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Pointer Salutes: Branding Riverside Health System through award-winning film production As the wind blows the tree branches behind them, Dr. Scott Burgess, a urologist with Riverside Health System, and his family begin walking down the boardwalk into the park; suddenly, his little girl bolts out from the rest of the family and then the doctor takes off after her. Glagola, director of public relations for Riverside, likes the shot, and so does his team. Pleased, the 20-person crew wraps up shooting for the day and heads over to a gazebo just beyond the parking lot for lunch. In the midst of a five-day film production effort, Glagola is concerned about the next day’s weather: he’s planning to film another commercial tomorrow on a beach in Sandbridge, but the forecast calls for a good chance of rain. For now though, he’s satisfied with the first few days of shooting, and is ready to eat up. “The whole goal of this is [to show] that Riverside is a great healthcare company,” Glagola says of his film productions. It’s also a chance for him to take a break from his day-to-day responsibilities running Riverside’s public relations department. About once a year, Glagola assembles his film crew, composed mostly of freelancers from Colorado, as well as California, North Carolina and Richmond, to put their skills together to create award-winning commercials for Riverside. In April of this year, Riverside received three International Telly Awards for outstanding promotional programming. Two were for 60-second commercials, one of which featured a Riverside neurosurgeon and another that profiled a Riverside cancer physician. The third award was for a 30-minute production entitled “A New Look at Riverside,” which highlighted the technology and clinical resources of Riverside Regional Medical Center. The Telly Awards recognize the best local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs in the world, as well as video and film productions. The most prestigious award of its kind, the Telly received more than 13,000 entries from all 50 states and 30 countries. Glagola calls the awards a “credit to this team that we’ve assembled,” saying that “we all work incredibly well together.” They’ve been working together for 15 years now, with the same people coming back each year. The production shoots last anywhere from five to 13 days, and Glagola and his team are “usually there 12 to 13 hours a day,” he says. Having received awards for the previous year’s work just last month, Glagola is back out filming this year’s productions: two commercials profiling Riverside doctors, and one public service announcement. Each doctor profile is designed to show the public that “this is a real human being,” Glagola says, to put a personal touch on Riverside’s image. It’s all about the “branding of Riverside” and saying to viewers that these are “the people who work for us and this is what we represent,” he says. He uses real doctors, nurses, patients and other employees in all of his commercials—“Everything we do is Riverside.” The public service announcement encourages people to go into health careers. Glagola intends to film an actual student nurse walking along the beach at Sandbridge, pondering her past week at work: she replays in her mind how she helped to save a life. After this week of filming, Glagola will begin editing everything, and he plans to have the spots on the air by summer. |
