Mode Project Wins Silver Telly for Chicago Symphony Orchestra Collaboration

It’s great to start the summer off with a win. Mode Project is excited to announce that “Music in a Time of Crisis: After All This”,  a social media video created in the midst of the pandemic for Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has been named Best in Social Video: Arts & Entertainment, recognized by a Silver honor in the 42nd Annual Telly Awards. 

In the video, five musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra reflect on their hiatus from performing live at Symphony Center. “In the face of a year like no other, Mode Project has continued to defy the limitations of our new world, in continuing to create compelling and engaging work”, says Telly Awards Executive Director Sabrina Dridje. “This year’s submissions doubled down on what we already know about the industry. Creativity cannot be stopped. Collaboration will always prevail. New ideas and stories will always find a way to break through to an audience.”

Here is the Telly award-winning piece, for your viewing – and listening – pleasure, followed by a brief conversation with Emmy-award-winning storyteller and Mode Project Creative Director Brooks Ruyle, a Screen Exclusive!

The short film is Mode Project’s latest video content collaboration with the CSO and was crafted using images from CSO’s library. The team directed Zoom audio interviews for the film’s soundtrack, which reveals the musicians’ true feelings about the hiatus, making an authentic emotional connection with the viewer.

“We specialize in creating work that will ring true with viewers,” Emmy-award-winning storyteller and Mode Project Creative Director Brooks Ruyle shared with SCREEN. “So we aimed to capture authentic, unscripted reflections from Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians about what it felt like to be on hiatus from performing in front of a live audience due to COVID. Our creative approach was to to develop interview questions which would reveal their feelings in an unvarnished way.“

As for the Silver Telly win, “We’re glad to receive the recognition from our industry peers, but we’re even more excited about serving a great Chicago cultural institution like the CSO.”

Ruyle wrapped up the conversation with an uplifting look ahead. “We hope the viewers will come away with the understanding of how dedicated CSO musicians are to their audiences, and how eager they are to be back on stage at Symphony Center.”

Up Next for Mode Project

Owner Dessa Carter, Creative Director Colin Carter, Ruyle, and the rest of the Mode Project team have been very busy to date, especially in design, animation and editing over the last year, completing projects for Whole Foods Markets, Citi-Costco via Havas, Allstate, and Pedialyte via Norton Agency, to name a few. Their team is excited about the gradual ‘return to normal’ including getting back to the studio space full time and resuming real people, documentary-style production.

For more of the latest creative content from Mode Project, click right here.