02 Apr 2014 Community Health Care Video
I was hired for the second year in a row to produce a film to present at Community Health Care’s yearly fundraising luncheon here in Tacoma. I like working with CHC, diving into the medical field for more insight into their services. The part I didn’t like was the two-week working timeline to get the film planned, shot, and edited. In fact, this year’s film was so last minute, that I sat down to start editing with 36 hours before presentation. Ugh. A long, stressful day and a half later, the video was done. Masterpiece it is not. No time for filling sorely needed gaps with additional footage to help better tell the story. Not even time to cut, analyze, and recut. Like being a kid again at the top of a big scary hill that you want to ride your skateboard down – you don’t know how things are going to turnout, but hopefully it’ll be a fun ride.
The way this year’s video started with two interview portions – one with the CEO and another with a real patient and their story. From there I spent a day roaming the CHC facilities, a day on foot capturing street life, one in-home family day, and another filming a new perspective with my new toy, the phantom quadcopter. Only having the GoPro-totting heli for a couple weeks prior to calling on it for usable footage made the whole adventure much more exciting and nerve-racking. It’s one thing flying it an open field, but a whole different game flying it around city buildings and bridges with the dangers of flying it into power cables, street lights, and even a building with the wrong gust of wind. In the end, I feel the shots I was able to achieve with the heli proved to increase production value for the film a great deal, especially considering it is a medial/fundraising/information which doesn’t allow for jaw-dropping visuals within the medical facilities. The added “out and about” shots captured provide the urban feel Tacoma definitely has going on.
One of the first quad flight tests.
Family of kiddos from a filming day – this was story time in the play room.