Firm Overview

My goal is to work with people as a creative partner and extension of their team. For the most part, I operate as an individual who prefers to work closely with people to help define project goals, production needs, identify other opportunities, build connections with others in complementary fields and/or with similar philosophies, etc.

Bio (Michael B. Maine)

I am the owner/operator of Menrva Labs and serve as the primary contact, producer, and operator. I have a background in advertising and marketing in an agency environment, business strategy consulting, community advocate (specifically youth media, sustainability, anti-human trafficking, and homelessness). From a media perspective, I’ve been working doing professional photography, videography, and podcast production for about 20 years. All work is focused around community and equity.

I hold an MBA from Bainbridge Graduate Institute, have taught photography at Youth In Focus, served as board president for both Reel Grrls and Business Ending Slavery and Trafficking, and often work in the background for several non-profit and community efforts. I am often joining a team to serve as a creative/project lead or director or photography to fill gaps an internal team may have (e.g., production partner with Pyramid Communications, lighting/project design for theatrical productions, etc.).

I scale the size of the team as best suits the overall project needs with consideration for competency, personality fit, dedication to a specific initiative/cause, access needs, identity intersectionality, etc.

Project Approach and Methodology

I approach media as a tool to bring about awareness and action for social and environmental change. In additional to the stated deliverables, I am always working to identify ways to help support your mission, whether it’s related to media or otherwise.

Overall methodology

Create a process that works for each, individual project and team. I usually start by fully reviewing the project briefing, scheduling a phone call or virtual meeting, and discuss general timelines, production capability, etc., based on various resources and needs. There are general things that are common among all projects, but I like to tailor everything to fit what works for you.

• Brief Meet and Greet Virtual Session (Get a general sense of hopes and dreams, preferred ways to collaborate, establish any pre-existing access needs, schedule conflicts, etc.)

• Research (review existing media, read website, reports, white papers, etc.). Begin assessment of current style, tone, production values, etc.

• Pre-Production Session (discuss notes, share ideas, ask questions, review and discuss examples of other videos)

• Planning phase includes script development, any necessary coaching, opportunity to on-camera people to meet with me and/or crew to talk through consent, process, comfort level, and how to support their preparation, collection of brand guides and client-provided files, establishment of video review page, develop visual treatment, create technical/creative documentation to increase consistency throughout this and future projects. The idea here is that, with proper preparation, the actual production and post-production can be smooth and require a shorter post-production timeline.

• Production Day

• Post-Production includes:

  • Editing:

    • Rough Cut

    • 30 minute review session

    • Edit 1

    • 30 minute check-in

    • Edit 2, 30 minute check-in (final review)

    • Final deliverables.

    • Additional rounds if necessary to take care of you.

  • Generation of captions and captions files

  • Color Grading, audio sweetening, adding bumpers, lower thirds, music licensing, etc.

  • Versions of video with captions burned-in to the video (always on screen) and embedded (can be turned on/off within a media player).

  • No charge for versions optimized for various uses.

  • Unrestricted license

Relevant Experience

References

LeAnne Moss (Executive Director, Renton Regional Community Foundation)
Gustavo Asman (Creative Director, Pyramid Communications)
Tawfiq Abdulaziz (Owner, Original Studios)