John Samaha sees a lot of things through the lens of a video camera.

His Tampa production company, Shooting Stars Post, recently interviewed five nurses at Tampa General Hospital. Footage from the chats was used to create television commercials that "create a sense of who these people are and why they care about their job."

One of his videographers recently rode a crane 25 stories high to shoot "previsualization" videos for the developers of 400 Beach Drive, a planned condominium project in downtown St. Petersburg. The videos, shot from varying heights and vantage points, show potential buyers the view they would have from a specific unit.

Samaha, who grew up in St. Petersburg and who owns and runs SSP with his wife, Marilyn, said one of his more interesting assignments of late was filming an eight-minute "happy faces" video at Outback Steakhouse's annual management conference last month.

About 3,100 people attended the three-day event in Orlando, including restaurant managers and chefs from each of Outback's eight restaurant chains worldwide, as well as outside vendors. In between the serious meetings and seminars, there were plenty of lighter moments to capture on video: a trip to Sea World; Outback execs swatting tennis balls with retired champion Chris Evert; the annual costume party, this one themed "heroes and villains"; and this year's surprise performer: singer Lenny Kravitz.

"I've been on quite a few of these corporate gatherings," Samaha said, "but I can tell you, this group of people is a very dynamic, entrepreneurial group. There are not a lot who are camera-shy, introverted people."

Many of the events or services were sponsored by Outback vendors. Anheuser-Busch, for example, hosted the Sea World visit and hired Samaha to shoot the eight-minute video, which aired on the conference's final day.

"They're obviously a prime vendor for Outback," he said, "and they essentially give them this video as a gift, as a kind of a thank-you."

- SCOTT BARANCIK, Times staff writer