One of the early Local Eye Site visions was to create an ongoing animated feature that pokes fun at the idiosyncrasies associated with working in the eye care industry. Since before we even launched Local Eye Site, we always thought there was a great opportunity to take ideas from the LES community and spin them into animated shorts built around a character who works in eye care. Well, we finally did it, and we are proud to introduce eye care’s new mascot: Eileen, The Eye Care Professional Extraordinaire.
Eileen was produced in collaboration with Grey Blackwell, one of the most respected computer animators in that business. Grey lives in the Raleigh, NC area. Since Grey was a friend of Local Eye Site’s, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him. Grey’s work has been featured by ESPN and Mad Magazine just to name a couple of his clients. Grey and Brad McCorkle collaborated on the first script, “The Early Birds” with Jay Brady, who produced Eileen’s catchy theme music and hilarious voices. Brad got the idea for this initial episode after talking to eye care Technicians and Nurses over his years in the industry.
In “The Early Birds” we have fun with the reality that most eye care patients are Senior Citizens, and they have a tendency to show up REALLY early for their appointments because the doctor’s appointment is their social event of the day. Another well known idea (easily related to by all of the eye care medical sales reps out there) is that the parking lot of an eye clinic is not the safest place to hang out. Here is the first episode of “Eileen: Eye Care Professional Extraordinaire”
We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Loved the cartoon! So funny and so true. Just a few days ago, some of the staff watched from our second floor window during lunch as several patients rolled up and over curbs and parked outside their parking space as they were coming in for their Cat Evaluations, YIKES!
Hi Cheryl!
Thanks for getting introduced with “Eileen.” Please pass on any stories that could show up in her misadventures. Hope you all are doing well. Please tell everyone I said hello.
Brad
Hi, Brad:
The response to Eileen at my NJ office has been very positive. Some may think we are being disrespectful, but when we work as hard and are often stressed as eyecare professional laughter is one way we deal with that stress.
“A day is wasted without laughter” and we are poking fun at ourselves also. We have to talk, I have so many stories from 35 yrs in nursing, 25 of them in ophthalmolgy.
And how did you know I have red hair?
Eileen
I hope people don’t see this as disrespectful. Certainly, no disrespect is intended. Some day, if we’re fortunate, we will all be Sr. Citizens. I agree with you Eileen B., we have to be able to laugh at the things that make us different.