Arsenal Mediaworks

Last week, hundreds of people gathered at the Montgomery County Courthouse to protest a letter from County Commissioner Joe Gale that labeled Black Lives Matter a "radical hate group". It went on to accuse BLM of "claiming" to be victims of a "bogus narrative" of police brutality and systemic racism - and it was all done on Montgomery County letterhead. Since then, condemnation from local mayors, school districts, fellow commissioners, state representatives and even members o...f the Philadelphia 76ers has been swift, but Joe has doubled down on his comments. His words are salt in the wound to the lived experiences of Black people in our country. I am truly honored to be able to present this video recap of the event and I hope you'll take a few minutes to listen to their voices. Joe Gale must go, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. We need to continue to challenge the overarching system that oppresses the vulnerable and dehumanizes people based on their skin color. BLACK LIVES MATTER - Colin Action organized by PA Women Rise - PWR

There are many more important things happening in the world right now, but as Pennsylvania enters the yellow phase of reopening, we wanted to share an update regarding safety. Over the past two months, we've thought a lot about ways to make everyone feel safe and comfortable on set, and these safety procedures are what we've come up with. We look forward to getting back on set, but in the meantime we'll be out in the streets working to dismantle the systemically racist police state (with masks on, of course).

Last week Colin was interviewed by the Philadelphia Business Journal as part of a story about businesses who were left waiting on a Paycheck Protection Program loan with no answers. And then, as luck would have it, late Friday night we received a confirmation of our approval for the loan! A portion of his interview, discussing our plans to pivot the business and re-tool our studio for the future, was published as part of a new story. We can't wait to "get the band back togeth...er" and start making video content in our studio at Bok again. In the meantime, we are thankful for the opportunity and the peace of mind that the PPP loan has afforded us and will use the rest of this strange time to re-acclimate to eachother virtually and gear up for Arsenal 2.0 https://www.bizjournals.com//ppp-loan-forgiveness-rules-ke

We've been thinking about and missing our studio quite a bit lately, which has prompted some reflection about what the space means to us and inspired some new plans for the future It didn't take long for Bok to feel like a second home to us. It was our first space outside of Colin's two-story garage in Narberth, and we immediately fell in love with the incredible views, historic character, and all of the room for activities! Almost just as quickly, we fell in love with the a...mazing people that come to work in that building every day, of whom there are far too many to list. In the nearly two years since moving into Bok, we've learned a lot about how to best use the space for our needs, and while we have made a lot of progress, the challenges presented by the pandemic have forced us to rethink everything and accelerate our efforts. As on-location, gear-and-crew-intensive shoots, like interviews (a large part of our work), will continue to be impacted by safety concerns for some time, we're making plans to re-work the studio into a space that can flexibly serve these needs for our clients. This means investing in additional sound treatments, seamless backdrops, and amenities like a hair and makeup station and private changing space. Our vision is to create a space that will be ready-to-go for interviews, prompter shoots, product demos, live streams (more on that soon!), and more, all with a focus on health and health and safety procedures. Beyond those immediate concerns, we think that this new version of our studio will allow for much higher-quality, much lower-stress shoots for the vast majority of our clients. We're looking forward to getting started on these improvements as soon as we're able to get back to work. In the meantime, we’re here for any of your remote production needs (pre or post)! Stay tuned for more updates...

Like many of you, lately we've been thinking a lot about the invaluable role of healthcare workers in our society. Through our ongoing work with Penn Medicine we've had the privilege of getting an intimate look into the lives and stories of care providers and health system employees at all levels, and we've been amazed at how consistently impressive these people are. We just wanted to take a moment to extend a sincere thanks to everyone who goes to work in our hospitals every...day, but especially in these timesthe doctors and nurses, the researchers, the administrative staff, the facilities, food and environmental services... Everyone. Thank you. Penn Medicine is currently accepting donations of masks, gloves, sanitizer, and other PPE, as well as monetary donations for research and support funds for providers and patients. Click here for the specifics: https://www.pennmedicine.org/coronavirus/donations On a lighter note, we can't help but appreciate the irony that, before everything changed, we would've been filming in the respiratory unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in mid-March. Instead, they were busy treating the state's first case of COVID-19. We sure do have impeccable timing!