Occasionally, a project comes along that makes an unexpected impact on us, not just as an agency but as human beings.
Last fall, we traveled across the state to film a series of videos for My Healthy Baby, a cross-agency initiative from the Indiana Department Of Health, Family and Social Services Administration, and Department of Child Services that connects Hoosier women to family support providers. These videos are personal. They share the stories of women whose lives have been directly impacted by their family support providers.
Each story is unique but they all include common challenges that women can face when entering motherhood: postpartum depression, financial instability, NICU visits, and infant care. Telling these stories is essential to helping more women get the support they need during and after pregnancy. Read on to get insight into the production process.
Pre-production
Before filming began, our producer Clare met with each woman twice for extended introductory conversations. We wanted to tell a wide variety of stories to truly capture family support providers’ impact on our state.
While the client was originally planning to only choose three of the eight women for the shoot, after these preliminary interviews, it became clear that all of the stories should be shared. They were all equally impactful.
After making that call, we assisted the client in writing questions for each interview. Then, we put together a week-long shooting schedule.
Production
During production, we visited women in Evansville, New Albany, Brookville, Madison, Connersville, Fort Wayne, and Terre Haute. Clare brought toys for the kids to play with, which came in handy while getting b-roll. Filming in someone’s home is intimate and requires a pared-down crew to both get the job done and be respectful of the individual’s space.
With this in mind, we kept our on-site crew small. The rest of our group would watch via monitors in another room in the house or from a trailer. The interviews were filmed using a two-camera operation for better storytelling and editing in post-production.
Being on set allowed us to see the connections between the providers and the women. We saw the real-life benefits and the emotional and mental support that each woman had received from their local provider. It was amazing to witness. By the end, we had hours of interviews and eight terabytes of data from the shoot!
Post-production
Our team came out of production with an even bigger passion for My Healthy Baby, which translated into a desire to protect these women’s stories during the editing process. Once all of the transcriptions were finished, we went through each interview and highlighted what we did and didn’t want to include. Then, we worked closely with the client and the editor as each story came together and was eventually translated into Spanish and Burmese.
End Result
After a couple months of editing, the videos were ready to debut. Overall, we created around 20 videos (around 60 when counting subtitled versions), including testimonials, FAQ videos, a fundraising video, and a recruitment video. These videos bring to life the many ways family support providers empower Indiana moms and will help even more families get the support they need. You can view the videos at MyHealthyBabyIndiana.com.