The Prostate Cancer Centre (PCC) in Calgary approached us in March 2019 to do a few video and photography projects, including an animation. 

It was the start to a journey we knew we could travel, but didn’t foresee all that would come our way over the next seven months before the final project debuted before a few thousand Calgary Hitmen fans during a Bret The Hitman Hart themed night at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on November 2, 2019.

We didn’t have the How to Share Your Story process in its current format. I know we would have saved ourselves a lot of heartache, months of corresponding back and forth and about 10 script revisions if we had this process locked down.

I went into the first meeting with some of the foundational questions, and over the next two hours with three of their staff, we came up with a script idea and creative direction for the animation.

Despite having buy-in from their communications team about creating a personified prostate character to educate and guide potential patients through the process of getting checked and why viewers should, the feedback from up the chain led things in a different direction.

A second ideation of the script, mainly led by the client, depicted an average-Joe character encouraging men to know their numbers for prostate health. The PCC envisioned wrestling celebrity and Calgarian Bret Hart voicing the character. That script was kicked aside, but a new one was crafted following our guidance around the character of Bret The Hitman Hart’s journey with prostate cancer.

It wasn’t an easy process, but after three script versions, and about 15 drafts, we nailed it.

I had the honour of meeting Bret on August 8, 2019 to record the voiceover.

He was such a humble, kind professional, and that day will live in my memory forever.

The animation proceeded with avatars of Bret Hart’s likeness by our graphic artist, Gonzalo. Once we had the character approved, we proceeded with sketching out the scenes and laying them out with the voiceover in Boords, an online platform that allows us to create storyboards and animatics like the ones below.

Music selection was our next milestone. We were hearing 80s metal in our head in tribute to Hart, but soon realized his theme song, Hart Attack, was what we needed. Thankfully, our communications friends at PCC were able to ask Bret to pull some strings and we got the rights to the song for the animation. We used it for the beginning and end of the animation, and another song to fit the mood in the middle.

The nearly three-minute animation was presented to the client through Frame.io, an app where we upload footage, collaborate and comment on revisions. With minimal changes to animations of the inner workings of manhood (we’re not doctors here, but we had lots of supplied graphics for reference), we had client approval.

November 2 was met with much anticipation as we headed to the game that night, myself, my wife Jocelyn, and Joel with his wife Kayla (pregnant with their son Kaius) and two boys, Aeson and Ezra.

The puck went in and the Saskatoon Blades won the good ol’ hockey game, but we got to see our video played twice on the jumbotron.

This animation has been the biggest challenge in my career so far, but it’s also been a catalyst for so much growth as a company. Through this process, I rebranded from iEvolve Photo to iEvolve Media, offering photo, video and animation services with my excellent team. It’s also responsible for pushing me to develop a better process to guide clients better from concept to final product, whether it’s a photo, video or animation. 

We’ve had more animation projects since, and are looking forward to more!

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute is helping save lives through research, education and clinical care, and we are thankful to be able to help them further their goals.

In late February they emailed  us with the opportunity to film and photograph a fundraising event called Heart Health Day at Azuridge Estate Hotel in mid-March.

With little time to spare (about two weeks), we got on the phone to go through the How to Share Your Story process to create the script with the accompanying shot list.
Through that half-hour call (rushed, but we made it work), we discovered Libin’s objective for the video, who their audience was for the piece, what that audience’s problem was, their state of mind, the stakes if their problem wasn’t addressed, how Libin empathized with them and would guide them to a solution, and a clear call to action for viewers to take.

We were able to create a script and shot list after a few emails back and forth over the Google doc. 

With that in hand, one shooter (me - Britton) was able to confidently film and photograph for several hours on the first night of the two-day event, and the following morning.


The original plan was to set up and shoot from about 3-7 p.m. the first night and 9 a.m.- 12 p.m. the following morning, but heavy snowfall and a room cancellation at the boutique hotel in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains southwest of Calgary made it advantageous to stay overnight. I’m not complaining!

Good food and a good night’s rest made for some great shooting.

The images were imported onto a hard drive, sent to my teammate, Joel, who culled it down (selected images) to about 10 per cent of what was shot. He did a stock-photo quality edit on the images, and we were able to deliver them within a week. 

Next up for the video process, several voices were selected out of dozens listened to on VoiceJungle.com. We gave Libin the freedom to select from the top four. We delivered the script to the talent, and she did a bang up job, with one revision, and we were set. It was great to be able to give her a bit of direction and hear the script in our heads with her voice reading it with the direction from the shot list. We were able to give her the direction she needed to open the script with a serious tone, and transition to more hopeful and optimistic, with notes on where to do so.

Into the editing process, Britton was able to hand this script and shot list over to Gonzalo, who did an excellent job of selecting music that matched the mood and tone of the piece. Having the footage organized into scenes that corresponded with the compiled shot list gave him clear direction. Having the client’s assets (logos, fonts, colours) was also key.

Gonzalo took the creative freedom to slow the video’s pace being down. It was originally intended to be within one minute, but that rushed the script. The footage was shot at a higher frame rate that could be slowed down (as noted in the Frame rate/pace column of the chart below). In planning, we had an inkling that would fit better than real-time, fast-paced footage, but sometimes this becomes even more clear in the editing process than it was in planning.

A long version (1:50) and a short version (1:09, close to the 1-minute original goal) were presented to the client through Frame.io, an app where we can upload footage, collaborate and comment on revisions. 

We opted to meet in the middle at 1:25 with the final product.

Several revisions back and forth, and we completed the project within three weeks of the shoot date, which was several weeks ahead of when they needed it. Score!

-Britton

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