Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

2011 Ride to Conquer Cancer

Posted by Scot, July 21st, 2011

It was wet. It was cold. It was windy. It was a really, really long way. We rode over 230km in two days from Vancouver to Seattle. Our knees, backs, shoulders and butts hurt like you know what. But, none of us wanted to be anywhere else. It was an amazing experience we’ll never forget.

Thanks to fantastic friends and family who donated to our effort, Full Frame’s bike team, Team Spandissimo, raised over $18,000 to fight cancer in BC. In total, 2,800 riders raised 11.1 million dollars – a new record!

All your encouraging emails and messages before and during the ride helped us so much. When we were tired, soggy, aching and not sure if we would make it, you helped get us through.

If we learned anything from all of this, it’s that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. We accomplished something we probably thought was impossible just five months ago. It’s incredible what we can do when we work together.

Food For The Poor show a big success!

Posted by Scot, March 13th, 2011

Our efforts in Haiti and Guatemala late last year appear to have payed off. The 60-minute program we produced with our great client Russ Reid, the largest agency in North America dedicated to non-profit organizations, is doing extremely well and generating significant response and donations for Food For The Poor.

It’s truly rewarding when we get a chance to make a difference for children and families living in such extreme poverty. When we put these shows together we hope that we do these stories justice and help people understand the harsh reality of millions of people around the world. I guess we did our jobs. Thanks to everyone who’s seen the show and responded. We saw the amazing work of Food For The Poor for ourselves – we know your generosity is changing lives.

Visit their website at www.foodforthepoor.org

We’ll never forget the children and their families we met while filming this show. You can watch some of their stories on our Vimeo channel.

Watch LUVENCI – Cape Haitian, Haiti

Watch CARMELINA – Guatemala

Watch JUAN & MARIA – Guatemala

Watch NACHELINE – Cape Haitian, Haiti

Distracted by Facebook

Posted by Scot, March 13th, 2011

Yes, I’m world’s worst blogger. It’s been almost five months since my last post – yikes!

Well, there has been a lot going on here. Plus, I jumped into the whole social media thing and have been distracted by the shiny new thing that is Facebook and Twitter. What a steep learning curve to get the hang of it. I feel like I just learned to speak a new language – in some ways I guess I did. If you haven’t checked out our Facebook page yet, please drop by and become a friend – we always need more friends!

www.facebook.com/fullframeproductions

SOS Children’s Villages – Mexico

Posted by Scot, October 28th, 2010

An SOS Family

I just got back from Mexico after a great shoot with Jim Rawn from Year 64 Media for SOS Children’s Villages Canada. SOS is an official charity of Transat Holidays and Air Transat and they needed a video they could show in-flight to inform passengers of SOS Children’s Villages great work, Transat’s on-going commitment and to encourage passengers to donate unused currency they may be bringing home from vacation destinations.

Great smiles

We spent two days at an SOS Village near Campeche shooting lots of b-reel and interviewing some of the children who live there, SOS mothers and the village director. This is the third SOS village I’ve visited around the world. They are truly amazing places. The children who come to live there are abandoned or orphaned with no place to go. They often live on the streets in unimaginable poverty. Many are abused.

A happy home

In an SOS village, they get a safe to place to live, good food, health care, an education, and most importantly, they become part of a family and are loved. Typically, there are ten homes in a village with each home having about ten children and an SOS mother. The mothers are incredible. They love and care for these kids like they’re their own children. The best part is that the entire family stays together until the children are adults. When the time comes to leave the village, they start a new life of self-sufficiency and have a bright future ahead of them. It was another great experience seeing how children’s lives can change so much when people care.

Best buddies

Back to Haiti

Posted by Scot, September 12th, 2010

In August, Dean Miles and I returned to Haiti. But this time we travelled to Cape Haitien, a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast. We were there with our good friends at the Russ Reid Company and their new client, Food for the Poor.

We spent six days shooting stories for a new fund raising television show that will start broadcast in January, 2011. The conditions in Cape Haitien were pretty rough. Some of the worst locations we’ve ever shot in. The city wasn’t damaged by the January 2010 earthquake but thousands of people have moved there from devastated Port-au-Prince – creating even more over-crowding and demands on a virtually non-existent infrastructure.

Our stories focused on three different children living in unbelievable poverty. One young boy, Luvenci, lives in a small cardboard and tin shack at the waters edge. The little house sits on top of knee-deep garbage and human waste – basically a giant garbage dump and toilet. The smell almost knocks you over. Everywhere we stepped was a sinkhole of rotting and disease ridden goop. But for little Luvenci, this is his front yard and playground. His mother doesn’t have any other option – this is all she can afford.

Getting some shots of Luvenci in front of his house.

After a while, we just stopped looking down and worrying about what we were standing in. It was what it was. Luvenci and his family do this everyday – we could tough it out for a few hours. After we got back to our hotel, I think we all threw most of our clothes away.

While we were there, we learned that Food for the Poor does so much more than their name suggests. In fact, providing housing is one of their major initiatives in Haiti. We visited a small community of about 50 new cement homes – it was amazing. The people had a sense of pride and dignity. It was a happy place. Families just like Luvenci’s had a chance for a new beginning.

I’m happy to tell you that Luvenci’s mom will soon receive a simple but well built new home in a clean and safe neighborhood with fresh water and a school nearby.

Dean showing Luvenci what he looks like on video. He thought that was pretty cool.

Dean talking with a local Food for the Poor field worker and Luvenci's mom.

Haiti – April 2010

Posted by Scot, May 11th, 2010

Shooting with the Canon 5D in Petionville tent camp in Port-au-Prince

We recently spent ten days (April 22nd to May 1st) shooting in Haiti for Save the Children. It’s been so hard describing what it was like – words just don’t seem adequate. I’ve cut together a few images and posted them on Vimeo. It’s nothing fancy at this point, but it should give you an idea of what I saw. Here’s the link: http://www.vimeo.com/11539383

Children we met in Haiti

Driving through Port-au-Prince was a real eye opener. The amount of destruction is impossible to comprehend. The streets have been more-or-less cleared of rubble (basically pushed to the side) but that’s about it. Building after building is in ruins. Thousands of others are cracked and teetering on the edge of total collapse. Millions of people are homeless and living in temporary shelters on every available empty space. Where do you start? I guess that’s the big question. Many agencies including Save the Children are working 24/7 to make a difference but it’s going to be a long and slow process. The people of Haiti never seem to catch a break – so much suffering with no end in sight.

This was my first time shooting with a Canon 5D. It took a few days to get comfortable with it, but overall, I was very happy with the results.

My Zacuto Z-Finder eye-piece for the 5D was a life saver!

Jordan getting some shots from the roof of our truck

Editing on Cambodia stories almost complete

Posted by Scot, March 22nd, 2010

Well, once again, our blogging efforts slipped through the cracks of a busy production schedule – most of it in far off places with no internet access. Uploading off a roaming iPhone is not a good idea – as I found out when I received a recent wireless bill!

Our Cambodia stories came together really well. Our host, Rick Campanelli (ET Canada) did a great job – really jumped in and related what he was learning to the viewer.

Rick Campanelli in Cambodia

Rick shows the dirty river water that Seyha has to drink

Post-production is nearly complete – music scoring and final audio mixing are under way. It’s always a challenge to tell these incredible stories in 5 minutes or less – so much powerful stuff ends up on the proverbial cutting room floor. You fight for your favorite scenes or moments and do the best you can. There’s always something you’re sad to see cut. But, that’s TV for ya!

Cambodia

Posted by Scot, November 25th, 2009

After Tanzania it was back home for a few weeks and then back out again to Cambodia with World Vision. We shot in and around the capital city of Phnom Penh. Doing urban stories is such a different experience than shooting in the small rural villages of Africa. We were in one of the poorest areas of the city – a crowded, cramped and noisy shanty-town along the river. The conditions were some of the worst I’ve ever seen. Basically, we were up to our knees in mud, garbage and sewage.

Seyha

One of our stories featured a little 9-year old boy named Seyha. He helps support his family by collecting old bottles and plastic bags to sell for recycling. Wherever he went, we had to follow. He works all day to fill a huge bag and makes about 15 cents.

We’ve just returned home now and it’s time to start editing. We’ve got so much great material from Cambodia. Each story in the new World Vision show is only about 4 minutes long – it’s going to be tough to cut it all down!

Well, enough blogging for now. Time to get back to work. Hopefully our next posting will be sooner than three months from now!

Seyha collecting plastic to sell

Catching up. We’re bad bloggers!

Posted by Scot, November 25th, 2009

In Tanzania getting a high-angle shot of a school from our truck

Well, we had such good intentions of really getting into this blogging thing. It’s been nearly three months since our last post – so much for being significant social media contributors. We’ve just been so darn busy and traveling to remote villages around the world with no internet access doesn’t help. Yes, I know, I know…excuses, excuses.

The Tanzania shoot in August & September was a bit of a challenge. We ran right into the tail end of their rainy season and three of our seven shooting days were a total loss. This wasn’t just a little rain – we’re talking torrential downpours that would turn the roads into rivers within a few minutes. But, we managed to work around it as best we could and came away with a couple of good stories for World Vision Canada’s new show for 2010.

And then it rained.

And then it rained some more!

Off to Africa

Posted by Scot, August 28th, 2009

Well, it’s off to Africa again. Tanzania this time. We’re shooting a new show for World Vision Canada. One of the biggest challenges is just getting there with all our gear. If we want to hit the ground running and start shooting, we have to take pretty much everything with us as carry-on luggage. We’ve been in the lost luggage movie a few too many times over the years to even risk it.

Trying to pack as light and small as possible but still have the tools we need to shoot is becoming a bit of a science. Thankfully there are some amazing small cameras on the market now. This is my first trip with the new JVC HM100U as our B-Camera. It’s an amazing little thing. Full 1920×1080 HD but only 3.2 lbs. Wow. Compared the Sony EX1 it feels like an empty plastic shell. If the pictures hold up, I may be tempted to grab it more and more often.

Apparently we’ll have some level of internet access in Tanzania so I’ll be blogging a bit while we’re there. If I manage to stay awake long enough. Time to eat a little dinner and get some sleep before our early flight tomorrow. I’ll need all my energy to argue about the size of our carry-on bags with the airlines!

More later. Scot.