Your creative engine for videos that move people

We create customized video projects for you to share your stories,
strengthen your outreach strategy and communicate more effectively.
7CS also produces independent documentaries.

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“Documenting the Documenters” with Outlier
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The Documenters program at Outlier Media in Detroit, is a participation-based, community-driven journalism program that’s part of a growing national movement. This video is part of a series for Song Foundation, featuring projects they strongly support.
Spring Time at WTPOF
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It's spring time which means planting season at We The People Opportunity Farm!
Embedded Education
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Get immersed in the hands-on approach to educating teachers within public schools at U-M's Marsal Family School of Education. 
Community Science
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This short piece about weather & climate plays a role in a five-part series of fun explainer videos for the U-M Museum of Natural History's exhibition about the ever-growing world of community science projects. 
RE:CLAIM—a different kind of courthouse experience
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The RE:CLAIM project reimagined what a public space like a courthouse could become with an arts exhibition and multiple performances in fall of 2022 in Washtenaw County.
Voting Access for All
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The Voting Access for All Coalition (VAAC) is dedicated to educating voters about their rights, especially those impacted by the prison system within the State of Michigan. Many formerly incarcerated people simply don’t know they have regained their right to vote, so we created this clear, yet colorful explainer video with VAAC to help their […]
Lifting Up More Students with High Point
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The Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) wanted to highlight an important new resources for serving students across the county—the newly designed and built High Point School. We were honored to bring this story to life and inspired by the atmosphere of education created in such a beautiful new facility.
U-M Adolescent Health Initiative’s ACE-AP Model
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Our friends at the University of Michigan’s Adolescent Health Initiative asked us to create this colorful & simple-to-understand explainer video for their ACE-AP model. Thanks to their talented teen advisors, we scripted, filmed and flipped this piece into shape in short order!
Break Through Reading Barriers – Thorndike Press
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Take a look at the impact large print books can have for young readers. Librarian Tasha Squires, of O’Neill Middle School, shares her real-world experiences with students using large print books from Thorndike Press.
TRI Rider Spotlight: Robert Graham
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Meet Debita and her son, Robert, who’s been riding horseback for 19 years with Therapeutic Riding Inc. (TRI). They provide this tremendous service for many members in our community, the benefits and joy of which are expressed so well in this portrait 7CS produced for their annual fundraising event.
Letterpress: The Process of a Print
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Letterpress artist Ingrid Ankerson shares the art and craft of producing a type-based print in her Ypsilanti, MI studio. Check your quality settings—this is published in 4K—and enjoy the process!
Supporting “Suds” with an Artist in Action
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When the Huron River Watershed Council’s annual fundraising event had to go virtual, 7 Cylinders Studio stepped into with some creative ways to support their “Suds for the River” campaign. Local artist Yen Azzaro’s live drawing comes to life in this fun, dynamic piece to widely promote the event.
Five Foot Sandwich Board: The Story of Jerusalem Garden
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Since their start in 1987, Jerusalem Garden’s become a beloved fixture of the Ann Arbor restaurant scene. In 2014, owner Ali Ramlawi decided to make a major leap into a new location and asked 7 Cylinders Studio to capture the transition and share their story.
4-Part How to Vote in MI Series
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Recent changes to voting rights in Michigan meant re-producing 2 of the “how to” voting videos in our 4-part series with Washtenaw County. These were built to be fun, informative and widely seen—so check these out to learn, enjoy and share!
Five Lessons for Financial Readiness
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When our friends at Girls Group of Ann Arbor asked us for a how-to video aimed at middle school girls, we jumped into green screen mode. Fast forward a few months later and this fun, informative piece is getting presented in school workshops to help girls learn how to get on a path to their […]
Azira—an Important Story to Share
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Girls Group provides important, significant support to help hundreds of young women succeed in their schooling and careers. This short portrait they asked us to produce about Azira—one of the bright lights they helped power through college graduation—provided 7CS with the opportunity to get creative with a talented storyteller. Enjoy!
Pitching a Podcast Series for Project Partners
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The Abels is a new scripted fiction podcast series in development by accomplished producer Tavia Gilbert, with support from BBC Radio. It’s based on the longest-running soap opera in the world—The Archers—on air since 1951 with more than 19,000 episodes! Tavia asked 7 Cylinders to breathe video-life into The Abels pitch deck as she seeks […]
Metal Meets Its Match
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When Mettlework Design wanted a dynamic “calling card” video to showcase the wide range of their metal work, they brought 7 Cylinders into their shop. Let your eye-balls get emblazoned with some brilliant flashes, fiery cuts and masterful metal working craftmanship!
Growing Hope’s Vendor Portrait Series
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Growing Hope runs the Ypsilanti Farmers Markets with a great set of local farmers and vendors participating. For the 2019 season, they wanted more outreach so our studio created 22 of these short vendor portraits optimized for sharing across social media. Neil Taylor (the honey man!) kicked off the series.
Understand our World
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The University of Michigan's Institute for the Humanities wanted a visually-dynamic way to bring their 2019/2020 banner campaign to life for reaching undergraduate students on social media. Built primarily for directly uploading and sharing on Instagram/Facebook, they've also added this piece to their YouTube channel to expand its reach.
“What Number One Looks Like”
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When DeLeon Realty received its Wall Street Journal ranking as one of the #1 real estate agencies in America, they hired 7 Cylinders Studio to show what that looks like with this 30-second regional commercial.
From Beijing to Detroit
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This 7CS video was created for a U-M Museum of Art exhibition to take gallery-goers behind-the-scenes with Beijing artist Wang Qingsong as he reaches across the world to work with a community in Highland Park, MI.
Preventing the Spread of Invasive Species
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This fun “how-to” video we produced for the Huron River Watershed Council will help train volunteers in waterways across the State of Michigan, in order to prevent the spread of harmful, invasive aquatic species. Features the voice of Michigan Radio’s Rebecca Williams, illustrations by artist Danijel Matanic and an awesome crew of HRWC volunteers!
Painting the Town
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Many of Ann Arbor’s downtown storefronts are magically brought to life each holiday season thanks to the artistic strokes of The Brush Monkeys—a crew of awesome area artists. This short portrait takes us behind-the-scenes for a fun, colorful peek into their public process, including featured artists: John Copley, Mary Thiefels, Danijel Matanic and David Zinn.
Nurturing our Next Generation of Leaders
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The mission of Girls Group in Ann Arbor is simple and so very powerful—supporting girls to become successful young women. This short portrait of Micah illustrates how profoundly these kinds of efforts can help create more inspiring individuals.
What’s Really Going on with Our Water?
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The Huron River Watershed Council is one of the country's leading stewards and protectors of regional water quality. This micro doc features their extensive water monitoring and testing efforts, powered by many community volunteers and partnering organizations.
Voting Matters
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We produced this 4-part "How to Vote in Michigan" series for Washtenaw County, as a nonpartisan effort to educate newer voters on the nuts and bolts of the voting system. Participation in politics is important for democracy to function and we were fortunate to have ten fantastic young people from our area help make this series fun and informative!
New Generations of Farming
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We were thrilled to get to know Alex Ball of Old City Acres as an illustration of Growing Hope's Building Blocks program of free, educational workshops aimed at helping newer farmers and food producers build their businesses. Check out those gorgeous radishes!
A Stimulating Cup
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See how to make a matcha latte with our friends at Arbor Teas, as part of the how-to series of videos they created with 7 Cylinders Studio.
Standing the Test of Time
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This 5-part educational series we created for the Piquette Avenue Plant is part of their latest "secret lab" exhibition (created by Flutter & Wow). Historian Bob Casey knows his way around a Model T!
Catching Color in the Wild
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We got to catch area artist Mary Thiefels in several stages of her process for painting a new mural in Ypsilanti's Frog Island Park. This project is part of a renovated canoe/kayak launch along the 104 mile Huron River national water trail.
Spike’s AFS Success Story
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Radio personality Spike, from the popular Detroit show Mojo in the Morning, shares his AFS success story. From the station to the gym, he's a guy on the go, and loves how AFS has helped him stay fit.
Street Art in Ann Arbor
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The University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities featured two Greek artists with graffiti murals in downtown Ann Arbor as part of its year long Global Graffiti Project. This 7CS piece shares some insights into each artists' approach.
Artist Portrait: Mary Mattingly
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New York-based artist Mary Mattingly explores the life cycle of products of our consumer society within the complex webs of how they're created. This short video portrait 7 Cylinders Studio produced reveals some of the connections across the landscape of Mattingly's work, from scrap yard to museum.
A Story of Girls Group
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This short portrait shares the story of Mariah, as she is excited to attend a debutante ball and graduate from high school. She is one of many young women participating in Girls Group, a non-profit that provides tremendous support for girls to become the first generation of their family to graduate from college.
Breathe into Being: Larry Nisson, Glass Artist
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Artist Larry Nisson describes his process of working with the material of glass and his vision for inspiring others.
PLAY Project Autism Intervention
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Dr. Rick Solomon's PLAY Project creates opportunities for parents to engage with their children on the autism spectrum and make tangible, lasting developmental progress. 7 Cylinders Studio is excited to share some of their remarkable work through several hands-on, real-world sessions recorded with the families' permission.
Ypsilanti Community Schools @ Work
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7 Cylinders Studio is proud to highlight the YCS @ Work program. This short portrait features the cool and kinetic dynamic that was built by Ray'Jon Jackson Williams, senior at Ypsilanti Community High, and Mike Nix, owner of the Ypsilanti Running Company.
Birds Coming Back
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The 4th RiverUp! video produced for the Huron River Watershed Council features a success story of the osprey. Forced from the area in the 1970s due to toxins and pollution, they have been returning as the work of the HRWC and others has significantly cleaned the watershed. Osprey platform "perches" are one part of the effort to restore a healthy habitat for the region.
Tuning Into Teen Health
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The Adolescent Health Initiative at the University of Michigan Health System has partnered with 7 Cylinders Studio since 2014 to produce a series of videos with TAC TAC – The Adolescent Champion Teen Advisory Council. This fun white board video features four members of TAC TAC and their talented illustrator friend Karen, pointing out ways health clinics can be set up to better serve teens.
A Hundred Tons of Hummus
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Ali Ramlawi, owner of the Jerusalem Garden restaurant in Ann Arbor, provides a peak into both the art and the operation of making hummus on a large scale. Ali has single-handedly made all of JG's hummus since at least 2002, which estimates place at nearly 1,000 tons of hummus.
Voices of Transgender Youth
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Voices of Transgender Adolescents in Healthcare” offers perspectives from transgender and gender non-conforming youth about their experiences and what they want from the healthcare system. This video was developed by the Adolescent Health Initiative (AHI) at the University of Michigan Health System.
Sustainable Packaging Success Story
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Arbor Teas sources the finest loose leaf organic teas from around the world. When they finally found a 100% sustainable solution to deliver their product– fully backyard compostable packaging – they brought 7 Cylinders Studio onboard to share the story.
Comics Across Conversation
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This portrait of acclaimed comic artist and graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel for the U-M Institute for the Humanities Gallery provided 7 Cylinders Studio a special (FX) opportunity to collaborate in some creative ways.
The RiverUp! Video Series
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7 Cylinders Studio is proud to partner with the Huron River Watershed Council to produce a series of short RiverUp! films that share stories of the Huron River. The first piece focuses on fly fishing through the enthusiastic efforts of Mike Schultz, whose downtown Ypsilanti outfitting shop has contributed to a revitalized business community and wildly growing popularity of fly fishing on the Huron.
Beyond the Business: Leon Speakers
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Leon Speakers makes custom, handcrafted high-end audio systems in Ann Arbor, MI. They're a business that's part bohemia and art, part manufacturing and precision. So they turned to 7 Cylinders Studio to create a video manifesto that shares the philosophy of Leon and the story of their people, products and process.
What is the Summer Game?
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The Ann Arbor District Library is blazing a trail on the leading edge of patron participation with their super fun Summer Game. 7 Cylinders Studio produced this short video to share what makes this one-of-a-kind game so special (includes hidden game codes for players!).
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