In the months leading up to the Fifth Annual Economic Development Forum, co-hosted by the Wake Forest Business and Industry Partnership (WFBIP) and the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 5, John and Nancy Sammon of Roseland Pictures were hard at work doing what they do best: creating a professional video to showcase people and places they believe deserve a wider audience.
During the five years since they moved to Wake Forest from Dubai — and in addition to their many other productions in America and across the world — this husband and wife team has created two videos and an animation highlighting the town’s economic strengths, demographics, quality of place, and aspirations of the ever-growing town.
Their latest effort, Wake Forest Tribute Film, runs for three minutes and focuses on the people and places that have shaped the town’s economic resilience and prosperity. From the college to Southeastern Seminary and featuring influential members of the business community from across the town who have made a monumental impact on the quality of life so many now enjoy, the video is a love story and a fitting tribute to Wake Forest’s economic strength overcoming pitfalls that could have easily brought degradation to the community.
With "micro actions" and still shots taken from hundreds of images and scenes, the couple worked for weeks to compile what became a solid three minutes - perfectly painting a moving portrait of the town's proud historic past of education and industry and its ever-evolving present.
While John wrote the script and directed this latest video for Wake Forest, Nancy produced it, developing the budget, scheduling, making sure the crew was present, and guiding the creative process. Conducting "very precise filming," they used everything they shot and "every trick available, any visual motif we could employ," John said, and still had to cut down the time allotted for each image.
"We have a lot of pride in and respect for the past, those people and businesses who came before us, and the challenges they went through," John said on a recent day he and Nancy were leaving to visit their other company headquarters in Dubai.
"We loved going through all the archival photos," John said, including a few of Arnold Palmer and more from Wake Forest College. "We learned so much. It's really a tribute to the town’s economic resiliency that we hope fills folks with pride and optimism."
All told, it took more than a month to produce, including two weeks of pre-production, two days of shooting, two days of "pick-ups," and two weeks of editing.
Now just 3 years old, Roseland is located at the Loading Dock Wake Forest on White Street. It produced its first video for WFBIP, which focused on Downtown, in February 2023. The second, and a more elaborate endeavor, focused on the industrial capabilities of Wake Forest and was unveiled at last year’s Economic Development Forum on Feb. 7, 2024.
"There's plenty of opportunities to get it out there," John said. "We are standing on the shoulders of giants here.” The couple hopes the video instills as much pride, along with a sense of place and unity in other leaders, as it does for them to live and run their business here.
Originally from Long Island, NY, John graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and earned a master’s from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. After serving as the Director of Education of the NY Film Academy in LA, he was hired to open multiple film schools and satellite programs around the world. John has literally circumnavigated the globe twice, lived on five continents, and directed TV shows, National Geographic documentaries, and opening ceremony films for major international events.
With more than 100 hours of content created and some 25 projects going at any one time, John and Nancy — who was born in Lebanon, where the couple married in 2012 — also founded a company in Dubai called Saluki Media — the Arabic word for an Arabian Site Hound, also known as the royal dog of Egypt — which employs some 24 people and collaborates seamlessly with Roseland.
Nancy started her career producing TV commercials but soon shifted to shows, documentary series, and feature filmmaking for platforms such as the BBC, Fox, and National Geographic, to name just a few. Among her most treasured and memorable professional experiences was living for a week with the Tibetan community in exile in Dharamshala, India, and interviewing the Dalai Lama.
The couple said the best part of this experience was meeting so many of the business and civic leaders across the Town. From Mayor Vivian Jones and Town Manager Kip Padgett to the police and fire chiefs, Ruth Ann and Jim Dyer, Jonathan Williams, Keith Shackleford and James Warren, Bob and Elizabeth Johnson, and many more, “it was a blast,” John said.
"We had so much fun talking and sharing and are so thankful that everyone jumped on board and took the time to let us in."
From meeting business leaders focused on the betterment of the community to the many other places they visited and people they met, the couple expressed their appreciation for all the support and trust, saying it was "an honor to portray this mosaic of humanity."
“We’re extremely grateful for another excellent contribution from Roseland Pictures that captures and shows so much of our businesses and community’s past and present,” said Jason Cannon, President of WFBIP. “This excellent video is another in a wide variety of ways that we will use to promote Wake Forest to the growing audience of businesses and investors interested in contributing to this extraordinary community."
