Ascender Films is a Proud Sponsor of Association of African American Museum's (AAAM) 2020 Virtual Conference
he work we have done with African American museums and cultural organizations has been some of the most meaningful and important work that our firm has done. That's why the Ascender team is very proud to be a sponsor of the AAAM 2020 Virtual Conference, taking place this week, August 5-7th. It is important to support these organizations. But it's also crucial that we keep our finger on the pulse of great work all across the country. There are so many stories that need to be told and these institutions do the best job of preserving those stories for generations. Here's to a great conference week!
#AAAM2020 #blackmuseumsmatter #history #culture
Ascender Earns two TELLY AWARDS for "Making Gumbo Jubilee" and "Shaka's Story"
MAY 21, 2019
Ascender picked up two bronze TELLY AWARDS this year. Our short-film "Making Gumbo Jubilee: Triumph of Howard Conyers" brought home the first bronze award in the "Social Media, Food & Beverage category." The second bronze statute was earned in the "Social Media-Public Health & Wellness" categories was earned for 'Shaka's Story", a 3-min segment from an ongoing digital series of testimonials from TB survivors. The series was produced in 2018 for the US Department of Health & Human Services/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"We are thrilled for both projects!", says Senior Producer, Paul Grant,"Making Gumbo Jubilee as our first film highlighting black foodways. We believe this is true testament that more of great stories exploring African/African American diaspora cooking can be told with premium production value and will be well received. While our win for "Shaka's Story" again proves that we are truly mastering how we tell public health stories that resonate and make a difference."
Take a look at both projects here.
Our New Home
Our New Home
Ascender Communications Expands To New Office in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC
We are thrilled to announce that earlier this month, Ascender relocated to historic Barrack’s Row. Yep, we are back in Capitol Hill.
That’s where our journey began in the bedroom of a 2nd floor condo on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, just 13 years ago. It’s been a long time coming thus far. We survived The Great Recession. The 2011 DC Earthquake. Even the rise and fall of Walter White and we are poised for even greater things to come.
Our business is a start-up again. At this pivotal juncture, our projects and core team have expanded too. While we remain excited for what the future holds, we can’t help but acknowledge the enormous amount of work it took to get here. Being is business is like walking a tight-rope over a fiery mountain range, with one side tied to heaven, and the other to the gates of hell!
Okay—it’s not THAT bad. But there have been some really scary moments. But what makes it all so worth it—and so addictive—is that there have been so many more wonderful, life-changing moments along the way. And, we have met some really great people too.
Our new facility will allows us increased client meeting space and post-production and animation and motion-graphics capacity, with separate Avid Media Composer® and Adobe Premiere ® editing Suites.
We are humbled to remain a thriving black-owned, boutique creative agency in Washington, DC. However, with greater capacity comes an greater responsibility to our clients and ourselves. This turn is all about improving our output and producing a solid body of high-quality work, bit-by-bit, day-by-day.
That remains the key to our longevity and financial success. You gotta LOVE and MASTER your craft. Passion alone won’t do it. Nor will fancy digs.
May we forever rise to meet every challenge, forever learning and reaching for new creative heights.
Working from your home?
01. Wake up at the same time every day.
Naturally, my first impression of these headphones is based off of the look of them. They have a classic over-the-ear style that is highlighted by a blue LED light that indicates the power for the noise canceling. The padding on the ear pieces seems adequate for extended usage periods.
They are wired headphones, but the 3.5mm stereo mini-plug cable is detachable. Something else I noticed right of the bat was the very nice carrying case that comes with them. It has a hard plastic exterior with a soft cloth interior that helps to protect the surface of the headphones from scratches. I never truly appreciated cases for headphones until I started carrying them from place-to-place. Now I can’t imagine not having a case.
It’s funny — the thing I feared would take away my “freedom” is the one thing that has allowed me to have it.
Joelle Steiniger
02. Have a routine when you wake up.
Once I gave the headphones a thorough once-over exam, I tried them on. As I mentioned, they have a classic over-the-ear style and just looking at them, the padding on the ear pieces seem adequate and the peak of the headband seemed to be a bit lacking, but you don’t really know comfort unless you try on the product. So, I slipped the headphones on and found them to be exquisitely comfortable. In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
I’d start my day by checking email, Twitter, Facebook. Reading the “news”. I’d look at my to-do list and start working on something.
03. Plan your workout time — stick to it.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
Distractions aside, there was no real rhyme or reason to my workflow. The not-so-fun (but necessary) stuff kept getting neglected.
04. Call it a night.
Now that I had the headphones on my head, I was finally ready to plug and play some music. I plugged the provided cable into the jack on the headphones and then the one on my iPhone 6. Then I called up Pandora. I tend to have a very eclectic music purview and have many stations set up for different moods. From John Williams to Fallout Boy, the sound quality of these headphones was remarkable. There is an amazing depth of sound and incredible highs and lows that make listening to music a truly breathtaking experience.
In order to test how voices sounded, and the overall art of sound mixing, I pulled up Netflix on my iPad Air 2 and watched a few minutes of a movie to hear all the nuances of the film. None of them were lost. In fact, I ended up hearing sounds that I hadn’t heard before. Echoes…birds chirping…wind blowing through trees…breathing of the characters…it was very impressive what the headphones ended up bringing out for me.
