From about late June on, it was so busy I really neglected my blogging duties – as in I didn’t do it. I always thought I would get to it “next week”, but you know how that goes. So, in an effort to catch up a bit, here are a few highlights from the last six months of 2011.

NEW SHOW FOR CBM CANADA
Working closely with our great client Direct Point Group in Toronto, we wrapped up post-production on a new 60 minute television show for CBM Canada – an organization that focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty and disability for children and adults. The show hit the air in late November and the new donor response has been excellent.

In Zambia with CBM

Ed Epp, Executive Director, CBM Canada

12 year old Yolata, one of our feature stories.

A large portion of this new show was filmed in Zambia in March and we had the pleasure of working with CBM Canada’s Executive Director, Ed Epp. Ed is completely dedicated to his work and making a real difference for people, especially children, living in poverty with a disability. He’s a great guy and a pleasure to work with. Ed hosted the show and I’m sure his honesty and commitment are major factors in the show’s success.

EAST AFRICAN FAMINE TV SPOTS
This summer the drought and famine in East Africa was one of the year’s biggest stories and tragedies. Once again we worked with Direct Point Group to produce a series of emergency TV spots for the Humanitarian Coalition – a Canadian partnership between Care, Oxfam, Plan and Save the Children.

Emergency Response TV Spot

It was a classic “up all night” job to get something on the air with only two days notice but it’s a big part of what we do. When unfortunate events like this unfold with such tremendous loss of life, you do whatever needs to be done to help save lives.

SARAH MCLACHLAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Local singer/songwriter and, of course, world wide mega-star, Sarah McLachlan, is extremely dedicated to giving something back to her community. The Sarah McLachlan School of Music is all about helping young people “find their voice”. The school is a free program in Vancouver aimed at youth without the means to take music lessons.

The Sarah McLachlan School of Music. An amazing place.

We had the pleasure of creating a short video promoting the school and its incredible successes that was played prior to Sarah’s performance at a major women’s conference in Vancouver. You can learn more about Sarah’s school at www.sarahschoolofmusic.com.

The OAK RIDGE BOYS CHRISTMAS TV SPECIAL
In early November we travelled to Branson, Missouri and Nashville, Tennessee to film a Christmas TV Special for Save the Children with country music legends, The Oak Ridge Boys. It was a whirlwind trip to say the least but the guys were fantastic. They were true professional through-and-through and were happy to give us as much time as we needed to get the job done. It’s been 30 years since “Elvira”, their biggest ever hit, but the boys still pack ‘em in on a regular basis. It’s great that they’re using their voice and platform to help make a difference for children living in poverty – both in developing countries and in the United States.

Show opening animation and title

Duane Allen, The Oak Ridge Boys

Katie Cook

A young boy living in poverty in Tennessee

After filming with them in Branson, we hopped in our rental car and drove down to Nashville to shoot additional segments with Katie Cook, host of CMT’s Insider. During the drive it was a real education to see how many small American towns are suffering. Business after business closed, homes foreclosed and boarded up, unemployment rates steadily rising – it was eye opening to see such incredible poverty in the richest country in the world.

JOURNEY INTO THE FIRE
This project was somewhat of a departure from our usual work, but so much fun to be involved in. Journey Into the Fire is a web video series that follows a small group of local firefighters and their quest to win hockey gold at the World Police Fire Games in New York City in August. We followed the guys for four months as they pushed their bodies, and themselves, to the limit. All of them were skilled players in their youth with dreams of playing in the NHL. Several played professional minor league hockey and a few even had NHL tryouts before real life took over. Now they have a chance to play for their version of the Stanley Cup. They all committed to train, eat, practice and focus like professional players again to chase their dream.

Main title for web series

Post production has just about wrapped up and all the episodes will start going live this February. The entire project was sponsored by Vega Sport, an all natural sports nutrition product. As a hockey player myself (not a very good one mind you), it was a blast being at the firehall, rink and everything in between to tell their story. I felt like part of the team!

Watch for the series, coming soon at www.vegasport.com

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.

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

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

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

]]> http://www.fullframe.com/blog/2010/10/sos-childrens-villages-mexico/feed/ 0 http://www.fullframe.com/blog/2010/09/back-to-haiti/ http://www.fullframe.com/blog/2010/09/back-to-haiti/#comments Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:04:45 +0000 Scot http://www.fullframe.com/blog/?p=112 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.

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

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!

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

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!