JacksGap x Skype Behind the Scenes
This week JacksGap and Skype posted their commercial for the documentaries on YouTube, one of which feature your truly. We recently Skyped again to simulate our first meeting and capture it on film. I have to admit it was great to see them again and catch up on what's new for us both! I know you are dying to see what the story was so here is the link to the story and the story in text below!
Here's the link to their full story on their website:
http://jacksgap.com/announcing-new-collaboration-jacksgap-x-skype/
Below is the text only:
"Hello. We’re excited to announce a new project today. Before I tell you what it is I want to explain how it came about. Two months ago we created ‘The Collaboration Project’. A video in which we featured people from all around the world who had sent us clips telling us what they love. We decided to use Skype video message as a way to collect the footage as it was far easier than having people email it in. What we didn’t realise was that Skype would see the video, share it across their social media and get in touch.
We had already developed a relationship with Skype last year when they kindly supported and helped fund ‘The Rickshaw Run‘ series. They said they liked what we do. We said ‘Thank you very much’. Then they asked us how they could support JacksGap and enable us to make better content. We started brain storming projects we could work on together. We told them we loved to travel and that we were passionate about telling stories. We explained we were keen to create content documenting inspiring stories that would be otherwise untold. After a couple of weeks of back and forth we agreed on a concept.
We decided to to launch Following Heart – A three part documentary series telling the stories of three women who use Skype to enable them to pursue their passions. Each subject lives in a different country and each use Skype in a different way. We wanted to travel out and meet them to make a short film about the way technology is enabling them to do what they love.
We pulled together a team of people including Tim Kellner our camera assistant and Lucy Eveden as a production manager and started researching stories that matched what we were looking for. After a couple of weeks of working alongside Louise Shorter (our researcher) we found three perfect stories.
The first story we came across was Danielle Turano. A professional violinist and teacher. She uses Skype to connect with people all around the world and teach them violin. She also spends her spare time performing in a gipsy swing band in her home town of New York. We spent four days with her in Brooklyn learning about her passion for music and following her around the city. During the trip I gained a new found respect for the violin and became eager to learn how to play it, only to realise that music isn’t one of my strong suits.
The second story is Jillian Morris. A marine biologist and underwater cinematographer. She lives on a tiny island called Bimini in the Bahamas. In her spare time she runs a shark conservation charity called Sharks4kids. She uses Skype to connect with children around the world in the classroom. She teaches them about sharks and why they’re so important to our environment. While we were there we had the opportunity to swim with nurse sharks and lemon sharks. We discovered they’re not as scary as every one makes them out to be!
The third story is about Leslie Watts. She’s a contemporary artist with a traditional painting technique. Based in Ontario, Canada her photo realistic portraits have been featured in the National Portrait gallery in London. She often pus her subjects on Skype video call while she paints them to allowed her to get a better sense of their face shape and features. While we were with Leslie she taught us about the renaissance painting technique she uses called egg tempera.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been travelling almost non-stop to meet the women and capture their stories. We’ve learnt a great deal along the way and been inspired by the people we’ve met. We’re grateful to Skype for giving us this opportunity and extremely excited to announce this project. The three short films will be coming out every four weeks starting today." -JacksGap
The release date is Oct. 21st!