TEAK Writes, Directs, Edits - All in the Name of Charity

SF-based content creation specialists TEAK and Director Kurtis Glade recently wrote and directed a stirring short film documenting the work of the Mauli Ola Foundation, an organization that uses the power of surfing and its group of select WCT professionals including Kelly Slater to help children battle cystic fibrosis. The approximately 4:00 piece marks an important expansion of TEAK's capabilities from their previous sole focus on post production and live-action to include digital production.

The poignant film opens with the story of a 7-year-old girl who likes to play on the beach and pet her puppies, like almost anyone else her age. But the curse of cystic fibrosis means that she lives an extremely abnormal life - powerful machines shake mucus from her lungs and she must swallow a medicine cabinet's worth of pills each day. But there is a cheap and effective treatment to combat the wretched daily state: surfing.

Glade's film shifts from the child's story to the larger work of the Mauli Ola Foundation. Their leaders explain how the saline content in the ocean air breaks down mucus in the lungs of cystic fibrosis sufferers as the camera shows eager patients anxiously preparing to launch into the waves. An elegant, relaxing Hawaiian beat accompanies the joyful narrative as normally suffering patients frolic in the ocean.

"TEAK is well known as a top post house, but less well known is the prowess of our directors, and not just in the live-action realm, but digital as well," noted TEAK EP Greg Martinez. "Working with an organization as respected and important as the Mauli Ola Foundation who in just a short time has taken over 100 CF patients surfing is a noble and gratifying way to introduce our evolving capabilities to the world."

The Creds:

Client: Mauli Ola Foundation
Executive Director: James Dunlop

Prod Company: TEAK
Director: Kurtis Glade
EP: Greg Martinez

Post/Editorial: TEAK
Editor: Nan Pierce

Music: Ashley Lloyd

About TEAK:

TEAK is a San Francisco-based collective of film, editorial, animation and interactive content creators whose medium is everything digital. The dynamic full-service production, post-production, motion
graphics, and interactive media studio features a roster of directors, editors, VFX artists, designers, animators and web developers who form a creative think tank of talent that crafts unique viral
campaigns, commercials, and branded entertainment. TEAK strives to deliver a complete online brand experience with a custom-built integrated digital development center, where they do digital planning and front and back-end site building, and create branded content, including video shooting, editing, and animating. TEAK's clients include major ad agencies and direct-to-client relationships with brands such as Google and Sony.