News At Eleven Productions

05/01/2024

On-site consulting for the production of “Newsies Jr.” Happy to be working with my good friend and the production crew again this year!

10/21/2023

Presenting the staff & camper patches for the 2023 Chain Bridge District Camperall!

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03/20/2023

We are pleased to announce that our 8-part "virtual Pinewood Derby" for Pack 194 here in Arlington, VA was an EIGHT TIME Silver Award winner at the 17th Annual w3 Awards! The project won honors in four different categories, including Best Editing, Best Use of Visual Effects & Motion Graphics and Best Use of Audio for Video Features, and Best Writing for Virtual & Remote Experiences.

Thank you to AIVA and the for this great honor!

The full 8-part 2021 Pinewood Derby series is available on YouTube. The link is in our bio!

03/03/2023

The patches I designed for the 2023 Chain Bridge District Pinewood Derby have arrived! They turned out great and I hope they make a great souvenir for all the participants!

The Chain Bridge District race is Saturday, March 11 at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall in Arlington, VA. Hope to see you there!

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01/20/2023

Presenting the logo and patch design for the 2023 Chain Bridge District - National Capital Area Council, BSA Pinewood Derby!

This year marks the 70th anniversary of this beloved annual tradition.

In 1953, "Soapbox Derby Fever" was sweeping the nation. Kids would build go-cart-sized cars out of wood and wheels, and then race them down the biggest hill in town. Mr. Don Murphy, the Cubmaster of Pack 280C in Manhattan Beach, CA, proposed a clever (and much safer!) way to let Cub Scout-aged kids (like his 10-year-old son, Donn) get in on the Soapbox Derby fun. With a parent, each scout would build a miniature car out of a 7" block of pinewood, four nails, and four wheels. On race day, the competitors would race their creations down a 30-foot-long inclined wooden track.

In his day job, Mr. Murphy was an art director at North American Aviation, a major aircraft manufacturer based in nearby Los Angeles. He pitched his idea for the Pinewood Derby to the North American Management Club, who agreed to sponsor Pack 280C's inaugural race.

The rest is history.

Today, 70 years later, millions upon millions of Pinewood Derby cars have been built and raced since that first race in 1953.

In honor of Mr. Murphy and North American Aviation's role in the first Pinewood Derby, this year's patch design features the bird from North American Aviation's early 1950s logo, "reimagined" as a Pinewood Derby racer.

Sure, with those wings, it'd be WAY too wide for an actual PWD car. Chalk it up to "artistic license." ;)

The Chain Bridge District Pinewood Derby will be held on Saturday, March 11, at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall in Arlington, Virginia.

National Capital Area Council, BSA

12/12/2022

4 doors just to leave the secure area at Reagan National Airport. Overkill, or are they just trying to…er…get smart?

08/30/2022

We are thrilled to be working with Capital Hockey Events on branding and promotion for this Fall's inaugural Capital City Thanksgiving Invitational hockey tournament. NAEP's Matt MacPhail designed & drew "Cappy", the tournament's turkey mascot, along with the tourney logo featuring the...er...spokesbird.

We wish all the participating teams and players great success!

05/04/2022

Happy to be on site at St. Patrick's Catholic School, Rockville, MD this afternoon providing audio consulting & support for this weekend's production of "The Jungle Book"! This is their first show since the Spring of 2019 -- great to see live theater happening in the schools again!

04/08/2022

Some very exciting news for our company!

The 8-part "virtual" Pinewood Derby video series we produced for Cub Scouts Pack 194 / Arlington, VA was just recognized as a DOUBLE Webby Awards Honoree in the 26th Annual Webby Awards!

The series was honored in two categories -- Best Virtual & Remote Series (Media, Entertainment & Sports), and Best Virtual & Remote - General (Sports). Our show is recognized in these categories alongside a pretty remarkable collection of entries from iconic brands such as Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, Electronic Arts, Verizon, and Grubhub. As you can imagine, we are absolutely flabbergasted to be included in such company.

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet.

Thanks to the Webbys for this great honor! Congratulations to all the scouts and leaders from Cub Scouts Pack 194 / Arlington, VA, and our partners in crime, Jennifer Eakle McDougall, Bill Brougham, Liam Brougham, and Joseph B K Justice!

Thanks also to our sponsors -- Twins Ace Hardware - Arlington, Casual Adventure, The Italian Place (Adriana Penachio Sifakis), CSI Printing & Graphics, New Forest Valet Cleaners (Chris McIntosh), and Red River Trophy & Engraving. 2021 was a weird year for all of us, and we're proud to have made such a unique program in such an unusual year.

The series is available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm7wmD_VF0a-LxlELDB2SY-NsjcITS0um

Hope you'll check it out!

Chain Bridge District - National Capital Area Council, BSA
National Capital Area Council, BSA
Cub Scouts
Boy Scouts of America

For many years, Cub Scouts Pack 194 (Arlington, VA) has put on an incredible Pinewood Derby. Hosted by former Cubmaster Matt MacPhail (in the persona of "Al...

03/07/2022

And now…the actual patch for the 2022 Chain Bridge District Pinewood Derby!

This is my third year designing the patch for the District. This year's design is an homage to the "Googie" architectural style made famous in Southern California in the 50s and 60s. The patch features a 1960 Corvette hard top, sporting "official" BSA wheels, ready to make a run at Pinewood Derby glory.

(Because, let's face it...who WOULDN'T like to build a '60 Corvette as a PWD racer?)


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02/07/2022

Another patch design for the Chain Bridge District - National Capital Area Council, BSA of the National Capital Area Council, BSA -- the "participant" and "staff" patches for the 2022 Klondike Derby. The patch features a Northern Lights-inspired logo, with a musher and dog team riding across the frozen expanse. We don't get _quite_ that cold here in the DC area, but it's at least fun to pretend! ;)

The 2022 Chain Bridge District Klondike Derby is this coming Saturday, February 12. Good luck to all the participants in this year's competition!

02/02/2022

I'm pleased to present the official logo and patch design for the 2022 Chain Bridge District Pinewood Derby!

This is my third year designing the patch for the District. This year's design is an homage to the "Googie" architectural style made famous in Southern California in the 50s and 60s. The patch features a 1960 Corvette hard top, sporting "official" BSA wheels, ready to make a run at Pinewood Derby glory.

(Because, let's face it...who WOULDN'T like to build a '60 Corvette as a PWD racer?)

01/13/2022

Thanks to the BSA Scout Shop for sharing our video! I (Matt) had the opportunity to go live with the Scout Shop crew yesterday to talk about the "virtual" races we did for Pack 194 and the Chain Bridge District in 2021. This video was an elaborate "cherry on top" of a recurring gag we did during the series. We had one of the Scouts supposedly flying in a blimp over the "virtual stadium" where the races were being held, shouting down snarky comments like Statler & Waldorf from The Muppet Show. At the conclusion of the races -- YOU TOO can hire A Kid In A Blimp for your next "event, celebration, or meeting!" Kudos to Frank, the "Kid In A Blimp," for some great acting chops, and to our very own Ann MacPhail for the great voiceover!

10/14/2021

Happy Birthday The Anthem !
We are proud to be part of the engineering team of this powerful and fantastic sounding venue in Washington DC. If you are in DC, The Anthem is a must see.

Check our The Anthem Project Page:
https://wsdg.com/projects-items/the-anthem/

10/09/2021

Hockey season is upon us, and that means we're again working with the Bishop O'Connell Ice Hockey Program to produce content for their social media feeds! Here's a fun clip from yesterday's practice, when senior Nick Hunter slipped a wicked slap deke past goalie Kieran Sullivan. Goalie Kohl Strom was miked up and providing color commentary (and "Sauce in 4k") for the video.