Knack Factory

05/11/2020

When we brought this idea to Bissell Brothers, they came in with such overwhelming enthusiasm and tried to think of every way to make it bigger, better and as advantageous as possible for the musicians involved.

We are so incredibly stoked for this event, everybody, and grateful to Thompson's Point and AV Technik, LLC for helping to make it a reality.

We're proud to team up with Knack Factory to present Keep On Keeping On: a 5-day live streamfest of local musicians, with generous support from Thompson's Point and AV Technik, LLC . 10 acts across 5 days beginning Monday 5/18, broadcast from our neighbors Halo At The Point .

A unique experience organized to honor and support our musicians, presented live on our page, and produced as cautiously as possible. 100% of tips received during each livestream will go to the participating bands ($5-10 suggested donation). Schedule below - head to facebook.com/bissellbrothers/events more information!

MONDAY 5/18: 7PM Mosart212 // 8:30PM Graphic Melee

TUESDAY 5/19: 7PM Lisa/Liza // 8:30PM Midwestern Medicine

WEDNESDAY 5/20: 7PM Angelikah // 8:30PM RENÉE Coolbrith with Douglas Porter

THURSDAY 5/21: 7PM Carolyn Kendrick // 8:30PM The Mallett Brothers Band

-FRIDAY 5/22: 7PM: VIQUEEN // 8:30PM Weakened Friends

05/07/2020

As you know, we produce persuasive video for a living. We are always committed to telling objective truth, and to not doing harm with the projects we work on but every video we make is crafted to move, persuade, and shift opinions. Keep this in mind when you see compelling, well edited, well-lit videos on YouTube. Just because it is not posted on what you consider to be “mainstream” media does not mean that it is true. Everything you watch—especially content that re-enforced your suspicions—should be double and triple checked by looking up more information provided by reputable sources.

Good lighting and decent editing does not make a video authoritative. It just makes it LOOK and FEEL authoritative, especially if it confirms our existing biases. If you find a video compelling, find out who made it, and look into their agenda. Understand their message in that context. Try to better understand some of the facts. This is especially important if it is not clear who produced it, or what their purported agenda is.

Sometimes content is removed from the Internet not because of some grand, “deep state” conspiracy, but because violations of terms of service—particularly during a terrible public health emergency—can be dangerous and cost lives.

Conspiracy theories can be fun, but they can also be dangerous. In reality, we don't even need conspiracy theories to know what we already do: The wealthy are out here gutting our democracy and redistributing the wealth of the working class to themselves. We humor conspiracy theories when we feel helpless and desperate, and because they can makes us feel better about feeling helpless in the assault that is taking place before our very eyes.

05/05/2020

Save Our Shifts

"Save Our Shifts is a campaign to benefit Maine bartenders who have been forced out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic. Your contributions will be used to contract Maine bartenders to share their craft through educational videos."

This is a great campaign by our friends Zack Bowen, Might & Main, and United States Bartenders' Guild - USBG.

SHAKEN, NOT DETERRED: Save Our Shifts is a campaign to benefit Maine bartenders who have been forced out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic. Your contributions will be used to fund grants for bartenders to share their craft through educational videos.

05/04/2020

Sole Proprietor Resource Guide – Portland Buy Local

Super helpful information from our friends at Portland Buy Local.

Sole Proprietor Resource Guide April 29, 2020 Portland Buy LocalCOVID-19 Funding and Aid Sources: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA): Beginning May 1st, the Maine Department of Labor will begin accepting applications for PUA, which expands unemployment benefits to many groups previously ineligib...

05/03/2020

‪Awesome seeing former Knack Factory intern Krysteana Scribner in today’s Press Herald.

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/05/03/krysteana-scribner-calais-looking-for-a-fresh-start-finding-the-past/‬

05/02/2020

Alex Steed, Nashville Demystified and Knack Factory | Print: A Bookstore

Need a book to get you through these weird times? Alex shared some of his favorite titles with Print: A Bookstore. You can buy local by ordering your books from Print, and they'll be shipped directly to your house!

Alex Steed was long a Mainer, but is now primarily a Nashvillian. He has feet in both places. He used to write for magazines and newspapers and now he co-owns a video and content production company called Knack Factory, which is based in Portland. The first book he ever read start-to-finish was Will...

05/01/2020

Here’s a quick update friends!

First of all, we hope all is well with you in a time when we know things are difficult for everybody.

We are grateful to be busy right now. Fortunately for our business, in addition to a handful of other fortunes, we are busy right now. Many clients, seasoned and new, are using content production to connect with folks in this weird time and we are getting crafty and inventive to put that together in these socially distanced times. And we are grateful to have our team on hand, particularly after worrying at the front end of this that maybe that wouldn’t be possible.

We did say goodbye to our Deering studio yesterday. We’d already been looking at finding a new space to better fit our needs, but all of this chaos sped up that process more quickly than expected. It was emotional. Our Auburn Street location has treated us exceptionally well. For the time being, we’ll be busy operating out of Kurt’s garage though we’ll have a physical location again someday soon. In the meantime, much love to you, 72 Auburn. You have treated us exceptionally well.

We look forward to seeing y’all again real soon.

Kurt + Alex + Knack Factory

04/29/2020

Taking the Solo | Knack Factory

Last year we caught up with Micah at the Ossipee Valley Music Festival + Ossipee Valley String Camp. We are grateful to her for sharing her journey with us.

04/28/2020

We are looking for a couple of talented folks to jump in on a project with us in the next few weeks! Know a writer or illustrator? Send them our way! [email protected]

04/27/2020

Remote!

04/17/2020

Maine Coast Fishermen's Association

We love this video about Alex Todd. It is an installment of a series we produced for Maine Coast Fishermen's Association. You can order his scallops right off the boat from Casco Bay Scallops:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfBM9xEDiwQsShQVDsNN7V2pR8-HgKL3RCPTgb4LIqrL-lVqw/viewform

We just ordered our second batch.

It's time for scallops! Here's a video we did with Knack Factory a couple of years ago. We'd love to see how you are preparing scallops. And, if you need to know where to find some, check out Downeast Dayboat and Casco Bay Scallops. Thanks for supporting Maine's fishermen. Together, we persevere.

04/15/2020

We've seen a few portrait projects based on themes of isolation and quarantine, but this one [Behind Closed Doors] from Nicole Wolf is so resonant, well shot, and beautifully realized. We've known Nicole for a long time and love her work generally, but this is an absolute gut punch and it resonates so deeply with our experience as people with feet in Portland / Maine and small business owners faced with this monster. It's hard to do this sort of thing without it feeling like it is somewhat exploitative of a hard moment, but Nicole has been at it since the middle of March and her series it singular and striking. Check out all of her installments, including this one of our dear friends Austin Miller, Hana Tamaki and family.

Spend some time with these. They are important.

04/14/2020

Here's our very, very, very anti-corporate COVID-19 update — Knack Factory

We are thinking of you in the biggest way. You are in our hearts. We miss being in real, physical spaces together. We miss hugging. We miss handshakes. We miss high fives. If you are struggling, we feel for you. We feel with you. We hope this finds you well even though it very well might not. The times are very wild.

Here's an update from your friends here at Knack Factory. There is a lot to mourn and a lot to grieve, and there are also some silver linings. We are excited to get to work with our team again starting next week [remotely, of course]. Here's where we've been for the past 6 weeks.

Hey all you cool cats and kittens.  Look,  I know  I am late to using a  Tiger King  reference, but I wanted to go with that rather than the somber, “How are you  doing ? Pretty wild times right now, right?”  But FOR REAL 

04/03/2020

Maine life is buying scallops straight from the fishermen [Casco Bay Scallops] because the wholesale market has been disrupted. So good seeing the wonderful Annie Tselikis.

Do not worry: we maintained proper social distance.

And! These scallops were caught by Alex Todd, who we profiled in a Maine Coast Fishermen's Association video a short while back.

04/02/2020

Knack Factory

We just read of David Driskell's passing and we are heartbroken.

https://www.pressherald.com/2020/04/02/artist-david-driskell-part-time-maine-resident-and-teacher-dies-at-age-89/

One of our very favorite days was spent with the delightful artist and advocate. Here he is talking about the role of popular culture in social and political movements.

Rest well.

In which David Driskell recalls the time he ran into JAY Z, and the role popular culture places in social and political movements. And not surprising, he has some spectacular things to say about Beyoncé.

It was a monumental pleasure to work with Maine Humanities Council and University of Maine School of Law to produce a series of videos featuring the great artist and art historian David C. Driskell and storied professor and activist Mel Zarr. We look forward to sharing these interviews with you over the next few weeks.

Finally, many thanks to Dean Danielle Conway and Hayden Anderson for making this possible.

03/30/2020

Maine Spirits

We produced this spot for Maine Spirits in partnership with our friends at Blaze Partners.

Enjoy these simple, delicious recipes that bring a whole new twist to traditional favorites by cooking with spirits.

03/26/2020

Maine-themed Zoom backgrounds — Knack Factory

Our friend Jim at Blaze Partners called up the other night and said, “You know, Zoom backgrounds are a whole thing and y’all have so much wonderful footage and imagery of Maine. You should make some!”

And Jim was right on all fronts. And so we made some.

If there’s one thing Mainers and Maine adjacent folks love, it’s letting people know that they’ve got roots in the Pine Tree State. Feel free to use any of these Maine themed Zoom backgrounds to spice up your teleconference aesthetic. They all come from video productions we’ve shot over the past year.

Our friend Jim over at Blaze Partners called us up the other day and said, “You know, Zoom backgrounds are a whole thing and y’all have so much wonderful footage and imagery of Maine. You should make some!” And Jim was right on all fronts. And so we made some. If there’s one thing Mainers an...

03/25/2020

Analysis | The Trailer: Why Democrats aren't scared to push back against the president in this crisis

We were quoted in the Washington Post regarding the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.

In this edition: Behind the Democrats' coronavirus hardball, how Bernie Sanders won the Democrats' (geographically) biggest primary, and polling that explains everything.

03/22/2020

How to Work From Home [During a Pandemic] — Knack Factory

A bunch of folks have shared how they're getting by working from home in self-isolation. We collated and shared some of the best tips here.

The most common themes that came up are:

- find ways to be social (distance does not mean anti-social)
- get outside and/or exercise
- schedules and some sense of order are super handy
- take care of your head and your heard
- cut yourself some slack (this whole situation is effing wild and it there is no perfect way to do it)
- create and maintain a buffer between yourself and anxiety-inducing content

Now that we’ve got a full week of social distancing behind us—and have adapted our work lives accordingly—I wanted to check in with folks to find out how they’re finding their new work realities. I’ve long worked remotely in one way or another, but I’ve found many differences between wor...

03/19/2020

Like many of y'all out there, Kurt is now a newly minted homeschool teacher while also filling out paperwork, joining conference calls, editing, sorting through files, organizing gear, and other things related to our day-to-day operations.

How are y'all holding up? Do you have any tips for juggling these roles?

03/18/2020

As paralysis grips Maine’s small businesses, policymakers pursue major relief

Hey, thank you all for checking in and sending love! We’re already seeing work come in and getting opportunities for putting the crew to work are arising. Things are tenuous out there but we’re in good spirits and are grateful for your support and encouragement. You are great.

The Portland Press Herald asked us a bit about how COVID-19 is affecting our business. They also took a picture.

This is going to be a hard time for everyone across the board. Please take care of yourselves and each other.

The immediate economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic has thrown small business owners into a tailspin, with no idea when the pain will end.

03/15/2020

This is incredibly difficult: COVID-19 [Coronavirus] and Knack Factory — Knack Factory

We are still here.

While we are still very much committed to making beautiful and resonant video content, and developing effective communications strategy, we’d be lying if we told you this was not the hardest week of our professional lives.

The New York Times looked at how the pandemic is “bleeding businesses dry” and we’re heartened to see Gov. Mills looking at ways to support small businesses in this extraordinarily difficult time but this is where things are at right now: As of this week, we had to put our three full time employees—people we consider extensions of our family—on indefinite leave.

We are sharing this for a few reasons. The first is that we want you to hear it from us so you can know exactly what is going on, and know that we are still here. But we also want to share this from a small business perspective so that if you are also a small business—or someone who is feeling the weight of this moment—you can know you’re not alone in the profound stress and heartache you are likely facing. This is not going to be devastating somewhere down the road; it is devastating right now. The stock market may have responded nicely to that Friday press conference, but here on the ground things are wholly unpredictable and there is no end in sight.

We started to see contract interruptions with our larger clients a number of weeks ago as companies with a global imprint began taking “wait-and-see” approaches to what might become a larger disruption. Before this, we had already experienced a few interruptions related to companies being in transition, though these are all things we have been poised to absorb. But facing the domino effect of nearly every contract being put indefinitely on hold as the country—facing a disheartening and destabilizing lack of leadership—has had to quarantine itself, we have ourselves been indefinitely locked in a holding pattern.

Of course we understand that this interruption needs to happen. If the choice is we all suffer with hardship and uncertainty so less people are infected and die in the long run, the choice is obvious. But those impacted need help in this unprecedented moment.

So we know we have a lot of work we’re committed to do—we’re just not certain when it will happen. And so many others are in this exact situation.

It has been brutal. We are all on hold.

Our videos are great because our team is amazing. And we have long been committed to taking great care of our employees and those with whom we work. We are eager to start working with everybody—our employee family and our extended family of contractors—the minute we’re given the green light on existing and new contracts. In the meantime, we’ll be doing everything on our end to make the company a better one.

And if you have any projects you’re considering in the meantime that can be done in the safety of social distance—editing, strategy, animation, revisiting or developing your strategies—we are eager to work with you. If you have work for Lindsay, Tadin and Thomas, they are three of the very best people in this business.

On top of all of this, though, small businesses and affected employees need help from both state and federal governments.

Also, this moment is a profoundly difficult one for so many. It will touch everybody in some way and—frustratingly—we don’t know for how long this will be the case. Please, if you can, help each other out in whatever way you can. Talk to each other, and share your experiences. If you need to talk, give us (Alex and/or Kurt) a call. We’re in this together.

And, of course, wash your hands.

We are excited for us all to start working together again real soon.

This is incredibly difficult: COVID-19 [Coronavirus] and Knack Factory We are still here. While we are still very much committed to making beautiful and resonant video content, and developing effective communications strategy, we’d be lying if we told you this was not the hardest week of our prof...