Together it’s Possible is, as their website says, a group of parents of cognitively-challenged children working to get better support services in northeast Pennsylvania, or the “Slate belt.” They have occasional retreats, where the kids can have some fun activities and the parents can share stories and advice and wisdom with each other. These retreats are held at the Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, PA.
Christina tries out my TM700. I gave her a camera-person credit in the final video.
In early September of 2013, a friend was hired to develop a website for TIP, and she hired me to work on a showcase video. The weekend was a terrific experience. There was one constraint, in that we really couldn’t interrupt or interfere with the retreat’s activities. These families were here to give their kids a fun weekend and to share their experiences with others. This meant that we couldn’t sit people down in front of a background, hitch up a lapel mike and start a-interviewin’. Instead, we followed the weekend’s activities with a handheld camera and covered as much as we could. We also shot footage of the parents when they were talking (during schedules discussions during the day, and at an informal after-dinner discussion one night).
The video has some of our interview with Nick, who really enjoys insects and weather.
The purpose of the video was to show parents who hadn’t heard of TIP or Kirkridge what the retreats were like, and that they could benefit from everyone’s empathy and experience. And we had a rough time limit of ten minutes. Most of the footage of the weekend’s activities was useful, but the footage of the discussions worked best as a soundtrack (I spent the time swivelling the camera to the speakers). So we decided that it’d be a good approach to show the activities, but to lay in particularly strong or insightful comments that I’d recorded from the parents as a voice-over.
My friend was primarily responsible for creating the following video montage:
And if you happen to be or know someone with a cognitively-impaired child in the eastern and northeastern region of Pennsylvania, please, get in touch with TIP.
Dawn at Kirkridge. I spent some time trying to get good timelapses while I was there.