Heart Month Videos for the University Hospital Foundation

In January, we had the opportunity to create two videos for the University Hospital foundation focused on Heart Month. These types of videos are always so great as we get to work with amazing people. It is a big reason why I started this job: to help share the stories of inspiring people.

For these videos we focused on Dave Doyle, who is recovering from a stroke; and Karl Sacca, who is living with a incredibly rare heart condition. Watching Dave’s commitment to therapy, while also laughing with him along the way was truly inspiring. And Karl was one of the most optimistic people we have ever worked with. When we walked in to Karl’s apartment for the shoot we were greeted by his warm personality and a room full of his friends eager ready to support him in the process.

We only had one afternoon with Dave and two afternoons with Karl. Knowing we had limited time I wanted to keep the lighting minimal and the look fairly natural, but elevated. Most of our lighting was done with two Aputure 4 ft Amran tubes and neg. I shot on a Canon zoom to avoid wasted time changing lenses. This was also fairly fly on the wall coverage and I had to hunt for my shots in the moment, so having the zoom lens on really allowed me to maximize coverage in a short amount of time. I love this type of shooting as it allows me to be fully present in the reality of the moment and allow my reflexes to take over. To add a bit of flair to the shots, I used a 1/8th black pro mist filter to bloom the highlights. Everything was shot on the Canon c500, except a few of the walking shots were done with the DJI cinema 4d ( More on this camera in another post).

This shoot required us to move quickly and to make a plan, but be willing to throw it away when a new option presented itself. My favourite projects are when we can make the most of limitations. Limited time, budget, and even length of the final edit, but we still manage to create work that the hospital and more importantly, Karl and Dave, can be proud of. You can view the completed commercials in the Reel section of our Instagram here.

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