Here is the last of my letter "R" Blogs, don't ask me why the letter "R".
Rarely in our business do have a chance to produce something that has a one-to-one effect on people. However, this project I could bring what we do best, entertain; and on top of that, this might actually help and educate new dads about being a 21st century father.
So, 2014 started with a bang, 3 and a little 1/2 projects, back to back, with lots of overlap,very busy at the Gorilla Productions. The one, I want to focus on and which I am very proud of is the Cribside Assistance website.
The mix media project was a continuation of a passion project that started 4 years ago. I was a new dad with a newborn baby boy and I had just went through all the prenatal classes, hospital birth and the crazy few months of new fatherdom. As most new parents do, I hunted around for information and advice on how to be a dad. There was a lack of information geared towards new dads. Coincidently, all my really talented creative friends had children around that same time and when I shared my experience with them, they understood some of my frustration.
The frustration was that most of the material at the time was very mother centered. However, health professionals, doctors, wife, family and friends had an expectation that new dads need to actively participate in parenthood, basically not- Mad Men.
I approached my talented freelancer friends and we stated to research how to solve this problem.All our research lead us to Brian Russell's a Heath professional and fatherhood expert in Ontario. We got in touch with him and brainstormed a few projects. Finally, Brian came up with an idea for a website with an automotive theme for new dads with articles and videos that were to become a resource geared to new dads. We had a tight deadline, since we were dealing with government funding but the team pulled it off with some cleaver filmmaker tricks to keep production value and quality. In 2010 we launched www.newdadmanual.ca with much praise and success.
Custom designed retractable USB key that includes all the videos from the site
I was pleased when Brian came back with a proposal to do a phase 2 of the project. Working within his budget, I proposed that we revamp the website (overall new look, a restructure and some additional social media integration) and eventually we added some other media elements (USB keys and iBooks) to complete the package.
Brian had assembled quite a group from a variety agencies that were involved in other branches of the same project. They were a great source of feedback and perspective on the content. The newer videos were focused on healthy relationships with you partner and the challenges of being a new parent.
Also the in the new set of videos, we did 2 very powerful aboriginal pieces focussing on the challenges that this community is facing in North America. When we shot these videos the whole crew were very touched by the hard facts and realities that this community is facing. It was great to aid in giving the Aboriginal Dad a voice.
This project has gotten again some great feedback and I am very happy of me and my teams contribution to the project. Please share it with new families, I believe it is a great resource of quality information that is presented in an original way that I would of loved to have before I became a Dad.
* Oh and some under the hood stuff: Did this project start to finish FCPX. Since, I was producing it and I was going to be on set for the interviews. I was the DIT and Bcamera. So, I ingested with FCPX and at the end of each day too 20 mins to multi cam everything and rough organize the media. By the time, I got back to my suite, I was ready to screen and build rough cuts. Loving FCPX for this workflow. Finished, in Resolve my other new software mistress.