Free Range Studios
Encyclopedia
Free Range Studios is a messaging firm based in Washington, D.C.
and Berkeley, California
. They are notable for their services and films promoting social change
.
After years of experimenting with various media, the pair decided to form a print design firm, working exclusively for non-profits who promoted social change. Within six months of its founding, Free Range was working on national campaigns for Earthjustice
, SEIU, and Amnesty International
.
Free Range began offering poster and brochure design, identities, annual reports and website design.
, a national environmental group, approached Free Range with an idea to create a short internet cartoon
about the problem of mountain top removal in West Virginia
. Using Flash Animation
, a rudimentary 40 second cartoon was produced. The movie explained, in cartoon format, about the problem with mountain top removal mining and then offered users the opportunity to take action to stop it.
Though simple, this type of viral
activism
animation was new at the time, and the novelty of it got the attention of both the general public and the social activism community. Soon, requests for similar work began coming in on several critical issues.
Later that year, Free Range delivered its first Flash animation piece that would have worldwide impact. Amnesty International wanted to pressure Congress to ban "dirty diamonds" which were mined in war zones and carried the weight of human rights abuses. Free Range developed a 90 second ad that spoofed the famous De Beers
shadow hands TV spot, showing the harm dirty diamonds did to African people
. The piece was distributed on the internet and on DVD to members of the United States Congress
. De Beers
, the campaign's target, took notice, showing it at a leadership meeting; 500,000 viewers watched the movie online and soon after Congress passed a Clean Diamonds act. Within two years, the loss of dirty diamond funding contributed to the end of Sierra Leone's civil war.
(ACLU), International Campaign for Tibet
and Annie Casey's Kids Count
. The web team was also creating websites for Greenpeace
, Heifer International
and The Harvard Civil Rights project.
, the result of a Free Range "Gratitude Grant" awarded to the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). Sachs and Fox had long been passionate about fighting factory farming and chose GRACE's factory farming campaign as a way of lending their support to this cause. The Meatrix
, which was released the same week as The Matrix Revolutions
, features Leo the Pig and Moopheus the Bull exploring the world of a factory farm. The movie, which took a humorous approach to the issue, was a success. It has been viewed over 10 million times, translated into 13 languages, and featured in news outlets from the New York Times to CNN
.
By 2004 Free Range was heavily involved in the political arena. After creating viral advertising for Howard Dean's
primary campaign, the team was hired by John Kerry
for President to help in the general election. Free Range built a suite of web advertisements, print materials and interactive web features to help with an online campaign. Also that year, Free Range created the online documentary Beyond the Fire which would be featured at Sundance
and take home the Best Educational Site award at the South by Southwest festival.
In 2005, Free Range created its first live action short, Store Wars, which took on the issue of organic food
. The vegetable puppetry
5-minute video was seen over 10 million times online and was reported on in newspapers and television across the country. That year, Sachs left DC to join Fox in California
and opened a second office for the firm in Berkeley
. By that year, the team reached 20 members and modified its service offering to include interactive games, complete print and identity design, web-effectiveness consulting and campaign strategy services.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. They are notable for their services and films promoting social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
.
Beginnings
Free Range Studios was founded by Jonah Sachs and Louis Fox in 1999 as Free Range Graphics. Sachs and Fox had been childhood collaborators on amateur film and video projects.After years of experimenting with various media, the pair decided to form a print design firm, working exclusively for non-profits who promoted social change. Within six months of its founding, Free Range was working on national campaigns for Earthjustice
Earthjustice
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm based in the United States that specializes in cases protecting natural resources, safeguarding public health, and promoting clean energy...
, SEIU, and Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
.
Free Range began offering poster and brochure design, identities, annual reports and website design.
New media
In early 2000, EarthjusticeEarthjustice
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm based in the United States that specializes in cases protecting natural resources, safeguarding public health, and promoting clean energy...
, a national environmental group, approached Free Range with an idea to create a short internet cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
about the problem of mountain top removal in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. Using Flash Animation
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, a rudimentary 40 second cartoon was produced. The movie explained, in cartoon format, about the problem with mountain top removal mining and then offered users the opportunity to take action to stop it.
Though simple, this type of viral
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
animation was new at the time, and the novelty of it got the attention of both the general public and the social activism community. Soon, requests for similar work began coming in on several critical issues.
Later that year, Free Range delivered its first Flash animation piece that would have worldwide impact. Amnesty International wanted to pressure Congress to ban "dirty diamonds" which were mined in war zones and carried the weight of human rights abuses. Free Range developed a 90 second ad that spoofed the famous De Beers
De Beers
De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...
shadow hands TV spot, showing the harm dirty diamonds did to African people
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. The piece was distributed on the internet and on DVD to members of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. De Beers
De Beers
De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...
, the campaign's target, took notice, showing it at a leadership meeting; 500,000 viewers watched the movie online and soon after Congress passed a Clean Diamonds act. Within two years, the loss of dirty diamond funding contributed to the end of Sierra Leone's civil war.
Expansion
By 2003, Free Range was creating visual identities and conference materials for groups like the American Civil Liberties UnionAmerican Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
(ACLU), International Campaign for Tibet
International Campaign for Tibet
The International Campaign for Tibet is a private non-profit advocacy group working to promote democratic freedoms for Tibetans, ensure their human rights, and protect the Tibetan culture and environment. Founded in 1988, ICT is the world's largest Tibet-related NGO, with a total membership of...
and Annie Casey's Kids Count
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation was started in 1948 in Seattle, Washington, by UPS founder James E. Casey and his siblings George, Harry and Marguerite. It was named in honor of their mother. The foundation moved to Baltimore in 1994....
. The web team was also creating websites for Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, Heifer International
Heifer International
Heifer International is a global nonprofit with the goal of ending poverty and hunger in a sustainable fashion. Established in 1944, Heifer International gives out gifts of livestock, seeds and trees and extensive training to those in need...
and The Harvard Civil Rights project.
The Meatrix
Free Range came into the public consciousness in 2003 with the release of The MeatrixThe Meatrix
The Meatrix is a short flash animation critical of factory farming and industrial agricultural practices. It has been translated into over 30 languages and watched by more than 15 million people...
, the result of a Free Range "Gratitude Grant" awarded to the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). Sachs and Fox had long been passionate about fighting factory farming and chose GRACE's factory farming campaign as a way of lending their support to this cause. The Meatrix
The Meatrix
The Meatrix is a short flash animation critical of factory farming and industrial agricultural practices. It has been translated into over 30 languages and watched by more than 15 million people...
, which was released the same week as The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction film and the third installment of The Matrix trilogy. The film was released six months following The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers and released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5,...
, features Leo the Pig and Moopheus the Bull exploring the world of a factory farm. The movie, which took a humorous approach to the issue, was a success. It has been viewed over 10 million times, translated into 13 languages, and featured in news outlets from the New York Times to CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
.
Evolution of the firm
In 2003, they expanded their client list beyond non-profits to include socially responsible businesses and political campaigns.By 2004 Free Range was heavily involved in the political arena. After creating viral advertising for Howard Dean's
Howard Dean
Howard Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
primary campaign, the team was hired by John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
for President to help in the general election. Free Range built a suite of web advertisements, print materials and interactive web features to help with an online campaign. Also that year, Free Range created the online documentary Beyond the Fire which would be featured at Sundance
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and take home the Best Educational Site award at the South by Southwest festival.
In 2005, Free Range created its first live action short, Store Wars, which took on the issue of organic food
Organic food
Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...
. The vegetable puppetry
Puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...
5-minute video was seen over 10 million times online and was reported on in newspapers and television across the country. That year, Sachs left DC to join Fox in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and opened a second office for the firm in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. By that year, the team reached 20 members and modified its service offering to include interactive games, complete print and identity design, web-effectiveness consulting and campaign strategy services.
Gratitude Grant
Each year, the Free Range Gratitude Grant gives free services to organizations with ideas to create maximum impact. Free Range also hosts "green design" events and actively researches and educates on next-generation web advocacy strategies.Selected filmography
- The Story of Stuff (2007)
- The Meatrix2: Revolting (2006)
- Friends with Low Wages (2006)
- Climate: A Crisis Averted (2006)
- Store Wars (2005)
- Arnold's Neighborhood (2005)
- The Meatrix (2003)
- Hybrid vs. Hummer (2003)
- Protecting Civil Liberties (2002)
- Genetically Krafted (2002)
- Phillip Morris Can't Hide (2002)
- The Philmo2000 (2001)
- Save Chilean Sea Bass! (2001)
- Conflict Diamonds (2000)
- A Bear Votes (1999)
- Sprawlzilla (1999)
External links
- FreeRangeStudios: The official Free Range Studios website.