Wood County’s cities, businesses and citizens were the stars of promotional footage shot across the
region Tuesday.
The timing is right for a new county video, and so is the price, as a New York company agreed to produce
an advertising-driven project for free.
The old video was a little too heavy on government with not enough of a focus on what makes Wood County
an enjoyable place to live. That prompted the idea for a new video a few years ago.
"It was outdated, and just kind of hokey, to be honest," said Joe Fawcett, assistant county
administrator.
"Originally it was more geared toward ‘What is county government?’ and now it’s kind of evolved into
a tour book of the county itself."
Fawcett is handling the county’s end of the project with CGI Communications of Rochester, N.Y., which
will process the footage sometime next month along with narration and still photos to create the final
product.
Ron Ross, who filmed throughout Wood County on Tuesday, said CGI has produced thousands of community
videos, and he’s worked on 165.
Ross spent most of Tuesday traveling to sites across the county, from the CSX Intermodal hub in North
Baltimore to Bowling Green to Perrysburg. Scenes were also filmed or photographed near the Maumee River,
area highways and other businesses.
As commissioners were filmed reading a brief welcome outside the county courthouse, noise from trains,
wind and passing cars created the need for a few extra takes.
Having an advertising component prevented the need to spend county money on the project, which otherwise
could have cost more than $15,000, Fawcett said.
"That’s huge for us, and it’s good for businesses."
The video will run about five minutes, with a one-minute focus on each of five areas: a welcome by
commissioners, economic development, tourism, education, and area nonprofit organizations.
When finished, the video will be posted on the county’s website and relocate.org, a website used by many
who have planned to or are interested in moving to a new area.
The site shows a map along with information on local schools, a link to find a realtor, and news articles
from the area, including daily stories from the Sentinel-Tribune. Communities also post their
promotional videos on the site.
"It’s kind of an advertisement for the county," Fawcett said.