{"id":2774,"date":"2018-01-18T03:01:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T03:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/52.10.1.109\/?p=2774"},"modified":"2018-01-20T00:41:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T00:41:23","slug":"the-medium-and-the-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/?p=2774","title":{"rendered":"The medium and the message"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Michael Sharon and wife Dana attend the \u201cpremiere\u201d of one of 6162\u2019s videos at a fundraising event for Jewish Family Services. Photos courtesy of 6162 Productions<\/em><\/p>\n

Filmmaker uses his camera to tell the compelling stories behind nonprofits<\/i><\/span><\/h4>\n

BY PETER JONES<\/strong>
\nNEWS EDITOR<\/span><\/p>\n

As a kid growing up in Greenwood Village, Michael Sharon would often have his eye on the lens, capturing anything that moved on film, video or digital data.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I got a camera in my hands, it was like this feels very natural to me,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the time Sharon was 13, his natural third eye was producing films that would play Denver\u2019s onetime Starz Film Center and capture the attention of The Villager<\/i> in a feature story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had a huge fascination with espionage and spy stuff,\u201d Sharon said. \u201cI basically wrote a 50-minute movie script and recruited a bunch of my neighbors, friends and family and filmed it over the course of a couple months. I taught myself how to film and edit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating Cherry Creek High School, where he served as president of the film club, Sharon received more formal training at Colorado Film School, where he realized that the industry he loved was not always a bastion of glitz and creative freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI originally had maybe the idea that I would go out and try the Hollywood approach,\u201d he said, \u201cbut as I was going through film school, LA didn\u2019t seem too appealing\u2014a lot of politics, a lot of corruption in that city and system. So, I tried to find another way.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Sharon\u2019s search for the right angle\u2014camera and otherwise\u2014came after thinking through what he truly loved about the art of telling stories on film.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a really young age, I wanted to make narrative films and documentaries around human interest and try to spread the message of people in a positive light. I didn\u2019t know exactly what it would look like for my career,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer came in 2013 with the founding of Sharon\u2019s 6162 Productions, a company that combines the filmmaker\u2019s penchant for filmmaking with his intrinsic love for positive people stories\u2014but this time with a purpose that went beyond \u201cfeel good\u201d movies. <\/span><\/p>\n

What if Sharon could tell stories that could literally help people by making compelling fundraising films for charities, nonprofit organizations and mission-driven organizations?<\/span><\/p>\n

So many of the charity promotional videos Sharon had seen before emphasized fancy graphics, talking heads and the 5,000-foot views of CEOs. What if these groups used actual filmmaking technique\u2014story arcs, character, conflict, even flashback\u2014to tell their stories? <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about the human approach by really highlighting specific client stories within the organization, as opposed to stacking numbers and statistics,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get more heartfelt emotions and then bring it back to the organization as a whole. A lot of videos we do are focused on one person\u2019s story and how the organization touched their life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/h4>\n

6162, the company that brought the idea to life, was named for Sharon\u2019s childhood street address in Greenwood Village, the place where the young filmmaker\u2019s healthy imagination first took root in the backyard with makeshift sets and neighborhood casting.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be more personal, and that was the address where I started my whole career, so I thought it was a nice homage to that,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now based in both Denver and Seattle, 6162 has produced videos for nearly 30 organizations. Many are played on the screen at fundraising events and on social-media platforms. The firm\u2019s rates are based on the size of the organization, its budget and other factors.<\/span><\/p>\n

South metro clients have so far included Jewish Family Services and Greenwood Village\u2019s Courageous Faces Foundation, an organization that assists people whose faces have been touched by birth defect, disease or tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n

6162\u2019s video for Courageous Faces told the story of one man whose rare condition resulted in tumors all over his body.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is just the nicest guy and just a person at the end of the day,\u201d Sharon said. \u201cWe told his story on camera and shared all the hardships of being outcast socially. He got really emotional with how much the organization had helped him with feeling more comfortable. They made a customized suit for him where his tumors were. That was the first time any clothing really fit him properly.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Given the choice of contracting with more traditional corporate clients, Sharon, 29, says he gets much more satisfaction by working with mission-driven organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like nonprofits give us a little more creative freedom and they have a lot more interesting stories,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Sharon is committed to his short-form niche, he recognizes that some of the stories he is telling could eventually become fodder for full-length documentaries in their own right, an expansion idea that remains on the backburner for the time being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get these messages out there however that can be achieved,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, this seems like the best approach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Sharon and wife Dana attend the \u201cpremiere\u201d of one of 6162\u2019s videos at a fundraising event for Jewish Family Services. Photos courtesy of 6162 Productions Filmmaker uses his camera to tell the compelling stories behind nonprofits BY PETER JONES NEWS EDITOR As a kid growing up in Greenwood Village, Michael Sharon would often have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-briefs","category-business","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}