Web Site of the Month: screamingpanda.com

The catchy name alone is worth a visit to screamingpanda.com, where CTM meets MB107. The "storytelling shop" called Screaming Panda is the work of Kevin Berrey '00, chief creative officer, and Travis Mitchell '02, executive producer, who develop video content for PR firms, ad agencies, and digital marketing campaigns.

Constructed by a Danish designer to Berrey and Mitchell's specifications, the Web site is businesslike in its type and graphics. But it sports a disarmingly lighthearted air. The home-page message begins, "Hello, there," and in mid-December the featured video showed a panda-costumed skateboarder doing stunts while a cameraman glides along next to him on a skateboard of his own. ("Most internet video sucks," the site observes. "Ours doesn't.")

Screamingpanda.com not only informs potential clients of its services, but also demonstrates them, using just three on-site buttons: "About" and "Contact" and "Featured Content." "About" gives a snappy pr cis of the business's offerings and philosophy?a kind of hip business tutorial. Berrey and Mitchell write all the site's copy, which is concise, often funny, and nicely vernacular without being rude or sloppy.

The don't-miss "Featured Content" highlights four case studies (including one each for clients Showtime and Barnes & Noble) that illustrate the shop's technique in action. Each study parses its project as "the challenge," "the players," "the plan," "execution," and "results"; check out the "execution" sections for the juiciest details. For a TransitCenter video featuring candid street interviews, the site reports, "Our talented crew engaged the rush hour crowd and reeled them in despite their inclination to keep walking, while a custom HD camera and prime lens package set our subjects apart from the crowd."

The most-watched video on the site has to be the short, tasteful one titled How to rev up your sex drive with sensate focus techniques. Berrey and Mitchell worked with Howcast, the "MTV of how-to videos," to create the piece. Rev became the third-most-viewed Howcast video, went viral on YouTube, and has to date brought Howcast Studios more than 280,000 views.

For Berrey and Mitchell, the path to Screaming Panda started at Skidmore, when they made a short film during graduation week 2000. Berrey had built a self-determined major in "mass culture vs. high culture, " with courses in theater, sociology, mass media, English, and philosophy, while Mitchell majored in English with a double minor in art and business?all stuff that would come in handy later on. Postgrad, they went their separate ways, gaining experience in independent filmmaking, documentaries, and commercial TV before joining forces again.

The crucial component for their business (right up there with production values and efficiencies like on-site editing, they say) is storytelling, a craft whose edge they honed at Skidmore. "We look for the story in each client's project," explains Mitchell. "Skidmore cultivated in us the skill to find and identify the stories that matter."

So why did they call their agency Screaming Panda? Berrey and Mitchell say they help businesses do what pandas do so effortlessly: "Win human fans. Lots of them." As for the "screaming," they won't tell. "It's important to have some mystery about the brand," Berrey demurs. To find out more, go to the site and look up "Why the Panda Screams." ? Barbara Melville