AMP MEDIA Production Services
CONTACT: At this link



WestVirginiaVille.com is a multimedia magazine launched in May 2020, by Douglas John Imbrogno, a lifelong storyteller in word and images. The folks behind this site are also a small, creative independent multimedia production crew under the brand AMP Media (or Altoid Media Productions). Our chief Producer/Videographer is Bobby Lee Messer, of Messer Media in Huntington, WV, who has decades of experience in shooting and producing  video storytelling and documentary work with heart and style.

Our award-winning production skills — from hyper-short videos under 5 minutes, to narrative, and experimental videos, to documentaries and music videos (see examples below) — are available for reasonable cost. We are selective in the projects we take on as we are a small shop and wish to work on projects we believe in and which are suited to our storytelling focus. The tools change, but the need for clear, evocative tale-telling hasn’t changed since the communal fires around which the art of the story began.

Give us a shout through this site’s ‘Contact’ page or e-mail me directly at douglaseyeATgmail.com and let’s discuss, if you have multimedia projects you’d like done at a fair cost. 

Douglas John Imbrogno | WestVirginiaVille.com


SHORT DOCUMENTARIES


“100 Days of Badass Women” documentary

THE FEMALE GAZE: How a West Virginia Artist Captured 100 Badass Women: feb3.2021: Overwhelmed by the headlines, by Donald Trump, a pandemic and winter coming, West Virginia artist Sassa Wilkes couldn’t get herself to her easel. Then, RBG died and Sassa found she wished to get to know the legal legend by painting her portrait. She kept on going with 99 more portraits of badass women in the final 100 days of 2020. Our 19-minute documentary, “100 Days of Badass Women,” showcases how the project came to be and Sassa’s passion to depict women, both famous and little-known, contemporary and historic, who deserve to be seen and whose lives deserve notice.


1) Official Selection in 13th annual SiciliAmbiente Festival, held July 18-24, 2021, in Sicily, Italy. The festival promotes independent cinema and documentary cinema, and encourages creative exchanges and networking among the directors.


2) Official selection in the 2021 Montreal Independent Film Festival. Montreal Independent Film Festival is an annual and a monthly IMDb qualifying festival dedicated to international and Canadian shorts and features of all genres.


3) Official selection in the monthly Chicago Indie Film Awards in March 2021, dedicated to supporting, promoting and recognizing indie film projects and scripts from all over the world.


4) Official selection in the 2021 Best Shorts Competition in the “Best Short Documentary” category. In its 10th year, the festival celebrates Short Films, Television and New Media worldwide.


5) Official selection in the 2021 Venice California Shorts Festival, for “Best Documentary” category. This monthly competition and annual festival is dedicated to short films of all genres from U.S. and international filmmakers.


6) “Award of Merit in the the 2021 Accolade Global Film Competition in the “Documentary Short” category. The global virtual online competition recognizes film, TV and media professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and story telling.


“WHAT’S IN A NAME: A West Virginia Community Confronts a Confederate Legacy” short documentary

MINI-DOC | “What’s In a Name?” The Deeper Story Behind a WV Confederate Legacy: oct8.2020: The removal of a Confederate general’s name from the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School in West Virginia’s capital city this Summer was more than just a cosmetic change. In 2020, America confronted the wounds that have haunted the country’s existence. The renaming of the school laid bare that history. This 16-minute documentary takes a deep dive into the institutional racism and unhealed wounds of the Civil War that continue to resonate in American society.


Official Selection in the 2022 Dunedin International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers to share their original content with the Florida filmmakers community. 

Official selection in the 2021 Black Star International Film Festival, a not-for-profit festival that seeks to create global connections through film and to help bridge the gap between African cinema and the world. BSIFF’s home is Accra, the capital of Ghana.


Honorable Mention in “Short Documentary” category in the 2021 Black Truth Film Festival. The virtual festival seeks “to encourage educated discussion of black history and culture … We provide the platform for the black narrative to be told & heard through film.”


Award Winner in the 2021 Phoenix Shorts Festival in the “Black Lives Matter Short” category. This monthly and yearly festival takes place in Toronto, Canada.


Official Selection in 2021 ‘I Will Tell Festival.’ The name of the festival comes from a girl from an impoverished area in Mozambique “who wanted the world to know her story in all its simplicity, authenticity, imperfection and power. It speaks to the power of story telling to provoke change at an individual and societal level.” The Festival is a hybrid event that runs in London, Florida and Trinidad and Tobago in person with an enhanced virtual experience available globally online.”


“When Earl Went to War”

DOCUMENTARY: When Earl Went to War: april17.2021: American men of Earl Goodall’s generation are famously not forthcoming about their psychological states or what it’s like to go to war, with people dying in front of and beside you. But 90-year-old West Virginia resident Earl Goodall, a veteran of frontline warfare in the Korean War, tells all you need to know about that ‘Forgotten War.’


In the 3rd Annual Newsfest International Film Fest Awards, just held in las Vegas, “When Earl Went to War” won:

Runner Up Winner, “Best Documentary/News Story 14 to 30 minutes” and Runner Up Winner “Best News Story/Public Information” the 2021 NewsFest — True Stories International Film and Writers Festival, which showcases the work of documentarians, news professionals, news producers, anchors, field reporters, news crews and production teams.


MUSIC VIDEOS



“LAY THAT BURDEN DOWN”: A Musical Homage to John Lewis, Sung by Lady D: sep24.2020: The world premiere of our music video of the Ron Sowell/Jon Wikstrom song “Lay Down That Burden,” sung by Lady D and inspired by the life, courage, and heart of John Lewis, whose example is ever more needed now in America


1) “Lay That Burden Down” is an official selection in the monthly Chicago Indie Film Awards in March 2021. The international platform is dedicated to supporting, promoting and recognizing indie film projects and scripts from all over the world. U.S. and international projects compete together in various sections of the festival.


2) Official selection in the 2021 Accolade Global Film Competition in the “Music Video” category. The global virtual online competition recognizes film, TV and media professionals who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and story telling.


“BE THE CHANGE” WORLD PREMIERE: march4.2020: “Be the Change” is a timely new tune by Ron Sowell and Jon Wikstrom which our AMP multimedia crew worked up into a world premiere music video. The song features Sowell, leader of the “Mountain Stage” band, on vocals and guitar, backed by the acclaimed duo The Sea The Sea, and some of West Virginia’s finest musicians. Much of the video was shot in West Virginia, including drone footage.


MORE WESTVIRGINIAVILLE VIDEOS


ARTSHOW: ‘How Do You Serve the Ice?’: feb25.2021: How do you properly shoot, process, and filter photographs of an ice storm for the ages? How about artifying them? But how much is too much? Here are some humble attempts to portray the Great Winter Ice Storm of 2021.


MUSICVIDEO: “Winter Walking,” when it’s not such a wonderland: feb16.2021: A long winter grips the land. Add in cabin-fever weariness from a nearly years-long COVID quarantine—and you can be forgiven if it seems like we are living through “a winter that never dies.” Here’s a music video about that.


VIDEO: Other ways of looking at a Mail Pouch barn: feb16.2021: Mail Pouch barn signs became such an iconic, familiar image, showcased in tens of thousands of similarly framed snapshots, postcards, and saturated photographs that they are almost impossible to see afresh. We give it a go in “Chew This Way.”


VIDEO: “Chasing Birds in Snow”: feb10.2021: Take a 2-minute excursion into the heart of the heart of Nature, as a bunch of birds play leapfrog in the midst of a West Virginia snow squall.


VIDEO: “The Edge of Day”: feb9.2021: Thoughts on high while at the edge of day. An original short video production featuring imagery and music by Bobby Lee Messer and words by Kim Wilkinson.


BLACK HISTORY 2: ‘Rosa Parks’ feet did not hurt’: feb7.2021: The actual story of the stalwart moment Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of an Alabama bus in 1955 was far more powerful than a supposed frail, tired old Black lady sitting where she shouldn’t.


VIDEO: A Sky-high View of the New River Gorge Bridge: jan30.2021: The New River Gorge Bridge is one of West Virginia’s most iconic landmarks. But have you ever seen it from an eagle’s eye view—or maybe an Olympian god’s?


NATUREGRAM: January Stroll Under an Azure Sky: jan14.2021: The dried out, frosty marshlands are not really absent of life and color. You just have to hang out and look and listen more closely as you stroll the woods and walkways beside the Ohio in western West Virginia.


BREAKING: We Interrupt this Insurrection for David Bowie News: jan8.2021: WestVirginiaVille marks David Bowie’s 74th birthday today with news from our “Play That Funky Music” News Department. Wait—what does Bowie have to do with West Virginia?! Read and watch on.


ARCHIVES: Revisiting West Virginia’s Connection to “Gilligan’s Island”: jan1.2021: The death from COVID of the actress who played Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island” is another sad pandemic casualty. Her passing is an occasion to recall West Virginia’s occasion has to the iconic TV show from the 1960s.


VIDEO: When Snow Day is Christmas Day & the Day After: dec27.2020: The Christmas Eve snowstorm at the end of the long, hard year of 2020 will likely remain for a long while in people’s memories, as Christmas unfolded with snow, sunshine and the holiday all wrapped into one day.


VIDEO: The debut of “Animals in Appalachia” with “Deer Me”: dec22.2020: In the start of a new short video series, “Animals in Appalachia” by WestVirginiaVille.com, a mother deer puts her foot down as she momentarily loses track of her two fawns.


NATUREGRAM 1 | Sheltering-in-Nature during a Pandemic: jun26.2020: Could you use some Canadian geese, chuckling water, and scenes of nature not trying to sell you something? Here is a WestVirginiaVille Public Service Mental Health Pandemic Video.


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