HD Video Production & Post-Production

MEDIA WORKS AND KID ONE JOIN
FORCES TO BENEFIT ALABAMA CHILDREN

Birmingham, Alabama

June 15, 2010

Media Works Communications is proud to announce the completion of a brief fund-raising video for Kid One Transport of Birmingham, Alabama.  The Project - "Alabama's Kids Need You," features local news personality Janet Hall, of FOX 6 WBRC-TV, and will be used to generate awareness and interest in the mission of Kid One.

"Alabama's Kids Need You" was written and produced locally by Media Works personnel in conjunction with the Birmingham Business Alliance and Kid One Transport.

"Kid One is a great organization and we are glad that we could help bring awareness to them by producing a great video. Once you ride along with some of these kids and moms you can understand why this organization is so important," says Jonathan Barbee, President of Media Works Communications. 

Kid One Transport was founded in 1997 by Hoover fireman Russell Jackson, who saw the need for underprivileged children with special needs and expectant mothers who had no access to transportation to medical services.  What Russell discovered was that there are tens of thousands of kids and pregnant mothers who lack safe, reliable transportation options throughout the state.

From one man, one van and a vision, Kid One has grown to operate a fleet of 14 vehicles serving 30 counties in central and north-central Alabama.  For Kid One, the mission is simple:  transporting kids and expectant mothers to necessary health care services.

For more information on Kid One, or to be come involved in help Kid One carry their mission forward, please visit their website at kidone.org.

ALABAMA'S MEDIA WORKS COMMUNICATIONS
PRODUCES TOP 10 VIDEO ON CMT

Birmingham, AL
February 23, 2010

A little bit-o-Nashville visits Alabama. Rising Star, Connor Christian, teamed up with Birmingham based Media Works Communications to produce a music video for the song "Sunday Suit." Shot on location in Tuscaloosa and Springville, Alabama, the video tells the story of a triple wedding and the chaos that surrounds the wedding day. The video reached #7 on the "CMT Pure Pack Top Twelve Countdown" on January 29, 2010 and remained in the top twelve for several weeks.

The "Sunday Suit" video was written, produced, and directed by area natives Jonathan Barbee and Steven Gurley, along with the Media Works production team. Many local crew and actors were a part of the production, which took place mostly on Lake Tuscaloosa.

"We are thrilled to see that Sunday Suit has made it into the top 10 on CMT Pure. It's a great song performed by a talented artist and it was a lot of fun making this crazy video. Where else can you see a wedding cake in the face, water balloons, and a bride tossed into the lake?" says Jonathan Barbee of Media Works Communications.

The song and video are part of Connor Christians new album release "90 Proof Lullabies," which hit stores last April. His powerful music draws on influences ranging from Ryan Adams, G. Love, and Counting Crows to The Band and Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton John and makes a heartfelt statement found at the crossroads of Roots Rock and Americana. The label, Vintage Earth Music, chose Media Works to produce the video over several other production companies based in Atlanta and Nashville.

"We decided to work with Media Works and Jonathan Barbee because of their creative excellence and the quality of other productions they've produced. The production team is very well connected in Alabama and Nashville. They took our budget and made the video look like it cost 3 times as much," says Ken Green of Vintage Earth Music.

For more information about Media Works Communications or to vote on the video visit www.mwctv.com

For more information about Connor Christian visit www.connochristian.com or www.cmt.com and search "Connor Christian."
                                                                        -#-

Montgomery, AL
March 26^th, 2009


On Tuesday, Governor Bob Riley signed the state's first bill creating rebate incentives for film and entertainment companies that produce projects in Alabama. Hollywood Producers and Alabama natives, Jonathan Barbee and Steven Gurley, were guests at the ceremony along with executives from the Alabama Film Offices. House Bill 69 will create up to 35% rebates to qualified companies hiring local talent and crew. Alabama State Representative Earl Hilliard Jr., who has a background in film production, played a big role in helping the bill pass through the House of Representatives.

"Our state was looking for new sources of revenue and this bill is what we have accomplished with huge bi-partisan support from everyone." says Hilliard.

Barbee and Gurley are executives at Media Works Communications, a Birmingham based production company with locations in Nashville and Los Angeles.  They are credited with producing a reality series starring Tanya Tucker, Co-Executive Producers of "National Lampoon's Cattle Call," producers of "Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot to Kill Hitler,"* and a new series entitled "Blaze." Barbee and Gurley have been promoting the film industry in Alabama for 10 years. Many of their projects originate in Alabama.

"We are excited to see this bill passed. There were many people from the film offices to legislators who worked continuously on this program. We were honored to play a role in this and we will continue to promote Alabama's resources and locations to the film industry." says Barbee, President of Media Works.

Media Works is working on several film and television projects this year. With one major motion picture in the works for production in the fall, Media Works may be the first company to utilize the rebate program and bring a major studio production to Alabama. They also plan on working with other companies looking to produce in Alabama.
 
"This film rebate program came at a great time.  There will be many jobs created by this bill and Media Works plans to be one of the first to utilize the program. Investors will also be happy because film and television projects are really the only medium returning a profit during this recession." says Gurley, VP of Media Works.

For more information visit www.mwctv.com  or www.alabamafilm.org 
*According to www.imdb.com

-#-

April 22, 2008

Birmingham, AL 

Media Works Communications, Alabama's leading production company, has been chosen to produce re-enactment scenes for an international documentary. "OPERATION VALKYRIE: THE STAUFFENBERG PLOT TO KILL HITLER" is being produced by Schwartz & Company in association with Pantheon Studios of Hollywood. Media Works Communications has been selected to produce the bomb re-enactments and action scenes in Montevallo and Springville, Alabama.

"The bid process was timely, but the producers ultimately chose Media Works Communications over the other companies because of our experience and locations. It was an amazing feeling to know that Alabama and Media Works were chosen over Hollywood and Oxford, England," says producer Jonathan Barbee, President of Media Works.

"OPERATION VALKYRIE: THE STAUFFENBERG PLOT TO KILL HITLER" is the definitive film on Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and the Valkyrie conspiracy to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944. Produced in collaboration with Forschungsgemeinschaft 20 Juli 1944, the official German foundation dedicated to the memory of the conspirators, the film features testimonials and eyewitness accounts from all leading aristocratic families involved in the plot. Additionally, the film features the last living conspirator who escaped Hitler's wrath, Philipp Baron von Boeselager, the man who procured the explosives by which von Stauffenberg intended use to assassinate Hitler.

"This is a very important film which will reveal, perhaps for the first time, the depth of resistance against Hitler among high levels of the German Wehrmacht," said Director Jean-Pierre Isbouts, who holds a doctorate in history and teaches at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. "For this film, we have interviewed scores of relatives of resistance fighters, most of whom were put to death in the most brutal fashion after the failed July 20 attempt."

The feature-length film will also include a painstakingly researched reconstruction of the assassination attempt at Hitler's Wolf's Lair, featuring a cast and crew from Birmingham, Alabama. Isbouts is excited about the prospect.

"I have filmed all through the Middle East, Europe, as well as California, but this is our first time in the state of Alabama. We chose it because Media Works identified cabins and wooden buildings in the immediate vicinity of Birmingham which resemble the barracks of Wolf's Lair to an almost astonishing degree," he said.

"OPERATION VALKYRIE: THE STAUFFENBERG PLOT TO KILL HITLER" is scheduled to premiere in early August and to enter distribution by Koch Entertainment in September, 2008.

-#-