Mike McKay

As an avid paddler, Mike McKay (Creative Director, Five2Nine) is used to tackling turbulent waters. But the emotional twists and turns of a pandemic are difficult to navigate. 7 years after a particularly daunting expedition, he returns to the West Magpie River with a small but mighty team.* Together, they lose themselves in a familiar challenge and paddle to peace of mind. Photos of the 2020 West...

Full cast and crew enjoys the campfire. Photography by Gabriel Rivett-Carnac Picture a magazine photoshoot. Then trade the studio for a tranquil lake, the gowns for PFDs, and the wind machine for a summer breeze. The Five2Nine team doesn’t just create branded content for their clients. They curate an organic experience for cast and crew alike. The result is something eye-catching and authentic.

Creating great imagery takes more than the latest iPhone and an Instagram account. Maybe you’re a budding filmmaker, photographer, or a small business that needs some good promo. Wherever you are in your journey, it’s daunting to compete with the big guys. But there are simple things you can do to make great content on a small budget. Keep reading for some tips on swimming in a big pond with...

Going beyond the traditional corporate video When it comes to traditional advertising techniques, the jig is up. Over the past decade, social media has made information faster and easier to access than ever before. People want to know who they’re supporting, and it’s easy enough to find out. It’s not that the average consumer doesn’t want to know about brands. In fact, brand loyalty is on the rise.

Collective marketing is the future for campaigns Social media has changed the face of marketing campaigns. According to SEO studies, most people will scroll past ads on google in favour of something with a personal touch. Organic collaborations are an exciting way for brands to engage with clients and network with like-minded companies. The best collaborative campaigns marry things like retail...

Why online marketing is so important right now We’ve had a lot on our plates lately. Even as pandemic precautions loosen up, the ever-changing rules are confusing. For people with products and services to promote, it is tricky to know what the right move is. Nobody wants to be insensitive during a stressful time, and the temptation may be to lay low. But there are plenty of reasons why this...

As the festival director of the Ottawa Adventure Film Festival I can literally be at a desk planning and prepping for up to 2 months leading up to the actual event. For me it is super important to get out of the studio and get on an adventure myself as soon as the festival is done. This year I was on a plane headed to Chile no sooner than 36 hours after the last film played. My mission was to...

Alex Guimont chats about his unintentional first self support canoe descent down the Colorado River. For Alex Guimont, adventuring is less about getting there first and more about enjoying the scenery with good people. What did you do on your 21st birthday? If you’re anything like Alex Guimont, you set out with 7 people and a couple of tripping canoes to casually achieve greatness. A mere stone’s...

Words by Mike McKay Jondachi was an experiment in following the Heroes Path. While it seems incredibly obvious to us as filmmakers we were surprised by how many thought this story was true. That is a major compliment. Set in the Napo Valley in Ecuador, Jondachi was born out of requests for Five2Nine to make a documentary style piece to highlight the Jondachi River and its hydroelectric threats.

Two weeks ago, a video came out of the FIVE2NINE studio that was the first video we’ve done like it. It was a fully animated video for William Amos. It was the first of two videos we produced for William Amos. Our very talented graphic artist Michelle De Alva put the piece together and as as always, it was everything everyone could have hoped for, and more. In this blogpost...

IMAGES ARE NOT RELATED TO THE ATHLETES DISCUSSED IN THIS ARTICLE Over the last year of working with athletes on multiple projects I have noticed a recent trend; the Instagram Break. This is a phenomena in which the crew will stop all the work in progress to allow for the subject to put priority on taking a number of staged and/or posed photos for the sake of posting later on Instagram.

A few weeks ago, FIVE2NINE set out to do a style of shoot that we had not done before. We had four big consecutive shooting days. Although each shoot has its own set of challenges, one of these days was more logistically significant than the others. It had been in the works since this spring, and planning for this was no small feat. The idea was a collaborative shoot that brought together various...

Canadaman/woman 2019 written by Alex Guimont Three weekends ago was the Lac Megantic Canadaman/woman. This event is part of the XTRI Series and is an adventure triathlon with ironman distances. It consists of a 3.8 kilometre swim, a 180 kilometre bike, and a 42 kilometre run that ends at the top of Mont Megantic. For the Past three years, Mike McKay has been part of the media team that covers the...

Written by Mathias Ekorn: On my way to work on the post-production of Adventure of the spirit in Québec, I already had big expectations of the team that had invited me. While filming the first episode of “Adventure of The Spirit” I had experienced first hand how much this small production company could achieve with limited resources. Since then I have worked on a major TV production in Norway that...

Written by Mike McKay: I met Mathias Ekorn randomly in a cafe in Chaiten, Chile. I overheard him speaking about a video project that wasn’t going to plan. I spoke up and introduced myself. He filled me in on the details of his film project of trekking across Patagonia and how many important pieces of the project were falling through. I offered some support. I told him that in my experience with...

FIVE2NINE has for years been creating content that it’s proud of and that results in happy clients. Growth of the company has taking many forms. Our team has grown as well as our technical capabilities and the style of videos we are able to produce. In October of 2018, we welcomed the newest member of our team, Michelle De Alva. Michelle has created a role for herself here that we did not even...

We know that April & May will be slow for us. It is the time of year where the season doesn’t quite know what to offer in terms of the outdoors. Weather can be unpredictable and often companies are unsure of what their plan is for media shoots for the upcoming season. It always feels a little like this rollercoaster is coming to an end. (I type this amidst a bunch of new bookings for July and...