A quick tour of our Op-Vid series for Newsweek & The Daily Beast, a 2013 National Magazine Award finalist (the 47% video definitely did deserved to win).

This summer, Brown University reached out to see if we might work together. The University had recently been considering putting three courses online, for free, as part of Coursera.org and the wild and rollicking new world of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

We agreed, the brave new world of online courses was inspiring and alive, but the quality of the other universities video might leave a little to be desired. We did a secret handshake to start with making introductory ‘promo’ videos together – something different, unburdened by the past – and hit the ground running toward the wild west of MOOCs. This is one of them.

Presidential candidates like you to think they can fix the economy better than they other guy. Megan McArdle brings us back to reality: Nobody’s driving.

Credit to Planet Money for pinpointing areas of reform that economists agree on. And for being awesome.

The latest Op-Video, the 6th for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, features author and reporter Daniel Klaidman giving a provocative primer and his position on drone strikes, possibly the Obama Administration’s most favored tool in the continuing, perhaps neverending, war on terror. We made the film to coincide with the release of his new book on Obama’s foreign policy, Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency It was a very unsettling topic to take on, and a provocative one. I hope this video provokes as much discussion as the issue deserves. As Klaidman says, it has been shrouded in secrecy for far too long.

David Frum was a speechwriter for George W. Bush. We disagree on much, and that’s why it was so thrilling to work together. Frum is an incredibly thoughtful, interesting, passionate person who works hard to tell the truth. We made this video on a topic we both feel strongly about: the crippling gridlock in DC, and how many politicians have substituted gamesmanship for true patriotism and public service.

The two newest Fire-Works videos were commissioned by Marketplace for their weeklong series “A Robot Ate My Job,” and are two completely different approaches to that same question! Ian McAlpin, who has been shooting all of the Op-Videos, and I collaborated throughout the piece. We’re proud! Enjoy.

The two newest Fire-Works videos were commissioned by Marketplace for their weeklong series “A Robot Ate My Job,” and are two completely different approaches to that same question! This is the first, and we hope you enjoy.

A special thanks goes out to Davin Kuntze and Woodside Press for taking the time to let us shoot their beautiful Lintoype machine.

CREDITS:
Directed by Joe Posner & Ian McAlpin

Cinematography: Ian McAlpin
Animation: Joe Posner and Heather Faye Kahn
Music: Kelly Pratt
Production Assistant: Maxwell Dunfey

Featuring Eric Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee
Authors of Race Against The Machine

For Marketplace:
Host: David Brancaccio
Producer: Ann Heppermann
Researcher/PA: Stan Alcorn

Op-Vid #4 for Newsweek / The Daily Beast features Leslie Bennetts having a little thought about those lyin’, cheatin’ politicians. And the grains of salt we might be wise take with the images they present.

Op-Vid #3 for Newsweek / The Daily Beast! Michelle Goldberg rocks out on Obama, OWS, and what you could learn about effective activism. Note, low res brightcove player will be replaced with respectable embed asap. It seems to work better over on Beast itself.

Here’s Op-Vid #2 for The Daily Beast & Newsweek, featuring their Middle East editor Christopher Dickey, breaking down what has got to be THE word of 2011.

As usual, shot by Ian McAlpin, and music by me and the one and only Kelly Pratt.