Seattle’s an amazing city, right? We all know that. But surprisingly, not all of the outside world does. A group of filmmakers, including Director of Photography & Fremont denizen Dan McComb, have set out to change that with “We Make Seattle,” a community funded short film highlighting why Seattle is the ideal home for creative workers and entrepreneurs. Watch a teaser here.
Bryan Zug and Scott Berkun were inspired by questions raised at a Startup Roundtable hosted by Mayor McGinn in 2012. “I overheard many entrepreneurs asking the Mayor to help promote the vibrancy of the city to the world and I thought: wait a second! Why are we asking the government to do this? We’re entrepreneurs! We’re makers! Shouldn’t we do this ourselves?” That night he asked his friend Bryan, who runs Bootstrapper Studios, to help, and “We Make Seattle” was born.
The pair teamed up with Dan and set out to make a video profile of Seattle that highlighted the energy and quality of life in the city, which has been rated the #1 tech city in America by The Atlantic yet still is not considered by outsiders to be a destination for creative enterprises.
They raised funds through Kickstarter and with the support of over 250 backers and several local companies, including Tableau Software, Zillow, Filter, and more. The project was truly a grassroots effort–Scott and Bryan love Seattle and saw a way they could help attract new businesses with their combined skills.
It’s also a community film because they are making all the footage available for reuse, and are encouraging institutions, businesses, and residents to share and embed the video wherever they like. The pair are also developing a website with additional regional job finding, business building, and relocation resources.
All are invited to premiere “We Make Seattle” beginning at 6:30pm on March 24 at UW Startup Hall.
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University of Washington
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