped us to understand the challenges they contend with on a daily basis, while informing our approach to filming in their classrooms and speaking with their students.
We recorded our early conversations, and these webcam moments found their way into the films we created, a lo-fi counterpoint to polished fooatge.
Larry the Frenchie seemed to agree.
We had no idea how much the world was going to change when we got back to the States.
LEARNING FROM HALIFAX
MEET EDWIN
This series of explainer videos—essentially voice-over driven remixes of existing Edwin content—started as a simple request for a way for educators to quickly give parents an overview of what Edwin was all about on Facebook.
Parents, meet Edwin…
WHAT IS EDWIN /
WHAT EDWIN IS
We then created a extended version for an expanded audience…
THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO SHARE…
As cities move back to ‘normal,’ education continues to evolve, and Edwin grows, powering vibrant learning experiences that unite thousands of learners across geography.
We’ll continue to tell the story of telling the Edwin story here, as time permits.
Until then, grab your popcorn and catch some brand films we’ve created below…more on these later.
BETTING THE FARM
CREATE POSSIBLE
LOVE, EDWIN
But before the bell…
Thanks to the many talented people who have made telling the Edwin story possible.
HUNTSVILLE
PRODUCED + DIRECTED BY ANDREW GURA
CINEMATOGRAPHY JAKE BIANCO
ASSISTANT CAMERA RYAN MCINTYRE
SOUND RECORDIST REID GOOBIE
CAMERA 2D HOUSE / DAVID DVIR
POST PRODUCTION C71
ADDITIONAL EDITING BY VOLKERT BESSELING
COLORIST BILL POLLOCK
MUSIC ASCHE & SPENCER / MATT LOCHER + RYAN POTTS
SOUND DESIGN + MIX KEITH RUGGIERO / SOUNDS RED
MISSISSAUGA
PRODUCED + DIRECTED ANDREW GURA
CINEMATOGRAPHY JAKE BIANCO
ASSISTANT CAMERA ANTON MIASNIKOV
GAFFER JON CAMERON
SOUND RECORDIST REID GOOBIE
CAMERAS + LENSES PANAVISION CANADA / JAMES MCMAHON
LIGHTING AND GRIP 2D CAMERA HOUSE / EVAN BLACKER + DAVID DVIR
DRIVER JAKE CARTY
POST-PRODUCTION C71
ORIGINAL MUSIC DAVE LEWIS
CELLO PETER JACOBSEN
SOUND DESIGN + MIX BOBB BARITO
COLORIST BILL POLLOCK
HALIFAX
PRODUCED + DIRECTED ANDREW GURA
CO-PRODUCERS MELANI WOOD + DOMINIC FEGAN
CINEMATOGRAPHY ANDREW GURA
FIRST ASSISTANT CAMERA MIKE SNIDER
SECOND ASSISTANT CAMERA BEAU HINDLET
GAFFER KEITH MITCHELL
SOUND DAN STEWART + CORY SEWELL
CAMERAS + LENSES PANAVISION HALIFAX / WAYNE HENDERSON
LIGHTING + GRIP WILLIAM F WHITE INT'L HALIFAX / TREVOR SUTHERLAND
POST-PRODUCTION C71
MUSIC DAVE LEWIS
CELLO PETER JACOBSON
ANIMATION ANDY KENNEDY
SOUND DESIGN + MIX BOBB BARITO
COLOR + VFX BILL POLLOCK